Binkov's Battlegrounds

On September 27th, 2018 USAF announced Boeing-SAAB team has won the next generation trainer competition with their candidate design. The competition aims to replace the USAF's current T-38 trainers. It's a design that was made in late 1950s. Boeing's announcement here Boeing-SAAB prototypes in flight Originally, USAF projected the cost for the T-X program was to be $19.7 billion, for design and procurement of 351 planes. Through this competition, they've lowered the cost quite a bit. Boeing's winning bid is just $9.2 billion. It would cover 351 planes, 46 simulators and associated equipment. The initial stage of the contract is worth $813 million, which is to provide Boeing with funds to engineer and manufacture first five aircraft and seven simulators. Boeing won against Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace Industries bid, the T-50; as well as against Leonardo's T-100 (Based on their own M-346 trainer). Earlier, other competitors such as Northrop...

Boeing-Leonardo's MH-139 Boeing-Leonardo have won the USAF competition to replace its old UH-1N helicopters, serving since 1970s.  As reported by Boeing The winning helicopter is designated MH-139. It is a variant of Leonardo's AW139 design, a commercial helicopter in service since 2004, with some 900 airframes produced so far. https://www.boeing.com/defense/mh-139/index.page They beat Lockheed Martin Sikorsky team as well as Sierra Nevada Corporation, both of which had offered variants of UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. Most likely reason for the victory was much lower price tag. $2.38 billion, down from $4.1 billion which was the original USAF cost estimate for the procurement. Furthermore, operating costs over the lifetime are likely to be lower, compared to Black Hawk. Said funds would buy 84 helicopters, with first two delivered in 2021. Roles of both UH-1N and new helicopters include patrol over USAF's ICBM missile silos, as well as various VIP transpor...

On 31st of July 2018 China launched a satellite they call GF-11. It went into a low Earth orbit and was announced as a "member of Chinese high resolution Earth observation system".  The whole series of satellites, called GF, actually means "High definition". While the name itself doesn't mean much, as first GF satellites were launched in 2013 and various satellites have various roles with various resolutions, this one was markedly different. News article by Science and Technology Daily,  as available here , stated its ground resolution is under one meter. Now, that in itself doesn't mean much. Previously, commercial satellites from China also offer sub meter resolution. But the most interesting aspect are the images broadcast from the launch. Shape and relative size of the satellite very much point to a satellite with a large mirror. And are quite similar to US Kennen spy satellites. Diameter of the mirror held inside could very well be 1.7 meters. If ...

Russian Ministry of Defence has so far signed contracts for a total of 116 Su-30SM, starting with the first one in 2012. So far, 108 airframes have been delivered. Another contract is to be announced by the end of this year, for further 36 airframes. Timeframe for deliveries is to be around 3 years. Russian Vedomosti.ru confirms that here . With 152 airframes likely (more theoretically possible) the Su-30SM may become Russian most numerous airframe type. More numerous than Su-34, Su-35, Su-25 or MiG-31. But Su-30SM isn't really that modern. Its airframe and materials are largely unchanged from end of Cold war design of original Su-30. It has more modern avionics, of course, and can use more modern weapons. But another one of leftover tech was the engines. It currently uses Al-31FP engines, which are more-or-less Al-31F, from Cold War era, when it comes to engine power. They have somewhat better reliability, added digital control and they have added thrust vectoring. Still, ...

Several weeks ago, a presentation was made by "Team Tempest". Said team is made up of mostly British companies with quite some pedigree in defense systems. BAE Systems, which makes a lot of subsystems for F-35, which co-designed Eurofighter and which made several hi-tech demonstrator planes or stealthy mockups, like the Taranis UAV and Replica mockup. Leonardo, Italian company which makes M-346 trainer plane, various helicopters and most importantly for Team Tempest, various avionics. Rolls-Royce, which co-designed the engine for the Eurofighter, and is one of the world's leading engine manufacturers. MBDA, a multinational company (mostly owned by BAE and Leonardo) which develops various missile systems. Team Tempest fighter jet mockup They showed a mock up of a fighter plane without a name. Erroneously, people are calling the fighter "Tempest". (That name may happen some day, but right now it is premature) The unveiling was really a part of UK Mini...