February 17, 2015 Military Aviation News
02/17/2015
Australia, Italy, the UK, the Netherlands and Norway are all hitting new milestones as the F-35 comes closer to entering their combat forces. Australia, the Netherlands and the Italians will all train at Luke AFB with the Aussies being the first to arrive, the Dutch next month and the Italians at the end of the year. The British are training with the Marines at Beaufort Marine Corps Air Station and their first plane has arrived their already with operational testing going on in Edwards.
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02/17/2015
After a crippling three decade wait by the Indian Air Force for the home-made fighter jet Tejas, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has reportedly set a deadline of a month for training and maintenance manuals to be shared with pilots. The first Tejas- a Light Combat Aircraft- was presented with much fanfare last month to the Air Force by the manufacturer - state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, which is based in Bangalore.
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02/17/2015
The US unit of Europe's Airbus Group was awarded a contract modification worth $220.5 million to build 41 more UH-72A Lakota light utility helicopters for the US Army, planned as flight trainers at Fort Rucker, Alabama. A service budget official said at a roundtable with reporters earlier this month that next year marks the last of the Lakota fleet for the active Army. The president's budget request for fiscal 2016, released Feb, 3, included $187 million for 28 more helicopters.
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02/17/2015
The raids by the Egyptian air force on Islamic State (IS) camps and arsenals is an escalation in Cairo’s 20-month campaign against the cult. The strikes were in retaliation for the murder by mass beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic workers held hostage by IS in Libya. The air action coincided with Egypt’s shift from a defensive to an offensive strategy for containing and ultimately defeating IS in northern Sinai.
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02/17/2015
It's been more than six months since the United States first sent warplanes to conduct airstrikes against the militant group ISIS, and four months since the formation of an international coalition to help fight the terror group. Since then, warplanes from Western and regional members of the coalition have flown hundreds of missions against ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria.
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02/17/2015
President Xi Jinping is expected to authorize robust defense spending for this year despite China's slowing economy, determined to strengthen the country's armed capabilities amid growing unease in Beijing at Washington's renewed focus on Asia. While China keeps the details of its military spending secret, experts said additional funding would likely go toward beefing up the navy with anti-submarine ships and developing more aircraft carriers beyond the sole vessel in operation.
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02/17/2015
Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain does not think much of the raw data the Air Force recently released on the A-10 attack jet, which the service is trying to shelve and which he wants to keep. Air Force tallies show the so-called “Warthog” has killed more “friendly” troops and Afghan civilians since 2010 than any other U.S. aircraft, USA Today reported.
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02/17/2015
France and Egypt were poised on Monday to sign a multibillion-euro deal for the first sale of the Rafale fighter jet despite human rights concerns. French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was to travel to Cairo to sign the €5.2bn deal for 24 Rafale fighters that Paris hopes will prompt others to snap up its premier combat jet.
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02/17/2015
Egyptian warplanes staged a second wave of airstrikes against ISIS targets in Libya on Monday in retaliation for the slaughter of 21 Egyptian Christians by ISIS militants, Egypt's state-run Ahram Online reported, citing security officials. The airstrikes followed an earlier wave that struck ISIS camps, training areas and weapons depots, the military said in a statement.
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