Guy Norris/SAN FRANCISO
THE US NAVY/US Air Force Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) programme is being revised radically to allow two finalists to build a total of four demonstrator aircraft. Two will be configured for advanced short take-off and vertical landing (ASTOVL).
The changes will bolster the US-UK ASTOVL teams which feared that their technology demonstrator aircraft could be squeezed out of the programme altogether following its recent merger with JAST.
Under the previous plan only two demonstrators were expected, and it was likely (although not certain) that one of them would have been an ASTOVL concept.
Sam Wilson, NASA Ames ASTOVL deputy programme manager, says: "What really makes sense is to build two ASTOVL demonstrators with two teams of contractors each building two aircraft - and now that's the plan." NASA is supporting all the ASTOVL teams. Boeing, Lockheed and McDonnell Douglas (MDC) have already performed several tests of sub-scale models and components at sites in Langley, Virginia and Ames, California.
Northrop Grumman, a late entry through the Grumman acquisition, is the only contender not planning large-scale model testing this year.
The expanded ASTOVL representation in the revised plan also gives the UK a larger than expected stake in JAST. Rolls-Royce is a member of all four US ASTOVL teams and, through its plan to buy Allison Engines, is doubly involved in the Lockheed team.
British Aerospace, which is teamed with Northrop Grumman and MDC in bids for JAST work, is also an ASTOVL team member with MDC.
In addition, the UK Ministry of Defence's ASTOVL representatives in the USA are now de facto part of the JAST programme.
This comes despite the US Defense Department's rejection of the UK's offer to second Royal Air Force and scientific personnel to the JAST office.
The JAST/ASTOVL effort is aimed at producing three tactical aircraft types to fill a range of requirements by the US Air Force (USAF), US Navy (USN), US Marine Corps (USMC) and Royal Navy.
It is now likely the RAF will examine JAST aircraft as possible BAe Harrier GR.7 and Panavia Tornado GR1/4 replacements.
The JAST plan calls for a single production line for all three types using modular techniques.
The conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) aircraft would be produced for the USAF as a Lockheed F-16 replacement. A STOVL fighter/attack version would be made for the USMC and Royal Navy as an MDC AV-8B/F-18/BAe Sea Harrier replacement.
A beefed-up CTOL variant would be made for the USN.
Source: Flight International
