62 · MT 5/2022 Industrial Focus first African American sailor decorated with the Congressional Medal of Honour. For CVN-82 and CVN-83 a new double contract is expected, while for the names a famous trio from World War II is in the running (also for the eventual CVN-84): Yorktown, Saratoga, and Lexington. But for further super-carriers it will be necessary to understand the development of the 373-ship plan (plus 150 unmanned naval units) recently announced by the US Navy: the fleet, to be built by 2045, should in fact include 12 aircraft carriers, against the 11 now planned, and given the cost of the Fords - gradually improved over the course of the various batches - the hypothesis of building some conventional carriers, smaller and cheaper, and extending the useful life of a couple of Nimitz-class resurfaces. Avio Aero Contract for 120 CATALYST Engines for EUROMALE On 1 September, Avio Aero and Airbus Defence & Space signed a contract for the supply of 120 CATALYST 130-ED1 engines, destined to equip the new EUROMALE superMALE UAV (European MALE RPAS). The signing of the contract follows the 25 March announcement of the selection of CATALYST as the engine for the future European drone, and seals the partnership between the engine manufacturer (Avio Aero) and the airframer (Airbus). The CATALYST is a totally new turboprop engine (it flew for the first time on 30 September 2021) developed by Avio Aero and is ITARfree, i.e. exempt from US government export controls (International Traffic in Arms Regulations, ITAR). New Russian PAK-DA Bomber Expected to Fly in 2024 The current goal appears to be to achieve maiden flight for the PAK-DA in 2024. (Photo: Russian Internet) A (possibly deliberate?) leaked document reveals the next steps in the programme. Last May, for a brief period, Ilyushin’s production plans for the years 2022 to 2030 were available online. Ilyushin is a key supplier to Beriev Aircraft Company, which deals with ‘special’ aircraft for the Russian armed forces, including the new PAK-DA bomber. Production plans indicated that six sets of parts for PAK-DA are scheduled for the near future: two in 2023, two in 2024 and one each in 2025 and 2026. In March, Tupolev also filed a patent for new air intakes intended for an all-wing bomber with stealth characteristics. The attached drawings obviously cannot be taken as fully representative of the PAK-DA’s true configuration, but they are nonetheless interesting. The PAK-DA is also an important project for the image of Russian power, and official sources over the years have been unusually talkative about the new aircraft’s features. In August 2014, the then commander of the ground, was also engaged. Pilots conducted these operations without advance training, showing the ease of use made possible by close collaboration with the aviation community “This first flight demonstrated LITENING’s ability to rapidly add modern, upgradeable mission capabilities to the Super Hornet,” observed James Conroy, VP, Navigation, Targeting and Survivability. “The pod’s digital video, autonomous target tracking, and laser sensors will give naval aviators an entirely new set of capabilities for operations over land and sea today, and the growth capabilities built into LITENING’s modular design ensure that the pod can evolve to meet changing requirements.” Keel Laid for the New Enterprise Aircraft Carrier In August, HII officially laid the keel of the new supercarrier USS Enterprise (CVN-80). Preliminary work on the new ‘Big-E’, the third Gerald R Ford class aircraft carrier, started in 2017 with the placing of initial contracts to the various system and material suppliers, including 16,000 tonnes of recycled steel from the old Enterprise (CVN-65), the first nuclear aircraft carrier in history, in service from 1961 to 2012 and finally scrapped. Currently, the status of work on the new carrier has exceeded 15%, and launch is expected by the end of 2025. In 2028, it will replace the Eisenhower, in service since 1977. The new super-carriers - all descendants of the 1950s’ Forrestal design, with some radical modifications as they were introduced, and the adoption after 1968 of nuclear propulsion, to which the Fords add a redesigned island and new electromagnetic catapults) will deploy over 100,000 tonnes. Currently, the head of class named after President Ford, who served from 1974 to 1977 and was an airship pilot during World War II, has been in service since 2017 and fully operational since 2021. The second, John F Kennedy, launched in October 2019, is being fitted out, and in 2021 work began on the fourth, named after Doris Miller, the Could the future see a Nimitzclass carrier – or two – being refurbished and life-extended? (Photo: USN) LITENING is currently in service with the US Marine Corps, Air Force, Air National Guard and international customers, with over 900 pods delivered to date. (Photo: Northrop Grumman)
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