October 16, 2013 Military Aviation News
10/16/2013
Another Russian Su-25 ground attack aircraft crashed on September 23rd, killing the pilot. All Su-25s were immediately grounded until the cause of the crash could be found. This is the 17th Su-25 lost in the last decade, which is not unusual for a Russian military aircraft that has been in service since the 1980s. Despite these losses, the Su-25 is still a popular aircraft.
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10/16/2013
The Netherlands recently agreed to buy 37 of the new American F-35 fighter-bombers, and possibly more if money became available. Originally the Dutch were going to buy 85 but the escalating cost of the F-35 forced them to reconsider. Some Dutch leaders wanted to stick with the F-16 and upgrade it or consider another new fighter (Gripen, Eurofighter, or F-18E).
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10/16/2013
The U.S. deployment of 200 Marines to a naval base in Sicily for possible operations in Libya, a short hop across the Mediterranean, underlines how the Americans have been building a network of bases in Italy as launch pads for military interventions in Africa and the Mideast.
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10/16/2013
The Swedish government’s promise to bolster defense spending and inject more capital into equipment procurement programs has failed to impress the country’s military establishment.
The Defense Ministry said in September that expenditures on defense would increase by US $220 million in 2014-17, yielding an annual increase of $60 million a year. The armed forces budget for 2013 amounts to $6.2 billion.
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10/16/2013
India’s Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) contract with Dassault Aviation is not likely to be signed before April 2014, despite the Indian air force’s (IAF) concerns about maintaining its tactical air deterrent capability.
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10/16/2013
The US Air Force’s Air Combat Command (ACC) ended a shutdown-imposed grounding of training aircraft last week , but some combat craft remain grounded.
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10/16/2013
It seems that water and air are incompatible as natural element. However, there is such a thing as naval aviation. Judging by modernization plans, Russian naval aviation will see great changes in the future. After years of debate about whether Russia needs a fleet of vessels with aircraft on decks or surface ships and submarines would be enough, Russian admirals have chosen a sort of "American" model of the fleet: naval groups with an aircraft carrier in the center.
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10/16/2013
The U.S. decision to award Israel's Elbit Systems the contract to co-produce the flight helmet for Lockheed Martin's advanced F-35 stealth fighter illustrates the close links between the U.S. and Israeli defense sectors. Israel's buying 20 of the fifth-generation jets and eventually wants as many as 75. State-owned Israel Military Industries is already manufacturing components for the F-35.
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10/16/2013
The US Navy conducted float tests of the USS Gerald R. Ford on 11 October and its sea trials are likely to begin in 2016, reports say. "USS Ford is bound to pose a huge impact on the existing Chinese naval equipment," Chen Hu, executive editor of a Chinese military magazine, told the Wen Wei Po, adding that the "Chinese aircraft carrier technology is currently 30 years behind that of the US".
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