May 04, 2013 Military Aviation News
05/04/2013
Amid growing concerns the Middle East faces major security threats, Iraq has ordered a second batch of Lockheed Martin F-16IQ fighters worth $830 million. The contract underlines Iraq's drive to give its postwar air force a combat capability in the next few years following the U.S. military withdrawal completed in December 2011.
(Read More...)
05/04/2013
The U.S. Navy believes it has found a laser technology that is capable of being useful in combat. This is not a sudden development but has been going on for most of the last decade. Three years ago the navy successfully tested this new laser weapon (six solid state lasers acting in unison), using it to destroy a small UAV.
(Read More...)
05/04/2013
Marines at a far-flung base in southwest Afghanistan sent off an urgent request for mortar rounds, needing an air delivery made to a landing zone under enemy fire for days. The choice came down to two Connecticut-made helicopters. One option to deliver the pallet of 60mm rounds was a manned Sikorsky CH-53 helicopter. The other was an unmanned Lockheed Martin/Kaman K-MAX helicopter. The Sikorsky helicopter made in Stratford requires a crew of five.
(Read More...)
05/04/2013
Back in February the African country of Niger received its first jet combat aircraft in the form of two Su-25s. These were received from Ukraine, which has a lot of Cold War surplus weapons, and refurbished these two ground attack aircraft. It is believed that Ukraine also supplied pilots and ground crews, at least until some Niger personnel could be trained to do the work.
(Read More...)
05/04/2013
An aerial tanker jet reportedly flown by a Fairchild Air Force Base crew crashed today in the rugged mountains of Kyrgyzstan, the Central Asian nation where the U.S. operates an air base key to the war in Afghanistan. A spokesman for U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Florida, told Reuters News Service that the congressman was advised the KC-135 Stratotanker was based out of McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas but that it was being operated by a Fairchild crew.
(Read More...)
05/04/2013
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said Israeli companies were behind 41 percent of all UAVs exported in 2001-11. Those Israeli exports went to 24 countries, including the United States. i-hls reports. That volume’s expected to expand as production costs are relatively low. Israeli industry officials boast that it’s significantly cheaper to buy an advanced UAV than it is to train an air force pilot.
(Read More...)
05/04/2013
Australian government officials restated their commitment to purchase 100 F-35 fifth-generation multirole fighters from Lockheed Martin to support the country’s Air Combat Capability Transition, with an Initial Operational Capability date of 2020 for the F-35 fleet.
(Read More...)
05/04/2013
U.S. officials say Israel has launched an airstrike into Syria, apparently targeting a suspected weapons site. The officials say the strike occurred overnight Thursday into Friday. They say it does not appear that a chemical weapons site was targeted. One official says the strike appeared to hit a warehouse.
(Read More...)
05/04/2013
A Boeing X-51A WaveRider unmanned hypersonic vehicle achieved the longest air-breathing, scramjet-powered hypersonic flight in history May 1, flying for three and a half minutes on scramjet power at a top speed of Mach 5.1. The vehicle flew for a total time of more than six minutes.
(Read More...)
05/04/2013
A US military Boeing KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in a mountainous area in Kyrgyzstan for unspecified reasons on Friday, the United States Air Force said. "A US Air Force KC-135 tanker aircraft crashed today in northern Kyrgyzstan," the US Air Force's 376th Air Expeditionary Wing based in the country said. The Boeing KC-135, also known as the Stratotanker, crashed into a mountain gorge about 60 kilometers (36 miles) west of the capital Bishkek.
(Read More...)
All Articles