"Next-Generation Air-Refueling System" (NGAS) ... questa è la nuova designazione assegnata dall'Air Force al programma in passato noto come “KC-Z” ...
The Air Force launched its search for the Next-Generation Air-Refueling System (NGAS), a stealthy tanker project intended to deliver its first aircraft around 2040, with a Jan. 31 request for information to industry.
The new tanker is to be capable of surviving in contested airspace, but the service is open to all ideas about its size and performance.
Contractors are invited to submit ideas for the NGAS that will be considered in an Analysis of Alternatives getting underway in October, according to the announcement on SAM.gov.
Responses to the RFI are due March 2.
The RFI marks the formal start of what has previously been called “KC-Z.”
The KC-X program became the KC-46 now being acquired; the KC-Y has become the so-called “bridge tanker” still in definition, and KC-Z the Air Force now refers to as NGAS, or “increment three” of its three-phase tanker recapitalization effort.
The Defense Innovation Unit and the Air Force are already looking at concepts for a future blended-wing body tanker, but the Jan. 31 solicitation specifically leaves open the configuration.
L'USAF dà una scossa al suo piano per le avio-cisterne: meno rifornitori di carburante "tradizionali" e attenzione su un futuro orientato sulla "furtività" ...
The Air Force is dumping its decade-old strategy of a three-phase tanker recapitalization plan, replacing it with a strategy that will yield about 75 traditional tankers beyond the current run of the KC-46 and then focus on a future, survivable tanker, Air Force acquisition executive Andrew Hunter said March 6.
“We have come to the determination that the kind of KC-X, -Y, -Z strategy that was established in the 2009-2010 timeframe is no longer fit for … meeting the air refueling needs of the joint force in the 2030s and beyond,” Hunter told reporters at the AFA Warfare Symposium.
The new Next Generation Air-refueling System, or NGAS, is “focused on ensuring” that USAF tankers in the mid-2030s and later “will be able to survive and operate in a much more contested environment than the tankers of the past or the tankers that are in our current fleet,” which include the KC-46, Hunter said.
Through analysis done as part of Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall’s operational imperatives, Hunter said there are too many “threats that are posed by potential adversaries to high-value aircraft, including tankers,” and USAF needs an approach that addresses those threats while still meeting its obligations to refuel the joint force “in all of the critical operations that are required for high intensity conflict.” Hunter said the Air Force consulted with Boeing and Lockheed Martin on when they could deliver new tankers after Boeing finishes its current contract for 179 KC-46s. Boeing could produce an uprated KC-46 by 2032 and Lockheed could provide an “LMXT” tanker, based on the Airbus A330, by 2024.
By that time, USAF doesn’t want to be buying traditional tankers anymore, Hunter said.
La startup californiana "JetZero" ha presentato la sua proposta di un velivolo "Blended Wing Body (BWB)" che potrebbe essere utilizzato dall'USAF come avio-cisterna ...
Has the time for the blended wing body finally arrived? JetZero thinks so, and the California startup has emerged from stealth mode to unveil a multimission design targeting the midsize commercial and military tanker-transport markets.
First appearing as a concept in the late 1980s and studied on and off ever since, the blended wing body (BWB) has failed to gain traction despite promising performance projections.
Now, JetZero says, a yawning market gap for a sustainable midsize airliner and the U.S. Air Force’s simultaneous quest for a similarly sized advanced tanker-transport means the stars are aligned for a BWB as never before.
The BWB concept blends the airframe structure and aerodynamics to reduce weight and drag while enabling the fuselage to contribute to lift.
Also known as a hybrid wing body, the configuration is usually tailless and more efficient than a conventional tube-and-wing design because of its reduced wetted area, friction drag and lower form drag. BWBs are also inherently quieter than current airliners because the airframe shields most of the noise from engines mounted on the upper surface.
Mentre lUSAF sta intraprendendo quello che probabilmente sarà un lungo processo di sviluppo del Next Generation Air Refuelling System (NGAS) per aiutare a ricapitalizzare la sua flotta per il rifornimento in volo, il servizio sta ponendo quello che il segretario dell'Air Force Frank Kendall ha descritto come un "premio per la sopravvivenza” sulle future aviocisterne.
Ciò potrebbe significare allontanarsi da aerei di linea modificati o jet cargo e verso un design dal corpo ad ala mista.
La società di ingegneria aerospaziale JetZero, in collaborazione con il gigante della difesa Northrop Grumman, ha recentemente rilasciato il suo concetto proprio per un aereo di questo tipo, raccogliendo elogi da un esperto di rifornimento in volo che ha affermato che il progetto mostra la promessa per le future esigenze dell'USAF per supportare una lotta a lunga distanza contro un avversario quasi alla pari.
A breve termine, l'USAF prevede di acquistare 179 aviocisterne KC-46 entro il 2029 per sostituire la sua vecchia flotta di KC-135.
Successivamente, il servizio sta prendendo in considerazione altre 75 aviocisterne "ponte", o un KC-46 modificato o un altro rifornitore di carburante tradizionale come l'offerta LMXT di Lockheed Martin e Airbus.
I piani a lunga scadenza dell'USAF destinati alla sostituzione dell'avio-cisterna KC-135 Stratotanker con una cellula simile, dipendono dai progressi della ricerca effettuati allo scopo di realizzare un velivolo più futuristico …
Riguardo JetZero e la sua proposta per un blended wing body aircraft, che potrà essere utilizzato sia come commercial aircraft che come base per un futuro aerial refueling tanker, Pratt & Whitney e Collins Aerospace, entrambe aziende che fanno parte di RTX, guideranno l’engine integration e forniranno power units and nacelles per il JetZero demonstrator.
"La corsa di decollo è una metamorfosi, ecco una quantità di metallo che si trasforma in aeroplano per mezzo dell'aria. Ogni corsa di decollo è la nascita di un aeroplano" (Staccando l'ombra da terra - D. Del Giudice)
La scelta, da parte dell'USAF, del caccia Boeing F-47 quale vincitore della competizione per i velivoli da combattimento "Next Generation Air Dominance" (NGAD), sta sollevando nuove domande sui piani relativi alle aviocisterne furtive di nuova generazione …
