July, 2015 Military Aviation News
07/31/2015
The first Air Force Special Operations Command AC-130J gunship made a historic entrance aboard Hurlburt Field on Wednesday — complete with a flyover and taxi underneath a fire truck water arch. The gunship, a heavily-armed, ground-attack aircraft, is one of the Air Force’s most advanced weapons. It’s known for its ability to shoot a large amount of cannon fire at night, as it’s equipped with smart bombs.
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07/31/2015
Thirty-one Iraqi helicopter pilots are being trained in the Czech Republic, the Defense Ministry's spokesman Petr Medek told the Czech News Agency today. Medek said the training of the helicopter pilots is organized by the LOM Praha state firm. The Defense Ministry corrected its original information after Aero Vodochody that will resell 15 L-159 aircraft from the Czech military stock to Iraq dismissed the information about 31 pilots of L-159 planes.
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07/31/2015
The "Ironmen" will be back flying at Langley Air Force Base next month. The 71st Fighter Squadron will be re-activated under a slightly different name -- the 71st Fighter Training Squadron -- during a ceremony Aug. 21, according to a statement from the base.
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07/31/2015
Fighter jets from Nato’s Baltic air policing mission have scrambled to intercept 22 Russian aircraft in multiple formations over the past week, including two of the largest interceptions over eastern Europe since tensions with Moscow began to rise 18 months ago.
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07/31/2015
Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) delivered the 29th C-5M Super Galaxy to the U. S. Air Force on July 28. A Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) aircrew ferried the aircraft from the Lockheed Martin facility here to Stewart Air National Guard Base, New York, where it will undergo internal paint restoration. Once paint restoration is completed, the aircraft will then be flown to Travis Air Force Base, California, where it will be permanently based. It will be the eleventh Super Galaxy assigned to
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07/31/2015
Israel has repeatedly expressed its opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, citing fears of an attack. But Tel Aviv may be inadvertently supplying Tehran with its own military technology, thanks to a deal between Tehran and the Chinese government.
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07/31/2015
Serbia will buy four military helicopters from Russia and Germany in the near future, the country’s Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic said Thursday. "We are approaching the final stage of the purchase of two Russian and two German military helicopters. The first delivery [of the helicopters] is expected soon," Gasic said in an interview with Tanjug news agency.
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07/31/2015
The United States will deliver eight F-16 Block 52 aircraft to Cairo, as a part of its commitment to upgrade Egypt’s military might in light of current terrorist threats, the US Embassy in Cairo said Thursday.
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07/31/2015
India has no intention to stop purchasing Russian arms, an Officer of the Mechanised Infantry Regiment of the Indian Army, Lt. Col. Vivek Suryakant Badve, said Thursday. "I would rather disagree," Badve told RIA Novosti, commenting on an opinion voiced by some experts that India will gradually stop buying Russian armament, replacing it with weapons of domestic production and purchasing with other countries.
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07/30/2015
The Marines’ long-awaited F-35B Lightning II fighters, stealthy jets that can take off vertically from assault ships, are days away from being operational. The respected magazine Aviation Week & Space Technology said Marine Corps Commandant Joseph Dunford is expected to declare “initial operational capability” by the end of this month. The first operational squadron, Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121, is based in Yuma.
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07/30/2015
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has said that its fighter pilots have blocked and seized fuel route of the deadly Boko Haram sect along the nation’s borderline with Cameroon. Dele Alonge, the spokesperson of NAF, in a statement issued on July 29, Wednesday, said patrols along the Nigeria-Cameroon boundaries “have greatly strained the supply efforts of the BHT (Boko Haram terrorists)”.
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07/30/2015
The Royal Australian Air Force has taken delivery of its first EA-18G Growler, one of twelve it it will acquire under an agreement with the U.S. Navy. Australia is the first country outside the U.S to obtain the fighter jets, which are a derivative of the F/A-18 Super Hornet. Boeing, the maker of the EA-18Gs, says they're the only aircraft in production which provide tactical jamming and electronic protection.
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07/30/2015
Russia, China and two other nations will participate in an air force competition next month that will include more than 50 aviation crews, the Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday. The competition, which will occur as part of a larger Russian-operated international military competition, will unfold amid growing Western concern about Russia’s military activity.
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07/30/2015
The South Dakota Air National Guard is providing two F-16 Fighting Falcon static displays for the airshow. 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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07/30/2015
The "Ironmen" will be back flying at Langley Air Force Base next month. The 71st Fighter Squadron will be re-activated under a slightly different name — the 71st Fighter Training Squadron — during a ceremony Aug. 21, according to a statement from the base.
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07/30/2015
Boeing [NYSE: BA] and the U.S. Navy today extended advanced airborne electronic attack (AEA) capability to a key U.S. ally, presenting the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) with its first EA-18G Growler. Australia is the first country other than the U.S. to obtain this aircraft.
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07/30/2015
In addition to a new engine, Russia’s elite Tupolev Tu-160M2 strategic bomber (“White Swan”) is capable of carrying cruise and nuclear missiles and will receive cutting-edge avionics, said Vladimir Mikheev, the adviser of the deputy head of Russia’s Radio-Electronic Technologies Concern (RETC), according to Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
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07/30/2015
Washington believes the reports claiming the leader of the Taliban wing in Afghanistan, Mullah Omar, was dead are trustworthy, White House spokesperson Eric Schultz said in a briefing on Tuesday.
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07/30/2015
The United States and Turkey have yet to identify a group of "moderate insurgents" capable of leading an operation to clear Islamic State (IS) militants from a stretch of territory along the Turkey-Syria border.
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07/29/2015
Argentina has decided to give up trying to purchase the JF-17 Thunder, a multirole fighter known as the FC-1 Xiaolong jointly developed by China and Pakistan, reports the Shanghai-based Guancha Syndicate.
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07/29/2015
Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James has admitted to a wide range of past and present problems with the F-35 while maintaining that the fifth-general will eventually guarantee the U.S. continued air supremacy over rivals. "The biggest lesson I have learned from the F-35 is never again should we be flying an aircraft while we're building it," James said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado last week.
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07/29/2015
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07/29/2015
The Marine Corps’ version of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 fighter demonstrated poor reliability in a 12-day exercise at sea, according to the U.S. military’s top testing officer.
Six F-35Bs, the most complex version of the Pentagon’s costliest weapons system, were available for flights only half of the time needed, Michael Gilmore, the Defense Department’s director of operational testing, said in a memo obtained by Bloomberg News.
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07/29/2015
After last month’s announcement that India’s Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) program is encountering further delays, with final operational clearance postponed to March 2016 (See: “Surprise: India’s New Fighter Jet Faces More Delays”), the Indian Air Force (IAF) may experience an additional setback in increasing its number of operational combat squadrons.
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07/29/2015
Latvia's Armed Forces reported spotting three Russian aircraft and two ships near its territorial waters on Tuesday. In the air, Latvian patrol planes reported spotting two Russian long-range An-124 military transport aircraft, as well as well as an Il-76 multi-purpose strategic airlifter.
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07/29/2015
Amid high tensions in the South China Sea, Beijing announced it conducted large-scale military drills at both air and sea on Tuesday, focusing on new information warfare systems. With over 100 ships and dozens of aircraft, state-run China Military Online reported that Beijing conducted large, live-ammunition drills in the South China Sea.
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07/29/2015
The United States is looking to broaden its military presence in Turkey with more personnel and combat aircraft, in its effort to intensify fight against ISIL alongside Turkish armed forces, a Pentagon official announced Monday.
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07/29/2015
A senior US official claims that the creation of a safe-zone along an ISIL-controlled border area with Turkey will rely on moderate Syrian rebels, and will not involve Turkish ground troops.
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07/28/2015
After a long period of "preliminary evaluation", Argentina is negotiating the purchase of a batch of Israel Aerospace Industries Kfir Block 60 fighters. The Block 60 is the latest upgraded version of the Kfir, which was used by the Israeli air force between 1975 and 1994. Some aircraft are being offered with General Electric J79 engines with zero hours following a complete overhaul, while other examples would need to have this work performed after their powerplant reaches 1,600 flight hours.
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07/28/2015
What a difference a few years makes. In 2011 the Rafale had no foreign orders. India had been proclaiming the Rafale the “best aircraft for India” for some 5 years by then and declared it the L1 bidder in the tender for the 126 MMRCA with the Eurofighter Typhoon as the L2.
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07/28/2015
Air Mobility Command is losing aircraft tails, squadrons and people. But don’t think that means fewer missions and less work for those flying and maintaining the Air Force’s airlifters and tankers. “Our ops tempo is not going down one bit,” Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Larry Spencer said in a July 22 interview with Air Force Times. “Yet there’s clamor to have the resources go down. So you’ve got the lines on the chart going in opposite directions.”
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07/28/2015
The top U.S. Marine Corps aviator on Monday said an initial squadron of 10 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets met all the requirements for a declaration of combat-readiness during a recent review, and a decision from Marine Corps Commandant General Joseph Dunford was expected soon.
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07/28/2015
The top U.S. military officer in the Pacific sternly warned China on Friday to immediately cease its “aggressive coercive island building” in the South China Sea, which he argued was intended clearly for China’s military use as forward operating bases in combat against their regional neighbors.
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07/28/2015
Two Russian bombers intercepted by U.S. fighter jets off the California coast on July Fourth could be seen as having raised a metaphorical middle finger to the United States. "Good morning, American pilots. We are here to greet you on your Fourth of July Independence Day," they said, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
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07/28/2015
The U.S. will be sending more Air Force personnel and aircraft to Turkey to combat ISIS but plans for a no-fly zone over the Syria-Turkey border remain on hold, Pentagon officials said Monday. "We're holding ongoing consultations with the Turks," said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, but currently "we have no plans for imposition of a no-fly zone."
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07/28/2015
A State Department official said that the United States was not planning to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad militarily because force alone will not solve the crisis in Syria.
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07/28/2015
The Russian Air Force has no plans of deploying long-range Tu-22M3 bombers capable of delivering nuclear warheads to the Crimean Peninsula any time soon, Air Force Commander Col.-Gen. Viktor Bondarev said Monday.
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07/28/2015
Reversing a long standing decision by the two countries, the United States and Turkey have announced plans to provide air cover for "moderate" Syrian rebels. While the Pentagon has admitted severe problems in identifying so-called moderates, the new strategy is meant to combat ISIL and to establish a safe zone along Turkey’s Syrian border.
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07/27/2015
Wilayat Sinai is a well organized and highly skilled terrorist organization. That’s the impression senior Israel Defense Forces officers have gotten from the Islamic State-affiliated group after its string of attacks on Egyptian security forces in Sinai, culminating in a major attack near the town of Sheikh Zuweid on July 1.
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07/27/2015
Mysterious containment booms with Chinese markings on them have ratcheted up tensions in the South China Sea while the Philippines plans to return Subic Bay to its historic mission as a military base. Local fishermen describe the booms, painted orange, linked in a string one kilometer long, as buoys intended to mark off oil spills.
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07/27/2015
U.S. military aircraft, including planes from the soon-to-be San Diego-based USS Theodore Roosevelt, continue to strike Islamic terrorists, with 31 strikes reported so far this weekend.
The Defense Department regularly reports the airstrikes under Operation Inherent Resolve, which includes aircraft from the U.S., other Western nations and Arabian allies. The attacks are directed at the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, better known as ISIL or ISIS.
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07/27/2015
More than 33,000 U.S. and Australian troops took part in Talisman Sabre, a biennial exercise that involved 21 ships including the aircraft carrier George Washington and the landing helicopter dock Bonhomme Richard’s expeditionary strike group.
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07/27/2015
Saab is about to reap the financial reward of a state-backed defense-industrial strategy shaped under Sweden's former Moderate government, which was ousted by the current pro-defense spending Social Democratic Party-led coalition in September 2014.
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07/27/2015
Barack Obama is not likely to be mistaken for Teddy Roosevelt. Yes, his foreign policy has been quite soft-spoken—especially when addressing openly hostile states such as Iran. But he has whittled America’s “big stick” down to kindling.
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07/27/2015
Screaming through the air along southern Virginia’s coast, the Air Force’s F-22 Raptor routinely puts on a dazzling show of loops, dives and combat maneuvers designed to bedevil and defeat opponents before they ever know it’s there. But in its first months of combat in the skies above Iraq and Syria, the stealthy jet’s contribution has been more of an escort role. It has been using its high-tech sensors and communications to guide and protect other fighters that are actually dropping the bombs.
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07/27/2015
Canadian and Hungarian experts will fly over Russia on Monday as part of the Treaty on Open Skies, the head of the Russian National Center for Reducing the Nuclear Threat said. Sergei Ryzhkov said the joint Canadian-Hungarian mission will be carried out by a Hungarian An-26 observation aircraft.
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07/27/2015
The Turkish jets, scrambled from the Diyarbakir airbase, struck PKK positions in the area of Harkurk along the Iraqi-Turkish border, according to the MyNet web portal. Ankara is yet to confirm the strikes.
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07/26/2015
Taiwan's Navy seeks to procure eight to 10 MH-60R Seahawk anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopters via the US Foreign Military Sales program to replace aging MD500 "Defender" helicopters, a local defense industry source said. An announcement is expected by the end of this year and a possible letter of acceptance in 2016, the source said. A US-based defense industry analyst said the deal was estimated at $700 million to $800 million.
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07/26/2015
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Friday Turkey could send troops into Syria to combat ISIS shortly after it was announced that coalition aircraft could start flying missions against ISIS from Turkish airbases. In the campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), NATO ally Turkey would be prepared to send its army across the border into Syria "if there was such a need," Davutoglu said at a news conference Friday.
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07/26/2015
Augmenting its operational strength, the IAF is in the process of inducting additional Su-30 MKI aircraft manufactured under licence by HAL and Light Combat Aircraft ( LCA), which is manufactured indigenously by HAL, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar informed the Lok Sabha. He said that the requirement of fighter aircraft is periodically reviewed to ensure that the IAF meets its operational needs.
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07/26/2015
Russia is set to form an air force and an air defense force within the Northern Fleet, its commander said on Saturday. The decision to establish these forces in the Northern Fleet was announced by the head of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov in late 2014. "We have started the development of air force and air defense force armies within the ranks of the Northern Fleet," Admiral Vladimir Korolev said.
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07/26/2015
Negotiations on delivery of a more modernized Russian air defense system than S-300 to Iran are close to a successful conclusion, a source in the Iranian Defense Ministry told Sputnik on Saturday.
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07/26/2015
US defense contractor Raytheon has been awarded a $180 million contract to provide the US Navy and Saudi Arabia with guided air-to-ground missiles, the US Defense Department announced.
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07/26/2015
The Turkish government approved the use of the Incirlik airbase by US and other anti-Islamic State coalition partners to carry out airstrikes in Syria, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said on Friday.
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07/26/2015
Turkish F-16 Falcon combat jets are carrying out a second wave of airstrikes on Friday against positions of Islamic State militants in Syria, the NTV television reported citing military sources.
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07/26/2015
Washington plans to continue training Ukraine’s defense personnel in the autumn 2015 in the West of the country, US State Department Deputy spokesperson Mark Toner said on Friday. “The United States intends to continue training Ukrainian security forces this fall in western Ukraine,” Toner said during a press briefing.
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07/26/2015
The aviation branch of the Russian Navy will get more than 20 new ship-borne MiG-29K fighters by the end of 2015, the Defense Ministry’s press service said. The warplanes will serve as a backbone for a new aviation unit within the Northern Feet.
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07/22/2015
The proposed 2016 national budget, which President Benigno Aquino is to present to parliament for approval on Monday, would reserve a record 25 billion pesos ($552 million) for defense spending, Agence France-Presse reported.
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07/20/2015
Lockheed Martin Corp., the largest U.S. weapons maker, has agreed to buy United Technologies Corp.’s Sikorsky Aircraft unit, the maker of Black Hawk helicopters, for more than $8-billion (U.S.), a source familiar with the negotiations said on Sunday. The two companies plan to announce the deal on Monday before both report second-quarter results on Tuesday, said the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly.
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07/20/2015
The Russian navy plans to purchase a “submarine-killer” version of its Be-200 amphibious aircraft by 2020, an unnamed official said Sunday. President Vladimir Putin has made the modernization of Russia’s military aircraft a priority as part of a larger plan to revamp the armed forces by the end of the decade.
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07/20/2015
A shroud of secrecy appears to surround the shooting down last week of a military plane allegedly carrying Ukrainian mercenaries. Nigerian military officials as well as Ukrainian diplomats deflected questions on the attack in which five occupants of a surveillance plane, according to details provided to SaharaReporters by a military source.
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07/20/2015
The new commander of the United States Pacific Fleet took part in a seven-hour “surveillance mission” over the disputed South China Sea over the weekend, a move that could spark another diplomatic row with China. The fleet said via Facebook yesterday that Admiral Scott Swift, who arrived in the Philippines on Thursday for a four-day visit, was aboard the P-8A Poseidon aircraft on Saturday “to witness firsthand the full range of the Poseidon’s capabilities”.
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07/20/2015
A push by the Philippines to overhaul its obsolete military has ground to a halt just as the U.S. ally is striving to deter China in the disputed waters between them. A string of programs collectively valued at $1 billion stalled early last year, according to military officials and executives involved in Philippine defense deals.
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07/20/2015
Critics of the nuclear deal with Iran have expanded their attacks to provisions they say that could allow Tehran to vastly improve its abilities to provide conventional weapons to its allies.
The deal reached in Vienna last week restricting Iran’s nuclear program in return for lifting economic sanctions will give Tehran a financial windfall of tens of billions of dollars.
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07/20/2015
Britain's upcoming strategic defense and security review (SDSR) could boost surveillance assets after the prime minister, the defense secretary and the chief of the Defence Staff last week all said they support spending in the sector.
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07/20/2015
African demand for Embraer Defense and Security's flagship A-29 Super Tucano light attack/trainer turbo-prop aircraft is set to surge as economically strained countries seeking cheaper multirole aircraft settle for its lower price tag, operational simplicity and ease of maintenance, a senior African military analyst said.
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07/20/2015
Russia’s observation aircraft will fly over Latvian and Lithuanian territories, while Russian inspectors will visit portions of Latvian territory as part of mutual transparency agreements, the head of the Russian National Center for Reducing the Nuclear Threat said.
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07/18/2015
Israel is preparing to deliver a list of aircraft and weapons it wants from the USA as a “compensation package” for the recent agreement with Iran that limited Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. The pact between Iran and the USA, Europe, China and Russia was signed on 14 July in Vienna and sees sanctions – including those preventing the sale of commercial aircraft – lifted on the nation in return for a halt to the country’s nuclear weapons programme.
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07/18/2015
Several types of new aircraft missiles are being developed for the Tupolev Tu-160M2 strategic bombers, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said on Friday. "Yes, certainly," he said, answering a question if a new missile was being developed. "It will be not one, but several types of missiles - both in terms of the range and capacity. Several [missiles] are being developed," the deputy minister said during a visit to the Kazan-based Gorbunov Aviation Plant (branch of JSC Tupolev).
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07/18/2015
The Philippines will station new fighter jets and two frigates at the former US naval facility in Subic Bay from early next year, officials said, the first time the massive installation has functioned as a military base in 23 years. Using Subic Bay would allow the Philippine air force and navy to respond more effectively to Chinese moves in the disputed South China Sea, security experts said.
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07/18/2015
British pilots have been taking part in coalition bombing raids against the Islamic State in Syria, a freedom of information request has revealed. Flight by British pilot officers across war-zone Syria in apparent defiance of a 2013 commons vote to not commit UK forces to the country has caused consternation today, with members of parliament and human rights activists questioning the activity.
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07/18/2015
One year after 298 civilians fell to earth over eastern Ukraine, Putin’s regime is still denying culpability. Here’s definitive evidence to the contrary. It’s been a year since Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot out of the sky, killing all 298 civilians onboard.
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07/18/2015
Five years ago, the 34th Fighter Squadron of the U.S. Air Force was taken out of active duty to save money. Friday, it was put back into action at Hill Air Force Base in Layton, getting combat-ready to fly the Air Forces’ newest fighter jet: the F-35A. “It’s like flying the future. The growth potential in this airplane is amazing,” said Col. David Lyons. He handed off command of the 34th at the re-activation ceremony on the base.
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07/18/2015
Engineers at Finmeccanica-Alenia Aermacchi in Turin-Caselle, Italy, and at BAE Systems in Warton, Lancashire, completed a series of ground-based tests of the Eurofighter Typhoon with MBDA’s Storm Shadow cruise missile, in preparation for flight trials to take place in the U.K. later this year.
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07/18/2015
The Boeing Company announced today it will recognize a charge on the KC-46 aerial refueling tanker program when it announces second-quarter 2015 results on July 22. The after-tax charge of $536 million ($0.77 per share) reflects higher estimated engineering and manufacturing costs to complete development, certification and initial production of the tanker aircraft, while holding to the program schedule for initial production deliveries in 2017.
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07/18/2015
In an effort to keep the 25-year-old Eurofighter Typhoon competitive against the Russian Su-35, Airbus Defence and Space (DS) has finished flight tests of the jet’s improved maneuverability.
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07/18/2015
Members of Yemen’s exiled government say Saudi-backed fighters have recaptured the strategic port city of Aden from Houthi rebels on Friday, marking a significant shift in an intense conflict that has torn the country apart. But Houthi leaders are contesting the claim, saying the fight is still on.
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07/17/2015
It was expected that the second aircraft will be available for deployment within eight weeks of delivery, the MoD spokesman said. "We can confirm we are committed to delivering the maximum output in support of UK interests as quickly as is practical," the spokesman said.
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07/17/2015
The Army relies on its partners to win in an increasingly complex world. Such was the case demonstrated in Exercise Talisman Sabre 15 in Australia, which is going on from July 4 -19.
Lt. Col. Matt Hardman and his 400 paratroopers, from the 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, had just jumped from seven C-17 Globemasters, two of which were Royal Australian Air Force, or RAAF.
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07/17/2015
The next version of the Air Force’s joint surveillance and attack radar aircraft will have a smaller airframe, along with updated radar, communications and battle management suites. But JSTARS is a recapitalization program, not something new, Col. David Learned, the program’s senior material leader said.
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07/17/2015
Britain is transferring Paveway IV precision guided bombs originally earmarked for the Royal Air Force to Saudi Arabia to enable the Gulf state to build stocks of the weapon being used against targets in Yemen and Syria, sources here said. The Ministry of Defence has swapped delivery positions on the production line at Raytheon UK to ensure the Saudi Royal Air Force has weapon stocks to continue strike missions with the highly accurate 500-pound bomb.
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07/17/2015
The Russian Air Force received new orders of upgraded Su-34 bombers and Su-35S fighters on Thursday, state-owned manufacturer Sukhoi confirmed Thursday. The aircraft shipments were a direct result of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan to overhaul the Russian military by the end of the decade.
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07/17/2015
India and the US have worked out the terms of reference for building the next Indian aircraft carrier with US technology. This has been pushed through after the visit of US defence secretary Ash Carter. As both countries prepare for a September round of strategic dialogue in Washington DC, India is preparing to send a team to speed up talks on the aircraft carrier and the Light Combat Aircraft jet engine, which is also slated to be built with US assistance.
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07/17/2015
Five years after the first F-35s were supposed to be declared combat-ready, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer says the fighter jet’s operating software is ready to go “with some minor workarounds” that need to be remedied later.
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07/17/2015
Scrambles against Russian aircraft fell 76% to 57 times, Reuters reported. The sharp slide in this year’s quarterly decline, however, does not necessarily signal a slowdown in Russian military activities in the region, according to a Defense Ministry official.
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07/17/2015
Earlier in the day, several news outlets reported that Greece had scrambled fighter jets after Turkish aircraft had trespassed into Greek airspace. Turkey does not recognize a 10-mile zone of Greek airspace surrounding islands in the Aegean Sea that are the reason of numerous such incidents between Turkish and Greek warplanes in the sky over the sea.
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07/16/2015
The Czech Defense Ministry is to gain 780 million Kc for the sale of 15 L-159 military aircraft to Iraq, but the deal, which was struck some time ago, seems to be endangered once again over what some Iraqi sources call suspected corruption, daily Lidové noviny (LN) writes today.
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07/16/2015
Flight tests of a Eurofighter Typhoon fighter sporting several aerodynamic modifications have greatly improved the aircraft's agility and weapons-carrying capabilities, Airbus Defence and Space said Wednesday. The addition of fuselage strakes and leading-edge root extensions and other more minor changes to an Airbus test aircraft resulted in improved lift, angle of attack and roll rate capabilities compared with the standard aircraft, the Eurofighter consortium member said in a statement.
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07/16/2015
A 190-member Indian Air Force contingent, backed by Su-30 fighters, IL-78 tankers, C-17 strategic and C-130J tactical airlift aircraft, left for the UK today to take part in the fourth edition of ten-day long bilateral exercise 'Indradhanush'.
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07/16/2015
This marks the first sale of the V-22 aircraft through the U.S. government's FMS program. Contract work is expected to be completed in Jun 2018. V-22 Osprey will be used in Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force. It will help to provide relief efforts during natural disasters. Osprey's capabilities include troop transport, disaster relief, personnel recovery, medical evacuation, logistics support and executive transport.
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07/16/2015
The Philippines will station new fighter jets and two frigates as it reopens the former US naval base in Subic Bay to military use in a further response to Chinese expansionism in the disputed South China Sea.
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07/16/2015
Britain’s top military officer said Wednesday the country’s fleet of combat jets is stretched to the limit and could struggle to take on additional roles in fighting Islamist extremists in the Middle East without scaling back elsewhere.
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07/16/2015
The Brimstone ground attack weapons did not explode and no one was injured in the incident at RAF Akrotiri, a spokesman said. The base has been used in airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq. But the spokesman would not be drawn on whether the aircraft was returning from a combat mission against the terror group, also known as ISIS and ISIL.
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07/16/2015
In an attempt to address the "critical shortage of remotely piloted aircraft pilots," the United States Air Force has just announced an increase of retention bonuses for drone pilots, one that will likely make flying unmanned aircrafts much more appealing.
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07/16/2015
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said Monday that the B61-12 nuclear bomb test in Nevada on July 1, 2015 was openly provocative and contrary to Washington's stated desire for complete nuclear disarmament.
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07/15/2015
The U.N.-brokered cease-fire that was supposed to bring a temporary halt to fighting in Yemen over Ramadan failed before it even started. Supposedly taking effect midnight on July 10, the humanitarian truce was largely ignored by forces on the ground — fighting continued through the weekend. Forces loyal to Yemeni President Abd Rabboh Mansour Hadi claim they were not ordered to commit to the cessation of hostilities, though disrupted communications may have been partially responsible.
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07/15/2015
The Israel Air Force is completing preparations for participation in the American Red Flag exercises that take place at the Nellis Air Force Base. The delegation going to the United States will be similar in size to the one that was supposed to join the training exercise last year: about 10 aircraft, along with the air crews and technical teams. Israel’s participation in last year’s exercise was canceled for budgetary reasons.
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07/15/2015
The top acquisition committee of the Defence Ministry today cleared proposals worth over Rs 30,000 crore, including that to replace army's 60s vintage air defence guns and for buying four more P81 long-range maritime patrol aircraft for the navy.
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07/15/2015
The nuclear agreement with Iran announced Tuesday is an astoundingly good deal, far surpassing the hopes of anyone . . . in Tehran. It requires Iran to reduce the number of centrifuges enriching uranium by about half, to sell most of its current uranium stockpile or “downblend” it to lower levels of enrichment, and to accept inspections (whose precise nature is yet to be specified) by the International Atomic Energy Agency, something that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had wanted to avoid.
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07/15/2015
Two pilots were killed when a strategic bomber with seven people on board crashed in far eastern Russia on Tuesday, the defense ministry said, the latest in a string of military aircraft accidents. "The search and rescue team of the eastern military district has found where two members of the Tu-95 bomber landed," the Russian defense ministry said in a statement.
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07/15/2015
Lockheed Martin received a follow-on foreign military sale contract to produce and upgrade Sniper® Advanced Targeting Pods (ATP) for the Pakistan Air Force’s F-16 fleet. The contract includes the production of 15 Sniper ATPs and upgrades to the Pakistan Air Force’s existing 22 Sniper ATPs.
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07/15/2015
Bell Boeing, a strategic alliance between Bell Helicopter, a Textron [NYSE: TXT] company, and Boeing, was awarded a U.S. Navy contract today for five Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft to be delivered to Japan, marking the first sale of the aircraft through the U.S. government’s foreign military sales program.
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07/15/2015
The United States and Ukraine signed an Open Skies agreement to expand commercial and cargo flights between the two countries, the State Department announced in a statement on Tuesday.
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07/15/2015
On July 13, the US and Singapore naval forces began a joint maritime exercise at Changi Naval Base located in Singapore Strait, which is situated close to the South China Sea. The area holding potentially significant oil and gas reserves, is the subject of a territorial dispute between several regional countries.
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07/14/2015
Wanton death and destruction from the sky? There’s an app for it. According to a recent article in IHS Jane’s Defense, the Syrian Air Force uses iPad apps to help drop explosive, and sometimes chlorine-filled, barrel bombs from the rear of their aging fleet of transport helicopters.
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07/14/2015
Over the next two weeks, Southern Utah, southern Nevada and possibly the Arizona Strip between the two, may experience some reverberation as military exercises are underway at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. Beginning Tuesday GPS intervention testing commences in the same region intermittently over the same period, impacting aviation. Nevadans, in particular, may notice increased military aircraft activity.
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07/14/2015
The U.S. on Monday delivered the first lot of F-16 fighter jets to the Iraqi government to be used in the fight against Islamic militants. Brett McGurk, the administration’s deputy special presidential envoy to the coalition against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), confirmed the deliver on Twitter.
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07/14/2015
For more than a decade now, China and Pakistan have worked together to develop and manufacture a new kind of fighter jet. The aircraft itself exemplifies the friendship and cooperation between the two countries. China named this beauty “FC-1 Xiaolong” – which stands for “ Fighter China, Fierce Dragon”, and in Pakistan it’s called “JF-17”, short for “Joint Fighter”.
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07/14/2015
Summer is the silly season for defense coverage in the nation’s capital. With much of official Washington gone, journalists have to work harder to find anything worth reporting. When they uncover an item that sounds like it might be newsy, they get as much mileage out of it as they can.
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07/14/2015
Lockheed Martin demonstrated its multi-mode Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM), engaging two laser-designated stationary targets during recent Government-led flight tests at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. In the first test, the missile flew four kilometers, engaged its precision-strike, semi-active laser and hit the stationary target.
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07/14/2015
Russian engineers are developing a one-of-a-kind communications system for Russia's next-generation PAK DA strategic bomber which will be able to conduct analysis, make changes and switch its operation modes, a representative of Russia's United Instrument Manufacturing Corporation (UIMC) told RIA Novosti.
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07/14/2015
Three Su-25UTG aircraft and three Su-33 carrier-based fighters were redeployed from the Severomorsk-3 airfield of the Northern Fleet to the Saki airfield. The training sessions will take several weeks and include 10 flying shifts.
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07/14/2015
The principal advantage of an airship is the large surface of its body where radar systems can be mounted. The antennas of anti-ballistic missile radars will be mounted on the cover of an airship, according to a representative of Russia’s KRET company.
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07/13/2015
China needs to develop a new long-range strike bomber capable of attacking targets farther out in the Pacific. This is the principal conclusion of a meeting of Chinese military officials, according to AFP citing a full-page China Daily article published last Tuesday as its source.
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07/13/2015
On July 11, coalition military forces continued to attack ISIL terrorists in Syria and Iraq. In Syria, coalition military forces conducted 16 airstrikes using bomber, fighter-attack and remotely piloted aircraft. Separately in Iraq, coalition military forces conducted 11 airstrikes approved by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense using attack, fighter-attack and remotely piloted aircraft against ISIL targets.
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07/13/2015
Russia's Air Force is falling from the sky. As the Kremlin continues to assert its air power in a bid to intimidate NATO allies in Europe and North America, its mostly Soviet-built aircraft are being pushed to their limits — a fact experts point to when attempting to explain the loss of five aircraft of different designs in just the past month.
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07/13/2015
Finmeccanica-AgustaWestland on July 12 celebrated the centenary of the formation of the Westland Aircraft Works in Yeovil and the many aeronautical achievements that have been made during 100 years of continuous aircraft manufacturing on the site. Established in 1915 Westland has produced many famous fixed wing aircraft designs such as the Whirlwind, Welkin, Wapiti, Lysander before focussing on helicopter production and later on its own designs such as the Lynx and AW101.
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07/13/2015
Mumbai airport played host to a new guest recently. A Japanese Air Force aircraft made stops twice in the last week during its anti-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia, in the Horn of Africa, a peninsula in the north-east of the continent. The airplane landed in Mumbai to refuel as well as to allow its crew to rest.
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07/13/2015
European defense clout is expanding in South Korea, which has long been regarded as a second home turf for American weapon systems. In a sign of growing popularity of European weapons here, Airbus has clinched back-to-back arms acquisition deals for helicopters and in-flight refueling tankers.
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07/13/2015
Airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition targeting Shiite rebels and their allies struck several Yemeni cities on Sunday, with combat raging near the strategic Bab el-Mandeb strait despite a declared truce, military and security officials said. Some 500 troops loyal to exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, along with allied militias, were pushing to take areas near the strait, the officials said.
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07/13/2015
The prime minister has asked them to look at increasing funding for special forces as part of the strategic defence and security review. They have also been urged to consider new spy aircraft, including drones. The priorities were set out after last week's Budget pledged to spend 2% of national wealth on defence until 2020.
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07/13/2015
The United States has launched negotiations with a number of North African countries to position drones on their territory to monitor the Islamic State's activities in Libya, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday citing undisclosed US officials.
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07/12/2015
“One Belt, One Road” is a concept whereby China spreads an economic network over land and sea that they control. “One Belt” refers to the land that they will potentially dominate and unite from western China to central Asia and Europe. “One Road” refers to the maritime lanes that China plans to control, from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean, the Arabic Peninsula and the East Coast of Africa.
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07/12/2015
Lockheed Martin is deep in talks to buy United Technologies’s Sikorsky, maker of the iconic Blackhawk and the White House’s Marine One helicopters, The Wall Street Journal reported late Friday. Citing sources close to the matter, the Journal said the sale could bring more than $8 billion to United Technologies. A deal could be reached in the coming days, it reported.
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07/12/2015
Russian authorities are working to relaunch production of the Soviet-era Tupolev Tu-160 "Blackjack" supersonic nuclear bomber, a Russian defense ministry official reportedly said Friday. "We are already working quickly [on the project], we have created a working group, scheduled monthly meetings with the Industry and Trade Ministry on how the work is progressing and appointed chief designers," Deputy Defense Minister Yury Borisov told RIA Novosti, cited by the Moscow Times.
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07/12/2015
Bearded and wearing bright blue bandanas, the Islamic State group’s “special forces” unit gathered around their commander just before they attacked the central Syrian town of al-Sukhna. “Victory or martyrdom,” they screamed, pledging their allegiance to God and vowing never to retreat.
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07/12/2015
Marine pilots recently dropped dozens of live bombs from the F-35B joint strike fighter for the first time, bringing the aircraft a step closer to its long-anticipated rollout. Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 dropped 30 bombs over five days without a hitch in late June near Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona. It was a first for the squadron testing the aircraft's capabilities, and Marines said they can hit targets in little- to no-visibility.
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07/12/2015
Even as India and France negotiate a final agreement for direct purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets, there is a renewed push by the aircraft makers left out in the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) contest to re-enter the race.
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07/12/2015
Delayed by more than 15 years, India's homegrown Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Mark-1 is ready for critical test flights necessary for its final operational clearance (FOC) at the end of the year, but analysts and Indian Air Force (IAF) officials say that clearance will slip again, to next year.
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07/12/2015
The July 1st attack in Egypt’s north Sinai has signaled a change in strategy from the previous attacks launched in the region, adopting a strategy used by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria forcused on taking and holding territory. Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, Egypt’s most active militant group in the Sinai, swore allegiance to ISIS in November 2014 becoming Sinai Province. The attempt to fly the ISIS flag in Sheikh Zuweid failed due to the Egyptian Armed Forces repelling the attack, killing over 250
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07/11/2015
A fourth C-130H Hercules was delivered June 20 at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, and its significance can be traced back to planners, program managers, engineers and maintainers at Robins. Prior to its delivery to the Afghan Air Force, it first made a stop here for something quite interesting and unique - the complete separation of the aircraft's nose from its fuselage in March 2014.
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07/11/2015
Defense officials on Friday said "individuals" in Afghanistan — whom local media identified as Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants — were planning attacks on U.S. and coalition forces there, necessitating drone strikes earlier this week. "The strikes were against individuals known to be planning attacks against U.S. and coalition personnel," said a U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan.
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07/11/2015
Lockheed Martin's (NYSE:LMT) F-35 could be deemed ready for combat in the coming weeks, a major milestone for the $400 billion program after a series of development issues, as the Pentagon readies its largest order yet of the stealth fighter.
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07/11/2015
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) was supposed to fill multiple roles for the Air Force, Navy, Marines, and US foreign partners. The jet — the most expensive US weapons project of all time — was designed to have aerial combat, close-air support, and long-range-strike capabilities.
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07/11/2015
The flights began last year. The government of Russian President Vladimir Putin, eager to send a message, began flying nuclear bombers on training missions near the United States and its allies around the world.
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07/11/2015
The Indian Government is considering to handover project for improved version of 'Tejas' fighter planes to private sector for efficient and time bound execution. Fed up with a string of delays and design flaws, the government wants to rope in a private player for Light Combat Aircraft, or LCA, programme.
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07/11/2015
The Islamic State’s greatest weakness is that while claiming to defend Muslims, it is most active in killing them, former US State Department Coordinator for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC) Alberto Fernandez told Sputnik on Friday.
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07/11/2015
The move would mark Tokyo's first introduction to a multinational defense project. The United States is encouraging Japan's inclusion in the missile group, hoping that it will pave the way for similar alliances in Asia, sources told Reuters. The 12-country consortium oversees development and shares the costs of the Sea Sparrow missile, an American-made, advanced ship-borne weapon designed to destroy anti-ship sea-skimming missiles and attack aircraft.
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07/10/2015
The recent crash of an Air Force C-130B airlifter was the latest in a long line of fatal accidents involving the country’s military hardware. Between 2006 and 2015, there were a total of 18 accidents or an average of two incidents per year. These have caused huge material losses and most importantly, claimed the lives of well-trained military personnel.
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07/10/2015
Nordic and Baltic airspace violations by Russian planes intensify regional tensions. It's been revealed that Finland's Air Force scrambled to intercept Russian military aircraft recently after violating the Nordic country's airspace. The Russian IL-76 was travelling west en route from Russia when it entered a kilometer into Finnish territory, border officials said, according to the BBC.
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07/10/2015
Sailors from the George Washington Carrier Strike Group (GWCSG) began their portion of Talisman Sabre 2015 off the north coast of Australia, July 7. Exercise Talisman Sabre is a biennial training activity aimed at improving Australian and U.S. combat readiness and interoperability.
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07/10/2015
Sometime next year, the Liaoning aircraft carrier expects to gain its first aircraft battle group in order to compensate for the limited combat radius of existing fleets, according to Xinhua News Agency. China is looking at various strategies in forming its aircraft carrier battle group, according to the report.
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07/10/2015
Iraq's powerful Shiite militias are vowing to drive Islamic State fighters out of Fallujah, setting off a panic in the city where U.S. Marines saw their bloodiest combat of the war. The militias' campaign to besiege the city 40 miles west of Baghdad comes as Iraq's U.S.-backed regular armed forces are gearing up for a counteroffensive in Ramadi, which fell to the Islamic State two months ago.
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07/10/2015
The first female F-35 pilot has taken flight. Air Force Lt. Col. Christine Mau, deputy commander of the 33rd Fighter Wing Operations group, flew her first flight in an F-35A on May 5 at the pilot training school at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. Mau, previously an F-15E Strike Eagle pilot, completed 14 simulator flights before taking to the skies.
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07/10/2015
Gen. Joseph Dunford, the nominee for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he’s willing to rethink the acquisition plan for the most expensive weapons program ever. Much has changed about the Pentagon’s Joint Strike Fighter program in the past 13 years, but one thing has remained steady: the number of F-35s to be bought for the Air Force, Navy and Marines.
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07/10/2015
If the military doesn't pick the Montgomery-based Air National Guard fighter wing for a jet upgrade, the wing could be no more — potentially eliminating nearly 1,400 jobs and shelving the Red Tails, a squadron that carries with it the name and legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen. "There's a real potential that we could go away," 187th Fighter Wing Commander Randy Efferson said.
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07/10/2015
Frustrated by the persistent delays and design flaws that have dogged the Light Combat Aircraft, or LCA, programme, the government is seriously considering whether to hand over the project to build a new, improved version of the 'Tejas' indigenous fighter plane to the private sector for timebound and efficient execution.
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07/10/2015
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot wanted to put short-take-off and vertical-landing F-35Bs – made by American defense contractor Lockheed Martin – on the decks of the Navy's two 27,000-ton troop transport assault ships.
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07/09/2015
Iraqi F-16s and pilots will not be based out of Jordan, as reported by Iraqi media, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said. Abed Issawi, a Shiite member of Iraq's parliament, had told reporters that that the U.S. government was demanding that the Iraqi F-16s fly combat missions from Jordan, not Iraq, according to Rudaw, a Kurdish media outlet.
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07/09/2015
Russia is the biggest threat to US national security and America must boost its military presence throughout Europe even as Nato allies face budget challenges and scale back spending, Deborah James, US Air Force Secretary, said on Wednesday.
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07/09/2015
I read two articles with great interest – “First Tejas Mark II engine to arrive in September” and “From Tejas to AMCA” – on July 6, both by Ajai Shukla of the Business Standard. As a retired Colonel of Indian Army, Shukla speaks with a certainty that comes from experience and in these articles he rails against “self-appointed patriots who see no irony in their advocacy of expensive foreign weaponry”.
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07/09/2015
Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) and Textron Inc (TXT.N) have emerged as final contenders to buy United Technologies Corp's (UTX.N) Sikorsky Aircraft business, which could be valued at around $8 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. UTC is weighing offers from the two companies and may come to a decision by the end of the month, one of the people said.
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07/09/2015
First, from one point of view, it's getting harder to fly fighter jets because there are fewer around and the requirements to even climb in to one are remarkably high. I'm very glad I didn't have this kind of competition for so few slots. Let's move on to the other aspect.
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07/09/2015
A design for a large, nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was unveiled at the seventh maritime and defense show (IMDS’2015) held last week in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Krylov State Research Center—a government-owned scientific institute specializing in marine technologies—showed a scale model of a “multipurpose aircraft carrier” that was comparable in size to the U.S. Navy Nimitz class. The Russian ministry of defense is funding Krylov’s work under Project Shtorm (Storm).
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07/09/2015
The Navy has decided to hold off sending its X-47B combat drones to an aviation museum. For now, the Northrop Grumman aircraft will be kept in flying condition pending high-level decisions on how to move forward. “The Navy is examining a range of potential follow-on activities involving the X-47B air vehicles,” Navy Capt. Beau Duarte, program manager for unmanned carrier aviation, told National Defense in a statement.
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07/09/2015
An Indian Air Force (IAF) recruitment advertisement has generated controversy - and ridicule - in domestic military circles for depicting a Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, an aircraft that it does not operate. The F/A-18 image, featuring in several Indian newspapers on 5 July, appeared alongside Sukhoi Su-30MKI and Dassault Mirage 2000H combat aircraft that are in IAF service and above the tagline 'Join the mission'.
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07/09/2015
According to the United States Defense Department’s latest report on China’s military build-up the “Middle Kingdom” will spend more than $10 billion on land and sea based unmanned aircraft. These will include fixed wing and rotary aircraft to conduct surveillance, attack and even air combat missions.
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07/08/2015
A recent report in a military affairs magazine has shed light on a recent meeting in the Chinese military where the need for a strategic aerial capability was made clear. China already has strategic bombers in its inventory but they will not meet the future military needs of the country.
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07/08/2015
The US Air Force has decided to team up with the Department of Defense to speed up the development of hypersonic aircraft and hopes to achieve its goal by 2023. Hypersonic refers to any aircraft that travels at five times the speed of sound, which is about 3,800mph and known as Mach 5. In order to achieve this, the plane needs to be lightened using Supersonic Combustion Ramjet Engines (Scramjet) technology.
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07/08/2015
Airmen assigned to the 41st Expeditionary Helicopter Maintenance Unit here constantly work maintaining HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters so that the combat rescue mission in Afghanistan can be a success if and when it is needed. The 41st EHMU is part of the 455th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron and is responsible for delivering airworthy helicopters to the expeditionary rescue squadron to complete its personnel recovery mission.
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07/08/2015
Support for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s plan to expand Japan’s military role has waned in recent months, and moving forward with a “collective self-defense” proposal could jeopardize his political influence, recent polls suggest. n a July 5 Yomiuri Shimbun poll, 80 percent said the government hadn’t properly explained the proposed changes that, among other things, would allow the Japanese military to legally defend U.S. forces in combat.
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07/08/2015
U.S. aircraft are coming back from most combat missions in Iraq without dropping any bombs, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. Martin Dempsey said Tuesday. "At a similar period in the Afghanistan conflict in 2012, the number of aircraft that returned with their ordnance because there were not targets available on the ground was 83 percent," Dempsey told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "It's 65 percent in Iraq right now."
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07/08/2015
The global fixed wing military aircraft market will go from earning revenues of $63.33 billion in 2014 to $72.77 billion in 2023 as the market grows due to procurement and modernisation programmes, according to a new report.
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07/08/2015
Two people in a small Cessna were killed after an F-16 fighter jet collided with the civilian plane in a "very rare" crash in South Carolina on Tuesday morning. The Cessna was destroyed and both people aboard were killed in the crash, National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson told USA TODAY.
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07/08/2015
The passage of the US-Jordan defense bill that will enhance cooperation between the two countries in fighting Islamic State terrorists shows Washington’s commitment to the Middle Eastern security, US Congressman and Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Ed Royce said in a statement.
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07/08/2015
The first of two strikes was carried out at noon Monday in Nangarhar province's Achin district, on the border with Pakistan, killing 12 militants, according the provincial governor's spokesman, Ahmad Zia Adulzai. A short time later, US officials acting on reports that indicated the fighters were moving to a new location conducted a second strike in the same district, leaving 37 militants dead.
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07/07/2015
A Russian military aircraft crashed Monday while taking off on a nighttime training flight and both pilots were killed, the Defense Ministry said. It was the fifth accident involving a Russian military aircraft in the past month, but the first with fatalities. The Su-24 bomber crashed while taking off from an airfield in the Khabarovsk region in Russia's Far East at 9:35 p.m. local time, the ministry said in a statement.
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07/07/2015
The U.S. military is placing orders worth nearly a billion dollars with Lockheed Martin Corp. to prepare for building 94 F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter combat jets. The order involves conventional and vertical takeoff and landing versions, as well as carrier versions.
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07/07/2015
When an ambulance rolled through Druze villages near the Israeli-Syrian border last month, it was met by an angry mob of stone-throwing protesters shouting that they’d been betrayed by Israel. Surrounding the emergency vehicle, they claimed that Israel’s government is giving medical treatment to Islamist fighters who are now threatening to kill their Druze brethren in Syria. The mob opened up the doors of the ambulance and dragged out the two patients inside, killing one of them.
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07/07/2015
Airbus Helicopters and India's Mahindra Defense have agreed to form a joint venture to produce helicopters in the country to meet local military needs. Airbus and Mahindra Defense, a subsidiary of the Mahindra Group, said the two companies will not enter discussions to finalize the joint venture which will act as the prime contractor for India's military helicopter tenders.
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07/07/2015
An Iraqi fighter jet accidentally dropped a bomb on a Baghdad residential neighborhood on Monday, killing seven people, government officials said. The Russian-made Sukhoi jet was returning from a mission against Islamic State targets in western Iraq at the time, Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Saad Maan said. The bomb, which had failed to release from the aircraft earlier in the flight, detached as it flew over the neighborhood, he said.
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07/07/2015
China could possibly export its J-10B fighter to Pakistan, Asia, Latin America and Africa. Russia has agreed for a deal to sell its advanced AL31FN engines which will be fitted to the J-10B, Kanwa defense review reported Sunday adding that the first batch of the engines is expected this year.
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07/07/2015
Russia is holding the talks with Pakistan on the sale of the combat Mi-35 helicopters to Islamabad, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters Monday.
"Currently, negotiations are underway to supply Islamabad with a consignment of Mi-35 military transport helicopters, which will be used for the counter-terrorism operations in the north-west of the country," Ushakov said.
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07/07/2015
At 10:30 on the morning of July 4, the US Air Force launched two F-22 fighter jets to intercept a pair of Tu-95 Bear long-range bombers off the coast of Alaska. According to NORAD, the aircraft were within the Air Defense Identification Zone, but were over 100 miles from US airspace. Half an hour later, NORAD detected two more Tu-95’s flying off the coast of California. A pair of F-15s were scrambled, but again, the aircraft were hundreds of miles from US airspace.
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07/07/2015
A criminal case has been open for alleged violations of flights rules which led to a Monday crash of a Russian Su-24M Fencer supersonic attack jet in Russia's eastern Khabarovsk region, a representative of the Military Investigation Department of the Eastern Military District of Russian Armed Forces said Tuesday.
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07/06/2015
Last month, US President Barack Obama announced the dispatch of 450 US military “trainers” to Anbar, adding to the 3000 US non-combat soldiers already in Iraq. Despite admitting that he does not yet have “a complete strategy” for countering Islamic State, Mr Obama has insisted he will not reconsider the tactics currently being used. Understandably, he remains resolutely opposed to deploying troops to fight on the ground.
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07/06/2015
Production quality of the country's only aircraft manufacturer, defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), is once again under the scanner after the crash of a Hawk advanced jet trainer (AJT) last month. Sources said "quill-shaft failure" in the engine has emerged as the prime reason behind the crash of the twin-seat Hawk AJT, which went down in Odisha while on a training sortie from the Kalaikunda airbase in West Bengal on June 3. Fortunately, the two pilots managed to eject safely.
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07/06/2015
The plan to develop a more powerful, modernised version of the current Tejas fighter is getting a welcome boost. In September, US engine-maker General Electric (GE) plans to deliver the first F-414INS6 engine (hereafter F-414), which will power the Tejas Mark II.
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07/06/2015
Continuous warnings over the past decade as regards the alleged tardy pace of induction of new fighter jets into the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the resultant loss of “combative edge” are now ringing true. By the end of this year, the IAF would be at its lowest combat strength in more than a decade, a source said.
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07/06/2015
The recent airstrikes conducted by US-led coalition have severely constricted the Islamic State militant's freedom of movement. US-led coalition forces said they accomplished a series of 16 airstrikes on Saturday on Islamic State militants in the Syrian city of Raqa.
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07/05/2015
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, wearing battle dress for the first time in over a year, said Saturday that Egypt had foiled an attempt by the Islamic State group to seize territory and set up an extremist state with its recent assault on the military in the troubled northeastern part of the Sinai Peninsula.
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07/05/2015
More than 600 New Zealand defence personnel are taking part in a warfighting exercise with Australia and the United States. The NZDF has deployed two ships, four aircraft including two NH90 helicopters, 22 Light Armoured Vehicles and 23 other military vehicles for the exercise.
"Over the next three weeks, we will be training with key partners, Australia and the United States, in a challenging multi-national environment," said Colonel Glenn King, Senior National Officer (SNO) for the NZDF contin
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07/05/2015
The Indian Air Force has told the government it needs at least 80 aircraft of the capabilities of the Rafale to make up for the shortfall in its fighter jet squadrons. In April this year, during a visit to Paris, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that the air force would go for an outright purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft, made by French firm Dassault Aviation.
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07/05/2015
Official tests of extended range missiles for advanced S-400 Triumf air defense systems are in the final stage, the head of the Russian Air Force's anti-aircraft missile troops said Saturday. "The official tests of this missile are in the final stage. I think that in the near future they will be successfully completed," Maj. Gen. Sergey Babakov told the Russian News Service radio.
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07/04/2015
The Swedish Defence Material Administration (FMV) has contracted Saab to deliver spare parts for Gripen E multirole combat aircraft. The new development is valued at SEK250m ($30.02m). It is part of a framework agreement signed between Saab and FMV in February 2013 for development work on the JAS 39 Gripen E.
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07/04/2015
After the Vietnam War, I served in West Germany in the 1970s and 1980s before the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact dissolved. Back then there were fearful thoughts about massive Soviet armor and infantry units coming across the border in Central Europe in overwhelming numbers.
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07/04/2015
The Pentagon is increasingly concerned about how to combat “hybrid warfare,” the combination of stealth invasion, local proxy forces and international propaganda that Russia used to annex Crimea and destabilize eastern Ukraine, U.S. officials said. Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Thursday released the 2015 National Military Strategy, in which he cited Russia’s actions in Ukraine and said “hybrid conflicts” will persist well into the future.
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07/04/2015
RUSSIAN aircraft have not been invited to the prestigious Royal International Air Tattoo this year amid rising tensions with NATO countries. Vladimir Putin’s warplanes are not welcome at the world’s biggest military airshow following flashpoints in the skies and eastern Europe. The event has a reputation for showcasing aircraft from Russia, including the Yakovlev Yak-130, a state-of-the-art combat jet.
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07/04/2015
The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin have leapt to the defence of the expensive F-35 stealth jet after it was embarrassingly outperformed by a 40-year-old F-16 jet in a dogfight. A mock air battle was held over the Pacific Ocean between the cutting-edge F-35 - meant to be the most sophisticated jet ever - and an F-16, which was designed in the 1970s. But according to the test pilot, the F-35 is still too slow to hit an enemy plane or dodge gunfire.
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07/04/2015
When it comes to air power, it’s no secret that the United States and the West have often held an edge over Russia. This dates at least as far back to World War II, when the United States and Britain were allied with Russia. While Russia supplied much of the manpower that ultimately defeated Nazi Germany, it was the United States and UK that took the lead in the strategic bombing campaigns against Germany.
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07/04/2015
Facing a crisis of a dwindling fleet of fighter jets, the Indian Air Force (IAF), has formally told the Ministry of Defence (MoD) that it needs at least 80 Rafale-type multi-role combat fighter jets to be battle-ready in the next few years.
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07/04/2015
Former RAF group captain shoots down claims F-35 can't protect itself as modern aerial battles demand a new way of thinking Air combat is advancing at such a pace and about to head in a new direction that reports of a hi-tech F-35 fighter “losing” a simulated dogfight to a 1970s-design F-16 are irrelevant to the new stealth jet’s future, according to an ex-RAF group captain.
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07/04/2015
The aviation units of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet Air Force, Air Defense and Naval aviation have received modernized attack aircraft and fighter jets, including Sukhoi Su-34 and Su-30M2 fighters, Mil Mi-28 attack helicopters and Mi-8MTPR electronic warfare helicopters.
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07/03/2015
The Iraqi Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on 2 July that it has taken delivery of four more "advanced combat helicopters" from Russia. It did not identify the type of aircraft that has been delivered. Iraq currently has Mi-28NE Night Hunter attack helicopters and Mi-35M assault helicopters on order from Russia.
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07/03/2015
The Air Force claims shutting down the A-10 program would save $4.2 billion over five years, but a new report from the Government Accountability Office shoots that down, finding USAF analysis incomplete. More worrying (and unsurprising, to anyone who’s been paying attention), the GAO report says dropping the A-10 would “create potential gaps” in close air support.
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07/03/2015
The Pentagon argues that a recently leaked report does not ‘tell the entire story.’ Yesterday, in an attempt to defend the $400 billion F-35 Lighting II procurement program, the Department of Defense responded to the recent revelations that an F-35A was defeated by a two-seat F-16D in simulated aerial combat (see: “F-35 Loses Dogfight to Fighter Jets From the 1980s”).
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07/03/2015
The U.S.-led coalition in Southwest Asia is confident in its ability to conduct flights over Syria without coordinating with the Assad regime, even after a U.S. Predator remotely piloted aircraft was shot down earlier this year.
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07/03/2015
The first live-bomb drops for Lockheed Martin 's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in a nontest environment were successful as the Marine Corps gets ready to declare the jet combat ready. Fourteen pilots dropped 30 weapons last week over a restricted area in southeastern California, and all of the high-explosive weapons went off.
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07/03/2015
Egyptian warplanes launched new airstrikes and troops went house-to-house Thursday in the troubled Sinai Peninsula, a day after Islamic State-linked militants set off the area's bloodiest fighting in decades in an unprecedented, coordinated attack.
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07/03/2015
Once one of the world's most famous aircraft designers, Russia's MiG aircraft company has fallen on hard times. Though MiG aircraft continue to populate almost 30 world air forces, the firm has not won a major design competition or aircraft tender in its post-Soviet history.
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07/03/2015
The admission by the UK government that it would not increase the small number of combat aircraft committed to the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) in Iraq should it get a mandate to launch strikes in Syria reflects the reality that the Royal Air Force would struggle to muster much extra firepower.
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07/03/2015
The images, taken on June 28, show the rapid progress made by the Chinese government in building the 10,000-foot runway on Fiery Cross Reef. Large enough to support almost every type of military aircraft, the airstrip is also accompanied by an apron and taxiway.
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07/02/2015
Japan is developing its Mitsubishi ATD-X experimental aircaft with a showdown against the People's Liberation Army Air Force in mind, says the Beijing-based Sina Military Network. The ATD-X, known in Japan as "Shinshin", meaning "spirit of the heart," is a research prototype being used to determine whether domestic advanced technologies for a fifth generation fighter are viable.
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07/02/2015
America has some of the world’s most elite special operators and they get a lot of press. But on most of the missions that Special Forces, SEALs, and other top operators conduct, they bring a very special airman.
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07/02/2015
A state-of-the-art cockpit simulator of MiG 29K fighter aircraft was commissioned at the Southern Naval Command, the force’s training command, on Wednesday. Chief of the Command Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba set the simulator to work at the Naval Institute of Aeronautical Technology (NIAT).
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07/02/2015
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has defended Australia's decision to fork out $12.4 billion to buy the troubled F-35 joint strike fighter, with the first aircraft being introduced to limited roles by the United States Marine Corps next week. Mr Abbott, who on Wednesday announced a $275 million upgrade to Williamtown RAAF Base near Newcastle to accommodate the new fighters, insisted Australia was "absolutely buying the right plane".
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07/02/2015
Last week, in a speech delivered to a Rand Corp. audience in Washington D.C., U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work preached his usual sermon about the slipping technological edge of the United States military and the growing danger posed by effective countermeasures to the American Way of War primarily based on precision-strike regimes (see: “The End of the American Way of War?”).
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07/02/2015
A Lockheed Martin F-35A Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) was outperformed in the type’s first basic fighter maneuvering exercise by a 20-plus-year-old F-16 fighter, according to a leaked Lockheed Martin report prepared by the pilot who flew the mission.
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07/02/2015
The new anti-submarine warfare aircraft Y-8Q’s most distinctive feature is its seven-meter-long Magnetic Anomaly Detector (MAD) boom, which is possibly the largest of its kind among airplanes, making it the most magnificent submarine hunter.
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07/01/2015
Vladimir Putin is set to kit out the Russian military with a top secret spaceship-like aircraft that promises to be 'lighter than air'. Work is already underway on the hi-tech 130-metre-long Atlant, which will be created merging the technology from planes, hovercraft and airships. Capable of taking off and landing without a runway it will be able to carry 200 military personnel or as much as 60 tonnes of cargo at speeds of up to 86mph.
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07/01/2015
Pity Canada’s fighter jet pilots: their 33-year-old CF-18 Hornets are suffering from metal fatigue, to the point where strong G-forces could rip off their wings. Some of the CF-18s are being refitted in a move that officials claim will extend their lives to 2025. But metal fatigue is difficult to address through refits and for safety reasons, the planes are no longer used for training in aerial combat, or sent to places where they might become involved in a “dogfight.”
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07/01/2015
Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer Defense and Security continued expanding its African presence with a sale to Mali and the announcement at the recent Paris Air Show of a sale to Ghana.
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07/01/2015
It’s the most expensive weapon in history but America's F-35 stealth jet has been outperformed by a 40-year-old F-16 jet in a dogfight. A mock air battle was held over the Pacific Ocean between the cutting-edge F-35 - meant to be the most sophisticated jet ever - and an F-16, which was designed in the 1970s. But according to the test pilot, the F-35 is still too slow to hit an enemy plane or dodge gunfire. So far it has cost the US military more than $350billion.
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07/01/2015
European aerspace major Airbus has offered to help develop the Mark II version of IndiaÂ’s light combat aircraft (LCA MkII) and also set up a manufacturing hub in India.Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh told India Strategic (www.indiastrategic.in) on the sidelines of the just-concluded Paris Air Show that some preliminary discussions had been held with him by Airbus officials here and that a top level delegation of the conglomerate would be in New Delhi for discussions from July 1
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07/01/2015
Lockheed Martin’s Legion Pod recently completed its first flight test, successfully tracking multiple airborne targets while flying on an F-16 in Fort Worth, Texas. Legion Pod was integrated onto the F-16 without making any hardware or software changes to the aircraft. Additional flight tests on the F-16 and F-15C will continue throughout the year.
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07/01/2015
The Russian Army will be reinforced with new Mi-28Ns, Mi-26Ts and Mi-8MTV5s equipped with cutting-edge electronics. Over 20 attack helicopters will boost the Russian Armed Forces on the country’s western border by the end of 2015, the senior spokesperson of Russia’s Western Military District said Tuesday.
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07/01/2015
Russian long-range aircraft such as Tu-160 strategic bombers will be equipped with a technologically new system that figures out a plane's coordinates based on the position of the stars. The new ANS-2009 astronavigation system can determine an aircraft's position and speed with high precision.
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07/01/2015
In a bizarre sign of political infighting within the ranks of the Islamic State terrorist group, reports are emerging that a top official has been executed for plotting an insurrection against ISIL leadership.
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