June, 2022 Military Aviation News
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06/30/2022
The Air Force has pounded another nail into the coffin of a potential bridge tanker competition with the launch of the Advanced Aerial Refueling Family of Systems (AAR FoS) program. In a request for information by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, the service informed the aviation industry that it’s seeking significant improvements to existing tankers while looking to define a far more capable future system.
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06/30/2022
As Jordan’s leader publicly raised the idea of a Middle East NATO-like alliance, his Air Force has marked a significant upgrade with the signing of a Letter of Offer and Acceptance for eight F-16 Block 70 aircraft from Lockheed Martin. The LOA was signed June 17 with a Lockheed spokesperson telling Breaking Defense “We anticipate the production contract for this LOA will be complete in the next year,” with deliveries expected to start in 2027.
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06/30/2022
Approximately 170 Airmen assigned to the 175th Wing, Maryland Air National Guard and A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft have returned from Europe, where they supported Exercises Swift Response and Defender Europe 22. The 10 Maryland A-10s, assigned to the 104th Fighter Squadron, flew more than 240 sorties and operated in 10 countries throughout Europe to execute Agile Combat Employment. ACE is the Air Force concept of quickly mobilizing and deploying aircraft, personnel and equipment across a theater
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06/29/2022
A subcommittee of South Korea's state defense procurement committee has endorsed a basic proposal to purchase some 20 F-35A radar-evading fighters, Seoul officials said Wednesday.
The Defense Project Promotion Committee's subcommittee approved it on June 9 in a push for a 3.9 trillion won ($3 billion) project to introduce the fighters, manufactured by the US defense giant Lockheed Martin from 2023 through the mid to late 2020s.
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06/27/2022
The U.S. should permanently station fifth-generation combat jets on Guam to counter China’s increasing military capability, the leader of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said Friday. “What we are seeing, from my seat, is the largest military buildup in history since WWII,” Adm. John Aquilino said at a Foundation for Defense of Democracies event Friday.
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06/27/2022
The Russian army has lost about 150 military personnel, 21 tanks, 14 armoured combat vehicles, 2 multiple-launch rocket systems and 4 drones in battles in Ukraine in the previous 24 hours.
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06/27/2022
The Armée de l’Air et de l’Espace bid its farewell to the last Mirage 2000C in service during a ceremony at the Air Base 115 in Orange on June 23, 2022. The aircraft, which entered service in 1984, was the “legacy” version of the Mirage 2000, which was becoming increasingly obsolete after more than 235,000 flight hours and almost 40 years of service.
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06/27/2022
India has offered to set up production facilities for the manufacturing of light combat aircraft (LCA) as well as helicopters in Egypt as it pursues export opportunities in the Middle East and North Africa region.
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06/26/2022
According to Eurofighter Typhoon website news release, the Halcón agreement, announced at the ILA air show in Berlin, will see Spain receive 16 single-seater and 4 twin-seater fighters equipped with electronic (e-scan) radar which will replace part of the legacy F-18 fleet. It will increase the Spanish Eurofighter fleet to 90 aircraft.
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06/26/2022
A United States P-8A military plane flew over the Taiwan Strait, the Chinese Army reported Saturday on its official Weibo social media account. Command spokesman Shi Yi wrote about the army’s “firm opposition” to the Friday flight and said forces in the area “remain on high alert at all times” to defend China’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Shi said the army organized “ground and air forces” to monitor “all operations” of the US aircraft, an anti-submarine maritime patrol plane.
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06/26/2022
As the ravaging war in Eastern Europe entered its 122nd day on Saturday, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry claimed that Russia has incurred heavy casualties over the last four months. In its latest operational update, the ministry claimed that Russia has lost nearly 34,700 soldiers, 3,645 Armored Personnel Vehicles (APV), 1,511 tanks, 764 artillery systems and 241 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS), and at least 99 anti-aircraft warfare.
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06/26/2022
The Air Force selected LIFT Airborne Technologies to continue with prototype development of a new helmet for Air Force fixed-wing aircrew. The helmet prototype was chosen after Air Combat Command initiated the search for a next-generation helmet to address issues with long-term neck and back injuries, optimize aircraft technology, improve pilot longevity, and provide better fitment to diverse aircrews.
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06/26/2022
Whether it’s doubles tennis, beach volleyball or two-seat bobsled, some sports are awesome when there are two people working together. The same rings true for flying jets like the Air Force’s F-15E Strike Eagle, a two-seat fighter with a pilot sitting in front and a weapon systems officer, a.k.a. ‘wizzo,’ in the back. The ‘wizzos’ are often unsung heroes, but they enjoyed a rare shout-out on Facebook last week, when a lifelong Wizzo broke down their vital role in the air.
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06/25/2022
An uptick in Russian and Chinese warship movements near Japan are a part of an ongoing military demonstration toward Tokyo, Japan’s Defense Minister Nobou Kishi said this week.
The People’s Liberation Army Navy and the Russian Pacific fleet have, since mid-June, sent two separate surface action groups around the Japanese home islands.
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06/25/2022
The recent visit to Pakistan by the head of Argentina’s joint military staff has fed speculation that a JF-17 fighter jet deal is on the horizon following more than a decade of interest by the South American nation. But despite China’s willingness to help fund an acquisition program, its unclear if any major progress was made.
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06/25/2022
Our military-industrial complex recently convinced an aviation expert at The Aviationist to take a swing at the A-10 once again. Instead of relying on that author’s poorly researched piece, let’s take a more thorough look into battlefield realities.
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06/24/2022
The Czech Ministry of Defense is considering the replacement of the 14 JAS-39 Gripen C/D fighters currently on lease from the Swedish manufacturer Saab until 2027 by acquiring at least 24 Lockheed Martin F-35A fighters. Following a study carried out to assess the needs of its combat aviation, the Czech Air Force “has already passed on to the ministry its idea of which aircraft should protect the Czech airspace in the coming years,” said the local daily Echo24 on June 20, 2022.
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06/24/2022
Years ago, the U.S. Army’s vision for its fleet of Future Vertical Lift helicopters and aircraft was intended to engineer platforms that could operate in a dangerous threat environment in the 2030s and not focus on the near term when it comes to the development of paradigm-changing new aircraft.
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06/24/2022
Slovakia will transfer its MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine in exchange for temporary airspace protection from Poland and Czechia, reports suggest. Talks to implement the scheme have been happening in the context of a similar exchange which could see Slovakia receive German-made Leopard 2 tanks in exchange for delivering Soviet-era T-72s to Ukraine, according to a report by Business Insider.
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06/24/2022
Two lawmakers in Washington want to start training Ukrainian pilots to fly US-made military aircraft, signalling at least some members of Congress support the US playing a more-direct role in Ukraine’s air war against Russia. Despite such support, however, the US government has signalled no intention of pursuing such a strategy.
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06/24/2022
The NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency (NETMA) has signed a landmark contract for the acquisition of 20 latest-generation Eurofighter jets. Known as the Halcon programme, the order will cover the delivery of a fleet of E-Scan (Electronically Scanned) radar-equipped fighter aircraft consisting of 16 single-seaters and 4 twin-seaters to replace the F-18 fleet operated by the Spanish Air Force on the Canary Islands.
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06/23/2022
A second Australian military aircraft was dispatched over contested waters in the South China Sea last month, just hours after the Chinese air force conducted a "dangerous interception" of another RAAF plane. Defence is refusing to discuss the May 26 incident further, but flight data obtained by the ABC reveals new details of the dramatic flight as well as other recent Defence Force maritime surveillance missions being flown out of the Clark Air Base in the Philippines.
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06/23/2022
Six countries in the NATO alliance recently signed a memorandum of mutual understanding to cooperate on new concepts for a next-generation helicopter. At the June 16 meeting of alliance defense ministers, in Brussels, Italy, France, Greece, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom have agreed to jointly commit 26.7 million Euro to develop the Next-Generation Rotorcraft Capability (NGRC) project. This is equivalent to $28 million.
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06/23/2022
India has emerged as the frontrunner for a Malaysian requirement of light combat aircraft, with a package deal on the table that would include maintenance and spares for the nation's Russian origin Su 30 fighter jets.
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06/22/2022
The new “Splinter” camouflage on aggressor F-35s at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., shouldn’t negate or interfere with their low observability, meaning they can truly play the role of a stealthy sparring partner for USAF fighters, according to a Nellis spokesperson. The first two F-35s to appear in camouflage were revealed June 9 at a Nellis ceremony to reactivate the 65th Aggressor Squadron, wearing a paint scheme reminiscent of both the Russian Su-57 Felon and Chinese J-20 fighters.
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06/22/2022
Instead of the quick Russian victory that Moscow and much of the world expected, the war in Ukraine has dragged on for nearly four months, with both sides losing thousands of troops and hundreds of aircraft and vehicles.
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06/22/2022
The U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force are working on a new generation of training technologies to prepare their fighter aircraft for new Russian and Chinese air threats posed by the Su-57 fighter and J-20 fifth-generation stealth aircraft, respectively.
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06/22/2022
Taiwan scrambled jets on Tuesday to warn away 29 Chinese aircraft in its air defence zone, including bombers that flew south of the island and into the Pacific, in the latest uptick in tensions and largest incursion since late May.
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06/21/2022
The United States may let Tajikistan hold on to Afghan military aircraft donated by the U.S. that sought shelter in the Central Asian country following the U.S. withdrawal from Kabul last August, a U.S. military commander said. U.S.-trained Afghan pilots flew dozens of military planes and helicopters to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as they fled the Islamist Taliban who took over the country as foreign forces withdrew.
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06/21/2022
The South Korean Air Force on Monday kicked off a large-scale aerial military exercise to enhance combat readiness and prepare for possible “enemy provocations,” including a surprise invasion. The theater-level “Soaring Eagle” combat training exercise is being staged over five days through Friday at the 29th Tactical Fighter Weapons Group located at an air base in the central city of Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province.
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06/21/2022
The Air Force’s plans to divest its oldest 33 F-22 Raptor fighters met with a sharp rebuke from the House Armed Services Committee, which moved instead to mandate the Air Force maintain the full Raptor fleet and upgrade the older planes to the newest configuration in its version of the 2023 National Defense Authorization bill.
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06/21/2022
Russian military pilots are still actively using insecure, non-military navigation equipment due to the low quality of Russian own navigation systems. Ukraine has shared abundant evidence that Russians have added off-the-shelf GPS systems, such as Garmin, to the cockpit of its combat aircraft. During the interrogation of the Russian pilot captured on June 18, it turned out that he had with him a Garmin navigator and a smartphone with the ‘Pronebo’ soft in order to have more accurate navigation.
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06/21/2022
China has launched its third aircraft carrier and the first to feature a catapult aircraft launch system. The ship designed and built in China was christened as “Fujian” named after the Chinese province opposite Taiwan, according to state-run news agency Xinhua. According to Defense News, “Fujian” was launched at the Shanghai shipyard where it had undergone construction since 2018.
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06/21/2022
The UK Royal Air Force (RAF) has deployed four F-35B Lightning II aircraft to participate in the air combat training exercise, Ocean Hit. The exercise was conducted in the Bay of Biscay, a gulf of the north-east Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. As part of the exercise, the F-35B aircraft trained with Nato and European partner nations in a combat scenario.
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06/20/2022
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has shaken the foundation of European security to its core and generated a host of sweeping future plans to expand, strengthen, and improve NATO. n close coordination with NATO allies, the Pentagon will pre-position equipment, pursue “scalable” forward formations, streamline multinational command and control, and emphasize rapid deployment ability to respond to future contingencies.
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06/20/2022
Three Chinese military aircraft on Saturday (local time) breached Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ). Two People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) Shenyang J-16 fighter jets and one Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine warfare plane were tracked in the southwest corner of Taiwan's ADIZ, according to the Ministry of National Defense (MND), reported Taiwan News.
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06/20/2022
Each Air Warfare Instructor Course (AWIC) includes a Fighter Combat Instructor (FCI) course, which debuted for the F-35A Lightning II this year. Commanding Officer of No. 2 Operational Conversion Unit, Wing Commander Jordan Sander, spoke to Squadron Leader Eamon Hamilton about bringing a fifth-generation fighter capability into AWIC.
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06/19/2022
Russia has already lost about 33,350 troops in Ukraine (+200 over the past day). The relevant statement was made by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
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06/19/2022
Another country has wanted to acquire the latest version of the 4 ++ generation F-16 Block 70 fighter, and this is the Kingdom of Jordan. The Middle East country has ordered eight fighter jets, but there is a problem: orders from Bahrain, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Morocco, and Taiwan are waiting in the production line.
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06/19/2022
Iranian F-14 fighter jet crashed on Saturday, causing injury to one of its crew members, media in I mentioned the Islamic Republic. He added, “The plane experienced a technical malfunction… the pilot and his co-pilot landed with “Umbrellas”, the ministry’s spokesperson said for The military in Isfahan province where crash Event.
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06/18/2022
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently made an emotional pitch begging for military aid that could help strike enemy positions amid relentless Russian shelling on Ukrainian positions in the Luhansk region. Reports suggest that a Russian Su-25 fighter jet crashed near the Ukrainian border. A video showed the fighter’s charred wreckage near Russia’s Belgorod region, which shares borders with Ukraine’s Luhansk, Kharkiv, and Sumy provinces.
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06/18/2022
Raytheon Technologies’ company Raytheon Intelligence & Space (RI&S) has been selected for a $46.2m project-level agreement to modernise the US Air Force’s (USAF) A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft. The firm-fixed-price contract falls under the System of Systems Consortium’s (SOSSEC) Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) consortium initiative Other Transaction Authority (OTA).
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06/18/2022
The Air Force selected LIFT Airborne Technologies in April to continue with prototype development of a new helmet for Air Force fixed-wing aircrew. The helmet prototype was chosen after Air Combat Command initiated the search for a next-generation helmet to address issues with long-term neck and back injuries, optimize aircraft technology, improve pilot longevity, and provide better fitment to diverse aircrews.
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06/18/2022
There’s an old sports cliché that offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships — and the U.S. Air Force may learn a thing or two from seeing it play out in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That’s because Ukraine, despite having a smaller, lower-tech air force than Russia, has managed to keep Russian aircraft largely out of the country through the clever use of mobile anti-aircraft missile launchers and their knowledge of the terrain, according to a recently-published essay by airpower e
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06/18/2022
China unveiled its first homegrown aircraft carrier on Friday, a vessel with advanced aircraft launch technology similar to its U.S. counterparts, in an event designed to symbolize the country’s expanding military might. In a ribbon-cutting ceremony held at the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai, officials unveiled the Type 003 warship, called “Fujian” according to the country’s defense ministry and state media.
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06/17/2022
The Air Force could finally get its chance to start retiring some of its older A-10 Warthog attack planes. The Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday announced it had advanced its version of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, which supports the Air Force’s plans to divest 21 A-10s at Fort Wayne Air National Guard Base in Indiana. The Air Force said earlier this year, when it released its proposed fiscal 2023 budget, it would replace those Warthogs with an equal number of F-16s.
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06/17/2022
Airmen from California 144th Fighter Wing continued operational tests of an Agile Combat Employment trailer, June 9, 2022, at the Fresno Air National Guard Base, California. The ACE trailer is a one-of-a-kind operational prototype that enables a small team of Airmen to launch and recover fighter jets from an austere location. It was only the second operational use of the basing trailer thus far to launch and recover fighter jets. The trailer served as the hub for all maintenance operations.
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06/17/2022
Six NATO countries signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly work on concepts for a next-generation helicopter on June 16 at a meeting of alliance defense ministers in Brussels.
France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are committing €26.7 million, or roughly $28 million, for the Next-Generation Rotorcraft Capability (NGRC) project, according to a NATO statement. Canada will likely be an observer nation.
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06/17/2022
The U.S. Operational Test Team (UOTT) supported a U.S. Marine Corps F-35 spring test event aboard the USS Tripoli, led by the Navy’s Operational Test and Evaluation Force (OPTEVFOR). The mission demonstrated the Lightning carrier concept where several F-35B aircraft rapidly launch from a Landing Helicopter Assault (LHA) ship to conduct missions involving large strike packages or hours of defensive counter air.
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06/17/2022
The MiG-35 "Fulcrum-F" is a medium-weight, fourth-generation "++" multirole fighter aircraft produced as a highly upgraded version of the MiG-29K/KUB and MiG-29M/M2. First announced publicly in 2007 at the Aero India air show in Bengaluru, development of the craft has been notably slow, with the earliest production beginning in 2013 or 2014 and the first successful flight not occurring until 2017.
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06/16/2022
Sweden is looking to replace its six old C-130Hs (Tp84 according to the Swedish MoD designation) with four second-hand C-130Js from Italy, as the procurement of the latter has been judged as a better option than an upgrade program. While this has not yet been officially confirmed from the two countries, Air Forces Monthly reported the news after an interview with the Swedish Air Force Chief of Staff.
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06/16/2022
Satellite imagery shows major construction at Tinian International Airport that we can say with near certainty is linked directly to plans to expand the facility's ability to act as a divert airfield for the U.S. military in a crisis. More than a decade in the making, the project is intended to provide a vital alternative operating location to the U.S. Air Force's massive Andersen Air Force Base on the island of Guam, just to the southwest of Tinian, should that base be put out of action for any
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06/16/2022
The skies over the Top End are once again reverberating to the sound of combat aircraft as Exercise Diamond Storm draws to its conclusion. The exercise, involving multiple fighter aircraft from the RAAF’s Air Combat Group, C-130J Hercules from the Air Mobility Group and a P-8A Poseidon from Surveillance and Response Group, will graduate the latest generation of Air Warfare instructors who will then go on to be subject matter experts back in their parent units.
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06/16/2022
Germany has chosen an installation near the U.S.-operated Spangdahlem Air Base to house the 35 American-made fighter jets it purchased as part of a military overhaul in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The fleet of fifth-generation F-35 stealth jets will be stationed at Buechel Air Base, in the country's Eifel region, German broadcaster SWR reported Saturday, citing an unidentified spokesman in the German armed forces' Federal Infrastructure Office.
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06/15/2022
The Philippine Air Force (PAF) is mulling to acquire more advanced versions of South Korea's Mach 1.5 capable FA-50 light combat aircraft. "Yes, it is an option. The FA-50s is a good lead-in trainer fighter aircraft na rin, halos multi-role, pwede siyang mag-air-to-ground (it can be considered almost as a multi-role aircraft as it can do air-to-ground missions) or air-to-air. It provides a good training opportunity for the pilots to step up to higher performance aircraft."
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06/15/2022
The U.S. shouldn’t count on economic sanctions to cripple Russia’s defense industrial base or to prevent Russia from replacing military equipment lost or expended in Ukraine, according to a panel of experts.
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06/14/2022
The relevant statement was made by the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Telegram, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. “At about 10:00 a.m., June 12, 2022, the anti-aircraft missile units of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine hit Russia’s Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft near Izium, Kharkiv Region,” the report states.
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06/14/2022
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a stark reminder that Europe’s NATO members need to spend more wisely — and not simply spend more — in bolstering their collective defense against unwarranted aggression. Kyiv’s success so far in blunting Moscow’s armed forces provides a pointer as to where at least some of the additional investment and focus should go, not least of all in air and counter-air systems as well as what are sometimes termed combat enablers.
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06/14/2022
The Bundeswehr (the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany) have decided that all the new F-35A stealth jets destined to the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) will be stationed at Büchel Air Base.
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06/14/2022
A report by Asian News International (ANI) said that the remaining 18 of 114 aircraft would be purchased from foreign manufacturers selected under the new project. The fighter jets are being acquired under the Government of India’s (GOI) ‘Buy Global and Make in India’ initiative, which allows local companies to collaborate with international vendors.
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06/13/2022
According to recent reports, the Government sources have revealed that the PLA Air Force has around two dozen frontline combat aircraft stationed at its Hotan air base in the Eastern Ladakh sector, including the J-11 and the J-20 stealth fighters jets. “The Chinese earlier used to maintain detachments of MiG-21 class fighters there, but they have now been replaced with more capable and sophisticated aircraft and in larger numbers,” they said.
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06/13/2022
For the first time, a Boeing KC-46A Pegasus of the United States Air Force (USAF) refueled a CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft of the Air Force Special Operations Command. This milestone was announced by the 27th Special Operations Wing of the USAF on June 9, 2022. The mission took place over Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico on June 1, 2022.
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06/13/2022
Korea Aerospace Industries Co., South Korea's sole aircraft manufacturer, said Sunday it has signed an agreement with the U.S. defense firm Lockheed Martin to boost sales of its advanced trainer jets in the United States. Under the "Teaming Agreement" signed on Thursday (U.S. time), the two sides agreed to set up a steering committee to jointly design, produce and promote an improved model of FA-50 light combat aircraft to try to win U.S. military procurement projects.
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06/12/2022
A Russian signal reconnaissance plane and two Russian fighter planes entered Swedish civilian surveillance airspace north of Visby on Thursday without reporting the approach according to a source speaking to the Swedish press. The breach came as Swedish forces are currently participating in the annual naval exercise Baltops, where, among others, the amphibious ship USS Kearsarge visited Stockholm.
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06/12/2022
Months after the Commander of the Pacific Air Forces of the USAF, General Kenneth Wilsbach revealed that the F-35 had a close encounter with China’s J-20 fighter jet over the East China Sea, the US Air Force is constituting an F-35 aggressor squadron to ‘replicate the threat emerging from China.’
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06/11/2022
The Ukrainian military have repulsed 14 enemy attacks and destroyed four Russian tanks, 11 armored vehicles and other military equipment in the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) area over the past day. The relevant statement was made by the Joint Forces Task Force on Facebook, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
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06/11/2022
An ad hoc US Air Force task force known as the “Grey Wolf Team” is advising Ukraine’s air force in its defensive air campaign against Russia’s invasion. We exist because there’s a bunch of motivated people who want to help out. There’s not another team like this in the Air Force that’s doing the same thing,” said an Air Force fighter pilot who has worked extensively on the Grey Wolf Team.
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06/11/2022
Another military aircraft has crashed in the desert around El Centro, California -- the third in the region in seven days. It comes less than 48 hours after an MV-22B Osprey crash killed five Marines in the same area. On Thursday, a Navy MH-60S Seahawk was conducting a routine training flight from Naval Air Facility El Centro when it crashed at around 6 p.m. local time, the service said in a press release. A social media post from the facility said the crash was located about 35 miles north of Y
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06/11/2022
On Jun. 9, 2022, the U.S. Air Force reactivated the 65th Aggressors Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. The unit, apreviously flying the F-15C/D, inactivated on Sept. 26, 2014, due to Fiscal Year 2015 budget constraints but a plan to “resurrect” it and move 11 F-35A Lightning IIs from Eglin AFB, Florida, to Nellis, “as part of a larger initiative to improve training for fifth generation fighter aircraft” was announced on May 9, 2019.
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06/11/2022
Airbus and Dassault are struggling to reach a mutual agreement on who should take leadership and intellectual rights of its Future Combat Air System (FCAS) program. In March 2022, Dassault Aviation threatened to pull out of an alliance with Airbus. This was followed by Dassault requesting political intervention to help push the deal forward in July.
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06/10/2022
A Chinese military plane crashed in a residential area in central China on Thursday, killing at least one person, China's state-run national broadcaster CCTV said. The plane, a People's Liberation Army Air Force J-7 aircraft, was on a training mission in Hubei province when it crashed, damaging several houses, CCTV said.
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06/10/2022
The Russian Air Force has reportedly used four of its new Sukhoi Su-57, fifth-generation fighter jets, to carry out attacks against Ukrainian air defense systems. According to RIA Novosti, a source close to the operation reportedly said that four Su-57 fighter jets, working in a network, were used to identify and destroy Ukrainian air defense systems.
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06/09/2022
Ukrainian forces have repulsed seven enemy attacks and destroyed a significant number of military equipment in the area of the Joint Forces Operation in eastern Ukraine in the last 24 hours. The Joint Forces Task Force said this in a Facebook post, Ukrinform reports.
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06/09/2022
ir National Guard Airmen and aircraft from around the country are conducting the first Air National Guard Readiness Exercise Program event, Agile Rage 22. This exercise is hosted by the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, part of the National All-Domain Warfighting Center in Northern Michigan, June 4-18.
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06/09/2022
Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) expects to produce its new-build F-16 fighter jets next year and commence deliveries in 2024, its chief financial officer Jesus Malave said on Wednesday. The company has a list of key U.S. allies including Bahrain, Taiwan, Slovakia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia eager to purchase the jet.
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06/09/2022
An Osprey aircraft carrying five Marines crashed Wednesday in southeastern California just north of the Mexican border, military officials said. There was no immediate information about casualties or damage to property on the ground due to the crash in Imperial County near Glamis, east of Brawley.
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06/09/2022
More than a hundred days into Russia’s wider war on Russia, the tiny, aging Ukrainian air force still is in the fight. It’s a remarkable feat, considering that the Russian air force has 10 times as many fighters—and most of them are much more modern than Ukraine’s 30-year-old planes are. An old aerobatic fighter jet, apparently returned to service with foreign parts, is a symbol of Kyiv’s continuing aerial defiance.
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06/08/2022
On the 104th day of the full-scale war in Ukraine, the Russian army is continuing to storm the city of Sievierodonetsk. Ukrainian helicopters carried out airstrikes on Russian forces in Kherson Oblast and Ukrainian planes attacked Russian ammunition depots in Mykolaiv Oblast.
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06/08/2022
Ukraine’s successes in resisting and even turning back an invasion by a numerically superior Russian force has raised expectations in East Asia that smaller nations in the region could conceivably fend off an attack from a large military like China’s. Taiwan, of course, has long struggled with executing such a defense strategy, but since its strategic considerations are in many ways unique, other countries nominally threatened by China may not be able to draw as many lessons from Taipei’s experi
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06/08/2022
As an unintended result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden will abandon their historical stance of neutrality and want to join NATO. But what combat power will their Air Forces bring to the table? First, it should be noted that both the Swedish and Finnish armed forces have, over the years, developed great interoperability with their neighboring NATO partners, honed through multiple bilateral and multilateral exercises.
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06/08/2022
The United States and South Korea conducted a joint air power demonstration on Tuesday, Seoul said, flying 20 fighter planes in the allies' latest response to North Korea's ballistic missile launches last weekend. The exercise consisted of four U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jets and 16 South Korean combat aircraft, including F-15Ks, KF-16s and F-35A stealth fighters, flown in attack formation over the sea west of Korea.
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06/08/2022
Canadian government sources told a news agency that Chinese fighters have repeatedly intercepted Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) aircraft participating in a U.N.-sanctioned operation in international airspace. The Global News report, quoted in a Newsweek article, said, “Those jets are frequently flying as close as 20 to 100 feet from the Canadian plane,” adding that Canadian pilots “sometimes see them raising their middle fingers.”
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06/07/2022
Ukrainian defenders repelled ten enemy attacks in eastern Ukraine on Monday, June 6, with fighting going on at two locations. The press service of the Joint Forces Task Force said this in a Facebook post, Ukrinform reports. "Ukrainian defenders of the Joint Forces Task Force repelled ten enemy attacks today. Fighting is still ongoing at two locations," the statement said.
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06/07/2022
Egypt is close to finalising a $3bn deal with Italy to acquire combat aircraft, following three years of negotiations, according to an Italian newspaper. Il Fatto Quotidiano quoted an Italian government official as saying that the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is awaiting confirmation from Italian Prime Minister Mario Dargi to finalise the deal, which includes the purchase of 24 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft.
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06/06/2022
Australia has accused China of conducting a dangerous intercept of a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) P-8A Poseidon multi-mission aircraft in late May, with Australia’s Defence Minister subsequently saying that the Chinese jet released decoys that were ingested by the P-8A’s engine.
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06/06/2022
Ukrainian defenders have destroyed four Russian tanks, one attack helicopter and three artillery systems in the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) area over the past day. The relevant statement was made by the Joint Forces Task Force on Facebook, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. The JFO fighters continue to keep the defense within the designated control area in the Donetsk and Luhansk directions.
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06/06/2022
Despite having a significantly larger air force than Ukraine (15 times larger by some accounts), the Russian military has failed to gain air superiority, and arguably maintains aerial parity. At best Russia has achieved local air superiority in the Donbas region. Gaining control of the skies has been seen as a crucial part of military doctrine since the Second World War, and it is something the United States and its allies had accomplished in the 1991 and 2003 invasions of Iraq.
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06/06/2022
Russia took aim Sunday at Western military supplies for Ukraine, launching airstrikes on Kyiv that it claimed destroyed tanks donated from abroad, as Vladimir Putin warned that any Western deliveries of longer-range rocket systems would prompt Moscow to hit “objects that we haven’t yet struck.”
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06/05/2022
Video of the final moments of a 63-year-old Russian general shot down and killed by Ukrainian forces has emerged today. Major General Kanamat Botashev was part of a two-ship formation flying low over the Donbass region when his £9million aircraft was struck by a surface-to-air missile, according to a report of his funeral in Russian outlet Kommersant.
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06/05/2022
Ukraine needs simplified and accelerated arms supply procedures, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov told a panel on military assistance within the GLOBSEC-2022 International Security Forum in Bratislava. That’s according to the Ministry of Defense press service, Ukrinform reports.
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06/05/2022
A Navy pilot is dead after a fighter jet crashed Friday in the Southern California desert. Navy officials confirmed that on Friday F/A-18E Super Hornet that was based at Naval Air Station Lemoore went down at about 2:30 pm in the area of Trona, an unincorporated Mojave Desert community in San Bernardino County about 236 miles southeast of the air station.
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06/05/2022
After months of speculation, in April the Air Force officially chose the Boeing E-7 Wedgetail to replace its decades-old AWACS planes. But there’s a lag between making the choice and flying the planes — during which Mitchell Institute Executive Director Douglas Birkey says Congress and the Air Force must work together in a hurry to minimize the American military’s vulnerability in the skies.
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06/05/2022
The question was posed in a private briefing to U.S. intelligence officials weeks before Russia launched its invasion in late February: Was Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, made in the mold of Britain’s Winston Churchill or Afghanistan’s Ashraf Ghani? In other words, would Zelenskyy lead a historic resistance or flee while his government collapsed?
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06/04/2022
Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin has fired five generals and a police colonel as his military continued to suffer massive losses, it has been reported. Tens of thousands of Russian troops have been killed and Moscow has failed in its bid to capture Kyiv, instead now focusing on the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine.
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06/04/2022
China’s most advanced aircraft carrier to date appears to be nearing completion, satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press showed Friday, as experts suggested the vessel could be launched soon. The newly developed Type 003 carrier has been under construction at the Jiangnan Shipyard northeast of Shanghai since 2018. Satellite images taken by Planet Labs PBC on May 31 suggest work on the vessel is close to done.
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06/03/2022
Ten military airplanes will land on an Upper Peninsula highway later this month to practice operating in austere environments, the Michigan National Guard announced. A 9,000-foot section of the four-lane M-28 highway east of Munising in Alger County will be closed from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday, June 28, to accommodate the training exercise known as Northern Agility 22-1. Detours will be posted. Civilian access will not be permitted during the exercise.
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06/03/2022
The Biden administration plans to sell Ukraine four MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones that can be armed with AGM-114 Hellfire missiles for battlefield use against Russia, three people familiar with the situation said according to an exclusive Reuters report posted on June 1, 2022.
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06/03/2022
Following years of discussion, Sukhoi and MiG, two of Russia’s most powerful aircraft manufacturers, have finally merged with the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), a part of the Rostec state corporation, state media Tass reported. he merger was approved by the UAC Board of Directors in November 2021. The shareholders of all three companies backed this decision in January of this year. “Relevant records were made on June 1 in the United State Register of Legal Entities,” the report said.
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06/02/2022
Senior Canadian government officials are growing increasingly concerned over a dangerous escalation in aggression by Chinese fighter pilots in the skies above the Asia-Pacific region. Multiple sources in the Canadian Forces and the federal government tell Global News that Chinese jets are repeatedly “buzzing” a Canadian surveillance plane that is part of a United Nations mission over international waters.
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06/02/2022
Saab has received an order from the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration (FMV), concerning the development of future fighter aircraft. The contract includes studies on future combat air capabilities. As reported in the company’s press release, the study is preparatory in nature and is intended to expand work on how future combat air capabilities can be developed and realized.
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06/02/2022
Spokesman for the Polish Armament Agency (Polish MoD’s defense procurement organ) stated, via his Twitter account, that Warsaw is considering acquisition of the KAI FA-50 as a potential reinforcement of the Polish Air Force. The news appeared in the Polish public sphere in the wake of the MoD’s representatives’, including the head of the Polish MoD, Mariusz Blaszczak, visit to Korea, where they have been discussing the potential for industrial cooperation between Poland and Korea.
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06/02/2022
The Air Force’s secretive and highly classified Next Generation Air Dominance fighter program has started its crucial engineering and manufacturing development phase, Secretary Frank Kendall said Wednesday. In a discussion at the Heritage Foundation, Kendall said the Air Force began early experimental prototyping on NGAD in 2015, when he was the Pentagon’s top acquisition official.
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06/01/2022
The Michigan Air National Guard 127th Wing made history with the landing of an A-10 Thunderbolt II on M-32 near Alpena in Northern Michigan on Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. The exercise, believed to be the first time modern military aircraft have been landed on a U.S. civilian roadway, was part of the annual Northern Strike war-readiness training exercise hosted by the Michigan National Guard.Provided by the Michigan Department of Military and Veteran Affairs.
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06/01/2022
On 26 May, the US State Department announced preliminary approval of the sale to Egypt of 23 CH-47F Chinook Helicopters for an estimated cost of $2.6 billion. The sale includes related equipment such as engines, GPS, navigation and missile warning systems, software, machine guns and ammunition.
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06/01/2022
On his first trip to Asia as United States President last week, Joe Biden gave his strongest warning yet to Beijing that Washington was committed to defending Taiwan militarily in the event of an attack from China. Biden's comments, which compared a potential Chinese attack on Taiwan to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, appeared to deviate from Washington's decades-old policy of "strategic ambiguity" on the issue and seemingly raised the possibility of a military clash between US and Chinese forces.
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06/01/2022
Turkey is demanding that the US should either change its decision on the F-35 stealth fighter supply program or return the money paid, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday. “As for the F-35, Congress needs to reconsider its decision. We say either change the decision or return the money we invested,” Cavusoglu told Turkish news agency Anadolu.
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