October 11, 2013 Military Aviation News
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10/11/2013
A total of 48 aircraft in the Brazilian Air Force will be retrofitted with the new IFF transponders. Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer has awarded Thales a contract to supply IFF (identification friend or foe) transponders for the upgrade of A1M fighters and E-99 AEW surveillance aircraft in service with the Brazilian Air Force. A total of 48 aircraft will be retrofitted with the new IFF transponders.
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10/11/2013
The B-2 Spirit stealth bomber can avoid most modern adversaries’ defenses, but it is currently facing a different threat: defense budget cuts. Of the 20 B-2s in existence, only 16 are operational at any given time due to maintenance schedules; a recent report claims there may only be nine available. In addition, a handful of B-2s are constantly used for training, so the availability of combat-ready Spirits actually declines further.
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10/11/2013
While the U.S. Navy often depends on U.S. Air Force KC-135 aerial tankers to refuel its aircraft, it has sometimes also found it more convenient to use a civilian firm, Omega Air, to provide aerial refueling service in the United States. The air force controls all the large tankers (the navy can use some smaller aircraft, even fighters, for refueling in a pinch) and makes them available to the navy and other foreigners only when the air force has taken care of its own needs.
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10/11/2013
The F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) today informed Lockheed Martin that it has decided to halt the development of the alternate F-35 helmet and focus exclusively on maturing the Vision Systems (VSI) 2nd Generation helmet currently used in training and testing. As a result, the program will recoup approximately $45 million in funds it had originally allocated for the development of the alternate helmet. Beginning with aircraft in Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) lot 7.
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10/11/2013
Ground testing of the most complex version of Lockheed Martin Corp. F-35 jet has uncovered two small cracks the Pentagon describes as minor, according to a statement to congressional staff. The cracks were discovered in late August during an inspection of the U.S. Marine Corps’ short-takeoff and vertical landing model that’s used in ground testing to evaluate an airframe’s long-term durability. The airframes are designed to last through 8,000 flight hours. They are tested on the ground to the eq
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10/11/2013
The Pentagon said on Thursday it would halt work on a second pilot helmet being developed for the F-35 fighter jet by Britain's BAE Systems Plc, and focus exclusively on the main helmet built by Rockwell Collins Inc and Israel's Elbit Systems Ltd. The Pentagon's F-35 program office said the move followed improvements to the Rockwell-Elbit helmet, including a better night vision camera, and would save about $45 million in funding that would have been needed to finish the BAE helmet.
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10/11/2013
For two years, the rebels in Al Qusayr held out against the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Then in April the regime, supported by fresh fighters from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, renewed its attack on the mountain town overlooking the Lebanon border.
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10/11/2013
Israeli Air Force fighter squadrons have carried out exercises testing their capability to conduct missions at long ranges from base, the Israeli military said Thursday. The drills included air-to-air refueling and dogfights against foreign combat planes.
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10/11/2013
The F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) today informed Lockheed Martin that it decided to halt development of the alternate F-35 helmet and focus exclusively on maturing the Rockwell Collins Elbit Systems of America Vision Systems Generation 2 (Gen 2) helmet currently used in training and testing. The program will recoup approximately $45 million in funds it had originally allocated for the development of the alternate helmet.
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