August, 2014 Military Aviation News
08/31/2014
Iraqi forces have reached the besieged town of Amerli in northern Iraq, where thousands have been trapped by jihadists, military officials say. The apparent breakthrough comes after the US carried out air strikes overnight on Islamic State (IS) positions near the town. The UK, France and Australia joined the US in dropping humanitarian aid.
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08/31/2014
Thirty-two Philippine U.N. peacekeepers were rescued on Saturday from Islamists who fired at their post on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights and trapped them for two days, U.N. officials said, while militants reinforced their siege of another group of 40.
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08/31/2014
Iraq has launched a major operation to liberate the town of Amerli which has been besieged by Islamic State fighters for more than two months. The operation to retake town started on Saturday with Iraqi troops and Shia militia involved in the fighting. The AFP news agency reported that Kurdish peshmerga were also involved in the operation.
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08/31/2014
The European Union has threatened to launch a fresh round of sanctions against Russia in response to ongoing aggressive military action in eastern Ukraine. The Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine marks a "point of no return" and risks a "state of war" with Europe, said EU leaders. The group of nations is prepared to ramp up sanctions against Russia, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko at a summit in Brussels on Saturday.
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08/31/2014
The U.S. military says fighter aircraft and unmanned drones have struck Islamic State militants near Iraq's Mosul Dam. In a statement issued Saturday, U.S. Central Command says the five latest U.S. airstrikes were in support of operations conducted by Iraqi security forces.
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08/31/2014
Canada is interested in joining a NATO joint expeditionary force of at least 10,000 troops that is being created to bolster the alliance’s eastern flank in an effort to check Russia’s creeping military takeover of eastern Ukraine, according to Britain’s Financial Times newspaper. The British-led division-sized force will include troops from at least six countries. It will be comprised of air, sea and land components as well as special forces.
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08/31/2014
New Delhi is increasingly concerned about the sluggish progress in the fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) project, a joint endeavour between India and Russia. Driving India's worries is the fact that the Russians are neither explaining why a prototype aircraft caught fire during a technology demonstration earlier this year nor addressing other technical doubts expressed by India.
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08/31/2014
The government has consistently ruled out the deployment of Australian combat forces on the ground in Iraq. However, special forces such as the SAS are not conventional combat ground forces. Their deployment would not breach the government’s commitment.
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08/31/2014
Two C-130 cargo airplanes lifted off into the summer sky from the New Castle Air National Guard Base early Saturday morning, the 45 airmen aboard bound for Germany and 10 days of hauling Army paratroopers during a large multi-nation training exercise. Taking part in Saber Junction is a big deal for 166th Airlift Wing. The Army-led training, involving 5,800 troops from 16 countries, is the biggest exercise the unit has ever taken part in.
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08/31/2014
Australian military aircraft will fly guns and ammunition into Iraq to help fight Islamic State militants, Australia's prime minister said on Sunday. "The United States government has requested that Australia help to transport stores of military equipment, including arms and munitions, as part of a multi-nation effort," Prime Minister Tony Abbott said in a statement.
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08/30/2014
When the leaders of the North Atlantic alliance wrapped up their Chicago summit two years ago and started preparing for their 65th anniversary meeting in 2014, they could have asked John Travolta to provide the soundtrack, “Stayin’ Alive.” At that point the alliance looked like a Cold War organization in search of a mission two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of the Soviet Union. And all the while, it expanded its membership to the east, closer to Russia.
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08/30/2014
Following the fatal crash of a 104th Fighter Wing F-15C aircraft in the remote mountains near Deerfield Valley, Va. the family has asked that the unit share with the public the name of the pilot who was fatally injured Wednesday. Lt. Col. Morris Fontenot Jr. served with the 104th Fighter Wing as the full-time Wing Inspector General, responsible for the implementation of the Air Force Inspection System and as an F-15 instructor pilot with more than 2,300 flight hours.
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08/30/2014
Kiev and its Western backers accused Moscow of sending Russian troops and armor to fight alongside rebels in eastern Ukraine, dimming hopes for a diplomatic solution to the crisis and prompting the U.S. and Europe to threaten new sanctions. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko convened an emergency meeting of his security chiefs Thursday and vowed that "Ukraine can defend itself."
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08/30/2014
How did I get into this? I’m in the cockpit of a fighter jet flying over Sweden and the pilot has apparently handed the aircraft over to me. At Mach 1.2 – that’s 1,500kph. When Saab test pilot Hans Einerth calmly says “Your controls”, I assume he is joking. “You want me to grab the joystick?” Yes, he replies, so casually that he sounds more like a father urging his toddler to let go of the handrail and slip down a playground slide than a man relinquishing control of a $50m Gripen fighter jet.
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08/30/2014
A team of research students and staff from Warsaw University of Technology have successfully demonstrated the first phase of flight test and integration of unmanned aircraft platforms with an autonomous mission control system. The demonstration marks a significant milestone in a partnership between the university and Lockheed Martin that began earlier this year.
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08/30/2014
Seven NATO's member states plan to create new response force of at least 10,000 soldiers in order to strengthen the alliance's defense capabilities in light of the escalating Ukrainian crisis, Financial Times wrote. Britain will lead the forces from Denmark, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Norway and the Netherlands, with Canada potentially joining in. The new NATO Response Force (NRF) will include air and naval units, as well as ground troops, according to FT.
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08/30/2014
Sweden increased the alert of its military forces due to the escalating crisis in Ukraine, Reuters reported citing the country's armed forces. "Given the serious nature of the development in Ukraine, the Swedish military is responding by among other things a higher alert status for the General Staff at headquarters and intensified intelligence gathering," the agency quoted Forsvarsmakten, Sweden’s military authority, as saying in a statement Friday.
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08/30/2014
Norway is sending a tank battalion to the Latvian-Russian border for two-months drills, VG newspaper reported. The drills are Norway's response to NATO's request to support the allies in light of the growing activity in the Baltics and are Oslo's contribution to calm the allies, Norway's Defense Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide said in the Friday interview with the paper. He underlined that only excercises were in plan.
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08/30/2014
The second phase of joint Russian-Indian Air Force exercise “Aviaindra-2014” is set to take place in India in November, deputy chief of the Russian Air Force's General Staff, Aleksandr Lyapkin, told reporters Friday. “The second phase of the exercise will take place in India after the end of monsoon season, on November 10-21. The location isn't known yet, this will become clear in October, when planning is finished,” Lyapkin said.
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08/30/2014
India has confirmed its participation in the Aviadarts flight-skills competition hosted by Russia, Deputy Chief of the Main Staff of Russian Air Force Major General Alexander Lyapkin told RIA Novosti. “In 2015, another flight skills competition will take place, and an Indian crew plans to take part in it. As you can remember, this year China and Belarus participated in the contest,” Lyapkin said.
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08/29/2014
China’s efforts to protect its submarine gateway to the South China Sea could broaden from standoffs with U.S. military planes to announcing an air defense identification zone, according to two retired army officers. China could seek to restrict the air space around Hainan Island as the U.S. routinely runs surveillance flights in the area, retired Colonel Yue Gang said. The move would mirror a zone China set up in November over portions of the East China Sea disputed with Japan.
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08/29/2014
Kiev and its Western backers accused Moscow of sending Russian troops and armor to fight alongside rebels in eastern Ukraine, dimming hopes for a diplomatic solution to the crisis and prompting the U.S. and Europe to threaten new sanctions. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko convened an emergency meeting of his security chiefs Thursday and vowed that "Ukraine can defend itself."
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08/29/2014
Now is the time for Saudi Arabia to man up. There is broad agreement that the black-clad savages of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham pose a profound threat first to neighboring Arab regimes and only then to Europe and the United States. Yet amid the debate over how a reluctant U.S. or timid Europe should respond, there is no discussion of what Saudi Arabia should do. This is a remarkable omission that ought to shame the Saudis.
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08/29/2014
The Czech Republic moved a step closer to completing a deal to sell 12 subsonic fighter planes to Iraq after the Defence Ministry and plane maker Aero Vodochody agreed on conditions, defence officials said on Thursday. The Czech army has a surplus of the L-159 fighters, made by Aero and used as training or light combat aircraft, and has been looking for a buyer. In July, the Czechs signed a contract to sell 14 L-159 planes to U.S. company Draken International.
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08/29/2014
U.S. Air Force Air National Guard Maj. Matthew Mutti said that if the pilot whose F-15C jet crashed in Virginia on Wednesday ejected, that pilot is trained, if not equipped, to survive in the wild. Every Air Force member who flies goes through an extensive 19-day survival, evasion, resistance and escape, or SERE, course taught at Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington State.
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08/29/2014
In case you haven't noticed, the military enjoys its abbreviations. That's especially true of the flying forces, which seemingly speak in nothing but shorthand. While we will endeavor to explain as many of those phrases as possible in this series, today, we'll focus on one of the most common types – the combat air patrol, or CAP.
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08/29/2014
If combat aircraft are sent, they would probably be six of the RAAF’s 24 Super Hornet fighter-bombers. They would need to be escorted to the Middle East by a flying tanker, possibly one of the RAAF’s KC-30s. If the RAAF tankers are not ready for such a mission, the Hornets could be refuelled by a US tanker based on the island of Diego Garcia or by a contacted civilian tanker.
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08/29/2014
Boeing will participate in the annual MSPO International Defence Industry exhibition in Kielce, Poland, which runs Sept. 1-4. The company will highlight several of its defense products and services including the AH-64 Apache and AH-6i combat helicopters, the KC-46A Pegasus aerial refueling tanker, and unmanned aerial systems such as the ScanEagle, among other programs.
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08/28/2014
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has cancelled a visit to Turkey, citing "Russian troop deployments" in the east of the country. Mr Poroshenko said his place was in Kiev in view of a sharp deterioration in the situation in Donetsk region.
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08/28/2014
In Australia’s remote top end U.S. fighter pilots are engaged in combat drills, while Marines sip beers at night in pubs in the tropical city of Darwin. Thousands of kilometers to the north, the U.S. finds itself in increasingly real standoffs with China’s air force. “The planes are noisy but they’re just a part of life,” said Rachael Molloy, 24, who sells crocodile skin whips at the evening beach markets in Darwin, which plays host to the 22-day exercises where jets roar overhead until late at
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08/28/2014
Three B-2 Spirits redeployed to the continental U.S. following a deployment here as part of U.S. Pacific Command's continuous bomber presence in the Indo-Asia-Pacific Region. The bombers, and approximately 200 support Airmen, assigned to the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri deployed here, Aug. 6, to improve combat readiness and ensure regional stability.
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08/28/2014
Australia has signalled its willingness to contribute Super Hornets to US-led air strikes in Iraq, with the defence force “at a high state of readiness”. The defence minister, David Johnston, said Australia was yet to be approached to provide assistance other than humanitarian relief, but would continue to talk to the US about steps to preserve civilian life from the threat posed by the Islamic State (Isis).
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08/28/2014
India is planning to deploy the MiG-29K naval combat aircraft in Vishakhapatnam to strengthen the security of the country's eastern coast. The MiG 29Ks are being deployed in INS Degha near Vishakhapatnam and would be also stationed on the INS Vikrant or the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier being built at Kochi, Navy spokesperson Captain D K Sharma said.
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08/28/2014
An F-15C fighter jet from the Massachusetts Air National Guard crashed in Augusta County near Deerfield Wednesday morning around 9 a.m. "Air Force and civilian first responders are responding to the scene," Army Col. Steve Warren said. At a news conference in Westfield, Massachusetts, Col. James Keefe of the 104th Fighter Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard said that the missing pilot is an experienced flyer. He said the plane was on its way to New Orleans to have a radar installed.
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08/28/2014
Air Force and Navy unmanned aircraft built by the Northrop Grumman San Diego division have surpassed 100,000 hours of service in combat and operational support, the company announced Wednesday. The Global Hawk aircraft are part of Northrop Grumman’s high altitude long endurance, or HALE series. The 100,000 total hours milestone was exceeded in September 2013.
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08/28/2014
Determined to preserve the pro-Russian revolt in eastern Ukraine, Russia reinforced what Western and Ukrainian officials described as a stealth invasion on Wednesday, sending armored troops across the border as it expanded the conflict to a new section of Ukrainian territory.
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08/28/2014
The UN Security Council unanimously agreed Wednesday to Russia's press statement proposal, urging "a swift, through and transparent investigation" into the downing of a UN helicopter, which killed three Russian crew members and injured one in South Sudan.
“The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest term the downing near Bentiu, Unity State, in South Sudan on August 26, 2014 of an UNMISS Mi-8 AMT helicopter performing a cargo flight to the area.
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08/28/2014
NATO is not looking for ways to set off a war with Russia, despite the alliance’s commitment to build up rapid response forces close to Russia’s border, a representative of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told RIA Novosti. “We are not looking for war with Russia. We aim to prevent any kind of unusual, unconventional approaches that might come after NATO territory or NATO stability,” International Security Director at CSIS Katherine Hicks said during a Wednesday press briefing.
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08/27/2014
Islamic extremists captured a major government military airport in Raqqa, eastern Syria, on Sunday, completing their takeover of the entire province and dealing a humiliating blow to President Bashar Assad. The victory is further evidence that the Islamic State is determined to widen its grip on the region.
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08/27/2014
Three crew members of a United Nations peacekeeping helicopter in South Sudan were killed on Tuesday when their aircraft crashed on a routine cargo flight, and a fourth crew member was being treated for injuries, the UN said. Russia’s Interfax news agency said “preliminary information” indicated that the helicopter, operated by a Russian firm, had been shot down as it flew over an area that has been a flashpoint during a civil conflict that is now more than eight months old.
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08/27/2014
An A7 Corsair fighter jet crashed near the city of Komotini in Northern Greece on Tuesday morning August 26. The Greek pilot who was flying the old A7 Corsair managed to use the ejection seat mechanism and survive the crash. The incident occurred at around 10 am local time according to a witness. The fighter jet was participating in a training exercise at the Evros region and had taken off together with another A7 aircraft from the 116 Combat Wing.
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08/27/2014
The landing gear touched down and the aircraft skimmed down the runway just as it had many times before. This time, though, a routine flying mission became a major achievement for the 131st Bomb Wing as well as a career milestone for Lt. Col. Ryan "Poacher" Bailey, a Missouri Air National Guardsman who surpassed 1,000 flying-hours in the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber here Aug. 23.
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08/27/2014
For three weeks in August, the skies over Northern Australia – known here as the Top End – reverberated to the roar of military jet engines as the biennial Exercise Pitch Black was staged out of Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Bases Darwin and Tindal; the two main military airports in Australia’s Northern Territory.
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08/27/2014
The U.S. military is relying on bases in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere in the Middle East to carry out airstrikes in Iraq, but is masking the locations and other details about the units and aircraft involved to avoid embarrassing partners in the region. The Persian Gulf monarchies have long hosted U.S. forces to bolster their own security. But most have shied away from acknowledging the American presence and are even more reluctant now with U.S. warplanes bombing Iraq.
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08/27/2014
Who controls China’s increasingly powerful military? The question is a recurring one for foreign governments and China watchers, and the Pentagon is raising it again – suggesting that recent highly charged midair encounters between Chinese and U.S. military aircraft may have been initiated by a rogue Chinese pilot or squadron.
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08/27/2014
The United Arab Emirates has secretly sent warplanes on bombing raids against Islamist militias in Libya over the past week, using bases in Egypt, US officials said. The two attacks carried out over seven days mark a dramatic expansion of the conflict as the United States and its European allies denounced "outside interference" in Libya. The strikes signaled a step toward direct action by regional Arab states that previously have fought proxy wars in Libya, Syria and Iraq.
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08/27/2014
The Taiwanese Air Force scrambled combat aircraft to pursue Chinese surveillance aircraft that made four separate intrusions into Taiwan’s airspace within less than 12 hours, a senior Taiwanese military official confirmed on August 26, one day after the standoff. According to information provided by Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, the first intrusion occurred at 8:33 a.m., when a single Y-8 Maritime Patrol Aircraft that had taken off from Chenghai, Guangdong Province.
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08/27/2014
Russia and India plan on signing a contract to supply India with A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft, Beriev Aircraft Company General Director-General Designer Igor Garivadsky told journalists Tuesday. “We plan on signing a deal with the Republic of India to deliver the A-50 aircraft,” Garivadsky said.
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08/26/2014
A crash scene aired on Iranian state television Monday purported to show the wreckage of an Israeli drone shot down near an Iranian nuclear site, prompting questions about how a plane with limited range could have penetrated so deeply and whether it is indeed what Tehran says it is. The brief video showed what the channel described as parts of the battleship-gray drone scattered in an unidentified desert area. The channel identified the unmanned vehicle as a Hermes 450, a known Israeli model.
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08/26/2014
Australia’s options for an expanded military role in Iraq are “limited” or “symbolic”, strategic policy experts have said, while the opposition indicated it was yet to receive a government briefing on such action. The Australian newspaper reported on Monday the government was actively considering a greater role and could join the US in air strikes.
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08/26/2014
In seeking to turn back the advance of the barbarous Islamic State forces across Iraq and Syria, it is essential to staunch the flow of foreign jihadists joining the fight, including any more from Australia. Governments, including our own, are trying to do so. Yet Turkey, the country with the capability to interdict recruits travelling on the so-called “Jihadist Highway” en route to the Islamic State killing fields, is doing little to help.
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08/26/2014
Engineers at BAE Systems' Advanced Technology Centre are investigating a ‘smart skin’ concept which could be embedded with tens of thousands of micro-sensors. When applied to an aircraft, this will enable it to sense wind speed, temperature, physical strain and movement, far more accurately than current sensor technology allows.
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08/26/2014
Singapore appears to have more than its declared total of 24 Boeing F-15SG Eagle multirole fighters, with recent developments indicating that the small Asian city-state is already operating 32 aircraft, and looks set to bring that total up to 40. Located strategically at one end of the Straits of Malacca chokepoint where a quarter of the world’s annual maritime trade passes, Singapore plays a vital role in regional security and is a close security and defense partner with the United States.
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08/26/2014
My son Ian and I had already spent two days at the Pima Air & Space Museum outside Tucson, Arizona, walking the hangars and the terrific collection of aircraft parked outside. Pima is adjacent to the fence line of Davis-Monthan AFB, home of the “Boneyard.” Its official name is the Air Force’s 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group—the caretakers of nearly 4,000 U.S. military aircraft headed for scrap, storage, or potential rebirth, all parked on 2,600 acres of Arizona desert.
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08/26/2014
The Russian air force has just introduced three new jet fighters. Not the much-publicized Sukhoi T-50 stealth fighter — which isn't ready yet — but three slightly different versions of the classic Su-27, all originating from the same Sukhoi design bureau but built by two separate manufacturers.
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08/26/2014
The Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program continued a steady path of flight test milestones in August, including weapons separation, software compatibility and flight hours, all demonstrating program maturity. “The test milestones are a direct result of the detailed planning, coordination and execution between various government teams and the integrated test force,” said J.D. McFarlan, Lockheed Martin's Vice President for F-35 Test & Verification.
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08/26/2014
The Islamic State (IS) militant group appears to have drone capabilities as is evidenced by a recent IS propaganda video containing surveillance footage of a Syrian military base. The 14-minute video, uploaded to YouTube on Saturday, shows aerial views of Syrian Army Military Base 93 near Raqqa Governorate in northern Syria. There is a caption over the footage that reads “From the drone of the army of the Islamic State.” The video does not show the drone itself.
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08/26/2014
Indian troops have arrived in Russia’s Lipetsk to take part in the joint Air Force exercise Aviaindra 2014, held August 25 to September 5, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Igor Klimov told the press Monday. “From August 25 to September 5, 2014 a joint Russian-Indian exercise Aviaindra 2014 will be held on the Russian territory under the Air Force commander-in-chief’s leadership. The official starting date of the drills is August 29, 2014.
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08/25/2014
Reporting on China’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea, which it rolled out in November 2013, has been highly (if understandably) skewed. (ADIZs are unilaterally declared areas that stretch beyond territorial airspace within which states impose reporting requirements on aircraft for purposes of national defense.) China’s ADIZ stretches into the East China Sea, beyond Japan’s designated “mid-point line,” towards the Ryukyu Islands.
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08/25/2014
The U.S. Air Force plans to revive its controversial push to retire the A-10 fighter jet in the face of fierce opposition from lawmakers. Congress is set to reject the existing Air Force plan to save $3.5 billion by retiring the fleet of A-10 "Warthogs," which were used extensively to provide air support to ground troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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08/25/2014
Airbus Group intends to ramp up flight tests this week to demonstrate that its newest jet model eventually should be allowed to fly routes taking it as many as seven hours from an emergency landing strip. Slated to be delivered to lead customer Qatar Airways Ltd. by the end of the year, the A350 would have unprecedented regulatory leeway compared with other twin-engine jets on ultralong polar or over-water routes.
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08/25/2014
If the extremist group fighting in Iraq and Syria that calls itself the Islamic State isn't stopped it will eventually seek to carry out an attack on British soil, U.K. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond warned in an article published on Sunday. Writing in the Sunday Times newspaper, Mr. Hammond said security services estimated some 500 British jihadis had travelled to Syria and Iraq in recent years.
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08/25/2014
Islamic extremists captured a major government military airport in Raqqa, eastern Syria, on Sunday, completing their takeover of the entire province and dealing a humiliating blow to President Bashar Assad. The victory is further evidence that the Islamic State is determined to widen its grip on the region.
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08/25/2014
A group of US and Norwegian aviation inspectors plan to fly over Russia's and Belarus' territory this week under The Treaty on Open Skies, acting head of the Defense Ministry’s National Nuclear Risk Reduction Center told journalists Sunday. "Between August 25 and August 30 of this year, as part of The Treaty on Open Skies, a join mission of the United States and Norway will conduct a flight over the territory of a group of member-states [Belarus and Russia].
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08/25/2014
Russia plans to launch a surveillance flight over Denmark's territory this week as part of The Treaty on Open Skies, acting head of the Defense Ministry's National Nuclear Risk Reduction Center told journalists Sunday. "As part of The Treaty on Open Skies, the Russian Federation plans to conduct an observation flight aboard an An-30B, outfitted with digital surveillance equipment above the territory of the Kingdom of Denmark," Ruslan Shishin said.
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08/25/2014
Iranian Revolutionary Guards have downed an Israeli drone that was trying to spy on Iran’s nuclear facility in Nantaz, state news agency ISNA reported Sunday. "The downed aircraft was of the stealth, radar-evasive type and it intended to penetrate the off-limit nuclear area in Natanz... but was targeted by a ground-to-air missile before it managed to enter the area," ISNA quoted a statement by the Revolutionary Guards.
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08/25/2014
Russia’s Defense Ministry has dismissed allegations that Russian aircraft entered Finnish airspace without permission. “On August 23, 2014 a military transport airplane of naval aviation of the Baltic Fleet was carrying out a scheduled flight en route from airbase Pushkin in Leningrad Region to airbase Chernyakhovsk in Kaliningrad Region. The flight was carried out in strict compliance with the agreed itinerary.
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08/25/2014
Egypt on Sunday denied any link to unclaimed airstrikes that hit military camps in the Libyan capital Tripoli earlier this week, according to Agence France-Presse. "Egypt denies categorically reports and claims that Egyptian military aircraft struck sites held by militias in the Libyan capital Tripoli," the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
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08/24/2014
An unidentified warplane bombarded militia positions near Tripoli airport overnight, leaving at least 10 people dead, a spokesman for an alliance of Libyan militias said on Saturday. The aircraft targeted an army base to the south of Tripoli and a nearby warehouse, Mohammed al-Ghariani, spokesman for Fajr Libya (Libyan Dawn), said on An-Nabaa television station.
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08/24/2014
Drones are one of the many applications that involves M2M communication technology today. These M2M-enabled aircrafts, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), do not have a human pilot aboard and rely mostly on onboard computers that are controlled remotely. As the concept of connected and driverless cars is gradually being adapted, pilot-less aircrafts have long been made a reality.
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08/24/2014
This week's reported near collision between a Chinese fighter plane and an American surveillance aircraft in the East China Sea proves that China isn't afraid to strictly enforce its maritime border in the South China Sea, even if it has to risk a confrontation with the world's most powerful military.
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08/24/2014
U.S. President Barack Obama is to consider air strikes in Syria in the battle against jihadist terrorists who beheaded an American journalist. Ben Rhodes, Mr. Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said Friday that a strategy to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) needed to deal with both sides of the border in Iraq and Syria.
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08/24/2014
With sickening snuff videos and viral postings of mass executions, ISIS has developed the projection of terror way beyond any predecessor. It has also managed to make itself seem more militarily formidable than it actually is. Even though its capacity as a training camp and assignment center for jihadists who can be sent to blow people up in Europe, the U.S. and Asia poses an extreme new danger, this should not be confused with its threat as a land-based army.
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08/24/2014
The high level of co-ordination between Iraq's federal army troops and Peshmerga forces in the Kurdish region has resulted in successful joint operations against the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) in the north of the country, Iraqi military officials said. "One of the fruits of the great co-operation between the Iraqi forces and the Peshmerga was the liberation of the Mosul Dam and the surrounding villages, as well as cities and towns in the mountainous province of Ninawa.
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08/24/2014
As Ukraine's standoff with Russia over its support of pro-Russian separatists escalates, President Obama must decide how the USA can prevent the conflict from spinning out of control. While Obama has been quietly letting Germany take the lead on the diplomatic front up until now, what he and his deputies communicate at talks Tuesday between Ukraine, Russia and European leaders in Belarus could play a pivotal role.
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08/24/2014
The breathtaking and ear-shattering game of darts above the Northern Territory ended Friday after three weeks of intensive action. Today, they’re taking off for home. Up to 110 aircraft from New Zealand, United States, Singapore, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and New Caledonia participated in the swirling battle simulations in Australia’s northern skies with Australia’s RAAF.
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08/23/2014
The Pentagon on Friday blamed China for instigating a dangerous midair encounter with a U.S. military aircraft off its coast, saying that a Chinese fighter jet made several threatening passes during an intercept in international airspace. Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said the U.S. government filed a formal complaint with China about the near miss between a Chinese J-11 fighter jet and a Navy Poseidon P-8 patrol aircraft 135 miles east of Hainan Island.
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08/23/2014
China has been developing a native fifth-generation stealth aircraft called the Chengdu J-20. This aircraft is expected to compete with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which is built by Lockheed Martin Corporation as well as Russia’s T-50. A Chinese entrepreneur was arrested for stealing F-35 and F-22 fighter jets’ design data. The stolen data was meant to help in redesigning the J-20, and has increased the likelihood of F-35 fighter jets to become obsolete even before they became operational.
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08/23/2014
Russia unilaterally sent an aid mission into rebel-held eastern Ukraine on Friday, saying its patience had worn out after a week of delays it blamed on the Ukrainian government, which called the move a “direct invasion.” Trucks ostensibly loaded with water, generators and sleeping bags are intended for civilians in the city of Luhansk, where pro-Russian separatist fighters are besieged by government forces. Shelling of the city has been ongoing for weeks.
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08/23/2014
President Barack Obama told a recent interviewer he did not want the U.S. military to become Iraq's air force. But he may have little choice. Iraq had only a fledgling air force when the United States withdrew in 2011. Washington has agreed to bolster Iraqi air power by selling Baghdad 36 sophisticated F-16 multi-role jet fighters and 24 Apache helicopters.
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08/23/2014
A Chinese hypersonic vehicle designed to deliver nuclear weapons at high speeds failed in its second test launch, the South China Morning Post reported. "It's necessary for China to boost its missile capabilities, because the PLA's [People’s Liberation Army] weapons are weaker than the US' shields, which are deployed everywhere in the world," Xudong Wang, a satellite adviser to China’s central government, was quoted as saying by the South China Morning Post.
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08/22/2014
Senior Pentagon officials described the Islamic State (Isis) militant group as an “apocalyptic” organisation that posed an “imminent threat” on Thursday, yet the highest ranking officer in the US military said that in the short term, it was sufficient for the United States to “contain” the group that has reshaped the map of Iraq and Syria.
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08/22/2014
The heated and ongoing international debate regarding the combat effectiveness of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) in a highly contested environment has led many observers to question the fighter’s survivability in the face of advanced Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) systems and very high frequency (VHF) radars. Yet, few have examined the issue closely using lessons drawn from the only incident in which a stealth aircraft was lost in combat.
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08/22/2014
GE Korea, the local unit of the United States-based General Electric, expressed a keen desire to participate in Korea’s next-generation fighter jet program once it gets off the ground. If Korea chooses GE jet engines, according to Khang Sung-wook, president and chief executive of GE Korea, it will help Korea nurture its aerospace industry since GE remains open to delivering its technological expertise.
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08/22/2014
Pro-Russian rebels have shot down another Ukrainian Air Force's Su-25 Frogfoot fighter aircraft in the Luhansk region. Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko was quoted by 112.ua as saying: "Today a Su-25 attack aircraft has been shot down while on a combat mission. "The fate of the pilot is unknown yet but hope remains that he will be alright."
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08/22/2014
A Chinese jet fighter flew dangerously close to a U.S. Navy P-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft near Japan this week in an encounter that highlights China’s continued aggressiveness in the region. The P-8, a new, militarized Boeing-737 anti-submarine warfare aircraft, was conducting routine surveillance of the Chinese coast over the East China Sea on Monday when the incident occurred, said U.S. defense officials familiar with reports of the encounter.
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08/22/2014
Drone is a dirty word in Whitehall. Ministry of Defence and Royal Air Force officials avoid using the description for the squadrons of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) – also known as remotely piloted air systems – increasingly being used by British forces. American-built Reaper UAVs have already been in service for several years with the RAF in Afghanistan, while Thales is building its Watchkeeper system for the British Army to replace the Hermes 450, an unarmed surveillance machine.
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08/22/2014
The Defense Ministry released images of a homegrown experimental combat plane designed to be Japan's first stealth fighter. The sleek jet features huge box-like intakes for its highly sophisticated engines. The aircraft, dubbed the Advanced Technological Demonstrator (ATD), is now undergoing trials. From tip to tail, it is 14 meters long with a nine-meter wingspan, slightly smaller than an operational fighter jet due to the scaled-down engines.
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08/22/2014
The U.S. Navy’s move toward developing a carried-based unmanned combat aircraft might eventually afford the service the ability to strike targets at long-range, but there are ethical and legal questions that linger should the Pentagon develop a fully autonomous system. As currently envisioned, the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) will be autonomous, but it will have a “man-on-the-loop” according to Rear Adm. Mat Winter.
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08/22/2014
The 61st Airlift Squadron at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, received another Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules airlifter today. Brig. Gen. Brian Robinson, vice commander, 618th Air and Space Operations Center (Tanker Airlift Control Center), Scott AFB, Illinois, ferried the aircraft from the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., facility here.
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08/21/2014
The Middle East hosts a formidable array of air power. Between them, the six nations of the Gulf Co-operation Council possess more than 600 combat-capable aircraft. Add Jordan, Turkey, and Egypt, and you have 1,000 more. Why, then, is only the US dropping bombs on the jihadis of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) as they expand their “caliphate” in the heart of the region?
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08/21/2014
Flight restrictions on Lockheed Martin’s F-35 are hampering the Pentagon’s ability to conduct software tests that the plane must pass before it can be declared combat-ready by next July, according to the Pentagon’s weapons-testing office. The start of rigorous in-flight testing on the initial software for the Marine Corps version of the fighter is already five months late and may be further delayed by the flight restrictions imposed on the 20 test aircraft and 79 training jets.
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08/21/2014
Iraqi officials have given their American counterparts clear signals that Baghdad is willing to let U.S. fighter jets operate out of Iraqi air bases, a move that would allow planes to stay airborne longer and deliver more strikes. But the Obama administration, at least for now, doesn't seem all that interested.
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08/21/2014
The Air Force has temporarily grounded 82 of its aging F-16 fighter jets after structural cracks were found near the cockpits. The first cracks were discovered July 31 during post-flight inspections of a F-16D model, which is a two-seat variant primarily used for training. Subsequent inspections found that more than half of the F-16Ds were affected.
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08/21/2014
The Obama administration is not thought to be considering qualitatively new military options against the Islamic State (Isis) in the wake of its beheading of American journalist James Foley. While Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that Isis “must be destroyed”, another US official said the horrific, recorded slaying had not changed US policy options for striking the jihadist entity that has overrun much of northern, western and central Iraq.
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08/21/2014
The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) is participating in a large-scale multilateral air combat exercise in Darwin, Australia, involving 100 aircraft and 2 300 personnel from seven participating nations. Codenamed Exercise Pitch Black , this year's biennial exercise will take place from Aug 1 to 22 and see the RSAF deploying about 300 personnel, six F-15SG and eight F-16C/D fighter aircraft, a Gulfstream 550 airborne early warning aircraft, and a KC-135R air-to-air refuelling aircraft.
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08/21/2014
The newest configuration of the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the F-16V, has reached a major capability milestone with the integration of a new Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar. “Completing this milestone on schedule demonstrates our ability to meet program commitments,” said Roderick McLean, vice president and general manager of the F-16/F-22 Integrated Fighter Group at Lockheed Martin.
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08/21/2014
The United States is considering the possibility of sending additional troops to Iraq to step up security in American offices, located in the country, Agence France-Presse reported. “We are considering sending fewer than 300,” a senior US official told the agency Wednesday, adding that the request was initiated by the State Department. An official decision on the issue has not been made yet, the source stressed.
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08/21/2014
Independence supporters have downed a Ukrainian Air Force Su-25 Frogfoot attack plane over the Luhansk region late on Wednesday, a spokesman for the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine said. Earlier a number of media reports suggested that a war plane had been shot down in the region.
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08/20/2014
Set aside the positive bilateral relations between China and India, the Chinese troops have started infiltrating in the Indian territory yet again. This time they have entered 25 to 30 km deep into Indian territory in Burtse area of North Ladakh, officials sources said. This is the very place where they had established their tents last year, which led to a tense 3-week stand-off.
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08/20/2014
Japanese battle tanks, helicopters and elite troops stormed the foothills of Mount Fuji Tuesday in a first-of-its-kind display of the tactics and equipment the nation's military could use to defend or retake islands in and around the East China Sea. The maneuvers involving some 60 Japanese military aircraft, including Apache attack helicopters, marked the first time Japan's Self-Defence Forces (SDF) have simulated a remote island battle as part of an annual live-fire exercise.
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08/20/2014
This undated photo obtained by The Associated Press from the Small Arms Survey, shows a man-portable air defense systems, or MANPADS. Armed groups in Syria have an estimated several hundred portable anti-aircraft missiles that could easily be diverted to extremists and used to destroy low-flying commercial planes, according to a new report by a respected international research group. It cites the risk that the missiles could be smuggled out of Syria by terrorists.
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08/20/2014
Engine technology being developed for a British space plane could also find its way into hypersonic aircraft built by the U.S. military. The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory is studying hypersonic vehicles that would use the Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE), which the English company Reaction Engines Ltd. is working on to power the Skylon space plane, AFRL officials said.
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08/20/2014
The Indian Air Force (IAF) will buy one more Lockheed Martin C 130J Super Hercules medium-lift aircraft apart from the 12 contracted for to make up for the loss of one plane in an accident in March. The IAF chief, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, told India Strategic magazine (www.indiastrategic.in ) in an interview that the induction of the C-130Js, as also the heavy-lift Boeing C-17 Globemaster IIIs had "brought about a paradigm shift in our airlift capabilities".
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08/20/2014
The Air Force has grounded over half of its F-16D Fighting Falcons, the service’s Air Combat Command (ACC) announced Tuesday. The initial damage, described in a Pentagon release as “canopy sill longeron cracks found between the front and rear pilot seats,” was discovered after a routine post-flight inspection on one of the jets. The discovery of cracks led to a fleet-wide inspection order.
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08/20/2014
The bilateral training between the Greek and U.S. air forces continues this week with more large-force employments, or LFE. Fighter pilots normally fly together in what is called a four-ship formation -- four pilots with assigned roles and duties who protect each other. During this week's LFE, multiple groups of four-ships, both Greek and U.S., must partner to execute a mission or overcome a simulated threat.
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08/20/2014
The U.S. military, at the request of host nations in the region, is no longer identifying the specific land-based aircraft carrying out airstrikes in Iraq, a defense official told Military Times on Tuesday. When airstrikes against the Islamic State began Aug. 8, a Pentagon spokesman identified the aircraft involved as carrier-based F/A-18s. But when land-based aircraft joined the mission, U.S. Central Command identified them only generically, as fighters, bombers or drones.
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08/20/2014
Israel is interfering with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigations into alleged war crimes and human rights violations in the Gaza Strip, according to Amnesty International representatives. “We’re doing everything we can, both Human Rights Watch and us, to do all the documentation we can, both on the ground in Gaza and remotely. But not being able to have researchers there does create difficulties,” Deborah Hyams told Reuters Monday.
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08/19/2014
It was one small button push for man and one giant catapult launch for the Navy’s unmanned air combat program Sunday as the X-47B flew its first takeoffs and landings with F/A-18s on the aircraft carrier Roosevelt. Off the Virginia coast, two Hornets and one X-47B practiced launches and traps in the same pattern, testing the unmanned jet’s ability to take off and land safely, then move out of the way to allow a manned aircraft to come in right behind it.
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08/19/2014
US military aircraft have carried out 35 air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq over the past three days, destroying more than 90 targets, the Pentagon said Monday. The strikes marked the most intensive US bombardments of IS positions since they began on August 8.
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08/19/2014
The Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] C-130 Hercules reaches another major milestone Aug. 23 marking the 60th anniversary of its first flight at Burbank, California, in 1954. To honor this historic C-130 anniversary, Lockheed Martin invites members of the worldwide Hercules community to share their C-130 memories, experiences, photos and videos. From Aug. 18 through Sept. 30, stories can be shared through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube.
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08/19/2014
Iraqi counterterrorism forces and Kurdish Peshmerga have retaken the Mosul Dam, previously controlled by Islamic State (IS) militants since August 7, AFP reports citing Iraqi security spokesman Lieutenant General Qassim Atta. According to BBC, he told state television that the dam had been “fully cleansed”. According to another source, IS militants still control the dam and are hiding in “sensitive places” of the structure to avoid airstrikes.
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08/19/2014
US military on Sunday conducted airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) insurgents, formerly known as ISIS or ISIL, near the Iraqi’s largest dam, located near the northern city of Mosul, according to United States Central Command website. “The strikes destroyed three ISIL armed vehicles, an ISIL vehicle-mounted anti-aircraft artillery gun, an ISIL checkpoint and an IED emplacement,” the US Central Command said. All strike aircraft exited the strike area safely.
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08/18/2014
The U.S. widened its air campaign against Sunni extremists in Iraq, sending bombers for the first time in support of a Kurdish ground offensive to retake the Mosul Dam and promising to keep up strikes until the strategic post is out of the hands of Islamic State fighters. Kurdish forces who launched the ground operation on Sunday managed to push back the militants from some positions around the dam by the end of the day.
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08/18/2014
RCAF aircraft were in Cyprus on Friday, waiting to pick up military equipment to transport into Iraq. Senior government officials said the two RCAF cargo planes would use Cyprus as a staging area for its flights. The C-17 and C-130J would be ferrying military equipment and ammunition to Kurdish forces in northern Iraq.
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08/18/2014
The U.S. Central Command released a video, taken on Saturday, showing a U.S. airstrike targeting, and destroying, an Islamic State armored truck. With the aid of U.S. airstrikes, Kurdish troops are advancing on the Mosul dam, currently controlled by Sunni militants.
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08/18/2014
Independence supporters have downed a Ukrainian Air Forces MiG-29 fighter in the Luhansk region early Sunday morning, the pilot successfully catapulted and managed to escape, Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Leonid Matyukhin told Ukrainian Channel 5.
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08/18/2014
Britain is stepping up its military involvement in the fight against jihadi forces from the Islamic State in Iraq after the defence secretary Michael Fallon confirmed that British warplanes are flying deeper into Iraq in a mission that could last "months". As David Cameron declared that Britain should be prepared to deploy its "military prowess" to help defeat the jihadis.
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08/18/2014
The much-awaited multi-billion Rafale combat aircraft deal with France has moved a step further with the defence ministry finalizing a 'draft contract', according to top defence ministry officials. Rafale was declared the lowest bidder in Janaury 2012 but the deal has not been inked so far on account of escalation in the cost. The Cost Negotiation Committee, which was set up in February 2012 to work out the modalities for the deal has not reached a conclusion after 30 months of negotiations.
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08/18/2014
The Lebanese Army has asked the United States for military aid that includes new fixed-wing airplanes to use as close air support while battling extremist militants encamped in the mountains outside Arsal, an official briefed on the request told The Daily Star. The aid request also includes replenishing the Army’s ammunition.
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08/18/2014
A military delegation from Denmark will conduct an observation flight over Russia under the Open Skies Treaty, an official at Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday. “From August 18 to 22, a mission from the Kingdom of Denmark will be conducting an observation flight aboard an An-30B over the territory of the Russian Federation under the Treaty on Open Skies," Ruslan Shishin, acting head of the ministry’s National Nuclear Risk Reduction Center, said.
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08/17/2014
Oleksiy Dmitrashkovsky said that the plane was shot down over the Luhansk region after launching an attack on rebels. The pilot ejected and was taken to a secure place, he said.
Further details about the incident or the condition of the pilot were not immediately available.
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08/17/2014
India’s Defence Sector includes the three Armed Forces (the Army, the Navy and the Air Force), and other Departments, primarily Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and Defence Ordnance Factories. India has the third largest Army, the fourth largest Air force and the seventh largest Navy in the world but half of its defence equipment is considered to be largely obsolete.
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08/17/2014
Some 20 European Union (EU) ministers are meeting in Brussels on Friday to discuss arms supplies to Iraq’s Kurds, an initiative well under way with France and the United States already sending weapons and Britain and Germany ready to do the same.Meanwhile, a UN Security Council meeting on Friday is expected to threaten sanctions against any country financing or backing the Islamic State (IS/ISIS). US jets have been involved in airstrikes against IS positions in Erbil since last Saturday.
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08/17/2014
The international community is at long last beginning to take a strong stand against Moscow's aggression in eastern Ukraine. There is solid evidence indicating not only that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by Russian-aided rebels in eastern Ukraine, but that the Kremlin has bolstered the rebels with heavy artillery despite toughened Western sanctions.
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08/17/2014
Canada is committing two cargo planes to move military supplies into northern Iraq as part of the international effort to bolster Kurdish forces in the embattled region. Prime Minister Stephen Harper says a CC-177 Globemaster and a CC-130J Hercules transport will begin shuttling arms provided by allies to the Iraqi city of Irbil over the next few days.
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08/17/2014
Billed as Africa’s first home-grown military aircraft, the Advanced High-Performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft (AHRLAC) made its first test flight in South Africa this week, marking a milestone in the continent’s aviation history. On Wednesday, August, 13, as the AHRLAC descended from the Pretoria skies and taxied to a halt outside a hangar at the Wonderboom airport north of the South African capital, engineers and officials beamed and high-fived each other.
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08/17/2014
A large NATO aviation training with the participation of pilots and soldiers from 11 allied countries will take place in the Czech Republic in early September, Magdaléna Dvoráková, from the general staff press department, told CTK. Along with Czech Gripen fighters and Soviet-made Mi helicopters, there will be the F-16s combat aircraft and Apache helicopters, Dvoráková said.
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08/17/2014
A newly created division for the light combat aircraft (LCA) and a bid to make 80 per cent of its components locally are among recent moves taken to spur production of the made-in-India fighter plane once it crosses the last milestone for airworthiness, according to its developer and production agencies.
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08/17/2014
Air strikes by American fighter aircraft and drones have targeted Islamic State (IS) fighters near north Iraq’s vital Mosul dam. The Islamic State group seized the dam on the Tigris River on August 7th as part of their offensive which has seized large parts of Iraq. The residents near the dam say the airstrikes killed a number of militants, but that could not be confirmed.
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08/16/2014
What was the most effective aircraft in our arsenal in taking out the enemy's ordinance while also providing the best close support for our ground forces in the previous conflicts in this war zone? Could it be the A-10 Warthog? The Air Force plans to retire the A-10 in favor of the more versatile F-35 Joint Strike Fighter ("Maryland Air Guard losing attack aircraft, regaining cargo planes," March 11).
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08/16/2014
Last weekend, Squadron Leader Cameron Clark was playing with his daughter when the decision was made to prepare a humanitarian mission to help stranded Yazidi refugees in Iraq. It is a testament to the lightning speed with which the Australian Defence Force can deploy that by Wednesday evening, the 37-year-old pilot was taking off in a C-130 transport plane from Al Minhad Air Base carrying 10 tonnes of food, water and supplies.
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08/16/2014
President Barack Obama on Thursday promised to expand U.S. humanitarian relief to Iraqis threatened by the advancing army of the Islamic State militants. He took credit for alleviating the genocide threat to thousands trapped on a mountaintop but said the situation "remains dire" throughout the country. Obama also said U.S. airstrikes would continue to protect Americans and U.S. facilities in Iraq, and he said Washington has increased its delivery of military assistance to Iraqi and Kurdish forc
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08/16/2014
The commander of Air Combat Command, Gen. Mike Hostage, declared initial operational capability for the 552nd Air Control Wing's E-3G Sentry, an Airborne Warning and Control System Block 40/45 aircraft, July 28, here. "This modification represents the most significant upgrade in the 35-plus year history of the E-3 AWACS and greatly enhances our crew members' ability to execute the command and control mission while providing a building block for future upgrades.
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08/15/2014
The governor of the Iraqi Sunni heartland province of Anbar said he has secured a promise from the U.S. for support in the ongoing conflict with Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants, Reuters reported. Ahmed Khalaf al-Dulaimi told Reuters his request, made in meetings with U.S. diplomats and a senior military officer, included air support against the militants who have a tight grip on large parts of his desert province and northwestern Iraq.
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08/15/2014
The U.S. military is turning its focus toward helping Kurdish forces launch a counteroffensive against Sunni militants now that the refugee crisis in the northern Iraqi mountains has abated, American officials said Thursday. American military planners are building a coalition of countries that have agreed to take part in the effort to fly in ammunition, mortars, and rocket-propelled grenades the Kurdish fighters need to uproot extremist forces that call themselves the Islamic State.
(Read More...)
08/15/2014
Russia will fly the prototype next-generation strategic bomber in 2019 and develop a new interceptor by 2020 to replace the MiG-31 fleet. Addressing the media on Russian Air Force Day (August 12) the service’s commander Gen. Victor Bondarev also said a new a combat aircraft with forward-swept wings is in development and could emerge soon as a prototype.
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08/15/2014
Australia—U.S. warplanes are thundering across the tropical sky here every day this week as they participate in one of Asia's biggest air combat exercises. Their presence also points to the growing importance U.S. and Australian defense officials place on this remote port city, and its rugged Outback surroundings, as Washington looks for more places where it can expand its military footprint in Asia without triggering too much of a backlash.
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08/15/2014
India wants to set an example in defence joint production and co-development with foreign states by collaborating with old ally Russia and growing partner Japan to manufacture advanced fighter jets and state-of-the-art amphibious aircraft.
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08/15/2014
President Barack Obama on Thursday said that U.S. efforts in Iraq have allowed most members of a religious minority to escape a barren mountain range, though U.S. airstrikes will continue to combat the Sunni extremist group that calls itself Islamic State. "The situation on the mountain has greatly improved, and Americans should be very proud of our efforts," Mr. Obama said.
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08/15/2014
The United States has approved the possible sale of Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) to Turkey following a request from the Turkish government, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said in a statement. “The Turkish Air Force [TAF] intends to obtain these missiles to modernize its inventory, which will support its own air defense needs and improve its interoperability with the US and other NATO allies,” said the news release, published on the DSCA website.
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08/15/2014
The US State Department has approved a possible Foreign Military Sale to Saudi Arabia for an AWACS modernisation programme and associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support for an estimated cost of $2 billion.
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08/14/2014
Confusion swirled around the fate of an enormous Russian aid convoy as it apparently halted on Wednesday at a military base in the southern Russian city of Voronezh, temporarily suspending its march toward southeastern Ukraine. Moscow and Kiev seemed headed toward at least a standoff over the convoy, with Russia saying it still expected the hundreds of trucks to be allowed across the border and Ukraine vowing that they would be barred.
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08/14/2014
Things are moving very fast in Iraq. Three months ago the country barely got a mention in Cabinet meetings in Whitehall. British forces left in 2011, after 8 troubled years there, and even the Americans had only a very limited presence. Iraq was essentially being left to itself.
Today, following the lightning land-grab by the jihadists of Islamic State (IS) who now control roughly a third of Iraq and much of north-east Syria.
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08/14/2014
Japan's new defense white paper has done little to mend fences with Beijing, with the Chinese government complaining that its Asian neighbor is using the "China threat" to justify a bigger defense budget. Japan will spend about $49 billion on defense in the fiscal year to March 2015 -- up about 3 percent from the previous year - in the face of what it says is a worsening security environment in the region. It cites tensions on the Korean peninsula and territorial disputes in the sea lanes runnin
(Read More...)
08/14/2014
The Royal Air Force will deploy Tornado GR4 fighter jets in support of the growing military air campaign over northern Iraq, British officials said Tuesday. The officials stressed the aircraft would be part of humanitarian operations there, but the deployment nonetheless sparked speculation that Britain might soon join the United States in launching airstrikes.
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08/14/2014
Both the UN an the EU had demanded that the fighting in Libya stop. In a strongly worded statement released yesterday United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) condemned the ongoing violence and the refusal of those in the conflict to heed calls for an immediate ceasefire. UNSMIL said it “strongly condemns” the refusal to “refrain from the use of force to resolve political differences”.
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08/14/2014
Air-to-air combat was a staple of modern war almost as soon as the technology for aerial warfare became practical. From the early 20th century through the end of the Cold War, air battles were determining factors in military campaigns. Today, air superiority allows the United States to engage in conflicts around the world relatively free of the risks inherent in ground warfare — as is currently being demonstrated in the U.S.'s bombing of ISIS targets in Iraq.
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08/14/2014
Britain has finally decided to suspend sale of all military equipment to Israel and also revoke the licenses for arms if the cease fire is broken. The government has identified 12 licences for components which could be part of equipment used by Israel in its attacks on Gaza.
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08/14/2014
U.S. helicopters and MV-22 Ospreys are on the ground in northern Iraq and operating from a secure airfield protected by Kurdish forces, the latest sign of an expanding Iraq mission that now includes about 1,000 U.S. troops, defense officials said Wednesday. The Ospreys arrived overnight Tuesday as they ferried about 130 additional U.S. troops into the airfield, which is in or near the Kurdish city of Irbil, said Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.
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08/14/2014
France has made a decision to supply arms to Iraqi Kurds so that they can help the Iraqi government fight against Islamic State (IS) militants, the Elysee Palace said in a statement Wednesday. “In order to reply to the urgent needs expressed by the regional authorities of Kurdistan, the head of state [President Francois Hollande] decided, having agreed with Baghdad, to send arms in the coming hours,” the statement reads.
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08/13/2014
Nearly 20 U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 480th Fighter Squadron at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, deployed to Souda Bay, Greece, for bilateral training with the Hellenic air force Aug. 11-23. The Hellenic air force is Greece's air force, and the flying training deployment includes large force training events aimed to gauge the compatibility between the two nations with a focus on strengthening joint readiness.
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08/13/2014
Iraq’s new prime minister-designate won pledges of extra military and economic support from the Obama administration Tuesday, while Iran also endorsed the nominee, who called for an end to the sectarian feuds that have allowed Islamist extremists to seize a third of the country. Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the U.S. is willing to provide more cash and military equipment to Iraq if Haider al-Ibadi can quickly form a new, more diverse government.
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08/13/2014
To strengthen the fighting and power projection capabilities of its air force, China is currently testing nine different new types of aircraft, according to the Canada-based Kanwa Defense Review. One of those aircraft is China's first fifth-generation stealth fighter, the J-20. Photos released on a Chinese military website indicate that the J-20 is a multirole fighter designed for both aerial combat and ground attack because of its longer and larger build than Russian fighters such as the Su-33
(Read More...)
08/13/2014
Japan's new defense white paper has done little to mend fences with Beijing, with the Chinese government complaining that its Asian neighbor is using the "China threat" to justify a bigger defense budget. Japan will spend about $49 billion on defense in the fiscal year to March 2015 -- up about 3% from the previous year -- in the face of what it says is a worsening security environment in the region.
(Read More...)
08/13/2014
So once again the U.S. is bombing Iraq, as it has done under every U.S. president since George H. W. Bush. It’s worth remembering how thrilled U.S. diplomats were in 1984 when the U.S. finally established full diplomatic relations with Baghdad. The State Department’s Arab experts were overjoyed that the U.S. would have relations with, and a modicum of influence over, one of the largest and most powerful Arab states.
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08/13/2014
The negotiation for Rafale aircraft is on, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said Tuesday. The minister told the Rajya Sabha that Dassault Aviation of France, the original equipment maker of Rafale aircraft, had emerged as the lowest bidder for procurement of medium multi-role combat aircraft. "Given the complexity of the procurement case, the process of negotiations with Dassault Aviation on various aspects of the commercial proposal and provisions of draft contract is on," Jaitley said.
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08/13/2014
The business partners working on India's prestigious Light Combat Aircraft - a lightweight multirole fighter jet - have decided to ensure the indigenous content of components used in the aircraft touches 80 per cent in the next three years.
(Read More...)
08/13/2014
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., and Boeing have been selected to build a helicopter for the U.S. Army’s Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator Phase 1 program (JMR TD), paving the way for the next generation of vertical lift aircraft.
(Read More...)
08/13/2014
Russia's new Sukhoi fighter jets cost more than 1 billion rubles ($28 million), Col. Gen. Viktor Bondarev, the Russian Air Force commander-in-chief, said Tuesday. "New aircrafts appear, and their cost is enormous. Each plane costs more than 1 billion rubles: Su-30, Su-35, Su-34," Bondarev told Rossiya-24 television channel.
(Read More...)
08/12/2014
Moderate rebel forces are warning that they are in danger of losing their last foothold in Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial center, and that government troops are pressing an offensive that is just three miles from completely cutting rebel supply lines.
(Read More...)
08/12/2014
The Obama administration on Monday made clear that U.S. airstrikes against the Islamist militants sweeping toward the capital of Iraq's quasi-independent Kurdistan were meant to blunt their advance while giving the Kurds' vaunted Peshmerga fighters, who have not easily dispatched with the Sunni guerillas, time to regroup. But as the Islamic State gains ground, the question is whether these storied Kurdish fighters are up to the task.
(Read More...)
08/12/2014
Vice President Joe Biden on Monday told Iraqi leaders the U.S. is ready to help a new government in its fight against Islamic State militants, signaling the potential for deeper U.S. involvement in Iraq. Mr. Biden spoke separately with Iraqi President Fuad Masum and Haider Al Abadi, the country's new prime minister-designate, by telephone the White House said. Mr. Masum selected Mr. Abadi on Monday to lead a new government.
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08/12/2014
Australia has pledged support to the United States to prevent further atrocities being carried out in Iraq. The offer came as US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Sydney ahead of the annual AUSMIN talks between the US and Australian defence and foreign affairs ministers in Sydney. Australia is planning the deployment of military aircraft to drop aid packages in northern Iraq following a request from the US.
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08/12/2014
The Pentagon’s top war planner said the military campaign’s impact remains limited after four days of airstrikes in northern Iraq, and the Islamic militants continue to be a powerful force capable of terrorizing Iraqi civilians and seizing territory. “I in no way want to suggest that we have effectively contained, or that we are somehow breaking the momentum of [the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant],” said Army Lt. Gen. William Mayville, the director of operations, or “J-3” for the Joint Sta
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08/12/2014
Attracting an increasing number of foreign air arms, Anatolian Eagle has become a high-tech exercise that gives participating units the opportunity to assess their capabilities and readiness for war, to improve multinational cooperation, and to test new weapons systems: some extremely important tasks, especially for nations such as Turkey which face increasing instability, pressure and threats along their borders.
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08/12/2014
The president today lauded Iraqi President Fouad Massoum for naming Haider al-Ibadi as Iraq’s new prime minister-designate, calling it an “important step” on the path towards a more inclusive government that would “unite Iraq’s different communities.” Mobilizing international support to combat terrorism in the region would be “easier” once a new government was put into place, said Obama.
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08/12/2014
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced Monday that an international humanitarian mission would be sent to the war-torn east of his country, in a fragile move toward peace on a day in which fighting continued unabated. The announcement came shortly after the Kremlin said it was sending a “humanitarian convoy” of its own to Ukraine with the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
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08/12/2014
From air strikes to humanitarian airdrops, the Pentagon kicked off operations in Iraq to combat terrorist attacks. Here are some specifics on the aircraft they're using — and perspective on the much-hyped 500-pound bombs. Two F/A-18 aircraft from The Boeing Co. — twin-engine multirole fighters known as Super Hornets and often used for air-to-air missiles and air-to-surface weapons — dropped laser-guided bombs on a mobile artillery piece near Erbil.
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08/12/2014
Russia will start developing a replacement for its MiG-31 "Foxhound" interceptors in 2017, Col. Gen. Viktor Bondarev, commander of the Russian Air Force, said. “From 2017 we will start working on a new long-range interceptor to replace MiG-31,” he said. According to the official, the new aircraft is to enter service in 2025.
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08/11/2014
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, on Saturday that "Russia should not intervene in Ukraine under the guise of humanitarian convoys or any other pretext of 'peacekeeping,'" according to a senior State Department official. Kerry urged "all parties to work through international organizations" to provide humanitarian assistance in eastern Ukraine, the official said.
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08/11/2014
Russia and the West are at war – over fruits, veggies, meat and bank loans. The cause is Ukraine, a vast emptiness formerly unknown to the western world, but now deemed a vital national security interest worthy of risking a very scary war. Economic embargoes such as those launched by the US against Russia may seem relatively harmless. They are not. Trade sanctions are a form of strategic warfare that is sometimes followed by bullets and shells.
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08/11/2014
The U.S. military launched four airstrikes Saturday in northern Iraq designed to defend members of the Yazidi religious minority who were coming under attack from Islamic extremists, U.S. officials said. American aircraft also conducted a third airdrop of food and water for thousands of Yazidis stranded on Mount Sinjar, officials said. One C-17 and two C-130 aircraft dropped 3,800 gallons of drinking water and 16,128 meals, and were supported by U.S. fighter aircraft.
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08/11/2014
Australia will not rule out providing military “back-up assistance” to the US in Iraq, the defence minister, David Johnston, has confirmed. The Australian government’s initial focus is on humanitarian airlifts to provide food and water drops to people stranded on Mount Sinjar, but Johnston left the door open to a future role, saying right-minded countries could not “just sit back and watch atrocities unfold on their nightly television without taking some action”.
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08/11/2014
As fifth-generation fighters outgrow the Air Force’s premiere combat training exercise, the service should look to virtual training for pilots to test the limits of the F-22 and F-35, the outgoing head of Air Combat Command said. Red Flag exercises, held four times a year at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, train more than 27,000 people who fly or support air operations of 1,200 aircraft and 20,000 sorties each year, according to the base.
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08/11/2014
Admiral Harry Harris, the Commander of the United States Pacific Fleet, has a reputation as a plain-spoken American military leader. In a long discussion with The Weekend Australian in his Hawaiian office this week, Harris amply fulfilled this high accolade. To render some of the take-outs in their starkest form: Harris thinks China is engaging in destabilising and provocative conduct at sea. He is worried that this could lead to an incident which escalates dangerously.
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08/11/2014
U.S. warplanes made a second wave of airstrikes Friday in northern Iraq against the militants who have besieged a religious group and threatened the city of Irbil, a Pentagon official said.
Rear Adm. John Kirby, spokesman for Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, said the second wave of strikes used a drone to attack a mortar position while four FA-18 fighter-attack planes hit a seven-vehicle convoy outside Irbil.
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08/11/2014
Kurdish forces have regained control of two towns in northern Iraq seized by Islamic State militants, Agence France-Presse reported on Sunday. "The Peshmerga (Kurdish fighters) have liberated Makhmur and Gwer," Peshmerga spokesman Halgord Hekmat told AFP. Hekmat said "US aerial support helped” to liberate the towns. Representatives of the regional authorities also confirmed that the Kurdish troops had recaptured the towns following fierce battles.
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08/11/2014
The United States conducted four additional airstrikes on positions of Islamic State (IS) militants, who took control of several provinces in Iraq, Associated Press reported Sunday, citing the US military. According to the agency, the operation involved manned and unmanned aircrafts of US Air Force. One truck and several armored vehicles, which reportedly were used by the militants to fight civilians, were destroyed as a result of the airstrikes.
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08/10/2014
The next time fighter jets take off from Nellis Air Force Base for a Red Flag air combat exercise, there will be fewer would-be “bad guys” to battle. Up-and-coming pilots who will be flying their first 10 simulated combat missions will face an adversary force that has fewer sparring partners, a sign of the times as the military reduces its planes and personnel and U.S. combat operations wind down in Afghanistan.
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08/10/2014
President Obama says it all the time – no combat troops will return to Iraq. But many experts believe it will be extremely hard to achieve Obama’s newly expanded military mission there without more Americans on the ground. “I think the slippery slope analogy is the right one for Iraq right now,” said Barry Posen, director of the Security Studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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08/10/2014
The U.S. Air Force has ordered 38 MQ-9 Reaper ER UAVs. This is an upgrade of the original MQ-9 design that allows longer endurance(up to 35 hours) by carrying two fuel tanks (one under each wing) that use a new fuel management system that ensures fuel is taken from the main fuel tank and the two external tanks in such a way that the aircraft does not become unbalanced.
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08/10/2014
US forces Saturday launched more airstrikes in northern Iraq to defend attacks on Yazidi civilians, the Pentagon said, on the second day of its military campaign. President Barack Obama had announced this week he had authorized US air strikes in part to help break the siege of Mount Sinjar, where fighters from the so-called Islamic State forces have cornered and reportedly threatened to kill thousands of civilian refugees from the Yazidi religious minority.
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08/10/2014
Australia's air force could be helping the humanitarian aid effort in Iraq within days, but military action has been all but ruled out. Prime Minister Tony Abbott today revealed US officials had asked for Australia's help. He said two RAAF C130 Hercules aircraft currently stationed in the United Arab Emirates could be dispatched within days.
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08/09/2014
The head of NATO called on Russia to "step back from the brink" of war by pulling its troops back from the Ukrainian border and warned further intervention in Ukraine would bring it greater isolation in the world. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the U.S.-led alliance's secretary general, made his call on Thursday during a visit to Ukraine in a show of solidarity after NATO warned of a possible invasion by Russia which, it said, had massed 20,000 troops near the frontier.
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08/09/2014
The U.S. has a massive force of ships and aircraft in the Persian Gulf for the air campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq. The first airstrikes against the Islamic State were carried out by two aircraft from the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush, which is in the Persian Gulf along with the amphibious assault ship Bataan; the amphibious dock landing ship Gunston Hall; the cruiser Philippine Sea; and the destroyers Arleigh Burke, O’Kane and Roosevelt, according to the Defense Department.
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08/09/2014
U.S. military aircraft dropped humanitarian aid to Iraqis under threat from hardline militants in northern Iraq for the second straight night, the Pentagon said on Friday. "This airdrop was conducted from multiple airbases within the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility and as with last night, included one C-17 and two C-130 cargo aircraft that together dropped a total of 72 bundles of supplies," the Pentagon said in a statement released late on Friday.
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08/09/2014
“I believe,” says Oleg Demchenko, “that my grandchildren will fly in the MC-21." It is a bullish statement from the Irkut president and says much about his faith in the longevity and sales prospects for an airliner that has yet to roll out, let alone perform its maiden flight. Still, with a claimed firm backlog of 175 orders and a further 75 aircraft covered by tentative commitments, alongside a programme that has not experienced any disasters over the last 12 months.
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08/09/2014
A C-17 air transport based in Charleston was among three U.S. aircraft that dropped supplies Thursday to Iraqi refugees trapped on a mountain in northern Iraq, the Pentagon confirmed Friday. The S.C.-based plane dropped fresh drinking water to the refugees, including Christians and ethnic Yazidis, who had fled advancing forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, terror group.
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08/09/2014
US fighters dropped bombs on Islamic militants in Iraq Friday, the Pentagon said, carrying out President Barack Obama's promise of military force to counter the advancing militants and confront the threat they pose to Iraqi civilians and Americans still stationed there. Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said that two F/A-18 jets dropped 500-pound (227-kilogram) bombs on a piece of artillery and the truck towing it.
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08/09/2014
The US campaign against a militant group that has taken control of huge chunks of Iraq has begun. Despite the near-total withdrawal of US ground troops from the country in the past five years, the Pentagon has many options for more airstrikes — and many options on deployment, given the air dominance US forces will have. On Friday morning, Pentagon officials said a pair of F/A-18 Super Hornets had bombed artillery belonging to Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISL).
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08/09/2014
The South Dakota Air National Guard is providing two F-16 Fighting Falcon static displays for the Black Hills Community Appreciation Day. The aircraft are assigned to the 175th Fighter Squadron, part of the 114th Fighter Wing at Joe Foss Field in Sioux Falls.
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08/09/2014
The production of MiG-31 interceptor aircraft should resume, as they could prove effective for another 15 years, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Friday. “The aircraft had no rivals. That was the opinion of the Military-Industrial Commission, the Defense Ministry, the industry on the whole and even the State Duma, which used to hold special hearings on the subject of the interceptor. The production should be revived, as the jet is being upgraded.
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08/09/2014
Deliveries of the Mi-8AMTSh-VA helicopters, a variant of the Mi-8 medium twin-turbine transport helicopter modified for use in the Arctic, may begin as early as next year, Leonid Belykh, managing director of the Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant (UUAP), said Friday.
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08/08/2014
President Obama has ordered air strikes to protect US interests in the city of Erbil and and prevent the “genocide” of 40,000 Iraqi refugees isolated on a mountain. He told a gathering in Washington DC this morning that he had authorised the targeting of any Islamic State convoy or troop movements in the direction of the northern Kurd city of Erbil which is the location of a US support and training effort.
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08/08/2014
The release of the 2014 National Defense Panel report landed with a quiet thud last week as most of Washington headed out for August vacations. Much delayed from its original congressionally mandated release three months after the Quadrennial Defense Review, the NDP review seemingly ignored today’s intractable budgetary realties by arguing for an even bigger defense budget. At the same time, it offered few tradeoffs and even fewer creative ideas for building a more efficient military.
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08/08/2014
The Egyptian military has captured a large cache of anti-aircraft weapons delivered by convoys from Sudan and Libya. On Aug. 5, five policemen and four suspected insurgents were killed in a battle on the Matrouh highway, the usual convoy route along the Mediterranean coast. The sources said the insurgents attacked two security checkpoints on Matrouh.
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08/08/2014
United States military aircraft on Thursday dropped food and water to thousands of Iraqis beseiged by Islamic militants on a mountain top in norther Iraq, according to a senior Pentagon official. The military made the announcement after the planes had delivered the supplies and left the area. President Obama was scheduled to discuss the mission in a televised address Thursday night.
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08/08/2014
Russian strategic nuclear bombers and other military aircraft entered US air defense identification zones (ADIZs) at least 16 times over the past ten days, American defense officials confirmed on Thursday. “Over the past week, NORAD has visually identified Russian aircraft operating in and around the US air defense identification zones,” said Maj. Beth Smith, spokeswoman for US Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
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08/08/2014
The federal government is scrapping plans to purchase as many as four new manned spy planes for domestic and international surveillance missions. The Department of National Defence notified military contractors on Tuesday that Ottawa is no longer considering purchasing the new planes, citing “security and technical feasibility” reasons.
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08/08/2014
Nearly two years after an international intervention against jihadists in Mali, France officially launched a successor operation on August 1st, dubbed Operation Barkhane. The goal is to combat terrorism in the Sahel-Saharan region. A total of 3,000 French soldiers will be deployed in five partner countries, the "G5 of the Sahel": Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad.
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08/08/2014
The U.S. Air Force announced Eielson Air Force Base is its preferred location for two new squadrons of F-35 fighters Aug. 7, less than a year after the base avoided losing an F-16 squadron. “Today, Alaska is a huge winner in this, but so is the nation because there is no question about our military readiness in Alaska,” Sen. Mark Begich said at a press conference held in Anchorage immediately following the announcement.
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08/08/2014
The United States has suspended the delivery of military aircraft to Iraq. Officials said the administration of President Barack Obama has rebuffed Iraqi requests for the combat aircraft after concluding that the Iraqi military was not capable of securing these platforms amid the advance of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The officials said the F-16s no longer had a home with the ISIL siege on the Iraq Air Force base at Balad.
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08/08/2014
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan has suspended its cooperation with the Afghan National Army (ANA) at various military facilities after the killing of a US major general, Der Spiegel reported Thursday. ISAF commander Joseph Dunford suspended the Afghan military support mission by ordering on Tuesday all international instructors and military consultants to remain in their camps until Friday, while the incident is being investigated.
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08/07/2014
Recent events have cast the Baltic States in a new light, as a barrier between Russia and the West. NATO, especially U.S. involvement, has shown the world the strategic importance of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, as well as Poland. NATO training exercises are being conducted in response to both the crisis in Ukraine, as well as the increasing Russian presence in the Baltic Sea region.
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08/07/2014
Lockheed Martin has delivered its first of three KC-130J tanker/transports to the Kuwait air force, providing the service with a new air-to-air refuelling capability. Carrying the registration KAF 326, the short-fuselage aircraft will be followed by another two contained within a production order signed in 2010. These are to be handed over before the end of this year, according to Flightglobal’s Ascend Fleets database.
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08/07/2014
Alenia Aermacchi has completed the first phase of integration tests of the Storm Shadow missile into the Typhoon multi-role combat aircraft. Working in collaboration with Cassidian and BAE Systems, the company evaluated various aspects of aeromechanical missile integration into the aircraft, at its facility at Decimomannu Air Base in Sardinia, Italy. The tests started in December last year with instrumented production aircraft 2 (IPA2).
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08/07/2014
Russian Helicopters, a subsidiary of Oboronprom, part of State Corporation Rostec, is pleased to announce that Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant (UUAP) has produced its 850th Mi-171-series helicopter. The landmark aircraft was a Mi-171A1 built for Brazilian commercial operator Atlas Taxi Aereo. The Mi-171A1 is one of the latest commercial models of the world-famous Mi-8/17 series.
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08/07/2014
An arms embargo should be imposed on Israel, the former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell has said , as he warned that the level of misery and carnage in Gaza was likely to poison the remaining goodwill in the region for generations. Mitchell also said on Wednesday that UN schools in Gaza should not have been targeted for attacks since they were places of sanctuary.
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08/07/2014
Rising concerns that Moscow is poised to launch an invasion into Ukraine are well-grounded because Russian troops are continuing to mass along the volatile border between the two countries, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday. “There is no question that Russia continues to build up on the border.
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08/07/2014
India’s government officially opened up the defense industry to foreign investors Wednesday, allowing defense contractors from abroad to own up to 49% instead of 26% of Indian military equipment makers. The plan was first announced in the July 10 budget by new finance minister, Arun Jaitley. The cabinet approval is all the proposal needed to become a national policy.
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08/07/2014
The 15th P-8A Poseidon built by Boeing [NYSE: BA] arrives at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla., where it will help expand the U.S. Navy’s long-range maritime patrol capabilities. The aircraft, delivered on schedule July 31st, joined the other Poseidon aircraft being used to train Navy crews in preparation for deployment.
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08/07/2014
Boeing has received a contract from NATO worth approximately $250 million to install digital flight decks and avionics on 13 of the alliance’s Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft, which are based on the Boeing 707 commercial airplane. The new technology ensures compliance with current and future air traffic control and navigation requirements, giving the aircraft broader access to airspace around the world.
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08/06/2014
Iraq's government sent its air force on Monday to back Kurdish forces struggling to blunt a jihadist advance, an extraordinary move that reflects alarm over the insurgents' brash new offensive against Kurds in both Iraq and Syria. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's authorization of air support came after the Kurdish forces, known as Peshmerga, lost a string of towns over the weekend to the militant group, which calls itself Islamic State.
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08/06/2014
The Ukrainian military on Monday appeared to be readying a long-awaited major assault on the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, warning civilians to leave as troops tightened their ring around the city amid heavy fighting. Extra evacuation corridors were set up for cars bearing white flags, said Andriy Lysenko, a military spokesman. The Donetsk city government posted the corridor routes on its Web page.
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08/06/2014
The USAF is working to extend the service life of its fleet of C-130 combat delivery aircraft by replacing center wing boxes on some of the planes and adding new avionics, electronics and instrumentation, service officials told Military?.com. The modernization effort encompasses maintenance and technological improvements to the older C-130 H-model planes as well at the more modern C-130J aircraft, said Col. Robert Toth, division chief for special operations, rescue and trainer programs.
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08/06/2014
No matter it is ceasefire or war time, the British government has decided to take a call on reviewing arms sales to Israel. The Downing Street has ordered a review of all the export licences in the aftermath of the Gaza assault that killed 1,700 Palestinians. An official spokesman of the PM's office confirmed that the government is getting ready to review all the export licences to Israel.
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08/06/2014
The United States (US) State Department has approved the sale of two C-130 planes to the Philippines in a move seen to boost the strategic partnership between the two countries. The package has an estimated cost of $61 million or roughly P2.67 billion and would include equipment, parts, training and three-year logistical support, a statement by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said.
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08/06/2014
Japan’s annual defence whitepaper underlines the importance Tokyo places on the industrial participation aspects of the Lockheed Martin F-35A programme, and casts a wary eye on airpower developments in China. The whitepaper, produced annually by the Ministry of Defense, touches on all aspects of Tokyo’s security situation, from the disruptive potential of non-state actors to challenges posed by major powers, namely China.
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08/06/2014
Russia’s aircraft maker Sukhoi has delivered another batch of its multirole fighters Su-30M2 to the country's Air Force, according to the company’s press office. “Under the state arms procurement program, the Sukhoi company handed over a batch of multirole fighter jets Su-30M2,” it said Tuesday in a press release.
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08/06/2014
The US and European Union are stepping up their campaign against Russia as the Ukrainian army intensifies its attack on the civilian population in the east of the country, unleashing a humanitarian catastrophe. Meanwhile, in leading political and military circles there is increasing talk of a direct military engagement with Russia.
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08/06/2014
Due to “inordinate delay” in intermediate jet trainer (IJT) programme of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), the Indian Air Force (IAF) has initiated action to look for alternatives and extend the technical life of the Kiran trainer aircraft, Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday.
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08/06/2014
Philippine News Agency – With two South Korean F/A-50 “Fighting Eagle” jet aircraft expected to arrive and be in commission by 2015, the Philippine Air Force (PAF) announced that it will soon form an assessment team that will sift through the technical specifications of the various fighter aircraft available and decide which one is the best and affordable for the country.
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08/05/2014
Kurdish military commanders and observers have been left stunned by an offensive by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in northern Iraq over the weekend which has seen the group seize control of a number of areas from Kurdish forces. Reports over the weekend said ISIS fighters had captured a number of towns in northern Iraq, and came close to seizing Iraq’s largest dam.
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08/05/2014
The Ukrainian military on Monday appeared to be readying a long-awaited major assault on the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, warning civilians to leave as troops tightened their ring around the city amid heavy fighting. Extra evacuation corridors were set up for cars bearing white flags, said Andriy Lysenko, a military spokesman. The Donetsk city government posted the corridor routes on its Web page.
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08/05/2014
When Russian forces invaded Crimea Ukrainian Air Force aircraft deployed near Sevastopol were dismantled, loaded on trucks and relocated to the mainland Ukraine. But 7 healthy MiG-29, MiG-29UB two seater Fulcrums and 3 L-39 stored there remained on the Crimean repair plant.
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08/05/2014
On a September day in 1974, Capt. Harold "Buck" Adams set the world speed record in the U.S. military's SR-71 Blackbird aircraft. At the controls of the twin-engine supersonic plane, Adams flew from London to Los Angeles in a blistering 3 hours, 47 minutes and 39 seconds.
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08/05/2014
The U.S. Navy is greatly endangered by the global proliferation of anti-ship ballistic and cruise missiles. Some analysts, like Dennis Gormley, Andrew Erickson, and Jingdong Yuan at the National Defense University, say U.S. aircraft carriers in the western Pacific are sitting ducks for communist China’s missiles, especially their CM-400AKG Mach 5.5 Wrecker cruise missile and their DF-21 ballistic missile, dubbed “the carrier killer.” They are wrong.
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08/05/2014
The modernisation of the Indian air force is massive in scale and hugely expensive, but should deliver capability that will put the service at the forefront of any future conflict. At the beginning of this decade New Delhi embarked on a modernisation of the Indian air force on an unprecedented scale. The process is under way as part of the long-term integrated perspective plan, which spans a period of 15 years from 2012.
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08/05/2014
Russia’s Sukhoi aircraft manufacturer plans to sign another contract with India in the framework of the joint project for the construction of a fifth generation multipurpose combat jet, Alexander Klementyev, a Sukhoi deputy director general told Itar-Tass. “We hope the contract [for experimental design works] will be signed soon,” he said.
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08/05/2014
The Cold War brinkmanship between Russia, NATO and the United States is back with military aircraft once again playing their deadly game of “chicken” in the skies. The latest incident at the weekend — involving a US “electronic intelligence” surveillance jet flying in what the US insists was international airspace over the Baltic Sea — is just one of an apparently escalating series of probe, counter-probe and mid-sky standoff. Such aerial bravado has been rare since the fall of the Soviet Union.
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08/05/2014
Lockheed Martin’s [NYSE: LMT] Dual Mode Laser Guided Bomb (DMLGB) was successfully employed during recent U.S. Marine Corps weapons and tactics instructor training. During the training exercises at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Arizona, AV-8B Harrier aircrews released 19 GBU-12F/B DMLGB weapons. The weapons were released in tactically representative engagements, and used various targeting modes against fixed targets.
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08/04/2014
Russia's defence ministry has announced it is holding military exercises this week involving 100 aircraft in the west of the country near the Ukraine border. A spokesman said fighter jets, helicopters and the latest bombers would take part in the operation. Every time Russia announces a new round of military exercises it is seen as a show of strength in the conflict with Ukraine, a BBC correspondent says.
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08/04/2014
The al Qaeda offshoot terrorizing Iraq is in the process of consolidating territorial gains and increasing the target list in Baghdad, a U.S. official and defense analysts say. But at this point, the Islamic State army of Sunni extremists does not have the capacity to take Baghdad, where a huge Shiite population and stiffer Iraqi forces defend the capital.
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08/04/2014
A U.S. surveillance plane is joining Singapore’s military in exercises as the navy tests the aircraft’s capabilities after the Pentagon found it ineffective at some tasks. The P-8A Poseidon, a Boeing Co. 737-800 modified with radar and sensors, is conducting anti-submarine and surface warfare sorties as part of the CARAT Singapore maneuvers that end Aug. 8, according to mission commander Lieutenant Commander Colette Lazenka.
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08/04/2014
The U.S. military acknowledged Sunday that an Air Force spy plane slipped into Swedish airspace without permission last month to avoid a possible encounter with a Russian aircraft.
The statement by Navy Capt. Gregory Hicks confirms widespread published reports alleging the July 18 incident.
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08/04/2014
As Israel began to redeploy significant numbers of its troops away from populated areas of Gaza on Sunday, an Israeli Air Force missile struck near the entrance of a United Nations school sheltering displaced Gazans in Rafah, killing 10 people and wounding 35 others. Even as Israel moved unilaterally to reduce military contact with Palestinians on the ground in Gaza, while waiting to see how the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad would respond, it continued to fight around Rafah,
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08/04/2014
In early July, hundreds of mourners gathered for the funeral of Kamal Shirkhani in Lavasan, a small town northeast of the Iranian capital Tehran. The crowd carried the coffin past posters which showed Shirkhani in the green uniform of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and identified him as a colonel.
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08/04/2014
Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall last summer challenged defense firms to spend more of their money on internal research-and-development (IRAD) projects. Kendall’s comments sparked widespread debate and divided the defense industry into two camps: one that believed internal investments would spur future government business, and another that believed it could all be a colossal waste of money and time without detailed guidance of where to invest.
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08/04/2014
The Islamic State militants have seized control of Iraq’s biggest dam, an oilfield and three more towns in the country’s north on Sunday, Reuters has reported, citing witnesses.
Concerns grow that the terrorists could use the dam to flood major Iraqi cities or deprive them of water. The militants on Sunday seized the towns of Wana and Sinjar.
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08/04/2014
Independence supporters in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said Sunday they can confirm having downed a Ukrainian Su-25 fighter plane. “It [plane] is lying between the towns of Yenakiyevo and Makiivka [Donetsk Region],” a spokesman for militia told RIA Novosti, adding that a search for the pilot is ongoing. In this area in eastern Ukraine, an intensive fighting between militia and security troops is underway. Ukraine’s military is using aircraft against independence supporters.
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08/03/2014
Gaza Strip refugees who found housing in a school were bombed, leaving 20 dead and more than 100 wounded. The artillery shells struck the school around 5 a.m., and most of the dead were young men gathering for prayer at dawn. A classroom where women and children were sleeping was also struck. A refugee recounts that people were torn to pieces, and witnesses recall Gaza youth picking up body parts in preparation for burial.
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08/03/2014
Four days of fighting left nine IS fighters, three tribesmen and five civilians dead, UK-based Syrian opposition activists say. The jihadists' actions in the Ashara area had bred resentment locally, another activist based in Turkey said. In neighbouring Iraq, IS fighters fought Kurdish forces at Zumar. IS is dedicated to building an Islamist state in Syria and Iraq.
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08/03/2014
Residents of Iraq's second-largest city, which has been under the control of ISIS since early June, have reportedly started clashing with militants, Tim Arango reports for The New York Times. They're chafing under the brutal rule of an organization too extreme even for Al Qaeda. But ISIS's assault on the region's cultural heritage has been particular cause for local alienation from the group.
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08/03/2014
The Marines’ unmanned cargo chopper is headed for storage now that its time in combat is over. The K-MAX, a 6,000-pound aircraft built by Lockheed Martin, has returned home, the company announced July 24. Since 2011, the Marines used two of the drone helicopters to move gear and supplies around the combat zone in Afghanistan, carrying more than 4.5 million pounds of cargo and conducting thousands of delivery missions, according to a Lockheed release.
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08/03/2014
Jordan’s national carrier on Saturday suspended flights to the Iraqi capital for security reasons, an airline official said. “Royal Jordanian suspended its flights to Baghdad today because of the security situation,” said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. The airline was closely monitoring developments in Iraq and may extend the suspension of flights, added the source.
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08/03/2014
The next big threat to American forces might be a flying IED. Officials are worried that proliferation of drone and improvised bomb technology means something as amateurish and cheap as a remote control plane could be turned into a low-tech but deadly weapon.
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08/03/2014
Russian jets were flying over its former Soviet Union states as international monitors started their investigation on the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine. Lithuania's Defense Ministry said a Russian aircraft was recorded "flying without a pre-agreed schedule" in waters near Estonia on Friday by NATO jets stationed in Lithuanian air base, Bloomberg reported, quoting its spokeswoman Viktorija Cieminyte.
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08/03/2014
The anti-submarine Ilyushin Il-38 aircraft is based on a model that has demonstrated its effectiveness for decades. The modernized plane has a sophisticated targeting system and will significantly increase the combat capability of Russia’s Northern Fleet.
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08/03/2014
“And after the F/A-50s, we are hoping that we will soon acquire our first modern fighter aircraft,” Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin in earlier report. It is also known that coming 12 FA-50 Philippine version will act as the country’s trainer and main fighter jets for the meantime, until PAF pilots have gained enough experience in flying supersonic jets and enough budget to acquire more capable and sophisticated aircraft.
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08/02/2014
Aircraft from more than a dozen military units will be operating in northern Michigan over the next several weeks as part of a major training exercise organized by the Michigan National Guard. More than 5,000 Soldiers, Airmen and Sailors will participate in the third annual Operation Northern Strike exercise, based primarily at the Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center and the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center.
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08/02/2014
65,000-ton ships are hard to turn around, and they can drag a lot else in their wake. That’s the $10.4 billion (£6.2 billion) bet the Royal Navy has placed on its controversial program to build two new aircraft carriers. While a third smaller than American nuclear carriers, the ships’ costs have grown so much that the British government is considering temporarily mothballing the second ship, HMS Prince of Wales, as soon as it’s complete.
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08/02/2014
One of the newest fighter jets performed its first short takeoff and vertical landing, Friday, at the Marine Corps Air Station in Beaufort. The landing was executed by Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501’s (VMFAT-501) second F-35B to transfer to the Lowcountry since the squadron relocated from Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. earlier this month.
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08/02/2014
China showed off newfound fighter-jet skills in 2011 with video suspiciously similar to a "Top Gun" clip. Now, the 1986 blockbuster has another parallel as Chinese pilots emulate Tom Cruise's character in fly-bys of rivals. Although not quite the scene with Cruise in an inverted-jet encounter, Chinese aircraft buzzed Japanese planes near disputed East China Sea islands in May and June in two of the neighbors' closest brushes since World War II.
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08/02/2014
A Jaguar combat aircraft of Indian Air Force today crashed near Bibber village in Kutch district while on a routine sortie from Bhuj air base but the pilot ejected safely. "A Jaguar fighter jet which had taken off from Bhuj air base for a routine sortie crashed near Bibber village, which is 30 kms from the base," an IAF official said. "The pilot ejected safely and is not hurt in the mishap," he said.
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08/02/2014
Eastern Military District combat aviation crews at airfields in the Far East were unexpectedly alerted, Aleksander Gordeyev, the head of the Eastern Military District, said Friday. “Pilots and crews of Su-24, Su-25, Su-27, Su-30CM aircraft and the new Su-35 fighter, as well as an engineering team and support units, were alerted at four airfields,” Gordeyev said.
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08/01/2014
A series of North Korean MIG fighter jets have recently crashed during flight training, Seoul officials said, presumably because of Kim Jong-un’s ambitions to boost his air force’s combat capability by using the old aircraft. According to officials in the South Korean military, three North Korean MIG-19 fighter jets crashed between June and July during training exercises, apparently due to defects in their engines.
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08/01/2014
The CH-53E Super Stallion served as the workhorse of the Marine Corps for more than 30 years; the three-engine helicopter is a heavy lift powerhouse. No aircraft in the Department of Defense can compare to the CH-53E Super Stallion, said Capt. Peter Neirheim, an instructor pilot with Marine Heavy Helicopter Training Squadron 302 and Virginia Beach, Va., native.
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08/01/2014
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter—the cornerstone of America’s future tactical air fleet—will survive its failure to show up at two major international air shows, at Fairford and Farnborough in Britain, this month. It was a good thing in that it showed that the U.S. and British military airworthiness experts had the authority and common sense to put safety first.
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08/01/2014
Russia’s decision to go ahead with the sale of Mi-35 attack helicopters to Pakistan, even in the face of official Indian concerns, is being seen by some quarters as evidence of a “major” regional re-alignment in the wake of the American drawdown in Afghanistan. In fact, the Russia-Pakistan dialogue for regional integration has been underway for some time now and beyond security cooperation.
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08/01/2014
Far from the PR fighting fields of Farnborough, the US Marine Corps is preparing for asurge in the combat capability of the Navy-Marine air/ground expeditionary force. The first squadron destined for initial operational capability (IOC) of the F-35B is the “Green Knights” of VMFA-121 at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma. The aviators and maintainers of this storied squadron are working to bring the first F-35B squadron into service next year, along with MAWTS-1.
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08/01/2014
The US Air Force (USAF) wants to create a more "agile" acquisition system better suited to the rapidly shifting technology landscape, among other changes meant to help the service address looming budget constraints, top officials said on 30 July. Citing a new 30-year strategy document unveiled at a Pentagon press briefing.
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08/01/2014
BAE Systems PLC said on Thursday that it expects to win Saudi Arabian deals to bolsters its international order book this year as it pursues new buyers for the Typhoon combat jet to sustain production that is otherwise due to run out in early 2018. "We are pretty active on some very vibrant campaigns," Chief Executive Ian King told reporters. The company is targeting orders for about 100 more of the twin-engine fighter planes. "We are not lacking opportunities," Mr King added.
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08/01/2014
China showed off newfound fighter-jet skills in 2011 with video suspiciously similar to a “Top Gun” clip. Now, the 1986 blockbuster has another parallel as Chinese pilots emulate Tom Cruise’s character in fly-bys of rivals. While not quite the scene with Cruise in an inverted-jet encounter, Chinese aircraft buzzed Japanese planes near disputed East China Sea islands in May and June in two of the neighbors’ closest brushes since World War II.
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08/01/2014
The armed forces of China, Australia and the United States will conduct their first joint military drills in October, China’s Xinhua official news agency reported Thursday. Exercise Kowari, a joint military exercise involving the three armies, will take place in Australia, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of National Defense Geng Yansheng said during a regular press briefing on Thursday, Xinhua reported.
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08/01/2014
The United States is in negotiations to open a new military base in southern Uzbekistan that would bring $1 billion to the Uzbek budget annually, uzmetronom.com reported Wednesday.
“According to experts familiar with the situation, the main goal of a high-ranking American visitor, with the ranking of general, is to attain Uzbekistan’s consent to deploy an American contingent and military equipment, including aviation, in the Uzbek city of Termez.
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