May 22 2011 David Pugliese Defence Watch

Press release from Airborne Systems:

Llangeinor, South Wales, UK  - Airborne Systems, a world leader in the design, development and manufacture of military parachute and aerial delivery systems, continues to demonstrate its expertise in the development of exceptional Ejection Seat parachute systems, with the recent completion of the final ejection tests for the US16E Ejection Seat.

The US16E Ejection Seat has been designed by Martin-Baker for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft. Martin-Baker has worked with Airborne Systems companies for more than 60 years from the advent of the first autonomous ejection system developed in 1951.

 The US16E Ejection Seat contains several parachutes designed by Airborne Systems Europe at Llangeinor which have been certified for flight release after a series of rigorous parachute and ejection tests conducted by Martin-Baker. The escape system ensures aircrew can eject safely in an emergency situation however extreme and will be fitted to all 3000-plus F-35 aircraft which will be flown by armed forces across the globe.

The US16E Ejection Seat is qualified from 0 knots at 0 altitude (stationary aircraft on ground) to 600 knots at 50,000ft, with the widest possible pilot nude weight range (103lbs to 245lbs). This enormous range of conditions is accommodated by the flexibility afforded by the proprietary designs of the conical ribbon drogue parachute and the Aeroconical(r) main ejection seat parachutes.

The Martin-Baker US16E Ejection Seat is initially stabilised after ejection by a reefed conical ribbon drogue. The inflation characteristics of the drogue parachute reduce the effect of the deceleration on the seat and pilot.

After separation from the seat, the pilot is saved by the Airborne Systems Type 6000 main occupant recovery parachute - one of the parachutes of the Aeroconical(r) family.

The Type 6000 main parachute is packed into a parachute container which is ballistically deployed from the seat. The parachute container is also equipped with an Airborne Systems auxiliary parachute which controls its flight trajectory in order to provide clearance with the pilot during inflation of the Type 6000 main parachute.

The system has been tested to its limits from a full scale test forebody of the aircraft, complete with ejection seat and mannequin at launch speeds in excess of 600 mph down the Martin-Baker test track. More than 30 ejection seat tests have been completed with the production configuration in the UK, France and in the US.

Dr. Adrian Jones, Airborne Systems Europe Technical Director, said: "We are delighted to see that the F-35 US16E Ejection Seat system has completed its full certification prior to implementation into the aircraft production and that Llangeinor's expertise in applying the highest technology in parachute industry will continue to save pilots' lives in all emergency situations."

22 mai 2011 par Édouard Maire INFO-AVIATION

Après plus d’une décennie de développement du programme F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), les sénateurs de la commission de Défense des USA ont indiqué qu’il serait bon que le Pentagone trouve une alternative au chasseur furtif dont le coût devient « inabordable ».

Le coût du programme JSF, destiné à remplacer une grande partie de la flotte américaine d’avions de combat, est «inabordable» en l’état et doit être revu, a déclaré le 19 mai le responsable des acquisitions du Pentagone, Ashton Carter devant les sénateurs de la Commission de la Défense.

« Il me semble qu’il serait prudent que nous commençions à envisager des alternatives », a réagit le sénateur John McCain (Arizona) après avoir entendu les estimations de M. Carter.

« Le coût unitaire pour les 2443 avions que nous voulons a doublé en termes réels. Autrement dit, c’est ce que ça va nous coûter si nous continuons sur notre lancée et c’est inacceptable, c’est inabordable à ce rythme », a ajouté le sous-secrétaire à la Défense.

Le coût du programme s’établit dorénavant à 385 milliards de dollars, soit un coût par appareil de 103 millions de dollars à prix constants (sans tenir compte de l’inflation) ou 113 millions de dollars courants, a indiqué Christine Fox, responsable de l’évaluation des programmes et des coûts au département américain de la Défense.

Pour le sénateur républicain John McCain, cette inflation est « réellement troublante » alors que le prix unitaire constant était de 69 millions à l’origine.

« Aucun programme ne peut se poursuivre avec de tels antécédents, surtout dans le climat budgétaire actuel », a-t-il mis en garde.

Le F-35 ou Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), construit par Lockheed Martin, est le plus coûteux programme d’armement du Pentagone.

Une nouvelle enveloppe supplémentaire de 4 milliards de dollars porte désormais les seuls coûts de développement de l’appareil à 51 milliards de dollars, des chiffres «consternants» selon le président de la commission, le sénateur démocrate Carl Levin.

Pour Ashton Carter, les dépassements de coûts et les retards sont dus aux difficultés de conception de cet appareil doté de capacités furtives, notamment pour sa version à décollage court et atterrissage vertical, mais aussi à la culture d’abondance du Pentagone depuis le 11-Septembre.

«Il était toujours possible pour les responsables du programme, quand ils rencontraient un problème ou devaient faire un choix difficile, d’obtenir plus d’argent», a-t-il reconnu.

Mais les membres du comité du Sénat ne sont pas tous d’accord sur le fait qu’il est nécessaire d’étudier de nouvelles options.

Le sénateur John Cornyn (Texas), originaire de l’État où est produit le F-35, a indiqué que le Pentagone doit faire tout son possible pour protéger les installations de production du JSF. « Si vous allez mettre tous vos œufs dans le même panier, vous devez protéger le panier. » a t-il expliqué.

M. Carter a déclaré qu’il souhaite réduire les coûts de 20% à 50%. « Ce n’est pas une petite somme. » a t-il ajouté.

Mais Christine Fox, directeur de l’évaluation des coûts du Pentagone et du bureau d’évaluation des programmes, a jeté le doute sur cet objectif, en expliquant que même si l’on accélérait le développement de logiciels pour réduire les coûts, les réductions du fonctionnement et du maintien (operation and sustainment) sont une autre affaire

« Le soutien et le fonctionnement sont un domaine difficilement compressible, » précise Mme Fox, ajoutant que le coût du carburant, par exemple, ne sera pas facile à réduire.

Interrogé sur les coûts, Tom Burbage, directeur général du programme F-35 chez Lockheed Martin, précise que les coûts de maintien d’un chasseur de nouvelle génération n’est pas comparable aux appareils plus anciens.

Il affirme que le JSF a été développé sur une logistique basée sur la performance. Le programme est conçu pour durer jusqu’en 2065 et il répond à des règles de base que les anciens appareils ne connaissent pas, poursuit-il.

May 20, 2011 Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Dominique Lasco, Naval Special Warfare Public Affairs / NNS  - defpro.com

SAN DIEGO | Naval Special Warfare Center and Navy Region Southwest hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to commemorate the opening of the new Naval Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewman (SWCC) Training Center of Excellence on Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, Calif., May 17.

The $8 million facility consolidates the Basic Crewman Training and the Crewman Qualification Training facilities that were once in two different locations.

"This is a huge step forward," said Chief Warrant Officer Elmer Williams, SWCC's training officer. "I have been doing this since before it was rated or called SWCC, when we didn't have a training pipeline. The addition of this building puts everything and everyone in one spot and will only improve the way we train our students."

The new building includes two state-of-the-art classrooms, offices, storage space, a maintenance and repair facility for nearly 20 11-meter rigid-hull inflatable boats and certified storage for weapons and communication systems that support training.

"[It makes it easier to communicate] now have all my staff and students in one spot," said Williams. "I can now talk to my staff and take care of them and the students; it's really great."

The building, a joint effort between Naval Special Warfare Center and Navy Region Southwest, took 13 months to complete. The two-story facility provides support for the multifaceted elements of Special Warfare Boat Operator "A" School.

"This is a long overdue training center," said Cmdr. Anthony Baker, commanding officer, Naval Special Warfare Basic Training Command. "This project is about 10 years in the making and now helps the instructor staff provide better training in a more professional environment for the students."

19 May 2011 By DAVE MAJUMDAR DefenseNews

The latest hardware and software upgrade for the U.S. Air Force's F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jet is over budget and behind schedule, top Defense Department officials told Congress on May 19.

"The Increment 3.2 that we're currently working on for the F-22 for our war-fighting customer is taking too long to implement," Air Force procurement chief David Van Buren told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "We are working with the company [Lockheed Martin] to try to speed that up and make it more affordable."

Among other improvements, the upgrade will allow the F-22 to carry the AIM-9X infrared-guided air-to-air missile and the AIM-120D medium-range air-to-air missile, and to attack eight ground targets with eight 250-pound Small Diameter Bombs.

Software development appears to be the primary cause of the delay.

Loren Thompson, an analyst at the Lexington Institute, said the F-22's software is written largely in Ada, a programming language that was once a DoD standard but whose use has waned in the past 15 years.

"It tends to impede quick upgrades to the system to which it is the base software," Thompson said.

Moreover, he said, "The affordability of any upgrade becomes debatable when you purchase a relatively small number of upgrades."

Lockheed has built 187 Raptors, of which two have been lost.

The company said it is working with the Air Force to accelerate fielding of the upgrade, which is split into two components, A and B, while trying to cut costs.

Lockheed has saved the Air Force $20 million by moving some electronic protection software from Increment 3.2B to Increment 3.2A, company spokeswoman Alison Orne stated in an email.

"We have successfully accelerated several Electronic Protection capabilities," she said. "These capabilities were previously planned to field in 2017 and are now part of the 3.2A baseline planned to field in 2014."

The company also is looking at 100 additional items on which it could cut costs for the second half of the upgrade.

"Each savings candidate is being reviewed for potential inclusion into the baseline Increment 3.2B program," Orne said.

Despite Lockheed's confidence, the Defense Department's leaders are worried about the program.

"The F-22 modernization program is a concern to us," said Pentagon procurement chief Ashton Carter, who testified alongside Van Buren at the May 19 hearing.

20 mai 2011 par Marie Tison - La Presse

May 20, 2011 SHEPARD GROUP Source: General Dynamics

General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products, a business unit of General Dynamics, today celebrated 15 years of continuous employment at the company's facility near Camden, Ark., with the delivery of its four-millionth Hydra 70 air-to-ground rocket. General Dynamics has been the sole manufacturer of the Hydra rocket for the US military since 1996. The company continues to deliver Hydra rockets under a contract that, if the US Army exercises all options, will extend through April 2015.

"The tremendous effort to produce thousands of rocket motors per month is accomplished only through the efficiency and experience of our highly-skilled employees and our supply partners," said Russ Klein, vice president and general manager of the company's weapon systems division. "This team effort has consistently resulted in an effective, affordable weapon for the US military and our allies."

More than 300 employees, suppliers and government officials attended a ceremony to mark the production milestone, including Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark), whose district encompasses the Camden Operations facility.

"I'm proud to help celebrate the four-millionth Hydra rocket built right here in south Arkansas," said Rep. Ross. "These Hydra rockets are crucial to our military missions abroad, especially in the war on terror. I thank General Dynamics for continuing their operations in Arkansas and I'm so proud of the more than 300 hardworking employees for their excellent work and for their role in this milestone."

Designated the Hydra 70, 2.75-inch (diameter) rocket, the weapon is fired from US Army's Apache and Kiowa Warrior helicopters, as well as helicopters and aircraft of the other armed forces. Hydra rockets are comprised of two main components: the MK66 rocket motor and the warhead. Assembled by General Dynamics, the rocket motor is approximately three-and-a-half feet in length and weighs nearly 15 pounds. The rocket's warhead varies to meet the wide range of mission requirements for all branches of the US military. General Dynamics and other suppliers build the various warheads, which are attached to the rocket motor either at the Arkansas facility or by the warfighter in the field.

In addition to Hydra rocket production, the workforce manufactures reactive armor tiles for Stryker wheeled-combat vehicles, propelling charges for 155mm howitzer rounds, and pressed warhead charges for Hellfire and Javelin missiles.

May 19, 2011 By Andrea Shalal-Esa/Reuters AviationWeek.com

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin remain upbeat about the future of the short takeoff version of the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter despite Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ threat to terminate the program should technical issues not be resolved in two years.

“We’re success-oriented; we want it to work out,” Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter told Reuters in an interview last week. “It’s important to us because it doubles the number of ships we can take JSF off from.”

The Marine Corps variant, also known as the F-35B, is designed to take off from shorter runways and land vertically, like a helicopter. A variety of issues related to its unique capabilities had slowed development on the new jet.

But Lockheed executives and Carter say those issues are being addressed and the jet is outpacing its flight test schedule for the year.

Carter; Vice Admiral David Venlet, who heads the Pentagon’s F-35 program office; Air Force acquisition chief David Van Buren; and Tom Burbage, Lockheed’s general manager for F-35 program integration, are due to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday about the projected $382 billion F-35 program—the Pentagon’s costliest arms purchase.

One key issue will be negotiations under way between Lockheed and the Pentagon about a fifth batch of 35 F-35 early-production planes. The talks got off to a rocky start when Lockheed’s proposal added $5 million to $7 million to the price for each plane compared with the previous batch.

Lockheed argues that its proposal is actually below the level estimated by the government last December, and notes that its costs will be higher since average monthly production under the contract would fall to three planes a month from the initially planned level of four planes a month.

Lawmakers also remain concerned about the fate of the short takeoff, vertical landing (STOVL) variant and the longer-term cost of operating and maintaining the new fighter jet, which is to replace about a dozen warplanes now in use by the U.S. armed services and foreign militaries.

Carter said Gates had wanted to give the program just one year to resolve remaining problems or face cancellation—but he argued for an additional year to collect the needed data on the jet’s weight and cost.

Carter said further issues could still emerge during flight testing, which would require engineering fixes, but Lockheed; engine maker Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies; and the Pentagon’s F-35 program office are “working real hard” to ensure the program’s success.

After the end of the two-year probation period, Pentagon officials would review the key question: “Is the resulting airplane affordable and is it light enough that it can accomplish the vertical landings and the short takeoffs which are its raison d’etre?” Carter said.

Lockheed is busy producing the F-35B models that have already been ordered at its plant in Fort Worth, Texas, but the “probation” decision limits procurement of that model to just six planes in both fiscal 2012 and fiscal 2013—well below the production level of 17 planes in 2010.

The plane is gearing up for sea trials on the USS Wasp, an amphibious assault ship, off the coast of Virginia this October, Lockheed officials told Reuters last week.

Those tests—and new measurement of the weight of the B-model without heavy test equipment on board—will be significant milestones in coming months, Burbage said.

SAN DIEGO, May 19, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE)

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) a $48.7 million contract modification for continuing operations and support of the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) system.

Under the contract modification, Northrop Grumman will continue providing management, engineering, implementation, test, site and training support.

BACN provides an advanced airborne communications gateway capability to commanders and warfighters, enhancing situational awareness and connecting disparate voice and datalink networks throughout the battlespace. BACN bridges and extends voice communications and battlespace awareness information from numerous sources using a suite of computers and radio systems.

The Air Force Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., awarded the contract to Northrop Grumman in support of the Air Force Materiel Command.

Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for the development, fielding and maintenance of the BACN system. The company was awarded the first BACN contract in April 2005.

Northrop Grumman's work on the BACN program is managed and performed primarily in San Diego.

The BACN program has received a number of accolades over the past year. The Department of Defense (DoD) and the National Defense Industrial Association selected the BACN Joint Urgent Operational Need program to receive one of the Top 5 DoD Program Awards, which are given annually for excellence in systems engineering.

BACN also was honored with the Weapon Systems Award from the Order of Daedalians, a national fraternity of military pilots, and the 2010 Network Centric Warfare Award™ for Outstanding Achievement from a Defense Industry Partner, by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement.

AMDR allows naval forces to quickly respond to a broad

spectrum of threats, both present and future. (Photo: Raytheon)

May 19, 2011 defpro.com

TEWKSBURY, Mass. | Raytheon Company has produced the first group of S-band transmit/receive (T/R) modules for the U.S. Navy's Air & Missile Defense Radar program.

The modules have been thoroughly tested and have proved to meet or exceed all AMDR performance and reliability requirements. This success marks a major milestone for the program, for which Raytheon is currently developing a technology demonstrator for the system's S-band radar and radar suite controller.

"Our AMDR T/R modules are demonstrating significant capability and performance reliability," said Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems' (IDS) Kevin Peppe, vice president of Seapower Capability Systems. "Leveraging our established manufacturing expertise, experience and capacity, we will deliver a low-risk, high-performance system on schedule and on budget."

This milestone advances Raytheon's progress for Phase II of the AMDR program and also demonstrates Raytheon's manufacturing readiness for AMDR Phase III, which calls for engineering and manufacturing development. Under Phase III, industry teams competing for the program will each be required to produce a functioning radar. Raytheon recently participated in a system requirements review with the Navy to report on its progress to date.

Raytheon's skill and experience working with multiple radar bands, dating back to the Cobra Judy program and continuing today with the advanced Dual Band Radar and Cobra Judy Replacement programs, will ensure that AMDR's S- and X-band radars operate in coordination across a variety of operational environments. Additionally, Raytheon's extensive work with large-scale, active phased-array radars and expertise in ballistic missile defense radar technology position the company well for the AMDR competition. The company has a long heritage of developing and producing some of the world's most capable air and missile defense radars. Additionally, Raytheon has produced more than 1.8 million AESA (active electronically scanned array) T/R modules to date and has decades of experience working with adaptive beamforming technologies.

AMDR will provide unprecedented capabilities for the Navy's Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. The radar suite will consist of an S-band radar, X-band radar and radar suite controller. The AMDR S-band component will provide volume search, tracking, ballistic missile defense discrimination and missile communications, while the X-band will perform horizon search, precision tracking, missile communication and terminal illumination functions. Also, AMDR will be scalable, enabling installation and integration on multiple platforms to meet the Navy's current and future mission requirements.

Work on the AMDR program is performed at Raytheon IDS Headquarters, Tewksbury, Mass.; at the Surveillance and Sensors Center, Sudbury, Mass.; at the Seapower Capability Center, Portsmouth, R.I.; and at the Integrated Air Defense Center, Andover, Mass. Raytheon has partnered with General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems and shipbuilder Gibbs & Cox in the development of this next-generation radar solution. To learn more about AMDR as well as Raytheon's radar heritage and leading-edge technologies, visit http://www.raytheon.com/capabilities/radar/index.html.

May 19, 2011 Cheryl Pellerin - American Forces Press Service – defpro.com

WASHINGTON | Every year since 2003, cadets from the U.S. Military Academy and students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have competed to develop technologies that help soldiers and Marines on the battlefield.

This year, six teams took home awards for advances such as slashing the time it takes to set up sand-filled barriers, designing a safer way to airdrop water supplies, harvesting wind energy from a cell-phone-sized generator, and more.

The MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, a research center founded in 2002 with a five-year, $50 million Army research contract, holds the Soldier Design Competition.

The institute is in its second five-year contract, and its mission is to use the power of nanotechnology to save the lives of soldiers and Marines.

Nanotechnology is science on the scale of single atoms and molecules. A nanometer is 1 billionth of a meter; a sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick.

Nanotechnology offers the potential for making things small and lightweight. And because materials act differently at the nano scale than they do at everyday scales of inches, feet and pounds, engineers potentially can create unprecedented new materials and devices.

“Imagine a bullet-resistant jumpsuit,” the institute’s website says, “no thicker than ordinary spandex that monitors health, eases injuries, communicates automatically and reacts instantly to chemical and biological agents.”

This is the institute’s ultimate goal.

In the meantime, efforts such as the Soldier Design Competition harness the ideas and energies of students and cadets for low-cost, semester-length projects that awardees can commercialize quickly and use to help soldiers.

First prize went to a West Point team that redesigned Hercules Engineering Solutions Consortium, or HESCO, barriers, used by U.S., NATO and other military forces around the world. The redesign saved 60 percent of the time needed to protect against small-arms fire when soldiers have to shovel sand into the barriers by hand.

“The team talked to people in small-arms protection who said you only need a foot of sand in the HESCO barrier to stop gunfire, so you don’t need to fill the whole thing up right away,” John McConville, technology transfer officer for the Army Research Office, told American Forces Press Service.

McConville, assigned to the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, helps students and cadets link up with Army labs and commands to get the technologies into the field.

An MIT team earned second prize for designing a way to drop water supplies -- one large bottle or a pallet of them -- from aircraft and get them down safely and without help from people on the ground.

Their model was the wing-like maple-tree seed. Almost as soon as the seed leaves the tree, its aerodynamic shape causes it to rotate around its own center of mass as it spins slowly to the ground.

“The team made a [leaf-shaped wing] out of cardboard, did some calculations, strapped a little bag of water on it and threw it out their dorm window,” McConville said.

“They have a little video of this, and it comes spinning down really slow,” he said, noting that the team analyzed how heavy a bag could be and how fast it could come down without seriously hurting someone on the ground.

“They determined that if they had up to 500 milliliters of water and they used this device,” McConville added, “it wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

The Army’s Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center submitted the problem to the Soldier Design Competition as a humanitarian issue, and McConville said Natick was interested in the design.

For the third prize, an MIT team created a cell-phone-sized device with a lever whose wind-generated vibrations in an electromagnetic field produces electricity. The students, McConville said, “are trying to design it so a soldier can use it to charge a battery.”

Teams also received awards for an augmented reality battlefield smartphone application, a low-cost tactical unmanned aircraft system and a thin-film rechargeable battery in the form of a U.S. flag uniform patch.

Other entries included an advanced adaptable ear-protection system, a soldier sound system that allows vehicle operators to hear important environmental sounds, an exoskeleton, a personal nonlethal distraction device that can be hidden in everyday objects, and a smartphone vibrating-belt system for situational awareness on the battlefield.

Several teams are working with the Army to field their devices, McConville said, and some are patenting their designs in advance of taking them to the commercial market.

“We encourage whatever it takes to commercialize the product and get it to the soldier,” he added.

Even teams whose entries don’t receive awards contribute to the mission, the technology transfer officer noted. “They’re all out there trying to help the soldier,” he said. “There really are no losers.”

Remote-Control Craft Expand High-Tech Transformation of Military Operations

MAY 17, 2011 By NATHAN HODGE The Wall Street Journal

Remote-control helicopters that can spy on targets and mark them for attack are expanding the U.S. military's offensive capabilities on a range of battlefields without exposing Americans to greater casualties. Whether pinpointing enemies, hunting pirates or tracking drug smugglers, the multipurpose craft are at the vanguard of the robotic revolution transforming warfare. A version of the Fire Scout helicopter is already being used on surveillance missions for special-operations forces in the Middle East, said Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations. Details of special operations are closely held secrets, but the Navy disclosed that two Fire Scouts were operating from the guided-missile frigate USS Halyburton. The ship is patrolling near the Horn of Africa as part of an international task force fighting Somali pirates. The military also has a few of the aircraft in Afghanistan, officials said. Pilotless helicopters have several advantages: They can stay airborne longer than manned versions; can take off and land from a ship's deck, potentially surprising enemy spotters keeping watch for aircraft taking off and landing from a base on land; and if they are shot down, no pilot is endangered. Robotic helicopters may enable the military to take the antipiracy fight inland as well, going after the organizers of pirate raids as well as terror suspects. Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the military has become increasingly dependent on pilotless aircraft to collect countless hours of overhead surveillance footage, observing suspected enemies' "pattern of life." Some drones also carry missiles or bombs and have been used to attack targets in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. The Fire Scout is built by Northrop Grumman Corp. around the modified frame of a Schweizer Aircraft model 333, a small one- or two-seat helicopter. Operated from a control station, the robotic aircraft typically operate in pairs, with one hovering over an area of interest for five or six hours before swapping out with a second one. According to the Navy, a team of Fire Scouts can provide 12 continuous hours of coverage over a target, operating more than 125 miles from the launch site. Northrop recently announced that one of the robotic choppers based on the Halyburton set a single-day flight record, staying aloft more than 18 hours. That included brief refueling stops. The Fire Scout also has a laser targeting system that marks a target for other aircraft to attack and can be used as a communications relay, extending the range of ground communications systems. Last year, during trials aboard the frigate USS McInerney, Fire Scouts helped spot a speedboat operated by drug smugglers in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The boat was intercepted by a Coast Guard detachment, which seized 60 kilograms of cocaine. Last month, the Navy shipped three Fire Scouts to Afghanistan to support troops on the ground. While earning good marks on its current mission, the Fire Scout has had some development problems. The Army, for instance, had wanted a version as part of a modernization effort that was canceled in 2009 due to its high price tag. The service had ordered eight Fire Scouts, and the partially built aircraft are now being reconfigured for Navy specification. The Navy plans to acquire a total of 168 of the aircraft.

—Julian E. Barnes contributed to this article.