January 21, 2015 Military Aviation News
01/21/2015
First, they tried an F-104. “Not enough wing or thrust,” recalls Jack Petry, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel. When NASA engineers were launching rockets at Florida’s Cape Canaveral in the 1960s, they needed pilots to fly close enough to film the missiles as they accelerated through Mach 1 at 35,000 feet. Petry was one of the chosen.
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01/21/2015
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is to supply Iraq with a number of Embraer EMB-314 Super Tucano light strike aircraft to help combat the Islamic State, a government official has reportedly disclosed. With IHS Jane's having first reported that the UAE had recently ordered up to 24 Super Tucanos, the official told Defense News on 17 January that the emirates will transfer an undisclosed number to the Iraqi Air Force (IqAF) "before the end of the month".
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01/21/2015
The ‘smallest Air Force in history’ is dealing with more missions than ever. So the flyboys are calling in the military contractors to operate their jets. The U.S. Air Force fleet of planes and pilots is stretched so thin, the service is considering hiring private military corporations flying supersonic jets to train its fighter jocks in mock air combat.
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01/21/2015
“Physics probably favors detection and the ultimate demise of stealthy systems.” So predicted the Hart-Rudman Commission in 1999. Sixteen years later, it’s time for the Department of Defense to ask tough questions about whether to continue investing scarce resources into stealth technology. Foremost among those questions is this: Are we sacrificing too much capacity in a quest for an exquisite capability, a capability that may not offer the edge it once did and whose efficacy is in decline?
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01/21/2015
Even as India is to discuss again France the $22 billion deal to supply 126 Dassault Rafale fighter jets to the Indian Air Force, a big team from Airbus is set to land in India on January 21, ahead of US President Barack Obama’s visit. The timing of the visit is significant, say informed sources. Airbus which had held 46.32 per cent of Dassault Aviation, had sold 8 per cent of the company back to Dassault for $979 million late last year.
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