March 11, 2012 Military Aviation News
03/11/2012
Dassault Aviation SA (AM) is confident that an accord to supply at least 126 Rafale combat planes to India will cross all hurdles as the French company intensifies negotiations to clinch the first-ever export deal for the jet. Dassault and India are now in final talks to conclude details of the contract, after the Rafale was given preference over the competing Eurofighter jet last month, Chief Executive Officer Charles Edelstenne said in an interview in Paris.
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03/11/2012
The British engineering firm is ready to pay £800m ($1.3bn) for the business, according to the Sunday Times. Volvo Aero makes aircraft engines and their components, including the jet engine used in the Saab Gripen combat jet. GKN's aerospace business is the firm's second biggest division. It makes parts for civilian and combat aircraft as well as helicopters.
Last year it had sales of £1.5bn, up 4%.
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03/11/2012
China’s new aircraft carrier has begun its first sea trials. The carrier was originally left for scrap but was later bought by a company with ties to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Military sources were quoted as saying that the trial “would not take a long time.” The carrier left its shipyard at Dalian Port in Liaoning Province on Wednesday morning.
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03/11/2012
The military is rethinking its planned acquisition of F-16 fighter jets from the United States owing to various reasons, foremost of which are the maintenance and cost. This was disclosed by Maj. Gen. Lauro Catalino de la Cruz, Air Force commander, during the turnover of four W-3A Sokol Combat utility helicopters to the Air Force in Clark Field, Pampanga, over the weekend.
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03/11/2012
The South Korean and U.S. militaries are considering deploying a high-powered surveillance plane to bolster their watch over North Korea during the second Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul later this month, a senior military source said Sunday. The March 26-27 summit will bring together U.S. President Barack Obama and dozens of world leaders amid increased hostile rhetoric from North Korea. Pyongyang has branded the gathering as an "intolerable grave provocation" against it.
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03/11/2012
Fears that some of the world’s most sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons that disappeared from government warehouses in Libya would end up in the hands of stateless insurgent are being realized. At least some of the roughly 480 high-performance SA-24 “Grinch” shoulder-launched missiles that disappeared during the Libyan uprising have reappeared in the hands of insurgents on the borders of Israel, say senior Israeli officials.
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03/11/2012
Military spending of President Benigno Aquino's government has outstripped that of previous administrations, a palace official revealed. Herminio Coloma, the Presidential Communications Secretary, said procurements for the Armed Forces of the Philippines' (AFP) modernisation programme have reached 28 billion pesos (Dh2.41 billion) in 18 months under the Aquino administration when compared to 33 billion pesos under various administrations in the past 15 years.
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03/11/2012
China's increased military spending, by 11% this year and 12.7% last year, is matched by its growing assertiveness in pressing territorial claims. A classic example is the South China Sea where Beijing contends that India's exploratory drilling with Vietnam is a breach of its sovereignty. Should India be worried? The 1962 defeat is still as fresh as yesterday. There is also the long-running border dispute over Arunachal Pradesh.
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03/11/2012
Guard members who operate the A-10 Thunderbolt II at Selfridge Air National Guard Base shouldn't focus on the possibility of the aircraft being eliminated from the base in 2013, according to the new commander of the 107th Fighter Squadron.
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03/11/2012
Glancing at the tail number of a long, gray tanker aircraft, Col. Laen D. August remarked, "I'm a pretty old fellow, but that airplane is at least a year older than I am because I was born in 1963." One week ago today, August was looking at a Cold War-era KC-135 Stratotanker on the ramp at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base for the base's largest launch of tanker aircraft in 20 years.
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