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http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/200 ... /index.phpAJACS Load: US Begins (Another) Next-Gen Tactical Transport Project
Posted 23-Apr-2007 08:04
A400M: The real target?
"The C-130J Herculeshas since been deployed into theater by the USAF, where its vastly improved performance in "hot and high" environments has come in very handy. Unlike the pending Airbus A400M, however, the C-130J doesn't solve the sub-survivable 20-ton armored vehicle limit that has stymied multiple US armored vehicle programs from the Stryker IAV to Future Combat Systems. As such, it represents an improvement that fails to address US tactical airlift's key bottleneck limitation."
A pair of recent contracts for something called the Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft (ACCA) may - or may not - represent a first step toward addressing that issue. It may also represent a US aerospace effort to avoid a looming future in which the Airbus A400M would be the only available tactical transport for survivable armored personnel carriers. With the light transport JCA made up of entirely foreign designs, the 20-ton transport market beginning to crowd, and the heavy-lift C-17 production line headed toward shutdown, the US aerospace industry risks a slip from a 1980-1990s position of market dominance in the military transport space into near-irrelevance by 2015.
So where does ACAA fit in? And how is the Advanced Joint Air Combat System (AJACS) program to which it is connected shaping up?
The AMC-X Program: Intent and Issues
The USA has been here before, with the 1980s Advanced Medium STOL Transport competition that produced the Boeing YC-14 and McDonnell Douglas YC-15. Both planes were produced, met all tests... and ended up canceled.
In its Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft (ACCA) RFP, the US Air Force Research Laboratory set out goals for a STOL aircraft that could fly 400kt (740km/h), pressurized and carrying 3 cargo pallets, 20 troops or 1 light-wheeled vehicle. This is obviously a scaled-down version of the eventual plane the Air force might want, but it does force the contractors to use appropriate designs as they work to address the cost and weight issues associated with "advanced structural design and manufacturing techniques integrated with advanced aerodynamic design."
According to Flight International, Alenia North America, Lockheed Martin, Piasecki Aircraft and Dick Rutan's Voyager Aerospace all expressed interest in the RFP.
Ultimately, however, the Advanced Joint Air Combat System (AJACS) requirements may be considerably more ambitious. A 2004 Air Force Magazine piece had this to say:
"Afghanistan and Iraq have underscored the need for a new tactical transport that would fulfill a variety of airlift and special operations roles, Air Force officials reported. The new aircraft - dubbed Advanced Mobility Concept, or AMC-X - would have about the same cargo capacity as a C-130 but be able to fly higher and faster, while operating from 2,000-foot runways. Moreover, the AMC-X would be stealthy.
"We're talking about ... airliner speed," close to Mach 1, said Col. Marshall K. Sabol, Air Mobility Command's deputy director of plans and programs. The C-130's average speed is 345 mph.
AMC also wants an airplane that can fly at the altitudes used by airliners, with greater range and greater survivability, he said. Paramount for the new transport will be its ability to operate at austere locations and carry outsize cargo, said Sabol.
Moreover, the next tactical airlifter will have to be able to operate in blackout conditions at low level, perform paratrooper and equipment airdrop, operate in all weather, and be capable of accomplishing "autoland" - automatic, virtually hands-off landing, guided only by the runway and onboard navigation systems.
Such requirements are "not the future," said Sabol, adding, "it's where we operate" today.
AMC is also working with Air Force Research Labs and the Army to make sure that the tactical transport is compatible with the Army’s new Stryker vehicle. The Stryker was designed to be transportable on C-130s, but the vehicle's weight has continued to grow."
According to Jane's, potential competitors for the AJACS program could include Lockheed Martin's MACK concept sketched out in response to Special Forces requirements, a modified Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, or a Boeing concept based on the company's experimental X-48B blended wing body (BWB) design that offers higher lift, higher capacity in a given footprint, and even noise reduction.
Whatever the eventual platform looks like, in order to accommodate a Stryker vehicle in combat condition, as well as currently contemplated US and foreign armored personnel carrier designs with enough armor to be survivable on modern battlefields, a cargo capacity increase of at least 50% over the current C-130J (21.7 tons - 30-35 tons) would almost certainly be required.
One would think this imperative might be a higher priority than cost-turbocharging requirements like stealth and airliner-class cruise speed, but the 2004 Air Force Magazine article seems to suggest that it wasn't. Those requirements make sense for Special Operations aircraft beyond 2015, as Robert Martinage's CSBA presentation explains. They can add significant purchase and maintenance costs, however, that risk pricing aircraft intended for conventional military operations out of the market in exchange for capabilities that are rarely required.
In order for AJACS to emulate the C-130's success and result in a competitive aircraft on the international market, as opposed to an aircraft that shares the fate of its AMST predecessors, it will have to be designed according to Army priorities rather than Air Force wish lists. The A400M's focus on those needs, and smart international production arrangements, have booked it almost 200 orders before AJACS even has a notional design. If AJACS cannot compete on cost and capacity, countries that intend to transport survivable armored vehicles in their airlifters will have absolutely no option except the A400M. Especially if the (far larger and more expensive) C-17 production line shuts down.
Even if the C-17 remains in production, however, the combination of proliferating choices in the 20-ton airlift market (C-13oJ, HAL-Irkut MRTA, possibly Embraer 390) and a practical 30-ton military requirement that must be met at or below the A400M's $100-120 million cost, will leave large market segments without American coverage if AJACS is not thought through correctly at its earliest stages.
