February 07, 2019 Military Aviation News
02/07/2019
The Indian Air Force and the defence ministry should do “proper homework” while acquiring new technology, said Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee. The committee said this in relation to delays in implementing the Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation System, resulting from “lack of planning” in integrating it to different aircraft and not timely modifying the IAF fleet.
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02/07/2019
Combined with the dramatic collapse of the Russian economy in the wake of Western economic sanctions following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the inflexibility of UAC made the Su-57 impossible to realize. Westerns analysts have concluded that Russia’s fifth-generation Sukhoi Su-57 stealth fighter is unlikely to enter operational service before 2027. Postponements, cost-overruns and research and development-related problems mar the project.
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02/07/2019
Dassault has handed over the first of an eventual 36 Rafale combat aircraft – a DQ two-seat variant – to Qatar, for operation by the country's air force. Doha signed for 24 examples in 2015, adding a further 12 aircraft a little over two years later. “For the fourth time in our long and trustful partnership with Qatar, a Dassault aircraft will serve proudly in the Qatari Emiri Air Force," says Dassault chief executive Eric Trappier.
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02/07/2019
Deployed operations with the UK's Panavia Tornado GR4 strike aircraft have come to an end, with its last examples having returned to the Royal Air Force's Marham base in Norfolk. Three of the type completed a transfer from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus on 5 February, the day after five others had returned to the UK.
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02/07/2019
Australia believes it has finally overcome the high-profile problems that have dogged two of its helicopter procurement programmes – with such progress made on one platform that it has now been accepted for special forces operations. Canberra acquired both the Airbus Helicopters Tiger and the NH Industries NH90 in the early 2000s, and saw both rotorcraft fail to deliver promised levels of availability or performance.
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02/07/2019
US Army officials say they are pleased with the quality of the bids so far received under its future attack reconnaissance aircraft (FARA) programme, with an initial contracting decision anticipated by mid-year. Declining to be drawn on the number of competing submissions, Brig Gen Walter Rugen, the army's director future vertical lift cross-functional team, says that it anticipates, no later than June, awarding "up to six" contracts for the next development stage.
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02/07/2019
The USAF wants HH-60Ws produced and deployed as soon as possible because its 96 HH-60G Pave Hawk rescue helicopters have exceeded their expected service lives of 6,000h of flight. As of last August, those helicopters had logged an average of 7,100h of flight, according to a US Government Accountability Office report. Only about 68% of the fleet was mission-capable in fiscal year 2017 – short of the USAF’s desired 75% mission-capable goal.
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