Combat aircraft

An artist’s rendering of the

Paramount Group’s Bronco II,

ambitiously fi nished with Marine

Corps titles. Paramount Group

JAYHAWK

UPGRADES

THE US AIR Force Life Cycle

Management Center has selected

Aerospace Systems Engineering

and Support (ASES) LLC to replace

the avionics suite on its  eet of T-1A

Jayhawk trainers. Under the terms of

the $18.5-million contract ASES, which

is a subsidiary of Field Aerospace, will

modify the entire  eet of 178 T-1As,

16 operational  ight trainers, and 14

part-task trainers. Work will be carried

out at the contractor’s Oklahoma

City, Oklahoma, facility as well as

locally at Joint Base San Antonio-

Randolph and Laughlin AFB in Texas;

Columbus AFB, Mississippi; Vance

AFB, Oklahoma and NAS Pensacola,

Florida. The T-1A avionics modi cation

program (AMP) will replace much of

the Jayhawk’s current avionics with

new commercial o -the-shelf (COTS)

equipment that will allow the trainers

to meet current and planned domestic

and international air tra c control

requirements. Developed from the

Beechcraft Beechjet 400T, the T-1A

supports the USAF’s joint specialized

undergraduate pilot training (SUPT)

and undergraduate combat systems

o cer training. Field Aerospace

will initially provide two complete

prototype avionics suite installations

and three fully operational prototype

simulator modi cations. Nextant

Aerospace, which developed a cockpit

upgrade for the Beechjet based on the

Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 avionics,

will serve as a sub-contractor to Field

on the project.

MILESTONE HERCULES DELIVERED

LOCKHEED MARTIN DELIVERED

the 400th Super Hercules when

MC-130J serial 16-5835 departed

from Dobbins Air Reserve Base,

Georgia, on February 9. C-130Js

are now in service with 17 nations

in 17 di erent con gurations and

have  own more than 1.7 million

hours. The 400th aircraft will be

the 13th MC-130J to undergo

conversion to the AC-130J gunship

con guration.

UPGRADED GLOBAL HAWK ARRIVES AT BEALE

THE FIRST BLOCK 30 RQ-4B,

equipped with the UTC Aerospace

Systems (UTAS) MS-177 imaging

camera, recently arrived at Beale AFB,

California, for operational testing.

The Global Hawk  rst  ew with the

system at Northrop Grumman’s

Palmdale, California, facility in

February 2017 and subsequently

conducted developmental  ight

tests from that site as well as the

nearby Edwards AFB. Originally

developed for the manned U-2S

intelligence, surveillance and

reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft, the

long-range multi-spectral sensor is

integrated with the Global Hawk via

an ISR payload adapter developed

by Northrop Grumman. The adapter

permits the RQ-4B to carry new

types of sensors, enabling the

unmanned aircraft to perform a

wider variety of missions.

Northrop Grumman is under

contract to modify seven Block

30 RQ-4Bs with the ISR payload

adapter and  ve upgrades have

already been completed. The  nal

three Block 30 aircraft that were

purchased under lot 11 in August

2014 have also been con gured

with the payload adapter. The  rst

of those aircraft was delivered in

November 2017 and the remaining

two will follow later this year.

Although the Global Hawk will

initially carry the seven-band

MS-177, it will eventually transition

to the upgraded 10-band MS-177A,

which is now under development.

MC-130J serial 16-5835 departs Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia, for Eglin

AFB, Florida, on February 9. The milestone Hercules was the 400th C-130J

produced by Lockheed Martin at its Marietta, Georgia, facility. Lockheed Martin

[NEWS] UNITED STATES

12 May 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net

10-14 US News C.indd 12 21/03/2018 12: