February, 2014 Military Aviation News
02/28/2014
Felix Seidler of the Center for International Maritime Security says China’s top maritime priorities will remain in the East and South China Seas. Nevertheless, extended expeditionary ambitions are real. However, more assertive Chinese behavior on blue-waters does not mean that great power conflict is inevitable. Coming East Asia Summits may be a forum for finding solutions.
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02/28/2014
U.S. Air Force Secretary Debra James says she’s reviewing whether the service can afford a contract for combat-rescue helicopters that drew only one bid, raising questions about whether a unit of United Technologies Corp. will receive a multibillion-dollar award this year.
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02/28/2014
With the defence ministry all set to blacklist Agusta-Westland-Finmeccanica for the VVIP helicopter bribery scandal, it has asked French aircraft manufacturer Dassault to clarify whether the Anglo-Italian chopper company was supplying parts for its Rafale medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) slated to be acquired by India at the cost of $20 billion.
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02/28/2014
Frustrated by long delays in replacing their growing stockpile of obsolescent equipment, India’s three armed service chiefs have been warning the government that procurement delays are compromising the country’s war preparedness, military sources have told The Hindu. The government, the sources said, was told the Air Force’s combat jet fleet would soon begin shrinking dangerously, even as the Army was short of tanks and artillery.
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02/28/2014
Refitting Soviet-era warships, fielding new aircraft and tanks and seeking new overseas bases, the Russian military that now has troops on alert amidst a crisis in Ukraine is more potent than the force which briefly fought Georgia six years ago.
Moscow is seriously investing in building its clout. Since 2008, it has raised military spending by almost a third and drastically reformed both the armed forces and defense industry to tackle post-Cold War decay.
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02/27/2014
The aviation industry of Jiangxi Province developed very swiftly in 2013. AVIC Jiangxi Hongdu Aviation Industry Group is actively boosting its cooperation with Russia in the key technology of bombers and transport trainers, according to information from the website of the Commission of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense.
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02/27/2014
Every week, skilled pilots with the Hawaii Air National Guard suit up for air to air combat drills in the most advanced stealth fighter jet in the world, the F-22. It's all to stay sharp, so that in the event there's a threat in Hawaii's skies, or anywhere in the world, they're able to take-off at a moment's notice.
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02/27/2014
Chief Executive Officer Tom Enders said he’s frustrated by Turkey’s failure to accept delivery of the third production A400M airlifter, even though two planes are flying successfully with French forces. Enders said today that his company is “still bargaining” over the delivery process with Turkey, which has 10 A400Ms on order and is one of seven so-called core customers that signed up for the military transport plane almost 11 years ago.
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02/27/2014
Airbus Group, emboldened by strong financial results and an order backlog extending well into the next decade, is turning its back on its longtime European supporters. Driving the shift in attitude toward the governments of France, Germany, Spain and the U.K. is the overhaul of Airbus's governance last year. But a shift in the commercial aircraft market is also at play, said Chief Executive Tom Enders.
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02/27/2014
The Pentagon's plans to do away with 1970s-era A-10 "Warthog" attack planes will have a ripple effect in places like Knob Noster, Missouri - a small town in the shadow of Whiteman Air Force Base. It could mean fewer reservists flocking to places like the Panther Steakhouse and the EconoLodge after a weekend spent working with planes designed to fight wars against Soviet tanks. In Knob Noster, population 2,709, it makes a big difference when those people spend that cash.
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02/27/2014
Russia ordered 150,000 troops to test their combat readiness Wednesday in a show of force that prompted a blunt warning from the United States that any military intervention in Ukraine would be a "grave mistake." Vladimir Putin's announcement of huge new war games came as Ukraine's protest leaders named a millionaire former banker to head a new government after the pro-Russian president went into hiding.
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02/27/2014
The U.S. Air Force announced Tuesday that Eielson Air Force Base and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson are on the short list of potential hosts for 48 new F-35 fighter jets, according to Alaska’s Congressional delegation. Site survey teams from the Air Force will examine the five sites in the coming weeks before selecting “two or three as preferred and reasonable alternative bases” later this spring, according to a press release from U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska.
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02/27/2014
The third and fourth MH-60R “Romeo” helicopters take flight from the Lockheed Martin facility in Owego, N.Y., to join the Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN) first pair of helicopters training at Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida.
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02/27/2014
The Russian Air Force will receive nearly 20 new flight simulators later this year for training fighter and ground-attack crews, a military spokesperson said Wednesday. Training simulators allow crews to practice maneuvers in conditions as close as possible to actual flight, including group formations and combat exercises.
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02/26/2014
The following footage was shot on Feb. 18, near BAE Systems facilities at Warton, in Lancashire, England. The aircraft being moved is probably a full size model of the BAE Replica, a British stealth aircraft model developed by BAE in the 1990s and used for radar testing before its associated program, the FOAS (Future Offensive Air System), was cancelled in 2005.
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02/26/2014
Japan will allow the export of arms to countries located along sea lanes to ensure the safe delivery of oil and other natural resources, while bolstering Japan’s defense cooperation with the United States by providing repair work for U.S. military aircraft overseas, according to a draft of new principles on arms exports.
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02/26/2014
Last week Defence Watch ran a three part series on why the F-35 wasn’t the right aircraft for Canada. This week Defence Watch runs a three part series on why the F-35 is essential for Canada. The article is written by Edward Wu, who is based in Vancouver. He answered the Defence Watch request to pen a defence of the F-35. He noted that he is not associated with any defence or aerospace contractors, nor any political parties or government.
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02/26/2014
The 122nd Fighter Wing and local Congressmen are reacting to Monday’s proposed cuts to the U.S. military. One major change is eliminating A-10 combat jets flown by Fort Wayne’s Air National Guard Base. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel proposed eliminating the A-10 aircraft, U-2 spy planes, shrinking the army to its smallest size in 74 years and reducing some military benefits. This would save about $75 billion over the next two years.
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02/26/2014
After protracted negotiations, UK defence giant BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia have agreed on the pricing for 72 Eurofighter Typhoon combat jets. The deal highlights the crucial relevance of and challenges to defence-industrial partnerships between Western countries and emerging powers around the world.
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02/26/2014
In early February, analysts from four Washington think tanks held a public event to recommend how the Pentagon could walk the fine line between developing a future military capable of meeting emerging security threats and staying within legislated budget caps. Although the teams differed on many of their recommendations, all chose to shrink the Navy’s fleet by two or more aircraft carriers.
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02/26/2014
Boeing's [NYSE: BA] P-8A Poseidon program will enter full production, following a $2.4 billion contract award from the U.S. Navy for 16 additional aircraft that will bolster maritime patrol capabilities. The order, which will take the total fleet to 53, marks a transition from preliminary low-rate production. Boeing has delivered 13 P-8As to the Navy, which deployed its first patrol squadron to Kadena, Japan in December 2013 and has been conducting operational missions since then.
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02/26/2014
A Russian airbase in Kyrgyzstan will be fully manned with personnel serving under contract by the end of 2014, the Central Military District said Tuesday. "There will be no conscripts at the base [in Kant] after 2014," the district said in a statement. According to the military, contract servicemen at the Kant base receive a 30 percent increase in salary, 15 additional vacation days and service housing. Every six months of service under contract at Kant is counted as one year when calculating r
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02/26/2014
The final US tanker aircraft supporting military operations in Afghanistan departed a Kyrgyzstan airbase Monday ahead of the closure of the facility later this year, a US army media agency reported. An agreement with Kyrgyzstan that provides for the United States’ transit center at the Manas airport, the country’s largest, is slated to expire in July.
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02/25/2014
Airbus Group NV is demanding compensation of close to one billion euros from Germany for the cancellation of an order for 37 Eurofighter combat aircraft, a spokesman for the defense ministry said Monday. Handelsblatt reported the plane maker wants 900 million euros ($1.24 billion) in compensation. Germany last week canceled the final tranche of 37 jets that were part of an order for 180 Eurofighters.
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02/25/2014
This year's scramble in Washington over the budget request will start Monday, when Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is expected to preview the fiscal 2015 Defense Department budget—a week before the official request goes to Congress. Its first hint at budget priorities will spur the defense industry to start lobbying, lawmakers to stake out their priorities, and the Pentagon to launch a charm offensive on Capitol Hill.
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02/25/2014
In recent years Prowler detachments were regularly operating from Bagram in Afghanistan, tasked primarily in providing electronic support for ground operations, assisting ground forces in Afghanistan and Iraq with counter IED jamming, signals intelligence and selective jamming. Supporting traditional marine corps missions, such as amphibious operations, and other high intensity warfare operations require different techniques.
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02/25/2014
The Pentagon is proposing to eliminate its A10 aircraft fleet — including those at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Harrison — as part of a wide-ranging reorganization that could affect the Harrison Township facility. State officials have said there are about 18 A10s stationed at Selfridge and there are more than 400 people associated with their combat-support maneuvers at the base.
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02/25/2014
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is unveiling the Pentagon’s proposed budget today—a budget that will dramatically scale back the size of the military. But in order to save the most sacred of cows in its ongoing modernization efforts, the Pentagon is proposing the elimination of what has arguably been the most effective combat aircraft in the Air Force’s inventory: the A-10 Thunderbolt II.
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02/25/2014
AN influential air power lobby group wants Australia to acquire long-range unmanned combat aircraft that can fire precision missiles against targets without risk to pilots. According to the Canberra-based think tank, the Sir Richard Williams Foundation, so-called unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) are developing at such a rapid rate that they could replace manned fighters by the late 2020s.
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02/24/2014
Germany is expected to overhaul its defense procurement policy using external reviews to create greater transparency, experts say, after the defense minister sacked two senior ministry officials last week over mismanagement of numerous procurement programs.
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02/24/2014
Russia has high hopes of developing its own home-grown drones, such as this Dozor-600 being developed by St. Petersburg's Tranzas Company. Photo: Wikimedia Commons. This month, for the first time ever, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu revealed how much Russia intends to spend on building a fleet of high-speed, long-endurance, combat "drone" aircraft: $9 billion.
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02/24/2014
Faced with a Mexican standoff over the home built intermediate jet trainer (IJT) the Indian Air Force (IAF) is prepared to shoot its way out of the crisis. Tired of waiting for the IJT – under development since 1999 – the IAF now wants to import Swiss jets as a contingency measure. The IJT is aimed at providing high-speed training for IAF pilots entering the second stage of training.
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02/24/2014
Governments and industry are in discussions over the fate of the final order of Eurofighter Typhoon combat jets for the four partner nations involved in the program amid Germany’s plan to end its purchases early. The British, German, Italian and Spanish governments are in negotiations with industry over whether to go ahead with part or all of what is known as the Typhoon Tranche 3B order, an executive familiar with the talks said.
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02/24/2014
U.S. military researchers will brief industry on 28 Feb. 2014 on a program to develop software decision aids to plan aerial battles involving manned combat aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Officials of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., will outline the upcoming Distributed Battle Management (DBM) program on 28 Feb. from 8:30 a.m. to noon at the DARPA conference Center, 675 North Randolf St., in Arlington, Va.
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02/23/2014
Buenos Aires will acquire military hardware including fighter aircraft, anti-aircraft weapons and specialised radar, as well as beefing up its special forces. The news comes months before drilling for oil begins in earnest off the Falkland Islands, provoking Argentina’s struggling President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Last month she created a new cabinet post of Secretary for the Malvinas, her country’s name for the Falklands.
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02/23/2014
The Pentagon is committed to early design work on a new aircraft that will replace thousands of helicopters now used by the U.S. military, its first "clean sheet design" program in years, the Army official heading the effort said on Friday.
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02/23/2014
An outspoken intelligence officer for the U.S. Pacific Fleet has ruffled feathers in Beijing and Washington by warning publicly that the Chinese military is training for a “short, sharp” war with Japan and planning to establish an air defense identification zone over the disputed South China Sea this year or next.
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02/23/2014
Finland is buying American FIM-92 Stinger MANPADS (MAN-Portable Air-Defense Systems) anti-aircraft missiles to replace the Russian SA-18s they have been using. Since the Soviet Union collapsed, Finland had been systematically replacing its Cold War era Russian weapons with Western ones.
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02/23/2014
The government plans to assess the impact of low-frequency noises caused by the U.S. Marine Corps' MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft in response to calls from Okinawa Prefecture, where the aircraft are deployed, government sources said Saturday. A panel will be set up in April to devise new environmental standards, while the Defense Ministry may send officials to the United States, where the aircraft were developed, to look into relevant studies.
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02/23/2014
Shortage of skill-based workforce was posing a challenge to the growth of the Indian aerospace industry in the absence of synergy between policy, industry and academia, HAL chairman R.K. Tyagi said Saturday. "India needs better training and education infrastructure with a pragmatic policy-industry-academia ecosystem to tap the huge employment potential in the aerospace industry," he said at the first aerospace round table conference here.
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02/23/2014
In the early morning along a barren stretch of beach here last week, Japanese soldiers and American Marines practiced how to invade and retake an island captured by hostile forces.
Memo to Beijing: Be forewarned.
One Marine sergeant yelled for his men, guns drawn, to push into the right building as they climbed through the window of an empty house meant to simulate a seaside dwelling.
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02/23/2014
The Philippines is close to having its first fighter aircraft in nearly four decades after payment terms for the acquisition of twelve F/A 50s from South Korea were approved. Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the Philippines government and South Korea had already come to an agreement over the terms of acquisition of the F/A 50s.
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02/23/2014
Building missiles used to be back-breaking, strenuous work, and dangerous too, given the high level of explosives involved. But U.S. weapons maker Raytheon Co has revolutionized that process at a sprawling, classified facility in Huntsville, Alabama, where automated transporters ferry missile parts to gleaming assembly stations, and even tuck themselves away for charging when their batteries run low.
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02/22/2014
A new advanced fighter jet prototype has been delivered to the Russian Air Force for testing, the manufacturer said Friday. The first T-50 “stealth” fighter had been delivered to a military airfield in Russia’s southern Astrakhan region for test flights, the Sukhoi company said in a statement.
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02/22/2014
The Aggressors have always been one of the highlights of the Red Flag exercises. Their presence and their way to play the adversary role to train coalition combat planes to deal with tomorrow’s air threats is one of the factors that make the drills held at Nellis Air Force Base, near Las Vegas, so realistic and useful. The Aggressors were created to improve the proficiency of the U.S. fighter pilots following the high combat losses recorded during the Vietnam War.
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02/22/2014
Lockheed Martin Corp must redesign bulkheads on its F-35 fighter jet that developed cracks after extended stress testing, but the issue is not expected to delay the U.S. Marine Corps' plans to start using the plane in combat beginning in 2015, Pentagon and Marine Corps officials said on Friday.
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02/22/2014
China is said to be planning the maiden flight soon of the upgraded version of the J-20 stealth fighter. A number of photos recently taken by aviation enthusiasts at an unidentified base, and widely circulated on websites that follow the Chinese military, show a prototype of the twin-engine, fifth-generation aircraft with the serial code "2011" painted on both sides of the cockpit.
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02/22/2014
U.S. forces will be increasingly threatened by reconnaissance and armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the near future, the U.S. Army said in contract documents released Thursday. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center (AMRDEC) is currently conducting market research for the development of a Counter UAV. The AMRDEC announced the research in a Request For Information (RFI) document released Thursday.
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02/22/2014
BAE, the world's third-largest defense company, has secured an agreement with Saudi Arabia over the pricing of 72 Eurofighter Typhoon strike jets, after two years of fraught negotiations and unsuccessful efforts to export the aircraft elsewhere. The deal is a major boost for BAE at a critical time, even though it's not expected to make significant financial gains from the agreement in Riyadh.
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02/22/2014
Russian airspace is guarded by a unique aircraft, which can intercept any target, from hidden cruise missiles to satellites – day and night, rain or shine, and at any speed. Defence analysts believe that no other aircraft of its kind would be able to compete with the Russian MiG-31 in the next 10 to 15 years.
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02/22/2014
The Israel Air Force has deemed the F-16I the lead aircraft in combat operations. The Air Force said its fleet of 100 F-16I multi-role fighters was bearing the brunt of combat operations. The service cited such missions as air strikes, air defense and reconnaissance. “We have become a leading component in the IAF,” an F-16I squadron commander, identified only as Lt. Col. Amir, said.
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02/22/2014
The Philippines said Friday a deal has been reached to buy 12 fighter jets worth P18.9 billion ($415.7 million) from South Korea as the country struggles to modernize its military. “We did not only inch closer, we are almost there,” Undersecretary Fernando Manalo, chairman of Bids and Awards Committee, told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo Friday after Manila and Seoul reached a conclusion on the negotiations for the acquisition of 12 FA 50 lead-in fighter jets.
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02/21/2014
RAAF 75 Squadron Hornet and 37SQN C-130J aircraft are currently deployed to Andersen AFB, Guam to take part in Cope North 2014, which began on February 14. The exercise involves, according to a US Air Force statement, “a full spectrum of fighters, bombers, transport, refuelling and command and control aircraft from the US, JASDF, and RAAF designed to improve combat readiness, develop a synergistic disaster response, and increase interoperability between partner nations.”
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02/21/2014
Pakistani jets and AH-1 Cobra gunships of Army Aviation bombed militant hideouts in a northwestern tribal district late Wednesday night, killing at least 35 militants. The mastermind behind the 13 February attack on a police bus in Karachi and foreign militant commanders were among those killed.
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02/21/2014
The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan will leave lasting changes on the US military, but their biggest legacy on the Air Force has been the impact on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). The service’s ISR mission underwent a renaissance during the decade-plus missions in the region, transforming from a support tool to a vital part of every combat operation, with unmanned systems such as the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper seen as defining symbols of the conflicts.
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02/21/2014
The Air Force has officially expressed its support for a twin-engine concept for the country's indigenous fighter jet development program, saying the design would allow for improved combat capabilities and long-term economic feasibility, officials said Friday. The move comes amid disagreement over the engine choice for the long-delayed 20 trillion won (US$18.6 billion) project to develop and build some 120 units of F-16 class aircraft to replace the aging fleet of F-4s and F-5s.
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02/21/2014
Earlier this month, four of Washington’s most respected public-policy “think tanks” offered their views on how the U.S. military posture should be organized. They differed on many issues, but one place where they all agreed was on the desirability of retiring the venerable U-2 spy plane in favor of an unmanned reconnaissance aircraft called Global Hawk.
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02/21/2014
The recent Singapore Air Show opened a week after the Indian Defence Expo (Defexpo 2014) ended in Delhi. What evoked interest in Singapore was the CN-235 turboprop maritime patrol aircraft that Indonesia displayed there. Considering the Indonesian defence industry was revived only in 1976 with the establishment of Indonesian Aerospace (IA), this is quite an accomplishment.
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02/21/2014
Lockheed Martin received a $92 million Performance Based Logistics (PBL) contract in December 2013 from the U.S. Army for sustainment of the AH-64 Apache helicopter Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (M-TADS/PNVS) system.
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02/21/2014
Lockheed Martin recently demonstrated the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) dual-mode guidance section engaging a laser-designated moving target during an internally funded flight test at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The rail-mounted JAGM guidance section flew six kilometers, engaged its precision-strike, semi-active laser and hit the moving target.
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02/21/2014
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has now agreed price escalation terms with the UK relating to the Typhoon aircraft under the Salam program me. The Understanding Document signed by the governments of the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in 2005 included provision for the Typhoon aircraft acquisition by the KSA to be at 2005 economic conditions.
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02/20/2014
JHMCS II is the next generation Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System from the joint venture of Elbit Systems of America and Rockwell Collins. Featuring more intelligence and capabilities than its predecessor, the JHMCS II provides pilot intelligent vision, enhanced situational awareness across the entire battle space during day and night operations, and uses high definition, color symbology while keeping the pilot's head up and eyes out.
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02/20/2014
Bangladesh recently ordered 24 Yak-130 jet trainers from Russia. This makes six export customers for Russia’s new jet trainer. One of these customers may not be able to complete the transaction. In late 2011 Syria agreed to pay $550 million for 36 Yak-130s. Russian officials recently (late January) admitted that delivery to Syria had not yet been made and probably won't as long as the Syrian government is dealing with a growing rebellion.
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02/20/2014
The defence system requirements for the country is opening up an opportunity of $150 billion for the industry in the next five years, said A Sivathanu Pillai, chief controller (R&D), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and CEO & managing director of BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd. Out of this, over $100 billion opportunity is for the Indian companies.
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02/20/2014
Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz, who is Saudi Arabia’s deputy prime minister and defense minister has just concluded an official visit to Pakistan. Some defense experts say that Saudi Arabia’s close military ties with Pakistan, though not new, now have a new dimension - namely countering the threat of a nuclear-capable Iran.
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02/20/2014
In a few years, Lockheed Martin Corp. might be the sole U.S. manufacturer of military fighter aircraft. Lockheed's current rival, The Boeing Co., would limit its offerings to jetliner derivatives such as refueling tankers and surveillance planes. This is the picture that is emerging from the Pentagon's buying decisions over the past decade, says Richard Aboulafia, aviation analyst at the Teal Group.
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02/20/2014
BAE has finally agreed a deal over price increases for the sale of 72 Eurofighter Typhoon jets to Saudi Arabia. The FTSE 100 defence company signed a £4.5bn contract to provide the supersonic fighters to the Middle East nation seven years ago but the sale has faced hurdles over cost, forcing BAE to defer earnings from the so-called "Salam" deal.
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02/20/2014
Two F-35B aircraft fly in close formation while in short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) mode for the first time last week. Pilots Peter Wilson and Dan Levin flew the test jets in STOVL mode, also known as Mode 4, with the F-35B LiftFan engaged and engine rotated downward. The mission measured the effects the aircraft had on each other while in Mode 4 to ensure they can operate in formation safely in an operational environment.
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02/20/2014
Team Apache Sensors, including the U.S. Army Apache Attack Helicopter Project Management Office, the U.S. Army Aviation Flight Test Directorate and Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT], conducted a test flight of the Apache AH-64E Modernized Day Sensor Assembly (M-DSA) during an event at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., yesterday.
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02/20/2014
Belarus will bolster its air defense systems during the Ice Hockey World Championships in May, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday. Air defense divisions will be operating in a “special regime,” including raising the number of staff members on duty, the ministry’s newspaper “For the Glory of the Motherland” reported.
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02/19/2014
An incident with a highjacked Ethiopian passenger jet has exposed the Swiss Air Force’s inability to deal with threats in ‘off-duty’ hours. An emergency escort to the aircraft in distress was carried out by vigilant colleagues from Italy and France.
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02/19/2014
Royal Thai and U.S. Marines conducted a bilateral external lift exercise with an MV-22B Osprey at Utaphao, Kingdom of Thailand Feb. 17 during exercise Cobra Gold 2014. Roaring in with the ferocity of a mini-tornado, the Osprey kicked up enough dust and debris to completely engulf the aircraft and ground crew below. Jointly the propellers are capable of roughly 12,000 horse power, which potentially can produce ground speed winds up to 200 mph.
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02/19/2014
Rebels in southern Syria say they are planning a spring offensive against Damascus, which regime and opposition sources say will include fighters trained by Western forces in neighbouring Jordan. The Syrian army, meanwhile, is redeploying troops in Quneitra province located on the ceasefire line with Israel, and stepping up shelling on rebel positions in Daraa on the Jordan border to stop any advance, opposition fighters say.
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02/19/2014
More than 1,800 service members and approximately 50 aircraft from the Air Force, Navy, Japan Air Self-Defense Force, Royal Australian air force and South Korea air forces came together to kick off the 85th iteration of Pacific Air Forces' Cope North exercise Feb. 14 on Andersen Air Force Base, Guam.
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02/19/2014
This year will see programs launched for combat vehicles, light tanks and a new infantry rifle for the French Army, an order for 12 transport and tanker jets for the Air Force, and a signing for a fourth nuclear attack submarine for the Navy, France’s procurement chief said Feb. 18.
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02/19/2014
The Red Arrows unveiled a new tailfin design to celebrate their 50th display season at their home at RAF Scampton near Lincoln. The makeover is the most significant change to the look of the team’s aircraft in its history. All of the team’s jets are receiving the fresh look, although their red and white fuselage remains unchanged.
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02/19/2014
Modern flight simulators - not the recreational kind, the actual kind used to train pilots - are enormous, expensive things. They're impressive, sure, but their cost and size mean they can't exactly be used every day. Which is why a company has been given money by the US Air Force to develop something a little more accessible.
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02/19/2014
The Air Force has told a parliamentary committee that it could have bid for F-22 or B-2 aircraft in its quest for Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) but decided against them as both are among the costliest planes which they did not need.
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02/19/2014
The U.S. Navy recently tested, for the first time on a Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft, the Infrared Search and Track (IRST) sensor that will find hard-to-detect targets over long distances. Boeing and Lockheed Martin are developing and integrating IRST, an essential upgrade to the combat capability of the Navy’s Super Hornets.
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02/18/2014
Sharing a common interest in securing offshore mineral exploration areas throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, Israel and Cyprus are tightening defense cooperation through a series of air and naval exercises conducted over the Islands’ southern coast. The relations between Israel, Cyprus and Greece are warming since 2008, as Israel’s close relations with Turkey deteriorated since the rise of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to power.
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02/18/2014
In what amounts to another tacit admission that Canada's military is somehow structurally unable to swiftly procure the gear it needs, the Conservative government has quietly announced it's restarting a twice-cancelled plan to extend the life of the CP-140 Aurora maritime patrol aircraft.
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02/18/2014
To overcome some of the logistic hurdles posed by the slower-moving unmanned aircraft now being deployed from U.S. bases in Afghanistan, the Central Intelligence Agency may start using new jet-powered drones to target al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in Pakistan, Press Trust of India reported.
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02/18/2014
Three Chinese warships have sent dark new clouds scudding over Australia's strategic horizon, adding to growing unease across the region as Beijing flexes its muscles through the Indian Ocean to the western Pacific. The sudden appearance near Australia of the guided missile destroyers Wuhan and Haikou, in company with the advanced, 20,000-tonne landing ship Changbaishan, led to the RAAF Orion patrol aircraft being scrambled and sent north of the continent.
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02/18/2014
After a rip-roaring Red Flag air combat exercise at Nellis last week, the bomb squad from Whiteman Air Force Base that steers the big, black, bat-shaped B-2 Spirit jets returned to Missouri. With them they took lessons learned from flying mock war sorties with a mix of 100 U.S. and foreign warplanes.
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02/18/2014
Aliaksandr Lukashenka made a good personnel decision by appointing a new Chief of General Staff. Security agencies suffer from underfunding. It forces them to adopt austerity measures and negatively impacts the number of those who want to choose to serve in the military. Unable to procure new combat aircraft, the Belarusian authorities have decided to modernise their existing fleet.
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02/18/2014
Typhoon crews from 1(Fighter) and 6 Squadrons, based at RAF Leuchars near St Andrew's, took part in Exercise Red Flag in Nevada along with around 160 military aircraft from the US, elsewhere in the UK and Australia. The exercise was designed to replicate combat as closely as possible and saw RAF Typhoon's take off from Nellis Air Force Base, close to the famous Las Vegas strip, for training above the vast Nevada ranges.
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02/18/2014
Amid its modernisation drive, the defence ministry was today allocated Rs 2,24,000 crore in the interim General Budget, marking a 10 percent increase over the last Budget. The allocation for the ministry in the last financial year (2013-14) was Rs 2,03,672 crore, of which around Rs 80,000 crore was to be spent on modernisation.
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02/18/2014
Want to invade Switzerland? Here’s a tip: strike outside office hours. After an Ethiopian Airlines Enterprise aircraft carrying 202 passengers entered Swiss airspace today after being hijacked by the co-pilot en route to Rome, Switzerland’s Air Force remained on the ground. That’s because the incident occurred outside normal office hours. Instead, French and Italian fighter jets escorted the Boeing 767 to a safe landing in Geneva.
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02/18/2014
Boeing and Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance (AFI KLM E&M) have successfully completed the Mid-Life Upgrade modification on the first of four E-3F Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft for the French Air Force. The upgrade is part of a Foreign Military Sale in 2010 between France’s Direction Générale de l'Armement (DGA) and the U.S. government.
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02/17/2014
While the supersonic jets, attack helicopters and surface-to-air missiles longer than a stretch limousine wowed an estimated 80,000 people who attended the final days of the Singapore Airshow over the weekend, it was a small, silent and unarmed weapon that took center stage as major players in the Southeast Asia weapons market hawked their wares.
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02/17/2014
More than 6,000 sailors departed Norfolk, Va., Saturday with the USS George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group heading for the Mediterranean Sea and Middle East. This is only the second deployment for the Navy’s newest Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier named after the 41st U.S. President — the last of the Nimitz series. Four ships and eight aircraft squadrons will accompany the Bush to the U.S. 6th Fleet and 5th Fleet areas of responsibility.
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02/17/2014
A bill to ratify the Arms Trade Treaty, the first international pact to regulating trade in conventional arms, is scheduled to be submitted to the Diet by the end of this month, government sources said. The measure, coming less than a year after Japan signed the treaty adopted at the U.N. General Assembly last April, underscores Tokyo’s eagerness to nudge others to join the framework, the sources said Saturday.
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02/17/2014
Last week the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) and BAE Systems confirmed that the Taranis stealthy Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) demonstrator surpassed all expectations during its first flight trials last year. Since the first flight, conducted August 10th, 2013 the UCAV has been expanding the flight envelope in preparation for the follow-on operational demonstration phase.
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02/17/2014
The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) is giving the final touches to the preliminary design of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mk-II, scheduled to be completed by the end of March. An official told Express on Saturday that the detailed design phase of LCA Mk-II would begin in the second quarter of 2014.
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02/17/2014
On February 7th an Indian pilot landed a MiG-29K on the new Indian aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya for the first time. A Russian pilot was in the back seat to advise but the landing went off with no problem. Indian carrier pilots had been practicing on Vikramaditya size land air strips. This was not the first time a MiG-29K landed on the Vikramaditya. That happened in July 2013 while the Vikramaditya was still in Russia undergoing sea trials.
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02/16/2014
Traditionally, performance drives military-aircraft design decisions and the energy implications of those choices are secondary. But as fuel costs eat into reduced budgets, the balance is shifting. Energy is fast becoming a critical constraint on operations, and the results could reshape aircraft design.
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02/16/2014
With an all-seeing eye 36,000km above the equator, the Indian Navy has kicked off its largest exercise with both the western and eastern fleets amassing in the Bay of Bengal for intensive combat manoeuvres. “Tropex” or the theatre-level readiness and operational exercise underway across the eastern seaboard with over 50 warships, including aircraft carrier INS Viraat and nuclear submarine INS Chakra, as well as scores of fighters, helicopters and drones is a yearly feature.
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02/16/2014
Aircraft from the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, Japan Air Self-Defense Force, and Royal Australian Air Force fly in formation over the Pacific Ocean in support of exercise Cope North 2013, Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Feb. 5, 2013.
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02/16/2014
BAE Systems is preparing to leapfrog over Lockheed Martin and gobble up international F-16 upgrade contracts should the US Air Force drop funding for its fighter jet radar upgrade program.
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02/16/2014
As things stand, when the new US defense budget is revealed next month a significant line item that has been a staple for more than four decades will be missing. No new versions of the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet strike fighter, or its EA-18G Growler electronic attack cousin, will appear in the US Navy’s budget request, either for domestic or foreign use. The move has been planned for some time, but is likely to surprise many veteran defense observers — and alarm others.
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02/16/2014
Exactly 10 years ago, in the space of just 13 days, the Indian Air Force dealt a massive blow to the myth of invincibility of the US Air Force. At the Cope India exercise held at the Gwalior air force range on February 15-27, 2004, Indian pilots reportedly notched up an astounding 9:1 kill ratio against the all-powerful USAF, sending shock waves through the American defence establishment.
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02/16/2014
Defence industry executives have revealed that Malaysia was looking to lease fighter jets instead of purchasing them as the country faces shortage of funds, according to US-based military journal Defensenews. It said Putrajaya had put off plans to purchase multi-role combat aircraft on ice last year due to fiscal and political reasons.
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02/15/2014
In light of defence minister A K Antony recently expressing concern over delay in development of the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), Avinash Chander, director general (R&D) in Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), said government should adopt an organized approach in such projects.
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02/15/2014
A United States Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon completes a triple roll in the sky above the largest aerospace and defense show in Asia. It's followed with an aerial demonstration by the U.S. MV-22B Osprey - the world's first production tilt-rotor aircraft. It can take off and land like a helicopter, but flies with the range, airspeed and payload of a fixed-wing airplane.
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02/14/2014
France recently received its first two American Reaper UAVs and immediately put them to work. These are replacing older Harfang UAVs. France wasted no time in retiring the Harfangs as three of them have been given (or sold very cheaply) to Morocco. France and Morocco have long had good relations, especially in military matters.
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02/14/2014
Gliding through the air like a phantom in the night, the B-2 Spirit evades enemy air defenses, finds its target, then unleashes its firepower only to slip away from the enemy as quietly as it came. During the years, Red Flag exercises have progressed from dog fight air-to-air combat training into complete combat integration involving all aspects of air warfare. Air-to-ground attacks are a vital part of an air campaign, and the 13th Bomb Squadron brings the B-2, a vital asset, to that fight.
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02/14/2014
With a substantial contract under its belt to upgrade South Korea’s fleet of Lockheed Martin F-16s, BAE Systems is now looking to extend its activities in the market for modifying other nations’ aircraft by looking at Boeing’s F-15 and F/A-18 jets, said executives from the US arm of the British-based company.
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02/14/2014
Swedish defense group Saab AB hopes that a recent Brazilian order for its Gripen aircraft will help it win more fighter-jet deals from other countries, even as the company’s fourth-quarter earnings fell amid tough market conditions, its chief executive said Thursday. “Brazil’s choice of Gripen has received attention across the globe,” Hakan Buskhe told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. “This gives an extra boost to a number of other discussions that we are involved in.”
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02/14/2014
A UK trade body has said that it still sees the potential of supplying Eurofighter to India, which has postponed till the next fiscal its plan to buy 126 fighter planes from France's Dassault Aviation. "We are very keen, should the opportunity arise, to offer India a cost effective solution," Adam Thomas, a senior spokesman for the Defence & Security Organization at the UK Trade and Investment, told PTI at the Singapore Airshow here.
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02/14/2014
Boeing Co is mounting a last-ditch campaign to convince U.S. lawmakers to buy more fighter jets and stave off a shutdown of a St. Louis production line after the U.S. Navy failed to fund the jets. The Navy's fiscal 2015 budget plan omits funding for any extra F/A-18E/F Super Hornets or EA-18G Growlers, according to several sources familiar with the issue. The White House is due to submit its 2015 budget request to Congress on March 4.
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02/14/2014
While the Indonesian government is snubbing the Singapore Airshow this week, the country’s main military manufacturer is using it as an opportunity for a coming-out party, with staff members in orange flight suits courting potential buyers. The showing for the state-owned manufacturer, Indonesian Aerospace, which almost collapsed after the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, represents a new sense of optimism that has not been seen in the country’s domestic military sector since the 1980s.
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02/14/2014
Russian aircraft makers are expected to manufacture about 150 military and civilian aircraft in 2014, a government official said Thursday. “The plan for 2014 stipulates production of over 100 combat aircraft and 46 civilian planes, including 40 Sukhoi Superjets,” said Andrei Boginsky, who heads the aviation construction department at the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
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02/14/2014
Pakistan today said it is looking to sell JF-17 Thunder combat jets and trainer aircraft to Saudi Arabia, but rejected reports it was in talks with the oil-rich nation for nuclear cooperation. Saudi Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud is scheduled to visit Pakistan during February 15-17. The visit is expected to focus on deeper security and defence cooperation between the two sides.
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02/14/2014
Boeing today delivered Kuwait's first C-17 Globemaster III airlifter, an aircraft that will expand the Kuwait Air Force's capabilities in military and civilian operations, including humanitarian aid and disaster relief.
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02/13/2014
The President of IRKUT, part of the Russian aerospace conglomerate United Aircraft Corporation, Oleg Demichenko, stated today the air force of his country has already received more than 40 combat aircraft Yak-130 with built-in artificial intelligence. Demichenko pointed out that 42 planes of that type were delivered, and a contract establishes the Ministry of Defence shall receive 55.
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02/13/2014
A new video released by aerospace giant BAE shows a bat-shaped drone zipping down a runway, taking off smoothly, and then coasting over an empty expanse of mountains and valleys before landing back at the empty airstrip. The next-generation unmanned aerial vehicle is outfitted with stealth technology and designed to fly - and theoretically fire at targets on the ground - without a human controller.
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02/13/2014
Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd., the country’s only planemaker, said it will participate in South Korea’s plan to build its own new fighter jet that will replace the older F-4s, F-5s and F-16s. The Asian nation’s air force is expected to order about 100 aircraft, Chief Executive Officer Ha Sung Yong said in an interview in Singapore today. The government is looking for a foreign partner to collaborate on this project to provide some technical assistance, he said.
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02/13/2014
In the aftermath of the Cold War, the region has become a confused place where foes have become friends and supposed friends bicker over minor — and major — territorial differences. The problem is, the scatterings of conflicted islets which were once “no-go” zones, both diplomatically and developmentally, are now being seen as potentially valuable assets.
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02/13/2014
The Tejas light combat aircraft programme will end up costing India well over Rs 55,000 crore at the very least. The overall developmental cost of the home-grown fighter, which remains a critical operational necessity despite still being in the making after 30 years, currently stands at Rs 17,269 crore.
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02/13/2014
Raytheon has warned against overreliance on stealthy platforms alone in future air combat. Despite their low radar cross-sections (RCS), fifth-generation fighters such as the F-35 can be detected by modern air defense systems. To defeat these defenses, air forces should take full advantage of the latest sensors and weapons that can be carried on less stealthy aircraft, the company said.
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02/13/2014
Faced with China’s increasingly assertive military posture, as well as a continuing ballistic missile threat from North Korea, Japan plans to spend more on defense, boosting its air and maritime forces. The plan commits to buying 28 Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft, 17 Bell-Boeing MV-22 Osprey tiltrotors, and three Northrop Grumman Global Hawk UAVs over the next five years. The Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) will also upgrade existing fleets of F-2 and F-15 fighters.
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02/13/2014
Russia’s air force will receive 21 Sukhoi Su-30SM multirole fighter jets in 2014, the Irkut aircraft maker said Wednesday. “We have delivered 16 Su-30SM planes so far. An additional 21 aircraft will be supplied this year,” Irkut Corporation president Oleg Demchenko said at the Singapore Air Show. Irkut and the Defense Ministry have signed three separate contracts on the delivery of 65 Su-30SM fighters by 2016.
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02/13/2014
The Russian Air Force received 12 advanced Su-35S multirole fighters Wednesday to be deployed with an air regiment based in Russia’s Far East. The Defense Ministry ordered 48 of the aircraft in 2009, of which 34 have been delivered so far. The final deliveries of the remaining 14 are due in 2015.
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02/12/2014
At this year’s Singapore Airshow, Chinese aviation companies AVIC and CATIC are pushing into the export defense market for Southeast Asia. Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) and China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corporation (CATIC) provided brochures and models of their platforms at this year’s airshow.
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02/12/2014
It appears the U.S. Marine Corps has found a partial solution to this problem in the form of quick-reaction units organized around the MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor, the first operational aircraft in history that combines the vertical agility of a helicopter with the speed and range of a turboprop airplane.
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02/12/2014
The red force's simulated enemy plays a critical role as the opposing force during Red Flag 14-1 by providing U.S. and coalition combat forces from around the world challenges for tomorrow's threats. The aggressor program started as a direct result of a high air combat loss rate experience during the Vietnam War. The tactics the 64th Aggressor Squadron use during Red Flag are designed to train pilots for a higher survivability rate within their first 10 sorties in combat situations.
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02/12/2014
The UK is about to commit to the F-35 fighter project, a US-led effort to produce 3,000 aircraft which is set to cost more than £600bn globally. The initial UK order for 14 F-35Bs will, with support costs added, cost about £2.5bn, Newsnight has learned.
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02/12/2014
Algeria’s Ministry of Defense says 77 people were killed and one man survived after a military transport plane crashed into a mountain in eastern Algeria. The statement said Tuesday the C130 Hercules turboprop was carrying 74 passengers and four crew members.
After radio and radar contact with the flight was lost at 11:37 a.m. local time, three helicopters were sent to find the plane.
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02/12/2014
Defence minister A K Antony’s announcement that the IAF’s multi-combat aircraft deal cannot be inked this year because of financial constraints means that the modernisation of the military has once again been put on hold. This does not redound to the credit of the government which has not managed its finances well.
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02/12/2014
Putrajaya’s aim to trim its chronic budget deficit and an increasingly vocal opposition are forcing the country to defer updates to existing military assets that are already behind schedule, according to an international aviation news site. Some programmes such as the Royal Malaysian Airforce’s (RMAF) plan to retire some long-serving combat aircraft have already been put on hold and may not be revived before 2016.
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02/12/2014
Lockheed Martin received a $22 million contract from the U.S. Army to provide Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (M-TADS/PNVS) Special Repair Activities for the Royal Saudi Land Forces Aviation Command’s Apache attack helicopters.
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02/12/2014
Russia’s third aerobatics team will comprise 12 Yak-130 combat trainer jets, the Irkut aircraft maker said Tuesday. According to Irkut president Oleg Demchenko, the company in December signed a contract with the Defense Ministry on the delivery of 12 Yak-130 aircraft to form a new aerobatics team.
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02/11/2014
Boeing is ready to throw its hat in the ring and compete for upcoming Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter upgrades, company executives said Feb. 10 ahead of the start of the Singapore Air Show. The US defense giant is eyeing Singapore as a target if the southeast Asian nation decides to compete a possible upgrade of its F-16 fleet, said Chris Raymond, vice president of business development and strategy for Boeing Defense, Space and Security.
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02/11/2014
As the Singapore Airshow approaches, interest in the future global fighter market is growing. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is perhaps the favoured competitor in this market, but it also faces cost-benefit disadvantages that give other fighter jets an opening.
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02/11/2014
A decadelong effort by South Korea to develop its own fighter aircraft has finally received approval, yet the feasibility of the ambitious indigenous project, dubbed KF-X, is still in debate. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) announced Jan. 5 that it would begin the KF-X development with the allocation of 20 billion won (US $19 million). Seoul aims to produce 120 KF-X jets between 2023 and 2030, the agency said.
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02/11/2014
Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG (RAC MiG) plans to double aircraft production by 2017, deputy CEO for economics and finance Sergei Mamayev told Interfax. "Today we produce from scratch and sell about 16 planes per year.
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02/11/2014
India’s own fighter, the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), is playing a growing role in protecting Indian airspace. On December 20, when the Tejas was cleared for operational service in the Indian Air Force (IAF), Defence Minister A K Antony declared 200 Tejas fighters would eventually enter combat service. Today, that figure quietly swelled to well above 300, with the government indicating the IAF would have at least 14 Tejas squadrons.
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02/11/2014
The project to co-develop Fifth General Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) with Russia and the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft and Intermediate Jet Trainer programmes have been delayed, Defence Minister AK Antony told the Lok Sabha today. Answering another query, he said due to time overruns in the Intermediate Jet Trainer programme of the HAL, the Government has decided to extend the use of the Kiran-MkI trainer aircraft till 2017-18.
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02/11/2014
Boeing is helping Turkey improve its self-defense capabilities with the recent delivery of the first Peace Eagle Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft. The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) now has advanced airborne surveillance and battle management capabilities, and can simultaneously track airborne and maritime targets, with the first of four AEW&C aircraft it has received from Boeing.
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02/11/2014
An Indian company has signed a contract with a Ukraine weapons exporter to buy up to 138 anti-aircraft vehicles, the Ukrainian defense conglomerate Ukroboronprom said on its website Monday. According to the statement, one anti-aircraft gun and one command vehicle will be sent to India’s Larsen & Toubro for evaluation, and the company will then have the right to purchase up to 138 of the systems under the contract.
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02/11/2014
The Russian military has postponed tests of a high-endurance drone until an unspecified future date, a spokesperson for the United Arab Emirates company that makes the vehicle said Monday. “All existing agreements will remain in force, but the Russian side has requested a delay in testing from February until a later date,” Tatyana Kirova of Adcom Systems said.
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02/10/2014
The following video of Finnish Air Force F-18s departing from a public road was filmed during Ex. Warkaus 2011 at on Highway 5 in Joroinen Finland. Such kind of training, has been part of the standard training conducted mainly in Central, Eastern and Northern Europe since the Cold War.
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02/10/2014
Iranian warships in the Atlantic Ocean are to sail close to US maritime borders for the first time, a senior naval commander has said. Iranian media quoted Adm Afshin Rezayee Haddad as saying the deployment was a response to US vessels in the Gulf. The fleet consists of a destroyer and a helicopter-carrying supply ship.
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02/10/2014
The British Ministry of Defence reveals for the first time how British crews using unmanned US aircraft launched missiles in conflict zones. According to new figures, British pilots have launched at least 39 missile strikes against suspected Taliban insurgents from US drones based in Afghanistan. The details have emerged from the Ministry of Defence.
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02/10/2014
As British troops strip down equipment and load containers to leave Afghanistan, its military self-confidence has rarely been lower. When Britain ramped up its presence in Helmand Province in 2006, it was a different story. Afghanistan, current and former officers say, was seen as a winnable war that would showcase Britain's military and rebuild its reputation with U.S. officers underwhelmed by its performance in Iraq.
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02/10/2014
We are sending the following post from the media preview held today at the Singapore Airshow, two days before the official opening of the Singapore Airshow, some of the visiting aircraft and most of the Singapore Air Force aircraft are already parked at the static display area.
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02/10/2014
Goodbye, EADS; Hello, Airbus Group (Stand J23/Chalet CD19). Specifically, hello to Airbus Defense & Space, one of the group’s three divisions. Singapore is the first major air show for the new organization that merged Airbus Military, Astrium and Cassidian on January 1.
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02/10/2014
Comments by the leaders of Japan and the Philippines drawing parallels between China’s growing assertiveness in the region and events in pre-war Europe are “not helpful,” said the commander of USAF in the Pacific. “The rise of Germany and what occurred between the U.K. in particular and Germany, and what happened in Europe, I don’t draw that comparison at all to what’s going on today” in the Asia-Pacific, General Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle, 58, said in an interview yesterday in Singapore.
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02/09/2014
The U.S. Air Force presence in Kyrgyzstan has ended, and a new hub in Romania is up and running. On Jan. 31, the 376th Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron air traffic control airmen at Manas Transit Center deactivated, ending 10 years of controlling aircraft at the base, the major hub for Air Force operations into and out of Afghanistan. The base’s operations are being replaced by the Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base in eastern Romania.
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02/09/2014
In marked contrast to India’s regrettable declining defence budget expenditures in face of rising threats from China and Pakistan, one is witnessing a surging increase in China’s defence budget notably when China faces no credible military threats from any quarter. China ‘s defence budget is assessed to touch US $ 148 billion in 2014, second only to the United States defence budget and outstripping the combined defence budgets of Germany, France and the United Kingdom.
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02/09/2014
Hindustan Aeronautics will soon roll out India’s Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, LCA architect and D.S. Kothari Chair at Aeronautical Development Agency, Bangalore, Kota Harinarayana has said. This year HAL will make two aircraft and will progressively increase the number, he said. Tejas will be used for training and simulation based on the inputs of pilots for further improvements.
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02/09/2014
Renewed fighting broke a cease-fire in the embattled central Syrian city of Homs and halted a plan to evacuate civilians and bring supplies into rebel-held areas under siege, an official and activists said Saturday. The official said the fighting included a mortar that landed near U.N. personnel. An activist said combat began when government forces fired 11 rockets toward the rebel-held Hamidiyeh quarter. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.
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02/09/2014
The current political climate and government austerity measures in Malaysia mean that a number of programs for the Malaysian armed forces look likely to be postponed until the time frame of the 11th Malaysia Plan, which covers government spending for the period of 2016-2020.
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02/08/2014
The Pentagon has dropped a plan to retire one of its nuclear-powered aircraft carriers after the White House intervened to head off a brewing political fight. The military had proposed an early retirement of the USS George Washington, reducing the U.S. carrier fleet to 10, as part of plan to deal with cost cuts imposed by Congress.
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02/08/2014
After more than a year of modification maintenance, the newly created AC-130J Ghostrider took to the skies for the first time as a gunship here Jan. 31. In early Jan 2013, the Air Force Special Operations Command MC-130J arrived here to begin the modification process with the goal of creating a "best of both worlds" aircraft. The end result became a 'hybrid' C-130 model with the flying proficiencies of the MC-130J and the combat capabilities of an AC-130.
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02/08/2014
The US Air Force has contracted Cubic Defense Applications to supply the Royal Moroccan Air Force (RMAF) with the P5 Combat Training System (P5 CTS) to provide Moroccan pilots with realistic air combat simulation training in line with the country's force modernisation requirements.
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02/08/2014
Defense giant Lockheed Martin Corp. signed an agreement with Monrovia drone maker AeroVironment Inc. to pursue opportunities together in unmanned aircraft development. The deal was announced late Thursday at the Defense Expo in India and centered on jointly working on AeroVironment’s massive robotic Global Observer aircraft. The companies are looking to sell the high-flying drone overseas.
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02/08/2014
Financial approval for the UK's main procurement of the Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)/Joint Combat Aircraft (JCA) is expected in the next three years, a government minister disclosed on 5 February. Answering questions in the House of Commons, Philip Dunne, Minister for Defence Equipment, Support, and Technology, said that the financial approval for this main buy, known as Main Gate 5, should be granted in 2017.
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02/08/2014
Russia fulfils all of its obligations under the fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) programme with India, Russian Ambassador to India Alexander Kadakin said at the Defexpo-2014 security systems exhibition in New Delhi. “We pay no attention to negative publications that appear from time to time and claim that Russia does not fulfil its obligations under the fifth generation fighter aircraft programme.
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02/08/2014
New Mexico’s most popular National Park Service attraction for tourists, White Sands National Monument, remains closed after a large military drone crashed Friday morning on monument property. Holloman AFB officials say a supersonic QF-4 drone, similar to the one in the photo, crashed during a training mission at 9:08 a.m.
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02/08/2014
An Indian MiG-29 naval jet landed on a refitted former Soviet aircraft carrier Friday, marking the first such operation since the ship was delivered by Russia to the south Asian nation earlier this year. “An exciting event took place today – the first landing of an [Indian] MiG-29 piloted by an Indian pilot on the Vikramaditya,” Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation vice president Igor Ponomarev told reporters at the ongoing DEFEXPO-2014 exhibition in New Delhi.
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02/08/2014
The first ever test launch of an advanced Russian-Indian Brahmos supersonic cruise missile from a warship in salvo mode took place earlier this year and was successful, a Brahmos Aerospace spokesman said Thursday. Two missiles were launched within an interval of several seconds, the spokesman told RIA Novosti on the sidelines of the DefExpo-2014 exhibition in New Delhi.
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02/07/2014
Taranis, a top secret unmanned British aircraft, has successfully made its maiden flight at an undisclosed test range believed to be in Australia. The flight was in August last year but the Ministry of Defence has only just made the fact public. The video released of the flight suggests it took place over Australia’s red centre.
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02/07/2014
he Air Force will replace thousands of unreliable aircraft personnel locator beacons across the fleet, a service official said Jan. 16, here. Locator beacons are an automated method used to locate an aviator should he or she eject or egress in peacetime flights, said Col. Aaron Clark, the Global Power Programs Directorate deputy director for Air Force acquisitions.
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02/07/2014
In what will equip India with missile power comparable to only a few in the world, Hyderabad-based Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is finalising plans to launch Astra, the Beyond-Visual-Range (BVR) air-to-air missile, in March or at the most April this year. If Astra is successfully fired from a Su-30 aircraft, India would join the elite group of nations including USA, France, Russia and Israel possessing such missiles.
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02/07/2014
Already denied F-16C/D combat aircraft it has sought to acquire for years, Taiwan could now be the unintended victim of “very tough” budgetary decisions by the U.S. Air Force that run the risk of derailing a $5.3 billion retrofit program for the island’s 146 F-16A/B aircraft, according to recent reports that are now being disputed.
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02/07/2014
Targeting pods are now almost a baseline system on combat aircraft. Air forces have realised that such a system is a key tool to accomplish missions as planned – and with the twist of real-time changing operational requirements. When Rafael in Israel first came out with its Litening targeting pod, customers were slow to react. Now, after selling 1,400 Litening pods to 27 customers around the world, the company’s forecast is for demand for another 500 Litening targeting pod in the next 5-7 years.
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02/07/2014
Government is looking into the complaints against the procedure to determine the winner of multi-billion dollar combat aircraft deal, Defence Minister AK Antony on Thursday said while admitting that there was no money to sign such a big deal in this fiscal. "There are complaints about the procedure of calculating the Life Cycle Cost and that issue is not yet settled.
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02/07/2014
Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] received a $60 million sustainment and support contract from AgustaWestland for the Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (M-TADS/PNVS) system on the U.K.’s Apache AH Mk-1 aircraft.
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02/07/2014
Russia exported $4.78 billion worth of arms and military equipment to India last year, a senior Russian arms industry official said Thursday. “It’s a very good result,” Vyacheslav Dzirkaln, deputy head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, said at the DefExpo-2014 arms fair in New Delhi.
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02/07/2014
Saudi Arabian Airlines(Saudia) has signed a collaboration agreement with American manufacturer Boeing that could see it developing partnership activities in the field of defence as well as in its commercial operations.
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02/06/2014
Two Israeli combat pilots were jailed for five days and 12 others were disciplined for storing operational maps on their smartphones, Israeli Army Radio reported today. Israeli military authorities discovered the security breach after one of the pilots reported he had lost his cellphone and that it contained sensitive data. It was recovered, the report said, and investigators found he had loaded maps, waypoints and other classified documents.
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02/06/2014
To be clear, none of the four teams in a recent “budget wargame” simulating the next 10 years chose to scrap all the flattops or even most of them. None of them even stopped building the new Ford-class carriers. Instead they opted to keep the industrial base alive with new production while retiring two, three, or even four of the existing carriers, which would avoid expensive mid-life overhauls like the one the USS George Washington is due to start this year.
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02/06/2014
For three days, the family of Capt. Lucas Gruenther waited while rescuers searched for the F-16 pilot in the Adriatic Sea. Gruenther, the chief of flight safety for the 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano Air Base, Italy, had ejected from his F-16 in poor weather off the Italian coast. And while an Italian and American fleet combed the Adriatic, Gruenther’s family gathered together and hoped for good news.
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02/06/2014
The Conservative government is reducing the Department of National Defence’s influence in steering big-ticket military purchases after a string of delays and cost overruns in acquiring hardware for the Canadian Armed Forces.
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02/06/2014
Royal Air Force Tornado fighter jets joined the chorus of man-made thunder Tuesday as military aircraft from the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom stormed off into a wintry sky toward the Nevada Test and Training Range to kick off another day of Red Flag exercises.
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02/06/2014
The most advanced aircraft ever built by British engineers has successfully completed its first flights. Taranis, an unmanned aerial combat vehicle designed and built by a team comprising BAE Systems, Qinetiq, GE Aviation, Rolls-Royce, and DE&S, was flown for the first time at an undisclosed test range on Saturday 10th August 2013.
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02/06/2014
Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) stands ready to support customers with a variety of regional security and commercial services solutions as the aerospace world shifts its focus this week to Asia Pacific. During the Singapore Airshow, the Corporation will highlight its 50-year history in the region and discuss new areas for partnership and collaboration with its valued customers.
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02/06/2014
The Russia-Belarus Union State will allocate 3.2 billion rubles ($91.5 million) in 2014 for joint military, defense industry and security projects, the body’s top official said Wednesday.
The supranational entity spent only 1.3 billion rubles on defense and security from a 2.5bln-ruble budget assigned for this purpose last year, State Secretary of the Russia-Belarus Union State Grigory Rapota said.
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02/06/2014
Russia’s new Yak-130 combat trainer will take part in demonstration flights at the Singapore Air Show next month, a government agency said Wednesday. According to the Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation, Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation will also showcase models of Su-35 and T-50 fighter jets as well as several civilian aircraft: the Sukhoi Superjet 100, MS-21 and Be-200.
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02/05/2014
In late December 2013, Turkey took a major step in altering the naval balance in the eastern Mediterranean by contracting the construction of a multi-purpose amphibious assault ship that can function as an aircraft carrier, potentially providing Turkey an unprecedented measure of sea control in the region.
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02/05/2014
They will be teaming up with the french after a £120m deal was signed by Prime Minister David Cameron and French President, Francois Hollande for a two year unmanned systems feasibility study. France has been researching its own drone-style aircraft and BAE has already produced its Taranis unmanned air vehicle at Warton. It has also been conducting test flights of a Jetstream aircraftwhich can operate without a pilot. Warton is expected to be the centre of the new collaboration.
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02/05/2014
Since the Pentagon chose the F-35, the program has run into delays, huge extra costs, and lots of concerns about the jets themselves. In 2020, 18 of these new fighter jets will land at the Vermont Air National Guard. Hard to believe but the Pentagon started working on a new fighter jet 17-years ago.
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02/05/2014
The Final Operational Clearance (FOC) campaign of Light Combat Aircraft Tejas is set to gain momentum with the high altitude trials scheduled this week in Leh. Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) Director P S Subramanyam told Express on Tuesday that during the Leh trials, the aircraft engine would be started at lower than -10 degree Celsius.
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02/05/2014
Turkey has continued to intercept Syrian warplanes. Officials said Syria and Turkey have engaged in dogfights over their mutual border. They said the confrontations have focused on control of the air space over northern Syria, which contains Al Qaida militias. “The Syrians are increasingly using their air defense systems to threaten Turkish fighter-jets,” an official said.
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02/05/2014
Negotiations over the multibillion dollar deal to sell 126 Dassault Rafale jets to India have stalled, according to Indian Defence Ministry sources, who say the sticking point involves issues governing license-production of the jets at state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL).
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02/05/2014
The development and construction of a new aircraft carrier for the Russian navy could take about 10 years, a St. Petersburg-based ship design bureau said Monday. Sergei Vlasov, general director of the Nevskoye design bureau, said the overall cost of the ship could range between 100 and 250 billion rubles ($2.8-7.1 billion).
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02/05/2014
A Communist Party magazine has revealed concerns expressed by President Xi Jinping during his inspection of China's first aircraft carrier in August. Xi's visit to the ship was widely covered by mainland media, but until yesterday what he discussed with the Liaoning's commander had not been reported.
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02/05/2014
Airbus Group NV (AIR), aiming to pitch its C295 plane to the Indian Air Force, said it may set up a local assembly line for the military transport aircraft as it seeks to boost business outside the U.S. and Europe. The planemaker will bid for the Indian contract next month, Christian Scherer, head of marketing and sales at Airbus Defense & Space, said by e-mail. India, the world’s largest arms importer, invited bids last year for 56 transport planes to replace its aging fleet of Avro aircraft.
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02/05/2014
Lockheed Martin is developing a software planner that integrates air operations and missile defense systems, giving the Air Force the ability to “see” and better understand dynamic global situations. The U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center awarded Lockheed Martin a contract worth approximately $8 million to provide an air and missile defense planner that will be integrated into the U.S. Air Force Air Operations Center.
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02/04/2014
Fighter jets from NATO and partner countries began to conduct a wide range of air defence-related flying activities over Iceland on Monday (3 February 2014), in the first event of its kind to be held on the island. The Iceland Air Meet 2014 (IAM2014) brings together participants from NATO members Iceland, Norway, the Netherlands and the United States, and from partner countries Finland and Sweden, supported by NATO AWACS.
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02/04/2014
It is a weapon that could mean the end of traditional missiles. Lockheed Martin revealed is has tested the a 30-kilowatt electric fiber laser, the highest power ever fired. The firm says the weapon could eventually be mounted on jets, tanks and fighter planes - and will more than triple in strength before being used in combat.
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02/04/2014
China already spends more on its military than any country in the world except the United States. Now, as defense budgets at the Pentagon and in many NATO countries shrink, China’s People’s Liberation Army is gearing up for a surge in new funding, according to a new report.
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02/04/2014
Two weeks ago the annual report of the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test & Evaluation was leaked to the Reuters news agency in advance of its public release. The subsequent dissemination of its contents has afforded critics of the tri-service F-35 fighter program the opportunity for a new round of complaints about the supposed mis-steps of those engaged in developing the plane.
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02/04/2014
The U.S. Navy plans to take the Northrop Grumman X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System-Demonstrator (UCAS-D) aircraft out to sea onboard an aircraft carrier this summer to test how well it operates together with manned aircraft around the ship and on the flight deck.
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02/04/2014
Lockheed Martin officials submitted a Program Notification Letter to the Federal Aviation Administration on Jan. 21, 2014, for a type design update for the Lockheed Martin Model L-382J airplane, a civil-certified variant of the proven C-130J Super Hercules to be marketed as the LM-100J.
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02/04/2014
Boeing will deliver an additional 2,550 Combat Survivor Evader Locator radios – which are vital to the rescue of downed pilots and other warfighters in dangerous situations – under a new $24 million contract with the U.S. Air Force. A global emergency call system that enables the safe, fast and efficient recovery of warfighters in harm's way, CSEL is used by the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Navy for search and rescue operations.
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02/04/2014
A training facility for naval pilots to practice aircraft carrier operations is set to open in India’s coastal Goa region later this month, the head of the Russian company overseeing the project said Monday. The site is based on a Russian facility under construction near the Black Sea town of Yeysk that was planned to open last year but has suffered undisclosed delays.
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02/04/2014
The development and construction of a new aircraft carrier for the Russian navy could take about 10 years, a St. Petersburg-based ship design bureau said Monday. Sergei Vlasov, general director of the Nevskoye design bureau, said the overall cost of the ship could range between 100 and 250 billion rubles ($2.8-7.1 billion).
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02/04/2014
Russia will deploy four additional Su-25 ground attack aircraft at the Kant airbase in Kyrgyzstan in 2014, Russia’s Central Military District said Monday. “A unit of modernized Su-25SM Frogfoot fighter-bombers will be deployed this year at the Russian airbase in Kyrgyzstan,” the district said in a statement.
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02/03/2014
Syrian government aircraft unleashed a wave of airstrikes on more than a dozen rebel-held neighborhoods in the northern city of Aleppo on Sunday, as President Bashar Assad's forces inched into areas controlled by opposition fighters for more than a year, activists said.
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02/03/2014
The U.S. and French navies completed five weeks of rare combined carrier strike group operations in the Middle East Sunday. The Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group and French Navy Task Force 473 — which includes the French carrier FS Charles de Gaulle — began operating together in late December.
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02/03/2014
As officials in Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) were busying themselves for Chinese New Year celebrations last week, they received potentially devastating news for the Pacific nation’s air defense plans. The US Air Force plans to defund the combat avionics programmed extension suite (CAPES) program, as budget constraints could force the service to move remaining money from CAPES to the F-16 service-life extension program (SLEP), according to sources.
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02/03/2014
The U.S. Department of Defenseis being accused of deception for refusing to admit the true cost of the new F-35 in the face of growing cuts in the military budget. Despite these cuts the Department of Defense will not change the number of F-35s ordered nor the unit cost that should be increased becasue of these cuts. Something has to give. The U.S. Air Force still expects to get production models of its 31 ton F-35A in late 2016.
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02/03/2014
After a tense budget battle last year, the Air Force is gearing up to defend what service officials have called a series of hard choices about what to keep and what to dump. With finances tight, the biggest fight is over whether to modernize older platforms or risk a capabilities gap while pushing that funding toward recapitalization programs.
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02/02/2014
anuary Russia’s only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetzov passed through the English Channel on its way to the Mediterranean. The carrier had five escort vessels and military pilots flying close by could not help but notice that there was a lot of rust on the deck of the carrier. This was not a good sign.
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02/02/2014
In early January, nearly 300 airmen and 12 F-16s from Hill Air Force Base left the friendly confines of Utah for one of the most unstable regions in the world - and after a month in Korea, the group has already become a stabilizing force. Airmen from the 388th Fighter Wing and the Air Force Reserve 419th Fighter Wing are at Osan Air Base in South Korea, providing what Air Force officials call a "theater security package."
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02/02/2014
The US military believes that China is developing “growing confidence” that it can deal with or deter US intervention if Beijing attacks Taiwan. It was also revealed in testimony before a congressional commission that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) appears to have a “more mature viewpoint” on military operations against the US.
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02/02/2014
Since the establishment of the East China Sea air defense identification zone (ADIZ), the Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AEW&C) has constantly been a subject of public discussion. A recent report about the first PLA AEW&C aircraft fleet captured immediate attention from both at home and abroad after being published.
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02/02/2014
Russia is set to supply fellow former Soviet nation Kazakhstan with S-300 air defense systems free-of-charge, a top Russian military official said Friday. Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov, who was part of a military delegation traveling to the Central Asian state, said five battalions of S-300PS systems would be supplied from the arsenals of the Russian army.
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02/01/2014
Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing Co. and BAE Systems Plc remained the top three global armsmakers even as suppliers from South Korea, Brazil and Russia made inroads in a market that contracted for a second year. Sales of weapons and services by the 100 largest suppliers fell 4.2 percent in real terms to $395 billion in 2012 after a 6.6 percent retreat in the previous year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said in a review that excludes Chinese manufacturers.
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02/01/2014
The UK and France have agreed to strengthen defence cooperation following a Summit at RAF Brize Norton today. A communiqué signed by the Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande sets out plans for closer ties between the two countries. ”Britain and France are natural partners for Defence cooperation. We have made substantial progress since the Lancaster House Treaty was signed in 2010 and today we have committed ourselves to go further still.”
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02/01/2014
With U.S. forces pivoting to the Pacific, Air Combat Command's detachment on Barksdale, the 548th Combat Training Squadron, has for the first time, incorporated maritime training into a Green Flag exercise involving the F-16C Fighting Falcons of the 187th Fighter Wing from Montgomery, Ala. from Jan. 9 through 28.
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02/01/2014
Dassault Aviation is delighted by the decision announced today by the President of the French Republic, Francois Hollande, and the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, concerning the future combat air system. This decision led to the signing by the French Defense Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and his counterpart, of a letter of intent which formalizes the launch of joint feasibility studies in the field of unmanned combat air systems (UCAS).
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02/01/2014
As the Indian Navy gears up for the exciting prospect of operating two aircraft carriers simultaneously-the ageing INS Viraat and the newer INS Vikramaditya that entered into service in 2013, the defence wing has commissioned Asia's first 'Shore Based Test Facility' (SBTF) at INS Hansa, the Naval aviation station near Dabolim, in South Goa. The SBTF is chiefly used for flight testing of Naval aircraft that operate from aircraft carriers.
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02/01/2014
Team Fairchild joined 65 other units and U.S. allies to participate in Red Flag 14-1 here Jan. 27, 2014. The three-week long exercise is a realistic combat training exercise conducted by the 414th Combat Training Squadron three times a year over the Nevada Test and Training Range.
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02/01/2014
With general elections expected before May, corruption scandals over high-profile defense deals, and a deflated rupee, Defense Minister A.K. Antony, who has cultivated an image of integrity, has taken a go-slow approach on vitally needed equipment projects.
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