January 25, 2012 Military Aviation News

U.S. Navy Testing Technologies to Refuel Unmanned Aircraft During Flight

01/25/2012

The Navy is testing a system that promises to significantly increase the endurance and range of carrier-based unmanned aircraft. As part of the Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration (UCAS-D) program, the Navy and industry partner Northrop Grumman have been developing Autonomous Aerial Refueling (AAR) technologies to refuel unmanned aircraft in flight.

IAF women pilots break altitude barrier

01/25/2012

Continuing with their sparkling achievements, IAF women pilots have now begun to go where no women has gone before. They are flying military cargo aircraft sorties to forbidding high-altitude forward areas like Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) and Leh. "Since December, some women IAF pilots are flying sorties of AN-32 medium-lift aircraft to DBO, the highest advanced landing ground (makeshift airstrip) in the world at 16,500-feet, and IL-76 heavy-lift aircraft to Leh," said a senior officer.

Air Force Leaders Say Strategy Calls for F-22, F-35 Capabilities

01/25/2012

Fifth-generation fighter aircraft are key to America maintaining domain dominance in the years ahead, Air Force officials said here today. Lt. Gen. Christopher D. Miller, deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and programs, and Maj. Gen. Noel T. “Tom” Jones, the service’s director for operation capability requirements, said the technology – exemplified in the F-22 and F-35 – assumes greater importance in combating growing anti-access, area-denial capabilities.

Air Force buys five more Boeing C-17 large military cargo jets in $693.4 million deal

01/25/2012

Aircraft manufacturers at the Boeing Co. Commercial Airplanes segment in Long Beach, Calif., will build five C-17 Globemaster III military cargo jets for the U.S. Air Force under terms of a $693.4 million contract modification announced Monday from the Air Force Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.

U.S. military in Persian Gulf still necessary, welcome force

01/25/2012

The U.S. is maintaining a sizable ground, air and sea force in the Persian Gulf, underscoring the need to protect oil-producing states after deposing Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein and exiting a democratic Iraq in December.

In the Shadow of Asia

01/25/2012

North Korea’s air force or navy fare little better. Most aircraft currently operated have obsolete avionics and limited weapon system capabilities Pilots are allowed fewer than twenty flight hours per year due to high fuel costs.

South Korea sweetens pot in Israeli jet deal

01/25/2012

South Korea has sweetened the pot in a bid to secure a hotly contested $1 billion contract for its T-50 Golden Eagle jet trainer for Israel's air force by offering to buy Rafael Advanced Defense Systems' Iron Dome counter-rocket system.

U.S.-Japan Exercises Underscore New Strategy Guidance Focus

01/25/2012

Two bilateral command post exercises with Japan kicked off yesterday and today, reflecting the growing strategic importance of the Asia-Pacific region as outlined in the new defense strategy guidance President Barack Obama announced earlier this month. Japanese and U.S. military forces launched Keen Edge 12 yesterday at Yokota, Japan. The biennial exercise continues through Jan. 27.

Russian Air Force Tests New Air-to-Air Missile

01/25/2012

The Russian Air Force is testing and will soon deploy an advanced tactical air-to-air missile that will greatly enhance its operational effectiveness, the service's commander Col Gen Alexander Zelin said on Tuesday. The missile will be carried by MiG-31BM Foxhound supersonic interceptors/fighters and will subsequently be used by other warplanes, he said.

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