Tag Archives: T38

A sip of fuel sometimes means more than a sip of fuel

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A boat with no crew recently pulled in behind a Navy ship off Virginia and filled its tank, repeating the evolution over 100 times, ultimately transferring about 400 gallons of fuel.

NAWCWD’s Blue Water Instrumentation team ran Sealartec’s robotic refueling rig– dubbed the Towable Capture and Connection Device (TCCD)– a refueling sled/cradle towed behind the training support vessel USNS Vindicator (TSV 5).

An operator steered the MARTAC’s 38-foot T38 Devil Ray unmanned surface vessel into it. Fuel flowed, and the boat pulled away.

The T38 unmanned surface vessel, left, approaches a towable capture and connection device, center, towed by USNS Vindicator (TSV 5), right, during an Aug. 11 refueling demonstration off Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia. Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division’s Blue Water Instrumentation program led the demonstration, part of an effort to keep unmanned vessels on station longer during long-range weapons testing. (Courtesy photo)

The T38 unmanned surface vessel, right, closes on a towable capture and connection device, left, under tow during an Aug. 11 refueling demonstration off Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia. Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division’s Blue Water Instrumentation program led the demonstration, part of an effort to keep unmanned vessels on station longer during long-range weapons testing. (Courtesy photo)

A refueling probe on the T38 unmanned surface vessel, left, prepares to mate with a towable capture and connection device, right, during an Aug. 11 refueling demonstration off Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia. Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division’s Blue Water Instrumentation program led the demonstration, part of an effort to keep unmanned vessels on station longer during long-range weapons testing. (Courtesy photo)

If you did something like this 25 years ago, it would seem like magic.

Today, it is almost anticlimactic.

The next step will be drones refueling drones, keeping autonomous fleets quietly underway for years at a time. No headlines about ships at sea for 250 days…because there won’t be a crew to complain.

You can expect more of the same on a much larger scale moving forward. Everywhere.

Sorry, no Peashooter II

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The Boeing/Saab T-X was selected on 27 September 2018 by the Air Force as the winner of the Advanced Pilot Training System program to replace the aging Cold War-era Northrop T-38 Talon. The downright cute little twin tail trainer will, in all likelihood, be around for decades provided it is successful.

The USAF currently has some 500~ T-38A/B/C models in inventory, with the newest example coming off the lines in 1972. It is envisioned that some 351 new T-X aircraft and 46 simulators are to be supplied by Boeing as part of the $9 billion program to put the venerable Talon to bed.

The T-X could also go on to be a sweet little scooter for budget air defense/COIN if given underwing hardpoints, after all, Saab runs the Gripen and in the past developed the Viggen, Draken, Lansen, and Tunnan, which all had a solid pedigree.

The T-X does look pretty sweet though.

Both of the current two Boeing T-Xs in flight.

While I suggested “T-60 Peashooter II” as a name update, in honor of Boeing’s last cute little combat-ish trainer, I have been overruled and the U.S. Air Force has named it the T-7A Red Hawk to honor the Tuskegee Airmen who famously flew the red-tailed North American P-51 Mustang in World War II (after working their way through P-39s, P-40s, and P-47s). The “Red Tails” of the 332nd Fighter Group were renowned for their work plastering Axis ground targets and successfully escorting B-17s and B-24s in the ETO in 1944 and 1945.

Which is better than the Peashooter II anyway.

 

Boeing’s T-X Begins EMD Flight Tests

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The Boeing/Saab T-X was selected on 27 September 2018 by the Air Force as the winner of the Advanced Pilot Training System program to replace the aging Cold War-era Northrop T-38 Talon. In the below, the downright cute little twin tail trainer makes it first, official Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) flight test in St. Louis, Mo.

The USAF currently has some 500~ T-38A/B/C models in inventory, with the newest example coming off the lines in 1972. It is envisioned that some 351 new T-X aircraft and 46 simulators are to be supplied by Boeing as part of the $9 billion program to put the venerable Talon to bed.

Both of the current two Boeing T-Xs in flight.

The T-X, which will hopefully get a cooler name at some point, could also go on to be a sweet little scooter for budget air defense/COIN if given underwing hardpoints, after all, Saab runs the Gripen and in the past developed the Viggen, Draken, Lansen, and Tunnan, which all had a solid pedigree. .

The T-X does look pretty sweet though. I vote for the T-60 Peashooter II as a name update, in honor of Boeing’s last cute little combat-ish trainer.

Boeing P-26 Peashooters of the 17th Pursuit Group at March Field, California in 1932. (U.S. National Archives Photograph.)