March 02, 2013 Military Aviation News
03/02/2013
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has been cleared to resume flight operations, six days after a crack discovered in the engine caused the fleet to be grounded. Flights will resume Friday afternoon weather permitting, according to program officials. “Following engineering analysis of the turbine blade which developed a crack, F-35 flight operations have been cleared to resume,” the Joint Program Office and Pratt & Whitney said in a joint statement, released late Thursday night.
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03/02/2013
Dubbed the "entente frugale" by wags and criticized by some as a dangerous dilution of military sovereignty, Franco-British defense cooperation is nonetheless growing stronger.
Shrinking budgets, a less indulgent United States and Europe's diminishing military clout in the world have bolstered the two countries' determination to work together.
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03/02/2013
After Col. Jeannie Leavitt finished pilot training at the top of her class in 1992, she was given her first choice of aircraft, with a few restrictions. Her first choice, the F-15 Strike Eagle, wasn't yet an option for female pilots. "I was told you finished No. 1, but you cannot pick a fighter," Leavitt said. "You cannot pick a bomber. You cannot pick a special ops aircraft. There was a whole list of aircraft I couldn't fly, and I was directed to choose among the other aircraft."
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03/02/2013
American military readiness starts deteriorating at midnight. Flights will be grounded. Ships will stay dockside. Army unit training will stop. That’s the assessment of the top Pentagon officials in the wake of abrupt and deep budget cuts that will take effect Saturday.
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03/02/2013
Japan on March 1 further relaxed a self-imposed ban on weapons exports by approving the dispatch of locally made components for the U.S.-built F-35 stealth fighter jet, despite concerns that Israel will buy the plane and thereby contravene an export embargo observed for more than four decades.
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03/02/2013
With $85 billion in automatic cuts to the federal budget taking effect beginning Friday, millions of fans across the country will miss out on precision flying by the Navy's Blue Angels and the Air Force's Thunderbirds, military officials said.
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03/02/2013
Stiff budget cuts that take effect Friday because of a political standoff over America’s burgeoning debt could crimp U.S. military activity in the Asia-Pacific, just as Washington seeks to reassure friends and allies of its staying power in the region.
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03/02/2013
Sudan's government has violated U.N. sanctions on the Darfur region by carrying out air strikes and using aircraft from Belarus and Russia despite pledging not to in the vast arid area in the country's west, U.N. experts say. The U.N. Security Council's independent panel of experts - who monitor sanctions imposed on Darfur in 2005 - also said it was investigating whether Sudanese troops had violated the sanctions by using Iranian armored personnel carriers in Darfur.
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03/02/2013
In the first two months of 2013, Russia sold over $2.5 billion worth of weapons to other countries, the head of the Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation said Friday.
“In the first month of this year, we sold arms worth $1 billion. In the first two months, total weapons sales exceeded $2.5 billion,” Alexander Fomin told Ekho Moskvy radio.
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