The Army’s new high-tech UH-60 Black Hawk M-model helicopter – equipped with a stronger engine, a digital cockpit and composite rotor blades – performed exceptionally well in Afghanistan during its first major combat deployment, according to a recently completed After Action Review at Fort Campbell, Ky., service officials said.

“The M-model Black Hawks were in Afghanistan for 12 months. The aircraft performed exceptionally well,” said Lt. Col. Jerry Davis, product manager for UH-60 Modernization. “We got great reaction from pilots. They experienced a higher than average operational readiness rate with those aircraft in theater and they loved the technologies on-board.”

The year-long deployment was the first for the M-model Black Hawks, which entered full-rate production in June, 2007. So far, 154 M-models have been delivered, Davis said.

The M-model Black Hawk’s digital cockpit display made a large difference with pilots, the AAR found.

There’s some pretty exciting stuff going on at Edwards Air Force Base as the flight test center team gets ready to conduct an awe-inspiring X-51 first flight. The plan is to air launch the X-51A WaveRider using an expendable solid rocket booster from under the wing of a B-52, this spring.

Lt. Col. Todd Venema, director of the Hypersonic Combined Test Force explained just how the test team plans to do that. “We’re going to take the WaveRider and launch it from a B-52 at 50,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean and the vehicle is going to drop away.”

Testing hypersonic technology at Edwards is not new. The concept began in 1959 with the X-15 program, which Mr. Armstrong was also involved in. Work on the program pretty much stopped until recently, but as a result of advancements in technology, interest in the program has rekindled and has allowed testers to go forward.

Colonel Venema said the upcoming first flight is a fairly complicated test. He said the altitude is at the top of the B-52 capability and said testing will call for flight test chase planes. “Telemetry has to be relayed to the Naval Air Station at Pt. Magu to a control room with about 35 people, all watching the various telemetry. So there will be a lot of team work aspects to the whole project,” he said.

Dawn Waldman, chief of broadcast for the 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs, explained in a recent newscast that testers say the purpose behind the X-51A program is to demonstrate the ability to use air-breathing, hydro-carbon propulsion in the hypersonic flight regime, which is flight more than five times the speed off sound.

Charlie Brink, X-51 program manager at the Air Force Research Laboratory says what makes that a challenge for the test team is that conventional turbine engines are physically limited to about 2.5 Mach or 2 ½ times the speed of sound.

“The scramjet in the X-51 will be able to take in the air flight speeds over Mach 4 and up to Mach 6,” Brink said, explaining, as Armstrong did, that the engine achieves its speed by taking in air from the atmosphere, burns it and uses it for thrust, a capability, he said, that will be able to be applied to many other flight applications that the Air Force might use.

Calling the X-51 program the highlight of his career, Mr. Armstrong said, “For me personally, this is a real reward toward the end of a career where I’ve worked hypersonics and now all of a sudden this program is here and after 32 years since the X-15 last flew, I’m able to go back into a control room and experience a hypersonic flight test program.”

The X-51 program is a consortium between Boeing and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. The customers are the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, with support from NASA.

The government of Tunisia has signed a contract with Lockheed Martin for the purchase of two C-130J Super Hercules airlifters with an initial 3 years of logistics support. Tunisia’s new C130Js, scheduled to be delivered in 2013 and 2014, will be the longer fuselage or “stretched” variant of the C-130J.

A contract signing ceremony took place at the Tunisian Ministry of National Defense (MND) in Tunis last month. During the ceremony, Abdellatif Chebbi, Tunisia MND chief of Cabinet, conveyed his appreciation for the successful conclusion of the negotiations and praised the capabilities and flexibility of the C-130J-30 aircraft. In addition, Dennys Plessas, Lockheed Martin regional vice president of Business Development, welcomed the Tunisian Air Force to the growing worldwide Super Hercules family.

“Tunisia is the 12th country to select the C-130J Super Hercules,” said Jim Grant, Lockheed Martin vice president of business development for Air Mobility. “More and more, as countries recognize and appreciate the proven qualities of this tremendously flexible platform, we are seeing it become the preferred airlift option.”

Tunisia currently operates a fleet of C-130Hs and C-130Bs, first purchased in the mid-1980s. The new C-130Js will support Tunisian operations across the mission spectrum, including relief efforts around the world, firefighting and traditional airlift sorties.

Other nations which are operating, or have ordered, the C-130J include Australia, Canada, Denmark, India, Iraq, Italy, Norway, Oman, Qatar, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said Tuesday that the service’s plan to use the Pentagon’s marquee fighter jet, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, will probably be delayed by two years and cost significantly more than initially expected.

Donley told reporters the F-35 isn’t likely to be ready for the Air Force until 2015.

The jet had been scheduled to become initially operational in 2013 before the Pentagon uncovered serious problems with the contract. Last month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that at least one senior manager would be fired and $614 million in performance bonuses would be withheld from lead contractor Lockheed Martin Corporation.

“We remain fully committed to this program,” Donley said.

But waiting until late in the 2015 budget year for the jet to reach a milestone known as initial operating capability is “the best estimate today on where we’ll be,” he added.

The delay suggests the program’s problems were perhaps deeper than officials expected. When Gates discussed the program last month, he said he thought the early production milestone would remain intact.

Donley said that when Gates made his remarks, the service was still working through detailed reviews of the program.

He said problems are being addressed. “We want to hold the contractors’ feet to the fire,” he said. “We want to incentivize them to make good on the promises they made earlier and deliver on schedule.”