October 19, 2012 Military Aviation News
10/19/2012
“As the U.S. begins to implement [the rebalance], Subic will play an important role because it is one of the important facilities that can service its presence in the Pacific.” One would think that this quote is from a US military or government official, but this actually came from the executive director of the Philippine Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement.
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10/19/2012
As many as 140 World War II Spitfire fighter planes - three to four times the number of airworthy models known to exist - are believed to be buried in near-pristine condition in Myanmar. A British-Myanmar partnership says it will begin digging them up by the end of the month.
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10/19/2012
Iraq has signed a contract to buy its second set of 18 F-16 fighters from the United States, part of a deal to purchase 36 of the jets to rebuild its air force, Iraq's acting defence minister said on Thursday. Baghdad signed an initial deal for the first set of 18 jets in September last year valued at roughly $3 billion and those aircraft are scheduled to be delivered by September 2014.
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10/19/2012
U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) officials are considering a sale of 28 advanced AIM-9X-2 Sidewinder heat-seeking air-to-air missiles to the Royal Netherlands Air Force in The Hague, Netherlands to upgrade the organization's fleet of Lockheed Martin F-16AM/BM Fighting Falcon jet fighter aircraft.
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10/19/2012
The engines roared overhead as an F-35B fell into formation. Although this is a basic maneuver for the test pilots, the possibilities for combat environments created by these elite aircraft working together are anything but mundane. The F-35, which features three variants to be used by the Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy, is a single-seat aircraft capable of stealthy operations, equipped with an enhanced computer technology system.
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10/19/2012
Over the past decade, China’s military-aviation industry has been gradually transforming its defence, science, technology, and innovation capabilities, and narrowing the once-wide technological gaps with advanced aviation powers. In the fighter aircraft arena alone, it has been developing, testing, and producing a diverse portfolio of new designs – updating and modernising its ‘legacy fighters, developing indigenous modern ‘fourth-generation’ fighters.
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10/19/2012
India is finally giving its Jaguar "strike" fighters some much-needed new teeth with advanced missiles, engines and avionics. Apart from having a maritime strike role as well, the Jaguars have long been identified by IAF as the jets capable of delivering nuclear weapons if required. The IAF on Monday issued a RFP (request for proposal) to M/s Honeywell Aerospace, the US-based manufacturer of aircraft engines and avionics, to "completely re-engine" 125 Jaguars.
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10/19/2012
About three and a half years ago I wrote that "One might note that with regard to future battlefields the use of contractors is like the use of robots. They promise both greater cost-effectiveness and less loss of life of government soldiers." With the advantage of hindsight it turns out that the use of robots is heavily dependent on the use of contractors. It seems that today's Terminators, such as unmanned aerial systems (UAS) - drones -- are heavily dependent on mere mortals.
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10/19/2012
The commander of Russia’s famed Strizhi (Swifts) aerobatics team, Lt. Col. Valery Morozov, has been fired from the air force for taking bribes, a source at the Kubinka Air Show Center said on Thursday. “Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov signed an order discharging Morozov on October 12” for “failure to comply with his contract,” the source said. Morozov confirmed his discharge and said he will appeal it.
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