July, 2011 Military Aviation News
07/31/2011
The tailhook version of the F-35 Lightning II stealth combat aircraft – which, following the recent UK defence review, is now planned to fly from new Royal Navy carriers in years to come – has successfully completed its first catapult launch test.
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07/31/2011
Taking bilateral defence relations to a new high,China will givePakistan a squadron of the advanced J-10B fighter aircraft, a media report said. The offer was made by senior Chinese military leaders to visiting Pakistan Army's Chief of General Staff, Lt. Gen.Waheed Arshad, the Urdu daily Jang reported on Saturday, quoting defence sources.
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07/31/2011
The government of Taiwan said it will follow through on its commitment to purchase F-16 jet fighters from the U.S., despite fears that such a transaction would anger Mainland China. "The defense ministry has constantly appealed to the U.S. to sell the F-16 C/D jets through various channels. Our determination to maintain self-defense has never changed," the Taipei government said in a statement.
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07/31/2011
The number of dogfights between the military planes of Turkey and bailed-out Greece hit a record low this year. While the annual number of dogfights was between 300 and 500 in previous years, this number is currently at 79 and is not expected to exceed 100 by the end of the year.
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07/31/2011
NATO allies are in a hurry to bring the air war in Libya to a victorious end but are having to carry on with a shrinking alliance after Norway withdrew its jets and Italy pulled an aircraft carrier. Norway’s departure this weekend leaves the 28-nation military club with combat planes from seven nations instead of eight to finish a job begun four months ago that some hoped would last just weeks.
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07/31/2011
Boeing on July 28 delivered a third C-17 Globemaster III airlifter to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Air Force and Air Defence at the C-17 program’s final assembly facility in Long Beach.
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07/31/2011
Boeing joined the U.S. Air Force today at Joint Base Lewis-McChord to help dedicate a C-17 Globemaster III airlifter to the members of the U.S. armed forces who have received the Congressional Medal of Honor.
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07/31/2011
Lockheed Martin’s F-35 flight test program moves closer to achieving year-end milestones since the last update issued June 13. The F-35 Lightning II 5TH Generation multirole fighter conducted 107 test flights, bringing the total number of flights for the year to 518.
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07/31/2011
Russia's Sukhoi T-50 fifth-generation fighter, also known as PAK-FA, will perform its first public flight at the MAKS-2011 air show near Moscow in August, Nikolai Zanegin, Deputy General Director of Russia's Aviasalon company, said on Wednesday.
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07/31/2011
The US based association for the unmanned aerial systems industry has reported US denials of an Iranian report that the country's Revolutionary Guard shot down a U.S. drone (unmanned spy plane.
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07/26/2011
Malaysia's Defence Ministry is looking into purchasing Typhoon fighter jets, reports the New Straits Times. The ministry had set up an evaluation team to consider buying the multi-role combat aircraft from the Eurofighter company, although Defence Minister Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has admitted that its development and production cost (it has an estimated price tag of RM600 million or S$243.5 million) is prohibitive.
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07/26/2011
Two Chinese fighter jets crossed an unofficial dividing line in the Taiwan Strait late last month in pursuit of a US spy aircraft, according to defence sources in Taipei and Beijing.
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07/26/2011
The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Gen. Yoweri Museveni, yesterday conceded calls by opposition for the government to give priority to infrastructure and healthcare ahead of military hardware are plausible but said defence cannot wait for war to purchase equipment.
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07/26/2011
Keen on getting 126 combat aircraft as early as possible, the Indian Air Force is pushing for the commercial bids of the two contenders - Eurofighter and Dassault - to be opened before the end of this month.
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07/26/2011
Russia's Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA fifth-generation fighter has been placed on a short list of a South Korean tender for the delivery of advanced fighter jets, a Russian arms industry think-tank said on Monday. Korea is seeking to buy 60 fighters with advanced stealth capability from a foreign aircraft maker in the biggest arms-procurement deal ever for the country with an estimated budget of $7.86 billion under a program code-named FX-III.
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07/25/2011
China is revising its combat pilot training program. The existing system takes ten years of academic and flight training. The new program cuts that to 5-7 years, while increasing flight hours by over 40 percent. This is more in line with Western methods, while the existing system owes more to the one the Russians developed during the Cold War. The new system puts more emphasis on trainee pilots demonstrating combat flying skills before they can graduate.
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07/25/2011
Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) might replace its MiG aircrafts with the Eurofighter Typhoon multi-role combat aircraft (MRCA). Minister of Defence Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the 10 Russian-made MiG-29s were nearing the end of their service period and the RM3 billion Eurofighter may fit the bill.
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07/25/2011
Israel Aerospace Industries continues to fortify its presence in Europe after it beat out an American bid to sell strategic unmanned aerial vehicles to the French military. Last week, the French Defense Ministry announced its decision to purchase IAI’s Heron TP long-endurance UAV that entered the Israel Air Force service in 2010. The Heron TP will replace the smaller Heron 1, which has been in French service for a number of years.
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07/25/2011
It's Navy Week in Los Angeles, not a routine event in a city currently without a coastal Navy base. However, L.A. is rich with naval influence and heritage nonetheless. In a very real way, the citizens of L.A., like all Americans, have a vested interest in having a Navy - one that is fast, flexible, powerful and global.
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07/25/2011
India is keeping a wary eye on China's rapid global ascent. Unresolved border issues that resulted in the Sino–Indian War of 1962 have been heating up again in recent years. Indian policymakers are scrambling to develop effective policies to cope with a rising China by simultaneously pursuing both a robust diplomatic strategy aimed at encouraging peaceful resolution of border disputes and forging strong trade and economic ties and an ambitious military modernization campaign that will build Indi
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07/23/2011
The Obama administration will make a final decision on the sale of 66 F-16C/D fighter jets to Taiwan by Oct. 1, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, on July 21. Since 2006, the U.S. has repeatedly rejected Taiwan's letter of request (LOR) for new F-16C/D fighters. China has called the proposed sale, estimated to be worth more than $8 billion, a "red line."
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07/23/2011
The recent cancellation of two scheduled bilateral exercises by the Russian side has brought to light the existence of some strains in the otherwise robust Indo-Russian defence partnership. An assertive Indian officialdom aggravated by indifferent Russian sales support is causing the latter to resort to short term pressure signaling.
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07/23/2011
The Army has relaunched its program to deploy a manned airborne intelligence and reconnaissance gathering platform. Working on a tight development schedule, the effort will turn more than 30 commercial turboprop aircraft into flying sensor platforms that will support ground forces by searching out and pinpointing enemy activity.
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07/23/2011
Accidents caused by lack of training and the mishandling of weapons are common among the rebels of the Western mountains. But negligence might also be an 'invisible enemy' among Moammar Gadhafi's troops.
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07/22/2011
Boeing on Wednesday, July 20, conducted an industry forum in São José dos Campos to share with local businesses and universities the broad spectrum of opportunities available to them as part of Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet offering in the F-X2 fighter aircraft competition.
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07/22/2011
The US Air Force's top civilian leader has called for a quick-look study on safety concerns about oxygen generation systems across the combat aircraft fleet. Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley directed the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board to conduct the study more than two months into a fleet-wide stand-down for the Lockheed Martin F-22 over related concerns.
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07/22/2011
The Yankee Air Museum's 2011 "Thunder Over Michigan" Air Show is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, July 23-24 and is proud to welcome back the world's most famous military demonstration team, the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels to Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
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07/22/2011
Nato aircraft have flown 5 900 sorties over Libya and engaged more than 3 000 targets since combat operations began, the alliance has announced, with French and British helicopters destroying more than 300 targets since June 4. “Nato has controlled the Libyan air space around the clock, every day since the implementation of the No-Fly Zone, using Nato's sophisticated airborne warning and control system,” said Colonel Roland Lavoie, Nato spokesperson for Operation Unified Protector.
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07/22/2011
A distracted pilot and a blinding swirl of dust kicked up by rotors were to blame for a helicopter crash in Afghanistan two years ago that killed two Canadians and a Briton. A military board of inquiry filed its final report on the crash on Wednesday.
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07/22/2011
Boeing and the U.S. Navy recognized the 40th anniversary of the Harpoon Missile System today at a ceremony near the company’s St. Charles facility.
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07/22/2011
The Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet Infrared Search and Track (IRST) program received a Milestone B Acquisition Decision Memorandum from the U.S. Navy on July 13. This allows the program to advance to its next development phase - Engineering and Manufacturing Development.
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07/22/2011
A court martial in northern Russia’s Arkhangelsk has given a two-year suspended jail sentence to an Air Force officer who supervised flight operations prior to the crash of a MiG-31 interceptor in March, military investigators said on Thursday. The officer, Roman Storozhenko, was found guilty of accepting the base at Kotlas in Arkhangelsk Region as being fit to allow flight operations in March 2010, and authorizing missions for MiG-31s.
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07/21/2011
The commercial bids for the ‘mother of all defence deals’ - for 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), valuing over $10 billion, will be opened before July 31. However, the winner of the contract - French Dassault or European Eurofighter - will be known only when the IAF finds out the lowest bidder based on various factors such as life cycle maintenance costs.
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07/21/2011
Several Japan Air Self-Defense Force Mitsubishi F-15 Eagles joined other RED FLAG-Alaska participants July 12 after having its entire F-15 fighter fleet grounded in response to an incident on July 4 with one of the fighter jets during a routine training exercise back in Japan. The Mitsubishi F-15 Eagle forms part of JASDF fighter-interceptor aircraft inventory used to engage hostile aircraft. The F-15 was brought to RED-FLAG Alaska to help JASDF members improve their tactical flying skills and
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07/21/2011
The loan agreements includes a $105,370,177.09, from the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) for the purchase of one Embraer E 190 jet with a hanger, an €11 million from Fidelity Bank Ghana for two DA42 MPP Guardian Surveillance aircrafts and another €60 million from the Deutsche Bank Sociedad Anónima Espanóla for the purchase of two CASA 295 aircraft.
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07/21/2011
Boeing officials do not expect to breach the cost estimates that the Air Force endorsed when it handed the company a $35 billion contract for new tanker aircraft. “There are no overruns. … We remain on cost, on schedule,” Boeing executive Chris Chadwick told The Hill on Wednesday. “Our bid has not changed since the Air Force accepted it. Our expectation of cost has not changed since the Air Force selected the Boeing plane.
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07/21/2011
The Boeing Co. cast its net wider in the campaign to secure Brazil's multibillion-dollar order for up to 100 jet fighters, pledging generous technology transfers and training for Brazilians as part of the deal. Boeing is in competition with French Dassault Aviation's Rafale fighter jet and Swedish company Saab's Gripen NG rival.
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07/21/2011
The German air force is keen on a joint military exercise with India and will discuss the possibility of this when the Indian Air Force (IAF) chief visits Berlin in September. Luftwaffe chief General Aarne Kreuzinger-Janik said during an interaction on the sidelines of the Royal International Air Tattoo here that Germany was exploring the possibilities of regular joint exercises with the IAF for achieving interoperability.
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07/21/2011
The Obama administration is reportedly pushing for yet another $100 billion in Defense cuts, on top of the more than $500 billion in cuts to the ten-year defense spending plan the White House is already planning to enact -- ensuring that there will be few -- if any -- major Obama era defense programs left.
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07/21/2011
It was wheels up Wednesday morning for Lockheed Martin’s second F-35A Lightning II production jet delivery in a week. Maj. Joseph T. “OD” Bachmann (Marine Corps) piloted the aircraft, known as AF-8, to Eglin Air Force Base where it arrived at 11:50 a.m. CDT. AF-8 joins AF-9 which Lockheed Martin delivered to the 33rd Fighter Wing last Thursday.
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07/20/2011
From Ramnath Shenoy London, Jul 19 (PTI) As India prepares to open the commercial bids for the USD 10.8 billion tender for 126 medium range multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA), Eurofighter hopes to make the country a partner in its Typhoon fighter jet programme which it says would be a game-changer.
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07/20/2011
The Pentagon's acknowledgment on Friday that an American defence contractor's computer networks had been seriously hacked by a foreign spy agency is the first in a series of security wake-up calls likely to hit Australia in coming months.
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07/20/2011
The skies over Las Vegas will fill with Lightning next year, as the military's next-generation fighter jet lands at its new home at Nellis Air Force Base. The Air Force announced plans on Tuesday to establish a test and training center at Nellis for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, also known as the Lightning II.
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07/20/2011
With their strategic proximity growing, the US on Tuesday pitched for more military sales to India, a call soon after Washington decided to cut $800 million arms aid to Pakistan. "On the issue of defence technologies, the US expects to continue developing and selling the world's most competitive products," secretary of state Hillary Clinton, on a three-day visit to India, said here.
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07/20/2011
China can send a man into space and a rocket into lunar orbit but, paradoxically, its defense industry cannot build a top-end aircraft engine. Or an engine sophisticated enough to power advanced surface ships and armored vehicles.
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07/20/2011
Indian policymakers are scrambling to develop effective policies to cope with a rising China by simultaneously pursuing both a robust diplomatic strategy aimed at encouraging peaceful resolution of border disputes and forging strong trade and economic ties and an ambitious military modernisation campaign that will build Indian air, naval, and missile capabilities.
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07/20/2011
The first Boeing P-8A Poseidon production aircraft completed its first flight on July 7, taking off from Renton Field and landing three hours later at Boeing Field in Seattle. The P-8A is the first of six low-rate initial production (LRIP) aircraft Boeing is building for the U.S. Navy as part of a $1.6 billion contract awarded in January.
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07/20/2011
A Pakistan Navy Uqab unmanned air vehicle (UAV) crashed on Tuesday in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, according to local television, quoting Navy sources.
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07/20/2011
The top award is the King Hussein Memorial Sword - presented in memory of the late HM King Hussein of Jordan, Patron of the International Air Tattoo (1983-1989) - and is awarded for the best overall flying demonstration. This year it went to Maj Murat Keles, flying the F-16C “Solo Turk” from 141st Sqn, Turkish Air Force.
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07/19/2011
The U.S. Air Force’s F-22 fighter remains subject to the longest full-force grounding of any combat aircraft in recent history, with no cause firmly identified. Meanwhile, documents show that the focus of the investigation—the onboard oxygen-generation system (Obogs)—has been a flight safety issue for many years on the F/A-18C/D Hornet, increasing the number of cases where aircrew were affected by hypoxia, or lack of oxygen, in flight.
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07/19/2011
New Delhi seems to be bending backwards to explain why two iconic US Fighter aircraft have been left out of the Multi-Role Combat Aircraft Competition to supply fighter jets to India. However, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to push for the fifth generation F-35 on her visit to India.
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07/19/2011
A rainbow unit of Air National Guard Airmen comprising members from Alabama, California, Iowa, Washington and Massachusetts flew into a base that until July 16 only had seen use by Mig-29s and Su-27s. Following the advance teams of maintenance and support personnel, seven F-16C Fighting Falcons from Alabama and Iowa cut through the calm, blue Ukrainian sky. The F-16Cs were among the first American fighter jets to touch down in this former Soviet-bloc country.
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07/19/2011
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) assumed command and control over the western-led intervention in the Libyan civil war four months ago with three stated military missions: enforce an arms embargo, enforce a no-fly-zone, and protect civilians and civilian populated areas.
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07/19/2011
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to India for the India-US Strategic Dialogue talks provides an opportunity for the US to take India’s pulse on China and to discuss new diplomatic and security initiatives that will contribute to maintaining a stable balance of power in Asia.
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07/19/2011
Recent briefings in Brussels and London on Operation Unified Protector reveal that attack helicopters provided by France and the UK are now making key contributions to NATO-led operations over Libya, which has been extended until the end of September.
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07/19/2011
Ukraine's arms exports in 2010 reached almost a billion dollars with the bulk of weaponry sold to African countries, the Kommersant-Ukraine newspaper said on Monday. "The portfolio of contracts signed by state-run arms exporter Ukrspetsexport increased in value from $799.5 in 2009 to $956.7 billion [in 2010]," the paper cited data released by the State Service for Export Control.
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07/19/2011
Russia's Irkut aircraft holding is in talks with the Defense Ministry on the delivery of up to 40 Sukhoi Su-30 multirole fighters to the Russian Air Force, the company said on Monday.
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07/19/2011
The third production C-5M Super Galaxy took its first flight today here at the Lockheed Martin facility in Marietta. Aircraft 0005 is stationed at Dover Air Force Base, Del. and assigned to be flown by both active duty and reserve airlift wings there.
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07/19/2011
The fifth Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II Short Take Off/Vertical Landing (STOVL) flight test aircraft delivered to the Marine Corps arrives at Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River, Md., Saturday, July 16.
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07/18/2011
Since early May, pilots at Langley Air Force Base have been living life at less than supersonic speeds. The Air Force ordered a stand-down of its F-22 Raptor fleet on May 3 after reports of potential malfunctions in the oxygen system. The investigation has since expanded to include all aspects of the aircraft, according to Air Combat Command, which is headquartered at Langley.
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07/18/2011
Somebody should get the AVIC and CATIC marketing staffs back on the same page. I realized yesterday that I had picked up two different product cards in the exhibit halls of the Paris Air Show for the JF-17 Thunder, the low-cost, multi-role, Chinese-Pakistani collaboration.
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07/18/2011
France recently announced that it has been spending about $2.5 million a day for operations in Libya. France and Britain are the largest contributors, in terms of warplanes, to the Libya operation. But the U.S. is still contributing most of the aircraft, except that most of these are support (intelligence, electronic warfare, refueling and transport).
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07/18/2011
Noting that there was a “mismatch” between Indian procurement requirements and the American license regime, the US business chambers has strongly pitched for finding “breakdown” in these procedures and also recommended issuance of a list of “pre-approved” technologies by the US to India.
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07/18/2011
NATO aircraft have carried out a "major strike" today on a military depot at Tajura, north-east of Tripoli, the U.K. Ministry of Defence said.
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07/18/2011
It is rare for two serving Air Force chiefs to concur, but in an appraisal of the Eurofighter Typhoon, one of the two contenders for a multi-billion dollar Indian Air Force tender, they unanimously voted it as very reliable as seen in the operations against Libya.
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07/18/2011
One of the fastest helicopter prototypes ever developed, the Sikorsky X2 technology demonstrator, is being retired after making its final flight last Thursday. The X2 has served its purpose, and the technological lessons learned from the prototype are blending into the Sikorsky S-97 Raider helicopter program, which Sikorsky will propose for the U.S. Army's future Armed Aerial Scout program.
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07/18/2011
TechNewsDaily was recently invited to take a rare behind-the-scenes tour of a UAS ground control station in Italy that is jointly shared by the Italian and U.S. air forces to demystify some of the operations of these robot warrior aircraft.
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07/17/2011
An international consortium for the development of an advanced fighter aircraft? It sounds familiar – and the precedent isn’t encouraging. The programme to build the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) involving the United States and eight other countries has become a cautionary tale over the complexity and runaway expense of developing a next-generation fighter aircraft.
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07/17/2011
China has been dedicated to a peaceful external environment so that it can concentrate on domestic agendas, bring more welfare to the world's biggest population and remain committed to world and regional peace and stability.
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07/16/2011
Sikorsky Aircraft launched its new hybrid helicopter line, the S-97 Raider, this week, creating what could generate the future lines of all its helicopters, one analyst said. The launch of the S-97 follows the final flight of an experimental aircraft, the X2, in Florida on Thursday, which management credited for paving the way for the new line.
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07/16/2011
Minister of external affairs S M Krishna mistook Washington’s suspension of the $800 million military aid to Pakistan as its termination and endorsed the US move. It is not just bad advice he acted on that’s at fault. There’s something gravely amiss in India’s Pakistan policy. Does the Indian government think that India or the United States is better placed to decide how much security is enough for Pakistan than the Pakistanis themselves?
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07/16/2011
French air force and navy Rafale F3 combat aircraft are touted as true “omnirole fighters.” Military officials say there are multirole fighters that conduct reconnaissance, air-to-air combat, air-to-surface attack or deterrence, but only one at a time. The F3 can perform all in a single mission, they maintain.
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07/16/2011
Lockheed Martin recently delivered the final AN/AAQ-39 targeting system full production unit to the U.S. Air Force. Q-39 is the electro-optical/infrared targeting system for the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command AC-130U Gunship.
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07/16/2011
The first Lockheed Martin production model F-35 Lightning II to be assigned to the 33rd Fighter Wing arrived here today at 1:18 p.m. CDT after its more than 90-minute ferry flight from Fort Worth, Texas. The aircraft, known as AF-9, will be used for activities in concert with training F-35 pilots and maintainers who begin coursework at the base’s new F-35 Integrated Training Center this fall.
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07/16/2011
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called on the alliance’s members to send more aircraft to deliver surgical strikes on Libyan targets, Western media said on Friday.
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07/16/2011
Several Belarusian firms will showcase over 40 types of military-purpose electronic equipment and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) at the MAKS-2011 air show near Moscow in August, a Belarusian defense industry official said.
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07/14/2011
It is costly to operate in the vast and inhospitable Arctic. But the Canadian military is exploring a way to cut costs and speed up the movement of troops and equipment by building several new northern bases.
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07/14/2011
Western Libyan rebels pushing towards Tripoli plan to attack a pivotal city within a week, a top commander said, speaking hours before his forces lost ground captured last week from loyalist forces.
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07/14/2011
The past 20 years has been a tale of near-continuous decline for the ex-Soviet military. Once it was the largest military force on the planet. Of late it has fallen to a mere shadow of its former self. So low have the fortunes of Russia’s conventional military fallen that it was barely able to defeat Georgia in their short conflict in 2008. The Soviet Union was once known for its massive nuclear arsenal. Now it is barely able to maintain a viable force; most of its systems are obsolescent and ag
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07/14/2011
In a book published in 1983, Norman Augustine, a luminary of the US aerospace industry, drafted a series of light-hearted “laws”, 52 in alli. Law XVI reads: “In the year 2054, the entire defence budget will purchase just one aircraft. This aircraft will have to be shared by the Air Force and Navy 3-1/2 days each per week except for leap year, when it will be made available to the Marines for the extra day.”
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07/14/2011
The government today approved the costliest military aircraft upgrade programme yet, gifting to France a deal that will see the Indian Air Force’s 25-year-old Mirage fighter planes being dressed up for more than Rs 200 crore a piece.
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07/14/2011
Russia's ambitious $730-billion rearmament program appears to be stalling amid skyrocketing prices, late deliveries and, in some cases, the sheer inability of Russia's military industries to deliver the goods.
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07/14/2011
Iraq seems to be moving forward on plans to buy up to 18 US F-16 fighter jets at a cost of $3bn - after putting off a potential sale several months ago - according to an American military spokesman who spoke to CNN yesterday.
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07/13/2011
China's military jet engine capability is increasing at a rapid pace, with implications not only for China's independent military capabilities, but also for the global defence industry. Yet China also faces major impediments in achieving its strategic aim of establishing itself as an independent manufacturer in one of aerospace's most complex engineering technologies: high-performance turbofan engines. Our recent paper, Jet Engine Development in China found that China's progress is uneven but th
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07/13/2011
A mix of the old and the new will be on display in the air and on the ground next month at the Selfridge Air National Guard Base Air Show and Open House. Two Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets similar to the jets that flew over the lakefront during this past weekend for the Gold Cup Races are scheduled to appear at the free air show Aug. 20-21 along with the Air Force's new F-22 Raptor.
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07/13/2011
The Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet was not supposed to live this long. But with the latest slippages in the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program and aging fighter forces worldwide, Boeing talks about stretching production to 1,000 aircraft and keeping the line open to the end of the decade, despite the recent loss in India’s Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft competition.
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07/13/2011
Lockheed Martin, one of the two US companies which lost out in the bid for the 126 combat aircraft deal, is expected to be conveyed the reasons for it by the Indian Air Force (IAF). The IAF is expected to brief Lockheed Martin Tuesday in detail about the reasons of their exclusion for which the request is understood to have been made by the US government, defence sources told PTI here.
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07/13/2011
The rumor among the Euro-aero-hacks in Paris this year was that all is not well with India’s Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft program, which prompted them to ask American industry officials if they thought they might end up getting another shot at it. (Boeing’s top military aviation executive crossed his fingers.) But until and unless something actually happens, the Indians are going forward with their last round of competition between the Eurofighter Typhoon and France’s Dassault Rafale — and
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07/13/2011
When it comes to China's military relationship with the United States, U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen is not one to mince his words. "We don't have a relationship, it was stopped," the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff says after climbing down from one of China's high-tech combat planes during a rare visit to the headquarters of the People's Liberation Army in Shandong province.
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07/13/2011
Boeing EA-18G Growlers operated by U.S. Navy electronic attack squadron VAQ-132 safely returned to their home base at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash., on July 9, after completing an eight-month deployment that included combat operations in the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) areas of responsibility.
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07/12/2011
The new version of the Microsoft Surface tabletop computer made an unexpected appearance at the recent Paris Air Show, as Dassault Aviation showed a trio of Surface applications that work in conjunction with its Rafale military aircraft.
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07/12/2011
When the top commanders of the world’s two largest standing armies get together, you’d expect their tete-a-tete to show some results. But so far, we’re not getting much more than schoolyard nitter-natter.
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07/12/2011
South Korean and U.S. Air Forces have recently reached an agreement to stage an aerial refueling exercise on a regular basis here, using a U.S. in-flight tanker, a military source said Monday. The first joint refueling exercise in which the U.S. is to mobilize its KC-135 tanker currently based in Okinawa, Japan, is expected to take place in the latter half of this year, the source said.
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07/12/2011
After thousands of years of intra-species fighting we have to face the possibility that the institution of war may no longer need us.
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07/12/2011
Boeing on July 9 joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to commemorate the base's transition to the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III airlifter. Wright-Patterson, home of the 445th Airlift Wing, previously flew the C-5A Galaxy and is the latest Air Force Reserve Command unit to transition to a fleet of C-17 aircraft.
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07/11/2011
Deliveries of F-22 Raptors to the Air Force have been halted due to the continuing suspension of flight operations for the stealthy fifth-generation air superiority fighter. Even though manufacturer Lockheed Martin continues to build the aircraft at its Marietta, Ga., factory, the company is unable to do required flight testing for each aircraft as it leaves final assembly. Nor can government test pilots from the Pentagon’s Defense Contract Management Agency fly their acceptance flights for new
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07/11/2011
The US Air Force has taken the first public step towards upgrading hundreds of Lockheed Martin F-16s with active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars. The Aeronautical Systems Center (ASC) published a six-page request for information in late June, asking suppliers for information about options for upgrading between 300 and 600 later-model F-16s from 2017.
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07/11/2011
The US-based Chinese-language Duowei News says the United States will announce in September a deal to upgrade Taiwan's aging F-16 A/B fighter jets.
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07/11/2011
Pakistan's increasingly "close and effective defense ties" established with China during the past decade will allow Islamabad to "fill the gap" arising from the prospect of reduced military aid from the United States, a senior Pakistani official said on Sunday after reports emerged of cuts of up to $800 million in U.S. aid.
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07/10/2011
Two F-15 fighter jets have intercepted a small aircraft near Camp David in Maryland, where President Barack Obama is spending the night with his family, according to the U.S. military. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said the civilian aircraft was out of radio communication just after noon on Saturday. Fighter jets intercepted the plane and directed it out of restricted airspace near Camp David. The plane landed without incident.
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07/10/2011
China urged Japan to stop "risky actions" in the East China Sea, the Ministry of National Defense said on its website. Flights of Chinese military aircraft over waters under China's "management" is "completely" in accordance with international law, the ministry said
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07/10/2011
The Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas programme which has seen several delays since the project was conceived 27 years ago, has suffered another setback as Air Commodore Rohit Varma, project director of the National Flight Test Centre (NFTC) which oversees all flight test-related activities of aircraft, quit his post on Friday.
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07/10/2011
Are the days of "Top Gun" coming to an end? Not yet. But the Navy moved a step closer to a new era of unmanned carrier-based aerial combat last weekend. Aboard the Norfolk-based aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower off the Virginia coast Saturday, an F/A-18D Hornet, modified to emulate an unmanned aircraft, made its first carrier touchdown without a pilot's guiding hands.
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07/10/2011
Having used it for aerial operations in Libya, the UK says India could do no better than invest in the Eurofighter. In New Delhi to talk defence relations and pitch for the Eurofighter over the French Rafale (the only two aircraft left in the race for IAF's 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft bid), British defence secretary Liam Fox told TOI in an exclusive interview that UK has been "extraordinarily impressed by its capability and availability" in the Libya operations.
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07/10/2011
A $649 billion defense spending bill for next year easily passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday after four days of debate in which war-weary lawmakers sought to curb President Barack Obama's combat operations in Afghanistan and Libya.
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07/10/2011
This September will bring the fifth anniversary of one of the darkest moments in the modern history of the UK Royal Air Force, when 14 servicemen lost their lives as a British Aerospace Nimrod MR2 surveillance aircraft exploded in mid-air over Afghanistan.
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07/10/2011
In the backdrop of the Eurofighter Typhoon combat plane being shortlisted in a $10.4-billion Indian tender, British Defence Secretary Liam Fox was here on a daylong visit Friday looking to expand defence business ties with India.
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07/08/2011
TALY will pull back its role in the Libya campaign, the country's defence minister said yesterday, bringing an aircraft carrier and hundreds of sailors home, in new evidence that a Nato alliance is starting to fray after nearly 100 days of bombing.
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07/08/2011
Chinese defense ministry said Thursday that flying over China's sea areas by Chinese military aircraft accords with the international law.The Japanese defense ministry reportedly alleged that two Chinese military aircraft on July 4th were, at one time, flying over the seas area some 60 kilometers away from the airspace of the Diaoyu Islands, but did not enter the "Japanese territorial airspace." The Japanese Air Self-Defense Force reportedly sent F-15 fighters to intercept them.
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07/08/2011
China has ramped up its research in drone technology and is in the process of building armed, jet-propelled unmanned planes, which it plans to sell to countries like Pakistan.
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07/08/2011
"The war-fighter has provided outstanding reviews of the UH-60M BLACK HAWK helicopter's performance in theater," said Lt. Col. Heyward Wright, Product Manager, representing Col. Thomas Todd of the U.S. Army's Utility Helicopters Project Office. "In my estimation, the UH-60M aircraft sets the standard for a successful utility platform in a combat environment."
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07/08/2011
F-35C Lightning II carrier variant aircraft CF-2 is performing Jet Blast Deflector (JBD) tests at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey. The JBD, located behind the catapults aboard aircraft carriers, deflects high energy exhaust from the engine to prevent damage and injury to other aircraft and personnel located in close proximity.
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07/08/2011
Customs authorities in Russia's Far East have launched a criminal case against a Chinese citizen who attempted to smuggle spare parts for Russian MiG-29 and Su-27 fighters last year, a customs' spokesperson said on Friday.
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07/07/2011
In the wake of the raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden, many have been wondering whether a “stealth” helicopter was involved and have been asking the question: how does one make a helicopter stealthy?
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07/07/2011
Japan has grounded its entire F-15 fighter fleet following the crash of one of the jets into the East China Sea. Japan's Defense Ministry on Wednesday ordered the fleet to remain on the ground pending an investigation into the cause of the crash Tuesday, when an F-15 based on the island of Okinawa went down during a routine training mission.
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07/07/2011
Aerosonic Corporation (AMEX:AIM), a leading supplier of precision flight products for commercial, business and military aircraft, today announced that it has received a new purchase order from Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd. ("KAI") in support of its T50 Golden Eagle jet trainer sale to Indonesia.
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07/07/2011
A pilot with Holloman Air Force Base is safe after he was ejected from a Vietnam Era fighter jet Wednesday morning. Holloman Air Force Base officials say the manned fighter jet crashed around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday west of Artesia, near Hope, NM.
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07/07/2011
Last week the Washington Post, the New York Times and other major American newspapers reported that the U.S. launched its first unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) missile attack inside Somalia. The strike was the first acknowledged Pentagon military attack inside the Horn of Africa nation since a helicopter raid staged by commandos in 2009 and the first use of an American drone to conduct a missile strike there.
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07/07/2011
Indian ambassador to Russia Ajai Malhotra is upbeat about the prospects of relations between India and Russia in all areas, ranging from defence and trade to culture and tourism. In this wide-ranging interview with Rossiskaya Gazeta, the Indian envoy assures that despite increasing competition, India and Russia have “a dynamic and growing defence relationship, not a waning one.
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07/07/2011
About noon Pacific Time a Marine helicopter crashed at Camp Pendleton, California. All six crew members had injuries and have been taken to local hospitals. Initial reports say three of the injured Marines were taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, about 30 miles south of the base. No fatalities were reported and few details have been released including where the other three military personnel were taken for treatment.
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07/07/2011
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is now talking with Lockheed Martin about buying more F-16 fighter aircraft because France's offer of an advanced version of the Rafale combat jet is seen as too expensive, said a source familiar with the negotiations in the gulf.
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07/07/2011
Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov formally asked on Wednesday his Ukrainian counterpart Mykhailo Yezhel to rent facilities on Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula for naval pilot training. In line with a 1997 bilateral agreement, Russia occasionally uses the Nitka Naval Pilot Training Center in Ukraine as the only training facility for its naval pilots.
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07/06/2011
Taiwan and its supporters in Congress are pressuring the Obama administration to sell new F-16 fighter jets to the island, with one senator vowing to hold up the confirmation of a new deputy secretary of state if there is no progress on the issue.
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07/06/2011
Russian arms shipments to Syria are legal, beneficial to regional stability, and will continue as planned, a senior Kremlin official said in a Tuesday interview. 'We do not see signs the Syrian government has lost control of the situation,' said Mikhail Bogdanov, special advisor to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for Africa and the Middle East.
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07/06/2011
When people look back at the history of the 21st century, the hum-drum attention paid by the U.S. media to the “drone war” over Pakistan may be viewed as something of an inflection point. America, somewhat past its height in terms of relative omnipotence, nonetheless retained its lead in automated forms of combat. The guided missiles of the 1960s morphed into cruise missiles in the 1970s, then smart bombs in the late 1980s and, by the turn of the century, Predator drones.
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07/06/2011
In a corner of Creech air force base near Las Vegas, Nevada, an RAF flag marks the home of 39 Squadron, an elite unit formed in some haste during 2007 and yet to return to the UK. Bolted to the ground around the flagpole stand three identical sand-coloured metal containers of the kind transported by lorries and ships all over the world.
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07/06/2011
The driving force in NATO's bombing campaign against Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi has brushed aside a U.N. resolution and supplied arms to rebels. French government officials, following a report in the Paris newspaper Le Figaro, said tons of small arms -- rifles, machine guns, anti-tank rockets -- and ammunition had been airdropped early in June to rebels in the Nafusa Mountains, a Berber tribal area, under pressure from Gadhafi forces.
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07/06/2011
Boeing today announced it has been awarded a $99.5 million contract by the U.S. Air Force to integrate three major modifications on the B-1 Lancer bomber fleet. This contract is for the first lot of modification kits of a planned multi-lot production contract to upgrade the service’s B-1s.
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07/05/2011
One of the eye-opening features of the three month old NATO air campaign in Libya is the hollowness of the world’s premier military alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Let’s be honest, this is not a major conventional war against a capable adversary. The real challenge for NATO airpower is finding targets to hit.
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07/05/2011
A Japanese fighter jet pilot was missing after his F-15 crashed in the East China Sea during a training flight on Tuesday, the Defence Ministry said. Thirteen military aircraft and several ships as well as three Japan Coast Guard patrol ships were deployed to search for pilot Yuji Kawakubo, 37, the official said.
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07/05/2011
Russia expects to sell military equipment worth $11 billion in 2011, with aviation activities likely to account for up to 50% of this total. Sergei Kornev, head of the Rosoboronexport delegation at last month's Paris air show, said deliveries of Russian-made combat aircraft and air-launched weapons are continuing to Algeria, India and Vietnam.
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07/05/2011
In Washington the season of budget cuts is in full blossom. Unfortunately, leaders of both political parties may soon agree to further slash the defense budget. Yet this comes as the military is fighting an ongoing war against jihadi terrorists while also confronting a China that is using its growing military power more aggressively.
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07/05/2011
US Air Force and Navy aircraft are still flying hundreds of strike missions over Libya even though the US government claims it is only playing a support role in the NATO-led operation.
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07/05/2011
At the most recent Zhuhai air show, the premier event for China’s aviation industry, crowds swarmed around a model of an armed, jet-propelled drone and marveled at the accompanying display of its purported martial prowess.
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07/04/2011
Watching fireworks or attending the family reunion are Independence Day traditions that U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Jacob Wolfe of Lake City will miss during the holiday this year. Wolfe, 24, is serving his country on a seven-month deployment in Camp Dwyer, Afghanistan.
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07/04/2011
A multination consortium in Europe has invited Korea to join its high-end jet production project in an apparent attempt to win what would be Korea’s biggest arms-procurement deal. The move came following Seoul’s announcement that it would purchase 60 advanced fighter aircraft in line with its push to shift the country’s military posture from passive defense to proactive deterrence with a projected budget of up to 10 trillion won ($8.96 billion).
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07/04/2011
he United States is expected to announce soon it will help Taiwan to upgrade its current F-16 fighter planes rather than selling it more advanced aircraft, a senior Taipei legislator said Sunday. The move to upgrade the F-16A/B combat aircraft rather than sell the island the more advanced F-16C/Ds it wants will generate less pressure from Beijing, which strongly opposes any arms sales to Taiwan, analysts say.
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07/02/2011
The pilot of the USAF F-16C that crashed on public land near the Nevada Test and Training Range earlier this week didn't survive, officials at Nellis Air Force Base said today.
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07/02/2011
The thing is, any country, especially those archipelagic in nature, needs a modern air force for rapid deployment of defensive aircraft. The current military thrust on internal security operations – that is, focusing on domestic insurgency – does not preclude the need for new military aircraft to better protect Philippine territories.
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07/02/2011
ROC President Ma Ying-jeou praised Taichung-based Aerospace Industrial Development Corp. for successfully upgrading six Taiwan-made Indigenous Defense Fighter aircraft, and advancing military manufacturing technology on the island.
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07/02/2011
Bell Helicopter, a Textron Inc. company and the U.S. Army Armed Scout Helicopter program office announced today the delivery of the first OH-58 “A2D” wartime replacement cabin for OH-58 “Kiowa Warrior” platform to the Army. The cabin is being delivered 30 days ahead of the contract schedule.
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07/02/2011
The clandestine American military campaign to combat Al Qaeda’s franchise in Yemen is expanding to fight the Islamist militancy in Somalia, as new evidence indicates that insurgents in the two countries are forging closer ties and possibly plotting attacks against the United States, American officials say.
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07/02/2011
Boeing earlier this month supported the U.S. Air Force in the first powered launch of a Miniature Air Launched Decoy Jammer (MALD-J) from a B-52. The successful test, in which the electronic jammer was launched from a B-52 Stratofortress, took place over the Gulf of Mexico at the Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., test range. Boeing designed the avionics software onboard the B-52 that controls and launches the Raytheon-built MALD-J.
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07/02/2011
The aircraft 0035 breaks the ribbon as the first aircraft to be modernized in the southwest bay. The new southwest bay portion of the L-10 hangar at the Lockheed Martin facilities is the third of four bays to be opened as the program approaches the full rate production of 11 C-5Ms per year.
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07/02/2011
The Russian military has no concrete plans to build aircraft carriers in the next 10 years, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said. "We have no plans to build aircraft carriers," the minister told the Russian media on Friday.
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07/02/2011
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified the US Congress yesterday of a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Iraq for follow-on support and maintenance of multiple aircraft systems and associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support for an estimated cost of $675 million.
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