June, 2018 Military Aviation News
06/30/2018
Northrop Grumman entered full-rate production on the F-35 Lightning II’s centre fuselage at its Palmdale, California facility in May in order to meet increasing order quantities from the Pentagon and international customers. The company said the 400th centre fuselage was completed and delivered to F-35 prime contractor Lockheed Martin last month. Production of the 500th centre fuselage began the week of 18 June.
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06/30/2018
The US Air Force suspended its light attack experiment at Hollomon AFB in New Mexico after the fatal crash of a Sierra Nevada/Embraer A-29 Super Tucano on June 22. The USAF is examining the data collected thus far in the about a month-long second phase of the experiment to determine if it has enough information to end the contest early.
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06/30/2018
Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu says in a TV interview that US president Donald Trump personally promised to ensure the delivery of the Lockheed Martin F-35A to his country.
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06/28/2018
With its aerial intervention having played a major role in pushing back Daesh terrorists in Syria, Russia is now seeking to maintain a presence in the country with permanent bases. Russia is no stranger to Syria. Throughout the Cold War, the port of Tartus acted as a major replenishment facility for units of the Soviet fleet deploying through the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. Soviet air units also periodically visited Syrian air force airbases.
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06/28/2018
A brand new Sukhoi Su-30 MKI fighter manufactured by Indian Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd has crashed during a pre-delivery test flight. Both pilots Wing Commander Prashant Nair and Squadron Leader L Biswal (Flight test Engineer) were able to eject safely. The twin engined multi-role combat aircraft crashed after taking off from Nashik Airport, adjacent to HAL Nashik assembly line, at 11 hours in the morning.
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06/28/2018
Avionics experts at Lockheed Martin Corp. will upgrade electronic warfare (EW) systems aboard the U.S. Navy E-2D Advanced Hawkeye carrier-based airborne early warning aircraft under terms of a $64.7 million five-year contract announced Monday.
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06/28/2018
Embraer is on the verge of completing a deal with Portugal confirming the country as the first export customer for the KC-390 tanker transport. “We are discussing with the government the final contract,” the Brazilian airframer’s chief executive Paulo Cesar Silva said at a pre-Farnborough air show media briefing in Lisbon on 26 June.
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06/27/2018
Aircraft Was Part of Air Force Light Attack Experiment Program. It’s the seventh U.S. Air Force crash this year. A U.S. Navy pilot participating in the ongoing Light Attack Experiment died Friday, June 22, 2018 when the Embraer A-29 Super Tucano aircraft he was flying crashed inside the Red Rio Bombing Range inside the White Sands Missile Range.
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06/27/2018
Boeing has won a deal to supply four P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft to South Korea, and is poised to win a deal in New Zealand to supply the 737-based platform. On 25 June, South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration said that Seoul would obtain the type under a $1.7 billion deal under the Foreign Military Sales process. No numbers were given.
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06/27/2018
Australia has confirmed its long-planned acquisition of six Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton remotely piloted aircraft. The initial A$1.4 billion ($1 billion) deal includes one MQ-4C, as well as a A$200 million programme with the US Navy for development, production, and sustainment of the aircraft, says prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
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06/27/2018
Lockheed Martin has signed an initial contract worth $1.2 billion to launch production of the F-16 Block 70 on a new final assembly line in Greenville, South Carolina for the Royal Bahraini Air Force. The undefinitised contract for 16 examples of the latest version of the 45-year-old F-16 keeps the programme in production as Lockheed continues to market the single-engined fighter for new orders in India and elsewhere.
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06/23/2018
A new supersonic air-surface missile has been developed in a partnership between Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Israel Military Industries (IMI). The state-owned companies unveiled the Rampage weapon just days before Elbit Systems announced that it had finalized the acquisition of IMI.
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06/23/2018
Despite Congressional efforts to block the delivery of F-35 combat aircraft to Ankara, the first two of the advanced US fighters have been handed over to Turkish military representatives. US lawmakers and the Pentagon fear that if plugged into Turkey's integrated air defense network, the S-400 air defense missile systems, which Ankara wants to buy from Russia, could be able to pick up technical data on the F-35's capabilities and pass it to Moscow, CNN wrote.
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06/23/2018
It could be another two years before India picks the winner of the world’s biggest combat aircraft order, according to a senior Boeing Co. executive. Boeing is well placed in the race to supply the Indian Air Force with 110 fighter jets, Gene Cunningham, Boeing vice president of global defense sales, told Bloomberg News on Sunday on the sidelines of a security forum in Singapore. The company is a finalist in a separate competition to supply the Indian navy with 57 fighter jets.
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06/23/2018
Lasers have been used to target US aerial operations in the Pacific, with 20 incidents recorded since September of last year, according to a US military official. The military spokeswoman, who requested not to be named, told CNN that lasers had been flashed at US aircraft, and that the sources of these flashes are suspected to be Chinese. The latest incident occurred within the last two weeks, the official said.
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06/23/2018
A Sierra Nevada/Embraer A-29 Super Tucano crashed in New Mexico on 22 June while participating in a month-old light attack experiment, a US Air Force spokesman confirms. Both USAF crew members ejected during the 11:45am incident and one crew member sustained minor injuries. No information on the status of the second crew member was available as of 6:25 pm in New Mexico on 22 June.
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06/23/2018
In addition to making the Boeing B-52H more fuel efficient and sophisticated, the US Air Force’s ongoing makeover project also aims to make the pride of Gen Curtis LeMay’s Cold War-era bomber fleet more destructive.
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06/23/2018
Mentioning the name John Farley evokes memories of a time when the UK’s aerospace industry was able to produce a succession of jet fighters – albeit sometimes of variable quality. As our obituary piece details, Farley was inspired to join the Royal Air Force and subsequently become a test pilot when, as a child, he saw a Graf Zeppelin pass gracefully – and probably menacingly – over Hastings.
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06/23/2018
Kongsberg's Joint Strike Missile is in the last stages of its qualification process, with development activities due to be completed this autumn. Integration onto the Lockheed Martin F-35A for the Royal Norwegian Air Force will take place with the Block 4 software update, says the nation's defence ministry, achieving full operational capability by 2025.
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06/20/2018
The US Air Force has kicked off the procurement for another round of wing replacements for A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft, known affectionately by many as the Warthog. With new wings, the A-10s will help fill a gap left by the delayed volume delivery of F-35A fighters, which were intended to take over the A-10's close air support (CAS) role in "contested environments"—places where enemy aircraft or modern air defenses would pose a threat to supporting aircraft.
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06/20/2018
After months of delicate diplomacy, the UK’s alleged partnership with Turkey to build a fifth generation fighter jet, has run into trouble, says the Financial Times. The article published on Monday recalls initial concerns about the management of intellectual property raised this year by Rolls-Royce, the British aero-engine group that has been working with Turkish industrial giant Kale to bid for the engine development contract on what is set to become Turkey’s first indigenous combat aircraft.
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06/20/2018
The US Air Force has set plans to begin the competitive phase of a plan to develop a dual mode ramjet for a new class of missiles and aircraft with top speeds over Mach 3. Two contract awards worth a total of $10 million for design and testing of a dual mode ramjet are now anticipated, the USAF’s Air Force Research Laboratory says in a notice dated 8 June.
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06/20/2018
Moves by the US Senate and members of the House of Representatives to block the delivery of the Lockheed Martin F-35 to Turkey have intensified, increasing tensions with Ankara. The US Senate passed the 2019 National Defense Authorisation Act on 18 June with a clause that would stop the delivery of the F-35 to Turkey.
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06/19/2018
Eight times during a two-week war game in Alaska, individual German Typhoons flew against single F-22s in basic fighter maneuvers meant to simulate close-range dogfights. “We were evenly matched,” German Maj. Marc Gruene told Combat Aircraft. Past evidence seems to confirms that a French fighter pilot once “killed” an American F-22 Raptor stealth fighter in mock combat.
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06/19/2018
Since the United States and coalition partners began its anti-ISIS mission in 2014, the Middle East’s skies have become crowded with the very best in modern air power. The air is full of flashy fourth-generation fighters (like the Air Force’s F-15s and F-16s and the Navy’s F/A-18E/Fs), and newer fifth-generation fighters (like the F-22).
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06/19/2018
The Royal Thai Air Force is to arm its Northrop F-5 fighters with IRIS-T short-range air-to-air missiles, following the signature of a repeat order with German manufacturer Diehl Defence.
Noting that Bangkok has previously acquired the infrared-guided weapon for its Saab Gripen fighters and also subsequently its Lockheed Martin F-16 fleet, Diehl Defence notes: "The new procurement plans to integrate the missile onto the F-5, making IRIS-T a standard armament of the Royal Thai Air Force."
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06/14/2018
At a time when the Russians have offered to sell 40 more Sukhoi-30 combat aircraft to India, it seems that the Air Force is not keen to add more of these heavy weight and expensive to maintain fighter jets in its inventory. The Indian Air Force (IAF) already has more than 220 of these Russian planes in its fleet and has plans of inducting all the 272 planes ordered by it over the years by the end of 2020.
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06/14/2018
An underlying driver in the reform of the Russian Armed Forces, first initiated in the fall of 2009, has proved to be the adoption and adaption of “command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance” capabilities to offer conventional options against a high-technology adversary. A key factor in the introduction of a Russian variant of the concept of network-centric warfare is the complete overhaul and modernization of its Electronic Warfare inventory.
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06/14/2018
Lockheed Martin awarded Raytheon a contract to develop the F-35 Lightning II’s next generation Distribute Aperture System (DAS). The (DAS) was previously manufactured by Northrop Grumman, which decided not to bid on the next generation system, saying it wasn’t an attractive business deal. Lockheed did not disclose the terms or the amount of the contract in its announcement on 13 June.
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06/13/2018
A new batch of the T-50 jet fighters arrived Wednesday in Iraq coming from South Korea to help in the fight against Islamic State (IS). In a brief statement, the Iraqi Air Force said, “a new six-jet batch of T-50 has arrived in Iraq.” Last year, Iraq said it will receive 24 T-50 (Golden Eagle) fighter jets from South Korea as part of an agreement signed in 2013.
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06/13/2018
A routine training flight off the coast of the Japanese island of Okinawa ended in yet another U.S. military aviation disaster on Sunday night, as a U.S. Air Force F-15 went down for unspecified reasons. The pilot was able to eject and was recovered in a search and rescue operation; he is currently listed in critical condition. “We have been notified that the pilot is in serious condition. Our hearts and prayers go to the pilot and his family as they go through this difficult time,” read a state
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06/13/2018
Over the years, adjectives such as controversial and expensive have been used to describe Lockheed Martin's F-35 program. But while those concerns may have merit, the air defense company's Fort Worth plant nonetheless continues to crank out the stealth fighter aircraft at what has become a steady pace.
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06/13/2018
The State Department approved a possible direct commercial sale of six Boeing AH-64E Apache helicopters to India for an estimated cost of $930 million on 12 June. Included in the sale are 14 GE Aviation T700-GE-701D engines; four Northrop Grumman APG-78 fire control radars; 180 Lockheed AGM-114 Hellfire missiles; and 200 Raytheon Stinger missiles, among other weapons and subsystems.
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06/13/2018
Aero Vodochody and its new partner Israel Aerospace Industries are making a late bid to be selected for the US Air Force’s OA-X close air support programme with an advanced version of the L-159 they say could be ready for delivery from 2020.
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06/13/2018
Helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft from seven NATO and Partnership for Peace countries took part in a major multinational personnel recovery exercise that concluded in Europe earlier this month. Running from 22 May until 6 June, the air-centric personnel recovery operators course (APROC) event was hosted by the Netherlands Defence Helicopter Command, and involved almost 600 participants from a total of 12 nations.
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06/12/2018
Qatar's future fleet of Dassault Rafale fighters will be equipped with Lockheed Martin Sniper targeting pods, the US company has announced. "Pod deliveries to the Qatar Emiri Air Force will begin in 2019," says Lockheed. "Integration efforts are ongoing, with flight tests currently in progress."
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06/11/2018
The backbone of the ROKAF is its fighter force. The most numerous type in service is the Northrop F-5E Tiger II. The F-5 was a mainstay of the ROKAF for many years, beginning in the 1970s when F-5As and F-5Bs were exported to South Korea. The current stock of F-5Es and F-5Fs (dual seat variant) came later, and featured a new fuselage, a radar, and better engines compared to the F-5A/B. F-5As and Bs were retired from Korean service as the F-16 was adopted.
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06/10/2018
As tensions between the United States and Turkey simmer, though unlikely to boil over before June 24 Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections, debate over the delivery of U.S. F-35 advanced combat aircraft to Turkey is becoming a measure of the relationship between the NATO allies.
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06/10/2018
The man who was in charge of the exercise was Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa. In an exclusive interview with THE WEEK, he said the exercise demonstrated the IAF’s capability to achieve and sustain a very high serviceability of aircraft and systems. Dhanoa, however, expressed concern about the depleting combat strength of the IAF, and said the force would reach its desired strength only by 2032.
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06/10/2018
Developed in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Yakovlev Yak 130 is one of the best advanced trainer and light combat aircraft available on the international defense market.
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06/09/2018
The US Air Force ordered the grounding of its entire fleet of Rockwell B-1B Lancer bombers on 7 June due to safety concerns. The USAF suspended flights of the aircraft following an emergency landing of a B-1B at Midland International Air and Space Port in Texas on 1 May, which had blown at least one of its escape hatches without launching its ejection seat. All four members of the crew landed safely.
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06/09/2018
The UK's first four new-generation strike aircraft touched down at the Royal Air Force's Marham base in Norfolk on the evening of 6 June, with the Lockheed Martin F-35Bs having completed a nonstop flight from South Carolina.
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06/06/2018
A Taiwanese fighter jet went missing in northern Taiwan on Monday at the start of the island’s biggest annual military drills, casting a shadow over exercises meant to showcase the island’s ability to fend off an attack. The suspected crash comes after Beijing has conducted repeated rounds of military exercises around the island and as authorities on the island try to reassure voters ahead of elections later this year, according to analysts.
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06/06/2018
According to a Norwegian Ministry of Defence press release dated May 23, 2018: Six aircraft are now on Norwegian soil. – Our new F-35s are a major investment and the most important acquisition to strengthen the defence capabilities of our Armed Forces, said Defence Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen. Delivered on time, the three new aircraft represent a new milestone in our acquisition program.
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06/06/2018
The Department of Defense agreed with a Government Accountability Office report that it should resolve the Lockheed Martin F-35’s critical deficiencies before requesting funds to pay for full-rate production of the aircraft. Waiting for the resolution of critical deficiencies in the F-35 Lightning II could delay the aircraft’s full-rate production, which the DoD had planned to begin in 2021.
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06/06/2018
Leonardo has launched a more powerful version of its BriteCloud decoy jammer optimised for use during the self-protection of medium and large transport aircraft. "Currently in the final stages of development, BriteCloud 55-T is available to order now for deliveries in early 2019," the company says. It identifies potential candidate platforms as including its own C-27J Spartan, along with the larger Airbus Defence & Space A400M, Embraer KC-390 and Lockheed Martin C-130.
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06/05/2018
The US Air Force skipped a more extensive competition for its nearly $1 billion hypersonic cruise missile development contract due to lack of available funds to pay multiple sources to develop alternative prototypes, according to a newly-released government document.
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06/03/2018
India may have rebuffed Australia’s proposal to join the annual trilateral Malabar naval wargames it holds with the US and Japan but will be dispatching four Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jets and a C-17 Globemaster-III strategic airlift aircraft to the country to participate in the multi-lateral “Pitch Black” air combat exercise.
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06/03/2018
With global attention fixated on fraught U.S.-China trade negotiations and on-again, off-again nuclear talks between the U.S. and North Korea, China continues to strengthen its position in the South China Sea. The world's second largest economy is boosting its military capabilities there, and analysts say there's really not a whole lot the U.S. can do about it.
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06/03/2018
The Senate Armed Services Committee has set aside millions for light attack aircraft, but this time not solely for the U.S. Air Force. In its version of the fiscal 2019 budget markup, the committee announced last week it wants to give $100 million to the Marine Corps to procure light attack aircraft such as the AT-6 Wolverine to boost lower-cost aviation support. The version passed the committee with a vote of 25-2. It heads for a full Senate vote in coming weeks.
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06/03/2018
U.S. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said on Sunday North Korea will receive relief only after it takes clear and irreversible steps to end its nuclear program, adding it would be a bumpy road to a summit between U.S. and North Korean leaders.
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06/03/2018
The Department of Defense awarded Pratt & Whitney a $2 billion contract to supply F135 turbofan engines for the Lot 11 order of F-35 Lightning II aircraft. The 11th low rate initial production contract will cover 135 engines, as well as programme management, engineering support, production support, spare modules and spare parts, P&W said on 31 May 2018.
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