Military Aviation News Archive
05/14/2021
Nigeria’s air force has attacked civilian targets including a school six months after Declassified revealed that a private company in England was training military helicopter pilots from Africa’s most populous nation. Multiple villages in Konshisha district, eastern Nigeria, were destroyed by a military helicopter on 8 April in retaliation for the killing of 11 soldiers by “armed bandits” during a communal dispute over land.
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05/14/2021
God forbid, should war break out, between the US and China for any reason, they would have to deal with US aircraft carriers, in a big way. Those lethal nuclear-powered “large deck” US Navy carriers that ply the seven seas, also come with a formidable carrier strike group.
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05/13/2021
A Chinese military plane entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Wednesday (May 12), marking the seventh intrusion this month. One People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine warfare plane flew into the southwest corner of Taiwan’s ADIZ Wednesday afternoon, according to the Ministry of National Defense (MND). In response, Taiwan sent aircraft, broadcast radio warnings, and deployed air defense missile systems to track the PLAAF plane.
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05/13/2021
The Russian Su-27 fighter jet intercepted two Mirage 2000 tactical combat planes and a French air force C-135 aerial refueling tanker over the Black Sea earlier today. Russia’s National Defense Control Center said: "The Russian fighter’s pilot identified the aerial targets as two Mirage 2000 tactical aircraft and a C-135 aerial refueling tanker of the French Air Force and shadowed them over the Black Sea.
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05/13/2021
Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets operated by Taiwan’s Republic of China Air Force, or ROCAF, have test-fired AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles, or AMRAAMs, for the first time on the island, according to reports. The missiles were apparently launched from a pair of recently upgraded F-16V jets, which had reached initial combat capability last March.
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05/13/2021
The U.S. Air Force wants to downsize from seven types of fighter jets or attack aircraft to a mix of four, including the A-10 Warthog close-air support aircraft, the service's top general said Wednesday. Speaking during the annual McAleese conference, Gen. Charles "CQ" Brown said the service expects to determine the right mix of aircraft for the future through its "TacAir study." It will also assess how future fighter concepts will fit into the current mix of fourth- and fifth-generation fighter
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05/12/2021
The four Italian Air Force F-35A jets replace the German Air Force’s four Eurofighter aircraft, deployed to Ämari Air Base since August 2020. F-35s have landed in Estonia before – in 2017, two US Air Force F-35As, deployed to the UK, flew from RAF Lakenheath to Ämari for a short visit. But this is the first time the stealth aircraft have been deployed as part of the Baltic Air Policing mission.
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05/11/2021
French military leader said that the Islamic State (IS) is "regenerating" underground with stealth and developing its military as France is sending warships and aircraft to Syria and Iraq in order to examine the threat the group poses, the Associated Press reported. Rear Admiral Marc Aussedat, the head of a task force that features the Charles de Gaulle nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, said reconnaissance flights are being carried out to help French forces on the ground observe the Islamic Stat
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05/11/2021
The United Kingdom has set a requirement that its Royal Air Force have net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. But according to Air Chief Marshal Mike Wigston, the service needs to work under the assumption that it has to hit that target a decade earlier — and accept that other budget priorities will be cut to make it happen.
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05/11/2021
When Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga became the first foreign leader to visit U.S. President Joe Biden in the White House last month, their joint statement garnered a lot of attention. For the first time since 1969, the leaders referenced their shared interest in the “importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait” and “the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues.”
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05/11/2021
For years, drone warfare has been an essentially American pursuit. The new age of armed robots has been symbolized by Predators and Reapers spewing deadly Hellfire missiles. But guess who’s the biggest exporter of combat drones? China. “In 2014–18 China became the largest exporter in the niche market of unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), with states in the Middle East among the main recipients,” according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
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05/11/2021
The US Air Force awarded a fighter pilot for skillfully landing a damaged aircraft without a cockpit canopy or working landing gear after what the service described as a "catastrophic" failure. Capt. Taylor Bye, a 75th Fighter Squadron pilot, pulled off an emergency belly landing in her A-10C Thunderbolt II fighter jet in April last year after a gun malfunction over Grand Bay Range at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia sent panels and her cockpit canopy flying and prevented her landing gear from de
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05/11/2021
The exercise, which started on 3 May, is being conducted on and above the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex, the Gulf of Alaska, and temporary maritime activities area. Hosted by the US Pacific Air Forces, the joint training exercise will see participation from over 15,000 service members. It will run until 14 May. According to the USAF, F-15EX’s participation in the exercise will allow the service to implement changes in advance before fielding.
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05/11/2021
The recent loss of a 40-year-old Indonesian submarine has highlighted the need for the Southeast Asian nation to replace many of its military platforms, but plans to do so have been stymied by budget shortfalls and a lack of adherence to its long-term vision.
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05/10/2021
On March 16, the United Kingdom rolled out its Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy, a document that will serve as the guidepost for its military going forward. Included in that document were both cuts to existing systems and investments in new technologies.
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05/10/2021
When Myanmar’s military junta seeks to gain a tactical advantage against pro-democracy demonstrators or ethnic resistance groups, it sometimes deploys Chinese-made drones to survey the situation and provide crackdown targets.
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05/09/2021
A top-ranking delegation from China's National Aero-Technology import-export corporation, CATIC, is currently in Argentina to discuss defense cooperation and with the proposal to offer the Argentine Air Force supersonic capable aircraft, according to InfoDefensa.ar, an Argentine site which specializes in defense industry issues.
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05/09/2021
It’s just two digits but the number on the hull of the first of China’s largest amphibious landing helicopter docks (LHD) points to a high value. The first Type 075 Yushen-class Hainan ship was given the pennant number “31” when the PLA Navy commissioned it on April 23, the navy’s 72nd anniversary.
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05/09/2021
A French air force pilot has filed a criminal complaint alleging that as part of a hazing ritual he was tied to a target on a firing range while fighter planes flew overhead and fired off munitions, his lawyer told Reuters on Saturday. The complaint did not identify any of the people alleged to have carried out the hazing, or say how many of them were involved. Reuters was not able to independently establish the identities of those responsible for the incident.
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05/08/2021
The Air Force will continue pushing for the retirement of its oldest Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawks, the service’s top officials said Friday, potentially setting up another fight with Congress about the future of the embattled surveillance drone.
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05/08/2021
Australia has a highly capable, professional military equipped with small numbers of very complex, extremely expensive aircraft, ships, submarines and land vehicles. Australia could fight other middle powers and win, but Australia should only ever plan to be in a major conflict against a great power if we are in very good company.
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05/07/2021
China’s development of a new aerial refueler, known as the Y-20U, would significantly boost the PLA Air Force’s capability to carry out long-range raids. This could have ominous implications not only for India but also for the whole of the Indo-Pacific.
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05/06/2021
The United States military maintained a constant presence in the South China Sea last month, flying an average of two reconnaissance runs every day in April, according to a recent report out of Beijing. In its monthly summary, the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI)—a Peking University think tank tracking military activity around China—said at least 65 U.S. military aircraft operated in the contested waters, where the U.S. Navy carried out 83 percent of those missions
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05/06/2021
Swedish defence procurement agency FMV has extended its Gripen development support contract with Saab until 31 December 2022. Under the SEK998 million ($117.54 million) deal, the OEM will continue to operate and support test aircraft and advanced tools such as testing rigs and simulators on behalf of the Swedish Air Force and other Gripen operators.
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05/06/2021
Increased threats and attacks by Iran-backed militias forced American contractors to evacuate Iraq’s Balad Air Base in March, where they were supporting Iraq’s F-16 program, a U.S. government report said this week. Without the Americans, the Iraqis cannot perform the full range of maintenance tasks on the country’s fleet of F-16s, which are key in the fight against the Islamic State group.
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