04/25/2019
The U.S. military's aviation training ranges are outdated and underfunded, leaving pilots operating in the Asia-Pacific region ill-prepared to deal with modern-day threats, a Defense Department investigation found.
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Faster computer processors, AI-infused algorithms able to fuse sensor information, and automated maintenance and checklists are influencing emerging pilot tactics to anticipate future threat environments. For the F-35 and B-2 stealth combat aircraft, AI enables rapid database access, organizing information, and high-volume procedural functions. Algorithms, for example, increasingly are able to scan, view, and organize targeting, navigation, radar warning, images, and video.
Boeing Defense, Space & Security’s revenue in the first quarter of 2019 increase 2% to $6.6 billion year on year due to higher sales volume of satellites, weapons and surveillance aircraft. The company’s first quarter profit increased 12.8% to $847 million.
Some military secrets are better kept than others. The emergence of Tokyo’s real plan for its pair of Izumo-class helicopter destroyers was always, to naval observers, more a matter when than if. With their 248m (814ft) length, expansive flight decks and large hangars, the JS Izumo and her sister JS Kaga are the largest ships in the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF) – and aircraft carriers in all but name.
In July 1972, the F-15 fighter jet flew for the first time. The F-15 was the American military’s answer to the Soviet block’s mighty Mig-25 and incorporated all the lessons learned in the Vietnam War. The F-15 rapidly replaced the 1950s designed F-4 Phantom as the U.S. Air Force’s dominant air superiority fighter. Also in the 1970s, the Air Force secretly developed the first stealth fighter, the super secret F-117 for strike missions without being detected by radar.
The likely next Army chief of staff has made Guard aviators of the future a real part of the service’s next steps in combat aircraft. Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said that the newest helicopter under development, which will replace many UH-60 Black Hawks and CH-47 Chinooks, will go not just to tip-of-the-spear units such as the 101st Airborne Division, 82nd Airborne Division and 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.
The defence chiefs of the USA and Japan are confident that China won’t be able to recover pieces of the Lockheed Martin F-35A that crashed off the coast of Japan on 9 April. A flurry of media reports had speculated that parts of the aircraft were vulnerable to discovery by the Chinese or Russian militaries, giving those countries’ armed forces an opportunity to exploit vulnerabilities or copy the fighter’s stealth technology.
Washington and Tokyo appear to be holding deeper talks related to Japan’s development of a new fighter to replace the Mitsubishi F-2. A report in Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun, citing unnamed government sources, says that the United States is willing to offer a notable degree of intellectual content related to stealth aircraft design. The report adds that a proposal from the US side is on the table, and that Tokyo will decide by the end of 2019.
The scenario goes like this: In 2030, Russia invades the Baltic States. As the U.S. sends forces to Europe, China seizes the opportunity to seize disputed islands in the South China Sea. American airpower flies to the rescue, only to discover that sophisticated Russian and Chinese fighters and anti-aircraft defenses have rendered the skies too deadly for older American planes to conduct missions.
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