9/23/2020 Taiwan president praises 'heroic' pilots who intercepted Chinese jets  Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen praised on Tuesday the “heroic performance” of air force pilots who have been intercepting Chinese jets that have approached the island, as its armed forces held drills to simulate repulsing an attack. |
9/23/2020 RAAF takes delivery of 30th F-35A Lightning II aircraft  The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has taken delivery of the 30th F-35A Lightning II joint strike fighter aircraft. Prior to formal acceptance of the jet, the aircraft was put through pre-acceptance testing. This included performing checks on the production line at contractor Lockheed Martin’s Texas facility along with flight tests to make sure the aircraft meets the RAAF’s requirements. |
9/23/2020 Lockheed Martin to provide infrared search and track avionics components for Navy F/A-18E/F combat jet  U.S. Navy air combat experts are asking electro-optics engineers at Lockheed Martin Corp. to build five infrared receivers and four control processors for the infrared search and track (IRST) system aboard F/A-18E/F Super Hornet jet fighter-bomber. |
9/22/2020 BAE-Leonardo Team Secures $420M Contract to Build UK’s Combat Aircraft Radar System  BAE Systems and Leonardo have been awarded a $420.6M contract to develop the Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA), the European Common Radar System Mark 2 (ECRS Mk2) radar for the Royal Air Force's (RAF) Eurofighter Typhoons, BAE said Thursday. |
9/22/2020 No More Rafales! Why Indian Air Force Could Reject Second Batch Of Dassault Rafale Jets?  As the Indian Air Force (IAF) looks to further bolster its aerial fleet after the successful acquisition of French Dassault Rafales, its proposed Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) 2.0 contract for the procurement of 114 additional fighters will look for suitors from the best fighters on the face of the planet. |
9/22/2020 The Air Force's Secret Next Gen Air Dominance Demonstrator Isn't What You Think It Is  There has been a ton of press about a Next Generation Air Dominance demonstrator of some type having already been designed and flown even as the program is still supposedly in its conceptual stages. While this sounds exciting, and it is, I think there may be a chasm between reality and what is being circulated even days after the news initially hit. Most importantly, it is very unlikely that this new 'demonstrator' is a 'fighter,' at least as we would traditionally define it. |
9/20/2020 PLA planes again breach airspace  A fleet of 19 Chinese military aircraft yesterday morning flew into Taiwan’s airspace in a pincer formation, marking the second consecutive day of such incursions, the Ministry of National Defense said. Taiwan’s military responded by scrambling jets, issuing radio warnings, and mobilizing surveillance and air defense systems, the ministry said. |
9/20/2020 China Sends Warning to Taiwan and U.S. With Big Show of Air Power  China sent 18 fighter jets and bombers into the Taiwan Strait on Friday in a robust show of force that a military official in Beijing said was a warning to Taiwan and the United States about their increasing political and military cooperation. “Those who play with fire are bound to get burned,” Senior Col. Ren Guoqiang, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of National Defense, said at a briefing in Beijing, warning the United States and Taiwan against what he called “collusion.” |
9/20/2020 UAE gets American drones as China ramps up sales  The White House's recent decision to allow the sale of advanced weapons systems to the United Arab Emirates highlights the deliberate shift in US policy towards the UAE after it signed "normalisation" accords with Israel. Why would the UAE want American drones as it already has dozens of Chinese armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in its inventory? And why has the United States now agreed to these sales, overcoming its traditional reticence to sell sophisticated weapons to other countries? |
9/19/2020 Uptick in Russian Aircraft Flying Near Alaska Shows ‘Probing’ for Weakness, Sullivan Says  U.S. jet fighters have scrambled at least a dozen times so far this year to intercept Russian military aircraft that fly into airspace off Alaska’s coasts. The North American Aerospace Defense Command says that’s the highest number of intercepts that NORAD has responded to in recent years. And Sen. Dan Sullivan says it’s part of Russia’s policy of expanding its influence and military presence in the Arctic. |