September 03, 2011 Military Aviation News
09/03/2011
As Major Dan Caine climbed into his F-16 fighter jet on September 11, he saw black smoke rising from the Pentagon in the distance and braced himself for a mission he never expected: shoot down hijacked airliners heading towards the capital.
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09/03/2011
You know the budget wars are heating up when a senior U.S. Republican senator starts attacking weapons programs important to other legislators in his own party. That’s what happened yesterday, when Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss assailed Pentagon purchases of Boeing’s carrier-based F/A-18 Super Hornet, saying the plane is “obsolete” and “will be of limited to no value in any future threat scenario.”
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09/03/2011
As Malaysia scouts for fifth-generation replacement jet fighters for its ageing fleet, at least five contenders are bidding to be part of this ambitious programme, worth billions of ringgit. France's Dassault Aviation's Rafale, the United States' Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Europe's Eurofighter Typhoon, the Swedish JAS-39 Gripen and the Russian Sukhoi Su-35 Flanker-E are reportedly the top contenders for the Royal Malaysian Air Force's (RMAF) new-generation front-line fighters.
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09/03/2011
Since the days of the Mexican-American War, US intentions south of the border are regarded with the highest degrees of suspicion. Today, as Mexico struggles under a barrage of violence related to drug trafficking, the idea of American military assistance is anathema to the public.
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09/03/2011
The first publicly observed flight of the Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter in January and the more recent emergence of the ex-Soviet Varyag aircraft carrier demonstrate China’s progress toward becoming a modern military power by 2020. But China’s ability to project force outside the region remains limited in the near term, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) advises in its annual report to Congress on Chinese military developments.
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09/03/2011
An armed, unmanned aerial vehicle that can be carried in a backpack has been ordered by the U.S. Army from AeroVironment Inc. The Switchblade air vehicle launches from a small tube and transmits live color video wirelessly for display on AeroVironment's standard small unmanned aircraft system ground control unit. Upon confirming the target using the live video feed, the operator then sends a command to the air vehicle to arm it and lock its trajectory onto the target.
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