In all, NATO air assets conducted more than 26,500 sorties over and in support of operations in Libya, including more than 9,700 strike sorties. The successful campaign exposed, once again, the inadequate electronic warfare, command-and-control, reconnaissance, intelligence, and aerial refueling capabilities of the non-U.S. NATO air forces. Insufficient smart weapons stockpiles, aircraft sensor integration, and interoperability issues were highlighted as well. Such shortcomings applied to the few non-NATO participants as well.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) Air Force and Air Defense (AFAD) Deputy Commander Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Naser Al Alawi said the UAE drew a number of lessons from its first out-of-area combat deployment in Operation Unified Protector. Principal among them was the need for “procurement of air and ground communication systems to integrate into various command and control nodes,” he said. Around 800 combat missions were flown by the UAE AFAD, which provided Dassault Mirage 2000-9s and Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 60s.

The UAE plans to modernize its fighter force, acquiring a “next-generation fighter” in the 2018-2025 time frame. Until recently, its choice was widely expected to be Dassault’s Rafale, and French officials maintained during the summer of 2011 that the fighter’s first export order would materialize this year. However, the UAE government has issued requests for proposal to EADS for the Typhoon and to Boeing for its F-15E Strike Eagle and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The F-35 has reportedly been a subject of discussion as well.

Boeing’s F-15 Silent Eagle remains a contender for South Korea’s FX-III requirement for 60 aircraft. The F-15 production line was set to close next year after the last of 60 F-15K models for Korea and 24 F-15SG models for Singapore are completed. However, just before year’s end, a Saudi Arabian order for 84 F-15Es (F-15SA) with various Silent Eagle improvements including the Raytheon APG-63(v)3 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, a digital flight control system, next-generation cockpit, a digital electronic warfare system, and two additional wing hardpoints meant production would be extended for the venerable Eagle.

Back in the United States, Boeing has launched a four-year structural analysis of the USAF F-15 fleet with the aim of doubling to quadrupling the service lives of the two major variants. An F-15C has already begun a four-year fatigue test cycle at Boeing’s factory in St. Louis, Mo., and will be joined by an F-15E. The tests will determine if the service life of the F-15C/D can be extended from 9,000 to 18,000 hours. The service life of the F-15E was originally pegged at 8,000 hours but could potentially be raised to 32,000 hours after the tests are complete, according to company officials.

The U.S. Air Force has also expressed interest in some of the avionics and mission system upgrades Boeing has proposed to foreign customers as it seeks to keep at least some of its 414 F-15C/Ds and F-15Es viable.

Proposed upgrades to Boeing’s F/A-18E/F are likewise aimed at foreign customers and potentially the U.S. military. Boeing Defense, Space and Security President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg said the company is ready to offer Block III Super Hornets to Asia/Pacific air forces with the latest technologies, including the infrared search and track system currently in development, AESA radars, and other systems. Of course, Boeing would also be happy to offer more Super Hornets to the U.S. Navy and to the Marine Corps should the F-35 experience further issues.

The Navy/Marine F/A-18A-D fleet is running up against a ceiling of 8,600 flight hours for those airframes that have not yet been updated under the Service Life Management Program. That program is in the process of raising the limit to 10,000 hours. The Marines will still have a fighter gap even if the Joint Strike Fighter stays on its new schedule and becomes the Marine fighter of the future. The F/A-18E/F/G production line shutdown will begin in fiscal year 2014 and will become final in fiscal year 2016. A new Service Life Assessment Program, overlapping with other upgrades, will increase the F/A-18E/F flight-hour ceiling from 6,000 to 9,000 hours.

Flight hour totals don’t get any higher than in the B-52 fleet, and yet in October, the USAF announced plans to upgrade the Stratofortress through the CONECT program, which fits a new digital backbone into the aged bomber. The new 1760 databus architecture and a modern communications suite, in conjunction with a new mechanically scanned radar, will facilitate smart-weapons employment, allowing the B-52 to more effectively use LITENING pods and a long-range standoff missile. The program is currently in the alternatives analysis stage, but the hardware/software could be fielded by the early 2020s.

The investment in the B-52 reflects a commitment to a fleet of bombers that is the smallest since before Pearl Harbor at just 160 aircraft, including 65 B-1Bs, 19 B-2s, and 76 B-52s. They will be complemented by a new long-range bomber at some point in the future. An early 2011 announcement by outgoing Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates reversed his former stance, stating that a next-generation bomber would proceed in fiscal year 2012. The announcement did not reveal how much funding the administration will seek or when it expects the new bomber to become operational.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are operational to such an extent that the community now represents the USAF’s largest group of aviators. More than 70 companies, universities, and military labs in about 43 other nations – from Abu Dhabi to the U.K. – have reported or are thought to be working on more than 450 UAVs across the size and mission spectrum. Nearly a quarter of those are from China, where verification of manufacturers and programs is virtually impossible. The same is true for several other nations such as Iran, but also, to a lesser extent, Russia and Pakistan. Analytical firm Teal Group forecasts annual expenditures will more than double, from about $5 billion this year to more than $11.5 billion by the end of the decade.

In early November, Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Plans, and Requirements Lt. Gen. Herbert Carlisle told Congress that the service had sharply reduced its unmanned aircraft training program to send instructor pilots to Afghanistan to meet a requirement to keep 60 UAVs in orbit over the country at all times. The truncated UAV pilot pipeline was estimated to require nearly a year to regain necessary production levels.

The first flight of Northrop Grumman’s X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System-Demonstrator (UCAS-D) at Edwards AFB on Feb. 4 put the United States one step closer to operating a tailless, strike fighter-sized UAV from an aircraft carrier. The X-47B is slated to make its carrier demonstration in 2013 and to undertake autonomous air-to-air refueling in 2014. In July, the Navy successfully conducted a surrogate flight test of X-47B software/systems using an F/A-18, which made hands-free landings. Several X-47s were expected to be shipped to Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River, Md., for land-based carrier compatibility testing by the end of the year.

A couple of months following the UCAS-D first flight, Boeing’s rival X-45 Phantom Ray UCAV went aloft for the first time. As it did so, the Navy moved forward with development of the Northrop Grumman RQ-4N Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) UAV. BAMS is intended to complement the P-8A Poseidon multimission maritime aircraft, which will soon begin replacing the Navy’s venerable P-3s.

Final assembly of the first low-rate initial production (LRIP) P-8A began in March, with five more slated for completion through 2012. The Navy plans to buy 117 P-8s, which should attain initial operational capability (IOC) in 2013. In early November, Boeing was awarded a second $1.7 billion LRIP contract for seven more P-8s. The company is also building an export version of the aircraft, the P-8I, for India.

March saw Boeing prevail, at long last, in the KC-X tanker competition, receiving a contract to build 179 of its 767-based KC-46A tankers. Rival EADS called it a decision based on politics and a low-ball bid rather than on merit. The European maker considered another appeal, but ultimately dropped the idea. In late November, Boeing inadvertently revealed it would exceed by as much as $500 million the cost ceiling on its contract to develop the KC-46A, which is fixed at $4.8 billion. The issue was under discussion by the firm and the Pentagon.

The Navy’s E-2D Advanced Hawkeye worked its way through testing and by the fall was in the final stages of preparation for initial operational test and evaluation. Five prototypes have performed the testing, and the Navy expects to achieve IOC by 2015 and “information dominance” by 2016-18. With a two-generation leap in capability, the new Hawkeye will offer improved maritime domain awareness in blue water and the littoral space. The Advanced Hawkeye gets new radar, datalinks, tactical displays, greater data processing capacity, and the ability to better fuse and disseminate the tactical picture.

Prior to the supercommittee failure in November, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz acknowledged that the C-27J Spartan tactical transport might get axed from the budget. Sequestration cuts will likely make the decision certain. The current program is valued at $3 billion, with L-3 as the prime contractor and Italy’s Alenia the designer/builder. Some 21 C-27Js are in operation or assembly, with another 17 scheduled for production.

Airbus’ A400M airlifter spent the balance of the year in intense testing on a path to civil certification, with the fifth prototype joining in the program in October. Engine problems surfaced early in the year, but were overcome by summer. With the A400M two years behind schedule going into 2011, program partners Germany and the U.K. trimmed their buys by seven and three aircraft, respectively. The aircraft is scheduled to be delivered in 2012 and fielded in late 2013, with operational upgrades phased in yearly through 2019. France is to receive the first aircraft, but by late fall was looking to renegotiate its maintenance deal. And with the Euro debt-crisis playing out daily, Germany looked to further cut its order from 53 to 40 units.

On the rotary-wing front, the Air Force and Marines reported continued operational success with the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey. The Air Force’s request for five CV-22s in the fiscal year 2012 budget was called both “sensible” and “reasonable,” likely explaining why the service is no longer in the market for a new combat rescue helicopter.

The U.S. Army was looking at a 2030 “aimpoint” for fielding next-generation rotorcraft, but was finding it difficult, given budget uncertainty, to even identify an armed scout helicopter replacement for its OH-58 Kiowa Warrior. Options included prolonging OH-58D airframe life and upgrading the fleet to F-spec with cockpit/sensor modifications. Bell continued to work on its proposed OH-58 Block II upgrade, offering a more powerful engine, new rotors, and revised digital cockpit. Off-the-shelf replacement options include Boeing’s proposed AH-6S, EADS’ UH-72 derivative, or AgustaWestland’s AW119. The sole next-generation option is Sikorsky’s X-97 X2 Raider.

Overseas, Turkey confirmed its purchase of 109 H-60 Black Hawks for approximately $3.5 billion and Taiwan became the first international customer for the AH-64D Block III. The country will receive the first of 30 Apache Block IIIs in 2012. The U.S. Army got its first in November.

The Royal Australian Navy selected the Sikorsky/Lockheed Martin MH-60R Sea Hawk as its medium-lift, ship-borne helo, buying 24 for $3.1 billion. The first delivery is slated for 2014, with IOC expected the same year. Australia’s order could boost Sikorsky’s chances for similar buys in Malaysia and South Korea.

This article was first published in Defense: Review Edition 2011/2012.