December 17, 2012 Military Aviation News
12/17/2012
A soldier sets out to graduate at the top of his class. He succeeds, and he becomes a drone pilot working with a special unit of the United States Air Force in New Mexico. He kills dozens of people. But then, one day, he realizes that he can’t do it anymore. For more than five years, Brandon Bryant worked in an oblong, windowless container about the size of a trailer, where the air-conditioning was kept at 17 degrees Celsius (63 degrees Fahrenheit) and, for security reasons, the door couldn’t be
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12/17/2012
The Russian answer to the American F-22, the T-50 (or PAK-FA) now has four prototypes in operation. The fourth one made its first flight on December 12th. The T-50 flew for the first time in January 2010. Six more prototypes are on order and, if all goes well the first 60 production models will be ordered in 2015 and be delivered by the end of the decade.
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12/17/2012
Budget problems in the SANDF, massive retrenchment in a specialized staff component of the SAAF and the continued electricity crisis at Air Force Base (AFB) Makhado are causing concerns, also regarding overall combat readiness.A delay in the repair of the extensively damaged high-voltage electricity supply at AFB Makhado is adding to the severe budget problems of the SAND/SAAF.
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12/17/2012
As noted in a recent article in the Citizen and in other publications the U.S. military is laying plans for what it is calling a “sixth generation” aircraft to replace the F-35 as early as 2030.
The U.S. Navy and Air Force are examining such a plane. At a recent meeting at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., Gen. Mike Hostage, chief of the U.S. air force’s combat command, provided more details on the plane his organization wants to buy.
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12/17/2012
A surveillance squadron that acts as the "eyes and ears" for long-range strategic missions is among the Israeli Air Force's inner sanctums, accessible to few and guarded by many. The Gulfstream G550, a business jet mainly designed to accommodate corporate executives and private businessmen and heavily reconfigured to carry cutting-edge electronic-intelligence gathering technology, has participated in the IAF's bombing of a Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007.
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