April, 2012 Military Aviation News
04/30/2012
In the backdrop of the menace posed by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean, India today said it was determined to work with Seychelles to ensure a secure environment for the benefit of the two countries. President Pratibha Patil, who arrived here to a warm welcome for a two-day state visit, said "India and Seychelles share the waters of the Indian ocean".
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04/30/2012
This is a story of buried treasure, a map with X marking the spot and the race to recover untold riches. The treasure in this case is of the winged variety, some 60 Spitfires fighter aircraft, maybe more, quite possibly in pristine condition, never flown in anger, interred in Burma at the end of the Second World War. There are only three dozen Spits in flying condition around the world, commanding prices of $2 million or more. So this is big money.
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04/30/2012
Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations has defended his country's right to use air strikes against South Sudanese troops who Khartoum says are inside Sudanese territory. Dafallah ElHaj Ali Osman, however, stopped short of saying whether Sudan had carried out the air strikes over the past few weeks that Juba claims Khartoum had launched on its territories.
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04/30/2012
A prominent Iranian lawmaker says the reported basing of America's most sophisticated stealth jet fighters in the United Arab Emirates is a U.S.-Israel plot to create regional instability. The U.S. Air Force has moved several F-22 stealth combat aircraft to a base in the United Arab Emirates, 300 km (186) miles from the Iranian border, according to a report by the Aviation Report magazine on Saturday.
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04/30/2012
Two White House announcements last week illustrate the larger story. Some 9,000 U.S. Marines will leave Okinawa, with 2,500 of them to head to Australia on six-month rotations and most of the rest to be based in Guam and Hawaii. And in a letter to Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas, White House official Robert Nabors promised that the Administration will give "serious consideration" to selling 66 new F-16 fighters to Taiwan.
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04/29/2012
he Centre recently turned down an air force request to participate in the war games with the US navy in the Bay of Bengal that concluded last week. The seven-day Malabar 2012 exercise involved the American and Indian navies. The Centre’s move followed a quiet policy decision in the defence ministry to scale down — but not stop — the friendly military engagements with the US armed forces, which have gathered pace and increased in complexity over the past decade.
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04/28/2012
The United States risks losing its current competitive edge in the unmanned aircraft market unless Washington acts soon to ease tough restrictions on their export for commercial use, the chief executive of Northrop Grumman Corp said on Friday. Wes Bush, chairman and chief executive of the leading U.S. unmanned vehicle maker, lauded the Pentagon's recommendation last week to ease export restrictions on satellite technology.
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04/28/2012
Domestic military base closings are out. The Global Hawk drone is back in. The Pentagon wanted another round of base closings in this deficit-cutting era. The Readiness Subcommittee said no, with Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., calling the notion “flawed.” The Pentagon wanted to retire 18 of the Air Force’s Global Hawk drones from the Block 30 program. The Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee rejected that idea.
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04/28/2012
The U.S. Air Force is reviewing its plans for combat search and rescue (CSAR), to determine whether current fleet-sizing assumptions for the HH-60G and replacement Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) still reflect operational needs. The baseline demand for the service has been for 148 rotorcraft, with a recognition that available funding only allows for 112 to be operated. An update of the core function master plan, due for completion in the fall.
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04/28/2012
Hoping to get a bigger slice in the pie of massive Indian defence modernisation efforts, the US has said the level of its willingness to share defence technologies with India has never been higher than it is now. "The level of our willingness to share technology with India has never been higher," Andrew Shapiro, Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, said.
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04/28/2012
From May 3 to 6, 2012, Astana, Kazakhstan, will be hosting the Second International Exhibition of Weapons System and Military Equipment (KADEX-2012). The organizers are the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kazspetsexport Republican State Enterprise, Kazakhstan Engineering National Company, Kazahvzryvprom enterprise and JSC Kazakhstan GIS Center.
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04/28/2012
McDonnell Douglas essentially hand-built the first C-17 Globemaster III cargo plane for U.S. Air Force developmental testing and evaluation. The airplane, designated T-1, first flew on Sept. 15, 1991, six years before McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing, and was expected to last about five years. On Wednesday, it finally made its last flight, into retirement at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, in Dayton, Ohio.
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04/28/2012
The Obama administration will give “serious consideration” to selling Taiwan new Lockheed Martin Corp. F-16 fighter jets, a White House official said, creating a potential new flashpoint with China ahead of next week’s high- level meetings between U.S. and Chinese officials. A jet sale “warrants serious consideration given the growing military threat to Taiwan.
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04/28/2012
New military options and expanding trade and investment opportunities are likely the main issues to be discussed when the foreign and defense secretaries of the Philippines and the United States hold their first ever meeting here on April 30. The Filipinos are expected to submit a list of military hardware they need for a credible maritime defense while the US, to counter China’s military, will seek bilateral arrangements including rotating more troops in the Philippines.
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04/28/2012
The dog year, the mythical unit of time based on the theory that man’s best friend ages seven times faster than a human, can now be replaced by the Tejas year. The naval version of the Tejas, India’s indigenous fighter aircraft, took flight for the first time today. The 22-minute sortie — just a toddler step in the air — was more than 20 years in the making and its conception-to-sky life can be measured by the career progression of the chief test pilot.
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04/28/2012
Russia will display its much hyped fifth-generation fighter prototype, the T-50, at an air show in August, according to a document posted on the official legal information portal http://pravo.gov.ru on Friday. The jet, as well as other warplanes, including the Tupolev Tu-95MS, a modification of the Tu-95 Bear strategic bomber, will be shown at a festival dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Russia’s Air Force.
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04/27/2012
A Bulgarian military aircraft MiG-29 crashed during a training flight near the southern city of Plovdiv without casualties. The plane caught fire shortly after takeoff from the Graf Ignatievo air force base, the Defense Ministry in Sofia said in a statement today. Its two pilots were instructed to direct the aircraft toward an unpopulated area and eject. The MiG-29 fell between the villages of Tsarimir and Goliam Chardak and there are no civilian casualties, the ministry said.
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04/27/2012
The 41-year-old Taiwanese woman, having already arranged to smuggle a kilo of 93.7 percent pure crystal methamphetamine into the United States, was ready to move on to something bigger, authorities say. "I got a message for you: A guy want(s) to buy a plane," Huan Ling Chang allegedly said in September during a phone conversation being secretly recorded by the FBI. "It’s, uh, early warning aircraft," she added a beat later, authorities say.
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04/27/2012
U.S. pilots from the 555th and 510th Fighter Squadrons based out of Aviano Air Base, Italy, have been given a rare opportunity to train and share experiences with Bulgarian air force MiG-21 and MiG-29 pilots during their deployment to Graf Ignatievo Air Base, Bulgaria, in support of Thracian Star 2012.
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04/27/2012
As tensions between Tehran, Washington and Tel Aviv continue to mount over Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons technologies, the U.S. has quietly begun a deployment of its premier stealthy fighter, the twin-engine F-22, to the United Arab Emirates. Multiple Lockheed Martin aircraft will operate out of Al Dhafra Air Base there, industry sources say. This is the same base from which U.S. U-2s and Global Hawk UAVs have been launched since shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
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04/27/2012
The US is ready to transfer military technology to Brazil to be able to count the South American country as a strategic ally, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said here Wednesday.
Panetta, in a speech before military officers at Brazil's Superior War College in Rio de Janeiro, committed himself to exerting every effort to facilitate the technology transfer to the giant South American nation.
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04/27/2012
Eurocopter’s participation at the KADEX-2012 exhibition will underscore its helicopter product line capabilities to meet Kazakhstan’s military, government and public protection mission requirements, while also spotlighting the company’s commitment to industrial partnerships in the country.
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04/27/2012
What is really new with Smart Defence?Doing things in a smart way was not something we started last year! The Nordic Defence Cooperation, our long-standing work with other Allies in the European Participating Air Forces F-16 cooperation and our participation in the development of common NATO capabilities were Smart Defence long before this term was introduced.
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04/27/2012
The backyard of my house in the piney woods of southern Chesterfield County is shaped like a half moon surrounded by very tall and skinny loblollies and gum trees. It faces north and can be a good place for aircraft watching. I live maybe 20 miles as the crow flies from Ft. Pickett, a Virginia National Guard base that is used by military and law enforcement agencies such as Navy SEALs, the Marines, Air Force and Army Special Forces, Canadians, Secret Service, the FBI and Virginia State Police.
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04/27/2012
he Boeing Company and its Dutch partner the Rotary Wing Training Center (RWTC) officially opened a state-of-the-art CH-47 Chinook helicopter maintenance training facility near Royal Netherlands Air Force base Gilze-Rijen on April 25. The RWTC is a subsidiary of the Netherlands' World Class Aviation Academy (WCAA).
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04/26/2012
Ruslan International, which manages Volga Dnepr’s and Antonov Airlines’ combined Antonov An-124 fleets, has completed a series 15 cargo flights to Entebbe, Uganda, on behalf of the Japanese peacekeeping contingent of the United Nations Mission in Sudan. The flights contained power generators, non-combat vehicles, communication equipment and other supplies for the Japan Ground Self Defense Force.
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04/26/2012
BAE Systems today announced a $367M contract to deliver 70 Digital Electronic Warfare Systems (DEWS)/Common Missile Warning Systems (CMWS) to upgrade F-15S fighter jets in support of the Royal Saudi Air Force. “BAE Systems looks forward to providing the Royal Saudi Air Force with this superior electronic capability,” said John Nyilis, product line director at BAE Systems.
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04/26/2012
I grew up knowing the Navy’s EA-6B Prowler very well — my father flew them for about 20 years. The aircraft was made tough, but all planes need to be replaced sooner or later. Recently, the Navy has started the transition from the EA-6B Prowler to the FA-18 based EA-18G Growler. Reader Alex Jossi had the opportunity to do some photography of the new Growler and was willing to write up a story on the aircraft. Here is his story in his own words.
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04/26/2012
Brazil will get US advanced technology transfer if it buys Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet to upgrade its air force, visiting US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said here Wednesday. The F/A-18 Super Hornet is up against the Rafale fighter, made by French firm Dassault Aviation, and Swedish manufacturer Saab's Gripen for Brazil's contract for 36 multi-role combat aircraft valued at between $4 billion and $7 billion.
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04/26/2012
The flight is slated for 10 am. But it will fly with some unresolved problems. The maiden flight, however, does not mean the team LCA has overcome all the technical glitches that had forced it to miss several deadlines in the past. The Centre for Military Airworthiness & Certification (CEMILAC), sometime last week, gave its clearance for High Speed Taxi Trial (HSTT) and flight.
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04/26/2012
Ukraine is close to signing one of its biggest ever defense deals for air-to-air missiles with India, according to Russian media reports. Nezavisimaya Gazeta says the deal for R-27 missiles, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, is in the final stages and is waiting for approval from the Ukrainian leadership. The Vympel R-27 (AA-10 Alamo) missile is a medium-to-long-range air-to-air missile developed by the Soviet Union. It is similar to U.S. AIM-7 Sparrow.
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04/25/2012
U.S. Rep. Sander Levin says he's hopeful that a Pentagon decision to add 24 C-130 air transport planes will offset sharp job cuts planned at Selfridge Air National Guard Base. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta recommended Tuesday that the military budget the Air National Guard planes and the 2,200 personnel needed to support them.
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04/25/2012
Northrop Grumman and Bell Helicopter have received a Navy contract to produce the first of a possible fleet of unmanned helicopters. Northrop announced Tuesday that it has a $262 million contract to convert eight Bell commercial helicopters into unmanned aircraft for military use.
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04/25/2012
In combat zones, National Guard units generally take their orders from active duty commanders. Not so in Washington. For two months, the Air National Guard, with the help of governors from every state, has been battling the active duty Air Force over proposed budget cuts that would have trimmed the Guard’s force by more than 5,000 people and more than 200 aircraft.
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04/25/2012
Sudanese war planes bombed a market in the capital of South Sudan's oil-producing Unity State on Monday, residents and officials said, an attack the southern army called a declaration of war. Sudan denied carrying out any air raids but its President Omar Hassan al-Bashir ramped up the political tension by ruling out a return to negotiations with the South, saying its government only understood "the language of the gun".
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04/25/2012
Israel, the US, and some European powers have alleged that Iran aims to build nuclear weapons to complement its conventional arms, but Tehran says its current programme is for peaceful, civilian purposes. Regardless, Western powers generally agree that Iran does not yet have a nuclear weapon and is at least many, many months away from having a deliverable warhead - if the development of one is indeed its goal.
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04/25/2012
The exercise, codenamed Operation Chimichanga, was held at the US military’s Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex near Eilson Air Force Base, Alaska, and involved a variety of combat aircraft and bombers, including F-22 Raptor stealth fighters, B-1 bombers, E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system (AWACS) and KC-135 Stratotankers air-refueling aircraft.
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04/25/2012
The Boeing Company delivered a second set of P-8A Poseidon training devices to the U.S. Navy on March 29 at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla. The devices consist of an Operational Flight Trainer (OFT), a Weapons Tactics Trainer (WTT) and four Electronic Classrooms. "The P-8A Weapons Tactics Trainer is a new innovation for Boeing," said Mark McGraw, Boeing vice president for Training Systems and Government Services.
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04/25/2012
On Saturday, Apr. 21, a Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] F-35A Lightning II conventional takeoff and landing aircraft completed the program’s first in-flight refueling mission while configured with external weapons at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. George Schwartz piloted the test aircraft, known as AF-4, with two external inert AIM-9X weapons and four external stores.
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04/25/2012
Russia signed a deal with Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday agreeing the rent Russia will pay for using military facilities in that country. The deal was signed following a meeting between Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and his counterparts from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in Beijing on Tuesday, Serdyukov’s spokeswoman Lt. Col. Irina Kovalchuk said.
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04/25/2012
The first prototype of TAI-modernized T38 jet trainer aircraft has been delivered to the Turkish Air Force (TurAF) following a special handover ceremony at TAI's facilities. Turkish Aerospace Industries, Inc. (TAI), as a prime contractor, was awarded a contract by the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM) to design, develop and implement an avionics upgrade for the TurAF under the T-38 Avionics Modernization (ARI) Program.
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04/24/2012
DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, has made public its best guess about what might have caused its unmanned arrowhead-shaped Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV-2) to suddenly lose contact and crash in the Pacific just a few minutes after slicing through the sky at Mach 20 last August: it was going so fast its skin peeled off.
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04/24/2012
Rolls-Royce, the turbine and engine maker, has signed a contract worth up to $598m to supply engines for the US Marine Corps and Air Force’s V-22 tilt rotor aircraft. Under the terms of the contract UK Rolls-Royce will deliver 70 of the 268 AE 1107C engines in the first year, with the rest of the batch being part of an optional addition over four more years.
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04/24/2012
Boeing must perform on the new KC-46 tanker programme, the US Air Force is warning the company as the aircraft enters its preliminary design review (PDR). Otherwise the service could walk away. "We could buy more KC-46s or - make no mistake about it - if Boeing doesn't perform, we'll just start another competition," says Maj Gen Christopher Bogdan, the USAF's KC-46 programme executive officer.
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04/24/2012
AgustaWestland company, is pleased to announce the new generation AW149 military helicopter’s outstanding capabilities have officially been presented to a number of national and local dignitaries at Warsaw-Babice Airport.
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04/24/2012
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Monday dismissed Tehran's claims that it has recovered data from a U.S. spy drone that went down in Iran late last year. Panetta declined to provide any details, but said that "based on my experience ... I would seriously question their ability to do what they say they have done."
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04/24/2012
In an awesome show of strength, The Seymour Johnson Air Force Base's 4th Fighter Wing launched 70 F-15E Strike Eagles in a training mission to destroy more than 1,000 targets on bombing ranges across North Carolina. The exercise marks the 67th anniversary of the unit's predecessor gaining the milestone of a thousand 'kills' during World War II.
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04/24/2012
Sudanese war planes bombed a market in the capital of South Sudan's oil-producing Unity State on Monday, residents and officials said, an attack the southern army called a declaration of war. Sudan denied carrying out any air raids but its President Omar Hassan al-Bashir ramped up the political tension by ruling out a return to negotiations with the South, saying its government only understood "the language of the gun".
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04/24/2012
Russia’s defense electronics are up to 12 years behind foreign analogs, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Monday. “The technical level of electronics used in the development and manufacture of military hardware and equipment…is five to 12 years behind that in other countries,” he said. Microelectronics production in Russia is low scale and loss making, and needs government support, he said.
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04/24/2012
The Turkish Air Force has begun training for the acceptance of its new fleet of airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) systems from US manufacturer Boeing. The Seattle-based company has launched a training programme specifically designed to meet the individual requirements of the Turkish programme which will see the first aircraft – based on the 737 platform – being handed over later this year.
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04/23/2012
Israeli forces are carrying out more special operations beyond the country's borders and will be ready to attack Iran's nuclear sites if ordered, the chief-of-staff said in an interview on Sunday. In an extract from an interview with the top-selling Yediot Aharanot daily, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz said that 2012 would be a critical year in efforts to halt what Israel and much of the international community believe is an Iranian nuclear arms programme.
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04/23/2012
Brazil’s Embraer has threatened to pull out of the retendering of a politically charged light attack aircraft contract with the US Air Force if the product requirements are changed significantly. The Brazilian aircraft maker and its US partner Sierra Nevada won the contract last year but it was abruptly cancelled in February after the US Air Force said its staff had botched the documentation for the deal.
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04/23/2012
The U.S. and Afghanistan reached a deal Sunday on a long-delayed strategic partnership agreement that ensures Americans will provide military and financial support to the Afghan people for at least a decade beyond 2014, the deadline for most foreign forces to withdraw. The pact is key to the U.S. exit strategy in Afghanistan because it establishes guidelines for any American forces who remain after the withdrawal deadline and for financial help to the impoverished country and its security force
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04/23/2012
Iran's military has started to build a copy of a U.S. surveillance drone captured last year after breaking the software encryption, Iranian media reported on Sunday. General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guards aerospace division, said engineers were in the final stages of decoding data from the Sentinel aircraft, which came down in December near the Afghan border, Mehr news agency reported.
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04/23/2012
Parliamentarians will return to House of Commons on Monday ready to do battle over whether Canadians were misled when it came to the troubled F-35 stealth fighter program. Wading through the gamut of conflicting statements, political spin and daily back-and-forth has muddied the waters to the point where few Canadians can tell truth from fiction. Here’s what you need to know to follow the debate:
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04/23/2012
Commenting on India’s military preparedness, Air Chief Marshal (Retd) PV Naik on Saturday said, “The situation is serious but not alarming.” Naik was delivering a lecture on ‘The Armed Forces and the Media’ at Patrakar Sangh as part of the Ja Sa Karandikar Memorial Lecture. He said, “Military modernisation is a continuous process. It is like a sine curve. We are currently at the cusp of the sine curve. But that does not mean we are not prepared.
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04/22/2012
The Nato aircraft changing their flying levels without taking orders from the traffic control department during the monsoon season, is creating issues for the other traffic flying on different levels and thus making the airspace near Afghan border area more vulnerable to any collision.
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04/22/2012
The radar-evading F-35 fighter jet, a nearly $400 billion weapons program under development for more than a decade, is facing its worst turbulence since Washington decided to buy it in 2001 — when it was billed as the most affordable, lethal and survivable military aircraft ever built for the U.S. and its allies.
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04/22/2012
China is sending a group of 16 ships, including destroyers, frigates, and a hospital ship. Russia is sending 4 ships, including the cruiser Varyag and three air defense destroyers now moving south from Vladivostok to join the Chinese after navigating through the Sea of Japan. Another Varyag, though, might steal the spotlight from the assembled fleet. It is the Chinese aircraft carrier of the same name, the first carrier in the People's Liberation Army Navy.
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04/22/2012
The failed mid-April launch of a long-range North Korean rocket, billed as a satellite launch but widely seen as the test of a ballistic missile, was the latest reminder of how the Pacific region remains one of the world’s most volatile. It’s also a key focus of the Obama administration’s new national defense strategy.
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04/22/2012
The Daily Telegraph has seen a Ministry of Defence document setting out secret contingency planning for future military operations in Afghanistan, the Falklands, Saudi Arabia and Africa.
The highly-classified report shows that planners have grave doubts about the capabilities of the jump jets ministers now want to buy for the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers which are still under-construction.
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04/22/2012
As the dispute between Sudan and South Sudan over oil transportation dues deteriorates into full-fledged war, The Independent reports of an intense rhetoric that could see Kenya and Uganda sucked in. Following separation, most of the oil fields fell in South Sudan’s territory but Sudan remains the owner of refineries and pipelines and the South’s oil is exported through the north.
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04/22/2012
IT might be big business in the developed and industrialised countries but the defence industry is flexing its muscle with greater intent when it comes to displaying, developing and selling their wares to countries in Asia. That was aptly displayed at the recent Defence Services Asia (DSA) expo, where 850 companies from 45 countries participated in the four-day event, showing the variety of arsenal from handguns to jetfighters.
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04/22/2012
For the first time, two Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II carrier variant test aircraft launched together and conducted formation flying at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., Wednesday. The test aircraft, known as CF-1 and CF-2, were piloted by Navy Cdr. Eric Buus and Marine Corps Lt. Col. Matt Taylor, respectively. The mission tested flying qualities of the aircraft while taking off, landing and flying in formation for more than one hour.
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04/22/2012
Russia will test fly its first domestically-produced strike unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in 2014, First Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Sukhorukov said on Friday. In February, Army General Nikolay Makarov, the chief of the Russian General Staff, said the drone would be first test flied in late 2012, a revision of the initial 2015 timeframe.
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04/22/2012
A Russian naval task group arrived at the eastern Chinese port city of Qingdao on Saturday for joint exercises with the Chinese navy, a captain said. "Each vessel was welcomed individually," Captain Roman Martov told RIA Novosti. The naval squadron, including the Varyag missile cruiser, three Udaloy class destroyers and three fleet support ships, will join 16 Chinese surface ships for drills in the Yellow Sea between Aril 22 and 27.
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04/20/2012
Eaton Corporation will provide significant content on 84 new Boeing F-15SA fighter aircraft for the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) in a purchase agreement announced between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the US Government. The deal also includes upgrades to the SA configuration for 70 F-15S fighter jets in the RSAF fleet.
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04/20/2012
Members of the public accounts committee gathered in Ottawa Thursday for a special meeting to discuss the auditor general's report on Canada's contentious F-35 purchase plans. But opposition members faced roadblocks in launching a comprehensive probe as the majority Conservatives used their power in the all-party committee to postpone discussion of who would appear until next week.
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04/20/2012
The increased pace of counterterrorism strikes in Yemen by U.S. drones and aircraft is a result of what U.S. military and intelligence officials describe as improved intelligence about the leadership of the al Qaeda movement in that country.
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04/20/2012
The Airbus Military A400M, the new generation airlifter for the 21st Century, is today flying over Thailand for the very first time as it takes part in the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the Royal Thai Air Force – “The Centennial of the RTAF Founding Fathers’ Aviation”. The visit is part of the first Asia Pacific Tour the A400M is making, visiting Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, then Chiang Mai and finally Bangkok, before returning to Europe.
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04/20/2012
A Black Hawk helicopter crashed Thursday in southern Afghanistan, likely killing all four of its crew members -- all of them Americans -- a U.S. military official said. The crash occurred in bad weather, though the official said, "We cannot yet rule out enemy action."
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04/20/2012
The visit will be the first by a high-level official of Pentagon to India after bilateral defence ties came under stress last year following New Delhi’s decision to drop two US contenders from the fray of a contract for 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft for the Indian Air Force. Panetta will hold talks with Defence Minister A K Antony. While the dates for his visit are yet to be finalised.
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04/20/2012
Lockheed Martin delivered another C-130J Super Hercules to Dyess Air Force Base, Texas yesterday. This aircraft was the 18th C-130J delivered to Dyess by Lockheed Martin. Colonel Gerald Goodfellow, Vice Commander of the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess accepted delivery of the aircraft.
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04/20/2012
Russia and Malaysia have signed a $35-million contract on the delivery of RVV-AE air-to-air missiles for the Malaysian air force, state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport said on Thursday. The deal was inked at the Defense Services Asia-2012 arms show currently under way in Malaysia.
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04/19/2012
The Airbus Military A400M aircraft which the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) is set to receive from January 2015 has a higher capacity and travels faster, RMAF air operations commander Gen Datuk Seri Ackbal Abdul Samad said. Compared to the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft which the RMAF currently owns, the travel speed of the A400M is between 400 and 420 knots per hour, which is nearly 50 per cent faster than the C-130, he said.
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04/19/2012
The radar-evading F-35 fighter jet, a nearly $400-billion weapons program under development for more than a decade, is facing its worst turbulence since Washington decided to buy it in 2001 — when it was billed as the most affordable, lethal and survivable military aircraft ever built for the U.S. and its allies.
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04/19/2012
How do you hide an aeroplane behind a bird? Very skilfully. Lt Col William B. O’Connor (ret) flew the F-117 Nighthawk during the Bosnia Conflict, and in Stealth Fighter, he explains the history, operation and soul America’s most advanced stealth jet.
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04/19/2012
The Boeing Company has begun an extensive maintenance training program for Turkey's Peace Eagle Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) program at a Boeing facility near Seattle. Classroom training for 10 Turkish Air Force personnel and two Turkish Airlines employees is being conducted by instructors from Boeing Defence Australia and Boeing Training and Flight Services.
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04/19/2012
Russia has decided to join a tender on the delivery of six light fighter jets to the Philippines with its new Yakovlev Yak-130 Mitten combat trainer, state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport said on Wednesday. “We are taking part in the Philippine tender with the Yak-130 aircraft,” deputy general director of Rosoboronexport, Viktor Komardin, said at the Defense Services Asia-2012 arms show in Malaysia.
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04/18/2012
A military aircraft museum at the Selfridge Air National Guard Base has started a project to restore an F-89 Scorpion, officials said Tuesday. The Michigan Air National Guard used the jet in the 1950s and '60s. Officials said the project may be the only one of its kind in the country and possibly the world. Once completed, the aircraft will be the only known restored F-89 in the "C" model configuration.
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04/18/2012
The Airbus Military A400M new generation airlifter recently arrived in Malaysia at the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) Subang Airbase as part of its Asia tour, where a welcome ceremony took place today in the presence of the Chief of the Royal Malaysian Air Force. The visit, the first time that the A400M will be seen in Asia, will give the Malaysian Government and Air Force a chance to see the A400M at first hand. The Malaysian Government has ordered four of the new aircraft which has as its la
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04/18/2012
Denmark has borrowed several unmanned aircraft from the Dutch armed forces. Because of spare parts supply problems within the Danish army, Denmark has been given two so-called Raven systems - each consisting of three unmanned aircraft and a ground station - from the Netherlands. The systems will be borrowed for half a year, when the Danish supply problems are expected to be resolved.
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04/18/2012
Fighting in a disputed border region between Sudan and South Sudan has raised fears the two countries could resume full-blown war. Here is a look at the two countries' military capabilities according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies report, "Military Balance 2012":
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04/18/2012
India's air force could outsource some of its MRO requirements to privately-owned companies in the country. This comes as defence procurement begins to lean toward western suppliers, with a large number of contracts in the pipeline, amid frustration with the level of support available for the Russian aircraft that are the mainstay of the air force.
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04/18/2012
On Friday, the Navy quietly released a “market survey” asking the big defense contractors for their “candidate[s]” for “strike fighter aircraft” in the decades to come. Which is a little weird, considering the Pentagon is currently spending a trillion dollars on just such an aircraft: the troubled Joint Strike Fighter.
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04/18/2012
There's something I'm not buying about the F-35 "stealth" joint-strike fighter. Besides the government's dishonest bloviating and the opposition's peacenik whimpering, I mean. I just can't understand a plane meant to dominate aerial combat for five decades in a world of blinding technological change. I do understand the need for air power. And for "interoperability" with our American ally, the free world's only remaining military hope, even under Barack Obama.
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04/18/2012
The Boeing Company received a $12.5 million contract from U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) on March 12 for 1,116 Laser Joint Direct Attack Munition (Laser JDAM) sensors. This is NAVAIR's third Low Rate Initial Production order for its Direct Attack Moving Target Capability (DAMTC). It follows an $8.3 million NAVAIR order for 700 laser sensors on Jan. 31 that allows the U.S. Air Force to maintain its Laser JDAM combat inventory levels.
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04/18/2012
Russia’s military expenditures in 2011 totaled $71.9 billion, which made the country the world’s third largest military spender, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) think tank said in a report published on Tuesday. Last year, Russia increased its military spending by 9.3 percent, according to figures released by the SIPRI.
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04/18/2012
Negotiations on the sale of Russian advanced Su-35 Flanker-E fighters to China have been put on hold over Beijing’s refusal to buy a large consignment, Russian state-controlled arms exporter Rosoboronexport said on Tuesday. “We have been promoting the Su-35 fighter on the Chinese market,” Rosoboronexport deputy chief Viktor Komardin said.
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04/17/2012
The recent crash in Morocco of an MV-22 Osprey that killed two Marines will have no affect on operations or the planned expansion of the tilt-rotor aircraft fleet, said Marine Col. Greg Masiello, V-22 Joint Program Manager. The Osprey remains the “safest, most survivable aircraft we have out there," Masiello told reporters April 16 at the Navy League’s Annual Sea, Air and Space conference. “Our operations currently remain unchanged.”
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04/17/2012
Aircraft manufacturer Airbus has again chosen Irish air space to undertake flight testing of one of its new aircraft. The company’s first military transport aircraft, the A400M Grizzly, spent several hours operating off the west coast yesterday. The four-engine turbo-prop transporter, or airlifter, is specifically designed to meet the needs of European Nato nations, as well as the requirements of international air forces.
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04/17/2012
One day in late November, an unmanned aerial vehicle lifted off from Shindand Air Base in western Afghanistan, heading 75 miles toward the border with Iran. The drone's mission: to spy on Tehran's nuclear program, as well as any insurgent activities the Iranians might be supporting in Afghanistan. With an estimated price tag of $6 million, the drone was the product of more than 15 years of research and development, starting with a shadowy project called DarkStar overseen by Lockheed Martin.
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04/17/2012
Military intelligence analysts could learn a thing or two from the people who produce popular reality TV shows like “Jersey Shore” and “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” according to an Air Force report. The Air Force asked RAND’s Project Air Force team to research reality TV show and closed-circuit TV productions to figure out ways to better analyze data collected by the service’s unmanned aircraft fleet.
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04/17/2012
I've been a long time fan of the Ace Combat series, but it has been showing weakness of late. Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation felt to me like the finale of the current form of business this arcade flight combat simulator had to offer. Time has definitely come for something new to liven up the formula, to appeal to the new breed of military gamers. Tom Clancy has been trying to steal the crown of air combat away with their HawX series.
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04/17/2012
Inspired by neighbor Brazil's resurgent arms industry, Argentina is hoping to revive its defense manufacturing with the successful launch of production of Pampa combat and training aircraft. Initially the production will meet domestic demand for the aircraft in Argentina's air force and the navy but government planners are looking ahead to Argentina entering defense export markets, analysts said.
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04/17/2012
Unmanned aircraft are nothing new. What is very new is the use of these aircraft for logistical support in a combat zone. The K-Max Helicopter made its first flight in December of 2011 and is currently being used by the Marines to move supplies. The K-Max is a joint venture between Lockheed Martin (LMT) and Kaman Corp (KAMN). According to Kaman's website the K-Max is capable of carrying a payload of 6,000 pounds and can operate for over 12 hours a day.
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04/17/2012
BK-1, the United Kingdom’s first Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II production aircraft, flew its inaugural flight Friday. Lockheed Martin test pilot Bill Gigliotti took the short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) jet through a series of functional flight checks during a sortie that lasted 45 minutes. The jet will complete a series of company and government checkout flights prior to its acceptance by the U.K. Ministry of Defence.
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04/17/2012
About 40 strategic bombers will participate in five-day drills in Russia’s Maritime Territory near the Japanese border, Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Vladimir Drik said on Monday.
The long-range aviation exercise, which started earlier in the day, includes aerial bombing and launches of airborne cruise missiles at the Litovka test range, he said. Other training missions will include aerial patrol and midair refueling.
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04/16/2012
Lockheed Martin Corp on Friday won a US$259mil contract adding two more F-35 fighter jets to a fifth batch of jets being purchased by the US military, boosting the size of that order to 32 jets, the Pentagon and Lockheed officials said.
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04/16/2012
THE Royal Malaysian Air Force got a look at its future military transport capabilities yesterday when an Airbus A400M aircraft landed at the Subang air base for the first time. The plane - Grizzly 4 - is one of five developmental A400M aircraft and is on a tour of customer countries. It will be in Malaysia, its first Asian stop, for four days.
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04/16/2012
A massive military exercise involving troops from across Europe and North America is set to get under way. Joint Warrior will see warships, submarines and aircraft take to the west coast of Scotland for a two-week training exercise. The exercise is held twice a year to prepare forces from the UK, US, Denmark, Norway, France, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands for events and active service.
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04/16/2012
With reports of China and Russia trying to slip into the Pentagon’s information networks on a daily basis, U.S. security experts now rank the military threat from cyberspace just behind terrorism and nuclear proliferation. In that atmosphere, the people whose domain has been the cubicle and the computer room are getting a chance to be recognized as “warriors,” on par with those who shoot guns and fly fighter jets.
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04/16/2012
Along with the ICBM, it was one of the defining pieces of military technology during the Cold War: the B-52 bomber. Those who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s knew the B-52 Stratofortress as a central figure in the anxiety that flowed from the protracted staring match between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. On the one hand, it was reassuring to know that the Strategic Air Command was ready at a moment's notice to scramble its B-52s to counter any potential nuclear attack.
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04/15/2012
Thales UK is to sell its fixed-wing aircraft simulator production business and an aircrew training centre in Bangkok, Thailand. The company said all 400 West Sussex staff employed in civil aircraft training and simulation work would be transferred to L-3 Communications. The sale is expected to be completed during the summer. Consultation has started with the staff affected. Thales UK employs 2,500 people in Crawley, including the 400 staff in the business being sold.
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04/15/2012
Singapore's latest early warning surveillance jets were declared battle-ready on Friday, in a move that strengthens the Republic's air defences. The four Gulfstream 550s (G550s) - the same business planes used by the rich and famous - were converted for military purposes and will help combatants to spot and destroy enemy targets more quickly. They replace the Republic of Singapore Air Force's ageing E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft, which had been in service since 1987.
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04/15/2012
A U.S. military aircraft crash that killed two Marines Wednesday will give new ammunition to critics of the V-22 Osprey, but the incident alone should not doom the controversial program. The Marines were killed and two others hurt when a V-22 tilt rotor aircraft went down in southern Morocco, where 1,200 U.S. troops are participating in African Lion, an annual exercise with local forces. Marine Corps officials are investigating the crash, and the cause it not yet known.
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04/15/2012
The media feeding frenzy sparked by the auditor general's devastating report on the F-35 has focused on the politicians, from the prime minister to the ministers of National Defence and Public Works. Rightly so. Also in the crosshairs has been the Chief of the Defence Staff, Gen. Walter Natynczyk, with many journalists calling for his head.
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04/15/2012
Despite widespread praise in Western capitals for NATO’s leadership of the air campaign in Libya, a confidential NATO assessment paints a sobering portrait of the alliance’s ability to carry out such campaigns without significant support from the United States.
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04/14/2012
It has been decided to equip current fighter models with available thrust-vectoring engines. The first batch of upgraded fighters will be handed over to the Air Force by late 2020. It is also planned that all new T-50 fighters will have become operational by then.
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04/14/2012
The U.S. Air Force will restart its stalled $1 billion competition to buy light attack aircraft for the Afghanistan military, it said today. The military will issue a draft request for proposals April 17 and a final version April 30, the service said in an e-mailed statement. A new award is scheduled for early 2013. The Air Force on Feb. 28 canceled a disputed $1 billion contract to Sierra Nevada Corp. after determining the documentation used to make the award was flawed.
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04/14/2012
The storm system headed to the valley hit northern California hard Thursday night with lots of rain and lightning. In fact, a United Airlines flight with 200 passengers on board was hit by a lightning strike just after takeoff in San Francisco over the ocean. "It happens a lot more frequently than people really realize," said SkyFOX Pilot Rick Crabbs.
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04/14/2012
Special operations forces have a dedicated fleet of tricked-out helicopters at their disposal, but as their workload grows, they are increasingly reliant on conventional aircraft to get their jobs done. A high operational tempo in Afghanistan has married conventional and special operations forces like never before, forcing a heightened level of cooperation at all levels, from commanding generals to aircraft pilots and crews.
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04/14/2012
Boeing [NYSE: BA] and its Super Hornet industry partners toured the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais March 20-22 to assess the aerospace capabilities of local companies and to identify opportunities for work with Boeing and its worldwide supply chain. Representatives from Boeing, General Electric, GKN Aerospace, Hamilton Sundstrand, Northrop Grumman, Parker Aerospace, and Woodward participated in the review.
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04/14/2012
Russian warships will be continuously deployed for patrol duty off the Syrian coast in the Mediterranean, a high-ranking source in the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday. “A decision has been made to deploy Russian warships near the Syrian shores on a permanent basis,” the source said. The Russian Kashin-class guided-missile destroyer Smetlivy is currently deployed near the Syrian coast.
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04/13/2012
Air Force Master Sgt. Johnny White lies facedown in the tail of the KC-135 aerial refueling tanker in mid-flight. Below him, a glass window offers a stunning view of the Michigan Thumb area. White’s view becomes partially blocked as an A-10 Thunderbolt II slowly nudges its way under his plane’s tail.
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04/13/2012
Such is India’s idiosyncratic procurement system that, in the run-up to the award of the $12 billion Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft program, the joke was that the only thing worse than losing would be winning. For Dassault, that reality is not that far off. After its Rafale offer beat out the Eurofighter Typhoon in January as the low-cost bidder for the MMRCA program, there has been much talk about the fate of the project, but very little action.
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04/13/2012
Emergency services across swaths of England were inundated with calls from worried residents amid reports of a mysterious “loud bang” which turned out to be a sonic boom from two RAF Typhoon jets.
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04/13/2012
The private sector has a number of techniques, called best practices, which they routinely employ to reduce costs and boost performance. A number of these have to do with supply chain management. One of the key reasons that the globalized economy works and companies such as Walmart makes a profit while providing tens of millions of Americans with inexpensive products is because of modern supply chain management techniques.
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04/13/2012
China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corporation (CATIC) has officially handed over 8 K-8P fighter jet trainers to the Zambian government.
Speaking at the handover ceremony held at Zambia Air Force Mumbwa Air Base today, CATIC President Liu Jianhai said Zambia Air Force (ZAF) is an excellent and trustable force as it has shown strict and professional operation and maintenance of big fleet. Mr. Liu Jianhai said the handover ceremony of 8 K-8P Aircraft marked a new milestone of coo
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04/13/2012
The Airbus Military A400M new generation airlifter for the 21st Century, is to visit Asia between April 14 and 20. Malaysia, an A400M customer, is the first and longest stop of its three-nation Asia tour, with the aircraft staying there from 14 – 17 April. The tour continues with visits to Jakarta, Indonesia, and Chiang Mai and Bangkok, Thailand, before returning to Europe.
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04/13/2012
India's new revised defence-offset guidelines will be applied to all defence contracts awarded after 1 January 2011. They reinforce the nation's focus on augmenting capacity for research and development, fostering the development of internationally-competitive enterprises and also give a boost to the civil aviation and homeland security sectors.
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04/13/2012
A menacing Russian warplane entering UK airspace during the Cold War would have sent Royal Air Force supersonic fighter jets scrambling to intercept it. Britain's Top Gun pilots were on constant standby to take on Soviet aircraft in dogfights for control of the skies over Northern Europe.
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04/13/2012
The tragic MV-22 Osprey crash in Morocco that killed two Marines this week is likely to reopen the debate about the controversial aircraft's safety. The Osprey earned its bad reputation during its development, when 30 Marines died in three crashes, including 19 in a single 2000 accident in Arizona, and its detractors no doubt will point to this crash as further evidence of its untrustworthiness.
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04/13/2012
North Korea’s rocket, launched on Friday, appears to have broken apart minutes after blastoff, CNN quoted U.S. officials as saying. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency on Friday cited South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seook as saying that the reclusive communist state has launched the Unha-3 long-range rocket. Two U.S. officials confirmed the launch, CNN reported. There have been no reports of any injuries or damage inflicted by falling debris, CNN said.
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04/12/2012
South Korea is in the process of selecting a fighter jet to replace the older models in the Air Force’s arsenal. Worth more than 8 trillion won ($7 billion), the FX-III project is the largest single defense acquisition program the country has conducted. Under the program, 60 new fighters will be purchased to replace older models such as the F-4 and the F-5.
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04/12/2012
The U.S. Coast Guard has exercised a $78.5 million contract option to purchase the service’s 16th and 17th HC-144A Ocean Sentry Maritime Patrol Aircraft. The HC-144A is based on the Airbus Military CN235 tactical airlifter, more than 250 of which are currently in operation by 27 countries.
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04/12/2012
"We're fully aware of the team it takes to put these aircraft into the hands of our international partners," said Jeffrey Young, director of the Security Assistance Management Directorate at the recent delivery ceremony. Produced in the United States at the company's Philadelphia, Pa. facility, AgustaWestland configured the AW139s for the Egyptian Air Force's search and rescue missions.
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04/12/2012
Two Russian anti-submarine aircraft have flown over a Japanese destroyer preparing to shoot down a North Korean rocket if it passes over Japan's territory, a Japanese TV channel reported on Wednesday, citing the country's Defense Ministry. According to the ministry, the Il-38 planes were seen on Tuesday off the south-west coast of the largest Japanese island of Honshu, where the destroyer is currently based.
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04/12/2012
Defence minister A K Antony said on Wednesday that allegations raised by Mysura Reddy, a former TDP member in Rajya Sabha, against the purchase of medium multi-role combat aircraft from French firm Rafale are being looked into. A final decision will be taken only after the probe is completed, he told reporters here.
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04/12/2012
The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence, today announced that another CH-146 Griffon helicopter will be established at 5 Wing Goose Bay. With this addition, three Griffon helicopters will now provide utility helicopter capability at 5 Wing.
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04/12/2012
Two U.S. Marines were killed and two severely injured in the crash of a hybrid aircraft in Morocco on Wednesday, officials said. The Marines were taking part in joint U.S.-Moroccan military excercises located in the south of the country based in Agadir, said U.S. Embassy spokesman Rodney Ford in Rabat, who gave the toll.
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04/11/2012
After remaining grounded for over a month after two crashes in close succession, the Mirage-2000 multi-role fighters are expected to take to the skies by end-April. Air chief marshal (ACM) N A K Browne, on the sidelines of IAF annual commanders' conference on Tuesday, said the Mirage-2000 fleet was undergoing systematic technical checks and would resume flying operations by month-end.
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04/11/2012
Eligible pilots, combat systems officers and engineers have an opportunity to join the ranks of airpower pioneers like Jimmy Doolittle and Chuck Yeager, but they have to apply for U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School to do so.
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04/11/2012
On Apr. 8, 2012, the first Voyager aircraft took to the skies for her maiden flight under the command of an AirTanker crew, to signal the commencement of the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) service to the Royal Air Force (RAF). The aircraft, a version of the Airbus Military A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport aircraft, took off from RAF Brize Norton for a training sortie around the United Kingdom to allow the AirTanker crew to familiarise themselves with the aircraft.
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04/11/2012
A contract has been signed Apr. 5 between Eurocopter and PT Dirgantara Indonesia/Indonesian Aerospace for the supply of six EC725. To be received in 2014, Indonesian Aerospace will customize and deliver these combat search and rescue configured helicopters to the Indonesian Air Force under a contract signed with the Indonesian Ministry of Defence last month.
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04/11/2012
The Army's helicopter fleet is tired. It's flown six times harder over the past ten years than any Army leader expected in the hot, dusty climates of Iraq and Afghanistan. That's why service leaders have started scraping the paint off select helicopters to find hidden cracks. Army maintainers found one helicopter riddled with over 300 cracks in its airframe after removing the paint.
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04/11/2012
Stick or twist? That is the choice facing UK defence secretary Philip Hammond, who is poised to announce a decision on the future of the nation's carrier strike ambitions and choice of embarked combat aircraft. The main issue to be decided is whether to keep faith with a decision made in late 2010 to switch allegiance from Lockheed's short take-off and vertical landing F-35B to the manufacturer's C-model carrier variant.
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04/11/2012
Kenya increased spending on military equipment last year with the importation of eight war ships and six armoured vehicles, data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) shows. Kenya’s overall military spend rose to Sh52.2 billion ($594 million) in 2010 from Sh47.5 billion ($580 million) in 2009. The figures are adjusted for inflation and are based on a mean annual exchange rate of Sh88 to the dollar.
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04/11/2012
The Pentagon plans to increase its fleet of armed and long-haul surveillance drones by at least 45 percent over the next 10 years. The U.S. military’s inventory of unmanned aerial vehicles, will grow to 645 aircraft in fiscal 2022 from about 445 in fiscal 2013, including versions of Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) (NOC)’s RQ-4 Global Hawk and General Atomics’ MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1 Predators.
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04/11/2012
“Will Minister Antony resign?” More than any other, this is the one question that I have been asked by Americans in recent weeks about the defence minister who has been in the news for the better part of this year. Most of the people asking this question have some connection with the military-industrial complex in the United States of America or the country’s defence and strategic community.
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04/11/2012
Georgia conducted a test flight of its first domestically produced unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on Tuesday, the Georgian Defense Ministry said in a statement. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili observed the “successful” test flight, which took place at a military base near the capital of Tbilisi “amid complex terrain and climate conditions,” the statement said.
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04/10/2012
The Chinese military has added sea-based unmanned aircraft to its rapidly growing arsenal, with the first of those aircraft already deployed. The People's Liberation Navy (PLN) has begun fielding unmanned surveillance aircraft aboard its fleet of warships, according to recent news reports. Foreign intelligence agencies have already confirmed the existence of one Chinese-built maritime aerial drone aboard PLN ships, United Press International reported Monday.
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04/10/2012
As independent analysts everywhere accused the government of fantasy, a serious charge when the nation’s defences are in question, again we must ask if the charge is too harsh. To this the analysts reply that the hub of the SDSR’s thinking is the acquisition at some time in the future of two aircraft carriers equipped, at some further time in the future, with squadrons of the F-35B or F-35C Joint Strike Fighters.
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04/10/2012
The USS Enterprise has been sent to the Persian Gulf, the US Navy said Monday as tensions rise over Iran’s nuclear program. It will be the fourth time in the last decade the US has had two aircraft carriers on simultaneous missions in the area. The deployment of the second aircraft is "routine and not specific to any threat," stated Commander Amy Derrick-Frost of the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet. The Enterprise and its strike group entered the fleet’s area of responsibility on April 3.
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04/10/2012
It was 50 years ago this summer and fall that the last of the 744 B-52s built, an H-model that is still flying out of Minot Air Force Base, N.D., rolled off the assembly line and was accepted into the fleet. October also marks the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, when all of the old Strategic Air Command’s bombers, including Barksdale’s B-52s, were put on 100 percent alert status for a full month.
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04/10/2012
One of the hottest topics in the defense and diplomatic worlds is the Obama administration's "rebalancing" of U.S. interests toward Asia. The new focus is a slate of military and geopolitical strategies meant as a hedge against China, and to a lesser extent its client, North Korea. But what does it mean for the armed forces when the White House focuses its gaze on a new part of the world, and a new foe?
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04/10/2012
No country would dare attack Iran, a top officer in the country's elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said on Monday, adding that Iranian forces planned to engage in more military drills in order to preserve their combat vigilance.
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04/10/2012
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence has summoned the chiefs of the three armed services to testify before it, an unprecedented move made after top military officials told the members that India may not be able to meet a two-front war.
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04/10/2012
Boeing has received a $55.3 million production contract from the U.S. Air Force to upgrade the B-1 Lancer navigation system. The upgrade will replace the original navigation hardware with a new ring laser gyro system. "We are no longer using a spinning mass gyro," said Rick Greenwell, B-1 program director for Boeing.
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04/10/2012
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said on Monday he will attend Tuesday’s test of Georgia’s first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). “Tomorrow I will test our first drone, which has been designed to the highest technological specifications,” Saakashvili said. “More Georgian technology will follow.”
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04/10/2012
One of the Soviet Union's greatest test pilots, Pyotr Ostapenko, who helped develop MiG fighter planes for over thirty years, died aged 83 on Sunday, MiG said. "One of our country's oldest test pilots passed away on April 8," MiG said. "All his life Pyotr Maksimovich Ostapenko was inseparably connected with national and world aviation. His contribution as a test pilot to the development of world aviation was priceless."
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04/09/2012
A Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) pilot died on Sunday an hour after a training aircraft crashed into a paddy field at Madhupur in Tangail district. 'Sharif' passed away while undergoing treatment at Combined Military Hospital at Ghatail cantonment in the district, said additional police superintendent of the district MA Masud.
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04/09/2012
China’s navy has begun using unmanned aerial vehicles as part of its blue-water operations. At least one type has been photographed by foreign reconnaissance aircraft, and other variants have been reported. Not only has China been displaying an assortment of models at air shows, it also is incorporating advanced U.S. unmanned vehicle technology into current and future systems.
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04/09/2012
Robert Arrighi was already concerned about defense-budget cuts last summer when the Obama administration issued a stop-work order for the alternate engine for the F-35 joint strike fighter plane. Mr. Arrighi's Long Island City, Queens, company, Kerns Manufacturing, was planning to work on the joint General Electric and Rolls-Royce project. He had hopes of hiring 50 people and bringing in an additional $12 million a year in revenue.
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04/09/2012
In early March, China released its defence budget for 2012, which broke the symbolic US$100 billion barrier for the first time. In fact, Chinese military expenditures will total US$106.4 billion (S$134 billion), an increase of 11.2 percent over 2011 – and this does not include possible hidden spending, which could add billions of dollars per year to the Chinese defence budget.
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04/09/2012
U.S. Air Force pilot Patrick Burke’s day started in the cockpit of a B-1B bomber near the Persian Gulf and proceeded across nine time zones as he ferried the aircraft home to South Dakota. Every four hours during the 19-hour flight, Burke swallowed a tablet of Dexedrine, the prescribed amphetamine known as “go pills.” After landing, he went out for dinner and drinks with a fellow crewman. They were driving back to Ellsworth Air Force Base when Burke began striking his friend in the head.
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04/09/2012
This week marks the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Royal Flying Corps. It was the product of a handful of brave and far-sighted individuals, reports James Holland.
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04/08/2012
An Israeli pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear program will probably begin with a rain of Jericho missiles obliterating the heavy water plant in Arak and destroying four small nuclear research reactors at the Nuclear Technology Center in Isfahan.
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04/08/2012
As the war in Afghanistan supposedly winds down the drone war and missions by special forces will ramp up. Wars with large contingents of troops on the ground are not only expensive but often politically damaging. Better to keep the empire expanding and supposedly safe using high tech weapons and elite forces often acting in secret.
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04/08/2012
Zooming along at 170 mph in a fighter jet carrying thousands of pounds of volatile fuel, two Navy pilots faced nothing but bad choices when their aircraft malfunctioned over Virginia Beach, Va., the state's most populated city. "Catastrophic engine system failure right after takeoff, which is always the most critical phase of flying, leaves very, very few options," said aviation safety expert and decorated pilot J.F. Joseph.
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04/08/2012
36 F-16 fighter planes approved by Pentaqon for Baghdad last year are comparable to those in IAF inventories; Iraq is considered a possible strategic threat to Israel for the first time since 2003 US invasion. Israel is increasingly concerned with the military build-up in Iraq amid intelligence reports that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is solidifying its presence in the country, according to a senior IDF officer.
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04/08/2012
A group of Russian military observers begin on Sunday a nine-day inspection mission in the skies of the United States under the Open Skies Treaty. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Russia’s Tupolev Tu-154 LK-1 will take off on Sunday from the Travis Air Force Base, located in California, while the maximum range of the flight will total 4,250 kilometers (2,640 miles).
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04/07/2012
Eurofighter signed a new, five-year support contract with NETMA, the NATO management agency that represents the four European partner nations in the combat aircraft program. As before, the Eurofighter industrial partners will deliver support to the individual air forces. Alenia values its part of the deal, to support the Italian air force, at more than $660 million. BAE Systems says its contract to support the UK Royal Air Force (RAF) is worth $708.5 million.
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04/07/2012
A potential $4.3 billion deal between the Boeing's defense unit and the Brazilian government that has bounced on and off the table for years is back in play. And a Boeing Co. official said this week that the company expects to learn by June if it finished atop the process that has pitted aerospace makers from three nations in a bid to supply state-of-the-art fighter jets to the Brazilian Air Force.
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04/07/2012
The Homeland Security Department is vetting surveillance blimps as possible additions to its Southwest border fleet of unmanned aircraft, DHS officials said. To more quickly capture illegal entrants, drug smugglers and gunrunners, DHS Customs and Border Protection increasingly is embracing robotic technologies once relegated to battlefields.
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04/07/2012
The F-35 jet has been the whipping boy for auditors and politicians all week, but it remains the darling of Canada’s aerospace industry. Industry veterans are shrugging off the vitriol of “scandal” and “fiasco” by remaining focused on the $12 billion they say the troubled program can bring to Canada. “It’s a state of the art platform,” says Maryse Harvey, an official at Aerospace Industries Association of Canada (AIAC).
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04/07/2012
A cold, isolated outpost high in the mountains of Afghanistan was running low on fuel, which provides all the power and heating for forces there. Within six hours, the fuel tank would be empty, with no way to keep warm as temperatures drop below freezing.
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04/07/2012
Defence Department officials have been kept in the dark on a $369-million program to upgrade maritime patrol planes while a $2.8-billion dollar modernization effort for the navy’s frigates could be running into trouble. Two newly released reports from Defence Department auditors have raised concerns about military equipment programs being handled by the same organizations that had overseen the troubled plan to purchase of the F-35 stealth fighter.
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04/07/2012
A U.S. Navy F/A-18D Superhornet has crashed in Virginia Beach, Virginia, destroying a number of homes, although so far no fatalities have been reported. Both pilots ejected after dumping at least some of the malfunctioning jet’s fuel. Six people, including both pilots, were injured, three seriously, when the plane crashed into an apartment building not far from its airbase, local officials said.
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04/06/2012
Boeing's military aircraft program continues to offer opportunities for the company. The Chicago-based defense contractor currently produces the C-17 strategic transport for use by the U.S. Air Force and the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter and attack aircraft for the Navy and Marine Corps and is well over a year into the development of the new KC-46A aerial tanker.
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04/06/2012
Cockpit controls on Embraer's KC-390 military transports for the Brazilian air force will feature active side sticks from Britain's BAE Systems. "We are very pleased that Embraer Defense and Security and the Brazilian air force have selected our fifth generation active side stick," said Ehtisham Siddiqui, vice president and general manager of Commercial Aircraft Solutions for BAE Systems.
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04/06/2012
Navy personnel are busy preparing to teach the next generation of Sailors how to work with and fly the newest military aircraft, the F-35C Lightening II Joint Strike Fighter, as Strike Fighter Squadron 101 (VFA-101) readies for their stand-up ceremony May 1 on Eglin Air Force Base.
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04/06/2012
Sukhoi's Su-35S stealth fighter, being built for the Russian air force, has completed a 500th test flight for evaluation of equipment and maneuverability. The multi-role aircraft reached the maximum ground-level speed of 869 miles per hour, speed at altitude of 1,491 mph and an altitude of about 59,000 feet, the company said.
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04/06/2012
In advance of the President of Brazil's visit to the United States, U.S Senator Claire McCaskill has reached out to the nation's leader to express her support for the sale of the Boeing F/A-18-largely produced in St. Louis-to Brazil's military, and to praise the strong working relationship between the two nations. In a letter to President Dilma Vana Rouseff, McCaskill reiterated the United States' and Brazil's mutual security interests.
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04/06/2012
The Air Force has such a glut of data – photos and videos and such – captured by its fleet of drone aircraft that it can’t keep up with analyzing the information, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said Thursday. Because of the lack people and machinery to make sense of the information, the Air Force will cut back on how many of the drone aircraft it buys, Donley told a group of defense writers in Washington. National Defense magazine was among the publications attending the interview.
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04/06/2012
Singapore and the United States reaffirmed the excellent and long-standing bilateral defence ties between the two countries, as Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen met US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta yesterday. They also discussed a wide range of defence and security issues - including a proposal for the US to deploy up to four littoral combat ships to Singapore.
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04/06/2012
The Boeing Company and the U.S. Navy have successfully completed a flight test of the prototype Distributed Targeting System-Networked (DTS-N) on a Super Hornet. The system is designed to enhance the F/A-18E/F fighter jet’s targeting capabilities. The test took place in late 2011 at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division Advanced Weapons Lab in China Lake, Calif., and was conducted by Air Test and Evaluation Squadron VX-31.
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04/05/2012
Even on military flights, regular manned aircraft need to stop regularly so the crew can rest, bathe and unwind. But an unmanned drone can keep flying until it runs low on fuel, so the U.S. military drew up plans for nuclear powered drones that could stay airborne for months at a time.
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04/05/2012
The top U.S. military officer is pushing to expand the Pentagon's advisory role in Colombia's fight against insurgents and narcotics traffickers, but made clear he is wary of rushing to supply the country with drones and other hardware Bogota says it wants to accelerate the campaign.
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04/05/2012
NATO has signed a five-year contract with Germany's Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH for support of Typhoon aircraft flown by four countries. The countries covered under the contract from the NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency are Germany, Italy, Spain and Great Britain. Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH is the holding company for the three-company consortium that builds the aircraft. The consortium includes EADS, Alenia Aermacchi and BAE Systems.
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04/05/2012
The pieces of a new strategic kaleidoscope in the Asia-Pacific region are starting to fall into place as allies and security partners of the United States seek to deter China from using or threatening force to achieve its expansive aims, particularly in the South China Sea, which forms the maritime heart of Southeast Asia.
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04/05/2012
It is understood that part of the pact could lead to the more regular deployment of a Royal Navy hunter killer submarine in the region joining America's build up in the region. Stronger ties could lead to Japan investing in several major defence projects in including the purchase of more than a dozen of the British-designed Future Combat Ships at £300 million each and a large order for Merlin helicopters.
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04/05/2012
AT A meeting of South-East Asian nations in 2010, China’s foreign minister Yang Jiechi, facing a barrage of complaints about his country’s behaviour in the region, blurted out the sort of thing polite leaders usually prefer to leave unsaid. “China is a big country,” he pointed out, “and other countries are small countries and that is just a fact.” Indeed it is, and China is big not merely in terms of territory and population, but also military might.
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04/05/2012
Gen. Raymond Johns, commander of the U.S. Air Force’s Air Mobility Command, accepted delivery of another C-130J Super Hercules for Dyess Air Force Base, Texas. Johns praised the increased capabilities of the C-130J for resupply of the warfighter in forward operating locations, aeromedical evacuations, Antarctic support and humanitarian relief.
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04/05/2012
Russia's Interior Ministry has said it plans to spend up to 120 million rubles ($4 million) to buy eight unmanned aerial vehicles. The ministry would also require vans and radios to operate the drones, according to a tender document posted on the government purchasing agency website zakupki.gov.ru on Tuesday.
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04/04/2012
The first F-35 Lightning II for The Netherlands rolled out of the F-35 production facility on April 1. This is the latest step in the production process leading to its eventual assignment to Eglin AFB, Fla., later this summer. The Netherlands will use the conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) jet, known as AN-1, for training and operational tests for pilots and maintainers.
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04/04/2012
The Belarusian State Military-Industrial Committee is planning to develop a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) with vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capability, the committee’s chairman Sergei Gurulev said. “We are considering a wide range of UAVs with VTOL capability – from mini-sized to medium and heavy class UAVs,” Gurulev said in an interview with “VPK.Belarus” publication.
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04/04/2012
Brazil, which is close to awarding a lucrative jet fighter contract, said Tuesday that it would insist on technology transfer in its defense agreements. "In all its alliances, Brazil will put on the table the demand for technology transfer," Education Minister Aloizio Mercadante told foreign correspondents. "We no longer intend to have the passive attitude we used to have throughout our history," he added.
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04/04/2012
American Eurocopter unveiled a helicopter if plans to build at its Columbus manufacturing facility. On Monday, company officials introduced the Armed Aerial Scout 72X plus combat helicopter during a presentation in Nashville. The company says the aircraft is an armed version of the UH-72 Lakota light utility helicopter currently being built in Columbus.
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04/04/2012
The Army plans to stick with its current helicopter inventory over the next two decades, opting to wait until 2030 at the earliest to revolutionize a fleet flown hard around Iraq and Afghanistan. Army helicopters will receive upgrades over the next two decades, as they always have, but the austere budget environment has forced the Army to try and keep its current fleet in the air for as long as it can.
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04/04/2012
The ministry of defence (MoD) is the final authority on defence purchases. The department of defence production oversees purchases. The department is vested with the overall responsibility for growth of indigenous defence industry as well as framing of policies.
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04/04/2012
Boeing delivered the final two F-15K Slam Eagles to the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) on April 2 at Daegu Air Base. All ROKAF F-15Ks were delivered on cost and on schedule. "Boeing is proud to have worked with the ROKAF to ensure that their F-15Ks included all the capability and power necessary to defend their homeland through 2040 and beyond," said Roger Besancenez, F-15 Program vice president for Boeing.
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04/04/2012
Lockheed Martin commemorated the 4,500th F-16 Fighting Falcon delivery today with a ceremony for employees, customers, former executives and elected officials, including U.S. Rep. Kay Granger and Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price.
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04/04/2012
Azerbaijan denies reports that Israel is to set up military bases aimed at Iran on its territory, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said on Tuesday. In late March, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry denied a media report saying it granted Israel access to air bases near the Iranian border. "This information is absurd and groundless,” ministry spokesman Teymur Abdullayev said.
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04/04/2012
Russia's military-transport aviation will use civilian An-124 Ruslan Condor heavy-lift transport aircraft owned by large carriers, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Monday. “Orders will be placed for dozens of aircraft - 60-70 Ruslans,” he said. It was not immediately clear whether the military will pay for the use of cargo aircraft or simply commandeer them in the interest of “national defense.”
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04/04/2012
Russia’s Defense Ministry has issued a technical specification for development of a strike unmanned air vehicle (UAV), Izvestia daily said on Monday quoting a high-level source. Tranzas company will build the UAV's on-board electronics as well as its navigation and control systems. The airframe, which will weigh about five tons, will be produced by the Kazan-based Sokol design bureau.
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04/02/2012
Admiral Sir John Woodward said the Prime Minister would be powerless to respond if an invasion of the South Atlantic islands should happen again.
On the 30th anniversary of Argentina he joined other senior veterans in criticising the reduction in British aircraft carrier capability.
Admiral Woodward also warned Mr Cameron against changing his mind over the type of jet to buy for the carriers under construction. Conventional Joint Strike Fighters had been ordered but the Prime Minister is now e
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04/02/2012
A surveillance aircraft operated by the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command flew over southeastern Yemen on the evening of March 9, tracking a mid-level Al Qaeda commander as he drove to his mountain hideout.
American missiles soon rained down. The Al Qaeda commander was killed, along with 22 other suspected militants, most of them believed to be young recruits receiving military training, U.S. officials said.
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04/02/2012
Brazil is in the "final chapters" of making a decision to award a lucrative jet fighter deal, the defence minister Celso Amorim said on Saturday. Amorim indicated that the decision could be expected within a few months.
Swedish manufacturer Saab's Gripen jet fighter is up against the Rafale fighter, made by French firm Dassault Aviation and US aviation giant Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet for a tender from Brazil to supply 36 multi-role combat aircraft.
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04/02/2012
The Harper government will commit to re-evaluating the F-35 fighter jet program Tuesday, in response to a scathing Auditor-General’s report that is expected to charge Department of National Defence officials with misleading Parliament.
The government will respond to the report from new Auditor-General, Michael Ferguson, by launching a multi-pronged action plan that includes a freeze on spending on the F-35 at $9-billion and committing to annual updates to Parliament on the progress of the pro
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04/02/2012
Drones have become the favorite weapon system of the Obama administration, currently in use in several countries around the world by both intelligence services and the military. Be it for spying or killing, drones keep pilots safe thousands of miles away as they spend sometimes days in the air. Now imagine if drones could spend months in the air.
Just as nuclear energy is used to keep submarines and ships at sea for months on end, plans have been drawn up to give drones a similar capability i
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04/02/2012
Raytheon Company's Small Tactical Munition Phase II scored a direct hit on a target during the weapon's first guided flight test.
"STM Phase II is ideally suited to weaponize Shadow-class unmanned aircraft systems and counterinsurgency aircraft because STM is a mature, precise and affordable weapon," said Dr. Thomas R. Bussing, vice president of Advanced Missiles and Unmanned Systems for Raytheon Missile Systems. "STM gives warfighters flexibility because it enables them to engage moving and
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04/01/2012
Sailor-suited Russian models touted their nation's submarines. Indian officers posed for pictures atop foreign-made armor-plated vehicles.
And working the room at New Delhi's aging exhibition center were French, British and U.S. arms merchants from global-defense giants, elbowing one another aside in the search for a deal at Defexpo India 2012, the country's biggest-ever weapons trade show.
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