Flight International - January 13, 2015

DEFENCE

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T

wo critical close air support
systems – a 25mm cannon
and an electro-optical targeting
system (EOTS) – will both be
available and meet expectations
on the Lockheed Martin F-35 by
2017, programme officials say.
Defending the systems in a 7
January response to what it calls
“nameless/sourceless/baseless
reporting” over recent weeks, the
F-35 joint programme office (JPO)
acknowledged one new develop-
ment problem for the gun, and
some operational limitations for
the Lockheed-built EOTS sensor.

Countering a claim that the

F-35’s General Dynamics GAU-

gun is unable to be fired until

2019, the JPO says it will be deliv-

ered when the aircraft’s Block 3F

software becomes operational.

That is now scheduled to occur in

fiscal year 2017, with aircraft to be

built during the ninth lot of low-

rate initial production (LRIP 9).

The JPO says operators accepted

the timeline for the cannon system

in 2005, at which point the Block

3F software was supposed to be in-

stalled on LRIP 5 aircraft handed

over in 2013. However, software

T

he US Navy has decided to
embed its future unmanned
carrier-launched airborne sur-
veillance and strike (UCLASS)
aircraft in the same air wing that
operates the Northrop Grumman
E-2C/D airborne command and
control platform.
Naval officials confirmed their
decision in a little-noticed direc-
tive dated 18 December, which
says a new UCLASS unit called
the “fleet introduction team” will
be established on 1 October 2015,
as a detachment to an E-2C/D-
equipped airborne command and
control logistics wing aboard an
aircraft carrier. The latter moni-
tors airspace for hostile aircraft

PROGRAMME STEPHEN TRIMBLE WASHINGTON DC

F-35 chiefs return

fire on ‘baseless’

cannon reporting

Joint programme office insists General Dynamics design
and electro-optical sensor on track for 2017 inclusion

development was subsequently

delayed by four years.

In its statement, the JPO con-

firms that laboratory tests con-

ducted in December identified a

“minor low-level issue” with the

software controlling the gun sys-

tem, but says this is due to be fixed

early this year and will have no

impact on its fielding schedule.

The JPO also countered a Daily

Beast report by asserting that the

EOTS sensor will enter service

with the ability to transmit still im-

ages to the ground via the aircraft’s

Link 16 transmitter. However, it

concedes the system will initially

lack several features commonly

found on the latest generation of

targeting pods, including higher

definition video, longer range tar-

get detection and identification,

video data link and an infrared

marker and pointer. Customers

will be able to add those capabili-

ties in later block upgrades, it says.

“As with all development pro-

grammes, the F-35 baseline re-

quirements define the starting

place for capabilities that will be

evolved and upgraded over the life

of the programme,” says the JPO. ■

and missiles and directs strike

aircraft from the vessel.

While the Naval Air Systems

Command has decided to assign

the unmanned strike fleet to the

control of a Hawkeye unit, it has

not yet settled on the details of how

future E-2 crews will operate

alongside the system. As recently

Hawkeye unit to take UCLASS fleet under its wing

UNMANNED SYSTEMS STEPHEN TRIMBLE WASHINGTON DC

as August 2014, the USN’s options

had also included operating

UCLASS aircraft as a standalone

unit, or as a detachment to a wing

of Lockheed Martin F-35C fighters.

Meanwhile, the future of the

UCLASS programme remains un-

certain. Boeing, General Atomics

Aeronautical Systems, Lockheed

and Northrop Grumman have

been waiting for six months for

the navy to release a final request

for proposals for a contract worth

up to $6 billion. Last September,

Pentagon officials put UCLASS on

hold, including the programme in

a wider review of intelligence,

surveillance and reconnaissance

spending.

There has been a long-running

debate over the design require-

ments for UCLASS. Some mem-

bers of Congress have criticised the

USN for relaxing a requirement to

make the aircraft less detectable on

radar, instead limiting the type to

mainly performing surveillance

tasks in uncontested airspace. ■

An external pod is used to house the B-model’s GAU-22 weapon

Lockheed Martin

US Navy

Northrop Grumman’s X-47B set the scene for the $6bn contest

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