February 23, 2015 Military Aviation News
02/23/2015
Israel has signed a deal to purchase 14 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters from the US, with the option of another 17, the Defense Ministry announced on Sunday. In an agreement inked over the weekend, Israel will obtain the aircraft as part of a total $2.82-billion package that began with the purchase of 19 of the fighters in 2010.
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02/23/2015
It’s still quiet on the CF-18 front in Iraq, at least for now. The Canadian Forces doesn’t have any new updates on bombing runs. Feb. 13 was the last one (at least publicly released) with the jets leading other coalition fighter planes in an attack on a building suspected of being used by ISIL to make improvised explosive devices or IEDs. There could be a new technical briefing sometime this upcoming week. (Defence Watch will update when new information is released).
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02/23/2015
When Egypt signed an agreement to purchase 24 Dassault Rafale fighters, it marked a milestone for the program: the first international sale of the jet, which has struggled to find a market outside of its home nation of France. But what should be a celebratory attitude at the company's Paris headquarters has instead turned glum, as the crown jewel of its expansion plans — a $12 billion deal with India that has been in the works since 2012 — now appears in danger.
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02/23/2015
“We must expect to be the force of first resort more often than ever before,” he will tell an air force conference in Melbourne today. “Governments now require increasingly rapid military responses, whether in the form of humanitarian missions or combat forces capable of deploying over vast distances and being able to immediately operate with our major allies.
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02/23/2015
London's successful blocking of the Gripen fighter sale to Argentina appears to have done little to stop Buenos Aires' determination to replace its aging attack and fighter fleet. Nor has it halted its threats to use force to "liberate" the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands from British control. In October, Argentina's Defense Minister Agustin Rossi announced plans to procure 14 Saab Gripen fighters to replace its single-engine Dassault Mirage III/5, which saw combat during the 1982 Falklands War.
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02/23/2015
The Typhoon combat jet will receive a £165 million makeover with a new package of enhancements that will include integration of the Brimstone 2 missile, representatives of the four-nation program announced on the opening day of the IDEX defense show on Sunday. The single largest part of the package is the £72 million deal with BAE Systems to complete integration of MBDA's air-to-ground Brimstone 2.
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02/23/2015
He once described his role as an Apache pilot fighting the Taliban as “the best experience ever”. But Prince Harry has now decided never to fly a combat helicopter again. The Prince, who spent five months in the cockpit of a gunship in Afghanistan, has opted to hang up his flying goggles, even though the Army is short of pilots. Prince Harry, 30, or Captain Wales as he is called in the Forces, was expected to return to the skies with the Army Air Corps after arranging the Invictus Games.
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02/23/2015
The US-led coalition against the Islamic State militant group conducted six airstrikes on insurgents' positions in Iraq and Syria, the US Defense Department said in a statement Saturday. According to the statement, two fighting positions of the insurgents were destroyed in Syria.
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02/23/2015
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Drian will meet his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar in the week of February 23 looking to prevent the collapse of a deal to sell 126 Rafale fighter jets. Three years ago, French company Dassault Aviation won the right to start exclusive negotiations with India to supply 126 Rafale fighters in a deal which could be worth as much as $12 billion.
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