Combat Aircraft Monthly 2015-08 (Vol.16 No.08).pdf

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COMBAT
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USS
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‘THE BIG STICK’ IN THE GULF
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‘Companies like
Dassault may seek
to skip the fifth-
generation manned
fighter concept
altogether and
progress directly to
stealthy unmanned
combat air vehicles’
DOES THE RAFALE’S BOOM POINT TO THE
RISE OF THE EUROPEAN UCAV?
by
Tyler Rogoway
A winning team for the future? Dassault’s
Rafale and nEUROn programs have reneved
impetus following recent decisions.
Dassault
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ITH PURCHASE
ANNOUNCEMENTS
from India, Egypt,
Qatar and now
seemingly Kuwait, the
‘generation 4.5’ fighter
has proved that it is anything but a dead-
end business model.
It started off with India finally confirming a
plan to buy 36 Dassault Rafales, a gargantuan
accomplishment seeing as France’s fighter
builder won the Medium Multi-Role Combat
Aircraft (MMRCA) competition three years
ago. Although the initial order may not be
as large as the intended total of 126 aircraft
under the original MMRCA program, it is a
start, and all the aircraft will be built on the
current Rafale manufacturing line in France.
India’s initial buy is very important for
the Rafale project. It has added much-
needed weight to the fighter’s production
line. The Indian news was preceded by
Egypt’s somewhat sudden confirmation
that it would be purchasing 24 Rafales,
stepping away from US fighter imports in
the process. This was as much a signal of
the tepid relationship between the Obama
administration and Egypt’s new government,
which came to power via a military coup, as
it was a vote for the Rafale alone.
Shortly after India’s announcement, Qatar
announced that it will acquire 24 Rafales
as well. These three sales culminated in
seemingly the perfect trifecta for Dassault,
France and their combat-proven Rafale
design. In less than three months, after
decades of trying, the Rafale has become
the shining star of the fighter market. This
is an amazing feat, to say the least, and one
that will surely spur other international
orders in the future, as nobody wants to bet
billions of dollars on a fighter platform with
an uncertain future.
Malaysia in particular could very well
add another couple of dozen jets to the
Rafale’s order books in the near future,
which would bring the type’s total exports
to over 100 aircraft. With India looking to
retire its nearly antique and crash-prone
MiG-21 and MiG-27 fleets, along with
ongoing troubles with its centerpiece
fighter, the Su-30MKI, follow-on orders
for the Rafale from New Delhi are more
probable than possible.
One interesting note is that all of the
Rafale’s export customers have also
operated the aircraft’s predecessor, the
Mirage 2000. This brings serious credence
to the idea that an air arm will buy based
on familiarity as well as cost and capability.
Hornet revival
Just weeks ago the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet’s
future looked very similar to the Rafale’s. Then
came news that Kuwait, already a ‘legacy’
Hornet operator, will be purchasing 28 Super
Hornets. This order, along with the 12 units
expected to be funded by the US Navy, will
secure the St Louis-based Super Hornet and
Growler production line until nearly the end
of the decade. This is not only a huge win for
Boeing, but for the US Navy, which quietly
sees the Super Hornet as a partial hedge against
more F-35 delays.
Kuwait’s choice to buy 28 Super Hornets
is a logical one. Just like all the buyers of the
Rafale, the Super Hornet offers continuity with
its predecessor, the F/A-18C/D, an aircraft that
Kuwait has flown for over two decades. The
purchase also solidifies the tight strategic and
economic ties the country maintains with the
United States.
The timing of Kuwait’s decision may also
have been the result of realizations made in
the first weeks of the Sunni-Arab-led coalition
air campaign against Iranian-backed Houthi
rebels in Yemen. Although the F/A-18C/D is
still a very viable air combat platform, Kuwait
flies models with older AN/APG-65 radars,
which are two generations behind the Super
Hornet’s APG-79 active electronically-scanned
array (AESA) radar. Other capabilities, such
as upgraded pilot interfaces, modern stand-
off munitions, digital electronic warfare
and radar warning suites, and updated
datalinks represent a collective quantum leap
in capabilities, especially during coalition
operations with advanced partner states.
The fact that ‘generation 4.5’ fighters
are still in high demand around the globe
is telling in that it underlines how ‘fifth-
generation’ fighter aircraft remain far out of
reach for many air arms. This is not just due
to the high costs of purchasing and operating
an aircraft like the F-35 — these countries are
not even being offered the jet to purchase.
This, along with the fact that Russia’s T-50
and China’s FC-31 still remain deep in
their development stages, leaves no viable
fifth-generation fighter alternative, not that
many of these countries would be willing to
purchase a Chinese or even a Russian fighter
in the first place.
All this results in an interesting, if not even
peculiar situation, one in which many air arms
are spending their budgets for the coming
decades on very mature fighter designs. This
would seem to leave the F-35 outside their
grasp even if it was offered to them in the
future. Such a reality opens up a potential
strategic opening for companies like Dassault,
who may seek to skip the fifth-generation
manned fighter concept altogether and
progress directly to stealthy unmanned combat
air vehicles (UCAVs).
These UCAVs would not just represent an
alternative to the fifth-generation fighters on
the market at the time, but they could be a
companion to the less-than-low-observable
‘generation 4.5’ products already fielded.
In a decade or so, such a capability would
represent a potentially very enticing high/
low mix for air arms looking for a flexible and
cost-effective fleet that can still kick down
an enemy’s integrated air defense system
via stealthy UCAVs and stand-off weaponry
launched from ‘generation 4.5’ fighters.
Unmanned alternative
Seeing as unmanned systems have proven to
be comparatively inexpensive to develop and
upgrade over time, offering a low-observable,
semi-autonomous UCAV to smaller air arms in
the future may make good business sense both
in terms of limiting sunk costs and in their
marketability to fourth-generation fighter users
that want F-35 capabilities but at not nearly
the cost. Dassault’s pan-European nEUROn
technology demonstrator, which emerged
from the company’s decade-long LOGIDUC
initiative, is hard at work today lowering
risk and working to affordably develop the
knowledge base needed to proceed to an
operational UCAV system.
Interestingly enough, the nEUROn
partnership includes contractors that have
been very active in fourth-generation fighters,
but are at best sub-contractors on the F-35
program. Dassault, Saab and many companies
that worked as a team to produce the
Eurofighter, such as Airbus Defence and Space,
are all on board with the nEUROn program,
signaling that their Rafale, Eurofighter, and
Gripen product lines may be their last
manned fighters.
When you look at where the F-35 stands
today and how European aircraft designers
have held short at entering into the fifth-
generation fighter marketplace, there is a good
chance a strategy is emerging that will look to
leapfrog the fifth-generation fighter concept
altogether and instead seamlessly enter the
realm of UCAVs. When paired with existing
‘generation 4.5’ fighter designs, this high/low
capability mix, which offers stealth and access
into highly-defended airspace for a myriad of
missions, could give future F-35 exports a run
for their money, not to mention facilitating
Europe’s race toward parity when it comes
to unmanned combat aircraft designs and
capabilities.
14
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657/15
August 2015
• Vol 16 • No 8
on the USS
26
OT-1
special report
Wasp.
James Deboer embarks for
this
IN THE NEWS
06 Headline News
F-35B completes OT-1 trials, India
caps Rafale buy and Kuwait ghter
deal expands
Last QF-4 mission from Tyndall,
KC-46 testing latest and ‘Combat
Dragon’ Broncos in Europe
Japan selects E-2D Advanced
Hawkeye and new Chinese
unmanned air vehicle breaks cover
Russia plans more ‘Blackjacks’, plus
round-ups of ghter, helicopter
and ISR news including the latest
military losses
60
82
BALTIC AIR POLICING:
THE NEXT CHAPTER
The latest round of NATO’s Baltic Air Policing
mission is being led by four F-16s from the
Royal Norwegian Air Force, which are sharing
the Lithuanian base of Šiauliai with Euro ghters
of the Italian Air Force. Alexander Golz reports
Cristian Schrik visited Detachment Amber of the
Ejército del Aire (Spanish Air Force), which made
the 3,200km (2,000-mile) trip from its home
base of Morón, near Seville, to NATO’s Baltic
front line
08 US News
86
AMBER ALERT
18 World News
92
UNIT REPORT:
EDWARDS EVOLVES
NAVAL BEARS SHOW
THEIR CLAWS
22 Europe News
Rens van Rijn and Dennis Vink detail major
changes that have recently taken e ect within
the US Air Force’s 412th Test Wing at Edwards
Air Force Base, California
Combat Aircraft’s
monthly column reporting
from the front line of aerospace technology, by
David Axe
32
UNIT REPORT:
TRAINING WING
HOLLOMAN
Russian Naval Aviation is consolidating the strength
of its last remaining squadron of Tu-142 submarine-
hunters. Stefan Büttner and Alexander Golz meet
the reinvigorated ‘Bears’
96
CUTTING EDGE
52
Dr Andreas Zeitler visits the Luftwa e’s
Tornado ight training center at Holloman
AFB, and takes a look at the type’s
improved performance in the close air
support role with the new ASSTA 3
software
Giovanni Colla embarked the USS
Theodore Roosevelt
(CVN 71) while the carrier was supporting
Operation ‘Inherent Resolve’ and details the rst operational cruise of the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye
COMBAT REPORT: THE BIG STICK EVOLVES
38
UNIT REPORT:
TIP OF THE SPEAR
The 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath,
UK, is one of the US Air Force’s most
important units. Strategically positioned,
at the top end of capabilities, US
commanders turn regularly to the ‘Liberty
Wing’. Jamie Hunter reports, with images
by Jim Haseltine
Jimmy van Drunen heads to a Dutch
low- ying area to see how low ying
remains the number-one technique for
rotary-wing pilots to avoid advanced
threats
The anti-ship missile remains a serious
threat to the world’s navies and
commercial vessels alike. Lon Nordeen
looks back at the recent history of anti-
surface warfare
68
DOWN IN THE DIRT
70
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PLUS
News Report on Saudi ghters
and Robert F. Dorr’s Front Line
column
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Aircraft Monthly
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37
for details.
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76
UNIT REPORT:
IZMIR’S AIR CAVALRY
The Turkish Army Aviation Command is
one of the more capable yet secretive
military forces in the Mediterranean
region. Carlo Kuit and Paul Kievit gain a
rare look at some of its assets in action
Strike force — two 48th Fighter Wing
F-15E Strike Eagles break for the
camera.
Jim Haseltine
ON THE COVER:
www.combataircraft.net
August 2015
COMBAT
EDGE
LEADING
EDGE
The Royal Saudi Air Force is making huge strides with the
capability development of its ghter aircraft, and it has now
taken delivery of its rst Tranche 3-standard Euro ghter
Typhoons.
Euro ghter/Jamie Hunter
CONTRIBUTOR
PROFILE GIOVANNI COLLA
iovanni Colla has
worked as both a
photographer and a
freelance journalist
specializing in military
aviation for the past 12 years.
A first article was published
in
Combat Aircraft
in
December 2010 and he has
never looked back. His career
has involved embedding twice
G
with the Italian armed forces in
Afghanistan. One of Giovanni’s
main interests lies in US naval
aviation. The coverage he has
provided in this issue from the
USS
Theodore Roosevelt
was ‘a
professional highlight of his
year’ to date, he says, as he
recorded the first operational
cruise of the E-2D Advanced
Hawkeye.
4
August 2015
www.combataircraft.net
FIND US ON
Blazing the trail
A
s the Royal Saudi Air Force
starts to receive its latest
Tranche 3 Eurofighter
Typhoons and gears up for
receipt of the first Boeing
F-15SA ‘Saudi Advanced’
Eagles, it is worth noting the strides being made
by the kingdom when it comes to fighters.
As the RSAF establishes its third Eurofighter
unit, its Typhoons are reported to have been
in the thick of the action in recent combat
operations. Also well documented is how the
RSAF will field a number of new capabilities
for its Eurofighters even ahead of the core
partner nations in the program, such as the
Storm Shadow cruise missile and possibly even
the eagerly-awaited E-Scan radar.
In the US, the F-15SA is completing flight-
testing ahead of the first deliveries. Few
would disagree that, on paper, these will be
the most advanced F-15s of all. The F-15SA
looks likely to feature a suite of the latest
capabilities including the new Digital Joint
Helmet-Mounted Cueing System, advanced
electronically-scanned array (AESA) radar, fly-
by-wire controls and a vast arsenal of weapons
including the ability to carry up to 12 AIM-120
Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles.
Although the RSAF may have to wait in the
wings for the F-35 Lightning II, it is clearly
maximizing the potential of its existing fighter
types that are on order as it expands and
enhances its ranks at an impressive rate.
Jamie Hunter,
Editor
E-mail: jamie.hunter@keypublishing.com
www.combataircraft.net
August 2015
5

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