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August, 2014
How COTS-Built Fighter May Win the World
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knots for close-in surveillance work. It seats two pilots, one behind the other, equipped with total dual con- trols and instrumentation, can carry a bomb load or heavy camera equip- ment in an enclosed “bomb bay” that has a 3,000-pound payload capacity, and has six hardened wing mounts for a variety of weapons that include Hellfire, JDAM, and air-to-air mis- siles.
The overall design relies heavi-
ly on Textron’s considerable experi- ence building corporate jet aircraft and helicopters. The Scorpion’s first test flight went off without a hitch. After all, the company knows how to build airplanes. While well suited for a number
of military tasks, in a dogfight with an F-16, the Scorpion would definite- ly lose, being outflown and out- gunned by that well-heeled venera- ble warrior. It’s in the cost factors that the Scorpion becomes a hands- down winner.
What’s Under the Hood It’s a sweet-flying V-tailed air-
MCU-201 MCU-301 MCU-401
craft that’s powered by a pair of COTS Honeywell TF 731 engines, and was designed using much of the technology already developed by Tex- tron for its line of Cessna corporate jets. The body is made of composites of the type already in use in civilian aircraft. There are no deep, dark mil- itary secrets here; just business se- crets, such as “Just how much money did the joint venture sink into this project?” The $100 million figure cit- ed earlier is a number that has been suggested by financial experts, but the company’s top brass hasn’t pro- vided a figure. The two Honeywell engines pro-
DXU U-580 FEEDER CABINET DXU U-580AF FEEDER CABINET
vide a total of 8,000 pounds of thrust, vs. 18,000 pounds for the A-10 Warthog and 27,000 pounds for the F- 16. Unlike the F-16, this is definitely
not a supersonic aircraft; top speed is 517 mph, but this stingy specification is part of what makes the plane such a bargain to fly. The F-16 costs $15,000 per hour to fly; the A-10 costs $9,000 per hour. The Scorpion can fly for $2500 to $3000 per hour. It can per- form a large percentage of the mis- sions that are envisioned for the F-35 at a small fraction of the cost. Textron AirLand lists six missions for the plane: border security; maritime secu- rity; counternarcotics; disaster re- sponse; aerospace control against low, slow airborne threats; and irregular warfare support. The plane comes with a high-
definition infrared and electro-opti- cal camera system that is capable of beaming real-time video to military commanders on the ground, to other aircraft and to emergency respon- ders. The plane has an 82 cubic-foot internal payload bay that can accom- modate 3,000 pounds of surveillance and electronic warfare gear, and its twin jet engines generate plenty of electrical power to run and cool its intelligence, surveillance and recon- naissance (ISR) systems. For armament, the Scorpion
has six hard points on its wings for carrying up to 3,100 pounds of muni- tions, Textron AirLand says. The plane can accommodate Hellfire air- to-ground missiles, heatseeking air- to-air missiles and a variety of guid- ed and unguided bombs. And the plane can also be fitted with a pod- mounted gun. The future still isn’t mapped out
for this aircraft. Its estimated cost to new buyers will be slightly less than $20 million, and there definitely will be buyers after its showing at air shows in the U.K. and on the Conti- nent. Observers believe that the global market will absorb about 2,000 of the new fighters. The big question is will one of those new buy- ers be the U.S. DoD? r
New IPC Report Highlights On-Shoring in North America
DXU 1001 DXU-1001
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Bannockburn, IL — A new report in IPC’s series of on-shoring studies, “On-Shoring in the North American Electronics Industry: Update on Trends and the Impact on Compa- nies,” has been published by IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries®. Presenting data collected by IPC over the past two years, the re- port highlights North American elec- tronics industry trends in on-shoring and domestic sourcing and includes new data on the business impact from companies that have actually engaged in some form of on- shoring. According to the 2014 report,
many companies have considered on- shoring, but only a few have taken ac- tion. North American and European companies from this select group re- ported the impact of on- shoring and domestic sourcing on their operational and financial performance in 2014, ad- dressing metrics such as costs, deliv- ery time, time to market, quality con- trol, inventories and sales. “While data from a small sam-
ple is not statistically significant, it offers preliminary indications of how on-shoring has affected the compa-
nies that have adopted this strate- gy,” said Sharon Starr, IPC director of market research. The current sta- tus of some high-profile on-shoring initiatives by Apple, Motorola, GE and other major com panies is also provided in the report. Although not all of these on-shoring initiatives suc- ceeded, those that did point the way for other companies. The report also covers on-
shoring drivers, deterrents and is- sues, domestic sourcing trends, the status of the cost gap, and recom- mendations for North American com- panies considering on-shoring. In ad- dition, the report includes data from the large-sample studies conducted in 2012 and 2013. “On-Shoring in the North Amer-
ican Electronics Industry: 2014 Up- date on Trends and the Impact on Companies” is a product of IPC’s market research service and is pro- vided at no charge to companies that completed the survey. The report is available to IPC members for $225 and to nonmembers for $450. Contact: IPC. E-mail: Sharon-
Starr@ipc.org Web:
www.ipc.org r
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