Oxygen Issue for Military’s Most Advanced Dogfighter: F-22 Raptor

F-22 Raptor stealth fighters at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia have been grounded after a pilot experienced oxygen loss mid-flight. It’s the second stand-down this year for the U.S. military’s most sophisticated dogfighter, and a foreboding sign for the Pentagon as it struggles to modernize its aerial armada.

Problems with the on-board oxygen system have vexed the $150-million-a-copy F-22 for more than a year. On May 3, the Air Force locked down the entire Raptor fleet while it investigated reports of pilot blackouts and disorientation — problems that might have contributed to a fatal F-22 crash in Alaska in November.

Investigators suspected a design flaw in the Raptor’s oxygen generator that was allowing high levels of unbreathable nitrogen to leak into the pilot’s air supply.

But they could never pin down the precise flaw, and last month the Air Force brass ordered the 170 F-22s — accounting for nearly half of the Pentagon’s air-superiority force — back into the air.

“We now have enough insight from recent studies and investigations that a return to flight is prudent and appropriate,” said Gen. Norton Schwartz, the Air Force chief of staff.

As added insurance, Raptor squadrons installed an extra air filter on the radar-evading jets built by Lockheed Martin. But the filter appears not to have solved the problem, if the Virginia incident is any indication.

The Air Force is being cagey about the new grounding.

“Part of our protocol is to allow units to pause operations whenever they need to analyze information collected from flight operations to ensure safety,” the flying branch said in a statement. “That is what is happening at Langley at the moment, and we support that decision.”

Considering the Raptor’s ongoing safety woes and continuing delays, cost overruns, maintenance woes and production cuts in the F-35 stealth fighter program, the Pentagon’s next-generation air arsenal is looking more and more like history’s most expensive hangar decoration. With many of the latest fighters unflyable, old-school F-15s and F-16s dating from the 1980s could be forced to hold the line for years to come.

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Posted in: alaska,dogfighter,f-15,f-16,f-22 raptor,lockheed martin,oxygen,pilot,technology

Russian Stealth Boats

Russia has announced plans to build a new fleet of James Bond style ‘stealth’ boats that will be almost impossible to detect by radar.

According to reports Russian engineers will start work on up to 16 of the new destroyers over the next 20 years which will be outfitted with an arsenal of weapons.

Russian newspaper Pravda said the fleet will form the backbone of the country’s naval power.

Could the Russian offering by similar? An artist's impression of the Zumwalt-class destroyer DDG 1000, a proposed class of U.S. Navy 'stealth' ship.

Each boat would be equipped with cruise and anti-aircraft missiles, anti-ship missiles and torpedoes, Fox News reported.
So adaptable is the new boat that it could replace three existing kinds of vessel.

A source from the Russian defence industry told Russian language newspaper Izvestia: ‘It will leave behind large-anti-submarine ships with the help of state-of-the-art hardware.
Its assault and anti-aircraft performance will outstrip present-day destroyers and guided-missile cruisers’.
The announcement comes after Russia unveiled plans for a stealth jet fighter that will work as its own version of the U.S. F-22 Raptor, itself a stealth craft.

The Sukhoi Tu-50 is being developed jointly by Russia and India and was made public for the first time in August.
Experts have said the latest announcement should be greeted with scepticism as Russia could merely be touting for business with its new technology.
They also questioned whether or not a destroyer ship - which can have a displacement of up to 9,000 tonnes - could be actually invisible.

‘The vast majority of warships built today boast stealthy features to one degree or another,’ said James Holmes, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College.
Thomas Fedyszyn, director of the Europe-Russia Studies Group at the U.S. Naval War College added: ‘They're trying to sell this to India, Vietnam, Indonesia … as marketers, they would per force be required to make statements like this.

‘I'm not persuaded that they will revolutionise surface warfare. It's probably not a revolutionary stealth technology that makes them invisible to all things at all times.
‘Everyone who's building ships these days is changing angles so they don't become radar beacons. We build them stealthier than we used to build them.’

Russia has already taken delivery of the second of the separate Project 20380 or Steregushchy class corvette ships which are designed to be harder for radar to pick up.
Naval chiefs plan to have up to 30 of the vessels to patrol its coastal waters and oil and gas transportation routes thanks to their SS-N-25 Switchblade anti-ship cruise missiles and 100-mm gun.

Each ship can reach a maximum speed of 27 knots and has a crew of 100 which operate string of air defence and anti-submarine systems.
America has also experimented with stealth ships but its ‘Sea Shadow’ never went into mass production, despite costing more than £110million to develop.

The distinctive vessel was the inspiration for the stealth boat used in the James Bond film 'Tomorrow Never Dies’ by a media mogul intent on world domination.
The Sea Shadow however is currently housed in a dock in San Diego, California, with few signs of interests from even naval museums.
by "environment clean generations"

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Posted in: f-22 raptor,james bond,pravda,russia,Russian Stealth Boats,technology,tomorrow never dies,warships