March 12, 2013 Military Aviation News
03/12/2013
he United States’ top military officers have warned that sequestration would be “ruinous” for national security. They warned of an era of scant training and little maintenance on aging combat systems. And they warned that a new national defense strategy would be unworkable. To hear the top generals and admirals tell it, the U.S. military would be reduced to regional-power status.
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03/12/2013
The UK Royal Air Force is using a new upgrade to its Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft during exercise Red Flag 13-3 in the USA, with the enhancement to also soon be embodied with all its early production examples of the type. BAE Systems, which developed the enhancements package, says the activity "provides capability upgrades to a wide range of Typhoon avionic systems, covering the displays and controls, attack and identification, defensive aids and communication subsystems".
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03/12/2013
The taint of corruption in the AgustaWestland helicopter deal has brought focus on the need to shed overdependence on foreign vendors for military hardware, but the status of indigenous defence programmes tells a story of cost overruns and delays.
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03/12/2013
Boeing has chosen Brisbane firm Ferra Engineering to make wing kits to extend the range of GPS-guided bombs carried by US and Australian combat aircraft. Defence Materiel Minister Mike Kelly says the JDAM-ER (joint direct attack munition extended range) is an Australian initiative to increase the range of existing JDAM bombs through use of bolt-on wings.
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03/12/2013
The Japanese government ultimately decided against publishing the so-called "related evidence" collected by the Japanese Self-Defense Forces regarding Chinese ships using fire control radar (FCR) against its warships. A Chinese proverb says that he who makes the initial offense always files the suit first—which may also describe the fuss recently made by Japan. However, Japan's attempt to hype the FCR incident also brings to the forefront issues that should be considered.
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03/12/2013
The former Howard government and Air Force chiefs ignored advice from defence officials in 2002 against rushing into the Joint Strike Fighter project amid concerns that too little was known about the aircraft's cost and capabilities. Documents released under Freedom of Information reveal that officials explicitly advised against signing up to the ''system development and demonstration'' phase of the JSF, which has since been beset by delays, technical problems and cost blowouts.
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03/12/2013
The Pentagon needs to budget $12.6 billion each year through 2037 to finish developing and paying for all the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighters it plans to buy, according to a report released by a congressional watchdog agency on Monday. This amounts to $2 billion more in projected annual funding needs than the Government Accountability Office (GAO) had included in a draft report obtained and published by Reuters on Saturday.
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03/12/2013
The United States rarely conducts military operations alone, so it is in America's interests to ensure that its allies and partners are well-equipped, well-trained and able to operate effectively with U.S. forces. Key to achieving this objective—and to helping other nations keep their neighborhoods peaceful in the first place—is this country's ability to export weapons technologies.
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03/12/2013
The EA-6B Prowler took off from Whidbey Island, a Naval Air Station on Puget Sound in Washington. The craft crashed Monday morning in Eastern Washington, near the town of Harrington. Images of the crash site show much of the plane disintegrated on impact.
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03/12/2013
Lockheed Martin received a $253 million contract agreement to begin work on F-15SA pilot and maintenance training systems for the Royal Saudi Air Force. The technologies will provide a comprehensive ground-based training environment for Saudi Arabia’s F-15SA modernization program.
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