B-1B Lancers Upgraded

As part of the Sustainment-Block 16 program, Rockwell’s supersonic strategic bomber, B-1B Lancers are currently getting their most advanced hardware and software upgrades. The upgrades include a fully integrated data link in the station and vertical situation display in the front. Updates on the navigation, radar and diagnostic systems are also being done. The 337th Test and Evaluation Squadron Assistant Director, Major Thomas Bryant said that the following upgrades will give them an entirely new aircraft.

The crew station will now receive five new color displays all capable of providing moving maps and data link integration. While the weapon system officers will now have a full “QWERTY” keyboards and controllers to interface with the integrated battle station software.

The pilots will receive a new digital flight instrument display providing more precise flight parameters. The pilot and co-pilot stations each will start receiving a new 8-inch by 10-inch multi-function display installed in the crew station.

“Command and control assets will have the ability to send us targets electronically, automatically linking into our system rather than manually entering the coordinates” Bryant said. “The new data link capability is huge for the B-1B Lancer.”

These new situation displays provide independent interactive, moving maps and link information to the front station supplying them identical information available to the station. Developmental testing for the entire Sustainment-Block 16 package is scheduled to begin around March of 2013. The B-1B Lancers will then be tested and will start to operate in September of 2013.

The former Rockwell manufacturer, now part of Boeing, B-1 Lancer aircraft is a four-engine variable-sweep wing strategic bomber used by the United States Air Force (USAF). The B-1B Lancers started service on 1986 with the USAF Strategic Air Command as a nuclear bomber.

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Source: http://www.defencetalk.com

CV-22 mission-capable rate still hovering at 54 percent

The CV-22 Osprey ended fiscal 2010 with a mission-capable rate of 54.3 percent. On any given day, from Oct. 1, 2009, to Sept. 30, half of the special operations tilt-rotor aircraft couldn’t fly their full range of missions. The Osprey’s fiscal 2009 mission-capable rate was 50.1 percent, the lowest ever.

Only the RQ-4 Global Hawk and two aging aircraft, B-1B Lancer and the C-5A Galaxy, had worse mission-capable numbers, according to the data.

The RQ-4 had a mission-capable rate of 41.64 percent. The B-1B, operational since 1986 and with a notoriously complicated hydraulics system, had a mission-capable rate of 43.82 percent. The C-5A, the massive transport first delivered during the Vietnam War, had a mission-capable rate of 52.6 percent.

No common problem such as a software glitch or engine malfunction led to the Osprey’s low rate, said Col. Peter Robichaux, who oversees the health of Air Force Special Operations Command aircraft. Most sat on the flight line waiting for replacement parts or maintainers to fix them.

For Robichaux, the Osprey’s low rate is a statistical quirk — not an indicator of the hybrid’s long-term viability.
“The numbers are a result of our small fleet size,” said Robichaux, whose AFSOC title is director of logistics. “That can drive the numbers down.”

The Air Force has 16 CV-22s and is scheduled to receive five to six more a year until 50 are on hand, probably by 2016. Taking one plane off the flight schedule for a day pushes down the mission-capable rate for that day by about 6 percentage points.

New aircraft often have low mission-capable rates for three reasons: Parts inventories can be low, technical orders explaining how to make repairs aren’t clear and even the most experienced maintainers have just a few years with the plane.

Many planes also see their mission-capable rates slowly improve as they age. The F-22 Raptor, for example, went from 51.25 percent in 2003 to 60.94 percent in 2010.

The CV-22, though, has a declining mission-capable rate. In 2006, when the first operational aircraft arrived, the rate was 61.4 percent.

- AirForceTimes -

B-1B Destroys Enemy Bunker

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Feb. 23, 2009 — Coalition airpower integrated with coalition ground forces in Iraq and the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan during operations Feb. 22, according to Combined Air and Space Operations Center officials here.

In Afghanistan, an Air Force B-1B Lancer destroyed an anti-Afghan bunker near Now Zad using a guided bomb unit-31. Personnel in the bunker had been firing on coalition troops.

In the vicinity of Shurakian, many coalition aircraft provided air support for an ambushed coalition convoy after one vehicle was disabled by an improvised explosive device. Enemy forces took cover and pulled back from the immediate area when the aircraft arrived. An Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II destroyed an additional IED using a GBU-38 as the convoy prepared to depart.

An A-10 Thunderbolt II intervened after anti-Afghan forces in fortified positions near Nangalam engaged a coalition convoy with rocket-propelled grenade and assault-weapons fire. The A-10 used a GBU-38 and 30mm cannon strafes to destroy the enemy positions.

While providing overwatch near Lashkar Gah, a Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet used GBU-12 to target an enemy indirect fire position launching attacks on coalition units. The strike successfully ended the attacks.

During a ground firefight on in the Morghab area, an Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle bombed an anti-Afghan forces fighting position using a GBU-12. After the initial strike, nearby enemy personnel tried to flee the area on motorcycles, but paused briefly to abandon their weapons in a nearby settlement. With other coalition aircraft helping to maintain positive identification of the enemy personnel, the Strike Eagle pursued, hitting the motorcycles with another GBU-12 and a cannon strafe once the risk to civilians had passed.

Read more here.