combat aircraft

LIGHTNING II ROUND-UP

JSF WING FOR LEMOORE • HILL DETACHMENT HEADS HOME

During the fi rst week of May a small contingent of

F-35Cs from VFA-101 ‘Grim Reapers’ deployed to NAS

Fallon, Nevada, to help familiarize the resident Naval

Aviation Warfi ghting Development Center (NAWDC) and

TOPGUN instructors with the Lightning II. Jim Dunn

‘MOON DOGS’ STAND DOWN

THE ‘MOON DOGS’ of marine

electronic warfare squadron

VMAQ-3 held a deactivation

ceremony at MCAS Cherry Point,

North Carolina, on May 11. The

squadron, formed at Cherry Point

on July 1, 1992, was formally

deactivated on May 31, leaving

VMAQ-2 as the  nal EA-6B Prowler

squadron. VMAQ-3 completed

its last scheduled deployment in

October 2017 and conducted a

ceremonial  nal  ight on April 26.

At the time of the ceremony three

ICAP III EA-6Bs were still assigned to

the ‘Moon Dogs’.

US ARMY SEEKS

FIXED-WING UTILITY AIRCRAFT

THE US ARMY is restarting its

competition for a new  xed-

wing utility aircraft (FUA). It

had previously rejected the

only respondent to an earlier

competition and cancelled its

solicitation. A team comprising

Sierra Nevada Corporation and

Textron Aviation/Beechcraft was

the only o ering in the earlier

competition and it  led a protest

with the Government Accountability

O ce over the army’s decision not

to purchase the King Air 350CER.

The protest was subsequently

denied in December 2017.

The army initially released a

request for information in 2012

seeking potential commercial

o -the-shelf replacements for its

C-12s and C-26s. At that time, it

had planned to begin  elding the

aircraft in  scal 2014. Recently the

service has been discussing its

requirements with industry and

has released a draft request for

prototype proposals. The service

now intends to conduct a  xed-

wing utility aircraft prototype

 ight demonstration. The e ort

will integrate a FUA mission

equipment package (MEP) onto

selected commercial derivative

aircraft (CDA) and demonstrate that

the prototypes can meet mission

system requirements. Ultimately it

plans to release a formal request for

proposals (RFP) and conduct a new

competition. The SNC-led team

intends once again to o er the

King Air 350 in response to the

army requirement.

The ‘Moon Dogs’ on the EA-6B

squadron’s last training mission in

April. Jonathan Derden

[NEWS] UNITED STATES

08 July 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net

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