To test new flight management software, a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber recently flew from Edwards AFB to the North Pole and back, without landing.

The flight took 18.5 hours, a spokesman for Northrop Grumman said.

The sortie also included air-refueling to and from the North Pole from Edwards. The verification reviews and flight test were the culmination of more than two years of detailed planning and coordination between Northrop-Grumman, the Air Force and multiple suppliers to verify hardware, software and process requirements, a spokesman said.

"The computer upgrade system, which is the cornerstone for all future B-2 upgrades, is now ready to enter low-rate initial production," the spokesman said. "The Extremely High Frequency (EHF) Increment 1 system verification review demonstrated the computer upgrade program and successfully satisfied the government's requirements."

The flight mission was led by the Combined Test Force team at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

"A successful event of this magnitude on a program this size is a testament to the common vision and team-centric approach that the Increment 1 team utilized," said Josh Foster, Northrop Grumman's EHF Increment 1 integrated project team leader.

The B-2 Spirit stealth bomber remains the only long-range, large-payload aircraft that can penetrate deeply into protected airspace. The B-2 can fly more than 6,000 nautical miles unrefueled and more than 10,000 nautical miles with just one aerial refueling, giving it the ability to reach any point on the globe within hours.

All this technology afford the B-2's ability to ensure an effective U.S. response to threats anywhere in the world, Northrop said, such as say, oh, Iran or North Korea. Or China.

McDonnell-Douglas Helicopters of Mesa, Arizona has introduced a new six-bladed single-engine scout helicopter designated the MD 540F.

CEO Lynn Tilton said the machine is expected to receive certification next year. The aircraft, designed for both the military and commercial markets, is an upgrade of the company's MD 530F, which was certified in 1985.

The turbine powered MD 540F will have a fully articulated rotor blade system made up entirely of composite material, in addition to a more rugged landing skid built for heavier takeoff and landing weights.

"This aircraft will be a game changer for our company," said Tilton. "The commercial and military markets have long sought an affordable, light, single-engine helicopter that can perform exceptionally well at hot and high altitudes while carrying a larger useful load.

"The MD 540F will be that aircraft," said.

"Our engineers have bolstered performance to achieve a dramatic increase in max gross take-off weight and useful load capability," she said. "This increase will allow the MD 540F to carry a full avionics and weapons package while hovering at 6,000 feet at 95°F."

MDHI said the new helicopter will feature a fully integrated, digital glass cockpit, with multifunction color displays and a helmet display and tracking system. The armed version of the aircraft will have rockets, guns and Hellfire missiles.

"The 540F will be a lethal fighting machine," said Tilton. "The 540F will carry much of the same punch as the heavier attack helicopters at a fraction of the acquisition expense and life cycle operation costs."

The MD 540F's information will be displayed to the pilots on large, easy to read, multi-function color displays, and beam directly onto the pilot's eyes using a sophisticated Helmet Display and Tracking System (HDTS).

The Targeting FLIR with laser designator coupled with the HDTS and laser guided rockets or Hellfire missile, will allow the pilot to easily locate and destroy hostile targets - day or night," she said.

"The 540F will be a lethal fighting machine," said Tilton. "The 540F will carry much of the same punch as the heavier attack helicopters at a fraction of the acquisition expense and life cycle operation costs. Using precise aim points and laser guided missiles and rockets, the MD 540F will be able to destroy enemy armor and infantry positions with little collateral battle damage."

Whatever that cost is, however, was not reported. The company is flight testing the helicopter at present and certification is projected for the 1st quarter of 2013.

The armed version will be on display at the Army Aviation Association of America convention in Nashville later this year.

First, one violated the airspace restrictions around Washington DC on August 2, 2010 then others began crashing around the world from Libya to Afghanistan.

The Fire Scout was designed to provide reconnaissance, situational awareness, and precision targeting support for ground, air and sea forces. The initial RQ-8A version was based on the Schweizer 330, while the enhanced MQ-8B was derived from the Schweizer 333, all overseen by Northrop-Grumman.

The latest incident was when a Fire Scout went down on March 30 in the ocean off the coast of West Africa. The little chopper made multiple landing approaches to the ship it was flying from but was unable to get aboard so it ditched, according to the Navy.

Apparently the little chopper was banged up, but he might be salvageable.

That incident was followed by a crash on April 6 when an unmanned helo - thought to be a Fire Scout - went down in Afghanistan. The Afghan crash ruined the party for the rest of the Fire Scout fleet, with the Navy issuing a ban on MQ-8B flights that same day.

Consequently, the Navy has grounded the little helicopter drones indefinitely. However, the pentagon ordered six more so who knows?

Called the F/A-XX for now, the service released its Request for Information on the aircraft in mid-April. Whatever jet is selected will replace the Super Hornets around 2030, said Rear Adm. Donald Gaddis at the Navy League's annual Sea, Air, Space conference in National Harbor, Md.

Before the Navy can settle on the final capabilities such a plane will have, it needs to know what types of technology the defense industry can bring to the table for a brand new fighter that will be fielded in less than two decades, said Gaddis.

The new jet must be able to survive in anti-access environment, have next-gen sensors and maybe even the ability to "buddy" refuel other fighters and perform airborne early warning (AEW) duties, according to Gaddis.

Here's what the actual RfI says the service wants in the new jet, according to Military.com:
"The intent of this research is to solicit Industry inputs on candidate solutions for CVN based aircraft to provide multi-role capability in an A2AD operational environment. Primary missions include, but are not limited to, air warfare (AW), strike warfare (STW), surface warfare (SUW), and close air support (CAS).

"Also consider the ability of your concept to provide other capabilities currently provided by strike fighter aircraft, such as organic air-to-air refueling (AAR), Tactical Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition (RSTA), and airborne electronic attack (AEA). The trade space refinement activity will characterize a broad tradespace, to include unmanned, optionally manned and manned aircraft.

"System attributes and system capabilities will be considered in the context of cost and affordability. Concepts that are derived from legacy aircraft, 'clean sheet' new design aircraft, as well as innovative technology concepts specifically tailored for the operational context are all relevant. Please provide a separate white paper for each technology concept or family of related and complementary technology concepts; multiple white papers may be provided."

The Navy's going to be studying the available technologies to build the Super Hornet replacement - that may well still be manned - for years since it will have such a big impact on the makeup of the 21st Century carrier air wing, according to Gaddis.

Reason: cutting costs and ensuring its combat pilots are getting the training hours they need in a time of shrinking budgets.

The cutbacks won't affect the Thunderbirds, but will mean fewer fighter planes performing for scores of crowds around the country.

The past two years, jets assigned to Air Combat Command Aerial Events performed at 131 air shows each year. That includes a heritage program where modern fighter planes such as the A-10 and the F-16 fly alongside vintage jets flown by civilians in aircraft such as the World War II-era P-51 Mustang.

This year, Air Combat Command plans to only send its jets to 61 shows, which includes those performing in the heritage program.

The F-22 was scheduled to fly at 20 of those shows.

Officials at Air Combat Command eliminated the solo performances of five of its crews based in Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Utah, a spokesman said.

Eliminating solo performances by the A-10, the F-16 and F-15E is expected to save the Air Force $15.5 million and allow about 970 training flights that otherwise would have been canceled.

The cost savings include fuel and travel costs for the pilots and their maintenance crews, among other things. It's wasn't clear if the teams will perform again next year.

The Thunderbirds, on the other hand, get paid by the airshow producers for their performances, plus they get fuel, smoke oil, rooms, food, cars and prime seats at the events, as do the Blue Angels.

"The goal of the commander of Air Combat Command is to maintain mission ready pilots, and in order to do that we had to cut some money," said Lt. Col. Mike Brazelton, branch chief of Air Combat Command's aerial events staff. "And being able to save 900 some odd sorties."

The only combat plane that will conduct solo performances this year is the F-22 Raptor, which is based at Air Combat Command's headquarters at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Va.

Brazelton said the F-22 was chosen as the remaining demonstration plane because, as the world's only fifth generation fighter plane, it is capable of maneuvers that other planes are not and it is the plane most frequently requested for performances.

In a statement, Air Combat Command officials said eliminating the solo demonstrations would result in an increase of more than 25 combat-ready fighter pilots.

"That's a very good thing for our nation and wise stewardship of our limited resources," the command said in the statement. Although it's difficult to gauge exactly how many performances the other five teams would have participated in this year, Air Force biographies show they range from 30 performances a year by an A-10C Thunderbolt pilot to 65 performances a year by the F-15E Strike Eagle Demo Team.

Those biographies say the teams performed for between three million and seven million people each year.

The canceled demonstration teams are the F-15E Demonstration Team at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.; the F-16 Demonstration Team East at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C.; F-16 Demonstration Team West at Hill Air Force Base, Utah; A-10 Demonstration Team East at Moody Air Force Base, Ga.; and the A-10 Demonstration Team West at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz.

"Between the expense of purchasing these items and the fact that our operations don't involve flying, this recommendation was good common sense," Gen. William L. Shelton, the AFSPC commander said.

The move is designed to standardize uniform wear across Space Command in a "resource-constrained environment." AFSPC officials stopped purchasing Flight Duty Uniforms, Desert Flight Duty Uniforms, A-2 Leather Jackets and associated patches for space operators March 14.

The policy affects approximately 1,800 Airmen in the Space Systems Operations and Space and Missile Operations career fields. It will save an estimated $670,000 per year during a time of fiscal constraint throughout the Air Force, a spokesman said.

A policy letter issued April 10 states that starting Oct. 1, military personnel in any Air Force Specialty Code assigned to a space command unit will no longer be authorized to wear the flight suit and green flight jacket, unless they are engaged in flying operations, nor are they authorized to wear the A-2 Leather Jacket.

Until the F-22 came along.

The Air Force admits that a "very small number" of F-22 pilots have requested to not fly the U.S. Air Force's Raptors. This follows the grounding and unfruitful investigation into the oxygen problems plaguing the stealthy jet, the head of Air Combat Command said April 30.

The service has yet to identify a root cause for 11 unexplained hypoxia-related incidents. The command has extended its investigation to looking at ground maintainers who have experienced oxygen-related problems in handling the jet, Gen. Mike Hostage said in a wide-ranging media briefing at Joint Base Langley -Eustis, Va.

There is a worry among pilots, Hostage said, but he does not see a reason to stand down. The briefing came just days after the Air Force announced that a squadron of F-22s were headed to a deployment in southwest Asia.

Officials on April 30 would not say where the F-22s were deployed from, or give additional details about their mission.

"The risk is not as low as I'd like it," Hostage said of the deployed F-22s.

"This nation needs this airplane. I wish I had 10 times as many. It's our best airplane," he added.

The Air Force in May 2011 grounded its entire F-22 fleet for four months due to repeated cases of hypoxia. Maj. Gen. Charles Lyon, the director of operations for ACC, said that the F-22 has flown 12,000 sorties since September with 11 unexplained cases of hypoxia.

Since the grounding was lifted, pilots have taken extra precautions such as wearing a commercial pulse oximeter to measure the amount of oxygen in their blood and added a charcoal air filter to measure the amount of toxins in the air.

The filters were recently removed, Lyon said, because analysis of more than 500 revealed no unhealthy amount of toxins post-flight.

ACC has directed all pilots to abort their mission and land the aircraft if they encounter any physiological problems, Hostage said. Since the directive was announced, which began after pilots were cleared to fly following the grounding, there has been an expected increase in incidents.

"We fully expect that we are going to have more incidents since we lowered the threshold," Hostage said.

Unspoken was the effect on the careers of the pilots, who refused to fly the multi-billion jet, especially following the death of a fellow aviator in Alaska when his oxygen system quit.

The Pentagon acknowledged, however, that such decisions could have a deletorious effect on their careers.

Flight Lieutenant Kirsty Stewart, 33, was to be reassigned after the tragic events of 2011 had an "adverse effect" on her, a defense source said. In August, Flight Lt. Jon Egging, 33, of Rutland, died in an air show crash near Bournemouth Airport in Dorset. Three months later, Flight Lt. Sean Cunningham, 35, was killed after being ejected from his Hawk T1 while on the ground at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire.
Stewart, who flew as Red 9, will not fly for a period yet to be agreed by RAF bosses - but it could be up to six months, the Sun newspaper reported. She will be posted to another role within the RAF and "it is understood that her departure is not the subject of any disciplinary issues or related to her gender."

"Not many people outside of the Red Arrows will understand the pressure and busy schedule that the team endure through a normal season," a Red Arrows spokesman said. "These factors have been exacerbated by the tragic events of 2011. This has had an adverse effect on Kirsty and has resulted in the Royal Air Force deciding that it would be more appropriate for the individual and the service if Kirsty is reassigned."

The 33-year-old made history in 2009 when she became the first woman in the Red Arrows aerobatic display team. Her reposting means the team will have seven jets rather than the usual nine for aerobatic displays this year, although nine will be still used in official flypasts.

"The Red Arrows will conduct aerobatic displays with seven aircraft rather than the usual nine in 2012 due to the unavoidable posting of one of their pilots," a Ministry of Defense spokesman said.

The Red Arrows said they will return to a full aerobatic formation of nine aircraft in 2013.

And it's a shameful story of how he was maligned and mistreated while trying to play by the politicians' rules of engagement and political correctness, sabotaged by one of his own for some inexplicable reason.

THE FACTS
First Lt. Joshua Waddell appeared on his way to a stellar career as an American military officer. The son of a retired Navy SEAL commander, Waddell had won the Bronze Star during his first tour of duty in Afghanistan and had returned for a second.

On Nov. 1, 2011 Waddell was a 25-year-old executive officer with the 3rd Battalion of the 7th Marine Corps Regiment. He was monitoring a surveillance camera in Sangin, Afghanistan when he spotted a man who had been identified as a bomb maker working with area insurgents.

Two days earlier, a sergeant from India Company had lost both legs and a hand when a bomb detonated in their area of operation. The man spotted on the camera was believed to be responsible.

After receiving permission from his battalion commanders, Waddell ordered Marine snipers to open fire on the man, and he was hit. A group of Afghans rushed to the man, put him on a tractor and attempted to flee.

Waddell ordered the snipers to hit the engine block of the tractor, disabling it so the man believed to be a bomb maker would not escape. The tractor was hit but no civilians were injured.

Then, about three weeks later, the civilians who helped remove the wounded man from the area were found to be teenagers. As a result, Waddell was demoted from executive officer because his battalion commander, Lt. Col. Seth Folsom, determined he had violated rules of engagement that governed when Marines could fire, and at whom.

Folsom said Wadell "is not recommended for promotion" and "in violation of [combat rules] during an engagement." His report stated that "noncombatant local nationals" were in the area of direct fire and that "the engagement resulted in a damaged local national vehicle."

Bear in mind that Waddell did not order his men to fire on those sympathetic to the bomb builder, just a tractor, which somehow became a "local national vehicle" undoubtedly funded by U.S. taxpayers.

A Marine brigadier general who reviewed the case said he was sympathetic to Waddell, whom he described as a "superb and heroic combat leader." But the general said the decision on whether Waddell should be promoted was "the commander's prerogative."

Marine Maj. Shawn Haney, a spokesman for Marine Corps Manpower and Reserve Affairs, said Waddell's fitness report will go before a review board at the time of any promotion "and everything is under scrutiny, so Waddell will have a chance to defend himself against the accusations." Still, Haney conceded, Waddell's fitness reports play a "significant role in future promotions."

Meaning he has a permanent black mark against him, enough that his career has been blunted, his chance for promotion blocked.
Waddell is just one of hundreds of cases of troops who have suffered under stringent rules of engagement, said Jeff Addicott, a former senior legal adviser to U.S. Army Special Forces.

"We have hamstrung our military with unrealistic ROEs that do more harm to our soldiers than the enemy, and now a Marine's career is on the line because he disabled a tractor," Addicott said. "In many ways our military is frozen in fear of violating absurd self-imposed rules on the battlefield.

"How can you tell if it's a teenager or a man, a farmer or an enemy when you're fighting an insurgency?"

A Marine stationed in Afghanistan who does not know Waddell, but who has operated under the same rules, said, "The rules of engagement are meant to placate [President Hamid] Karzai's government at our expense. They say it's about winning the hearts and minds, but it's not working.

"We're not putting fear into the enemy, only our troops."

Waddell's father, Mark Waddell, who served more than 25 years in the military and retired as a commander of a Navy SEAL team, said his son and other Americans fighting in Afghanistan are being victimized by these rules.

"I feel what's happened to my son is a complete betrayal, and he isn't the only one," the Fort Worth, Texas resident said. "Josh is a hero.

"We expect them to go out and make instantaneous combat decisions, then we Monday-morning quarterback their decisions. It's an outrage."

The investigation into alleged travel claim fraud, which also involves other personnel not assigned to submarines, is led by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, according to Navy Cmdr. Monica Rousselow, a spokeswoman for the submarine force. The women are among the first females assigned to U.S. submarines in a high-profile initiative for the Navy, which reversed a ban on women serving aboard the cramped vessels in 2010 under pressure by Democratic politicians.

The initial class of 24 female submarines officers completed training at sites including Groton, Conn., last year before joining the undersea force in recent months. Submarine service officers are supposed to undergo thorough psychological examinations, including uncovering any tendencies toward claustrophobia, dishonesty, lack of ethics and compatibility. The Navy didn't say how the three suspects managed to be selected or whether they had taken the psychological testing in the Pentagon's rush to satisfy the White House and get women on board what had previously been an all male service.

"The alleged actions under investigation involve financial misconduct and in no way involved their performance while assigned to their current operational units," Rousselow said in a statement.

The women are being temporarily reassigned to a submarine group at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia. Rousselow, who is based in Norfolk, Va., said the investigation began in February, but she could not or would not provide further details of the alleged fraud.