Maiden flight for Japanese EC-2 ELINT aircraft

An electronic intelligence (ELINT) variant of the Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) C-2 transport aircraft made its maiden flight on 8 February.
The milestone for the ELINT C-2 was not announced officially by the manufacturer, but was marked by images and video of the event posted online.
Designated EC-2 on account of its electronic mission, the aircraft is recognisably different from the baseline airlifter in that it has several appendages and other fairings attached to its upper and side fuselage, and atop the tail. The aircraft's radome is more bulbous compared with the airlifter's, and it is fitted with a large number of underfuselage antennas.
janes

Japan in talks with New Zealand for C-2 P-1 aircraft

Japan is in negotiations with New Zealand to export the Self-Defense Forces' patrol and transport aircraft, in hopes of beating out U.S. and European competition to score its first large-scale arms contract.
The deal will also involve the maintenance of the planes, and is potentially worth billions of dollars. Tokyo in September provided unclassified information on the P-1 maritime patrol plane and C-2 transporter, both developed by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, in response to Wellington's requests.
Representatives from Japan's defense ministry and Kawasaki Heavy are in New Zealand for negotiations. Japan could come up with a proposal in the first half of 2017 concerning the price, production process and maintenance of the planes. It will also consider jointly producing certain parts with New Zealand.
New Zealand will choose the winning bid as early as this summer out of a pool including American and European proposals. The Japanese government will also negotiate a treaty with New Zealand to allow the transfer of defense equipment and technology, a prerequisite to the potential deal.
The P-1, deployed by the Maritime SDF, was designed as a successor to the mainstay P-3C patrol aircraft. It can pick up even faint submarine signals through underwater sensors, and is also known to be fuel efficient and extremely quiet.
The bidding "will be a one-on-one fight with Boeing's P-8 patrol plane," a Japanese official said.
The C-2, meanwhile, can carry heavy loads over long distances. It was first delivered to the Air SDF in June 2016, with plans for deployment this March. The aircraft shares the same parts in the wing and other areas with the P-1, which will allow New Zealand to save money if it adopts both models. Airbus and several other companies are considered Japan's main rivals for the transporters.
The Japanese government adopted three principles on the transfer of defense equipment and technology in April 2014, greatly relaxing the requirements for arms exports. But it has done little under the new rules. Japan was outbid by France on Australia's new fleet of submarines in April, and lost a bid on anti-submarine patrol aircraft for the U.K. to the U.S. in November 2015.
nikkei

Bell-Boeing Expecting at Least Two International Orders for V-22 Osprey in 2015

V-22 Osprey has yet to land an international contract, but company executives are betting that they will have two foreign customers in hand by the end of the year.
Japan’s ministry of defense announced the purchase 17 Ospreys last year, although there is no contract set in stone yet. Israel had plans to buy the tiltrotor, but that deal remains in flux due to budget constraints.
Additionally, the platform has received significant interest from countries in the Middle East.
The Navy in their fiscal 2016 budget disclosed plans to buy 44 aircraft for what the service calls carrier onboard delivery — that is, flying people, supplies and cargo on and off flattops.
The Navy’s Ospreys will probably be slightly different than those flown by the Marine Corps and special operators.
Northrop Grumman’s C-2 Greyhound has filled the carrier onboard delivery role since 1966. Northrop proposed modernizing the C-2’s wings, engine and avionics, which executives claimed would be at least two times less expensive than buying a new aircraft. Bell-Boeing asserted that the Osprey would be more cost-effective over the long haul.
According to the budget, the Navy plans to procure 22 V-22s in fiscal years 2018 through 2020. That will likely result in another five-year multiyear contract for Ospreys to be signed before the current one ends in September of calendar year 2018.
nationaldefensemagazine

US Navy Decides to Buy V-22 Ospreys to Replace C-2A

The Navy will buy V-22 Osprey tiltrotors to replace its aging C-2A Greyhound turboprop aircraft in flying carrier on board delivery (COD) missions. The US Navy will buy four V-22s each year from fiscal 2018 to 2020.
The Marine Corps and other Osprey advocates, have argued for years that the Navy should replace its aging conventional take off C-2As with vertical take off and landing V-22s.
The C-2As carry cargo, mail and passengers between aircraft carriers and shore. The first Greyhound prototypes flew in 1964. The Osprey is in service with the Marine Corps since 2007 and the Air Force since 2009, tilts two large wingtip rotors up to take off and land vertically and forward to fly like a turboprop airplane, giving it far greater speed and range than conventional helicopters.
Until the past couple of years, Navy leaders had shown little interest in actually buying their planned 48 Ospreys. But in 2011, the Marine Corps began qualifying its MV-22s for carrier landings, and a six-day “military utility assessment” conducted last summer off the coast of Florida, in which V-22s carried passengers and cargo to and from the USS Harry S Truman (CVN 75), found that: “The V-22 demonstrated an effective, flexible, and safe capability to conduct the COD mission with no modifications and no adverse impact to cyclic flight operations.”
The first dozen HV-22s would be taken from what would have been the Marine Corps share of V-22s built in fiscal 2018-20 under the prospective third multiyear contract. Those first Navy V-22s will be replaced in the Marine Corps inventory in fiscal years 2021, 2022, and 2023 with a dozen Ospreys “that would have been allocated to the Navy,” the memo provides.
breakingdefense

Japan delays C-2 service entry after door issue in testing

Japan is delaying the introduction into service of the Kawasaki C-2 transport aircraft to investigate why a door broke during pressurisation testing in January.
The Technical Research and Development Institute (TRDI) was investigating the cause.
The MoD had planned to deploy the first operational C-2 in early 2015. This now appears unlikely to happen.
The JASDF requires up to 60 C-2s to replace Kawasaki C-1 and Lockheed Martin C-130H transports, with 10 originally scheduled to be delivered in the next four years.
The C-2 is intended to provide much greater range than the platforms it is replacing, with a stated range of 3,023 n miles (5,598 km; 3,478 miles) when carrying its maximum payload of 30 tonnes.
JASDF officials have previously said they want to modify some C-2s for surveillance and reconnaissance operations, which are currently carried out by NAMC YS-11 airframes that are more than 40 years old. The MoD has approved the purchase of six ex-US Marine Corps KC-130Rs to replace YS-11 transports in Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force service.
Japan's shortage of airlift capabilities was also highlighted in the 3 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Kawasaki has also offered a civilian cargo version of the C-2, called the YCX, on the international market.
janes

Lockheed Revives an Old Idea for New Carrier Cargo Plane

The Northrop Grumman C-2A has been a familiar sight aboard US aircraft carriers for decades, shuttling people and cargo from ship to shore in the carrier-on-board-delivery (COD) role. The venerable aircraft are wearing out, and an unusually intense competition between Northrop Grumman and Bell Boeing already has garnered attention, even though the program to buy 35 replacement aircraft is not expected to officially begin until next year at the earliest.
Now, a third player has entered the COD fray, with Lockheed Martin offering refurbished and remanufactured versions of its S-3 Viking antisubmarine aircraft, nearly all of which were retired by early 2009. Ninety-one of the aircraft remain in storage at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.
Those aircraft still have quite a bit of life on them, having flown an average of 9,000 hours.
Designed in the early 1970s as a carrier-based anti-submarine aircraft, the Viking was used in its later service years as a tanker. Lockheed’s COD proposal — dubbed the C-3 — would replace the S-3’s fuselage with a wider version, but retain the original wings, tail assembly, engines and crew compartment.
A refurbished and remanufactured aircraft, would have a flying life greater than 10,000 hours.
The aircraft would be big enough to transport Pratt & Whitney jet engines for the F-35 joint strike fighter.
With an unrefueled range of 2,400 nautical miles carrying a 10,000-pound load, the C-3 would have twice the range of a new C-2, and triple the range of an Osprey.
Of the 91 S-3s in storage, 87 are useable. A number of spare General Electric TF-34 turbofan engines used by the S-3 also are in storage.
Lockheed has also proposed refurbishing S-3s for the Republic of Korea, which is seeking an anti-submarine aircraft. Those planes would not be rebuilt as in the C-3 proposal, but retain their original fuselages.
defensenews

Three J-15 fighters can take off simultaneously from Liaoning carrier

During its three-week exercise in open seas, Liaoning, China's first aircraft carrier was able to launch three Shenyang J-15 fighters simultaneously from its flight deck.
The Liaoning has a total of three jet blast deflectors. While two parallel deflectors are located immediately forward of the island superstructure, a third is located closer to the stern of the ship. With all three positions fully operational, the aircraft carrier is capable of launching three J-15s from its forward ramp at the same time.
The ability of Liaoning's crew to disassemble and reassemble J-15 jet engines aboard the carrier was tested as well during the three-week test mission.
However, The PLA Navy Air Force is unable to transfer new fighter engines to the Liaoning through a carrier onboard delivery aircraft like the Northrop Grumman C-2 operated by the US Navy. The Chinese defense ministry did not mention whether Liaoning was able to launch or recover fighters at night.
wantchinatimes

US Navy Eyes C-2, H-60 Replacement Programs

A Sikorsky-Boeing team is expected to submit a proposal for the US Army's Future Vertical Lift initiative that may include counter-rotating co-axial main rotors and a pusher propeller, as in this concept from the team. Similar technologies could be included in a future US Navy MH-XX helicopter.
The Sikorsky H-60 Seahawk helicopter and Northrop Grumman C-2 Greyhound carrier-on-board delivery (COD) plane are longtime stalwarts of US Navy operations. The 35 Greyhounds constantly shuttle passengers and cargo to and from the fleet’s aircraft carriers, while some 460 H-60s of various models carry out a wide range of missions.
Both aircraft types will become due for replacement, and the way ahead for each has yet to be determined.
The newest C-2A dates from 1990, and the service is planning to award a replacement contract in 2016. Among the contenders are an updated version of the C-2A from Northrop, and a COD version of the Bell-Boeing MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

defensenews

Battle brews over US Navy C-2A Greyhound replacement

A battle is brewing between Northrop Grumman and Bell-Boeing over the US Navy's nascent requirement to replace its ageing fleet of Northrop Grumman C-2A Greyhounds.
Bell-Boeing, with the strong backing of the US Marine Corps, is urging the USN to replace its C-2s with its V-22 Osprey tiltrotor. While the navy is officially on board to buy 48 Ospreys, the service has never found a niche for the machine nor has it allocated funding to pay for those aircraft.
For Bell-Boeing, an opportunity arose when a USN analysis of alternatives showed that the only suitable follow-ons to the Greyhound for the carrier onboard delivery (COD) mission were the V-22 or a modernised C-2. A draft request for proposal might be issued as early as 2014.

flightglobal