Source: DTN News / The News(NSI News Source Info) ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - July 17, 2010: Indigen
ously developed aircraft by Pakistan with the help of China will make its maiden appearance at an international show being held in the United Kingdom.
ously developed aircraft by Pakistan with the help of China will make its maiden appearance at an international show being held in the United Kingdom.In line to make their physical appearance in Farnborough Air Show 2010 along with other modern aircraft, being held 19-25 July in the UK, two JF-17 Thunder combat aircraft of PAF on Friday flew into the UK from a PAF Base.
These aircraft are manufactured at Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) Kamra. The JF-17s would be displayed for the first time in the Farnborough Air Show alongside other modern aircrafts of the world.
The JF-17 Thunder distinguishes PAF as the only air force in the world that manufactures combat aircraft. It is an all-weather, multi-role, combat aircraft that has the potential to be the mainstay of any modern air force.
Boeing received a $69.7 million contract from the U.S. Air Force in March to convert up to 126 retired F-16s into QF-16 Full-Scale Aerial Targets that can fly either manned or unmanned. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2014.
"This is an important program for the Air Force and Boeing," Steve Waltman, Boeing director of Aircraft Sustainment & Maintenance, told the audience. "This is a significant off-platform project for our company, and we have confidence that our Cecil Field teammates will deliver the aerial targets to our customer on budget and on time."
The program, valued at over $2 billion, will replace the current inventory of aging ALQ-99 jamming pods on the Navy’s newest airborne electronic attack aircraft, the Boeing EA-18G Growler. The Next Generation Jammer pod will also be a stepping stone to an F-35, Joint Strike Fighter, Electronic Attack capability.
“Electronic attack capabilities have been integral in maintaining U.S. and allied air superiority in the past four decades,” said Chris Bernhardt, President of ITT Electronic Systems. “And, as the capabilities of potential enemies continue to grow, our own technologies must continue to outpace them.”
The Next Generation Jammer will help ensure that U.S. forces have complete dominance of the electronic spectrum, providing a comprehensive capability to disrupt and disable enemy communications and radars.
“Beyond its superior work in designing and delivering the EA-18G on-time and on-budget, Boeing brings unparalleled experience in pod design and systems integration, both critical aspects of the total NGJ package,” Bernhardt added.
In the NGJ Technology Maturation phase, the ITT and Boeing team will conduct analyses and design of critical technology elements of the system to ensure the proposed solution is affordable, low risk and capable of delivering superior operational effectiveness.
ITT’s solution will be based on significant technological advantages achieved in the critical areas of broadband electronically steerable antenna arrays and advanced digital exciters, providing the U.S. Navy the programmability, scalability, modularity and open systems architecture that will allow the Growler to stay ahead of the ever changing threat for years to come.
One of the most important improvements will be ITT’s advances in broadband electronically steerable antenna arrays and advanced digital exciter technology. The Next Generation Jammer is also being designed with modular open systems architecture (MOSA), enabling simpler upgrades throughout the system’s lifespan.
“ITT is regarded worldwide as an industry leader in successfully transitioning advanced Electronic Warfare technologies from concepts to fielded systems,” said Rick Martin, Director, Electronic Warfare Solutions, Boeing Phantom Works. "The ITT-Boeing team brings together tremendous resources to develop the NGJ and integrate it into the joint electronic attack system of systems.”
The ITT/Boeing effort will be led from ITT Electronic Systems in Clifton, N.J. with work also being performed at Boeing’s Phantom Works facility in St. Louis.
ITT Electronic Systems is a leading supplier of information and electronic warfare (EW) technologies, systems and services that enable mission success and survivability. Key technologies include integrated EW systems for a variety of aircraft, reconnaissance and surveillance systems for air and sea-based applications, force protection and counter-IED systems, precision landing and air traffic systems for military applications, and under sea systems encompassing mine defense, naval command and sonar systems, and acoustic sensors. Integrated structures produces aircraft armament suspension and release equipment, electronic weapons interface systems, and advanced composite structures and subsystems.
A unit of The Boeing Company, 
The BrahMos, which derives its name from the Brahmaputra and Moscow rivers in India and Russia, is based on the earlier Russian design for the SS-N-26 (3M55 Oniks) cruise missile. In 1998, a joint venture was set up between the Indian Defense Ministry’s Defense Research and Development Organization and Russia’s Mashinostroyeniye Company. The two entities formed a company now known as Brahmos Aerospace, which would develop and manufacture the BrahMos PJ-10. Sources indicate that by 2006 India and Russia had already invested $300 million in the company.
Also, the BrahMos program has been working extremely well -- a development that may go far to offset the fiasco of the enormous delays and cost overruns on the Admiral Gorshkov carrier renovation project.
Co-production in Indian of Russian weapons systems may well therefore be the way ahead to revitalize the venerable Russian-Indian arms sales relationship for the 21st century. BrahMos cruise missile co-production could therefore prove to be the prototype for further such deals. This could go far in repairing the traditional weakness of Indian high-tech arms development and procurement.
India's Defense Research and Development Organization has a decades-long consistent record of producing prototype missiles and weapons that on paper are as good as any in the world. But it has consistently failed to bring many of them anywhere near operational and production standards. That is why India still has to buy Russian Main Battle Tanks and excellent French Scorpion diesel submarines off the shelf after decades of unsuccessful efforts to manufacture its own.
But the BrahMos program has broken free of those old constraints. It has already entered its production and operational deployment stages with the first mark of these weapons. This achievement is an epochal step forward for the Indian arms industry, and it augurs well for future such Indian-Russian co-production agreements.
Finally, India's achievement in reaching production and operational deployment reliability on the BrahMos cruise missile will change the nature of its strategic relations with the United States -- and possibly with Israel, too. For India is now about to find itself in the novel position of having a military technology far in advance of the comparable U.S. technology.
U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles are subsonic, with a maximum speed of around 700 miles per hour at ground level. But the most advanced marks of the BrahMos, based as they are on a successful, mature Russian cruise missile technology, can go more than 2.5 times as fast as that -- at Mach 2.8 at ground level.
Will India be willing to share this technology with the United States? And if its leaders were willing, would the Kremlin permit it? And if -- as seems likely -- India refuses to share such technology with Washington -- how will that affect future U.S.-Indian relations? Will it signify that technology-sharing agreements in practice will remain a one-way street?
