Le JSF....sans pilote !
Publié : dim. août 20, 2006 7:43 pm
From WASHIGTON POST du 16 Aout:
_______________
Lockheed Says F-35 Could Fly Pilotless
Pentagon Demand for Drones Grows
By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 16, 2006; Page D01
Lockheed Martin Corp. has proposed an unmanned version of its Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35, which would make it the first full-scale fighter to operate without a pilot and signal the Bethesda weapons maker's push into the growing market for drone aircraft.
The idea has been in the works for two years, Lockheed Vice President Frank Mauro said at a briefing yesterday. He provided few details but said the plane could be built as an interchangeable hybrid -- manned by a pilot for some missions and operated remotely for others.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England unveiled Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in July.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England unveiled Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in July. (By Mike Fuentes -- Bloomberg News)
The Joint Strike Fighter, funded with help from several other countries, is meant to replace the F-16 as the workhorse fighter of the United States and its close allies. Less powerful than the F-22 Raptor that Lockheed developed to give the United States an advantage in air combat, the Joint Strike Fighter is still designed to travel at supersonic speed and carry up to 15,000 pounds of bombs and missiles.
Test flights of the F-35 are expected to begin later this year. The idea of a remote-control version of the plane has not been pitched to the Air Force, though it has been through the company's conceptual design phase, Lockheed officials said.
Air Force officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Yesterday's briefing marked a strategic turn for Lockheed, which for years has stayed publicly on the sidelines as the Pentagon increased its spending on unmanned systems.
Such competitors as Northrop Grumman Corp. and Boeing Co. are entrenched in the market, with products such as Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk surveillance drone, which is deployed overseas.
Lockheed ceded the market in the late 1990s while it focused on winning the contract to build what many predict will be the Air Force's last manned fighter jet, the F-35. Lockheed then feared that the unmanned market could diminish demand for its more expensive fighter jets, analysts said.
"When you think about unmanned combat systems, I think about Boeing," said John E. Pike, executive director of GlobalSecurity.org.
But in the past three to four years, Lockheed's aeronautics division has spent 30 to 40 percent of its internal research-and-development budget on unmanned systems, company officials said. That includes $21 million the company has spent on the Polecat, a prototype drone that Lockheed plans to test at 60,000 feet or above this year. At a briefing yesterday, the firm trumpeted a stable of unmanned systems that can run on the ground, hauling equipment and supplies for troops, and underwater, searching for submarines and mines. Some of the systems are still being developed and some are deployed in Iraq.
Much of the work is being done at Lockheed's research-and-development lab in California, known as the Skunk Works, where the U-2 spy plane was developed in secret in the 1950s.
Some of the company's investment "is playing catch-up for all those big dollars that the government has invested" in unmanned technology, and some is "leapfrogging" existing systems, Mauro said.
The Pentagon, looking to save money, has accelerated spending on unmanned systems since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. This year, it allocated $2 billion for unmanned aircraft and millions more in the supplemental budget, compared with $363 million in 2001. The figure is projected to reach more than $3 billion by the end of the decade.
What has resulted is a hodgepodge of unmanned vehicles, such as small, bomb-seeking robots that can be carried in a backpack, and airplanes that provide surveillance for days at a time. The systems have become bigger and more expensive in recent years, such as the Predator, built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., and the Global Hawk, which has a 134-foot wingspan, comparable to the Boeing 737.
"Lockheed is playing catch-up and acknowledging that unmanned vehicles is a trend that is not going to go away," said Loren B. Thompson Jr., a defense industry analyst and Lockheed consultant. "It's going to be hard to penetrate a market where competitors are already established."
"We're looking at picking it up when we get enough customer interest, and that's the way they want to go," Mauro said. "Right now we're focused on getting the manned version of the F-35 flying."
While some analysts called the idea improbable, it could be an acknowledgment that the Pentagon's initial plan to buy about 2,000 F-35s is now considered likely to change -- in part because of improved drone technology. The decision to propose an unmanned F-35 may anticipate the day when all military aircraft are pilotless, analysts said.
The F-35 program has run into problems, including a rising price that is expected to reach $276 billion, up from the original estimate of $201 billion.
"I think they would be crazy not be looking at this," Pike said. "It's a foregone conclusion that at some point in the F-35 production program that [the Air Force is] going to decide we're going to replace the rest with unmanned systems." It would be smart "if Lockheed can come in and say, 'We have a solution for this.' "
Quant à un JSF unmanned’, rien de plus naturel. L’idée est depuis longtemps dans l’esprit de l’USAF. La proposition de Lockheed Martin, dont on voit désormais d’où elle vient, a de fortes chances d’y trouver un écho favorable.
“L’idée depuis longtemps dans l’esprit de l’USAF”? En septembre 1996, dans une interview faite par Air Force Magazine, le chef d’état-major d’alors de l’USAF, le Général Fogleman évoquait très précisément cette possibilité. On lisait dans l’article :
« After reconnaissance, [Fogleman] continued, the next area that starts to make sense as a UAV mission is an “unmanned attack airplane of some sort.” Such an aircraft would be able to carry a lethal payload over a long distance and deliver it with precision.
» “What you're looking for there is the optimum mix in a truck-like vehicle,” but which would “leverage the tens of thousands of cheap Joint Direct Attack Munitions that we're going to have in the inventory” in the early twenty-first century, “without putting a man at risk.”
» The General speculated that the Block 50 version of the Joint Strike Fighter, due to make an appearance around 2020, “may very well be an unmanned aircraft of some type.” »
_____________
je cite:
Ces propositions reflètent évidemment une atmosphère favorable à leur éventuelle prise en compte par le Pentagone. De ce fait, elles ont aussi une signification au niveau opérationnel. Elles nous permettent de mieux comprendre ce qu’est le JSF pour l’USAF, en théorie le principal utilisateur de l’avion. Cela rejoint la critique que font certains experts australiens du choix (JSF) de leur pays.
Cette critique développe l’idée que le JSF finira par être débarrassé des missions les plus sophistiquées pour être réduit aux missions d’appui tactique où il sera un “truck-like vehicle” chargé jusqu’à la gueule de munitions avancées type-JDAM.
La logique de cette évolution est que l’avion, au bout du compte, ne nécessite pas de pilote pour des missions aussi primaires et contrôlées de toutes les façons, et d’une façon extrêmement serrée, par des systèmes plus sophistiqués.
Ces divers éléments, y compris la déclaration de Fogleman remontant à 1996, nous permettent de rappeler et de préciser la réelle pensée de l’USAF à l’égard du JSF.
• Pour l’USAF, le JSF est un avion de “deuxième échelon”, beaucoup plus que ne le fut jamais le F-16 ; un avion ayant peu de capacités autonomes, dépendant d’un contrôle extérieur (ce qui est encore plus le cas, bien entendu, lorsqu’on évoque une version non pilotée) et essentiellement destiné à un seul type de missions principale, qui est l’appui tactique très fortement contrôlé.
• Son entrée en service n’est nullement impérative dans les délais impartis au départ dans la mesure où l’avion n’est pas nécessaire pour des missions centrales, et dans la mesure aussi où des substituts peuvent lui être trouvés. (Par exemple, la décision d’ores et déjà prise de prolonger la vie de plus de 200 A-10A au lieu de les déclasser.) L’idée d’un F-15E+ (pouvant également conduire, en plus de nouveaux exemplaires, à la modernisation des actuels F-15E) vient d’autant plus à son heure qu’elle prive de facto le JSF d’une mission marginale pour lui, mais qui peut lui demander une certaine autonomie.
Si une solution type-F-15E+ était adoptée, il se pourrait qu’on assiste à un certain downgrading du JSF.
http://www.dedefensa.org/article.php?art_id=3058
_______________
Lockheed Says F-35 Could Fly Pilotless
Pentagon Demand for Drones Grows
By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 16, 2006; Page D01
Lockheed Martin Corp. has proposed an unmanned version of its Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35, which would make it the first full-scale fighter to operate without a pilot and signal the Bethesda weapons maker's push into the growing market for drone aircraft.
The idea has been in the works for two years, Lockheed Vice President Frank Mauro said at a briefing yesterday. He provided few details but said the plane could be built as an interchangeable hybrid -- manned by a pilot for some missions and operated remotely for others.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England unveiled Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in July.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England unveiled Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in July. (By Mike Fuentes -- Bloomberg News)
The Joint Strike Fighter, funded with help from several other countries, is meant to replace the F-16 as the workhorse fighter of the United States and its close allies. Less powerful than the F-22 Raptor that Lockheed developed to give the United States an advantage in air combat, the Joint Strike Fighter is still designed to travel at supersonic speed and carry up to 15,000 pounds of bombs and missiles.
Test flights of the F-35 are expected to begin later this year. The idea of a remote-control version of the plane has not been pitched to the Air Force, though it has been through the company's conceptual design phase, Lockheed officials said.
Air Force officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Yesterday's briefing marked a strategic turn for Lockheed, which for years has stayed publicly on the sidelines as the Pentagon increased its spending on unmanned systems.
Such competitors as Northrop Grumman Corp. and Boeing Co. are entrenched in the market, with products such as Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk surveillance drone, which is deployed overseas.
Lockheed ceded the market in the late 1990s while it focused on winning the contract to build what many predict will be the Air Force's last manned fighter jet, the F-35. Lockheed then feared that the unmanned market could diminish demand for its more expensive fighter jets, analysts said.
"When you think about unmanned combat systems, I think about Boeing," said John E. Pike, executive director of GlobalSecurity.org.
But in the past three to four years, Lockheed's aeronautics division has spent 30 to 40 percent of its internal research-and-development budget on unmanned systems, company officials said. That includes $21 million the company has spent on the Polecat, a prototype drone that Lockheed plans to test at 60,000 feet or above this year. At a briefing yesterday, the firm trumpeted a stable of unmanned systems that can run on the ground, hauling equipment and supplies for troops, and underwater, searching for submarines and mines. Some of the systems are still being developed and some are deployed in Iraq.
Much of the work is being done at Lockheed's research-and-development lab in California, known as the Skunk Works, where the U-2 spy plane was developed in secret in the 1950s.
Some of the company's investment "is playing catch-up for all those big dollars that the government has invested" in unmanned technology, and some is "leapfrogging" existing systems, Mauro said.
The Pentagon, looking to save money, has accelerated spending on unmanned systems since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. This year, it allocated $2 billion for unmanned aircraft and millions more in the supplemental budget, compared with $363 million in 2001. The figure is projected to reach more than $3 billion by the end of the decade.
What has resulted is a hodgepodge of unmanned vehicles, such as small, bomb-seeking robots that can be carried in a backpack, and airplanes that provide surveillance for days at a time. The systems have become bigger and more expensive in recent years, such as the Predator, built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., and the Global Hawk, which has a 134-foot wingspan, comparable to the Boeing 737.
"Lockheed is playing catch-up and acknowledging that unmanned vehicles is a trend that is not going to go away," said Loren B. Thompson Jr., a defense industry analyst and Lockheed consultant. "It's going to be hard to penetrate a market where competitors are already established."
"We're looking at picking it up when we get enough customer interest, and that's the way they want to go," Mauro said. "Right now we're focused on getting the manned version of the F-35 flying."
While some analysts called the idea improbable, it could be an acknowledgment that the Pentagon's initial plan to buy about 2,000 F-35s is now considered likely to change -- in part because of improved drone technology. The decision to propose an unmanned F-35 may anticipate the day when all military aircraft are pilotless, analysts said.
The F-35 program has run into problems, including a rising price that is expected to reach $276 billion, up from the original estimate of $201 billion.
"I think they would be crazy not be looking at this," Pike said. "It's a foregone conclusion that at some point in the F-35 production program that [the Air Force is] going to decide we're going to replace the rest with unmanned systems." It would be smart "if Lockheed can come in and say, 'We have a solution for this.' "
Quant à un JSF unmanned’, rien de plus naturel. L’idée est depuis longtemps dans l’esprit de l’USAF. La proposition de Lockheed Martin, dont on voit désormais d’où elle vient, a de fortes chances d’y trouver un écho favorable.
“L’idée depuis longtemps dans l’esprit de l’USAF”? En septembre 1996, dans une interview faite par Air Force Magazine, le chef d’état-major d’alors de l’USAF, le Général Fogleman évoquait très précisément cette possibilité. On lisait dans l’article :
« After reconnaissance, [Fogleman] continued, the next area that starts to make sense as a UAV mission is an “unmanned attack airplane of some sort.” Such an aircraft would be able to carry a lethal payload over a long distance and deliver it with precision.
» “What you're looking for there is the optimum mix in a truck-like vehicle,” but which would “leverage the tens of thousands of cheap Joint Direct Attack Munitions that we're going to have in the inventory” in the early twenty-first century, “without putting a man at risk.”
» The General speculated that the Block 50 version of the Joint Strike Fighter, due to make an appearance around 2020, “may very well be an unmanned aircraft of some type.” »
_____________
je cite:
Ces propositions reflètent évidemment une atmosphère favorable à leur éventuelle prise en compte par le Pentagone. De ce fait, elles ont aussi une signification au niveau opérationnel. Elles nous permettent de mieux comprendre ce qu’est le JSF pour l’USAF, en théorie le principal utilisateur de l’avion. Cela rejoint la critique que font certains experts australiens du choix (JSF) de leur pays.
Cette critique développe l’idée que le JSF finira par être débarrassé des missions les plus sophistiquées pour être réduit aux missions d’appui tactique où il sera un “truck-like vehicle” chargé jusqu’à la gueule de munitions avancées type-JDAM.
La logique de cette évolution est que l’avion, au bout du compte, ne nécessite pas de pilote pour des missions aussi primaires et contrôlées de toutes les façons, et d’une façon extrêmement serrée, par des systèmes plus sophistiqués.
Ces divers éléments, y compris la déclaration de Fogleman remontant à 1996, nous permettent de rappeler et de préciser la réelle pensée de l’USAF à l’égard du JSF.
• Pour l’USAF, le JSF est un avion de “deuxième échelon”, beaucoup plus que ne le fut jamais le F-16 ; un avion ayant peu de capacités autonomes, dépendant d’un contrôle extérieur (ce qui est encore plus le cas, bien entendu, lorsqu’on évoque une version non pilotée) et essentiellement destiné à un seul type de missions principale, qui est l’appui tactique très fortement contrôlé.
• Son entrée en service n’est nullement impérative dans les délais impartis au départ dans la mesure où l’avion n’est pas nécessaire pour des missions centrales, et dans la mesure aussi où des substituts peuvent lui être trouvés. (Par exemple, la décision d’ores et déjà prise de prolonger la vie de plus de 200 A-10A au lieu de les déclasser.) L’idée d’un F-15E+ (pouvant également conduire, en plus de nouveaux exemplaires, à la modernisation des actuels F-15E) vient d’autant plus à son heure qu’elle prive de facto le JSF d’une mission marginale pour lui, mais qui peut lui demander une certaine autonomie.
Si une solution type-F-15E+ était adoptée, il se pourrait qu’on assiste à un certain downgrading du JSF.
http://www.dedefensa.org/article.php?art_id=3058
) pour parer au risque ? 
