Military Aviation News Archive
10/08/2024
The Royal Canadian Air Force has announced its CF-18 Hornet Extension Project (HEP) has achieved Initial Operational Capability. As part of a joint effort with the F/A-18 and EA-18G programme office, HEP will ensure the RCAF CF-18 Hornet fighter fleet can meet operational commitments to the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) and NATO until 2032, the RCAF stated. From then on, the fleet will be retired and replaced with F35-As under Canada’s future fighter capability project.
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10/08/2024
Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans has confirmed that the first Dutch F-16 fighter jets have arrived in Ukraine. “For the first time, I can officially announce that the first Dutch F-16s have been delivered to Ukraine,” Brekelmans stated on the social media platform X. “This is urgently needed. In Kharkiv, I saw the damage from Russian airstrikes and heard frequent air raid alarms. The rest of the 24 jets will follow in the coming months.”
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10/08/2024
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense reported the detection of multiple China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) fighter jets and drones operating in areas surrounding Taiwan between October 6 and 7, 2024. 19 of the aircraft detected breached the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered Taiwan’s northern, central, and southwestern Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). The exact model of the aircraft involved in the incursion was not specified. Six warships were also identified.
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10/07/2024
After suspending the NGAD 6th generation fighter program, will the US Air Force embark on a Copernican revolution in the way it designs and pilots its combat aircraft programs, and more generally, future air combat systems? This is essentially what can be understood from recent statements made by General James Slife, vice chief of staff of the US Air Force, and Andrew Hunter, vice secretary of the Air Force for acquisitions, on the occasion of the Defense News Conference.
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10/06/2024
Ukrainian forces said they shot down a Russian fighter plane Saturday while Russia claimed it made gains in Ukraine’s east. The Russian bomber was shot down near the city of Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk province, head of the Kostiantynivka Military Administration Serhiy Horbunov was quoted as saying by Ukraine’s public broadcaster, Suspilne. Photos showed charred remains of an aircraft after it landed on a house that caught fire.
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10/06/2024
The Ramstein Flag 2024 exercise has begun with the arrival of fighter jets from the Air Forces of France, Italy, Sweden, and the U.S. in Greece. During the week of September 27, NATO Allied members started deploying their combat and transport aircraft to Andravida Air Base to carry out Exercise Ramstein Flag 2024.
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10/06/2024
Videos have started appearing online on Oct. 5, 2024, showing a RuAF (Russian Aerospace Forces) fighter jet shooting down an S-70 Okhotnik loyal wingman UCAV (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle) over the Konstantinovka area, Ukraine. The clips of the overhead flight of the two aircraft show two contrails one behind the other, with another streak of smoke leaving the aircraft in the rear and hitting the one ahead, implying it had fired it had fired an AAM (Air-to-Air Missile).
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10/05/2024
The new Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief made a strong case for the speedy acquisition of Medium-Role Fighter Aircraft (MRFA) as the force has a yawning technological gap vis-à-vis China. However, he contends that based on superior training and exposure, the IAF will be able to maintain the status quo if China ups the ante.
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10/05/2024
Ukraine's F-16 pilots have had to dramatically change the way they fly in a very short period of time in order to fight Russia, and it's a tremendous challenge for pilots when they're under pressure, an air-warfare expert told Business Insider. Michael Bohnert, an engineer at the RAND Corporation, told BI the big changes Ukrainian pilots have had to make so quickly made it difficult for them to overcome old habits and muscle memory in a crisis.
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10/05/2024
Spain's Air Force on Friday confirmed the death of an F-18 Hornet fighter jet pilot after the aircraft crashed near the northeastern city of Teruel. "We regret to communicate that our teammate Lieutenant Colonel Pablo Estrada Martin died in the F-18 accident," the Air Force posted on X.
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10/05/2024
Since the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s inception, the Defense Department and industry have struggled to wrestle down its price tag to roughly $80 million or $100 million per jet, depending on the model. It’s been a grueling battle involving inflation, supply chain crunches, evolving requirements and developmental problems, and remains ongoing to this day.
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10/04/2024
The United States has expressed openness to selling F-15 fighter jets to Türkiye, according to sources familiar with recent discussions between the two nations. This development comes as Türkiye faces ongoing issues related to its acquisition of Russian-made S-400 Triumf air defense systems, which have strained U.S.-Türkiye relations and led to the imposition of CAATSA sanctions.
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10/04/2024
Ukrainian forces used long-range drones overnight to strike a Russian base where fighter-bomber aircraft and their highly destructive glide bombs are stored. A source in the Security Service of Ukraine told Business Insider on Thursday that the attack targeted the Borisoglebsk military airfield in Russia's Voronezh region. The source spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive operations.
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10/04/2024
Defense Minister Walter Enrique Astudillo Chávez confirmed that Peru will purchase 24 fighter jets for the Peruvian Air Force (FAP) to fulfill the constitutional role of defending national sovereignty and protecting the Peruvian population against threats to the country’s security.
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10/03/2024
pain plans to send two military aircraft to evacuate as many as 350 citizens from Lebanon as early as Thursday, Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles said on Wednesday. “The Spanish airplanes are ready, the staff are ready, as always with the professionalism of the Spanish army,” she said in an interview with Antena 3 TV station.
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10/03/2024
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered on Wednesday military aircraft to be deployed immediately to evacuate its citizens from Israel and other parts of the Middle East amid escalating tension, his office said. Yoon met with his national security and economic advisers over the Middle East conflict and called for a swift but measured response to any impact on the country's energy supply, trade and supply chains, his office said.
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10/03/2024
Four NATO fighter jets were scrambled and an emergency alert issued in response to a Russian drone attack on targets near the Romanian border in Ukraine's Odesa region. The jets were deployed after Russian drones were detected near Romanian airspace flying toward Ukrainian territory in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the country's Ministry of National Defense said in a statement.
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10/03/2024
The Philippine Air Force has awarded Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) a contract to sustain its FA-50 Fighting Eagle light combat aircraft. The agreement will run under a performance based logistics (PBL) framework in which value per maintenance, repair, and overhaul relies on resulting improvements.
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10/03/2024
In the race to field the first sixth-generation fighter, the U.S. Navy is pressing ahead as the Air Force pauses its program amid concern that it’s too expensive and might not be the best answer to emerging threats. The Navy expects to award a contract for its next-generation, carrier-based fighter and expects the long-range attack jet to enter service in the 2030s, its top officer said Oct. 2.
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10/02/2024
Azerbaijan has officially confirmed that the JF-17C Block-III fighter jets it bought from Pakistan are now in service as part of a $1.6 billion deal signed in February. The president’s office announced the news, showing Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev seated inside the aircraft during his inspection of it at the Azerbaijan International Defence Exhibition 2024 in Baku on September 25.
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10/02/2024
Bulgaria is to begin a long-awaited review of the readiness and training of its air force, which has seen several fatalities during combat exercises and demonstration flights in recent years.
Bulgaria guards part of NATO's eastern flank with old, hard-to-maintain MiG-29 fighter jets and Su-25 aircraft that were supplied by the USSR more than 35 years ago.
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10/01/2024
A Russian Su-35 fighter cut across the front of a U.S. Air Force F-16 conducting a routine intercept of Russian aircraft off the coast of Alaska in a dramatic incident Sept. 23. The U.S. military called the encounter “unsafe,” and said the Russian aviator’s actions were “unprofessional and endangered all.”
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10/01/2024
The U.S. military is ordering additional U.S. Air Force fighters to the Middle East after Israel launched punishing attacks on Lebanese Hezbollah and killed the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, U.S. officials told Air & Space Forces Magazine.
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09/30/2024
Utah residents may notice a new aircraft in the skies starting this weekend. Several F-5 Advanced Tiger fighters were scheduled to arrive Saturday at Hill Air Force Base to begin a year of training alongside F-35A Lightning IIs from the 388th Fighter Wing.
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09/30/2024
While some international media are busy announcing the definitive retirement of the MiG-29 fighters, nothing has been said in the Peruvian Air Force (FAP) regarding the retirement or sale to third parties of the emblematic fighter-bombers of Russian origin. Offers have been received, such as that of the United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), which proposed to sell them in exchange for U.S.-origin equipment, an idea that did not go beyond the headlines.
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