August, 2020 Military Aviation News
08/31/2020
Turkey denied airspace to German military plane flying to Armenia in late July, Spiegel reports.
The plane was on its route to Armenia to pick up Armenian peacekeepers serving under the German command in Afghanistan. They were to be trained by the German Defense Forces.
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08/31/2020
The military must adjust its strategies as the methods of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force undergo a qualitative shift, retired Republic of China Air Force deputy commander Chang Yen-ting said on Saturday. Over the past few months, there have been frequent sightings of Chinese military aircraft near Taiwan and Ministry of National Defense data shows that an incursion on Aug. 10 was the third time since March last year that PLA aircraft had crossed the median line of the Taiwan Str
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08/30/2020
The Russian navy conducted massive manoeuvres near Alaska involving dozens of warships and combat aircraft, the Kremlin revealed. Friday's show of strength came just two days after the US military launched a probe when a Russian nuclear sub surfaced off the Alaskan coast.
The naval drills are the biggest in the ice cold region since Soviet times and the dark days of the Cold War.
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08/30/2020
In celebration of the series' 25th anniversary, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is getting new DLC that includes over 30 cosmetics and brings back three fan-favorite planes: the ASF-X, CFA-44, and XFA-27. Each plane will also be getting seven of its own skins, including the popular "Cipher" skin. There will be an additional 10 skins from Ace Combat Zero and 20 different types of emblems included in the DLC as well.
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08/30/2020
A Ukrainian Air Force Sukhoi Su-27 combat aircraft narrowly avoided a more serious accident when it landed short and collided with a traffic sign during an expedient tactical airstrip training exercise on Thursday, August 27, 2020, in Ukraine.
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08/30/2020
A maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) center for Taiwan’s fleet of F-16 fighter jets has officially opened on the island amid growing tensions between Taiwan and China. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen?on Friday inaugurated the facility, which is the first of its kind in the Indo-Pacific region. It is part of a strategic alliance between Taiwan aircraft manufacturer Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation, AIDC, and U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin.
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08/29/2020
Amidst all the diplomatic back-slapping, the Israel-UAE accord faces its first hiccup: the possible sale of American F-35s to Abu Dhabi that could challenge the Israeli technological edge in the Middle East. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed "our wonderful friend (US Secretary of State) Mike" Pompeo to his Jerusalem office on Monday at the start of a regional tour inspired by the American-backed August 13 accord.
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08/29/2020
It has been a week of significant international flight activities in the Barents Sea, north of Russia’s Kola Peninsula. On August 26th, American spy plane RC-135 Combat Sent circled repeatedly over the waters from Russia’s maritime border to Norway in the west to outside the closed-down naval base Gremikha in the east.
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08/29/2020
Russia is planning to deploy its MiG-35, a 4++ generation fighter jet, at its Syrian military base at Khmeimim. According to media reports, the delivery is part of a marketing campaign to sell the aircraft to foreign states, such as Peru, Malaysia, Syria and even India which have expressed interest in procuring the new fighter jets.
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08/29/2020
Russia is considering giving the stealthy Okhotnik (Hunter) combat drone an air-to-air combat mission as a long-range interceptor, Russian state media reported this week. The Russian defense ministry has proposed a concept of operations that would see the drone deployed forward with long-range weaponry to "attack air targets before they approach the air defense zone," an aircraft industry source told the TASS news agency.
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08/28/2020
The possibility that the United States could sell F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to the United Arab Emirates following its normalization of relations with Israel has been met with fierce opposition from Israeli officials and politicians. As such, it has already led to a political spat between the two now openly friendly Middle Eastern nations.
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08/28/2020
Taken off from RAF Mildenhall, UK, the aircraft conducted an intelligence gathering mission off Murmansk, over the waters known to be exercise areas for the Russian Northern Fleet.
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08/28/2020
Recent reports that the Trump administration is planning to sell advanced combat aircraft and armed drones to the United Arab Emirates should prompt a clear-eyed assessment of the security relationship between our two nations. Quite simply, this is no time to be selling weapons to the UAE. Advocates of the sale have cited the UAE’s recent recognition of Israel and its role as a potential ally against Iran to justify the deals. Neither of these rationales hold up to scrutiny.
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08/27/2020
The UK could reportedly purchase only half of the 138 F-35B Lightning II fighter jets that the country has planned to buy over the course of the programme, according to The Times. Sources close to the UK Government’s defence review were quoted by the publication as saying that the plans are “unlikely to be fulfilled”. The F-35 short take-off and vertical landing variant is being purchased for the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Royal Navy.
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08/27/2020
On Aug. 15, Lockheed Martin Corp in the US signed contracts to sell 90 F-16 warplanes, of which Taiwan is buying 66 for a total US$8 billion, while Morocco is buying the other 24. Washington’s approval of the F-16V deal with Taiwan reveals four things. First, the US believes that Taiwan needs to acquire new types of fighters for its air defense to be powerful enough to play its part in its multidomain deterrence strategy.
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08/27/2020
This week it was reported that the Russian Aerospace Forces (RuAF) will be purchasing another batch of the Su-35 fighter jets in a contract worth seventy billion rubles or roughly $927 million. Designated the “Flanker-E” by NATO, the Su-35 is a “4++ generation” fighter that has proven itself to be a very capable foe to current U.S. aircraft, including the F-15 Eagle, the F-18, and even the F-35 Lightning II.
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08/26/2020
Heron Systems, the winner of a two-year Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) competition, yesterday fielded an artificial intelligence system that managed to not only outgun a top current U.S. Air Force fighter pilot and weapons school graduate but to score a flawless victory against its human opponent, winning all five dogfighting engagements.
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08/26/2020
The concepts demonstrate how leading engineers are embracing one of Britain’s biggest engineering challenges for the next decade faster than ever before using a digital approach. Using the latest digital twin technologies, conceptual shapes for the aircraft have been virtually designed and tested, with high-performance computers able to calculate the aerodynamic performance of different aircraft features and test pilots taking Tempest to the skies from a ground-based simulator.
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08/25/2020
Nine months after acquiring sophisticated fighter jets from Russia, the Armenian military has contracted a Russian defense company to modernize its older combat aircraft. Armenia’s Defense Ministry signed on Monday a relevant agreement with Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) at a ceremony in Moscow attended by Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan.
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08/24/2020
United Aircraft Corporation has just released the first-ever footage of the maiden flight of a heavily upgraded Tupolev Tu-95MSM (NATO reporting name “Bear”). The first flight took place on Aug. 22, 2020, at the Taganrog Aviation Plant, in Taganrog. The video shows the iconic Russian bomber (with its peculiar coaxial contra-rotating propellers) taxiing, taking off, performing a fly by and landing, reportedly after 2.5 hours of test flight.
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08/24/2020
The Air Force hopes to make up lost ground in battling its chronic pilot shortage with Undergraduate Pilot Training 2.5, which takes advantage of newer technology such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence, as well as increased simulator time, to allow students to progress at their own pace.
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08/24/2020
Israeli electronics company Orbit Communications Systems Ltd. (TASE:ORBI) has announced that US aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin has chosen the company's Orion Combat system as the next generation of the communication and audio management system for F-16s. The agreement is worth an estimated $46 million.
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08/24/2020
Amid a protracted stand-off along the LAC, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has accomplished a secret mission by testing several rounds of air-to-air missiles that have recently been acquired from France and Russia from a frontline fighter aircraft off Odisha coast.
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08/23/2020
As India is in the process of overhauling its airforce with the latest Rafale jets and additional MiG-29 and SU-30 MKIs, an RTI (Request To Information) filed by India Today reveals that in that last 10 years, 798 Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots have resigned and 289 of these pilots were given No-objection Certificates (NOC) to fly private airlines.
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08/23/2020
The GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb is a remarkable weapon. It has greatly extended the magazine depth of fighter aircraft, while also providing them with a voluminous standoff 'fire and forget' precision attack capability. The $39,000 glide bombs can reach as far as 60 miles to their targets, depending on their launch height and speed.
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08/22/2020
The massive American warship, the USS Hershel Woody Williams, has arrived at the Greek island of Crete as tensions escalate between NATO allies Greece and Turkey over energy rights in the eastern Mediterranean. The ship’s presence comes days after a Turkish frigate, protecting an exploration ship that Ankara sent to the region to hunt for undersea oil and gas, collided with a Greek battleship on August 12, raising the stakes of the brewing maritime crisis.
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08/22/2020
One of the most recent and fast-moving credible rumors to come from the online communities watching the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is a new landing helicopter dock (LHD) type vessel dubbed the 076. This 076 class LHD was first brought to the attention of the community in mid-2020, and in a rather unprecedented fashion a number of official request for proposal documents were found, and some credible insiders with established track records began to speak about the details of 076.
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08/22/2020
Rolls-Royce has formed a strategic partnership with British hypersonic-power experts Reaction Engines and is backing that up with a new investment in the company. The new partnership is aimed at developing high-speed propulsion systems for defense and civil applications as well as exploring Reaction Engines' key thermal management technology as part of Rolls-Royce's own gas turbine engines and hybrid-electric systems.
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08/22/2020
The Indian Air Force’s (IAF) acquisition of five new Rafale fighter aircraft from France attracted media attention like never before in the backdrop of the border clashes with China. Earlier fighter aircraft inductions into the IAF, like that of the Russian Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter aircraft in the late 1990s, the British Jaguar and the Soviet-era MiG-29 fighters in the early 1980s, never made newspaper headlines.
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08/22/2020
Recent satellite imagery that The War Zone has obtained shows that the Russian military is significantly lengthening the runway at Nagurskoye Air Base, its remote northernmost military outpost, situated in the increasingly strategic Arctic region. The facility, which the Kremlin announced is now operating year-round in April, looks to soon be more than capable of supporting regular deployments of heavy airpower assets and even forward-basing contingents of tactical combat aircraft.
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08/21/2020
The Defense Department may not have finished working out all the kinks in the ultra-expensive and perpetually buggy F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, but the Navy is moving forward with a multi-billion-dollar effort to develop the U.S. military's first new fighter jet in nearly two decades.
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08/21/2020
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has reportedly carried out successful testing of Beyond Visual Range (BVR) anti-air multi-target MICA missile, which will be integrated with the recently acquired Rafale fighter jets. According to a New Indian Express report, the Indian Air Force conducted the tests, using the Sukhoi Su-30 MKI fighter jets off Odisha coast.
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08/21/2020
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, despite its teething problems, is earmarked as one of the most transformational air combat capabilities in human history and will deliver revolutionary capability to the Royal Australian Air Force and allied air forces the world over, and keeping it at the forefront of capability is a constant job.
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08/21/2020
In the battle of artificial intelligence versus a human fighter pilot, it wasn’t even close. The artificial intelligence algorithm, developed by Heron Systems, swept a human F-16 pilot in a simulated dogfight 5-0 in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s AlphaDogfight Trials on Aug. 20.
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08/20/2020
Boeing has been flying an F/A-18E/F Super Hornet off a ground-based ski jump at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland. This is part of a demonstration effort for the Indian Navy to show that the aircraft can operate from short take-off but arrested recovery configured (STOBAR) aircraft carriers, such as the INS Vikramaditya and the future INS Vikrant.
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08/20/2020
The deployment of China’s most advanced J-20 stealth fighter near the border with India should not be over-interpreted in context of the Sino-India border friction as the tension is de-escalating, Chinese state media has said. The long-range jets’ deployment, which is yet to be confirmed by the People’s Liberation Army Airforce (PLAAF), could be for the aircraft’s long-distance flight practice and part of the warplane’s protocols to adapt to different environment.
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08/19/2020
The Finnish government’s budget proposal for 2021 has allayed concerns of delays or reduced funding for the Armed Forces’ (FAF) HX Fighter Program. The plan will effectively increase the military’s budgetary framework in 2021 by $2 billion to $5.8 billion to meet phase one of the project’s procurement costs.
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08/19/2020
The agreement to formalize relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates did not include allowing the latter to purchase F-35 fighter jets, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Tuesday, following reports to the contrary. Furthermore, the agreement did not include any arms deals between the US and the UAE.
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08/19/2020
According to a spokesman for Russia’s National Defense Management Center, a Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker on QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) was scrambled to identify and escort an Italian Atlantic that was approaching Russia’s state border on Aug. 14, 2020. “A Su-27 fighter plane from the Southern Military District’s air defense quick reaction alert forces was scrambled to identify the target. The Russian fighter’s crew consistently approached the aerial object at a safe distance and identified it as an Ital
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08/19/2020
The direct impact of the latest Rafale fighter jet from France to India is now clearly visible on the China border. Fearful of Rafale, China has deployed its most modern Chengdu J-20 fighter fighter jet at its Hotan airbase, 200 miles from Ladakh. Pictures from the satellite have seen the deployment of a 2J-20 fighter jet at Hotan Airbase Base in China. Earlier these fighter jets were not seen earlier on this airbase. Pictures of the J-20 jet are viral in Chinese media.
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08/18/2020
One aircraft is now equipped with a Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures, or LAIRCM, defensive system to protect the tanker from surface-launched Infrared (IR) guided missiles.
The LAIRCM is a directional, active IR jammer that is designed to defeat a wide range of ground-fired IR (heat-seeking) missiles. The system jams the infrared missile seekers through the sensor aperture, causing the missile to miss the intended target.
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08/18/2020
Kaliningrad is a tiny Russian enclave sitting between Poland and Lithuania, a Russia’s strategic outpost on NATO’s doorstep. Missile formations of Russia’s Baltic Fleet have held drills in the Kaliningrad Region for eliminating a notional enemy’s subversive groups and stealthily deploying Iskander tactical missile systems, the Fleet’s press office reported on Monday.
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08/18/2020
Taiwan will receive 66 new American-made F-16 fighter jets in the biggest arms sale to the self-governing island in years. The deal finalized on Friday comes as China has been increasing pressure on the island, which Beijing considers to be an inseparable part of its territory.
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08/18/2020
On Aug. 17, 2020, six Israeli Air Force F-16C/Ds “Barak”, belonging to the 101 and 105 Sqn from Hatzor Air Base arrived at Nörvenich Air Base, in western Germany, where they will remain for two weeks to take part in exercise Blue Wings 2020. The jets, using radio callsign “ATOMI 1-6” were supported by three B707 tankers (using the radio callsign “GIANT1-2-3”); a G550 CAEW (Conformal Airborne Early Warning) “Nachshon Aitam” (radio callsign “GLORY 1”) and a C-130 (radio callsign “IAF133”).
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08/17/2020
During the 1982 Falklands War between Argentina and Britain, Vulcan bomber 607, which would take seventeen separate in-flight refuellings in radio silence to get it to its target and back, dropped its “iron bombs” in a daring raid on Port Stanley airfield, rendering the runways unusable.
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08/17/2020
Russia is planning to modify its Su-30SM fighter jet to carry the Kh-32 air-to-surface missile. The Kh-32 will have a range of up to 1000km and would be able to strike targets without getting in range of defending jets.
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08/17/2020
On August 11th identified tracks revealed a number of flights from Crimea in the western part of the Black Sea heading towards NATO territory. In response the Combined Air Operations Centre at Torrejón Spain has alerted and launched Allied fighter aircraft from Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria to respond to the tracks which were identified as a Russian military aircraft.
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08/17/2020
India’s move to ban the import of some weapon systems and military hardware to boost local manufacturing is being hindered by its push to procure as much as $2 billion in equipment to increase its defense preparedness as it faces a border stand-off with China and volatile relations with Pakistan.
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08/17/2020
In his written statement, Ismail Demir, President of the Presidency Defense Industry, stated that the defense industry sector continues its MMU development efforts in the process of combating the new type of coronavirus (Kovid-19). Demir stated that within the scope of MMU development studies, TUSAS and HAVELSAN have signed a cooperation.
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08/16/2020
China is developing a new generation two-seater stealth warplane, based on its most advanced fighter the J-20, intended as an early-warning aircraft that will serve as a command centre for other weapons such as fighter jets and rocket launchers.
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08/16/2020
According to the statement, Japan scrambled fighter jets on Friday to warn Russian IL-20M (RF-75936) warplane it said had entered its air space identification zone over the neutral waters of the Sea of Japan. The Ilyushin Il-20M is an upgraded electronic signals intelligence aircraft based on a 1950s-era turboprop-powered plane. Spy plane carries a wide array of antennas, optical and infrared sensors, and side-looking radar, as well as satellite communication equipment.
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08/16/2020
“The system has been developed using the communications platform created for the Su-57 fifth-generation fighter. As its main advantages, it is characterized by high reliability, speedy information transmission, a small weight and energy efficiency. The technical solutions laid out in creating the system help promptly build up its technical functionality by upgrading the software,” the press office of Ruselectronics Group (part of the state hi-tech corporation Rostec) told TASS.
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08/16/2020
The F-117 Nighthawk's story just gets richer with age. Over the last half-decade, we have seen a consistent expansion of flying operations by the supposedly retired stealth attack jets. Although I have long posited that the F-117s that are still flying would be involved in aggressor operations, the Air Force's demand for low-observable adversary capabilities has since become clear.
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08/15/2020
Beijing has stepped up the pace of its war games in recent weeks after the US sent two aircraft carrier strike groups into the South China Sea. Now it's threatening to "play" next door to a significant US Pacific base.
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08/15/2020
“China’s J-20 was inspired by the F-22’s deployment. The Chinese aircraft designers used the Raptor as a rival and the F-35 [stealth multi-role fighter] as a tactical opponent to help them to come up with a more practical and capable fighter jet,” Chinese defense expert Song Zhongping told the South China Morning Post, according to an article in Forbes.
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08/15/2020
After friendship between Us and Taiwan, China is now preparing to seize the neighboring island by force. According to information received, Chinese fighter jets were reported to have crossed the mid-line of the Taiwan Strait. There have been reports that more than 20 combat aircraft were flown by Taiwanese F-16s.
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08/15/2020
India's Defence Ministry has announced that it will cease imports of over 100 items for the Indian armed forces worth $47 billion. The move will affect purchases from major arms suppliers such as the U.S., Russia and Israel worth billions of dollars in the coming years, if the country achieves targeted domestic production.
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08/15/2020
Germany is facing a number of such platform choices, and in this second article in the series, I will address the face-off between the CH-53K and the Chinook and what this choice means for the evolution of the German armed forces.
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08/15/2020
Air Combat Command is preparing to consolidate its fighter, rescue, and command-and-control enterprises under a new numbered air force that will help military leaders wield those forces more effectively. The Air Force will bring its Ninth and 12th Air Forces under one roof as the 15th Air Force the week of Aug. 17, ACC Commander Gen. James M. “Mike” Holmes said during an Aug. 14 Air Force Association event.
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08/14/2020
The U.S. Air Force is deeply engaged in advanced testing that will help it to exploit the full capabilities of the F-16’s new Northrop Grumman AN/APG-83 Active Electronically Scanned Array, or AESA, radar. It’s part of uncovering the full potential of the radar, and the F-16 for that matter, as it joins more squadrons, firstly in the Air National Guard, followed by active-duty units.
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08/14/2020
The Air Force will pit an experienced F-16 fighter pilot in a toe-to-toe virtual reality dogfight for the first time against artificial intelligence as part of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency event on Thursday. The AlphaDogFight Trials consists of three days of cyberspace competition, during which eight AI teams will determine which of their programs will face the human pilot, a DARPA statement said. The event will be livestreamed, with commentary from agency officials.
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08/14/2020
America’s vaunted F-22 Raptor stealth fighter has a major weakness, according to China’s top aircraft designer: It was designed to fight Russia in Europe, not China in the Pacific. In fact, Yang Wei, chief designer of the J-20 Mighty Dragon – China’s first stealth fighter – says that if the F-22 were to fly against China, it would suffer the same problems that the F-4 Phantom suffered when flying over North Vietnam during the Vietnam War a half-century ago.
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08/13/2020
Chinese forces have conducted anti-aircraft drills in the country's southeast overlooking Taiwan as a U.S. aircraft carrier sails nearby the self-ruling island that is increasingly becoming central to the feud between Washington and Beijing.
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08/13/2020
The tensions between India and China continue from April to May. Despite constant military and diplomatic level negotiations, the conflict has not ended. India has also made adequate arrangements by sensing the intentions of the way China has mobilized its army and ammunition.
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08/13/2020
The Russian Ministry of Defense has released images of the second series-production Su-57 Felon advanced combat jet, which is now under construction. The first production example crashed during a flight test last year. You can see that aircraft while under construction here. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu had led a delegation to Sukhoi’s Komsomolsk-on-Amur (KnAAZ) aviation plant to inspect the aircraft on Aug. 12, 2020, as part of the commemoration of Russia's Air Force Day.
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08/12/2020
Russian pilots reportedly logged quite a few hours already this month to intercept and track U.S. aircraft near Russian airspace. Last week three Su-35S fighters were scrambled to shadow a U.S. B-1B Lancer bomber over the Sea of Okhotsk west of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula in the far western Pacific Ocean.
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08/12/2020
The US Air Force (USAF) has awarded a contract to Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and Sabreliner Aviation to continue structural analysis and maintenance work of the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II military aircraft fleet. According to the $1m contract, SwRI’s structural engineers will perform damage tolerance analysis for military and commercial aircraft. In addition, the team will provide the information required for safe and effective structural management of the fleets.
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08/11/2020
Chinese air force jets briefly crossed the mid-line of the Taiwan Strait on Monday and were tracked by Taiwanese missiles, Taiwan’s government said, as U.S. health chief Alex Azar visited the island to offer President Donald Trump’s support.
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08/11/2020
Approximately 3,000 feet above Eglin Air Force Base, the HH-60W Jolly Green II connected with a HC-130J tanker for the inaugural aerial refueling by the Air Force’s newest combat search and rescue helicopter, Aug. 5. The connection marked the start of two weeks of developmental testing of the aircraft’s aerial refueling abilities by 413th Flight Test Squadron testers and their mission partners.
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08/11/2020
Israel has declared its second squadron of F-35I “Adir” Joint Strike Fighters combat-ready. The 116 Squadron, the "Lions of the South," has become fully operational after a six-month period of intensive workups. It clears the way for the unit to join frontline operations alongside sister unit, 140 Squadron, or the "Golden Eagle Squadron," at Nevatim Air Base.
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08/11/2020
The first five of India’s new Rafale fighter aircraft touched down in country on July 29. According to the terms of a 2016 contract with the French manufacturer Dassault, 31 more will follow. They will go some way toward filling India’s larger requirement of 126 such jets. The Indian Air Force has long needed refurbishing, but it has been perennially delayed both by New Delhi’s infamous bureaucratic red tape and by budgetary issues.
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08/09/2020
Continuing the effort to disengage peacefully at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), India and China on Saturday (August 8, 2020) held a Major General-level talk at Daulat Beg Oldi area over the withdrawal of Chinese troops from the Depsang plains in the Ladakh region.
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08/09/2020
As tensions between Taiwan and China continue to escalate, satellite images reportedly show amphibious armoured vehicles and mobile missile launchers massing at military bases near the island nation. Though Taiwan, a country of 25 million people, is happy as an independent democracy, Beijing insists it is a "breakaway province" and "inviolate" Chinese territory, repeatedly stating it will use force to bring the island back under China's control.
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08/08/2020
The Volk Field Combat Readiness Training Center will host about 50 aircraft and nearly 1,000 service members during the annual Northern Lightning Counterland training exercise Aug. 10-21. Units from as close as the backyard in Wisconsin and neighboring Minnesota, as well as far-flung states such as California, Idaho, New York, Vermont and Virginia, will participate. Military branches to be represented include the National Guard, Air Force, Army and Navy.
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08/08/2020
The Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group is conducting drills off the coast of Northern Japan with land-based Navy and Air Force units this week. The CSG is operating with the Navy’s Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 131, which flies the EA-18G Growler electronic attack jet, and the Air Force 35th Fighter Wing that flies F-16 fighters. The joint integrated training operations began Aug. 1 and include air-to-air operations, combat search and rescue drills, and air defense exercises.
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08/08/2020
The U.S. Air Force has concluded a two-day, $1.4 million exercise that evaluated the F-35 fighter jet’s ability to provide its electronic warfare capabilities to other stealthy reconnaissance and bombing platforms. The event, which took place Aug. 4-6 at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, tested the ability for the F-35 to provide Suppression of Enemy Air Defense, or SEAD, support for other stealthy platforms such as the B-2 and the RQ-170 reconnaissance drone.
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08/08/2020
Two Taiwanese F-16A Vipers have flown air patrol missions armed with live AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles. Taiwan’s Liberty Times said the missions were launched amid fears of imminent Chinese military exercises that are expected to be designed to simulate capture of the Taiwan-administered Dongsha Islands, in the northern area of the South China Sea.
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08/07/2020
A Russian company announced on Wednesday that a new engine for fighter aircraft that it had developed has been shipped for conducting thermal pressure chamber tests. The state-owned United Engine Corporation controls development and manufacturing of all engines for military, civilian and space use in Russia and for Russian exports. The UEC's Klimov plant in St Petersburg had been developing the RD-93MA engine, which is a modification of the RD-93 engine, used on the JF-17 fighter.
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08/07/2020
Boeing is showing growing interest in selling its F-15EX twin-engine multi-role fighters to the Indian Air Force. Back in February, Boeing Vice President Pratyush Kumar stated the company was seeking a license to export the F-15EX to India—a request which may soon be granted according to Indian defense journalist Shiv Aroor.
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08/06/2020
It’s official. The Japanese air force plans to add an anti-ship capability to its fleet of F-15Js as part of a comprehensive upgrade to the three-decade-old fighters. It’s no secret why. As the Chinese navy adds powerful new ships, the Japanese air force adds powerful new ship-sinking weapons. But pity the poor F-15J pilots, who are already some of the busiest combat aviators in the world—and now must add anti-ship training to their schedule.
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08/06/2020
The Commonwealth’s Request For Information (RFI) for its proposed Lead In Fighter Trainer (LIFT) program to be delivered under Air 6002 Phase 1 closed on Friday, eliciting responses from at least three companies. Air 6002 Phase 1 is a $4 to $5 billion program between 2022 and 2033 to replace the current LIFT capability, which is a system of simulators and training devices, based on the BAE Systems Hawk Mk.127 platform.
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08/06/2020
Chinese and Indian fighters are engaging in vicious dogfights. Not in the air, but over the airwaves, where both nations are claiming that their newest jets are superior to those of their rival. Last week, former Indian Air Force chief B.S. Dhanoa claimed that China’s new J-20 stealth fighter “doesn’t come close” to India’s new French-made Rafale fighters.
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08/05/2020
A Russian MiG-31 fighter jet intercepted Norwegian Air Force Falcon 20 reconnaissance aircraft over the neutral waters of the Barents Sea, Russia’s National Defense Control Center said in a statement.
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08/05/2020
On 13 July, an F-16 Fighting Falcon piloted by Lt. Col. Jeremy “Clutch” Castor, from the 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron, flew its first-ever operational flight carrying the Legion Pod that supports collaborative targeting operations in radar-denied environments.
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08/05/2020
The US Congress is moving against Egypt’s attempts to acquire Russian Sukhoi Su-35 aircraft, despite Washington’s silence for months regarding the significant developments in Cairo’s relations with Moscow. Reports suggest that Egypt is expecting delivery of the bombers soon.
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08/05/2020
Forward-thinking companies sometimes see emerging market opportunities before the end-user. One product that may have been developed ahead of its time is the Scorpion low-cost light attack/ISR aircraft, which is based on business jet technology. The production-standard Scorpion is being developed by a JV between Textron and AirLand Enterprises. It was unveiled at the Dubai Airshow in 2017 with potential Middle Eastern customers in mind.
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08/04/2020
Russian warplanes bombed Syrian rebel-held mountainous areas in the western coastal province of Latakia on Monday as Syrian government forces hit the area with artillery and rocket fire, an opposition group and a war monitor said. The Syrian army and allied forces also clashed with rebel fighters while trying to advance on a frontline town near the strategic Jabal al-Akrad mountain range, said Jaish al-Nasr and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
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08/04/2020
The venerable U-2 took another step toward the Pentagon's vision of 21st-century warfare, thanks to a recent demonstration in which it relayed sensor data from F-35 aircraft through Lockheed Martin communications gear to an Army missile-command system, company officials said Monday.
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08/04/2020
India Today’s OSINT team analysed satellite images from Google Earth over the last eight months to study the changes at China’s Kashgar air base. Satellite images show construction of an underground vault months before the India-China standoff started in Ladakh .
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08/04/2020
The first five of the thirty-six Dassault Rafale fighters that India purchased from France reached Ambala airbase in the north Indian state of Haryana at the end of July. Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria, the chief of staff of the Indian Air Force, was on hand to greet the pilots who flew them from Merignac, France.
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08/04/2020
A combined developmental and operational test team successfully tested a new F-16 radar capability during a four-ship formation of F-16s here July 2. The mission was the first of its kind to test the APG-83 Active Electronically Scanned Array radar on four fighter aircraft at the same time. The Operational Flight Program Combined Test Force, 40th Flight Test Squadron and the 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron were responsible for fielding the radar for the Air Force’s F-16 fleet.
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08/03/2020
At 2:22 pm on Saturday, China's Army Day, think tank South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI) released the latest movement of US warships on its Weibo account, including the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and USS America amphibious assault ship in the East China Sea. From July 15 to 30, SCSPI's Weibo account has released a total of 24 updates on the activity tracks of US warships and warplanes in regions including South China Sea and East China Sea.
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08/03/2020
Japan is on edge after scrambling fighter jets 847 times to intercept intruding Chinese bombers as tensions over disputed zones soar. In the 365 days to March, Japanese Air Self Defence Force (JASDF) fighter jets had to respond 847 times. In the four months since, such interceptions have only accelerated.
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08/03/2020
The Chinese air force apparently has deployed bombers to an air base in the country’s far west, placing the warplanes within striking distance of Indian forces along the disputed Chinese-Indian border in the Himalayas. But conditions undoubtedly are difficult for the bombers and their crews.
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08/03/2020
In the wake of border clashes between India and China, the Indian Air Force has received powerful reinforcements. Five French-made Rafale fighters have arrived in India, the first of 36 jets that will boost Indian airpower should minor border clashes with China escalate into more serious hostilities.
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08/02/2020
The Indian Navy has rejected the contract for Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The Indian Navy believes that that Advanced Light Helicopters by HAL does not meet its requirement and that there is a dire need to establish alternative capability in the private sector to manufacture modern choppers.
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08/02/2020
Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jets, from 6 Squadron, RAF Lossiemouth, intercepted Russian military aircraft while they were flying over the Baltic Sea. The Typhoons approached the Russian formation to identify its composition and established it was an IL-38 ‘MAY’ Maritime Patrol Aircraft, being escorted by two Su-27 Flanker B fighter jets.
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08/01/2020
Earlier, Russian Minister of Industry had confirmed on June 27 that a contract for the procurement of 76 Sukhoi Su-57 aircraft, Russia’s first indigenously designed and built fifth-generation stealth fighter jet, has been concluded between the Moscow and United Aircraft Corporation.
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08/01/2020
On July 30, the U.S government submitted the Request for Proposal (RFP) response for the Lockheed Martin built F-35 to Canada in support of their Future Fighter Capability Project. Canada has been a valued partner since the inception of the Joint Strike Fighter competition. Canadian industry plays an integral role in the global F-35 supply chain and has gained significant technical expertise over the past 15-plus year involvement in the F-35 production.
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08/01/2020
Japan's Defense Ministry confirmed Friday it will award a contract to a single Japanese company to oversee its next-generation fighter jet project, part of an effort to preserve a domestic defense industry that has atrophied amid decades of U.S.-led development.
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08/01/2020
It’s one thing to design a warplane. And other thing to build it. That’s a truism Russian fighter-maker Sukhoi is learning—or relearning—as it tries to fill the Kremlin’s order for 76 Su-57 stealth fighters. Sukhoi builds the twin-engine Su-57 at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur aircraft plant in the Russian Far East. The factory previously built the non-stealthy Su-35—and learned some hard lessons.
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08/01/2020
On Friday, the Ministry Of Defense Of Azerbaijan has reported that F-16 fighter aircraft of the Turkish Air Force arrived in Azerbaijan to participate in the “TurAz Qartali-2020” Joint Exercises.
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