Defence`s Feeds

The concept
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Back in March 2006, BAE Systems received a contract for “design and production of the 32 MJ Laboratory Launcher for the U.S. Navy.” Some hint of what they are talking about can be gleaned from the name. BAE isn’t the only firm that’s working on this program, which the US Navy sees as its gateway to a game-changing technology. The project is an electro-magnetic rail gun, which accelerates a projectile to incredibly high speeds without using explosives.

The attraction of such systems is no mystery – they promise to fire their ammunition 10 or more times farther than conventional naval gun shells, while sharply reducing both the required size of each shell, and the amount of dangerous explosive material carried on board ship. Progress is being made, but there are still major technical challenges to overcome before a working rail gun becomes a serious naval option. This DID FOCUS article looks at the key technical challenges, the programs, and the history of key contracts and events.

Rail Guns: Concept & Technology Developments BAE’s EMRG
gun & ammo mock-up
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As a BAE release put it:

“An electro-magnetic railgun uses electrical energy to accelerate projectiles to extreme velocities. Railguns do not require powders or explosives to fire the round and therefore free magazine space for other mission areas. In addition, electro-magnetic guns provide a highly consistent and uniform explosive charge that gives much greater accuracy.”

The technology involves sending an electric current along parallel rails up and through an iron rod that connects the poles of a magnet, firing its projectile. To put even 32 megajoules (MJ) in perspective, a 2,000 pound object like a Volkswagen “beetle” car, moving at 100 mph, equals about 1 megajoule of energy. The Navy would use much smaller projectiles, of course, which means they’d be accelerated to extremely fast speeds.

Notional naval specifications involved 15-20 kg projectiles, with muzzle energy of 64 MJ, a muzzle velocity of 2,500 m/s (almost Mach 8.5 at sea level), a maximum range in excess of 500 km/ 300 miles, and an impact velocity of 1,600 m/s (around Mach 5.4) when it hit. Even a 33 MJ firing would leave the barrel at hypersonic speed, and reach ranges of about 170 km/ 92 nautical miles. This compares to just 12 nautical miles with conventional 127mm naval guns, though rocket-boosted projectiles like Oto Melara’s Vulcano can reach about 100 km/ 54 nautical miles, at the price of using a larger shell.

After considering the challenges, and the advantages of being able to hold far larger stores of ammunition that doesn’t require hazardous explosives, the US Navy decided that a 32-40 MJ railgun would probably suffice as their goal. The initial target for initial trials of a tactical weapon is about 20 MJ, with an initial range of 50-100 nautical miles, and growth prospects up to 220 nm.

Projectiles with some GPS guidance and maneuvering capacity would turn railguns into precision strike weapons with the power of 155mm shells on land, and could even allow them to be used in air defense roles at sea.

7MJ firing
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Even that goal is difficult. Technically, the biggest challenges are two-fold: The barrel, and the capacitors.

Super-high speed for the fired object = super-high friction in the barrel. The armature also has a tendency to create transitioning, which is a fancy way of saying it creates very hot gas when you move it through the barrel at those speeds. The gun has to be able to take that heat and pressure without deforming, blowing up, or changing in ways that will make the next shot inaccurate.

The other big challenge is capacitors. There were reports that BAE’s delivered gun would see testing delayed, because the Navy would be late in buying 100 capacitors that are big enough to power 32 MJ of muzzle energy. That’s not uncommon for this kind of cutting-edge system, and the rail guns’ cost, the size of the order, and the limited industrial base for key components will all create challenges for the program. The US Office of Naval Research (ONR) now has a separate pulsed power research program, which could solve this problem while offering benefits for laser weapons, and even some ship radars. Estimates place ship power generation requirements at 20-30 MW for even a 32 MJ railgun, in order to fire at its maximum projected rate of 6-10 times per minute.

DDG-1000 concept
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These issues also create practical limitations on what sorts of ships can mount a rail gun. In truth, any platform with sufficient space and power could be configured to mount EMRG weapons. Right now, the power requirements, and the space requirements for electric capacitors that would be big enough to be useful, are they key limiting issues.

The USA’s DDG-51 Arleigh Burke Class destroyers, for example, are hobbled by limited generating capacity. Their 7.5 – 9.0 MW output is already stressed trying to power all of the ship’s existing radars and systems, and even the Flight III ships will only have 12 MW capacity, far below other modern ships which use all-electric systems. Hybrid drive power systems may help them, but the 3 DDG-1000 Zumwalt Class destroyers are going to be all-electric ships, using fully integrated power systems that deliver 78.5 MW to drive propulsion and onboard electronics. That improved generating capacity is why the Zumwalts are most frequently envisaged as the host ships for future EM weapons, like the 64 MJ land-attack weapons that require 40 – 50 MW of generating capacity.

Rail Guns: The US EMRG Program

• July 2012: Hyper Velocity Projectile solicitation for companion effort.
  
• Jan. 2012: 1st 32MJ gun prototype to ONR.
  
• Nov-Dec. 2011: Pulsed power contracts
  
• Oct. 2011: 1,000 US railgun shots
  
• Dec. 2010: 33MJ test shot at Dahlgren
  
• Feb-Apr. 2009: 2nd phase ONR contracts
  
• Mar. 2008: DARPA fires cantilevered railgun “mortar”
  
• Jan. 2008: ONR 10MJ test shot at Dahlgren
  
• Jan. 2007: ONR Electromagnetic Launch Facility dedicated at NSWC Dahlgren
  
• Mar. 2006: Initial ONR 32MJ gun design awards.

Dahlgren test
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The US Navy’s rail gun efforts have been undertaken with more than 1 company, and more than 1 country. Even the program office involves a broad array of organizations. As of February 2007, the US Navy had invested a total of $36 million in this effort, and total expenditures by the end of Phase 1 in 2011 are expected to be around $276 million.

The 32 MJ rail gun passed its planned 2009 review, and the technology was deemed mature enough to continue. EMRG INP Phase I is now expected to end in 2012, with delivery of INP prototypes, which began on Jan 30/12.

If funding is approved for further phases, EMRG INP Phase II would end in FY 2015-16, and will focus on managing heat buildup and rate of fire issues, as it develops the weapon and projectile toward a final design that can fire up to 6-10 rounds per minute, to a distance of 50-100 nautical miles, with growth potential to 220 nautical miles. Test sites that might work for that effort are being scoped out, with White Sands Missile Range, NM, and Army Yuma Proving Ground, AZ as top candidates.

The hope is that the rail gun can switch from a science and technology effort to full research and development under Naval Sea Systems Command in FY 2015, with “sea demos” of a tactical system with 20 MJ of muzzle energy by FY 2019. The Navy would say only that “various platforms are being considered” for those demos. Figures like $25,000 have been bandied about as the per-round cost, but the myriad requirements imposed by the US Navy may make that problematic. If all goes well, fielding would still take several years for contracts, ship refits, testing, training, etc., which means that a deployed railgun would not be expected before 2020.

2025 may be a more likely target if there are program slips, and even that date will require some breakthroughs over the next decade.

EMRG: Industrial Players (click to view full)

The ONR’s EMRG program is part of the Department of the Navy’s Science and Technology investments, and partnerships include people from Boeing, BAE, Charles Stark Draper, General Atomics, the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the US Naval Academy, the US Naval Postgraduate School, US Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) PMS-500, Naval Surface Warfare Center’s Carderock and Dahlgren Divisions, and the US Army. Britain is also involved, at a technical evaluator and support level.

The University of Texas at Austin’s Institute for Advanced Technology (IAT) Electromagnetic Systems Division has performed basic research for NRL, at less than 2 MJ muzzle energy. IAT showed off a demonstrator back in 2004. Jane’s reports that the IAT has also devised a common low-cost projectile concept for both naval surface-fire support and army non line-of-sight (NLOS) engagements using an EM rail gun launcher. The projectile has a flight mass of 15 kg and contains either multiple kinetic-energy flechettes (darts), or a smaller number of sub-penetrators made of tungsten. That effort was part of a 2003 US Navy contract worth up to $10 million over 5 years.

At larger scale, Both UAV maker and EMALS electro-magnetic catapult designer General Atomics, and trans-Atlantic defense giant BAE, have been contracted to design and deliver full-scale 32MJ Innovative Naval Prototype (INP) railguns, which are intended to be closer to tactical designs than to a laboratory style launcher. This sort of dual approach is common in research programs, where supporting different design approaches greatly improves the amount learned, and overall odds of success. INP prototypes began arriving for government evaluation in 2012.

Contracts for design & development in earnest began in 2006, and BAE Systems is executing its contracts in conjunction with teammates IAP Research, Inc. in Dayton, OH; and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in Vienna, VA.

A 2014 contract has hired Raytheon IDS to work on power modules.

EMRG: Parallel Research Low-energy shot
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As part of the EMRG development program, the ONR and Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) co-funded scientists at NRL to build and operate a 6-meter long, 50 mm diameter railgun. Researchers fired the first shot in March 2007.

This and other laboratory railguns, including the one that fired a 33 MJ shot at Dahlgren in December 2010, are a parallel research effort. Contractors may be called in – for instance, BAE built the 33 MJ railgun according to a government Integrated Product Team design – but the results of all test firings are shared program-wide with BAE, General Atomics, and others.

The initial goal of EMRG research efforts was an “instrumented environment” for service officials to better understand and control the inside of the railgun’s barrel, which remains one of the program’s top technical challenges. Additional studies have also been chartered to cover ship integration, the effect of electromagnetic energy on personnel and systems, the potential logistics benefits of having rail gun systems aboard ships, and different types of potential projectiles. Then, as noted above, they must deal with the industrial challenge of acquiring adequate capacitors.

After improving the 6m railgun’s sliding armature and rails, the lab has fired an average of 300 shots per year since 2008. The 1,000th shot tested new ideas of how the armature interacts with the rails, and during the course of firing all 1,000 shots, NRL scientists have experimented with a variety of materials and geometries, trying to correlate that with modeling and simulation work. The gun is dismantled after each firing, to examine all the components, and the rails are sliced up and examined under a microscope to reveal surface damage. That feedback mechanism is the key to progress, creating an accumulated body of knowledge and refined models.

EMRG: Key Contracts & Events FY 2015 – 2016

BAE briefing

June 2/16: Russia has announced that it is developing its own rail gun technology as the first pictures of US efforts made their way to press. The “battlefield meteorite” is capable of firing a projectile at an initial speed of 4,500 miles per hour, piercing seven steel plates, and leaving a 5-inch hole — able to “blow holes in enemy ships, destroy tanks and level terrorist camps.” For Russia, the new weapon will not replace traditional weapons “even in the mid-term perspective,” as much time needs to pass from the first tests to the mass production, especially considering the high price of the production, according to Russian senator Franz Klintsevich.

Nov 17/14: CSBA Paper. The non-partisan CSBA releases “Commanding the Seas: A Plan to Reinvigorate U.S. Navy Surface Warfare.” Their recommendations are wide ranging, including a major shift in US Navy weapons configurations toward higher capacity medium-range air defenses. That would include deployment of 32 MJ railguns for anti-aircraft roles within the 30 nmi zone, alongside greater use of RIM-162 ESSM missiles, and a combination of laser defenses and RAM missiles in the 5-15 nmi zone. This would take place in order to free up vertical launch (VLS) cells for long-range offensive surface attack (LRASM), anti-submarine (new VL-ASROC options: CVLWT on SM-2?), and air-denial (SM-6) weapons.

Reader may be puzzled that a gun with a range of up to 100 nmi would have such a short intercept range. The issue is the limited maneuverability of the guided railgun round, which in turn forces closer shots that reduce incoming missiles’ maneuvering time. Anti-ship ballistic missiles are easier despite the near-vertical shot required, and are likely to be reliably attacked at 20-30 nmi. Supersonic cruise missiles may be more difficult at that range, where they could have 15-20 seconds to execute maneuvering programs, but they become steadily more vulnerable to EMRG fire as engagement range shrinks.

The biggest challenge to these recommendations is the low power generation capacity on board the USA’s CG-47 cruisers and DDG-51 destroyers, which is to say almost all of the US Navy’s high-end ships. Even a 32 MJ railgun requires at least 15-30 MW of onboard power generation, which is well above even proposed DDG-51 Flight III ships (12 MW) from 2017 onward. Other countries have moved their ship designs toward all-electric configurations, which is why smaller Spanish and Australian Aegis frigates sit at 40+ MW, but retrofits of existing 1980s-era American designs would be very expensive.

For the US Navy, this conundrum forces EMRG fits on ships like the LCS/ SSC frigates, or even the JHSV transport. That can be good, if it spreads American naval defenses among more platforms, but it also yanks LCS and JHSV ships away from their planned missions, which must then be offloaded onto other ships. For 64 MJ railguns, which require 40 – 50 MW capacity, the DDG-1000 Zumwalt Class battlecruisers are the USA’s only realistic option at present. Sources: CSBA, “Commanding the Seas: A Plan to Reinvigorate U.S. Navy Surface Warfare” (incl. full PDF) | USNI, “CSBA Recommends New Course for U.S. Navy Surface Forces”.

FY 2013 – 2014

GA “Blitzer” video

July 8/14: The US Navy publicly unveils both BAE and General Atomics’ railgun designs, displayed but not mounted aboard the deck of the USNS Millinocket JHSV ship at Naval Base San Diego. Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder gives a current figure of about $25,000 per round, but the price for the final guided round remains to be seen. Sources: San Diego 6 TV, YouTube segment and “Navy unveils prototype railguns”.

June 27/14: Power. Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems in Tewksbury, MA receives a $33.2 million modification to previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for research and development activities associated with integrated power systems power load modules to be used for electromagnetic railgun pulse power containers, and for the fabrication and testing of prototypes.

$8.5 million in FY 2014 USN RDT&E budgets is committed immediately. Work will be performed in Tewksbury, MA, and is expected to be complete by December 2016. US NAVSEA in Washington, DC manages the contract (N00024-12-C-4223).

April 7/14: Experiment: Railgun. The US Navy plans to use JHSV 3 Millinocket as a test platform for one of its newest weapons in 2016: a 32MJ rail gun that can fire projectiles about 100 miles at Mach 7 speeds. JHSV was picked as the trial platform because it has the space to carry the large system on its deck and in its cargo bay. The gun itself isn’t unusually large, but once you throw in the capacitors for power storage, any additional power needs, extensive maintenance tools and parts, and ammunition, it adds up fast. Rolling and bolting that onto a JHSV is much easier than cutting a warship open, and the trial underscores JHSV’s usefulness as a concept testbed.

On the weapon’s side of the equation, ONR Chief Rear Admiral Matthew Klunder touts the railgun’s economic benefit, as well as its military edge in extending the bombardment range of naval guns and the number of rounds on board. It’s true that $25,000 for a defensive railgun shot against incoming missiles is orders of magnitude better than a RIM-116 RAM ($900,000) or RIM-162 Evolved SeaSparrow Missile ($1.5 million), assuming the unproven assumption of equal effectiveness. One must also compute operating and maintenance costs over the railgun’s lifetime, however, which are going to be far higher than they would be for an All-Up-Round missile in its canister. The JHSV tests will offer some early data on the system’s robustness under trial conditions at sea, and that cost data point could end up being as valuable as any weapon performance data.

Klunder says that actual integration on a warship wouldn’t take place until 2018. That would only happen if the JHSV test ends up being nearly perfect, so take that date with a spray of salt. Sources: Reuters, “U.S. Navy to test futuristic, super-fast gun at sea in 2016”.

Jan 16/14: Testing. USN Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder says the Phase 2 (q.v. July 1/13) rail gun tests are going well. From DefenseTech, “Navy Rail Gun Showing Promise”:

“Klunder expressed enthusiasm that the rail gun successfully went 8-for-8 in a recent test firing at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. “It went exactly where we told it to go with good telemetry,” he explained.”

Jan 10/14: DDG 51 Flight IV. The current US Navy program manager for DDG 51 acquisition, Capt. Mark Vandroff, says that the service has begun to look at the requirements for a “Flight IV” destroyer, which wouldn’t begin service until the 2030s. Rail guns and lasers are part of the early conversation, and it isn’t just because they’re cool:

“Some of the thinking involves senior leaders talking about getting on the other side of the cost curve. Right now if someone shoots a missile at us, we shoot a missile back at them. The missile we shoot at them cost about as much, if not more, than the missile that got shot at us. They are burning money and we are burning money to defend ourselves…. The down side is this kind of technology does not exist today and even if it does, you have to look at what kind of maritime platform could you put it on and what that would look like. When that technology starts to get close to mature, then you will see the Navy start to figure out what it has to do in order to field that technology.”

Step 1: find a way to get a lot more power generation into the DDG 51 hull, or switch hulls. Converting DDG 51 ships to hybrid-electric drive would be a minimum requirement, and even that may not be enough. If the Navy needs alternatives, HII is touting their LPD-17 Flight II amphibious assault hull as a future air and missile defense cruiser platform. Looking downscale, Littoral Combat Ships may not have much else, but they do have plenty of onboard power, plus free space for capacitors etc. Sources: Military.com, “Future Destroyers Likely to Fire Lasers, Rail Guns” | USNI, “In Pursuit of the U.S. Navy’s Next Surface Combatant”.

Nov 7/13: HVP Phase 1A. BAE Systems announces a $33.6 million Office of Naval Research (ONR) contract to fund Phase 1A of the Hyper Velocity Projectile (HVP) project. Recall (q.v. July 19/12) that its goal is a 62 cm long guided subcaliber saboted round, compatible with both standard Mk-45 155mm naval gun systems and future 20 – 32MJ railgun systems.

BAE Systems is working with the United Technologies conglomerate and Custom Analytical Engineering Systems (CAES), with its initial phase to be completed by June 2014. Work will be carried out by BAE Systems in Minneapolis, MN; UTC Aerospace Systems in Vergennes, VT; and CAES in Flintstone, MD.

HPV projectile award

July 1/13: INP Phase 2. BAE Systems announces that the Office of Naval Research awarded them a $34.5 million contract for the development of a EM railgun under the Navy’s Innovative Naval Prototype (INP) program.

This marks the transition to the program’s Phase 2. Work is starting now, with initial prototypes to be delivered in 2014.

INP Railgun Phase 2

June 7/13: Railgun Ashore? The House Armed Services Committee report [PDF] about the NDAA 2014 states that:

“[…] the committee is aware that the Department [of Defense] has established a new effort within the Strategic Capabilities Office in the Office of the Secretary of Defense to leverage the Navy’s program to explore the development a land-based railgun. As noted in the committee report (H. Rept. 112–479) for the National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2013, the committee is interested in the potential utility in accelerating some electromagnetic railgun efforts for land-based area defense.

The committee finds these developments encouraging, and urges the Director, Missile Defense Agency [MDA] to examine these activities in order to determine their potential application, if they can provide additional capability, to broader ballistic missile defense missions.”

This didn’t just spring out the committee members’ minds, as the Navy’s 2014 budget request asks for [PDF] $130 million, followed by another $120 million in FY15, to conduct a Land Based Rail Gun (LBRG) experiment in 2015 with a 20 Mega Joule (MJ) railgun at Wallops Island test range, VA. Using railguns on land lifts the power bottleneck faced by ships, which are already straining under increasing demand for electricity from onboard radars and other systems.

Oct 9/12: GA into testing. ONR announces that they’ve begun evaluating General Atomics’ Advanced Containment Launcher prototype in Dahlgren, VA. EM Railgun program manager Roger Ellis would say only that:

“It’s exciting to see how two different teams are both delivering very relevant but unique launcher solutions… We’re evaluating and learning from both prototype designs, and we’ll be folding what we learn from the evaluations into the next phase of the program.”

See: ONR | General Atomics.

FY 2012 RADM Carr
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July 19/12: Long-range shells. The ONR issues an R&D solicitation for guided projectiles, under Long Range Broad Agency Announcement for Navy and Marine Corps Science and Technology, ONRBAA12-001. From “Hyper Velocity Projectile (HVP) Research,” Solicitation #12-SN-0017:

“The Hyper Velocity Projectile (HVP) program is intended to design, develop, fabricate, test and demonstrate a guided hypervelocity projectile compatible with Mk-45 155mm gun systems and future 20 – 32MJ railgun systems. Due to Mk 45 interface requirements, the HVP shall be a 62 cm long subcaliber saboted round. Desired total airframe mass is in the 10-15 kg range. Designs and technologies must survive and perform through harsh environments; 20,000 – 30,000 G’s [sic] launch acceleration and (for railgun) thermal conditions intrinsic with sea level, 2 km/s guided flight. Desired ranges include current capability of the 5″ Mk 45 Mod 4 gun and ranges in excess of 30 nmi. Additional range would be expected out of higher muzzle energy railguns.

The ONR HVP program will address technologies in the areas of high G launch survivability (miniaturized high-G tolerant guidance electronics and control actuation systems, militarized GPS receivers, and compact fuzing – safe & arm), high density electronics packaging and miniaturization , advanced energetics, and aero-thermal management (lightweight-high strength composite materials, heat resistive-thermal managing materials)… A multistage program leading to full-up live fire demonstrations of the technology is anticipated… ending at the end of FY17 to deliver and demonstrate HVP test articles in a realistic environment (TRL 6).”

HVP isn’t the first such project. The ERGM project spent $600 million from 1996-2008, simply trying to create an ultra-long range, GPS-guided projectile for the 127mm/ 62 caliber guns on new US Navy ships. Even so, there’s good reason to think that the basic goal of ultra-long range guided shells for standard naval guns is achievable. Italy’s Oto Melara has Vulcano ultra long range, GPS-guided shells in development for 127/64 and 76/62 naval guns, and BAE and Lockheed Martin are building similar 155mm shells for the new DDG 1000 destroyers.

As often happens in the USA, HVP seems to be trying to do too much. Yes, the pure research areas mentioned could potentially apply to Naval Surface Fire Support, Cruise Missile Defense, and Anti-Surface Warfare. On the other hand, conflating the unique requirements of railguns with the more pedestrian firing environment of standard 5″ naval guns seems like a recipe for over-engineered and overly-costly test solutions, or for technical failure. Adding new requirements like re-targeting in flight, and multiple mission types with their own unique challenges, stacks the deck even further against creating a transferable, mission-ready success. An R&D project might be better off beginning more modestly, and demonstrating solid results in one much-needed area like naval fire support, before branching out. FBO.gov | WIRED Danger Room.

HVP projectile RFP

Feb 7/12: The US Office of Naval Research offers an update:

“Navy planners are targeting a 50- to 100-nautical mile initial capability with expansion up to 220 nautical miles… The prototype demonstrator incorporates advanced composites and improved barrel life performance resulting from development efforts on the laboratory systems located at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and NSWC-Dahlgren… The industry demonstrator will begin test firing this month… In the meantime, the Navy is pushing ahead with the next phase of the EM Railgun program to develop automatic projectile loading systems and thermal management systems to facilitate increased firing rates of… six to 10 rounds per minute. BAE Systems and General Atomics also are commencing concept development work on the next-generation prototype EM Railgun capable of the desired firing rate.”

Jan 30/12: Prototype delivery. BAE’s team delivers its prototype 32MJ railgun to the ONR. Source.

Pulsed power. US NAVSEA in Washington, DC issues a pair of contracts for R&D into “integrated power systems power load modules design and pulsed power loads for future surface combatants.” It’s part of USN ONR’s Capacitors for Pulsed Power Applications Program (q.v. Additional Readings).

Here’s the thing: rail guns need a huge burst of power for their shot, but ships produce steady loads. To make that combination work, a power system needs to be able to build up, store, and then release power in large bursts. Lasers have this issue to a lesser extent, and so do some radar modes. That’s why solving this issue could solve several problems, if the “pulse forming networks” can offer flexible energy levels and durations for their power bursts.

Dec 9/11: BAE Systems Land and Armaments in Minneapolis, MN wins an $11.7 million cost-plus-fixed-fee R&D contract. Work will be performed in Minneapolis, MN (57%), San Diego, CA (33%), and Dayton, OH (10%), and is expected to be complete by December 2016. $200,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year, on Sept 30/12. This contract was competitively procured via a Broad Agency Announcement, with 7 proposals received by US Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, DC (N00024-12-C-4221).

Nov 2/11: General Atomics in San Diego, CA wins a $12.3 million cost-plus-fixed-fee R&D contract for “integrated power systems power load modules design and pulsed power loads for future surface combatants.” The initial effort will include further refinement of General Atomics’ unique approach to the concept, in order to meet a set of notional performance expectations developed in conjunction with the Navy.

Work will be performed in San Diego, CA, and is expected to be complete by October 2016. $200,000 will be provided at time of contract award, and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year, on Sept 30/12. This contract was competitively procured via a broad agency announcement, with 7 proposals received by (N00024-12-C-4222).

Capacitor & Power system development

Oct 31/11: Rear Admiral Nevin Carr, Chief of Naval Research, discusses directed energy and hypersonics, at the 2011 Surface Navy Association (SNA) West Coast Symposium in San Diego, CA. He notes that railguns can now shoot hundreds of times, instead of 5-10 times, and are evolving towards more reasonable energy requirements. The current plan is to be able to conduct an at-sea firing by 2019, with a 20 MJ gun, from a destroyer.

Carr adds that the original 64 MJ requirement has been changed. While the 220 miles of range would be nice, ONR has decided that the 33 MJ version with 110 mile range is good enough. They see the first operational railguns capping out at 33-40 MJ. USN biography | YouTube.

Oct 31/11: 1,000 shots. NRL scientists hit a materials research milestone, with 1,000 railgun firings from laboratory-scale systems. Roger Ellis, ONR’s Electromagnetic Railgun (EMRG) program officer adds this interesting observation:

“When you couple what we’re seeing in testing with what we’re seeing in modeling and simulation, it results in some interesting barrel shapes that you wouldn’t intuitively think about. Railgun barrels don’t necessarily have to be round as in most conventional gun designs.”

FY 2009 – 2011 Dec 10/10 shot
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Dec 10/10: 33MJ shot. The ONR fires a world-record 33-megajoule shot of their Electromagnetic Railgun, at Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division.

While this is short of the 64 MJ goal, a 33 MJ shot would still propel a projectile to Mach 5, and a range of about 110 miles. It’s also about 3 times the energy of the last record firing, in January 2008. US ONR | Fox News.

April 15/09: General Atomics in San Diego, CA received $22.1 million for a cost plus fixed fee task order under a previously awarded contract (N00014-06-D-0056, #0005) for technology development and design of an EM Rail Gun. The firm is also the main contractor for the Navy’s EMALS electro-magnetic catapult for aircraft carriers, which uses similar principles to handle a different task.

Work will be performed in San Diego, CA, and is expected to be complete in February 2012. The contract was competitively procured under Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) 05-003 by the Office of Naval Research in Arlington, VA.

Feb 9/09: BAE Systems Land and Armament LP in Minneapolis, MN received a $21.3 million delivery order under a previously awarded contract (N00014-06-D-0046) to research and develop an Advanced Containment Launcher for an Electromagnetic Rail Gun. BAE’s follow-on release describes the 30-month contract as:

“…detailed design and delivery of an Innovative Naval Prototype (INP) Railgun… including a composite launcher (barrel) that will be demonstrated in 2011.”

BAE Systems is partnered with IAP Research, and SAIC. Work will be performed in Minneapolis, MN and is expected to be complete in September 2011. This contract was competitively procured under Office of Naval Research Broad Agency Announcement 05-003.

Railgun INP prototypes

Feb 3/09: UTexas. The Institute of Advanced Technology at University of Texas, Austin received a $9.1 million cost plus fixed-fee contract to perform railgun assessment. Founded in 1990, IAT Electromagnetic Systems is an autonomous research unit tasked with aiding the U.S. Army and Navy with rail gun technology. IAT showed off a technology demonstrator at the 24th Army Science Conference (ASC 2004).

Work will include laboratory testing and scalability between small and medium scale launchers, pulsed power assessment, and conceptual prototyping and assessment of electromagnetic railgun contractor development items including advanced containment launcher and pulsed power systems. This contract contains options, which is exercised, would bring the contract value to $12.1 million.

Work will be performed in Austin, TX and is expected to be complete Jan 31/12. Contract funds in the amount of $10,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured under the Office of Naval Research Broad Agency Announcement Number 08-001 (N00014-09-C-0187).

FY 2007 – 2008 2008-1-31: Fire!
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March 18/08: EM Mortars? DARPA’s full-scale, fully cantilevered electromagnetic railgun successfully launches a projectile with similar size and weight a 120mm mortar, at speeds of 430 meters-per-second. That’s faster than the 101-318 meter/second speed of regular mortar firings, which translates into greater energy and range.

The 120mm mortar is an inherently simple system, whose virtues include the reliability that simplicity delivers. That’s why the US Marines are relying on a 120mm mortar as their EFSS system. The extra energy in DARPA’s system, and accompanying range, may offer the revolutionary potential for artillery gun range in a mortar-size weapon. The flip side is that a rail gun’s greater complexity and inherent fragility introduces issues of cost, reliability, and dependence on the system’s energy source.

DARPA says that its 2.4m, 950 kg railgun is currently the largest caliber supersonic railgun in the world. It is certainly the first-ever successful full scale cantilevered railgun to shoot a mortar-size projectile. The cantilevered design is used to change aiming on a shot-to-shot basis, just as a regular mortar does. Built-in muzzle shunts quickly extinguish muzzle arc, and reduce muzzle flash. DARPA release [PDF]

Jan 31/08: 10MJ firing. Another step forward. ONR successfully conducted a record-setting firing of an electromagnetic rail gun at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, VA, firing at 10.64MJ (megajoules) with a muzzle velocity of 2,520 meters per second. Let’s see: 3,600 seconds per hour, 0.62 miles per kilometer… yes, that’s over 5,600 miles per hour. The speed of sound is about 760 mph at sea level, so it’s about Mach 7.4.

Note the ‘transitioning’ plasma visible in the high speed camera photo, which offers some illustration of what the material design crew is up against. Navy release.

Fire! Record 10+ MJ shot

July 30/07: Envisioneering, Inc. in Alexandria, VA received a sole source $9.2 million cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for systems analysis, system/component design and development, system test and evaluation, data collection and analysis in support of the US Navy’s Directed Energy and Electric Weapons Program Office (PMS-405).

Work will be performed in King George, VA (92%); Kauai, Hawaii (6%); and Kirkland, WA (2%), and is expected to be complete by July 2012. The contract was not competitively procured, as “Envisioneering is the only known source with the knowledge and technical capability to provide the services and support required to meet milestones and deadlines.” The solicitation was, however, posted on the world wide web via Navy Electronic Commerce Online by the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, IN (N00164-07-D-8900).

Jan 19/07: NAVSEA release:

“A new Electromagnetic Launch Facility (EMLF) was dedicated at NAVSEA Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren during a ceremony hosted by the ONR Jan. 16, in which a high speed projectile pierced the ceremonial ribbon… The mission of the Electromagnetic Rail Gun (EMRG) program is to develop the science and technology necessary to design, test, produce, and install a revolutionary 64 Mega Joule (MJ) EMRG aboard U.S. Navy ships in the 2020 – 2025 timeframe. The current phase of the program extends through 2011.”

FY 2005 – 2006 32MJ lab gun
(click to view full)

July 6/06: BAE reported the next phase as well: a $9.3 million contract from the ONR to develop technologies and preliminary design for an Electro-Magnetic (EM) railgun prototype.

March 3/06: BAE Armament Systems Division in Minneapolis, MN receives a contract for the “design and production of the 32 MJ Laboratory Launcher for the U.S. Navy.” It is a $5.5 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the design and production of the 32 MJ Laboratory Launcher for the U.S. Navy. Work will be performed in Minneapolis, MN (66%) and Dayton, OH (37%), and is expected to be complete by August 2007. The contract was competitively procured and advertised via Federal Business Opportunities site, with three offers received. The Naval Surface Weapons Center, Dahlgren Division in Dahlgren, VA issued the contract (N00178-06-C-1008).

It seems likely that General Atomics also received a contract to this end (vid. April 15/09 entry), but it may not have initially reached the $5 million threshold to qualify for public announcement.

Initial Railgun design contracts

April 18/05: The University of Texas at Austin’s Institute for Advanced Technology (IAT) Electromagnetic Systems Division showed off its electromagnetic rail gun (RailGun) technology demonstrator at the 24th Army Science Conference (ASC 2004).

Founded in 1990, IAT Electromagnetic Systems is an autonomous research unit tasked with helping the U.S. Army and Navy develop rail gun technology. For full details, see the Defense Review article “IAT Electromagnetic Systems Division Developing Rail Gun Tech for U.S. Military.”

Additional Readings

Readers with corrections, comments, or information to contribute are encouraged to contact DID’s Founding Editor, Joe Katzman. We understand the industry – you will only be publicly recognized if you tell us that it’s OK to do so.

DID thanks Roger Ellis, ONR EM Railgun program officer, for his assistance with this article.

Program & Technologies

• US Office of Naval Research – EM Railgun Fact Sheet [PDF]. 2007 capture.

• Naval Research Advisory Committee – (February 2004) – Electromagnmetic (EM) Gun Technology Assessment [PDF format]. See also their terms of reference [PDF] .

• ONR – Capacitors for Pulsed Power Applications Program.

• FBO.gov (July 19/12, #12-SN-0017) – Special Program Announcement for 2012 Office of Naval Research Research Opportunity: “Hyper Velocity Projectile (HVP) Research [sic].

• General Atomics – Railgun programs, with sub-links for their Blitrzer railgun and EM Pulse Power Systems. An earlier version said: “GA is currently supporting the development of advanced pulsed power, launcher, and projectile technology as part of the ONR Railgun Innovative Naval Prototype Program. In addition, GA is pursuing opportunities within the Navy to transition similar technology for Naval Ship Defense and for the development of ‘Cold Electromagnetic Missile Launch’ technology.”

News & Views

• CSBA (Nov 17/14) Commanding the Seas: A Plan to Reinvigorate U.S. Navy Surface Warfare (incl. full PDF). Sees railguns playing an important medium-range anti-aircraft role, and notes the precise power capacity issues involved.

• National Defense (November 2007) – Electric Guns on Navy ships: Not Yet on The Horizon. “In laboratories, scientists have demonstrated the art of the possible: muzzle energy of 9 megajoules, currents of three million amps and velocities close to the Navy’s specifications, says Zowarka. But boosting the muzzle energy from 9 to 64 megajoules, the amps from 3 million to 6 million and the bore size from four inches in diameter to six or seven inches remain a challenge… Major research efforts are focused on materials to extend the bore life of the gun to allow multiple firings of the high-speed projectiles… Anything traveling at thousands of miles an hour will tear raw metal… On top of the research challenges, there are engineering difficulties. “You have to get the current there, and then you have to manage these tremendous forces between the rails…”

• Popular Mechanics (Nov 14/07) – World’s Most Powerful Rail Gun Delivered to Navy. “While the 32-MJ LRG should start firing soon, it could take another 13 years for a 64-megajoule system to be built and deployed on a ship… Effective rail guns will require a major breakthrough in materials between now and 2020, to keep the guns themselves from being shredded by each high-velocity barrage.”

• Inside the Navy (Feb 2/07) – Navy ‘Rail Gun’ Moves Forward.

• Jane’s Naval Intelligence (June 17/03) Naval warfare at the speed of light.

HPT-32
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India’s stalled defense procurements have become an international joke, but they’re not funny to front-line participants. The country’s attempts to buy simple artillery pieces have become infamous, but their current problem with trainer aircraft is arguably a more significant wound.

You can’t produce pilots properly without appropriate training, but the IAF’s fleet of 114 locally-designed HPT-32 Deepak basic trainers has been grounded since August 2009, because they aren’t seen as reliable enough or safe enough to fly. Since then, equally aged HJT-16 Kiran jets are being used for both Stage-I and Stage-II fighter training. That yawning gap has added urgency to a replacement buy, but progress has been predictably slow. With its high-end Hawk AJT jet trainer deals behind them after 20+ years of effort, can the IAF take the next step, and plug the hole in the middle of its training? In May 2012, it did.

India’s Trainer Choice(s) Basic Training: Pilatus Wins the Competition IAF PC-7 MkII
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By June 2011, Switzerland’s Pilatus had emerged as the IAF’s preferred basic choice with their PC-7 Mark II, which is in wide international use with over 20 air forces. The PC-7 Mark II, introduced in 1994, adds all of the avionics advances and some airframe changes from the P-9M, but uses a very cost-efficient Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-25C engine. The engine provides less power, in return for a lower price and lower operating costs. Ejection seats, an anti-g system, and On-Board Oxygen Generating System (OBOGS) help round out its capabilities; and the plane is still touted as being suitable for aerobatics, tactical flying, and night flying. All of these things mark a sharp step up from the HPT-32.

Overall, Pilatus has touted the PC-7 as a trainer that can cover both basic and intermediate training roles, at very low operating costs. In recent years they’ve backed off a bit, emphasizing the PC-9M and PC-21 turboprops as their advanced trainer offerings. On the other hand, the PC-7 Mark II’s original South African customer uses it as the sole lead-in to the same Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer that India flies. Like the HPT-32s, PC-7s can be armed, and this has been done by a number of customers.

To win, Pilatus beat Korean Aerospace’s KT-1 and Hawker Beechcraft’s T-6C in the finals. Embraer’s EMB-314 Super Tucano armed trainer, Finmeccanica’s M-311 jet trainer, and Grob’s G-120 TP didn’t make it past the technical trials.

In May 2012, the IAF has signed a contract to import 75 PC-7s from Pilatus in fly-away condition, and the planes were formally inducted into the IAF in February 2013. Some Indian pilots trained on the PC-7s in Switzerland, then returned to India as trainers themselves.

A HAL proposal for a locally developed “HTT-40 trainer” also lost out at some point in this process, but it has been revived under political pressure as a developmental program. The problem, as a May 2013 article in the Daily Mail explains, is timing:

“As per the project report submitted by the company in 2011, it had promised to deliver two aircraft by 2019 and 10 by 2021. At this rate, the IAF can begin training on home-built [HTT-40s] only by 2022…. The Defence Acquisition Council had mandated IAF to exercise the [38-plane option] clause to buy more aircraft from the foreign vendor only if HAL’s HTT-40 does not take off before the delivery of first Pilatus PC-7. With first Pilatus arriving in February and HTT-40 nowhere in sight, the IAF will go for 38 more PC-7s.”

HAL wants the government to mandate the HTT-40 as the IAF’s only trainer option beyond the initial 75 PC-7s, but the IAF disagrees vigorously, citing timing problems, training volume needs, and HAL’s known problems handling their workload on other programs. Even so, state-owned HAL has managed to block the intended February 2013 approval for the PC-7 contract’s 38-plane option clause. India’s government continues to dither over any means of moving forward, whether that means buying from Switzerland and moving on, having HAL build 106 PC-7s under license, or mandating the HTT-40.

Intermediate Trainers: HAL’s IJT HJT-36 IJT
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India’s current intermediate training curriculum rests on a dwindling stock of HJT-16 Kiran jets. They were first introduced in 1968, though another 65 Kiran Mk.IIs entered service beginning in 1985. They serve as the bridge between existing basic flight trainers, and the IAF’s advanced Hawk Mk.132s.

HAL received a 1999 contract to develop the HJT-36 Sitara as an intermediate trainer successor, but the firm has missed its 2007 in-service date very badly, and a number of crashes have raised concerns. HAL is contracted to deliver 12 limited series production aircraft and 75 production IJTs, but the Sitara still hasn’t achieved initial certification as of late 2013, and remains saddled with serious aerodynamic issues.

The question is whether the plane can enter service by 2015, and whether it will be safe if it does. A mid-2014 admission that major redesigns are required casts serious doubt on both requirements.

The PC-7 fleet performs the intermediate training role in other countries, and the threat of choking the IAF’s pilot training pipeline may be crippling enough to force a potential opportunity. As of mid-2014, the IAF is floating a foreign RFI for an intermediate trainer that can also serve in counter-insurgency roles. The IAF is already flying one – but India has a long political history of pursuing indigenous programs well past the point of crisis.

Contracts & Key Events 2014 – 2016

HAL admits IJT must be redesigned; IAF looks abroad for IJT options; PC-7s noticeably improving IAF training. PC-7 Mk.II: unfrozen
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June 2/16: Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL) Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40) has made its maiden flight after much delay. The Indian indigenous trainer will see at least 70 of the aircraft procured by the Indian Air Force despite the service’s preference for the Swiss built Pilatus PC-7 Mark II. Funding for the HTT-40 had been blocked by the Defense Ministry after the IAF claimed that the trainer would be too expensive, too heavy, and that it will not meet their need.

Aug 5/14: IJT. Defence Minister Shri Arun Jaitley makes it official, in response to a Rajya Sabha question:

“HAL, which has been developing the Intermediate Jet Trainer (IJT), as a replacement for the Kiran aircraft, has not so far been able to resolve critical wing and airframe Design & Development issues related to stall and spin.

In order to meet the emergent situation created due to inordinate delay in the IJT project, IAF has already initiated the process for extending the technical life of the Kiran aircraft. The IAF has also initiated action to look for alternate options for the IJT.”

See March 30/14 for that RFI. Sources: India MoD, “Replacement of Intermediate Trainer Planes of the IAF”.

July 5/14: IJT redesign. Shiv Aroor’s exclusive report says that HAL is looking for foreign help to redesign the HJT-36 Sitara, and offers some excerpts from the RFI:

“The HJT-36 aircraft presently weighs around 4150 Kg in its Normal Training Configuration…. HAL is envisaging achieving maximum possible weight reduction / optimisation for the aircraft…. The design of the above need to be revisited, analyzed and the scope for weight reduction / optimization studied while ensuring the required strength, stiffness & fatigue criteria…. Towards this HAL is looking forward for partnership / technical assistance / consultancy from a well experienced airframe design house…. This weight reduction / optimization study must be comprehensive, encompassing all the Structure, Mechanical Systems & Electrical Avionics Systems.”

In light of this call for help, it becomes very doubtful that the plane can enter service by 2015 – a date that would already be 8 years late. Indeed, it’s legitimate to question whether the design will ever meet the IAF’s criteria. Whether or not the IAF opens another competition (q.v. March 30/14) will be a political decision. Sources: Livefist, “EXCLUSIVE: Totally Cornered, HAL To Re-design Lumbering Intermediate Trainer”.

May 8/14: PC-7. Pilatus explains how important the PC-7 Mk.IIs have been to India. The translation needs a bit of work, but the gist is very clear. Available, reliable aircraft make a huge difference to pilot training quality:

“Due to the excellent endurance, low maintenance and reliability of the PC-7 MkII aircraft, the Indian Air Force supported by Pilatus has been able to maintain a very high availability rate on the flight line since the introduction of the new platform. Thanks to this, the Indian Air Force is already planning to advance their plans to enhance the number of student pilots by 150% from the next course…. Furthermore, the PC-7 MkII has enabled the Indian Air Force to increase the basic training syllabus in terms of flight hours by 220% compared to the old syllabus and increase the solo content from only 1 to 14 sorties.”

So far, India has taken delivery of 35 PC-7 trainers since the contract was signed in May 2012, and the remaining 40 are being flown in on an accelerated monthly schedule. A Fixed Base Full Mission Simulator is now operational at Dundigal, with a 2nd simulator and other training systems scheduled to be operational by the end of 2014. Overall, the PC-7 MkII fleet has achieved more than 12,000 flying hours, and accumulated well over 24,000 landings since deliveries began in February 2013. Sources: Pilatus, “Indian Air Force Pilatus PC-7 MkII Fleet Clocks Record Performance”.

March 30/14: IJT competition? The IAF has reportedly published a non-binding global RFI regarding intermediate (Stage-II) jet trainers “for a primary task of Stage–II training of Pilots and also capable to undertake a secondary task of Counter Insurgent Operations” (sic).” The specifications seem to aim directly at some of the HJT-36 Sitara’s problem areas:

“Stalling. An unmistakable natural stall warning should be available, irrespective of the configuration. (b) Spinning. The aircraft must be resistant to spin but it should be possible to perform intentional spin upto six turns to either side and recover safely thereafter. The aircraft behavior in the spin should be predictable and consistent. (c) Aerobatics The IJT should be capable of performing loops, barrel rolls, rolls, combination maneuvers and negative ‘g’ flight without adverse effects on the engine and aircraft structure. The aircraft should be capable of sustained inverted flight for at least 30 seconds at sea level at maximum takeoff power…. The aircraft should be capable of carrying at least 1000 kg of external load. The aircraft should be equipped with a minimum of five hard points and each hard point on the wing should be stressed to carry at least 300 kg stores. The aircraft should be, free from buffet, dutch roll, snaking and wing rock during air to ground weapon training. The aircraft should be capable of employing the following armament: (a) Gun. A light weight gun/ gun-pod with adequate ammunition for at least 5 sec of firing time. (b) Rocket Pods. Reusable rocket pods. (c) Bombs. Should be able to carry at least 4×250 kg retarded or ballistic bombs. The stations should be capable of employing Carrier Bomb Light Stores (CBLS) type of dispensers for carriage of practice bombs (25 lbs and 3 Kg).

Defense News says that the RFI was reportedly sent to Russia’s Yakolev; Italy’s Alenia Aermacchi; Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI); Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Beechcraft; and Sweden’s Saab. That’s a strange list, if true. Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Saab don’t really have current products in this space. Russia’s Yak-130 is a different class, overlapping India’s existing high-end Hawk AJT fleet; ditto KAI’s supersonic T-50 jet. Beechcraft doesn’t make jet trainers, just a T-6C turboprop which is designed for the basic-intermediate role, as is KAI’s KT-1. Ironically, these 2 turboprops were the finalists that Pilatus beat with the PC-7 Mk.II. The only real jet candidate would be Alenia, whose M-311 jet trainer didn’t even make the finals against Pilatus’ PC-7 Mk.II.

If India demands jets, the PC-7 wouldn’t qualify, but the hardpoint requirements may be within the PC-7’s 1,000 kg capacity. There have been efforts to arm the HJT-36 (q.v. Feb 19/11), but it isn’t clear how successful they have been. Sources: Livefist, “HAL’s IJT Delayed, IAF Scouts Foreign Source” | Defense NEws May 2014, “India Looks Abroad for New Jet Trainer”.

Feb 10/14: IJT. Defence Minister Shri AK Antony admits that the HJT-36 IJT isn’t going to arrive any time soon:

“The Intermediate Jet Trainer (IJT) is planned to replace Kiran Mk-I. Due to repeated revisions in the time line set for the Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) of IJT, and also considering the present state of the project regarding induction of the IJT in Indian Air Force (IAF), it has been decided to extend the use of Kiran Mk-I.

After the study of the fatigue life spectrum of Kiran Mk-I aircraft, the Regional Centre for Military Airworthiness (Aircraft) has recommended extension of Total Technical Life of the aircraft. This will help IAF to utilize the fleet till 2017-18, though in gradually reducing numbers.”

Sources: Indian MoD, “Replacement of Kiran Aircraft” | India’s Economic Times, “5th gen fighter aircraft project with Russia delayed: A K Antony”.

Jan 20/14: Next BTA? Ajai Shukla pens an oped that looks at HAL’s arguments for the HTT-40, while dismissing any concerns raised by the other side. That isn’t very valuable in and of itself, and makes his “full” cost figures suspect. On the other hand, he details the IAF’s counter-proposal: INR 24.05 billion (about $393 million) for 10 more full PC-7 imports, and 96 license-assembled PC-7 Mk.IIs at IAF’s 5 Base Repair Depot in Sulur, Tamil Nadu: 28 semi-knocked down kits, and 68 fully knocked-down parts sets.

There is merit to his point that lifetime costs are larger than purchase costs. An India unable to produce its own spares locally does leave itself at the risk of paying more, and subject to currency fluctuations. The core argument involves pinning down the potential differences, and then asking whether the IAF’s training fleet is both economically small enough, and militarily important enough, to justify the tradeoffs in exchange for a no-risk solution. The IAF says yes, and makes an argument. Shulka won’t address the question.

The most interesting point Shulka makes is that the original Basic Trainer Aircraft RFP only covered 75 fully built aircraft. Could a competitor snarl the proceedings by citing the failure to include a local-assembly under Transfer of Technology option, on the basis that they would have won had it been part of the tender? Anywhere other than India, the answer would be no. Separate contracts are separate. In India? Who knows. Sources: Business Standard, “Is indigenisation just a slogan?”

2012 – 2013

PC-7 Mk.II contract signed, plane inducted; HAL fighting to push its HTT-40, attacks procurement process and stalls follow-on basic trainer buy; KAI’s procurement challenge fails; India’s weak currency becomes a problem. 2013 induction

Dec 18/13: HTT-40. Minister of State for Defence Shri Jitendra Singh replies to a Parliamentary question in India’s Rajya Sabha upper chamber, and attaches a number to HAL’s basic trainer attempt. It’s a bit less than previous reports (q.v. April 15/13):

“HAL has sanctioned an amount of Rs.176.93 crore [DID: INR 1.77 billion, currently about $29 million] for preliminary design phase and detailed design phase activities of Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40) aircraft. IAF has expressed reservations over acquiring the HTT-40 developed by HAL and has recast its proposal from ‘Make’ category to ‘Buy and Make’ category to procure the balance 106 Basic Trainer Aircraft (BTA).”

Source: India MoD, “Use of HTT-40 Trainer by IAF”.

Oct 14/13: Build to print? The IAF is forwarding what seems to be a compromise proposal: have HAL build the last 106 PC-7 Mk.II trainers, using blueprints supplied by Pilatus. Sources:

Oct 10/13: IJT. HAL is having serious flight and safety problems with its HJT-36 Intermediate Jet Trainer. The plane has an inherent asymmetry that makes the aircraft roll around 16 degrees during stall trials. That’s very dangerous to trainee pilots, and has forced the suspension of stall testing. HAL is still saying that they hope to get the HJT-36’s Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) by the end of December 2013, but “insiders” don’t consider that very likely.

HAL is contracted to deliver 12 limited series production aircraft and 75 production IJTs, but the IJT program has been in trouble for several years now. The original IOC date was supposed to be 2007, but a string of crashes (q.v. April 29/11) and other problems have pushed the likely date back by 7 years or more. It’s not a very good advertisement for HAL’s “MTT-40” lobbying, and the longer-term question is whether continued IJT problems will push effective fielding beyond the old HJT-16 fleet’s safe life. Sources: Indian Express, “HAL struggling with jet trainer project”.

July 30/13: Currency exchange. India’s Business Standard follows up on its earlier report about HAL’s HTT-40 trainer offer by discussing an IAF clarification, but won’t quote that clarification or link to it. That’s bad practice and questionable ethics, especially when other sources note the IAF statement’s citation of persistent delays and problems across all of HAL’s aircraft production programs. With that said, the Business Standard makes an important point along the way.

The flyaway price of each PC-7 Mk.II trainer in the contract is reportedly SFR 6.09 million. Since payment is linked to delivery, India’s declining rupee is steadily making each subsequent trainer more expensive. The IAF had given a mean figure of INR 300 million for the 2014 delivery year, but on May 24/12 when the contract was signed, the conversion worked out to INR 360.8 million each. Today’s conversion is INR 394.7 million – a 9.4% cost hike. India’s RBI is stepping up its defense of the currency as it approaches record lows, but a current account deficit amounting to 4.8% of GDP requires broader policy changes to avert further decline.

Currency exchange factors weren’t part of the cost figures in IAF Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne’s letter to Defence Minister A K Antony earlier this month, and the letter also gave wrong information regarding some basic specifications like the PC-7’s flight speed. That’s bad form indeed, and could become a club in the Minister’s hands if he wishes to pursue this issue. India’s Business Standard | India Today | Reuters.

July 29/13: Changed standards. India’s Business Standard reports that the IAF changed a number of key specifications for its trainer competition, after laying down a more stringent Preliminary Air Staff Qualitative Requirements (PSQR) for the HTT-40. Items changed include zero-zero ejection seats (lowered to 0/60), instructor visibility levels from the rear cockpit, the ability to the instructor to simulate front-seat instrument failures in flight, glide ratio reduced from 12:1 to 10:1, and the need for a pressurized cabin.

The report adds an important missing piece, which seems to explain HAL’s sudden ability to offer their HTT-40 for 42% less: lower standards. India’s critical shortage of IAF basic trainers pushed the service to look abroad, rather than risk serious damage to pilot training while waiting for a developmental plane. Once that decision is made, it’s entirely normal to set performance requirements to a standard that invites more competitors and better deals. Especially when dealing with established offerings, whose performance has proven more than adequate to train thousands of pilots in air forces all around the world.

These moves are especially notable because India has had serious problems with a number of important military programs, which remain in limbo to this day because of poor (and often late) framing of unusual requirements with no reference to the marketplace, followed by rigid insistence that vendors provide off-the-shelf, unmodified solutions. Current high-profile casualties of that approach include India’s LUH/RSH light helicopter program, a body armor program for soldiers, the lightweight assault rifle program, 2 armored personnel carrier programs that included an urgent deployment need, upgrades to India’s BMP-2 APCs, new anti-tank missiles, the QR-SAM and MR-SAM air defense programs, and 155mm towed and self-propelled howitzers. Taken together, this is a huge and serious set of gaps in India’s military capabilities, and adding basic flight training to this list would have been catastrophic.

Lower standards could allow a legitimate price reduction from HAL, though one has to acknowledge that estimates for an airplane that exists only on paper are wildly unreliable. In contrast, bids from abroad involved tested, in-production aircraft that are known to be able to meet both performance and cost specifications. Those considerations also factor in to vendor ratings, if the buyer is competent. India’s Business Standard.

April 15/13: I’m sorry, Danuj, you can’t do that. India’s Business Standard reports that the option for 37 more PC-7 Mk.II trainers is being stalled by HAL. The state-owned firm is demanding that the IAF buy 108 of their undeveloped HTT-40 trainer instead, in order to meet India’s requirement for a total of 183 basic trainers.

They’re leaning on defense minister Antony’s recent fetish for India-only production, in order to avoid “corruption” in defense procurement. We use fetish here in its traditional sense: a key component of animist magic that is performed as a placebo, in return for tangible recompense. To review:

After a long history of late or deficient performance on other aircraft programs, and a INR 600 million per trainer bid (vid. Dec 19/12) that got them thrown out of the competition, HAL has miraculously discovered that they can offer the HTT-40 for just INR 350 million per plane, a 42% reduction that’s suddenly cheaper than Pilatus’ proven INR 385 million figure. This will include development of an armed HTT-40, and HAL is also claiming lower life-cycle costs.

Bids for blueprints-only aircraft tend to be followed by “unexpected” price hikes once political commitment makes it hard to back out. That same commitment dynamic may be driving HAL itself, after their corporate investment of about INR 2 billion (about $36 million) to develop the HTT-40. The corresponding life cycle cost estimates are also likely to be too low, and experience shows that truthful figures require a flying fleet like Pilatus’, not paper promises without a prototype.

Meanwhile, the Indian Air Force will find it difficult to train its pilots, because HAL is lobbying to block planes the IAF says it needs, by making promises it almost certainly can’t keep. All in return for money and political favors. Which, somehow, doesn’t qualify as corruption. India’s Business Standard, ”
HAL’s trainer pitted as Rs 4,500 cr cheaper than Swiss Pilatus trainer” | UK Daily Mail India, “HAL’s trainer aircraft headed for disaster as development costs soar”.

March 13/13: IJT. In a Parliamentary reply, Minister of State for Defence Shri Jitendra Singh says that:

“Indian Air Force (IAF) has signed two contracts with HAL for delivery of 12 Limited Series Production Intermediate Jet Trainer (IJT) aircraft and 73 Series Production IJT aircraft. The IJT aircraft is presently targeted to be inducted in IAF in the year 2014 onwards.”

That would make 15 years from initial contract to induction for HAL’s HJT-36 Sitara intermediate trainer jet, which is already late. Even so, 2014 gives the IAF a very narrow window in which to shelve this project, and they probably won’t. The opportunity, such as it is, is that the IAF envisaged possible orders of 200-250 IJTs, for use in “Intermediate Stage 2” training. That leaves about 115-160 aircraft as potential pickups for a rival like the PC-7 MkII, if HAL’s IJT runs into delivery, service, or cost issues.

Feb 4/13: Options clause. India’s Business Standard reports the IAF will exercise their contract option to buy another 37 Pilatus trainers at the same price, which is reportedly INR 300 million per plane. This brings India’s Swiss-made order total to 112:

“A top IAF official told Business Standard, “The contract for 75 Pilatus trainers, which was signed last year, includes an options clause that allows India to order an extra 50 per cent of the contracted number of aircraft (i.e. 37 trainers) at the same price as the first 75 trainers. We will exercise this options clause this month.”

Feb 2/13: the first 3 Indian PC-7 Mk.IIs arrive at the Air Force Academy in Dundigal, near Hyderabad. They were flown in by the Swiss pilots. MSN India | WebIndia123.

1st PC-7s arrive

Dec 19/12: HHT-40s and IJTs. India’s Business Standard reports that HAL had also been a contender in the basic trainer competition, with a proposal to develop and build 106 “Hindustan Turbo Trainer – 40” (HTT-40) planes. The problem was that HAL was about twice as expensive as foreign-built aircraft, at Rs 60 crore per plane. Basic trainers aren’t exactly a strategically vital competency, so that was it for HAL. The paper even suggests that additional PC-7 Mk.IIs beyond the initial 75 could be manufactured in Switzerland.

The other question the paper raises involves the IAF’s missing solution for “Stage 2” intermediate training, between the PC-7 and the jet-powered Hawk AJT. Pilatus touts their plane as being effective through Stage 2, but HAL continues its 14-year old quest to develop an Intermediate Jet Trainer. A 2011 crash has set that option back again, and more problems or unfavorable cost comparisons could earn the PC-7 another slice of business.

PC-7 Mark II
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May 24/12: PC-7 contract. India and Pilatus sign a contract for 75 PC-7 MkII turboprop aircraft, their integrated ground based training system, and a comprehensive logistics support package. The contract also contains an option clause for extending the contract to 105 planes. Indian reports place the initial contract value at INR 29 billion, but Pilatus rates it higher, at “in excess of 500 million” Swiss Francs. In dollar terms, it’s worth over $525 million.

Delivery of the PC-7s and their associated training systems is scheduled to begin by the end of 2012, and the 30-plane option clause will expire in May 2015. As part of this contract, Pilatus will establish in-country depot level maintenance capabilities at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which will allow the IAF to fix the planes in country, instead of having to send them back to Switzerland. Pilatus has also entered into the required 30% value industrial offset contract, and says that it is “our intention to leverage the offset opportunity to establish manufacturing capability for the region in support of our business plans for India.”

It’s a very good week for Pilatus, who just won a 55 plane order from Saudi Arabia for 55 of its top of the line PC-21 trainers. India’s contract is the largest single contract in the company’s history, and will extend Pilatus’ global fleet of turboprop trainers to more than 900 aircraft. IANS | PTI | Swissinfo | Flight International.

PC-7 contract

May 2-3/12: KAI aside. India’s Minister of Defence Shri AK Antony, in a written reply to Shri PiyushGoyal in Rajya Sabha:

“The proposal for procurement of Basic Trainer Aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF) is awaiting consideration of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS)… A representation submitted by M/s Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), one of the bidders, has been found to be devoid of merit.”

Korean Air Industries (KAI) had alleged flaws in the selection procedure, on the grounds that Pilatus’ bid was incomplete. Antony’s written response sets off a flurry of reports, indicating that the PC-7 deal’s major bottleneck has been cleared. India MoD | Times of India | Flight International | Jane’s.

2009 – 2011

HPT-32 basic trainer fleet in crisis; Pilatus picked as preferred; HJT-36 crash. PC-7 Mk.II
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July 18/11: Indian media reports that Pilatus’ rivals are pressing the Indian government to keep their aircraft in the race, but the IAF is sticking by its preference. The PC-7 Mk.II is said to be a lot less expensive than the most modern offerings like Pilatus’ PC-21. That was a key to its win, but it’s also a plane in wide use around the world.

Pilatus is conducting commercial negotiations with the Indian government, after which India’s parliament must approve the budget for the deal. If the billion-dollar, 181 plane deal is approved, 75 aircraft would reportedly be delivered by Pilatus in flyaway condition, with another 106 to be built by HAL in India. India Strategic | Flight International.

June 18/11: Contract details. The daily Le Temps reports that Pilatus Aircraft is about to sign a record SFR 850 million (about $1.01 billion) deal to supply 75 PC-7 MkII trainers to the Indian Air Force (IAF), which could eventually be extended to as many as 200 of the single-engined turboprops.

Pilatus declined to comment on the report that the trainer had been selected as the winner of offers invited by India in 2009 for a new trainer. Aviation Week offered quotes that stressed the absence of a deal, quoting Indian chief of air staff, Air Marshal P.V. Naik as saying that:

“Of the three short-listed firms from the U.S. [T-6], Korea [KT-1] and Switzerland [PC-7 Mk.II], the bid made by Pilatus has emerged the lowest… We have started price negotiations with the Swiss vendor for supplying 75 aircraft…”

Other contenders that didn’t make the IAF’s short list reportedly included Grob’s G-120 TP, Embraer’s EMB-314 Super Tucano, and Finmeccanica’s jet-powered M-311. See The Hindu | France 24 | Oman Tribune | Aviation Week.

April 29/11: IJT. HJT-36 prototype #S-3466 crashes in the Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu. It’s the 3rd crash in 4 years for the intermediate flight trainer, which was supposed to become operational in 2007. A crash at Aero India 2007 had a plane swerve off the runway just as the pilot was getting airborne; and in February 2009, the 2nd prototype landed on its belly. DNA, “IJT aircraft crashes for third time in 4 years”.

IJT crashes

Feb 19/11: IJT. HAL is looking to arm the HJT-36 Sitara, and is reportedly inviting bids to give the platform a 12.7-mm gun pod with 200 roun
d capacity on its in-board wing stations. That makes sense, since the Sitara will be used for primary weapon training of pilots in gunnery, rocketry, bombing and weapon aiming. The bad news? Initial Operational Clearance is slated for June 2011, and the plane is entering final tests. This seems a bit late to be looking at such fundamental capabilities. Sources: Livefist, “Effort To Arm Indian Stage-2 Trainer Begins”.

Oct 2/09: An Indian Express report says that India is urgently seeking up to 180 trainer aircraft to replace or augment its trainer fleet at all levels, in the wake of problems with the lower-tier HPT-32 fleet and contract issues with its upper-tier Hawk AJT program.

The report adds that a plan to buy 40 additional Hawk AJTs has hit a roadblock, due to differences over price between BAE and the IAF.

Oct 1/09: HPT-32s. Plans to phase out India’s grounded HPT-32 basic trainer fleet will intensify India’s needs for trainer aircraft at all levels. Indian Express quotes Air Chief Marshal P V Naik:

“The IAF lost two experienced instructors in a fatal crash of HPT-32 this year. We have ordered an inquiry and a study on the aircraft, as we have had a lot of problems since their induction in 1984. We hope to use it only till 2013-14″…

Sept 2/09: HPT-32s. India’s Business Standard:

“The Indian Air Force (IAF) is desperately short of aircraft for training its flight cadets. With the entire fleet of basic trainers – the HPT-32 Deepak – grounded after a series of crashes, advanced training is suffering equally due to unexpected delays in the manufacture of the Hawk advanced jet trainer (AJT) in India…

Trainer crisis

Additional Readings

• Bharat Rakshak – HAL HJT-36. Photos. “The first flight of the HJT-36 was done on 7th March 2003 by Sqn Ldr Baldev Singh (Retd), Chief Test Pilot (Fixed Wing (FW)) of HAL. He took up the IJT on its maiden flight, which lasted for about 20 minutes.”

• Pilatus – PC-7 Mark II. The main site defers to the PC-9M for Advanced/Intermediate training roles, but countries like South Africa are already using PC-7 Mk.IIs all the way up to Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer transition.

IAF Fighters

• DID – India Ordering, Modernizing SU-30MKIs.

• DID – India’s M-MRCA Fighter Competition.

• DID – LCA Tejas: An Indian Fighter – With Foreign Help.

Babcock International and BAE Systems have been jointly awarded a contract to deliver an enhanced 'total gun support' service package to ensure availability and sustainability of the UK Royal Navy's Medium Calibre Guns (MCGs).

Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $321.8m integration and test phase contract to continue to support the US Navy's long-range anti-ship missile (LRASM) programme.

The US Navy's Pacific Submarine Force has decommissioned the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS City of Corpus Christi (SSN 705), after serving for more than 33 years, at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

The Korean Workers’ Party (KWP) held its Seventh Congress, the first since 1980, from 6 to 9 May 2016. In theory, the Congress is the highest deliberative body of the only governing party of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The Congress yielded relatively modest results, with no real breakthrough, apart from establishing the 'defensive' nuclear deterrence concept. Kim Jong-un’s position as North Korea's supreme leader was fully formalised and now seems to be stronger than ever. The Party is likely to gain further power at the expense of the military. Nuclear deterrence is now firmly enshrined in the Party's statutes as well as the country’s constitution. Pyongyang has made clear that no nuclear deal is possible unless the US and its allies accept North Korea as a 'nuclear state'. Despite its propaganda announcements, North Korea is not ready to modernise its sclerotic economy. While some cautious developments cannot be ruled out, the regime's open criticism of the Chinese economic model suggest that any reforms would be limited and very probably inconclusive.
Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

QinetiQ is to demonstrate the integration of unmanned systems into Royal Navy operations, under a £1m contract with the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD).

will take place on Wednesday 15 June, 9:00-12:30 and 15:00-18:30 and Thursday 16 June, 9:00-12:30 in Brussels.

Organisations or interest groups who wish to apply for access to the European Parliament will find the relevant information below.

Further information
watch the meeting live
Access rights for interest group representatives
Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Americas

• The Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office has been awarded a $58.8 million US Navy contract in order to develop and integrate the V-22 aerial refueling system (VARS) for the MV-22. Once installed, VARS will operate by using a portable refueling station that will roll up the Osprey’s back ramp and into its back cabin. Crews will use it to aerially refuel F-35s, F/A18 Hornets and other aircraft – including V-22s and CH-53 helicopters – by extending a hose and drogue out the open back ramp. NAVIR will supervise the contract execution, and the whole project is to be completed by June 2019.

• Aurora Flight Sciences tested the new capabilities of the Autonomous Aerial Cargo/Utility System (AACUS) last week, and if proven workable, could see the entire USMC rotary-wing fleet converted into autonomous flying machines starting from 2018. With the May 26 test seeing the system mounted on a Bell 206 helicopter, it’s believed that the AACUS will now be tested on a UH-1H roughly this time next year. The AACUS is an autonomy applique kit that enables operations of full-scale rotary-wing aircraft in and out of austere landing zones, tactically, with little human assistance.

Middle East North Africa

• Sales of cluster munitions to Saudi Arabia have been blocked by the Obama administration after reports of their use by the kingdom in the ongoing conflict in Yemen. An Amnesty International report revealed last week that British-made BL-755 munitions, sold to both Saudi Arabia and coalition partner UAE in the 1980s and 1990s, were discovered in a village in northern Yemen, spurring claims that war crimes were being conducted against civilians. Neither the US nor Saudi Arabia have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions treaty, which bans the use of the munitions.

Europe

• General Dynamics European Land Systems and Airbus recently demonstrated the loading of the former’s Piranha 5 8×8 Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) into an Airbus A400M cargo lifter. Testing was carried out in San Pablo, Spain and no special requirement was needed in order to load and tie-down the armored vehicle inside the transport’s cargo hold. Spain is one of the key partner nations involved in the A400M program, and the Piranha 5 has been selected for the integration of Spanish technologies and subsystems under an R&D contract for the future Wheeled Combat Vehicle (VCR in Spanish) project.

• Russia has carried out its second successful test of a new anti-satellite missile dubbed Nudol. The weapon was launched from the Plesetsk test launch facility on May 25, and follows the first successful test which occurred on November 18 last year. It remains unknown if the missile was fired against a satellite or fired in a suborbital trajectory without hitting a target.

• It’s been reported that the British government is set to buy 50 AH-64E Apaches off-the-shelf from Boeing in a deal expected to be worth $2.9 billion. The announcement confirming the sale is expected to be made at the Royal International Air Tattoo or Farnborough air show in July. This will disappoint Leonardo-Finmeccanica who hoped to instead land the contract producing the helicopters at its Agusta-Westland plant in Yeovil, Somerset.

Asia Pacific

• South Korea is to pursue the development of their own submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) to be fitted on their next generation Chang Bogo-III submarine. This class of boat is planned to be equipped with vertical launch systems, with 10 indigenous Hyunmoo cruise missiles each. The cold launch technology for launching missiles underwater will be based on the S-400 air defense missile, gained from Russia as repayment for loans given to Moscow in 1991.

• This week’s Singapore Shangri-la Dialogue may see sideline discussions between France and India over the closing of a multi-billion sale of 36 Rafale fighters. The defense ministers from both nations will be in attendance, and it’s expected that issues like consensus on actions to be taken in case of a material breach, stringent liability clause, and guarantees by France are likely to be discussed.

Today’s Video

• V-22 Aerial Refueling Proof of Concept:

American Lockheed AC-130 Ground Attack Aircraft

Golten Worldwide's Green Technologies business unit has been contracted by the Netherlands Defence Materiel Organization to install 16 optimarin ballast systems (OBS) on the Royal Netherlands Navy's (RNLN) ten vessels.

BAE Systems has received two contracts, worth $61.7m, from the US Navy to repair and maintain two vessels based in Jacksonville, Florida.

US Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran has revealed that $1bn is recommended in navy shipbuilding funds to procure the first US Coast Guard-operated icebreaker in 25 years.

Pacific Patrol Boat (PPB) 40 patrol vessels are being developed by Australian shipbuilding company Austal under the Pacific Patrol Boats Replacement (PPBR) project, which is aimed at replacing the existing Pacific Patrol Boats fleet.