Air Force Skips AETP Engines for F-35, Presses on with NGAP

March 14, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

After a year’s deliberation, the Air Force has decided not to develop Adaptive Engine Technology Program (AETP) powerplants for its F-35s, deeming the cost too high in light of other demands.

Instead, the service will go with a suite of upgrades for the existing F135 engine and press ahead with the Next Generation Advanced Propulsion project meant to power its next fighter, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in a March 10 budget briefing.

“We needed something that was affordable and that would support all variants” of the F-35, Kendall said.

The upgrades to the F135, deemed the “Engine Core Upgrade” by contractor Pratt & Whitney, will deliver improvements to the engine necessary to meet the demand for additional power and cooling on advanced Block 4 versions of the F-35. Those specific Block 4 requirements have not been made public.

GE Aerospace and Pratt both developed competing powerplants under the $4 billion-plus AETP program—GE the XA100 and Pratt the XA101. The two engines achieved improvements of 30 percent in fuel efficiency and at least 10 percent in thrust compared to the stock F135.

However, both powerplants used a bypass air system to achieve the gains, increasing their diameter. While the new engines would fit comfortably in the F-35A used by the Air Force, they would be more challenging to adapt to the Navy’s F-35C and very difficult to fit to the Marine Corps’ F-35Bs, which use a unique short takeoff/vertical landing system with swiveling exhaust nozzles and a shaft connected to a vertical lift fan behind the cockpit.

While GE insisted the AETP could be made to work with the F-35B, Pratt said it could not. And while GE claimed that the new engine would ultimately provide savings of up to $10 billion due to fuel savings and less maintenance, Pratt argued its analysis found the development and integration of the AETP engines with the F-35, along with changes to the worldwide F-35 engine sustainment system, would cost $40 billion over the life of the program.

“We’re pleased to see the President’s Budget includes funding for the Engine Core Upgrade,” a Pratt spokesperson said. “All F-35 variants need fully-enabled Block 4 capabilities as soon as possible, and with this funding, we can deliver upgraded engines starting in 2028.”

The ECU “saves billions, which ensures a record quantity of F-35s can be procured,” the spokesperson added. “It also ensures funding will be available to develop 6th generation propulsion for the Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance Platform.”

GE Aerospace was—predictably—unhappy with the choice, saying through its spokesman that “this budget fails to consider rising geopolitical tensions and the need for revolutionary capabilities that only the XA100 engine can provide by 2028.”

“Nearly 50 bipartisan members of Congress wrote in support of advanced engine programs like ours because they recognize these needs, in addition to the role competition can play in reducing past cost overruns,” the spokesman added. “The XA100 engine is ready to power U.S. warfighters today and in the future.”

The company also claimed the $4 billion invested in AETP technology thus far “risks being wasted if the program is ended so close to completion.” Congress, the company said, will ultimately decide whether the AETP is funded or not—the legislature previously directed preliminary work to take place ensuring that F-35 engines could be upgraded with AETP technology by 2028.

GE also said it is continuing to test and develop the XA100 “while pursuing funding support for 2024.”

The engine maker derided the ECU as “an incremental upgrade to the current F135 engines” that would “still cost billions, without providing the same capability improvements as the XA100. Other so-called savings you might see are cost avoidance numbers disguising an increased baseline cost.”

However, given that within the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, partners have to “pay to be different,” the Air Force would likely have born the entire cost of a new engine—leading to the decision to not proceed with AETP.

“This was based on the fact that the requirements were … applicable only to the Air Force,” and not “spread across the entire fleet of joint F-35s,” said Kristyn E. Jones, assistant secretary of the Air Force for financial management and acting service undersecretary.

“We’ve decided to move forward with the Engine Core Upgrade. We have $254 million in this year’s budget for that particular effort,” she added.

However, Jones said the money spent on AETP won’t go completely to waste.

“We do plan to leverage a lot of the capabilities that were part of the AETP prototype for efficiency, thrust … [and] thermal management, so it was not necessarily” a futile effort, she said.

“Those capabilities will be leveraged as we look at the next engines” under the NGAP program, which the Air Force seeks to fund at $595 million in fiscal 2024, up from $224 million enacted in the fiscal 2023 defense budget.

“We’ll be building on all the lessons learned” from AETP, Jones said, but she couldn’t offer a timeline of when test articles will be ready for that program.

The NGAP is intended to produce engines for the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter, the crewed centerpiece of a family of systems that is intended to provide air superiority in the 2030s. It isn’t clear how the NGAD development will proceed if its engines are being designed concurrently.

Deliveries of F-35s and F135 engines resumed recently after a two-month hiatus following an F-35B crash in December 2022. Pratt said it identified a “harmonic resonance” problem with the engine that only manifested after 600,000 hours of engine run time. The fleet has been directed to perform a retrofit in the field to correct the issue.

Air Force vs. Army vs. Navy: How the ’24 Budgets Stack Up

March 13, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The Biden administration is requesting $185.1 billion for the Air Force in 2024, slightly less than its $185.5 billion proposal for the Army, and well behind the $202.5 billion requested for the Navy.

But the Air Force, Space Force, and Navy are gaining investment while Army and Marine Corps spending would remain essentially flat—if the Pentagon gets its way.

The Space Force, the smallest service, would receive the smallest total at $30 billion, but the biggest increase at 15 percent. The Marine Corps would receive $53.2 billion.

After two decades of wars in the Middle East, the Department of Defense has shifted its focus largely toward the Pacific and China. And instead of large armor purchases, its growing investments are for long-range precision weapons.

“The focus here is making our military more capable, not making it larger,” DOD comptroller Michael J. McCord told reporters at the Pentagon.

2024 Budgets by Service

Service	Funding in Billions
Navy	$202.5
Army	$185.5
Air Force	$185.1
Marine Corps	$53.2
Space Force	$30.0

Source: Pentagon budget documents

Air Force leaders continue to press to retire old platforms now in order to buy new newer systems and weapons. Munitions make up a major portion of investment for all the services: The Pentagon’s planned budget for missiles and munitions is $30.6 billion, more than its ask for the entire Space Force budget.

The Defense Department’s shift to the Pacific is perhaps most evident in the Army’s budget. Two years ago, the Army budget stood at $180 billion, compared to the Department of the Air Force at $221.4 billion and the Department of the Navy at $221.2 billion. For 2024, the Army is requesting $185.3 billion while the Department of the Air Force and the Department of the Navy are seeking $259 billion and $256 billion respectively, or more than $30 billion in growth over two years for each.

The Department of the Air Force figure is inflated, however, by $44.2 billion in pass-through spending that is destined not for the Air Force or Space Force but for other agencies. In reality, the Air Force and Space Force share just $215.1 billion of the $259.3 billion DAF budget, and Air Force funds would actually be less than those invested in the Army.

The Air Force budget has lagged behind the Army and Navy for the last 31 years.

“Our greatest measure of success, and the one we use around here most often, is to make sure the [Chinese] leadership wakes up every day, considers the risks of aggression and concludes that today is not the day,” deputy secretary of defense Kathleen Hicks told reporters.

Lessons from Vietnam: ‘It’s All of Us Together’

March 13, 2023 | By Patrick Reardon

The AFA Warfare Symposium kicked off March 6 with three storied heroes of the Vietnam War. This is the final in a three-part series on their talks. Read the first talk by Lt. Col. Gene Smith and the second talk by Col. Lee Ellis.

AURORA, Colo.—The 555th “Triple Nickel” Tactical Fighter Squadron out of Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base scored 39 MiG kills during the Vietnam War—and six of those kills were credited to one pilot.

Retired Col. Charles “Chuck” DeBellevue flew nearly 100 combat missions in 1972, becoming the war’s highest-scoring ACE. Today, more than 50 years later, he recalls the experience with equal precision.

“Hanoi was 285 miles from Udorn as the crow flies,” DeBellevue told a packed crowd of several thousand at the 2023 AFA Warfare Symposium. “Every time we went into Hanoi, you had to have enough gas left to fly almost 300 miles. That sets your thinking about how you’re gonna fight … you had to have the right mindset.”

To DeBellevue and his Triple Nickel squadron mates, “the right mindset” required discipline, integrity, and training, not just from yourself, but from everyone. The mission demanded teamwork.

“Your word is your bond. If you tell somebody you’re gonna do something, do it. If you can’t do it, tell them, because otherwise somebody may die,” DeBellevue said. “[Flying] is a team sport. It’s not just you. It’s all of us together that make the force what it is.”

DeBellevue (R) poses with Staff Sgt. Reggie Taylor (C) at Udorn Royal Thai AFB, Thailand in 1972. Courtesy photo.

The squadron worked together so efficiently, DeBellevue said, that communicating between the F-4 Phantoms felt telepathic. But the teamwork was just as close, and just as critical on the ground. DeBellevue reflected on the innovative contributions of enlisted men like Tech. Sgt. Dan Ames and the weapons load crew. who eliminated the need to fire two missiles to get one kill. And he praised his crew chief and friend Staff Sgt. Reggie Taylor who “could do amazing things” to maximize performance.

“On the D-model F-4, the engines were screwdriver controlled. He had the screwdriver,” DeBellevue said. “You could not catch that airplane.”

DeBellevue retired in 1998 after 30 years of service, the last American ACE on Active duty. Since then, he has remained a strong advocate for airpower as an active member of the Air & Space Forces Association’s Central Oklahoma Gerrity Chapter, and he regularly meets with ROTC cadets, pilot training classes, veteran groups, and professional military organizations to share stories, insights, and lessons on teamwork as a force multiplier.

“The next war we fight, it’ll be you people prosecuting the war,” he told the Airmen and Guardians in Aurora. “It’s attitude. It’s love of country. Love of family. Love of God. Knowing that you’re the very best at what you do, and freedom is in your hands. I appreciate everything you’re doing: You’re wearing the cloth of this country. That means an awful lot.”

Pentagon Leaders: 2024 Budget is ‘First and Foremost’ About Procurement

March 13, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

At $886 billion, the Pentagon’s 2024 budget request is “first and foremost … a procurement budget,” declared Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen H. Hicks March 13, as the budget was unveiled. The spending plan marks a shift from the Biden administration’s first two budget requests, which prioritized research and development over new weapons.

But investing in new weapons requires the cooperation of Congress, and administration officials argued strenuously for lawmakers to pass spending legislation before the next fiscal year starts Oct. 1. Extra money in the final spending plan is less valuable than on-time passage of the bill, they said.

The administration is seeking a record budget for procurement as well as research, development, testing, and evaluation, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said in a statement.

All told, DOD is seeking $170 billion for weapons acquisition in fiscal 2024, up about $24 billion—or 16.4 percent from its request a year ago. The requested RDT&E budget is also up substantially at $145 billion, a $15 billion increase, or 11.5 percent, over the 2023 request.

One major driver: munitions. The administration wants to add predictability and price stability for munitions by buying more munitions in multiyear blocks. Some $30 billion of the budget is tabbed for munitions, most for acquisition.

“The thing that is newest and biggest is probably munitions,” noted Pentagon comptroller Michael J. McCord. “This is new in the sense of the emphasis of this budget …. Ukraine has really informed and highlighted the need to up our game here.”

Billions more will pay for new F-35, F-15EX, and KC-46 aircraft, as well as funds for Navy aircraft carriers and submarines, and new vehicles for the Army and Marine Corps.

Weapons purchases make up a little over 19 percent of DOD’s 2024 budget request, the highest share so far since President Biden was elected.

“[The budget] puts its thumb on the scale in favor of game-changing capabilities that will deliver not just in the out-years, but in the near-term, too,” Hicks said.

The budget request begins a months-long process, during which lawmakers are likely to add funds for additional purchases. In the last budget cycle, for fiscal 2023, legislators increased procurement funding by $17.7 billion, to $163.7 billion.

That action took a while. Congress didn’t pass the defense spending measures until Dec. 24, after multiple continuing resolutions were needed to keep the government funded after the fiscal year ended nearly three months earlier. CRs have become routine measures to keep the government from shutting down while political leaders negotiate spending agreements—only once in the past 14 fiscal years did Congress pass a spending measure on time.

‘If you add up the months DOD has been under a CR since 2011, it totals four years’ worth of
delays—delayed new program starts, delayed training, delayed permanent change of station
moves,” Hicks said. “That’s four years lost over the last decade-plus. To out-compete the [People’s Republic of China], we cannot have one hand tied behind our back for three, four, five, six months out of each year. And let me assure you: more money cannot buy back lost time.“

Asked if he would rather have more money delivered later in the year or a smaller budget on time, McCord echoed Hicks.

“The thing Congress can do for us and does do for us is provide resources,” McCord said. “But writing a check doesn’t solve every problem. And so the time that you lose, you cannot make up with more money. It’s just a fact. There are things that you can address with more money, but there are also things that you can’t.”

Republican leaders in Congress have already attacked the Pentagon budget request as “insufficient,” and even Democratic lawmakers have left open the possibility for change. An increase would likely put the overall topline past $900 billion—and set the stage for the first $1 trillion defense budget in the coming years.

“Do the math: the budget will hit a trillion dollars,” McCord said. “Even if it only grew three percent a year, when the numbers are what they are, it’s inevitable. And I think maybe that’s going to be a psychological, big watershed moment for most of us or some of us. But it is inevitable. And it just reflects the growth of the economy.”

Defense spending was once at 9 percent of Gross National Product; during the Reagan administration, at near the end of the Cold War, it was considered high at 6 percent. Today, defense spending is around 3 percent. So as much as is being spent, it’s a smaller portion of the overall economy.

“It’s a big number,” McCord said. “But in other contexts, you could look at it another way.”

In 2024 Budget, USAF Pushes Major New Aircraft Starts

March 13, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

Among the new aircraft programs the Air Force included in its fiscal 2024 budget request are uncrewed, autonomous wingmen for its fighters, a next-generation tanker program, a fast-as-possible replacement for its aged E-3 AWACS air battle management jets, and a new airborne command post.

The service is also continuing development of the Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter and adding 72 new in-production F-35s and F-15EXs. To pay for it all, USAF is looking to divest some 310 airplanes.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told reporters the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program is a “major new start in this budget,” with $522 million in research, development, test and evaluation funding; a tenfold increase over the previous amount. At last week’s AFA Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colo., Kendall revealed that the service is notionally pursuing 1,000 CCAs, to augment some 200 NGADs and 300 F-35s.

In a March 10 budget brief, Kendall said manned/unmanned teaming demonstrations thus far “convince us that this makes sense and [is] something we could achieve.” The CCA is intended as an autonomous flying wingman to crewed fighters, providing extra sensors, weapons, and “affordable mass” without demanding more pilots.

Production of CCAs is planned before the end of the decade, Kendall said, with initial operational capability projected to be roughly comparable to the NGAD fighter despite entering development later. The $522 million in the budget is “a pretty significant investment in the first year,” he added. The Pentagon did not provide out-year funding profiles with its March 13 budget announcement.

Kendall said he’s encouraged by self-funded work done by industry on CCAs.

“There’s been a lot of IRAD (Independent Research and Development money) spent since we started talking about this much more seriously,” he said, and the planning figure of 1,000 CCAs “I think, reinforces that,” and will encourage more industry investment, he added.

The CCA program will begin with a competition, Kendall explained, but there is no set timeline for when a winner will be determined. The CCA will also be “nominally one, but it could be more” than one type of uncrewed aircraft , Kendall said—he previously has said each manned fighter could have up to five CCAs, but at AWS said initial planning would be for two per fighter. In a separate budget briefing, acting Department of the Air Force undersecretary Kristyn E. Jones said two CCAs would be “a floor,” with more expected.

“How long we will carry multiples” of contractor designs “will depend on the affordability of that as we go forward,” Kendall said.

“This is a serious program,” Kendall added. “If you look out over our five-year [plan], it’s a multi-billion dollar program. And this is headed towards production and fielding; it’s structured to do that.” He said the “intent” is that CCAs will cost “a fraction of the cost of an F-35,” which have a unit cost of about $80 million. “We’ve got enough work behind us that we think that’s a very reasonable goal,” he said.

Andrew Hunter, Air Force acquisition executive, announced at the AWS conference that the Air Force is pursuing a Next-Generation Air refueling System (NGAS), which will get underway this year with an analysis of alternatives, which the Air Force funded with about $8 million in fiscal 2024.

The NGAS, still undefined, is expected to be a stealthy tanker able to operate and survive in contested airspace. Hunter and Kendall also said that the interim tanker buy after 179 KC-46s are delivered are also likely to be KC-46s, but only 75 of these next-increment of tankers are planned, versus the 150 originally expected. After the 179, Boeing could start delivering a somewhat upgraded KC-46 circa 2032.

Procurement

Aircraft Type	# of Airframes
B-21	Classified
E-11	1
F-15EX	24
F-35	48
KC-46	15
MH-139	7
TOTAL	At least 94

Source: Air Force budget documents

Although the Air Force only requested 43 F-35s in fiscal ’23, it is back to asking for 48 in FY’24. Together with its request for 24 F-15EXs, it reaches the goal of 72 new fighters in FY’24; a number USAF officials say is the minimum needed to keep the age of its fighter fleet from increasing to unsustainable levels. At 72 per year, the Air Force can hold its fighter fleet to an average age of about 29 years old.

The service would also buy 15 KC-46 tankers in fiscal ’24, seven MH-139 VIP/missile field support helicopters and one E-11 Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) aircraft.

One aircraft that did not get any procurement funding in the budget is the T-7 trainer, which has been delayed due to escape system issues. The Air Force has said deliveries, initially slated for 2024, will slip to 2026.

With E-3 AWACS aircraft availability rapidly declining due to parts shortages, the Air Force is moving to replace it as quickly as possible with the E-7A Wedgetail, also built by Boeing. The service asked $681 million for the E-7 in FY’24, up from $421 million a year ago. At the AWS conference, Kendall said the service looked at “accelerating” the E-7 but determined it is moving as fast as it can, with the first aircraft due to arrive for service circa 2027.

To replace its rapidly-obsolescing E-4B National Airborne Operations Center, the Air Force is asking for $889 million to develop a Survivable Airborne Operations Center, a significant bump from the $98 million it received for the effort in 2023.

The NGAD program is requested for $1.933 billion in RDT&E, up from $1.658 billion enacted for ’23. For F-35 RDT&E, the Air Force asks $1.372 billion in the new budget, in pursuit of Block 4 capabilities, up from $1.098 billion a year ago.

RDT&E for the new B-21 bomber declines somewhat, from $3.144 billion in 2023 to $2.984 billion in 2024, as that program begins its transition from development to production. Production funds for the Raider, from accompanying budget documents, were pegged at $1.617 billion, but quantities were not discussed, although Jones repeated previous comments that six aircraft are in various stages of production.

Elsewhere in the bomber fleet, the Air Force wants to boost B-52 modernization, with new engines and a radar upgrade. R&D increases for those efforts to $857 million requested for ’24, up some $134 million over last year.

Divestments

Aircraft Type	# of Airframes
A-10	42
A-29	3
B-1	1
C-130H	2
E-3	2
E-8	3
EC-130H	2
EC-130J	4
F-15C/D	57
F-22	32
HH-60G	37
KC-10	24
MQ-9 (Block 1)	48
RQ-4	1
T-1	52
TOTAL	310

Source: Air Force budget document

The Air Force is looking to divest 310 aircraft in fiscal 2024, according to Maj. Gen. Michael A. Greiner, deputy assistant secretary for budget and comptroller of the Air Force.

“Most of these are continuations from existing authorities” for divestiture granted to the Air Force by Congress last year, he said.

The 310 include 32 F-22 Block 20s, which Kendall noted “we asked for last year, and didn’t get.” Yet despite those planned divestments, the service is also asking for $726 million to develop capability upgrades for the fighter, versus the enacted 2023 figure of $560 million. Those upgrades are known to include an infrared search and track system, upgraded radar, the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile and other improvements to keep it relevant and credible in the air superiority role before the NGAD comes online, circa 2030.

In addition the F-22s, the Air Force also wants to retire its remaining 24 aerial refueling KC-10s; 57 F-15C/Ds fighters; 37 HH-60G Pave Hawk rescue helicopters; 48 MQ-9 Reaper Block 1s, and 52 T-1 trainers. Greiner said the Air Force wants to reduce the E-3 Sentry AWACS inventory to 18 aircraft, which means two more will leave the inventory this year.

If all the Air Force’s divestiture requests are honored by Congress, the ’24 budget will zero out the KC-10 tanker, E-8 Joint STARS, EC-130J Commando Solo and A-29 light attack aircraft inventories.

Aircraft Delivered in 2024

Aircraft Type	# of Airframes
C-130J	2
E-11	1
F-15EX	10
F-35A	45
HH-60W	19
KC-46	20
MC-130J	12
MQ-9 (Block 5)	10
TOTAL	119

Space Force Budget Would Soar by 15 Percent in 2024

March 13, 2023 | By David Roza

The Space Force gains the largest funding increase in percentage terms under President Biden’s 2024 budget request. The $30 billion proposal for the nation’s smallest military branch includes a 15 percent increase—$3.9 billion—over the enacted 2023 budget, fueled by investments in overhead persistent infrared missile warning systems, the global positioning system enterprise, and launch vehicles for both the National Security Space Launch and Rocket System Launch Program.

“The FY 2024 request continues aggressively integrating the Space Force into the fabric of national and international security by collaborating across the Department of Defense, interagency, commercial industry, and our allies and partners,” the budget documents say. “Space is a warfighting domain critical to the Nation’s security, economic prosperity, and scientific knowledge, therefore, the FY 2024 request reflects a substantial increase in funding over previous budget requests.”

The Space Force would expand from 8,600 Guardians to 9,400. Like all military personnel, Guardians would receive a 5.2 percent pay raise, along with a 4.2 percent boost for the basic housing allowance, and a 3.4 percent increase in the basic subsistence allowance.

Much of the increase in the Space Force budget would fund new Research, Development, Test & Evaluation. The service is budgeted to spend $16.6 billion for RDT&E in 2023, and the 2024 budget would add $2.6 billion for a total $19.2 billion. Development of new resilient missile warning and tracking satellites, space technology development and prototyping, and Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared missile warning are the primary targets of that new investment.

The Space Force would also invest $4.7 billion to buy new space vehicles and terminals, ground control systems, launch services and related communications security and training products.

The main focus of all that investment is modernization to respond to growing threats to space technology. “The fast-growing array of threats that can attack American interests in, through, and from space pose a challenge that cannot be addressed through enhancements to decreasingly relevant legacy space systems designed for an uncontested domain,” the service wrote in its budget highlights.

The 2024 budget would support procuring 10 National Security Space Launch Services, which are used to send medium and heavy lift systems into orbit. Five launches under the NSSL program would deliver Tranche 1 and Tranche 2 transport capabilities, which are responsible for communications and data transmission in orbit. The 2024 budget request asks for about $980 million more than last year for buying new launch vehicles and launch range upgrades.

The fiscal 2024 budget would also start up the production of Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals Force Element terminals for the Air Force’s B-52 bomber. The FAB-T program allows commanders to communicate with B-52 crews even in contested environments.

The proposed global positioning system enterprise budget emphasize RDT&E. The GPS enterprise “provides worldwide, 24-hour a day, all-weather 3-dimensional positioning, navigation, and timing information for military and civilian users,” according to the budget documents. The fiscal 2024 budget aims to continue developing ten GPS III Follow-on satellites and support the satellite constellation’s transition from a legacy operational control system to its next generation edition. The total $1.3 billion proposal for the GPS enterprise would also support the development of Military GPS User Equipment, which is meant to help service members keep using GPS-provided positioning, navigation and timing information even “in the most contested environments,” according to the Department of Defense.

As its official song, “Semper Supra,” intones, the Space Force is “the mighty watchful eye” of the nation, and the 2024 request seeks about $5 billion for space-based missile warning. The Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared Program (OPIR) and Resilient Missile Warning and Missile Tracking (MW/MT) systems are critical programs for identifying China’s most advanced missile threats even in the event of attacks on those space-based sensors.

Next-Gen OPIR will “rapidly deliver strategically survivable missile warning capabilities” to detect advanced missiles , while Resilient MW/MT is meant to ensure that the missile warning system can survive attacks by counter-space systems developed by adversaries.

The 2024 budget request also includes about $4.7 billion for satellite communications projects. The Space Force has three categories of satellite communications: strategic, for nuclear command, control and communications; protected tactical, for tactical-level communications in contested environments; and wideband and narrowband, which provide “large throughput in less contested areas,” according to the Department of Defense. The 2024 budget request would support continued SATCOM development and initiate engineering and manufacturing for a new “purpose-built high-throughput anti-jam satellite system” for protected tactical networks, according to budget documents.

Digital Transformation of Verification Process for Faster Aircraft Certification

March 13, 2023 | By Thierry Olbrechts

The certification of new aircraft programs is expensive. Whether it is an advanced air mobility system, a (hybrid-) electric aircraft or a military aircraft with new weapon systems, new and innovative aircraft programs are very complex. The application of new materials, additive-manufactured structures, electrical propulsion systems and an increase in onboard software requires extensive virtual and physical testing to verify whether the aircraft is safe, reliable and cost-effective to fly.

Managing verification from the start of the program, as soon as the requirements have been defined and validated, is a good practice. As the verification job is huge, especially for start-up programs, a digital verification management platform can significantly reduce the risk and related over-budget costs of aircraft certification.

Challenge – Aircraft Complexity

There’s a reason why airplanes are the safest mode of transportation: certification. For aerospace manufacturers, aircraft certification is everything. No certificate means no product to market.

In addition to already strict EASA, FAA, and other regulations, companies face additional demands for advancements, including – but not limited to – sustainability targets and the ambition to fly autonomously, which require more integrated systems driven by software and electronics.

New technologies like this are exponentially complex. They impact all aspects of product development, including design, validation, and testing. Instead of a few components and hundreds of interfaces, there are now thousands of components with tens of thousands of interfaces. More and more functions are implemented through software.

Implications – Aircraft Programs at Risk

Therefore, it’s no surprise that today, aircraft certification is more costly than design. This is a huge challenge. Many companies have great ambitions with new aircraft configurations. It is now technologically and financially feasible to build and fly prototypes and validate concepts. The big financial challenge and risks that a company faces are the costs of aircraft certification and industrialization. Indeed, Porsche Consulting estimated in 2018 that the series development and type certification of an eVTOL urban air mobility aircraft would cost between $500 million and $1 billion¹, and Archer Aviation CEO Adam Goldstein says, “the price-tag for one aircraft design to reach certification could be up to $1 billion”.²

This represents a serious risk to many companies. As an aeronautical engineer, I cannot be more delighted when I see all the initiatives taken to exploit the possibilities of new propulsion systems into radical new aircraft configurations. In that sense, the last 5 to 10 years are comparable to the 1950s, when a lot of new aircraft configurations were explored. However, I’m worried that many companies with exciting new ideas will financially fail before getting aircraft certification.

One should not forget that many of these companies have to build the elements for proof of compliance from a blank sheet. They cannot count on data from previous programs to alleviate the verification process by comparison. This puts them at a competitive disadvantage against legacy companies, which might be less innovative but have an abundance of verification data at hand.

Because of the above, new organizations tend to postpone addressing the verification and certification aspects.

Figure 1. Implications of increased program complexity and integrated systems: the current approach does not work anymore.

Opportunity – Certify During Development

Digitalization environments offer a lot of capabilities to pre-empt the aircraft certification aspects and associated risks.

Process-wise, companies should consider including the verification and certification process within the aircraft design, development production and quality process from the start of the program.

Figure 2. Building the verification and certification Digital Twin: actively manage the plan from start to finish.

Different digital platform pillars are key in this:

Figure 3. Key technologies to support aircraft programs.

It Starts with the Digital Twin

Throughout the development of aircraft, digital twin capabilities make it possible to design, engineer and optimize the aircraft and its systems. They provide engineering insight into how the aircraft is built and how it performs behaviorally. The use of a digital twin model enables manufacturers to become exponentially more accurate in all aircraft domains, covering all “engineering physics,” which define how well it operates.

Given good management and validation of the modeling assumptions, these digital twin models can be further exploited to verify the behavior of electro-mechanical systems, coupled to the software-based control functions. Indeed, once one gets confidence in how well the models represent reality, these models can be used to perform virtual testing and alleviate the burden and costs of physical testing.

The ability to author these virtual test models is dependent on having the necessary skill tools for generating the engineering analysis data.

An additional benefit of digital twin models is that they not only help with accelerating the verification based on virtual testing, but they also have an under-recognized value in preparing and de-risking the physical tests, which will be needed anyway.

Indeed, as long as innovation continues to occur in this industry, it will be necessary for companies to prove the accuracy of their modeling assumptions, methods, and processes to aircraft certification authorities and organizations.

Digital twin technology is essential when programs want to reduce the risks related to aircraft certification. However, there is a closed-loop process needed between virtual and physical testing in order to make this a viable strategy.

Digital Data and Process Backbone

The amount of engineering analysis data a digital twin generates is enormous and requires a digital data and process management backbone to control it, keep it in configuration, manage the processes and make sure all data is traceable.

This backbone is also very important for the next programs. Indeed, stored data does not only serve current programs, but also can be reused in future programs to avoid verifying aspects multiple times on different programs. This drastically reduces verification costs of future programs, whether by simply re-using data or proving digital twin modeling assumptions were right and avoids physical verification on these aspects on the next program.

Digital Thread

The generation of engineering data using digital twin technology along with excellent data management is a start, but to be truly effective, the digital platform needs to keep all data generated and managed in the context of the aircraft program, as it assures the digital continuity of engineering data with the engineering decisions taken. As part of a model-based systems engineering (MBSE) approach, a verification management digital thread can provide a traceable link between the requirements and the artifacts that lead to the proof of compliance of that requirement, including all its intermediate data like the eBOM, test-BOM, etc.

Solution – Verification Management

A verification management digital thread should be a vital part of the digitalization strategy of all aerospace and/or defense companies. It can help make certification an integral part of the overall product development process and enable companies to have a robust certification execution plan and incorporates all the needed certification activities within the overall program plan.

It is vital that companies embrace not only a verification management digital thread, but also a full digitalization strategy. Digitalization enables aerospace manufacturers and their supply chain partners to make better-informed decisions based on extensive data and analysis as well as full traceability. It is the only way to turn the increased level of complexity and integration inherent in new programs into a competitive advantage.

The aerospace and defense industry is going through a time of immense innovation, and I’m excited to see what the future holds as A&D companies and teams of all sizes adopt digitalization to deliver on the promise of this innovation.

References

1. The Future of Vertical Mobility, Sizing the market for passenger, inspection, and goods services until 2035, A Porsche Consulting study, 2018

2. Can UAM developers turn their electric dreams into a reality? Pilar Wolfsteller, 2022

About the Author

Thierry Olbrechts is the Director of Simcenter Aerospace Industries Solutions, Siemens Digital Industries Software. In 1996, he joined Siemens Digital Industries Software. Since 2000, Thierry has been responsible for Siemens simulation and test business development and go-to-market strategies for the aviation, space and defense industry segments.

Air Force, Space Force Push for Sweeping Modernization in 2024 Budget

March 13, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The Biden administration is requesting $259.3 billion for the Department of the Air Force in its fiscal 2024 budget, an increase of more than $9 billion or about 4 percent over this year.

Not all that money would go to the Air Force and Space Force, however; $44.2 billion would pass through the department budget to other agencies. Funding for the Air Force and Space Force would be $215.1 billion, $9.3 billion over the prior year.

The proposal would:

Retire 310 existing aircraft and invest billions to develop and acquire replacements

Buy 72 new fighter jets—48 F-35As and 24 F-15EXs

Start the acquisition process for the B-21 Raider

Invest heavily in the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter and in a coming generation of uncrewed Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA)

Increase the Space Force budget by nearly 15 percent, to $30 billion

The Department of the Air Force budget would grow slightly more than the overall defense budget. The president is seeking $842 billion for the Defense Department in fiscal 2024—a 3.2 percent increase—plus an additional $44 billion that mostly funds nuclear programs in the Department of Energy. That makes for total defense spending of $886 billion in the Presidential Budget Request.

The DOD budget includes a 5.2 percent pay raise for troops, a 4.2 percent increase in the Basic Allowance for Housing, and a 3.4 percent boost to the subsistence allowance. With inflation still running higher than budget growth, lawmakers in Congress are likely to press for further increases over the coming months.

In a briefing with reporters, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said the budget plan reflects a shift to new capabilities over sustaining USAF’s ever-aging platforms. It funds 20 “major efforts” and a dozen new programs, he said. The Space Force budget rises $3.9 billion, or nearly 15 percent, to $30 billion under the president’s plan, while the USAF budget, totaling $185.1 billion, would grow by $5.4 billion, or just 2.9 percent.

Much of the new spending is to gain future capability, some of which may not arrive until the end of this decade.

“We’re in a situation strategically where we have to make a transformation to next-generation capabilities,” said Kendall. “If we stay where we are and emphasize keeping the current force strong … we’re going to be falling behind. And we’re going to be falling behind pretty rapidly.”

NGAD is already maturing in development, Kendall said, but the program remains shrouded in secrecy. The development of CCAs is also rapidly maturing, spurred by a combination of Air Force and industry investment.

The budget also pays for 15 new KC-46 tankers to continue replacing aging KC-135 and KC-10s, and invests in a new stealthy tanker, dubbed the Next Generation Aerial Refueling System (NGAS).

The Air Force is renewing its proposal to retire 32 early model F-22 Raptors, along with 57 F-15C/D Eagles, two E-3 Sentry AWACS, 48 MQ-9 Reapers, 42 A-10 close air support aircraft, and 24 KC-10 tankers, according to Maj. Gen. Michael A. Greiner, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for budget.

Congress balked at retiring the F-22s last year, but the Air Force maintains that those aircraft are not viable for combat operations and that the cost and time needed to upgrade those aircraft makes the idea untenable.

In a major decision regarding the F-35 fleet, the Air Force plan does not fund the Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP), which would have provided a new more powerful and potentially more reliable engine for the Air Force F-35A; the performance improvements were attractive, Kendall said, but the Air Force would have had to fund the change on its own and the service opted instead for a less costly and complex core upgrade to the existing Pratt & Whitney engines.

“I think we’ve got a good balance and we were able to get the resources through processes internally to allow us to move forward,” Kendall said.

‘The President’s proposed budget for the Department of the Air Force rightly prioritizes modernization of our Air & Space Forces,” said AFA President & CEO Lt. Gen. Bruce Wright (USAF, Ret.) “We are pleased to see a substantial pay raise, a 15 percent increase in Space Force spending to improve intelligence, communications, and resilience in that critical domain, and also robust investment for 72 new fighter aircraft, the B-21 bomber, the E-7 Wedgetail AWACS replacement, a new generation of Collaborative Combat Aircraft, and Sentinel ICBM modernization program.

“Yet at a time of grave threats and significant inflation, the rate of growth in the Air Force investment accounts is still not what it should be. Investments in airpower today will deter war tomorrow. Congress must work across party lines to ensure unfunded priorities are addressed and that budget legislation is completed in a timely manner this fall.”

Next Stop: Capitol Hill

Congress ultimately decides what resources the Air Force and Space Force get, and the debates will intensify there as the summer heats up. Republicans criticized the Biden administration’s overall defense budget request when the topline figures were released March 9, calling the investment too small, especially given persistently high inflation. Top Democrats, such as Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, were also hesitant to endorse the plan. Reed called DOD’s request a “useful starting point.”

Department of the Air Force leaders accept that there will be differences of opinion, but have been outspoken in public comments that whatever Congress wants to do with the budget, it should get it completed on time. Failure to produce a budget by the end of the calendar year, let alone the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, is just “giving away time for free,” Kendall said.

DAF leaders say their budget reflects the required shift toward the future.

“Defending the nation requires constant vigilance in all domains,” said Kristyn E. Jones, the assistant secretary of the Air Force for financial management and comptroller. She cited investment in new fighters and “the acceleration of our acquisition of space-based missile warning architectures to improve our sensing and naval defenses against the full range of ballistic missile threats” as examples of that multidomain vigilance.

“National Defense also requires recapitalizing the ICBM missile and bomber legs of the nuclear triad,” Jones said. “The Sentinel program, or ICBM replacement, is continuing in development and the recently unveiled B-21 Raider is scheduled to achieve its first flight this calendar year. ”

The 2024 budget includes $3.7 billion for the Sentinel, formerly called the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, which is set to replace 400 decades-old Minuteman III ICBMs one-for-one. It also includes $3 billion for B-21. Both figures are broadly in line with what Air Force plans allocated to those programs in fiscal 2023. Spending will increase for missile warning and defense and for the Advanced Battle Management System.

Munitions development is funded, with increases in production of the AIM-120 AMRAAM and AGM-158 JASSM-ER, as well as its anti-ship LRASM variant.

Concerns over munitions shortages have come to the fore after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Wargames over a potential conflict with China show that without an increase in inventories, the Air Force could exhaust its supply of LRASMs within a week. The service plans to purchase 550 JASSMs and 27 LRASMs. The Air Force also wants to allocate $1 billion to work towards multi-year procurement contacts to allow the defense industry to increase the production capacity of JASSM-ERs, LRASMs, and AMRAAMs.

“JASSM-ER we’re going to be at 550 quantity—that’s max production,” Greiner said. “This year, there’s also some facilitation dollars included in JASSM-ER and the goal is … to ramp us up to 810 production in the future.”

The Air Force and Space Force, however, still face the risk of no budget at all, or at least a delayed one, hampering work on their priorities. Republicans gained control of the House in the 2022 midterm elections, while Democrats still hold the Senate. DOD is just one part of the $6.8 trillion budget unveiled by the White House on March 9, and the administration’s request will add fuel to the debate over the looming debt ceiling.

Kendall noted even before the White House released its request that failure to complete a budget on time has serious implications for the services. This year, with a dozen new programs, the stakes are even higher for the Department of the Air Force.

Kendall noted that Congress started the 13 of the past 14 fiscal years under continuing resolutions, which freeze funding at current levels while Congress hashes out a new budget. Likewise, the annual National Defense Authorization Act legislation has also been completed after the end of the fiscal year multiple times in recent years.

“We move at the pace of money and engineering,” Kendall said. “You don’t start until you get the money. If we have a year-long CR, or even just a very long CR … that’s giving away time for free. So I’m very concerned about that as we go into this. I’m very comfortable with what we’re asking for. I think we’ve got a good mix here. But I am worried about getting through a timely process and getting the authorities and the appropriations we’re going to need to move forward.”

Air Force Asks for Commercial Industry Support with Tech Modernization

March 12, 2023 | By Christopher Prawdzik

The Air Force’s Deputy Chief Information Officer called on commercial industry for help as the service looks to modernize its information technology programs and consolidate networks. Speaking at a Washington Technology breakfast with industry March 10, Winston Beauchamp outlined a number of opportunities for industry and emphasized the Air Force’s ongoing efforts to modernize in areas that have seen neglect in recent years.

The pathway to these modernization efforts, he noted, is the DOD’s Zero Trust Strategy and Roadmap, a “department-wide Zero Trust cybersecurity framework that will reduce the attack surface, enable risk management and effective data sharing in partnership environments, and quickly contain and remediate adversary activities,” according to the Air Force.

“We use integrated systems where necessary; we use federated capabilities where possible, to retain some flexibility across the services so we don’t have to force us into lockstep,” Beauchamp said. “That is going to be the key enabler to making sure we can exchange both identity information and role-based information across these applications to protect the data where it lives instead of the network it lives on.”

Beauchamp told attendees he wants industry to help the Air Force understand how it’s done. But such an effort presents many challenges, particularly the long-term impact of things like sequestration and the tough choices the force had to make in the early-to-mid 2010s.

“The problem is when you take a modernization holiday of about a decade, eventually it’s going to catch up to you, and that’s exactly what’s happening right now,” he said. “We’re seeing that in device failures, we’re seeing it in network latency problems. … It’s actually harder to modernize the older your equipment is, and it takes a larger amount of money and time to overcome that much tech debt.”

Beauchamp said the Air Force is about to start Enterprise Information Technology as-a-Service (EITaaS) Wave 1, which is the implementation of “consolidated network management and security help desk services,” which will be quickly followed by Wave 2, which includes base area network updates at 185 bases—with priority given to crucial outposts near conflict areas.

These modernization areas are where he wants help from industry, to help the Air Force identify “commercial best practices” and help the force understand how these things are executed in the commercial sector.

“In many cases, that means working that business case a little bit harder with our folks to make them understand where the things that you do on a regular basis—when you do these types of modernizations in the real world—how it can be applied to military bases, while still complying with all of the rules and regulations you have to do for a DOD acquisition,” Beauchamp said.

He also spoke to the Air Force’s major effort to transition to the cloud and highlighted Cloud One, the DOD’s first hybrid multi-cloud program. It contains development and security service layers that users can employ for application migration to the cloud or developing applications in the cloud.

Regarding Air Force culture, Beauchamp noted that EITaaS is quite a departure from earlier acquisition efforts, where a vendor would, for example, install equipment at a base or locality and then operations and support would be conducted by Air Force personnel and support. EITaaS is structured differently, in that the vendor would participate in the operation of the product—basically provide the service to the Air Force.

“We’re entering into a service-level agreement,” he said. “We’re enabling that vendor then to upgrade or replace the equipment as needed, within the cost of the contract to make sure they can meet that support agreement.”

Ultimately, Beauchamp said, this will free up service members to devote their expertise on other responsibilities and allow the Air Force to make better use of its talent.

Joseph “Mike” McWilliams, director of staff for the Air Force Small Business and Acquisition Program Manager, then provided a crash course on best practices for vendors to better connect their capabilities with the Air Force. Above all, McWilliams insisted vendors be clear and concise in their capability statements, what services they provide, and how their expertise can meet the Air Force’s needs.

McWilliams lamented the many proposals he’s reviewed over the years that are short on substance and long on “fluff.” He urged prospective vendors to understand those reviewing proposals typically need to make quick decisions and want specifics about vendor capability. He also strongly encouraged vendors to attend industry days.

“If you’re there in the audience and you have a better idea or you know what you can do, help the program manager and the contracting officer up there … develop that acquisition strategy to where there will be set asides to use small businesses,” he said. “Because they may not even be thinking about that until they find out there’s two or more of you out there in the audience who can do this.”