Only six Ukrainian air force pilots have been fully trained to fly the Vipers, and Ukraine is expected to take a conservative approach to their deployment.

According to the Washington Post, the first few F-16s will likely be used in defensive roles rather than mixing it up with Russian MiGs and Sukhois. In fact, it’s still not known what operating restrictions have been imposed by the NATO countries donating the aircraft.

At first, the F-16s will operate well out of harm’s way, shooting down drones and doing other defensive tasks. Ukraine says the training process for its pilots is an issue because it takes more than six months to get them the language and technical skills they need to operate a Western aircraft using much different systems and control doctrines than the old Soviet airframes they normally fly. And since only the best Ukrainian pilots are selected for F-16 training, their commanders are loathe to lose them because of the gaps they leave in the ranks of experienced pilots.

Despite all the problems, Ukraine is still welcoming the addition of F-16s, particularly their longer-range radars and flexibility and the fear factor they will instill in opposing Russian pilots.

Becca Wasser, an analyst at the Center for a New American Security, told the Post it makes sense for the Ukrainians to integrate the F-16s slowly.

“If you have this exquisite capability, are you going to use it immediately, knowing that there’s a greater risk of it being expended or are you going to withhold it and use it so it has broader strategic value?” Wasser said.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AVweb.

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Government officials signed a letter of offer and acceptance (LOA) through a U.S. government foreign military sale Thursday, making the country the 19th to purchase the aircraft, the company said.

• READ MORE: Embraer Signs A-29 Super Tucano Deal With Paraguay

“We are excited to welcome Greece into the F-35 enterprise,” U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Mike Schmidt, director and program executive officer of the F-35 Joint Program Office, said in a statement. “The F-35 will provide exceptional capability to the Hellenic Air Force, build interoperability between our allies, and strengthen the combat effectiveness for all of NATO.”

• READ MORE: Last Known Battle of Britain Pilot Turns 105

The Hellenic Air Force also operates F-16s and C-130s, as well as S-70 B and MH-60R helicopters, according to Lockheed Martin. Earlier this year, Greece also signed an LOA worth nearly $2 billion for the purchase of 35 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters.

The post Greece Signs Deal to Buy 20 F-35 Lightning IIs appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The manufacturer’s EL-2 Goldfinch, which first flew in May, got its first off-runway action when it lifted off from a grassy area smaller than 300 feet near a company facility in Manassas, Virginia.

The company has multimillion dollar contracts across the military, with the Air Force, Army, and Navy all exploring the use of eSTOL technology. The relatively cheap, runway-independent aircraft are viewed as an attractive alternative to conventional fixed wing aircraft and rotorcraft

Electra said the demonstrator completed several takeoffs and landings, climbing at a steep angle of 32 degrees. The aircraft did not require electric charging infrastructure, as many electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxis do, because its propulsion unit charges the batteries in flight.

All the while, the Goldfinch produced just 55 decibels of noise, equivalent to the volume of a typical conversation, while flying overhead at 500 feet. Electra says its full-scale design, which will carry nine passengers or up to 2,500 pounds of cargo on trips up to 500 sm (434 nm), will be inaudible from the ground at its typical cruise altitude.

It seeks to certify a full-scale model under FAA Part 23 regulations by 2028.

“eSTOL technologies increase the number of available landing sites by orders of magnitude relative to traditional fixed wing aircraft while providing for higher cruise speeds, lower costs, and lower noise than vertical lift solutions,” said JP Stewart, vice president and general manager of Electra. “These first flights from a field demonstrate the beginnings of this strong capability that we will continue to develop.”

Electra’s eSTOL achieves its incredibly short runway requirement through the use of blown lift propulsion. Airflows are guided over the wing into flaps and ailerons that redirect them toward the ground, adding to thrust from the aircraft’s eight electric motors. This allows the vehicle to take off at what Electra describes as neighborhood driving speeds.

Though the manufacturer has several commercial customers lined up for its flagship design, it also views the eSTOL as ideal for airlift operations and agile combat employment, a U.S. Air Force doctrine that calls for the rapid deployment of assets to dispersed locations.

The military will be its first customer, but Electra in January surpassed 2,000 aircraft preorder sales from private partners including JSX, Bristow Group, and JetSetGo.

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Retired Royal Air Force (RAF) group captain John Allman “Paddy” Hemingway was born in Ireland in 1919. In summer 1940, Hemingway turned 21 while flying Hawker Hurricanes with the RAF’s No. 85 Squadron, led by then squadron commander Peter Townsend.

Townsend was later to earn arguably greater fame for his romantic involvement with Princess Margaret, the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II.

Hemingway and the No. 85 Squadron were based at RAF Debden (later home of the U.S. Army Air Forces 4th Fighter Group) and then RAF Croyden during the storied Battle of Britain, in which the badly outnumbered RAF Fighter Command defeated the previously unbeaten German Luftwaffe. The setback caused Adolf Hitler to reverse course eastward and attack Russia, turning the tide of World War II.

• READ MORE: Top 100 Warbirds

Though Hemingway was already flying in combat well before the official start of the Battle of Britain and destroyed a Heinkel He 111 on May 10, 1940, and a Dornier Do 17 the next day, he never achieved ace status (five enemy aircraft destroyed). But because of “the luck of the Irish,” he said he survived being shot down twice during the battle and twice more during combat in North Africa and Italy.

He served as an air controller during the Normandy invasion and was temporarily made squadron leader. Following V-E Day, he was appointed commander of RAF No. 43 Squadron and became a wing commander. He was later appointed station commander at RAF Leconfield.

Hemingway served as a NATO staff officer in France, ultimately achieving the honorary rank of group captain upon retirement in 1969.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AVweb.

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On Monday, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) announced that it and the Air Mobility Command (AMC), which provides aerial refueling and airlift services for U.S. forces worldwide, began testing a UAS traffic management (UTM) system at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.

The system, called CLUE, or Collaborative Low-Altitude Unmanned Aircraft System Integration Effort, is designed to integrate UAS flights next to crewed aircraft above and around Air Force installations. According to the AFRL, MacDill is the first base to use a UTM system in airspace overseen by Department of Defense air traffic controllers.

“This is a significant milestone for AMC, AFRL, and the CLUE program, as the MacDill Air Traffic Control Tower and Base Defense Operations Center are first in the Air Force to operationally assess UTM capabilities,” said Phil Zaleski, manager of the AFRL CLUE program.

CLUE was born out of the AFRL’s Information Directorate as a project meant to provide “air domain awareness, situational awareness, and UTM operational capabilities for UAS operators, air traffic control [ATC] personnel, Security Forces and other stakeholders.”

The system arrived at MacDill in 2022, where initial testing focused on airspace deconfliction, communication, and security. The goal was to enable drone flights beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) of the operator, which are heavily scrutinized and restricted by the FAA.

Since then, the UTM platform has been developed to give air traffic controllers a three-dimensional view of UAS activity and make it possible to grant flight permissions automatically.

“Equipping airspace managers and UAS operators with a 3D operational viewing capability and additional features designed to reduce lengthy manual and advanced planning procedures will be critical to achieving real-time flight planning and mission execution,” said James Layton, chief of plans and programs at MacDill.

The system is also sensor-agnostic, meaning it integrates with an array of different sensors designed to detect, track, and identify drones, including a counter UAS system being tested at MacDill.

The Air Force in May began formally testing CLUE’s capabilities on the base, opening it to the site’s ATC tower, Defense Operations Center, and airfield management team. Personnel so far have used the system to plan the intent of UAS flights or let operators know where they are approved to fly a drone, for example.

Operators ask CLUE for the all clear to fly, and their request is either approved or denied by the control tower. Once permission is granted, they can fly within a bounded area. CLUE feeds the operators information about the airspace and other nearby aircraft, helping them stay within the approved zone while avoiding other drones.

The UTM system has also been installed at Eglin AFB’s Duke Field (KEGI) in Florida, where the AFRL conducted a demonstration of its capabilities in 2023. There, CLUE will begin by integrating flights of small UAS (weighing less than 70 pounds) before moving to larger designs, including electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxis such as Joby Aviation’s five-seat S4.

Joby, partnering with AFWERX, the Air Force’s innovation arm, earlier this year committed to deliver two air taxis to MacDill and has also shipped a prototype aircraft to Edwards AFB in California.

MacDill in May also hosted flights of a KC-135 Stratotanker equipped with an autonomous flight system from developer Merlin Labs, which is designed to one day enable fully remote flights. That technology, as well as systems from fellow AFWERX collaborators Xwing and Reliable Robotics, could one day be integrated into the CLUE UTM.

AFWERX and the AFRL are not the only government entities studying UTM systems. The Air Force is working with NASA to build a digital operations center for drones and electric air taxis nationwide and is collaborating with the FAA to integrate novel and uncrewed aircraft with air traffic control and other systems within the national airspace.

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The company believes these were the first such deployments for an electric aircraft with major commands of the Air Force.

The on-base and cross-country missions with the Air Combat Command (ACC) and Air Mobility Command (AMC) included daylong and even multiday exercises. Beta characterized them as “real-world” missions that were conducted at the behest of the ACC and AMC, with a little help from AFWERX, the Air Force’s innovation arm with which the manufacturer has worked since 2019.

The goal of these flights was to see how Beta’s Alia, a conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) design, could support defense use cases such as resupply, cargo delivery, and personnel transport, including during combat. The aircraft seats up to five passengers and has a range of 250 nm.

Alia took off from Beta’s headquarters at Burlington International Airport (KBTV) in Vermont and embarked on a series of cross-country flights before arriving at the Air National Guard’s Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center (CRTC) in Alpena, Michigan. There, with the ACC, the aircraft completed a four-day exercise.

Over the course of 24 flight hours, Alia moved more than 2,200 pounds of cargo—including 500 pounds at a time—delivered meals and equipment, simulated a medical evacuation between two bases, and filled in for a Lockheed C-130 Hercules that had a scheduled airlift canceled.

“We can be ready to take off in a matter of minutes, and the battery has a low center of gravity, which is not affected by the way you load the cargo,” said Ross Elkort, flight test engineer for Beta.

The next stop for Alia was Springfield, Ohio, where a pilot for UPS Flight Forward completed a ground school program, simulator training, and evaluation flight. Flight Forward in 2021 placed an order for the electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) variant of Alia.

After that came a simulation of planned Alia routes in Virginia and a joint demonstration at Atlantic City International Airport (KACY) in New Jersey alongside the FAA, AMC, and others.

The AMC helped finish out the campaign with a series of flights between Dover Air Force Base in Delaware (KDOV) and McGuire Air Force Base (KWRI) in New Jersey, which are considered key hubs for military logistics. During a daylong exercise, AMC pilots flew Alia five times, delivering multi-hundred-pound payloads and slashing delivery times by more than half.

“It brings key innovation to the mission. It’s going to make things faster and simpler,” said Alyxandra Scalone of the Air Force’s 305th Maintenance Squadron at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. “Dover (AFB) is about two and a half hours away from us. Today’s flight only took 45 minutes.”

Over the course of the monthlong campaign, Beta said it deployed Alia with a 100 percent success rate.

Beta has worked with AFWERX through its Agility Prime division, which focuses on vertical lift technologies, since 2020.

Beta last year installed the first electric aircraft charger at a Department of Defense site at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. The Alia eVTOL in 2021 became the first electric aircraft to receive military airworthiness approval for human flight.

The CTOL, meanwhile, was responsible for the first airman flight of electric aircraft and was the first of its kind to complete an Air Force deployment: a three-month campaign at Eglin’s Duke Field (KEGI) and Robins Air Force Base (KWRB) in Georgia.

From October to January, it completed what Beta claims to be the first simulated casualty evacuation and first live military exercise with an electric aircraft. The latter saw Alia fly alongside 350 airmen, demonstrating how the aircraft could integrate with existing military operations.

Meanwhile, in April, the Alia eVOL completed its first crewed transition from hover to forward flight, a key stage in that model’s development. The vertical lift version of Alia has received less attention than its counterpart, but AFWERX has shown interest in the configuration, working with eVTOL manufacturers such as Archer Aviation and Joby Aviation.

If all goes according to plan, the CTOL version of Alia will hit the market in 2025, followed by the eVTOL in 2026. The aim, however, is for the military to get its hands on the aircraft first.

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The manufacturer describes the Wingman model as a “fighter-type drone” that could be commanded by the pilot of an existing combat aircraft, such as the Eurofighter Typhoon.

Like a wingman in the traditional military aviation sense, it would support the mission lead with augmented capabilities. But unlike crewed fighter aircraft, it could take on high-risk missions that pose a threat to human personnel, receiving commands from a pilot that is shielded from exposure to risk.

“The German Air Force has expressed a clear need for an unmanned aircraft flying with and supporting missions of its manned fighter jets before the Future Combat Air System [FCAS] will be operational in 2040,” said Michael Schoellhorn, CEO of Airbus Defence and Space. “We will further drive and fine-tune this innovation made in Germany so that ultimately we can offer the German Air Force an affordable solution with the performance it needs to maximize the effects and multiply the power of its fighter fleet for the 2030s.”

FCAS is a European defense and security initiative aiming to develop a “system of systems” that delivers all of the capabilities and functionality of its constituent subsystems. Airbus co-leads the program alongside Dassault Aviation and Spain’s Indra Sistemas.

At the core of FCAS will be a Next Generation Weapon System, in which uncrewed remote carriers work together with a New Generation Fighter (NGF): a sixth-generation fighter jet intended to replace Germany’s Typhoons, France’s Dassault Rafales, and Spain’s McDonnell-Douglas EF-18 Hornets by the 2040s.

Both the uncrewed aircraft and NGF will be connected to a “Combat Cloud” comprising sensor nodes in space, in the air, on the ground, at sea and in cyberspace.

“[Remote carriers] will fly in close cooperation with manned aircraft, supporting pilots in their tasks and missions,” Airbus explains on its website. “Military transport aircraft such as Airbus’ A400M will play an important role: as motherships, they will bring the Remote Carriers as close as possible to their areas of operation before releasing up to 50 small—or as many as 12 heavy—remote carriers.”

According to Airbus, Wingman is designed to carry weapons and “other effectors.” It would be able to perform a range of tasks, including reconnaissance, target jamming, and firing missiles. Pilots would always be in control and act as the final decision makers from the safety of a larger aircraft, allowing the uncrewed aircraft to do the work.

“An additional focus is on increasing the overall combat mass in an affordable manner so that air forces can match the number of opposing forces in peers or near-peers in conflicts,” Airbus said Monday.

The company said the 1:1 Wingman model on display at ILA Berlin will be akin to a “show car,” featuring various concepts and capabilities that may not make it onto the final design.

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Over the course of two flights on May 15 and 16 at MacDill Air Force Base (KMCF) in Florida, engineers gathered data that will inform the development of the company’s autonomous flight system, Merlin Pilot. Intended to reduce the workload of pilots amid the ongoing pilot shortage—but not replace them, at least in the short term—the technology has also drawn the attention of government agencies, including the Air Force.

Merlin engineers observed Air Force pilots as they performed various tasks and maneuvers. The goal of the campaign was to identify areas where automation could be most useful for safety, efficiency, and cost savings. Teams gathered data on pilot priorities, for example, to implement automation in a way that could allow pilots to focus on the most critical tasks.

“The data collected during these flights is critical to our phased approach to autonomy, starting with reduced crew operations, and to materially evolving our advanced automation systems,” said Matt George, CEO of Merlin. “Being able to observe multiple aerial refueling flights and see exactly how pilots are focused on critical tasks like take-off, landing, and communications in operational military use cases has given us valuable insight.”

Physical assessments, observations, and crew interviews were conducted to determine how certain KC-135 operations could be integrated into the autonomous system.

The data will further be used to support a contract between Merlin, the Air Force, Air Mobility Command (AMC), and Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) to design, integrate, test, and perform in-flight demos of Merlin Pilot on the aerial refueling tanker. The Air Force previously enlisted Merlin to explore reduced crew capabilities for the Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules and is looking to automate other aircraft, such as the KC-46A Pegasus and UH-60A Blackhawk.

The FAA has also shown interest in Merlin, awarding it a $1 million contract for automated cargo network flight trials in Alaska, which the company completed successfully in July. Other aircraft that have been equipped with Merlin Pilot include the Beechcraft King Air, de Havilland Twin Otter, Cessna Caravan, Long-EZ, and Cozy Mark IV.

Merlin is seeking supplemental type certification from the FAA and has already obtained a Part 135 air operator certificate from New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority, which covers air operations for helicopters and small airplanes.

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“This shows that warfighter-centric innovation is not only possible; it’s producing real results,” Kathleen Hicks, U.S. deputy secretary of defense, said in a statement last week. “Together with the private sector and with support from Congress, the Replicator initiative is delivering capabilities at greater speed and scale while simultaneously burning down risk and alleviating systemic barriers across the department.”

Hicks did not specify which systems have been delivered, how many, or to whom. But the update marks progress toward equipping the U.S. military with aircraft that the deputy defense secretary previously described as “small, smart, cheap, and many.”

Replicator has largely been shrouded in secrecy since it was revealed by Hicks in October. The program seeks to produce UAS cheaply and at scale with the assistance of the private sector, including commercial manufacturers and defense companies.

“We are seeing contract awards for autonomous, attritable systems being increased in size and pulled forward,” the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), which is supporting the program, says on its website.

The drones, which the DOD characterizes as all-domain attritable autonomous systems (ADA2), are designed to be deployed in minutes and be shot down with little to no impact on military capabilities, making them ideal for operations in high-risk environments, such as the battlefield.

Replicator’s primary objective is to help the U.S. keep pace with China’s growing military strength—the People’s Liberation Army has an estimated 2,200 combat aircraft and boasts the world’s largest Navy, per DOD data—but the aircraft will be deployed across multiple domains. The current 18-to-24-month initiative, Replicator 1, is intended to be the first of several iterations of the program.

The DOD operates more than 11,000 UAS across air, land, and sea mainly for training, testing, and surveillance. The smallest is the RQ-11B Raven, which weighs just over 4 pounds and can fly up to 6.2 sm (5.4 nm). At the other end of the spectrum are aircraft such as the remotely piloted RQ-4 Global Hawk, which weighs nearly 15,000 pounds and has a 131-foot wingspan.

Earlier this month, the department announced $500 million in funding for Replicator for fiscal year 2024, much of which comes from the 2024 defense spending bill. It also confirmed the first aircraft to benefit from the program’s accelerated speed and scale: the Switchblade-600, a loitering munition (known colloquially as a kamikaze drone) produced by California-based Aerovironment.

Switchblades, which can hover in the air for as long as 40 minutes before striking a target, have been used by Ukrainian soldiers and will add “additional capability to U.S. forces,” the department said. The first tranche, or batch, of Replicator-backed technology will include additional UAS and counter-UAS systems, some of which remain classified.

Now, at least some of those systems have been delivered. But whether or not they are Switchblades remains a mystery. A possible destination for the aircraft could be the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, which oversees operations of U.S. forces in the region.

The DOD is seeking another $500 million in funding for Replicator in next year’s provisional budget, signaling that the program is only just beginning.

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Defense contractor Leidos and autonomous aircraft developer Elroy Air on Tuesday said they have been approved to demonstrate an autonomous aircraft prototype for the U.S. Navy and Marine Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) program office. Flight testing is scheduled for July at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Grounds (KLGF) in Arizona.

The companies said the aircraft’s development and flight testing are part of a contract awarded last year for them to demonstrate autonomous resupply capabilities for Marine Corps. Tim Freeman, senior vice president and business area manager of airborne systems for Leidos, said the partners will showcase the aircraft’s capabilities for other branches of the military as well.

At Yuma, Leidos and Elroy will demonstrate the latter’s Chaparral system, which Elroy describes as a lift-plus-cruise, hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing (hVTOL) cargo aircraft. Among the company’s stated use cases for Chaparral are commercial logistics, industrial cargo, humanitarian aid shipments—and military resupply. According to Elroy, the hVTOL’s maiden voyage in November was the world’s first flight of such an aircraft.

Chaparral is a candidate for the military’s Medium Aerial Resupply Vehicle-Expeditionary Logistics, or MARV-EL, program. According to Naval Air Systems Command, MARV-EL aircraft “will be the ‘middle-weight’ unmanned logistics asset, providing combat sustainment to Marines when ground or manned aviation assets are unavailable due to threat, terrain, weather, or competing priorities.”

A combination of distributed electric propulsion and a turbine-based generator, which runs on an unspecified kind of liquid gas, powers Chaparral’s eight vertical and four forward propellers, with fixed wings for cruise. Elroy says this configuration gives the aircraft greater energy density and range than a pure electric design.

Chaparral has an estimated 300 sm (260 nm) range and 125 knots cruise speed. The aircraft is large for an autonomous design—more than 19 feet long with a 26-foot wingspan—yet it can be reconfigured to fit within a 40-foot shipping container. It comes with a variety of modular cargo pods that can carry up to 300 pounds.

Elroy so far has obtained three aircraft development and testing contracts with AFWERX, the innovation arm of the U.S. Air Force, and a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with U.S. Special Operations Command.

In 2023, the company completed autonomous cargo handling and delivery demonstrations at Travis Air Force Base in California, showcasing Chaparral’s ability to locate and navigate to a cargo pod, load and secure it, taxi, and takeoff entirely on its own.

In August, Elroy formed a Defense Advisory Board comprising high-ranking former U.S. military officials from Navy, Army, and Special Operations Command to help it secure future government and defense acquisitions.

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