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Boeing factors life-cycle costs into F-18 price

Showcasing their F-18 Super Hornet for India's 126 multi-role combat aircraft order, Boeing Integrated Defense System today said the total jet fighter procurement cost would be designed keeping in mind its life-cycle costs.

Announcing that the Royal Australian Air Force had yesterday become the launch customer for the aircraft, senior officers of the US aerospace major said the company was in talks with governments of Kuwait, Switzerland and Malaysia for selling the Super Hornets.

"The total costs are designed keeping in mind the life-cycle costs of the aircraft," Boeing IDS Vice President and Country Head Anil Shrikhande told reporters.

He and Chris Chadwick, the company's global communication head, said F-18s had been designed to last till 2025-30 and were fitted with very modern and sophisticated sensor package and armaments.

edwin

May 5 2008, 10:43 AM

India will have a terrible nightmare on maintenance issue if they will induct again another type of combat aircraft to their inventory. They already had a lot of problems with their MIX fleet of Combat aircraft
...
Im just wondering how they address the problem of maintenance to their mix type of combat aircraft.
Better a large chunk of their fighter plane to be taken from one single source.

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Senators Press Gates To Build More Super Hornets
By JOHN T. BENNETT
Published: 12 Jan 17:57 EST (22:57 GMT)  Print  |    Email

A dozen U.S. senators, including eight members of the powerful Armed Services and Appropriationsors committees, are pushing Defense Secretary Robert Gates to buy more Boeing-made F/A-18E/F aircraft.

In a Dec. 11, 2008, letter to Gates, Senate heavyweights Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn.; Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.; John Kerry, D-Mass.; and eight others raised concerns about "a significant shortfall in the number of strike fighter aircraft" capable of operating from aircraft carriers.

"If left unaddressed," the perceived fighter shortfall "could render hollow a major portion of our aircraft carrier fleet," according to the letter. "The role played by our aircraft carriers in protecting and promoting America's interests around the world is too important to permit this to occur."

Defense News obtained a copy of the letter.

Senior Navy officials for months have warned about a looming "fighter gap" that could leave the service in need of about 70 more strike fighters by 2017. Other estimates have predicted the services could need up to 200 more fighter aircraft than they are planning to buy under current budget plans.

Left unaddressed, they say, the gap would persist not be closed until the service wraps up its purchase of the Lockheed Martin-made F-35 around 2025, according to Navy officials.

Early last year, Chicago-based Boeing responded to the Navy pronouncements with a proposal to fill the so-called "fighter gap" by floating the idea that the Chicago-based company could easily sell the sea service more F/A-18E/F Super Hornets under a new multiyear contract.

"As the Defense Department continues its preparation of the fiscal year 2010 budget, we express our strong support for the continued procurement of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets to address the Navy's strike fighter shortfall and believe the department needs to considering procuring at a greater rate than the program of record," said the senators' letter.

The senators' letter urges Gates to consider using a multiyear procurement contract to buy the requested F/A-18E/Fs because of the "potential savings" such a plan would bring.

The last batch of Super Hornets cost the Navy about $53.8 million a plane. Boeing said it could get that down to about $49.9 million a jet under a new multiyear contract.

The letter included signatures of Democratic Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, Wash.; Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; and Barbara Mikulski, Md.

Republican Sens. Sam Brownback, Kan.; George Voinovich, Ohio; and Christopher Bond, Mo., also signed on.

Eight of those senators sit on committees that have a say over military programs. Lieberman, Kennedy and McCaskill are Armed Services Committee members. Bond, Brownback, Feinstein and Murray sit on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Lieberman's support could be key. Since Democrats took control of Congress in 2007, he has chaired the Armed Services air land subcommittee. He also sits on the seapower subcommittee.

But Lieberman fell out of favor with many Democrats by campaigning for Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate in 2008. Democratic leaders, since the November election, have been mulling calls to strip him of his panel chairmanships.

There is support in both chambers for the Hornet plan. The senators' letter was sent to the Pentagon five days before nearly two dozen U.S. House members sent a similar missive to Gates that was first reported by The Hill in a Jan. 6 report.

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July 10 (Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co. is prepared to have Brazilian companies supply a “big portion” of components for its Super Hornet jetfighter, creating as many as 5,000 local jobs, to sell 36 of the warplanes to the Latin American nation.

Jim Albaugh, the head of Boeing’s defense unit, said agreements have been signed with 27 Brazilian companies that are capable of producing parts for the F/A-18, including Empresa Brasilieira de Aeronautica SA, the world’s fourth-largest airplane maker. The pledge comes as Boeing maneuvers against competitors Dassault Aviation SA and Saab AB to win the sale.

“A big portion of the F-18 will be built here,” Albaugh, 58, said today in an interview in Brasilia. “For every dollar that goes toward that airplane, that money will come back to Brazil as manufacturing, software, avionics, and electronics.”

Boeing, the second-biggest defense contractor in the U.S., is counting on foreign military sales to make up for an expected slowdown in orders from the Pentagon. At the same time, Brazil, Latin America’s biggest economy, is beefing up its military after years of neglect and seeking to rebuild its arms industry. Through the 1980s, Brazil was the world’s 11th biggest weapon exporter.

Foreign Bids

Brazil’s tender for the fighter jet is the fourth-biggest foreign bid Chicago-based Boeing is competing for this year, Albaugh said. Defense sales provide about half of Boeing’s revenue. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is expected to award the contract, which analysts say could be worth as much as $4.5 billion, as early as next month.

Competition is stiff. Saab AB, the Swedish maker of the Gripen warplane, is prepared to shift as much as 50 percent of future Gripen production to Brazil, Bob Kemp, marketing chief for the $50 million plane, said July 7.

The other contender is Paris-based Dassault Aviation SA, which is pitching the Rafale. Dassault’s Mirage 2000 is currently Brazil’s most-advanced warplane. French officials have “clearly stated their openness” to cooperate with Brazil in the technology field, Yves Robins, vice-president corporate communication of Dassault Aviation, said in an interview this week.

Under the tender guidelines, the company that wins the contract is required to transfer technology to Brazil equal to the full purchase price of the planes.

‘Technology Access’

“Our main goal is technology access,” Brazil’s Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said yesterday.

That favors Boeing’s competitors who are less burdened by U.S. restrictions on arms exports, said Richard Aboulafia, vice president at Teal Group, a Fairfax, Virginia-based consultancy. U.S. rules may include demands for on-site inspections and approval of any sales to third parties over the plane’s 40-year flying life, he said.

“Certainly it’s a process that you have to go through with the United States and it can be a process that takes time,” Albaugh said. “But ultimately our customers get what they need, get what they want.”

To replace its aging fleet, Brazil may order total of 120 fighter jets. India plans to order 126 warplanes, while Denmark may buy as much as 42 and Greece 40, Albaugh said.

The sale is Dassault’s to lose, said Alexandre Barros, head of Early Warning, a Brasilia-based political risk firm. The French have been Brazil’s top arms supplier since 1978, when President Jimmy Carter banned U.S. arms sales to Latin America, fearing an arms race among the reigning military juntas. The policy was reversed in 1997.

‘No Qualms’

“The French have no qualms about transferring a lot of technology,” said Barros.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has lobbied for the deal, which would be the Rafale’s first international sale after failed bids in Morocco, South Korea and Singapore. During a visit last December, he signed contracts worth 8 billion euros ($11 billion) to build 50 Super Cougar helicopters and five submarines.

Lula invited Sarkozy as Brazil’s guest of honor at its independence day Sept. 7. After meeting him in Paris this week, Lula said he hopes to sign new defense accords at that time.

The F/A-18’s biggest advantage against the Dassault is a longer track-record, especially in environments like coastal Brazil, said Aboulafia.

Economies of Scale

Currently the F/A-18 is being produced at a rate of 43 per year, compared to 13 per year for the Rafale and 5 for the Gripen, so Boeing is able to win on cost per unit, Aboulafia said.

The Gripen is the weakest of the three candidates, says Michel Merluzeau, an aviation analyst at G2 Solution in Kirkland, Washington. Deliveries and production for the single- engine plane are falling, making its survival dependent on more financing. Sweden’s annual defense spending of $5.5 billion is less than 1 percent the $623 billion U.S. market, he said.

Boeing rose 0.8 percent to $39.65 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock has dropped by more than half since Feb. 28, 2008, the day before the company lost a $35 billion U.S. tanker competition to a group including rival European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. The stock has also been hurt by delays to the company’s newest commercial aircraft, the 787 Dreamliner.

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If the battlefield were an American football field, the US Navy's venerable but well-worn Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler might be thought of as an offensive lineman clearing the path for a running back carrying the ball.

In this case, the Prowler's goal would be the suppression of enemy air defences (SEAD) from a stand-off position using on-board electronic jammers to disrupt radar and communications, clearing the way for the navy, marines or air force strike forces to do their jobs. The Prowler generally carries two AGM-88 high-speed anti-radiation missiles (HARM) to use against radar sites if needed.


Given that the navy's fleet of Prowlers is set to be retired in the 2013 timeframe because of airframe life limits, the military has a unique opportunity to grow significantly the role of the "lineman" that will replace the Prowler.

Enhanced Functions

That replacement is the $60 million EA-18G "Growler", a platform with enhanced SEAD capabilities, self-protection and networking abilities that will allow it take on command and control functions as well as SEAD. Using the football analogy, the Growler is poised in the future to become both lineman and quarterback on the navy's playing field.

Operational evaluation of the Growler is to begin shortly, with initial operations capability (IOC) set for September 2009 after the VAQ-132 carrier squadron, the first of 10 navy aircraft carrier squadrons to transition to the Growler, receives its contingent of five aircraft.

So far, prime contractor Boeing Integrated Defense Systems has delivered one aircraft (the fourth production unit) on 3 June to the Fleet Readiness Squadron (VAQ-129) for training, with three earlier production units and two engineering models remaining in the test programme at the Naval Air Warfare Center's Patuxent River, Maryland and China Lake, California sites. Boeing says the first three production aircraft (G1, G2 and G3) may later be delivered to the fleet. The $1.2 billion development programme, started in December 2003, is to conclude in mid- to late next year.

The navy "programme of record" calls for Boeing to deliver 85 Block 1 aircraft with Northrop Grumman-provided airborne electronic attack (AEA) systems up to fiscal year 2013 12 for VAQ-129 and five for each of the 10 carrier squadrons, plus spares. The marines plan to use the existing Prowlers for a longer period, while the air force is investigating the potential for using B-52H bombers with pods for stand-off jamming.

Based on the $54 million Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet and its twin General Electric F414-GE-400 turbojet engines, the two-seat EA-18G will have a maximum cruise speed of Mach 0.95 (with wing pods attached), up 10% from the Prowler's maximum speed of M0.86.

While carrying the same AGM-88 missiles, ALQ-99 low- and high-band tactical jamming pods and multi-mission advanced tactical terminal (MATT) satellite communications gear as the most advanced Prowler (ICAP-III),
the Growler will have the ability to protect itself with two AIM-120C medium-range air-to-air missiles, freeing other aircraft from performing that role.

The Growler will carry the ALQ-227(v)1, a new digital version of the EA-6B's USQ-113 communications countermeasures set (CCS) that is better able to locate enemy communication channels and disrupt communications over a wider set of frequencies through the ALQ-99 low-band jammer pod.


 


Receiver System

The EA-18G also has a more compact version of the Prowler's ALQ-218 RF receiver system (sensors carried on top of the tail of the Prowler and on the wingtips of the Growler), that when combined with the long baseline interferometer (LBI) antennas located fore and aft of the aircraft, geo-locates radar locations and provides selective reactive jamming capability.
The Growler carries the electronics for the ALQ-218(v)2 receiver system in its nose compartment in place of the Super Hornet's M61A1 20mm Vulcan cannon.

All new for the EA-18G is an interference cancellation system (INCANS) that allows the aircraft to maintain UHF communications while jamming, a capability unavailable on the Prowler.

The Growler also has the F/A-18's APG-79 active electronically steered array (AESA) radar, allowing for aircrews to track multiple targets simultaneously, as well as the Super Hornet's joint helmet-mounted cueing system (JHMCS), which lets pilots fire missiles simply by looking at a target, and multi-information distribution system (Link 16), which increases battlefield situational awareness.

Mike Gibbons, Boeing EA-18G programme manager, says the pivotal technology on the aircraft is a new software package called the data-correlation mechanism that automatically correlates streams of data generated by all of the Growler's on-board sensors, including the APG-79, ICAP-III receivers and AGM-88E high-speed anti-radiation missile.

Variable Configuration

Although the "normal" carry for the Growler will be three jamming pods, two AIM-120Cs, two AGM-88s and two external fuel tanks that allow the aircraft to carry an extra 2,950kg (6,500lb) of fuel, or more than 9,070kg in total, the aircraft can be configured for as many as five pods or four AGM-88s.
A host of other options are available, including clean-wing arrangements that allow the aircraft to fly with no speed restrictions. Power for the ALQ-218, MATT and CCS is provided by the aircraft while the ALQ-99 jammers use ram-air turbines attached to the front of the pods.

In total, the new and improved features appear to be successful in creating, as designed, a command and control holism that will be greater than the sum of the parts. While the results of an early June navy-led multi-force exercise that included four Growlers (two modified Super Hornets and two production aircraft) are classified, Gibbons says officials are "extremely excited" about the outcome. The Growlers were used in ways that there were "no chance" of the EA-6B being used, Gibbons says.

The navy's long-range plans promise more to come. "There are quite a few growth and development items waiting in the queue for study," says Gibbons.

In the near term are plans to replace the MATT due to the "obsolescence of the network it was connected to" in the 2012 timeframe, says Gibbons. In addition to the change in network, Gibbons says the new system, now in a feasibility study phase by the navy, will have increased reliability and require less maintenance. "Back-up batteries have been a real nuisance," he adds.

Also envisaged by the navy in the near future are options to carry the same weaponry as the Super Hornet, including laser-guided bombs. Gibbons says the Growler will be the lead platform for the 2010 test and 2012 fielding of the next generation HARM missile (AARGM), which will have multiple guidance modes to target radar sites that shut down to foil traditional HARM missiles.

Gibbons says the EA-18G will also be the primary platform for the navy's next-generation ALQ-99 jammer, a device that is likely to be fielded in the 2018 timeframe. In addition to carrying the new system, the navy is keen to "extend the mission" of the Growler. Gibbons says studies are under way to look at using the Growler as a "localised command and control vehicle" that would have access not only to next generation jamming pods being flown on other aircraft, but also of unmanned air vehicles and other assets in the force.


From a human factors standpoint, Boeing planned well in advance for the Growler with just one pilot and one weapons system officer to outperform the Prowler's three electronic counter measures officers (ECMO). The company in 1997 began testing EA-6B pilots and ECMOs in a purpose-built simulator in St Louis, ultimately weighing input from 500 crewmembers when developing early on the EA-18G crew interface software, which allows the crew to share information and tasks.