Monthly Archives: February 2025

The FAA’s Latest Regulatory Priorities for Avionics

Global Avionics Round-Up from Aircraft Value News (AVN)

FAA logo

ADS-B integrity and electronic interference, among other critical issues, top the list.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is currently addressing several critical avionics issues to enhance aviation safety and operational efficiency. One prominent area of focus is the integrity and reliability of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) systems.

Despite the successful implementation of the ADS-B Out mandate, challenges persist, particularly concerning call sign mismatches. These discrepancies occur when the aircraft identification filed in a flight plan does not align with the ADS-B Flight ID broadcasted during flight. Such inconsistencies can lead to air traffic control confusion and potential safety risks.

The FAA is actively collaborating with airlines to resolve these issues, aiming to ensure accurate and consistent data transmission within the National Airspace System.

Another significant concern involves the susceptibility of avionics systems to electronic interference, notably GPS spoofing. This form of electronic warfare, traditionally used to deter drones and missiles, has increasingly affected commercial flights globally. Pilots have reported false alerts and disruptions in navigation and safety systems due to spoofed GPS signals, particularly in regions near conflict zones.

These incidents strain pilots’ attention and introduce risks during critical flight operations. While no catastrophic events have resulted from such interference to date, the FAA, airlines, and manufacturers are working on short-term mitigations and developing robust, GPS-spoofing-resistant technologies.

The FAA also is addressing human factors and pilot interface issues associated with complex integrated avionics systems. Recognizing that poorly designed interfaces can lead to pilot errors, the FAA emphasizes the importance of considering human factors in the design and certification of avionics. This approach aims to ensure that systems are intuitive and support pilots in maintaining situational awareness and making timely decisions.

The FAA has issued airworthiness directives targeting specific avionics components. Such directives mandate inspections and corrective actions to mitigate potential risks associated with these components.

The FAA is actively involved in updating and harmonizing safety standards for avionics systems.

The FAA’s current focus encompasses addressing ADS-B system discrepancies, mitigating electronic interference threats like GPS spoofing, enhancing human factors considerations in avionics design, issuing airworthiness directives for specific components, and updating safety standards. These efforts collectively aim to bolster the safety and reliability of avionics systems in the ever-evolving aviation landscape.

The post The FAA’s Latest Regulatory Priorities for Avionics appeared first on Avionics International.

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Avionics: When The Chips Are Down

Global Avionics Round-Up from Aircraft Value News (AVN)

A shortage of microchips afflicts the avionics industry worldwide. The emerging multilateral trade war will only make the problem worse.

The commercial aviation avionics industry faces a host of challenges, but arguably one of the worst crises afflicting it today is the shortage of semiconductors and critical electronic components.

This crisis, exacerbated by a confluence of global supply chain disruptions, rising geopolitical tensions, and surging demand, has deeply impacted the production and delivery of advanced avionics systems, threatening the efficiency and safety of modern aircraft.

The trade war that the Trump administration has promised to initiate will only exacerbate the problem.

A Global Semiconductor Shortage

Semiconductors are the backbone of avionics, powering everything from navigation and communication systems to flight management and cockpit displays. The global semiconductor shortage, which initially emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, has persisted far longer than anticipated.

While other industries, such as automotive and consumer electronics, have managed to recover or adapt, the aviation industry faces unique challenges. Avionics systems require highly specialized and rigorously certified components that can’t be substituted with off-the-shelf chips. The stringent certification processes and the high reliability standards mandated by aviation authorities significantly limit the industry’s flexibility in sourcing alternatives.

Supply Chain Disruptions

Supply chain disruptions are compounding the semiconductor shortage. The pandemic caused major disruptions in global manufacturing and logistics networks, many of which have not fully recovered. Lockdowns in key manufacturing hubs, combined with port backlogs and transportation bottlenecks, have slowed the delivery of essential components.

Moreover, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict has disrupted the supply of critical raw materials like neon gas and palladium, both of which are essential for semiconductor production. This has further constrained the availability of components needed for avionics manufacturing.

Rising Demand for Avionics

The chip challenge is exacerbated by the growing demand for advanced avionics. As airlines transition to next-generation aircraft to meet sustainability goals, the demand for fuel-efficient planes equipped with state-of-the-art avionics has surged. Moreover, the increasing emphasis on autonomous flight technologies and enhanced safety systems has further driven the need for more sophisticated electronic components. The widening gap between demand and supply has created backlogs and delayed aircraft deliveries, leading to higher costs for airlines.

Impact on Aircraft Production and Safety

These developments have exerted a ripple effect on aircraft production timelines. Major manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus have reported delays in delivering aircraft due to shortages of critical avionics components. This not only impacts airline operations but also has broader implications for the global aviation ecosystem, including leasing companies, maintenance providers, and passengers.

Safety concerns are another critical dimension of this crisis. The inability to source certified components can lead to delays in replacing aging avionics systems in existing aircraft, potentially compromising safety. While manufacturers and regulators are unlikely to compromise on safety standards, the extended timelines required to address these issues pose challenges for fleet reliability and performance.

Potential Solutions and Industry Response

To mitigate the crisis, industry stakeholders are exploring multiple strategies. Aircraft manufacturers and avionics suppliers are working to diversify their supply chains, seeking partnerships with new semiconductor manufacturers and investing in local production capabilities.

Governments are also stepping in to address the semiconductor shortage by offering incentives for domestic chip manufacturing and fostering public-private partnerships. The industry is pushing for more streamlined certification processes to accelerate the approval of alternative components without compromising safety.

The semiconductor and avionics component shortage represents a threat to the commercial aviation industry, impeding progress toward more efficient and technologically advanced aircraft. The good news is, efforts are underway in 2025 among manufacturers, suppliers, and regulators to address these challenges.

This article also appears in our partner publication Aircraft Value News.

John Persinos is the editor-in-chief of Aircraft Value News. You can reach John at: jpersinos@accessintel.com

The post Avionics: When The Chips Are Down appeared first on Avionics International.

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Viper Shield Has First Flight on F-16 at Edwards AFB

L3Harris Technologies’ Viper Shield had its first flight aboard a Royal Bahraini Air Force F-16C at Edwards AFB, Calif. (Lockheed Martin Photo)

The L3Harris Technologies AN/ALQ-254(V)1 Viper Shield all-digital electronic warfare suite recently had its first flight on a Royal Bahraini Air Force Block 70 F-16C assigned to the U.S. Air Force’s 412th Test Wing at Edwards AFB, Calif.

The wing is testing that aircraft as part of the foreign military sales process for Bahrain/Royal Bahraini Air Force.

In June 2018, the U.S. Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin a $1.1 billion FMS contract to build 16 F-16 Block 70 fighters for the Royal Bahraini Air Force.

Bahrain is the first foreign nation to receive Block 70s.

The first Viper Shield flight at Edwards “included a series of risk reduction tests related to the mission computer and other avionic subsystems compatibility, as well as interoperability with the APG-83 active electronically scanned array (AESA) fire control radar,” L3Harris said on Tuesday.

Northrop Grumman builds the APG-83 AESA radar.

AESA features include beyond line of sight, longer range air-to-air and air-to-ground targeting of multiple targets, such as air defense radars and cruise/surface to air missiles, and all-weather, high-resolution, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) ground mapping for improved strike.

In September, L3Harris said that its site in Clifton, N.J., had begun building 166  Viper Shields for F-16s in six countries under a total Viper Shield backlog of $1 billion.

“The Viper Shield system combined with a Block 70 airframe creates a leap in capability compared to the traditional Block 50 Viper I grew up flying,” Air Force Maj. Anthony Pipe, an F-16 experimental test pilot, said on Tuesday in the L3Harris statement. “The EW advancements this system brings will ensure pilots flying these aircraft continue to make it home.”

For U.S. F-16s, however, the Air Force in March 2022 chose Northrop Grumman’s ultra-wideband architecture AN/ALQ-257 Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suite (IVEWS), but L3Harris has said that it believes Viper Shield could one day go on U.S. F-16s.

“Our building block approach to test hardware and software in labs, demonstrate functionality in dense radio frequency environments and validate the EW system on the ground prepared us for Viper Shield’s successful first flight,” Ed Zoiss, president of L3Harris Space and Airborne Systems, said on Tuesday in the company statement. “With this [Viper Shield first flight] milestone, we are ready to continue flight testing and deliver systems in late 2025 as Viper Shield is the only advanced EW solution that is funded and in active production for international F-16 partners.”

L3Harris said that Viper Shield “counters modern radar threats with immediate detection and advanced jamming responses to disrupt the adversary’s kill chain” and that, “unlike other EW system providers, Viper Shield will integrate across all F-16 Blocks with minimal modifications to the aircraft, and it is fully configurable with both the current Mission Modular Computer and the Next Generation Mission Computer.”

A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.

The post Viper Shield Has First Flight on F-16 at Edwards AFB appeared first on Avionics International.

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Air Boss: Unmanned MQ-25 Will Fly This Year, Opens Way To 6th Gen Collaborative Combat Aircraft

The Boeing MQ-25 T1 test asset transfers fuel to a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet on June 4, marking the first time in history that an unmanned aircraft has refueled another aircraft. The MQ-25 Stingray will assume the carrier-based tanking role currently performed by F/A-18s, allowing for better use of the combat strike fighters and helping extend the range of the carrier air wing. (Photo: Kevin Flynn)

SAN DIEGO – The Navy Air Boss on Jan. 28 confirmed the first MQ-25A Stingray aircraft carrier-based unmanned tanker aircraft will start test flying later this year, a necessary step to getting to future manned-unmanned teaming systems.

“We will fly MQ-25 in ‘25. You can quote me on that, we will fly that platform in ‘25 and get that thing on the carrier in ‘26 and start integrating that thing. That unlocks the future of manned-unmanned teaming, which is number two in the NAVPLAN for [Chief of Naval Operations] Adm. Franchetti,” Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever, commander of Naval Air Forces and Naval Air Force – U.S. Pacific Fleet, said during the WEST 2025 conference, hosted by AFCEA and the U.S. Naval Institute.

The Navy first awarded Boeing [BA] an $805 million engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) award in 2018 to design, develop, build, test and verify the first four MQ-25s.

The Navy plans to ultimately produce 76 MQ-25s, including four engineering development models and five system demonstration test articles. 

Last April, Rear Adm. Stephen Tedford, program executive officer for unmanned aviation and strike weapons, confirmed the Navy plans the first MQ-25 to conduct its first flight in spring 2025 at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland and achieve initial operational capability (IOC) in 2026 once it is integrated with a carrier.

The service wants to use the MQ-25 to relieve F/A-18E/F Super Hornets that are relegated to the tanking mission. Replacing them with the MQ-25 is expected to open up more fighters for training and combat.

Cheever said the main part of using MQ-25 is for the tanking mission to extend long-range strikes, but hinted at how “there’s a lot of future potential capability there, won’t go any further than that, but there’s a lot of potential there.”

He may have been alluding to how the Stingray was previously billed as also having some intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, secondary to its tanking mission.

When asked about any potential growing pains combining the MQ-25 with the carriers, Cheever said “I don’t see a lot of issues bringing it together. First thing is you’ve got to get the thing flying and second thing you’ve got to get it on the carrier with the Unmanned Control Station that we already have on the carrier, waiting for that platform. So really excited to get that going.”

Last August the Navy confirmed it installed the first Unmanned Air Warfare Center (UAWC) on the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77), where operators will control the MQ-25. The UAWC has the equipment that makes up the first operational and integrated Unmanned Carrier Aviation Mission Control System (UMCS) MD-5E Ground Control Station (GCS).

Cheever said a big part of making the MQ-25 work will be how he plans to “turn the weapons tactics instructors loose” so they can figure out how exactly to operate the aircraft and add more manned-unmanned teaming experience that opens up future unmanned missions.

Cheever also underscored getting the MQ-25 started will help build the Navy’s confidence to continue building more manned-unmanned teaming capabilities, but he pointed out they are already working on this with the P-8A Poseidon and MQ-4C unmanned aircraft for the persistent maritime ISR mission for long-range anti-submarine warfare. 

He said adding a successful MQ-25 manned-unmanned teaming based on carriers will lead to a “different world,  it opens up the future of sixth generation Collaborative Combat Aircraft and everything that comes after it.”

Cheever said those will likely be some of the capabilities on the future aircraft carriers CVN-79, 80 and 81 that are expected to operate into the 2080s.

Cheever noted both the MQ-4 and upcoming MQ-25 lessons learned are being, and will be shared, with the surface, subsurface portions of the Navy, and Air Force “in how these things work, so we’re pretty excited about it.”

MQ-25 production and timelines have been delayed several times. In 2023 a DoD Office of the Inspector General report noted the MQ-25 schedule was pushed back due to production maturity issues and requiring more testing before moving to production.

According to the FY 2025 budget request documents, the Navy plans for MQ-25 initial test and evaluation to last from the third quarter of FY 2024 to the end of FY 2027, initial operation test and evaluation in the first half of FY 2027, and IOC in the fourth quarter of FY 2026. 

The Milestone C decision is now due to be reached by the third quarter of FY 2025, with a low-rate initial production contract for the first non-developmental aircraft in June 2025.

A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.

The post Air Boss: Unmanned MQ-25 Will Fly This Year, Opens Way To 6th Gen Collaborative Combat Aircraft appeared first on Avionics International.

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Sikorsky Begins Black Hawk Ground Runs With New GE T901 Engines

Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, started ground runs on a UH-60M Black Hawk equipped with two Improved Turbine Engines (ITE) in West Palm Beach, Florida. Photos courtesy Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company.

Sikorsky on Jan. 29 said it has started ground runs with the new GE Aerospace [GE] T901 engines integrated on a Black Hawk helicopter, ahead of the first test flight later this year.

GE Aerospace added that the successful ground runs with its T901 engines, developed under the Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP), “successfully validated the initial performance of all critical systems — including fuel, electrical, hydraulic, engine and flight control systems and engine bay flow” on the UH-60M Black Hawk.

“These tests mark a pivotal moment in history as the T901 engine powers the Black Hawk for the first time,” Amy Gowder, GE Aerospace’s president and CEO of defense and systems, said in a statement. “This achievement paves the way for a more powerful and mission-ready Black Hawk, equipping the U.S. Army with the ability to meet the growing demands of future operations.”

GE Aerospace was awarded a $517 million contract in February 2019 to develop its T901 engine for ITEP, which will eventually power the Army’s AH-64 Apache and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.

Last June, GE Aerospace delivered the first two T901 engines to Sikorsky to begin integration work on the UH-60M Black Hawk as the companies and the Army targeted 2025 for first flight on the platform. 

To inform Black Hawk efforts, Sikorsky integrated the T901 engine into its Raider X prototype developed for the Army’s canceled Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft program and ultimately conducted three ground runs on the platform.

Along with canceling FARA a year ago, the Army noted at the time it would also delay moving into production of the T901 engine and invest in further research and development efforts.

Sikorsky noted the new T901 engine is designed to increase the Black Hawk’s power by 50 percent, improve fuel efficiency and is “a critical component of the roadmap to a modernized Black Hawk.”

“Soldiers will rely on Black Hawk helicopters well into the future, and upgrades to the aircraft today will pay dividends for decades, enabling new missions such as deploying and managing launched effects,” Hamid Salim, Sikorsky’s vice president of Army and Air Force systems, said in a statement. “A modernized Black Hawk fleet will create new operational opportunities for the Army by extending the capabilities of a proven, fielded fleet to travel farther on less fuel and with more troops and cargo.”

A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.

The post Sikorsky Begins Black Hawk Ground Runs With New GE T901 Engines appeared first on Avionics International.

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