Military Aviation News Archive
04/03/2021
Air Combat Command is changing the aircraft maintenance organizational structure to improve synchronization between maintenance and fighter squadrons. This new structure, called Combat Oriented Maintenance Organization, or COMO, flattens the maintenance organizational structure and transitions aircraft maintenance units into fighter generation squadrons.
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04/02/2021
China has stepped up its military posturing around Taiwan over the past week, a trend that is set to fuel growing concerns that Beijing might move closer to attacking the island. Taiwan and Japan on Monday both reported incursions into their respective air defence identification zones, the first simultaneous announcement from Taipei and Tokyo.
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04/02/2021
Canada's top military procurement official says he is optimistic the federal government will finally end its decade-long search for a new fighter jet for the Royal Canadian Air Force next year despite challenges and delays from the pandemic. Three fighter-jet makers submitted their bids last summer to provide the military with 88 new aircraft to replace the Air Force's aging CF-18s, and government evaluators are now busily assessing those proposals to determine which best fits Canada's needs.
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04/02/2021
As they conduct bombing and surveillance missions around the globe, today's U.S. military pilots rely on aerial refueling aircraft built as early as 1957, when the Soviet Union dominated American security fears, the average home cost $12,000 and "I Love Lucy" was debuting new episodes. The cost of keeping those aging jets in the air has grown sharply while the military awaits a next-generation refueling plane whose rollout has been repeatedly delayed by design and production issues.
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04/02/2021
Ukraine’s Lviv State Aircraft Repair Plant (LSARP) has repaired and handed over a MiG-29UB trainer aircraft to the Ukrainian Air Force (UAF). LSARP is part of state-owned defence industrial group Ukroboronprom and is the only enterprise in the country that repairs the MiG-29.
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04/01/2021
A Philippine military plane with local journalists on board ignored repeated radio warnings to “stay away” and “leave immediately” on Tuesday as it flew low over contested reefs near where Chinese vessels were moored in the South China Sea. The incident occurred as hundreds of Chinese vessels believed to be manned by militias in the South China Sea have spread to a wider area, the Philippines said on Wednesday, defying its demand for the flotilla to be withdrawn immediately.
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04/01/2021
The U.S. Army has awarded contracts to both Bell and a Sikorsky-Boeing team to continue into a second phase of competitive development and risk reduction as the service prepares to begin its formal program to acquire a future long-range assault aircraft, or FLRAA, by 2030.
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04/01/2021
China is readying itself for American and Japanese involvement in any Taiwan Strait conflict, with recent warplane exercises around the island aimed at displaying its ability to isolate Taiwan from potential support, according to analysts in Beijing and Taipei.
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04/01/2021
Speaking at an International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) virtual event, the head of the UK’s Armed Forces Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) General Sir Nick Carter said that by 2030 a Royal Air Force(RAF) tactical formation could be made of up two Typhoon Fighter Jets, ten Mosquito uncrewed fighter aircraft and 100 Alvino swarming uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs).
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03/31/2021
A total of 10 Chinese military planes flew into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Monday (March 29), marking the 17th such incursion this month. Four People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) Shenyang J-16 fighter planes, four Chengdu J-10 fighter jets, and one Shaanxi KJ-500 early warning and control aircraft entered the southwest corner of the ADIZ, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND).
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03/31/2021
Nearly two-thirds of the aircraft flying off U.S. Navy carriers could be unmanned someday, including the possibility of drone fighter jets, a top aviation leader said this week. Like the Air Force, the Navy will take a "family of systems" approach to its next-generation air dominance, or NGAD, program, which will use aircraft, sensors and other equipment that complement one another and work together to stave off threats, Rear Adm. Gregory Harris, the chief of naval operations' air warfare direc
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03/31/2021
NATO jets responded on Monday to an unusually high number of Russian military aircraft flights near allied airspace. Alliance fighter aircraft were "scrambled 10 times on Monday, March 29, 2021, to shadow Russian bombers and fighters during an unusual peak of flights over the North Atlantic, North Sea, Black Sea and Baltic Sea," the organization said in a statement.
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03/31/2021
China’s Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, a subsidiary of the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), recently unveiled its plans to build a new fourth-generation fighter. “The company aims to make breakthroughs in its fourth-generation fighter jet program by boosting related technologies, including additive manufacturing, control over surface electromagnetic defects, and automated fiber placement so that the aircraft can be successfully developed".
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03/31/2021
The Navy is leaning toward replacing its fleet of Super Hornets with another manned fighter that will work with emerging unmanned aircraft concepts under the umbrella of the service’s Next Generation Air Dominance program.
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03/30/2021
Tyndall Air Force Base will be the home of three F-35 Squadrons, the Air Force officially announced Monday. Air Force officials said in a news release that the decision to bring the squadrons of F-35A Lighting II was based on infrastructure capability, quality of life for Airmen, and airspace. The official announcement only came after the base passed an environmental impact analysis.
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03/30/2021
A Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) contingent of nearly 180 pilots and air engineering technicians is participating in a two-week drill organized by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), a PAF spokesman said on Sunday. The Aces Meet 2021 is an aerial exercise to maximize the combat readiness of participating countries through air-to-air combat training.
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03/30/2021
Ten Chinese military aircraft including fighter jets entered the southwestern corner of Taiwan's air defence identification zone on Monday, the island's defence ministry said, in a further escalation of tension across the sensitive Taiwan Strait. The island's defence ministry said the air force deployed missiles to "monitor" the incursion into the southwestern part of its air defence identification zone. It also said its planes warned the Chinese aircraft, including by radio.
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03/30/2021
The "Red Flag 21-2" combat scenario training exercise brought aircraft from seven NATO nations and detachments from across the U.S. Air Force together, the branch said. Over 100 aircraft were involved in the weeklong event at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., held earlier this month, notably including F-16 Fighting Falcons and a NATO E-3A AWACS surveillance plane stationed at Geilenkirschen NATO Air Base, Germany.
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03/30/2021
Rep. Adam Smith’s recent attack against the F-35 program was followed by an avalanche of anti-F-35 hype putting the aircraft under pressure in the court of public opinion. Unfortunately, most of these assaults have been made without realization or acknowledgement of the benefits that the F-35 provides.
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03/29/2021
French military experts also quoted the source saying that French President Emmanuel Macron may propose to the defense minister of Ukraine to renew the local fleet of fighter jets. According to sources from Intelligence Online, the possible sale of Rafale fighters to Ukraine is a top priority in the discussion during the upcoming visit.
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03/28/2021
The Indian Air Force (IAF) is facing a shortage of 405 pilots, the federal government recently informed the country’s Parliament. Junior defense minister Shripad Naik said in the lower house of Parliament that the number of pilots in IAF at present is 3,834 against the sanctioned strength of 4,239.
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03/28/2021
Foreign journalists appear to be misunderstanding China’s aircraft carrier program. Some of the recent reporting combines larger aircraft carriers that carry jets with smaller “carriers” that operate helicopters. There are currently two types of Chinese aircraft carriers; one for fixed wing combat aircraft and a second type of carrier that is actually an amphibious ship that carries troops plus landing craft and helicopters to put them ashore.
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03/28/2021
The President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, was himself briefed about the achievement by the Russian Navy’s Commander-in-Chief, Nikolai Yevmenov. “Within the framework of an Arctic expedition for the first time ever in the history of Russia’s Navy a pair of MiG-31 jets performed a flight over the North Pole and were refueled in midair,” he informed.
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03/27/2021
Two A-10 pilots, flying together for the 30th time in Desert Storm on Feb. 15, 1991, attacked a massive formation of Iraqi armor in the deserts of Kuwait. One pilot, a young first lieutenant named Robert Sweet, survived and became a prisoner of war. The mission commander of the flight, an experienced captain, who lingered above the site of the shoot down for three minutes and 45 seconds—intentionally drawing fire, attempting to help the search and rescue of his wingman, was ultimately shot down
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03/27/2021
The Department of Defense (DOD) develops a new National Defense Strategy (NDS) every four years to align the U.S. military’s force structure, operational concepts, programs, and budgets with the president’s national security priorities. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin plans a comprehensive review of the present NDS, published in January 2018, and has indicated that while the strategy’s focus on great power competition and conflict remains sound, updates may be warranted.
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