April 10, 2011 Military Aviation News
04/10/2011
It is yet to be seen whether Cabinet will approve the budget for the Armed forces to buy more weapons before House dissolution, but the value of six new Gripen jet fighters that arrived in Thailand recently also raises interesting questions. Approved by General Surayud Chulanont, the Bt19-billion Swedish-made fleet responds to and reflects Thailand's current needs perfectly, especially when the country's buzzwords are security, unity, sufficiency and education.
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04/10/2011
Conspicuously absent in the skies over Libya is the new American F-22. Despite modifying the F-22 to operate as a fighter-bomber, the F-22 was uniquely unsuited to operate as part of the international force assigned to stop Libya from attacking its own people. That job requires aircraft that can carry lots of smart bombs. Defeating the Libyan Air Force was not a major chore, and was easily handled by less capable (and cheaper to operate) air superiority fighters. Another problem was communicatio
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04/10/2011
India's air force won't accept any last-minute offers from bidders in a 126 medium-multi-role combat aircraft deal expected to be worth around $11 billion. Planes in the running are the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet from Boeing, the Rafale by French firm Dassault, the Eurofighter Typhoon from Europe's EADS, Lockheed Martin's F-16, the Russian-made MiG-35 and the Gripen from Swedish firm Saab.
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04/10/2011
BAE Systems tested a new ejection seat that will be deployed on over 3,000 F-35 Lightning II combat jets around the world, using a 600-mph rocket car, a battery of sensors and one lucky mannequin. They captured it on video — but don't blink or you'll miss it.
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04/10/2011
Fighter jets from Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) have destroyed seven tanks near the Libyan cities of Misrata and Ajdabiya, according the UK Ministry of Defense. The RAF’s sorties are part of NATO alliance's enforcement of a no-fly zone, as mandated by the United Nations, over Libya. Britain is using twenty fighter planes in the Libyan campaign.
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