January 31, 2013 Military Aviation News
01/31/2013
The Air Force’s 31st Fighter Wing launched at least two F-16 Fighting Falcons on Wednesday to join the search for one of its pilots missing since late Monday, according to wing officials.
Officials did not say how many of their fighters would ultimately join in the effort, citing security reasons. The fighters join Italian and U.S. aircraft and ships searching for Capt. Lucas Gruenther, the wing’s chief of flight safety, whose F-16 disappeared over the Adriatic during a night training mission.
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01/31/2013
The unit, No 1 (Fighter) Squadron, which was reformed just 4 months ago at RAF Leuchars in Scotland, is now home to the 100th Typhoon to enter service. Officer Commanding No 1 (Fighter) Squadron, Wing Commander Mark Flewin, said: There can be no better example of the strides we are taking with regard to growing the Typhoon Force than the stand-up of 1 (Fighter) Squadron - we reformed as a Typhoon unit in September last year.
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01/31/2013
A six-plane detachment of F/A-18A+ Hornets from Fighter Squadron Composite (VFC) 12, along with a six-plane detachment operated by Airborne Tactical Advantage Company (ATAC), a two-plane detachment from L-3, and a two-plane detachment from Phoenix Air are operating from NAS Jacksonville to provide “adversary threat training” for the Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) Strike Group that is currently underway in the Atlantic for its Composite Training Unit Exercise (COMPTUEX).
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01/31/2013
The future of warfare has arrived: airplane-mounted laser weapons. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced that the 150-kilowatt lasers would be 10 times smaller and lighter than existing lasers that fire comparably powerful beams– small and light enough to be mounted on fighter jets.
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01/31/2013
The Philippines will buy 12 South Korean FA-50 fighter jets to strengthen its poorly armed military, government spokesmen said Jan. 30 amid increasing maritime tensions with China.
The FA-50s will be the first fighter jets to be operated by the Philippine air force since it retired the last of its U.S.-designed F-5 fighters in 2005, said President Benigno Aquino’s spokesman, Edwin Lacierda.
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01/31/2013
Syrian army command denies earlier reports that IAF planes had struck a convoy carrying weapons from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon; claims 2 people were killed and five wounded in the attack on the site in Jamraya. Israeli warplanes attacked a military research center in Damascus province at dawn on Wednesday, Syria's military command said, denying reports that the planes had struck a convoy carrying weapons from Syria to Lebanon.
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01/31/2013
Assembly of the 100th Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is well underway at the F-35 production facility here. F-35 technicians are in the final phase of building the wings that will be installed on the 100th aircraft known as AF-41. AF-41, a conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variant, is one of 88 F-35s in various stages of completion on Lockheed Martin production lines Fort Worth and Marietta, Ga., and supplier locations across the world.
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01/31/2013
Russia’s Supreme Court threw out a petition by a group of residents in the Central Russian city of Voronezh to close a military airbase, the city legislature said on Wednesday. The petition, filed in 2011, urged the Defense Ministry to remove the airbase called Baltimore from the city boundaries.
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01/31/2013
Russia and Kazakhstan signed a deal on Wednesday to create a joint regional air defense system, Kazakhstan's Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. “This document will create a platform to secure the defense of Kazakhstan’s airspace and Russia’s adjacent territory,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
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01/31/2013
Israel conducted an airstrike inside Syria overnight near the border with Lebanon, hitting a convoy of trucks, US and regional officials said Wednesday. The regional officials said Israel had been planning in the days leading up to the airstrike to hit a shipment of weapons bound for Hezbollah in Lebanon. They said the shipment included sophisticated, Russian-made SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles, which would be strategically "game-changing" in the hands of Hezbollah.
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