December 14, 2011 Military Aviation News
12/14/2011
A frontline Sukhoi jet of the Indian Air Force ( IAF) crashed near this Maharashtra town Tuesday but the two pilots bailed out to safety, an officer said. The crash of the SU-30MKI combat jet occurred around 1.30 p.m. "The pilots are safe," the officer said, adding that there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties on the ground.
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12/14/2011
The appearance of a Russian navy battlegroup off the coast of Scotland last night raised fresh concerns over the UK government’s decision not to have any surveillance aircraft. Ministry of Defence (MoD) sources told The Scotsman that a Type 42 destroyer, HMS York, had to be despatched from Portsmouth to shadow the group of Russian ships, 25 miles off the coast of Moray.
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12/14/2011
Japan is poised to decide which new fighter jets will defend its borders for the next generation, in the most highly anticipated deal of a miserable year for military aircraft producers. The decision, likely before the end of the year, will define whether Tokyo continues its almost exclusive technical military partnership with the US or turns to Europe for major front line weapons for the first time since the second world war.
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12/14/2011
Aviation Week cites several of the problems in the report. Of interest is how the F-35 program spins events to make them sound like progress. For instance, it was reported in the media recently that the F-35 reached Mach 1.6 in a test. Few glowing statements were spared. Not reported was that after the flight, the aircraft program was limited to Mach 1 performance because of damage to the horizontal stabilisers and engine thermal protection.
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12/14/2011
An American military drone which had been used to monitor piracy off the East African coast has crashed at an airport on the island nation of Seychelles during a routine patrol, officials said.
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12/14/2011
Iranian officials have crowed they are mining "priceless technological information" from a CIA spy drone that went down days ago inside Iran's borders, broadcasting triumphant images of what they said was the craft on state TV. But many experts say the loss of the RQ-170 Sentinel drone — like the U-2 spy plane shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960 — may have more value as propaganda than as a treasure trove of technological secrets.
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12/14/2011
The White House is pointing to a proposed sale of F-16 fighter jets to Iraq as a sign of a deepening security partnership, though delivery of the aircraft is a few years away, and Iraq's fighter pilots are still learning to fly. That means Iraq will be left with a gap in its defenses after the departure this month of the last U.S. forces stationed in the nation.
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12/14/2011
Army officials have not identified the deceased soldiers or the cause of the crash, as an investigative team traveled to the site to begin work Wednesday morning. The two-seat reconnaissance choppers crashed after 8 p.m. Monday in the southwest training area of the sprawling base, killing all four on board, according to the Army.
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12/14/2011
The final F-22 Raptor fighter jet rolled off the assembly line during a ceremony at the Lockheed Martin aircraft plant at Dobbins Air Reserve Base. The U.S. military is turning to the less costly F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to complement its operational fleet of 187 Raptors, amid concerns in Washington that the $153 million F-22 is too costly and too high-tech for its own good.
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12/14/2011
The Boeing Company today delivered the second Peace Eye 737 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft to the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF).
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