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Channel: The National Interest - Boeing

X-32 Stealth Fighter: A Super Weapon America Should Have Built (And Not the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter)?

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A stealthy 'what-if'. 

Dave Majumdar

Would Boeing have done any better? Hard to say—the Joint Strike Fighter was always a technically challenging and extraordinarily ambitious program. It is likely that Boeing would have run into similar but different technical and budgetary problems. 

In October 26, 2001, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that Lockheed Martin’s X-35 had won the Joint Strike Fighter contest over Boeing’s X-32.


Trump’s F-35C Vs. F/A-18E/F Super Hornet Idea: An Interesting Debate…Four Years Ago

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Trump wants to appear like he’s in charge of military requirements (and F-35 pricing improvements).

Richard Aboulafia

Since the election, President Donald Trump has been making headlines with his promise to look at more Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets as an alternative to Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.  He has also discussed asking Boeing to develop an improved Super Hornet as part of this alternative acquisition path.  Clearly, Trump has been reading the news about these programs… from 2013.

T-X Competition Shows the Strength of America's Aerospace Industry

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The Air Force may find it difficult to choose among the array of integrated solutions being offered.

Dan Goure

A major issue for U.S. defense planners looking to an intensifying competition for military overmatch vis-à-vis prospective high-end adversaries, is the shrinking U.S. aerospace and defense sector. Decades of consolidation, driven by declining defense budgets, increasingly onerous regulations, the scarcity of major new programs, the war on profits and an unpredictable customer, has reduced the number of competitors in the major product lines to less than a handful of prime contractors. Below this level, the supply chain has thinned out to a degree that has logisticians and the operations and maintenance (O&M) establishment extremely worried. The once vaunted “Arsenal of Democracy” is or may soon be no more.

The U.S. Military's Strategy to Dominate the Air: Have the F-35 and F/A-18 Join Forces

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Thanks to some big upgrades in the "Super Hornet". 

Mike Fabey

A series of advanced technologies are being introduced into what Boeing calls its Block 3. It introduces new sensors suites, range extension and potentially stealthier attributes that Boeing says will make it a perfect companion for the F-35.

A half-decade ago, U.S. Navy communicators were using defense journalists to send a clear message to Boeing: We love our F/A-18 E/Fs, but we’re done buying any more Super Hornets.

Now, that plan has been turned on its head.

Not only is the Navy planning to buy more of its mainstay aircraft, but Boeing is working on upgrades and technology that will not only keep the jets flying into the coming decades, but make them very much a major component of the service’s aerial strategy. And there’s every indication the Navy is on board with such plans for its favorite aviation weapon.

The X-37B: America's Amazing Space Plane (That Russia and China Fear)

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Years in space—and no one really knows why…

Kyle Mizokami

A mysterious space plane has spent more than 670 days above Earth, hurtling along an orbital path that includes some of the world’s most volatile hotspots. Known the X-37B, the U.S. Air Force’s unmanned mini-shuttle whizzes along an average of two hundred miles above the surface of the Earth. Exactly what it’s doing up there is bit of a mystery.

Boeing Wants to Build a 'Super' F/A-18E/F Super Hornet

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Should F-35 fans be worried? 

Dave Majumdar

Boeing is working on developing a new advanced Block III version of its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet to complement the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Unlike previous iterations of the Advanced Super Hornet—which Boeing was positioning to compete head-to-head with the stealthy single engine F-35—this version is a more modest effort designed to work with the Joint Strike Fighter and the Naval Integrated Fire Control Counter Air (NIFC-CA) network.

“We’ve been working with the Navy over the last year—year-and-a-half—to understand what does the carrier air wing need from a complementary perspective with the F-35, with the [EA-18G] Growler, E-2D and Block III is that” Dan Gillian, Boeing’s F/A-18E/F program manager told The National Interest at the Navy League’s Sea Air and Space conference. “Block III is that complementary asset.”

Why the U.S. Air Force Should Expand its T-X Buy

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The U.S. Air Force should consider expanding the T-X buy to replace the T-38As serving in ancillary roles such as the aggressors.

Dave Majumdar

The long-serving Northrop T-38A Talon advanced jet trainer is a mainstay of the United States Air Force. Though elderly, the Talon remains an excellent aircraft, but it is clear that the service must proceed with the T-X Advanced Pilot Training (APT) program.

Navy Details Plan to Fix F/A-18 Oxygen Problem

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When it comes to Super Hornets, Kindley said, the default answer to almost every breathing issue is “contamination.” 

Mike Fabey

The Navy aviation community writ large is trying to get “crazy smart” about its own maintenance and testing procedures for the F-18, overcoming a sense of remote-control upkeep that has been associated with the Hornets and Super Hornets.

U.S. Navy F/A-18 operators have enough of the hypoxia and other breathing-related problems that have seemingly plagued the aircraft over the past couple of years.

One squadron, for example, has come up with a rather simple solution for a jet that gives its pilots such grief,

“They put them on probation,” Capt. David Kindley, program manager for the Navy’s mainstay aircraft, told Scout Warrior in an interview.  “They put it in jail.”

And to get out of jet jail, the aircraft must go through a pretty rigorous round of testing and vetting. “They are taking ownership of their own (hypoxia-related) issues),” Kindley says. “They are getting pretty smart on maintenance – crazy smart.”


Lockheed Martin's F-35 Stealth Fighter Completes First European Deployment

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The United States Air Force has completed its first ever overseas deployment of the stealthy new Lockheed Martin F-35A Joint Strike Fighter.

Dave Majumdar

The United States Air Force has completed its first ever overseas deployment of the stealthy new Lockheed Martin F-35A Joint Strike Fighter.

Eight of the single-engine strike fighters deployed to RAF Lakenheath in Great Britain as part of the United States’ efforts to reassure America’s European allies and deter potential Russian aggression in the theater. The aircraft—which belong to the Thirty-Fourth Fighter Squadron—are normally stationed with the 388th Fighter Wing at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.

Boeing Caused And Paid For $4 Million Damage To Air Force One’s Oxygen System

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“We took swift action to self-report the incident to the Air Force, and we remediated the oxygen system at no cost to the government,” Boeing spokesman Ben Davis told the Air Force Times.

Thomas Phippen

Airline mechanics caused $4 million in damage to an Air Force One plane in 2016, according to a Department of Defense investigation released Wednesday.

Three Boeing Co. mechanics “failed to observe explicit warnings” and contaminated one VC-25A plane’s oxygen system, increasing the risk of fire, according to the report.

$16 Billion U.S. Air Force T-X Competition: Who Will Win?

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Boeing? Leonardo? Northrop Grumman? Lockheed? Who? 

Dave Majumdar

If the U.S. Air Force chooses Boeing’s submission for its T-X advanced jet trainer competition, the company expects to build the aircraft in Saint Louis, Missouri.

The move would generate up to 1,800 jobs in the Midwestern city and keep the company’s plant open for the foreseeable future after production of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler inevitably comes to a close. Boeing has thus far built two prototype T-X aircraft for the Air Force’s competition.

“Our highly skilled St. Louis workforce designed, assembled and brought Boeing T-X to life, and they continue to define the future, not just for our company, but for our customers and the global aerospace industry,” Shelley Lavender, St. Louis senior executive and president of Boeing Military Aircraft, said in a statement.

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Could Have Been Replaced by This Strange Looking Plane

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Boeing's X-32. 

Robert Farley

Chosen in 2001, the F-35 went on to become the largest Pentagon procurement project of all time, and one of the most beset by trouble. The X-32 escaped all of the most significant challenges to the F-35. The X-32 never faced decades of testing and redesign; it never saw massive cost overruns; it was never subjected to an endless series of articles about how it couldn’t out-dogfight an F-16A. Nostalgia for what might have been is common in aircraft competitions, and it’s impossible to say whether the X-32 would have run into the same difficulties of the F-35.  Given the complex nature of advanced fighter projects, the answer is almost certainly “yes.”

Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Raytheon are the Big Winners in Saudi Arabia's Massive Military Buildup

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What didn't they buy? 

Dave Majumdar

Additional details are emerging about President Donald Trump’s $109.7 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia that was formally signed on May 20. Some of the big winners in the deal include defense industrial giants Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Raytheon among others. The massive arms deal had been in the works for the past two years and was coordinated via the U.S.-Saudi Arabia Threat-Based Security Cooperation Working Group.

Lockheed Martin garnered a substantial portion of the massive deal. Altogether, the company netted more than $28 billion from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA):

Phantom Express: The Super Spaceplane Boeing and DARPA Hope to Make a Reality

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The idea behind Phantom Express is that as a reusable spaceplane, it could be turned around and launched back into space quickly.

Dave Majumdar

Earlier this month, Boeing and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced that they hope to build a new space plane to quickly carry satellites and other payloads into orbit. Called the Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) program, the new robotic spacecraft would be an autonomous, reusable spaceplane. The spaceplane would be used to lift a small expendable upper stage aloft to where it could launch a small satellite of about 3,000 pounds into low Earth orbit.

“Phantom Express is designed to disrupt and transform the satellite launch process as we know it today, creating a new, on-demand space-launch capability that can be achieved more affordably and with less risk,” Darryl Davis, president of Boeing Phantom Works, said in a statement.

Why Boeing Expects to Sell More F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and F-15 Eagles

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The company expects that it will see robust demand for its military aviation products including the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, the EA-18G Growler and the F-15 Eagle.

Dave Majumdar

Boeing expects to see the fortunes of its defense business improve over the next several years and much brighter prospects for its tactical fighter products.  Nonetheless, the company faces uncertainty over how future U.S. defense spending will shape up.

The company expects that it will see robust demand for its military aviation products including the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, the EA-18G Growler and the F-15 Eagle.

“We see our defense business strengthening. We still see it as a modest growth business going forward,” Boeing chief executive officer Dennis Muilenburg said at Sanford C. Bernstein’s Strategic Decision Brokers Conference on June 1.


Boeing vs. Lockheed Martin: Who Will Win the T-X Advanced Jet Trainer Competition?

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Who will this big contract? 

Dave Majumdar

Boeing believes that it has an advantage over rival Lockheed Martin in the battle to secure the U.S. Air Force’s T-X advanced jet trainer contract.

While the Lockheed’s T-50A offering is a based on an existing South Korean aircraft that was designed using technology from the F-16 Fighting Falcon, Boeing’s concept is custom-designed for the U.S. Air Force’s specific requirements. Because the Boeing T-X was designed specifically for the U.S. Air Force, the company believes it has an edge in the competition.

“I believe what we have is a tailor-made, tailored-designed airplane for the requirement to customers that's for T-X,” Boeing chief executive officer Dennis Muilenburg said at the Sanford C. Bernstein’s Strategic Decision Brokers Conference on June 1.  

Does Boeing Have a Plan to Replace the Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS)?

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It looks the real deal. 

Dave Majumdar

Boeing believes that its 737-based proposal to replace the U.S. Air Force’s aging Northrop Grumman E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System will not only perform better but will be cheaper than rival machines. The reason is that the aircraft is larger and more power—but at the same time—is built on a high production volume airliner platform.

“We have taken again a different approach on that when we were using a 737 based platform,” Boeing chief executive officer Dennis Muilenburg said at the Sanford C. Bernstein’s Strategic Decision Brokers Conference on June 1.

“We believe that provides the size, weight, power, cooling growth that our customers will need for the future.”

More Proof America's Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle Is a Beast—And Overkill

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We don't need them to kill drones. Period. 

Dave Majumdar

Last week, a Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle belonging to the United States Air Force shot down what appears to have been an Iranian-made Shahed-129 unmanned aerial vehicle that was threatening American-backed rebel forces in Syria.

The drone—operated by pro-Syrian regime forces—attacked targets near where coalition troops were stationed with bombs before being dispatched by the Strike Eagle according to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).

Leonardo: A Strong Contender for the U.S. Air Force's Big T-X Program Contract?

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We spoke to the CEO himself to get a sense of the company's chances. 

Dave Majumdar

Italian aerospace conglomerate Leonardo submitted its bid for the United States Air Force’s T-X advanced jet trainer program in March. The company will submit its flight data for its T-100 aircraft—a derivative of the M-346 Master advanced jet trainer—by the end of this month. Leonardo is going head-to-head against Lockheed Martin’s T-50A and a new Boeing design that was custom designed for the Air Force contest.

“We feel good about the proposal,” Bill Lynn, chief executive officer for Leonardo DRS—the American subsidiary of the Italian giant—told me in his office in Arlington, Virginia.

“We have been the most successful internationally.”

Lynn noted that the M-346 is already training future F-35 pilots in Israel and it is also in service with the Italian air force, which will use it to train its future Joint Strike Fighter pilots.

Why Boeing’s Block III F/A-18E/F Super Hornet Is About to Become a Reality

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With the Navy officially requesting funding this year for the Block III, an advanced Super Hornet is no longer a notional project.

Dave Majumdar

With the United States Navy struggling to make up a shortfall in its strike fighter inventory, the future looks bright for Boeing’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler.

The Navy plans to order at least 80 additional Super Hornets over the next five years including 14 jets in the fiscal year 18 budget request—and there could be more to come.

Moreover, as it is becoming increasingly apparent that the F/A-18E/F will be serving in the fleet until at least 2040, the Navy has requested funding for an advanced Block III version of the venerable Super Hornet in the 2018 budget. Many of those modifications are also likely to be used onboard the EA-18G Growler variant too.

The Navy needs enough aircraft in its inventory to have the capacity to fill out its air wings—particularly if the size of the fleet is increased.

Northrop Grumman vs. Boeing: Who Will Build the U.S. Military's New ICBMs?

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A big contract is up for grabs. 

Dave Majumdar

The United States Air Force has whittled down the number of would be contractors for its Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to two. Northrop Grumman and Boeing will move forward into the Technology Maturation and Risk Reduction (TMRR) phase.

As such, the Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a $329 million contract and Boeing a $349 million contract for the TMRR phase. Under the contracts, the two companies will mature the GBSD technology and develop a “low technical risk, affordable total system replacement of Minuteman III” ICBM.

"We are moving forward with modernization of the ground-based leg of the nuclear triad," Air Force secretary Heather Wilson said.

"Our missiles were built in the 1970s. Things just wear out, and it becomes more expensive to maintain them than to replace them. We need to cost-effectively modernize."

How Boeing's X-32 Could Have Replaced the F-35 (And Why It Never Happened)

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What if DoD had gone with Boeing’s X-32 instead, or with some combination of the two aircraft?

Robert Farley

Chosen in 2001, the F-35 went on to become the largest Pentagon procurement project of all time, and one of the most beset by trouble. The X-32 escaped all of the most significant challenges to the F-35. The X-32 never faced decades of testing and redesign; it never saw massive cost overruns; it was never subjected to an endless series of articles about how it couldn’t out-dogfight an F-16A. Nostalgia for what might have been is common in aircraft competitions, and it’s impossible to say whether the X-32 would have run into the same difficulties of the F-35.  Given the complex nature of advanced fighter projects, the answer is almost certainly “yes.”


The U.S. Air Force Is Moving Forward on a New Air Force One

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The current phase of the Air Force One replacement program is focused on finalizing the design of the aircraft without compromising on the its essential features. 

Dave Majumdar

The United States Air Force has awarded Boeing a contract modification for slightly less than $600 million to start work on a new presidential transport aircraft.

Based on Boeing’s 747-8, the two new modified airliners will replace a pair of VC-25A (747-200) aircraft as the new “Air Force One” jets.

"Following the award of the contract to purchase two commercial 747-8 aircraft, this contract award is the next major step forward toward ensuring an overall affordable program," Maj. Gen. Duke Richardson, the Presidential Airlift Recapitalization (PAR) program executive officer, said in a statement issued by the Air Force.

Under the terms of the Sept. 12, 2017, contract modification, Boeing will start work on designs to incorporate a mission communication system, electrical power upgrades, a medical facility, an executive interior, a self-defense system and autonomous ground operations capabilities into the two commercial 747-8s.

Northrop Grumman and Boeing Have Plans to Turbocharge America's Nuclear ICBMs

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Northrop Grumman and Boeing teams were recently awarded Technology Maturation and Risk Reduction deals from the Air Force as part of a longer-term developmental trajectory aimed at developing new ICBMs.

Kris Osborn

The new ICBMs will be deployed roughly within the same geographical expanse in which the current weapons are stationed. In total, dispersed areas across three different sites span 33,600 miles, including missiles in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Minot, North Dakota and Great Falls, Montana. The Air Force plans to award the single EMD contract in late fiscal year 2020.

The Air Force plans to fire off new prototype ICBMs in the early 2020s as part of a long-range plan to engineer and deploy next-generation, high-tech intercontinental ballistic missiles with improved range, durability, targeting technology and overall lethality, service officials said.

The service is already making initial technological progress on design work and “systems engineering” for a new arsenal of ICBMs to serve well into the 2070s – called Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, or GBSD.

X-32: The Fighter Plane That Almost Replaced the F-35

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So what happenned? 

Robert Farley

Built to the same specifications, the X-32 and the F-35 had relatively similar performance parameters. Deciding to compete on cost, Boeing designed the X-32 around a single-piece delta wing that would fit all three variants. The X-32 lacked the shaft-driven turbofan lift of the F-35, instead using the same thrust vectoring system as the AV-8 Harrier. The X-32’s system was less advanced than the F-35’s, but also less comple

The Department of Defense (DoD) didn’t have to opt for the F-35. In the 1990s, both Boeing and Lockheed Martin bid for the next big fighter contract, a plane that would serve in each of the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, as well as grace the air forces of many US allies. Boeing served up the X-32; Lockheed the X-35.

Boeing Is Working on a Mach-5 Spy Plane

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The Valkyerie II could compete with Lockheed's SR-72.

David Axe

In early January 2018, Boeing announced it’s developing a concept for a hypersonic reconnaissance and strike drone that could compete with Lockheed’s own SR-72. Both Boeing’s “Valkyrie II”concept and Lockheed’s “Son of Blackbird” could be capable of cruising at speeds exceeding Mach 5, potentially allowing them to evade all but the most sophisticated enemy defenses.

Forget the F-35: The (Ugly) X-32 Could Have Replaced It

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But would it have been a better plane? 

Robert Farley

One thing is for certain; the X-32 was a ridiculously ugly aircraft. It looked like nothing so much as the spawn of an A-7 Corsair and a hideously deformed manatee. The F-35 is no prize from an aesthetic point of view, lacking the sleek, dangerous lines of the F-22, but the X-32 made the F-35 look positively sexy by comparison. How much should this matter? Not a bit. How much did it matter? Good question. Fighter pilots don’t like to fly aircraft that look like they could be run over by Florida speed boat.

The Department of Defense (DoD) didn’t have to opt for the F-35. In the 1990s, both Boeing and Lockheed Martin bid for the next big fighter contract, a plane that would serve in each of the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, as well as grace the air forces of many US allies. Boeing served up the X-32; Lockheed the X-35.

Did Donald Trump Save the F-15 and F/A-18 (and Boeing)?

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Perhaps. 

Dave Majumdar

The Trump Administration’s rise to power has proven to be a boon for Boeing’s fighter programs.

In previous years, both the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and F-15 Eagle production lines were expected to shut down as Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter looked set to dominate the fighter market both domestically and internationally. However, with domestic defense funding boosted and new overseas sales, the future looks brighter for both jets.

“I think after several years of having to endure the damage of sequestration and a challenging defense budget, we're now seeing reemerging strength of that budget supported by both parties, and we're encouraged by the future year plans that we've seen,” Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing's chairman, president and Chief Executive Officer, told investors. “And that is something that has bolstered our expectations for our defense business going forward.”

Boeing Will Manage the Supply Chain for the Bronco II Counterinsurgency Plane

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Here is what we know.

Dave Majumdar

Boeing will manage the supply chain for the Paramount Group’s Advanced High-Performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft (AHRLAC) counterinsurgency plane—called the Bronco II in the United States—through its subsidiary Aviall.

The U.S. defense giant had previously agreed to market the South African-developed aircraft in the United States as the Bronco II. Meanwhile, the international version of the single-engine turboprop is being marketed as the Mwari. Aviall will support supply chain procurement and management for AHRLAC production for all versions of the aircraft including both military variants. Meanwhile, Boeing’s Global Services unit will provide software-based solutions that enable centralized command and control of flight operations and produce total lifecycle support that reduces sustainment costs, the company said.


How the Navy's New Block III Super Hornet Could Crush China's J-20 or Russia's Su-57

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A big leap forward? 

Dave Majumdar

As new adversary fifth-generation stealth fighters such as the Russian Sukhoi Su-57 PAK-FA and the Chengdu J-20 emerge from development, the United States Navy is working on developing and fielding new capabilities that will allow naval aviators to defeat the threat.





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