March, 2014 Military Aviation News
03/31/2014
Walking around Silicon Valley with an augmented reality display on your face makes you a glasshole. On the battlefield, though, similar technology will soon turn U.S. soldiers into a lethal cross between the Terminator and Iron Man.
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03/31/2014
The Air Force plans to slash its ranks, retire a big chunk of its aircraft fleet and trim billions of dollars from its budget in coming years. Can there be any good news for MacDill Air Force Base amid such carnage? Maybe.
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03/31/2014
Oleksandr Davydko’s usual instrument of choice is his plumber’s wrench. Now he grips his Kalashnikov automatic rifle as he and his comrades run through a maze of obstacles on a mock battleground.
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03/31/2014
With the UPA-2’s tenure coming to an end, France had wanted India to sign a pact to provide government guarantee for completion of negotiation for 126 fighter aircraft with Dassault but defence minister AK Antony has refused to do so.
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03/31/2014
Canada does not need fighter capability to protect sovereignty, for minor armed conflicts, or for conflicts between major powers. Canada’s greatest threat would be a terrorist copycat 9/11 using either a drone or an aircraft. Fighters, unless in the vicinity of the target, could not protect against this threat.
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03/30/2014
Norway has ordered 36 AIM-120C-7 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles for its F-16 fighters. Norway received 72 F-16AMs in the early 1980s and upgraded them in the late 1990s to the Block 50 standard. The Norwegian F-16AMs were built in the Netherlands under license. Norway recently replaced the wings 57 F-16C fighters it still has in order to keep them in service until 2023.
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03/30/2014
Jeremy Herb of the Hill, a publication in the U.S. that covers federal politics, is reporting this:
House lawmakers say they are not happy with the Air Force’s decision to cut the A-10 fleet in its 2015 budget request. But they don’t know if they can do anything about it.
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03/30/2014
Retiring all of its U-2 spy planes and replacing them with Global Hawk UAVs won’t save as much money as the US Air Force had said it would, since the unmanned systems will need upgrades to handle the mission, according to experts and service data. To upgrade Northrop Grumman’s Block 30 Global Hawk, the Air Force intends to invest “about $1.77 billion” over the next 10 years, said Maj. Gen. James Jones, deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements.
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03/30/2014
South Korea will ask Lockheed Martin to invest in the country’s KF-X fighter jet development project as part of offset deals over its selection of the F-35 joint strike fighter. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration made a final decision March 24 to buy 40 F-35As through the US Foreign Military Sales program. A final contract on the deal will be signed by September, according to the arms agency, with the first delivery in 2018. The deal is expected to be worth around $6.8 billion.
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03/30/2014
Approximately seven months after wrapping up a deployment at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, members of Fighter Attack Squadron 122 found themselves back in Japan, the latest sign of the increasingly quick turnarounds being asked of F/A-18 and other aircraft squadrons across the service.
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03/30/2014
The Sukhoi-30MKI fighter swept low and fast over the Punjab landscape, heading for the Indian Air Force (IAF) base at Bhatinda. It had completed a simulated combat mission, in which fighter controllers had directed it from an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) - a flying command centre inside a giant IL-78 aircraft that controls air operations from 33,000 feet. Now the Bhatinda air base had been ordered to "recover" the fighter, i.e., guide it back to base and facilitate its landing.
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03/29/2014
As far as I know, this sort of thing has happened only once since 1956. That was when British magazines started getting eyewitness accounts and grainy photos of the Lockheed U-2, then operating out of RAF Lakenheath on its first spy flights over the Soviet Union. Classified programs have been exposed in all sorts of ways since then - for example, the A-12 Blackbird was disclosed under a degree of pressure.
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03/29/2014
The visit to South Africa last week by Brazilian defence minister Celso Amorim has resulted in defence ties between the two countries being strengthened, with cooperation in the fields of training and technology, particularly regarding air-to-air missiles.
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03/29/2014
The naval variant of light combat aircraft (LCA) 'Tejas' will soon undergo carrier compatibility tests at the newly commissioned shore-based test facility at the Indian naval base INS Hansa in Goa, the LCA's programme director Kota Harinarayana told TOI on Friday. "Before we go to the ship, we have to do something on the ground that is similar to the ship," Harinarayana said, while pointing out that the shore-based test facility is primarily a ramp - similar to the ones on aircraft carriers.
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03/29/2014
The U.S. Army’s top leaders defended their proposal to strip the Army National Guard of its AH-64 Apaches attack helicopters as part of a cost-saving move. Army Secretary John McHugh and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno said the proposal would help the service avoid some $12 billion in costs — a significant level of savings in an era of automatic budget cuts known as sequestration.
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03/29/2014
China, in the midst of a military build-up that challenges the United States and Japan, is showcasing its expanded capabilities in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 by deploying hardware such as satellites, warships and an icebreaker. With pictures of grey-hulled naval vessels and planes operating in seas thousands of kilometres from Chinese shores, state media has hailed the hunt for the plane as the country’s strongest search and rescue mission.
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03/29/2014
The quest for what early aviators called “command of the air” is a defining feature of the military enterprise. Major military powers spend much more on combat aircraft than they do on warships or armored vehicles. And with good reason: if friendly forces can’t utilize the air space above enemy forces and nations for military advantage, then they probably can’t win the war on the ground or at sea.
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03/29/2014
Russia has begun preparations for terminating bilateral agreements with Ukraine related to the status and operation of the Black Sea Fleet, a Kremlin spokesman said Friday. The decision was made at a meeting of the country's Security Council chaired by President Vladimir Putin.
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03/29/2014
Qatar has added to its defence spending with the agreement to buy herlicopters from Boeing and the joint venture NH Industries as well as missiles from Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.
The total spend by Qatar on defence equipment this week is believed to have topped $23 billion. The announcements were made at the Dimdex conference in Doha.
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03/29/2014
In a major setback to the Indian Air Force, a newly acquired US-made C-130J transport aircraft on Friday crashed near Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh after taking off from Agra (in Uttar Pradesh) air base, killing five crew members, including four officers.
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03/28/2014
With an A-10 Thuderbolt II providing combat cover from above, a New York-based HH-60 Black Hawk helicopter appeared just above the tree line in the woods of northern Michigan ready to spirit a downed pilot back to safety. And so ended another day of a week-long combat search and rescue, or CSAR, exercise centered around the Grayling Air Gunnery Range.
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03/28/2014
Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff has approved the donation of three ex-Brazilian Air Force Embraer EMB-312 Tucano trainer aircraft to Mozambique and says her country may finance the acquisition of a three Super Tucanos to boost the operational and combat capabilities of the Mozambican armed forces.
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03/28/2014
US arms supply and fresh military aid to Pakistan has quietly gained momentum in the last one year, Congressional sources have said. The Pentagon, according to publicly available documents, reports total Foreign Military Sales (FMS) agreements with Pakistan worth about $5.2 billion for the period between FY2002 and FY2012.
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03/28/2014
The U.S. Navy's plan to cancel an order for 29 MH-60 Sikorsky helicopters under a current five-year agreement would trigger termination fees of at least $250 million and raise the cost of Army helicopters covered by the same contract, a top U.S. senator said Thursday. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, criticized the Navy's plan to "break" the multi-year purchase agreement during a hearing on the Navy and Marine Corps budget requests.
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03/28/2014
A major delay in the shipment of new F-35 fighter jets is expected to diminish U.S. “warfighting capabilities” across the globe and force the Pentagon to significantly boost funding for the plane at a time when military leaders say they cannot afford to, according to a new government report.
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03/28/2014
On Mar. 27, 1999, the fourth night of Operation Allied Force over Serbia, an F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter jet was shot down while returning to Aviano airbase, in northern Italy after bombing a target near Belgrade.
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03/28/2014
Slight rain trickled on March 9 as more than 120 airmen from Idaho paced one-by-one onto the Gowen Field flight line to board two eagerly-waiting KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft, and a C-17 Globemaster III bound for the Green Flag East combat air exercise. Many of the Idaho Air National Guardsmen have not yet had the opportunity to fly in the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker refueling and transport aircraft.
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03/28/2014
The Republic of Korea ushered in a new era in air mobility today with the delivery of the country’s first two C-130J Super Hercules aircraft at the Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] facility here. With today’s delivery, South Korea became the 14th country to fly the proven C-130J.
South Korea’s new Super Hercules will be operated by Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) aircrews, which currently operate a fleet of C-130H legacy aircraft.
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03/28/2014
Qatar´s choice of the A330 MRTT makes it the seventh nation to select the type following Australia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom which have ordered a total of 34 aircraft, and India which is in the final stages of contractual negotiations for six aircraft. A total of 17 aircraft are currently in service.
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03/27/2014
Raytheon has secured its first export customer for the Paveway IV 500lb dual-mode (INS/GPS and laser-guided) precision guided munition (PGM), company officials confirmed on 25 March. While the company was unable to confirm the identity of the customer, it is understood to be the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF). The Saudi export order is estimated to be worth in the region of GBP150 million (USD248 million) and to be for around 2,400 Paveway IVs.
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03/27/2014
Admirals are notoriously conservative regarding their capital ships. By the early twentieth century, the cost of a battleship and the time required for construction demanded extraordinary care with respect to the survival of the vessels. Capital ships do not simply represent or implement national power; because of their great cost and the long periods of construction, they effectively constitute national power.
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03/27/2014
In 1992, Boeing’s Phantom Works program began development on the Bird of Prey, a project managed by the U.S. Air Force, funded by Boeing, and borrowing the name from the Klingon starship in 1984’s Star Trek III: The Search For Spock. It pioneered dozens of new technologies that we use in airplanes today, but the Bird of Prey was never meant for production.
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03/27/2014
The software needed for the U.S. Navy's version of Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 fighter jet could be delayed by four to six months, the U.S. general who runs the $392 billion program for the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
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03/27/2014
The Philippines will spend more than $100 million to buy eight Canadian-built helicopters as the country bolsters its military with new equipment, including fighter jets, to counter Chinese interests in the region. The first of the Bell 412 helicopters are to be delivered next year, said Philippines Defence Undersecretary Fernando Manalo.
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03/27/2014
South Korea is considering leasing second-hand F-16 fighter jets from the United States to fill a potential vacuum in its air power from delays in aircraft acquisition and development, a senior Air Force official here said Wednesday. Seoul recently confirmed a plan to buy 40 F-35s by Lockheed Martin from 2018-21, scaling down from the initial program for 60 advanced combat aircraft, while pushing to develop midlevel fighter jets with a goal of deploying them between 2023 and 2025.
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03/27/2014
The Lockheed TriStar, closely linked to the recent history of the Falkland Islands has flown its last operational mission with the Royal Air Force. On 24 March, two TriStars of 216 Squadron based at Royal Air Force Brize Norton flew an air-to-air refueling mission over the North Sea before one of them conducted fly-pasts at airfields associated with its history.
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03/27/2014
Russia plans to offer Brazil joint development of the fifth-generation combat aircraft, the Sukhoi T-50, according to Alexander Fomin, the head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation. The proposal is reportedly in support of an unsolicited offer by Sukhoi whose Su-35 fighter was taken off Brazil’s shortlist for its F-X2 tender for the purchase of 36 fighter jets worth $4 billion.
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03/27/2014
Russian flags have been raised at all military units in Crimea, less than a week after the Russian leader signed a decree finalizing the reunification of the former Ukrainian region, Russia's military chief said Wednesday. As Crimea's reunification process began last week, all 193 military units in the predominantly Russian-ethnic region have replaced Ukrainian flags with Russian ones and applied to join the Russian armed forces.
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03/26/2014
Lockheed Martin labeled the F-35 a “fifth-generation” fighter in 2005, a term it borrowed from Russia in 2004 to describe the F-22. Some of their rivals tumbled into this rhetorical trap and tried to argue that “fourth-generation” was just as capable. Whether it is true or not, making such a case is an uphill struggle. But if “fifth-generation” means more than “the ultimate driving machine,” a sixth generation will emerge.
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03/26/2014
South Africa's cash-strapped armed forces are in a "critical state of decline" that will take at least a decade to fix even with urgent action, according to a military strategy review seen by Reuters. It said "neglect" of defence capability could impact everything from border security to trade and constrain Pretoria's continental peace-keeping and diplomatic ambitions.
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03/26/2014
While its defense expenditures do not match that of the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Eastern Europe, South American military spending has steadily risen since 2005. In fact, defense expenditures there almost doubled between 2006 and 2010, from US $17.6 billion to $33.2 billion, according to reports from the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), a regional political association integrated by 12 nations.
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03/26/2014
The United Nations urged Turkey and Syria to avoid taking steps that could increase tensions along the Turkish-Syrian border, saying abrupt acts may aggravate the situation after Turkey downed a Syrian warplane that violated Turkish airspace on Sunday.
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03/26/2014
As South America continues increasing its defense expenditures, air fleet modernization is driving numerous requirements and will continue to do so into the foreseeable future. Brazil, accounting for half of South America’s defense expenditure, is conducting the region’s most ambitious modernization of air military assets, and local industry is involved in both the production of foreign equipment under license as well as indigenous development.
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03/26/2014
The United States government is looking to provide Yemen with an aerial precision strike capability to combat Islamist militants in the country, a leaked Central Command (CENTCOM) memo reveals. The memo, written on 3 February and published by US publication BuzzFeed on 24 March, sets out the baseline requirements for a manned fixed-wing combat aircraft to be acquired under the Yemen Fiscal Year 2014 Precision Strike Program.
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03/26/2014
Lockheed Martin delivered its 17th C-5M Super Galaxy to the U.S. Air Force from its facilities here today. It is the first C-5M delivery for 2014. U.S. Air Force aircrews will deliver the aircraft tail number 87-0020 to Dover Air Force Base, Del. after a stop at Stewart Air National Guard Base, N.Y., where it will undergo internal paint restoration.
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03/26/2014
Ukraine's military personnel may leave the Crimean Peninsula unhindered, but the Russian military has yet to decide if they will be permitted to take their weapons with them, the Kremlin said Tuesday. The Russian Defense Ministry said over the weekend that less than 15 percent of the 18,000 Ukrainian troops stationed in Crimea decided to leave the peninsula after it rejoined Russia last week.
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03/26/2014
The capabilities of Airbus Helicopters' rotorcraft to meet land- and sea-based mission requirements of Middle East military forces will be underscored in the company's presence at the Doha International Defence Exhibition & Conference (DIMDEX) which opens today (25-27 March).
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03/25/2014
Canada’s CF-18 fighter jets are due to retire in 2020. They need to be replaced, but no fully operational F-35s will be available by that date. Stephen Harper has a decision to make: buy another model of fighter jet, or face a dangerous capability gap. He cannot expect our pilots to fly supersonic aircraft beyond their lifespan.
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03/25/2014
NATO’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has drawn a red line, but it is one that leaves Ukraine militarily isolated, fending for itself. If the West’s economic and diplomatic sanctions are to deter Moscow from further military aggression, they must be complemented by a robust defensive strategy to reinforce Ukraine’s armed forces.
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03/25/2014
he Republic of Korea has formally announced its decision to procure the Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) F-35 Lightning II aircraft for its F-X fighter acquisition program. “We are honored by and appreciate the trust and confidence the Republic of Korea has placed in the 5th Generation F-35 to meet its demanding security requirements.
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03/25/2014
Turkey told Syria that it was ready to act again in defense of its borders and warplanes after the shooting down of a warplane said to have flown into its territory. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said today that the incursion should not be repeated, as the military justified yesterday’s action by Turkish combat aircraft against a Syrian MiG-23 that had ignored four warnings and briefly penetrated 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) into Turkish airspace, according to a statement.
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03/25/2014
France and the Czech Republic have become the latest NATO countries to offer fighter aircraft protection to those alliance members concerned over the situation in Crimea and the continuing Russian build-up on Ukraine's eastern border.
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03/25/2014
In 2005, Lockheed Martin labeled the F-35, the stealthy new jet they were building for the Pentagon, as a “fifth-generation” fighter. Ironically, it was a term that they had borrowed from Russia to describe a different stealthy fighter, the F-22. But the term caught on. Some of Lockheed’s rivals tumbled into this rhetorical trap and tried to argue that “fourth-generation” was just as capable—whether it is true or not, making such a case is an uphill struggle.
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03/25/2014
The U.S. government's decision to deploy military aircraft and additional troops could be "the decisive game changer" in the hunt for fugitive rebel leader Joseph Kony, whose notorious group, the Lord's Resistance Army, appears weaker than ever before amid growing defections and the loss of senior commanders, an expert said Monday.
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03/25/2014
All military units stationed in Crimea are now under the control of the Russian military, and remaining Ukrainian servicemen are departing the peninsula, the region’s first deputy prime minister, Rustam Temirgaliyev, said on Monday. As Crimea’s reunification process began last week, a total of 147 military units in the predominantly Russian-ethnic region have replaced Ukrainian flags with Russian ones and applied to join the Russian armed forces.
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03/25/2014
The volume of Russia’s arms exports this year has topped the $2 billion mark, with outstanding weapons orders standing at $47 billion, a senior government official said Monday. “As of today, Russia has supplied military products worth $2 billion to its foreign customers,” said Alexander Fomin, the head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation.
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03/24/2014
A high-level Argentine military delegation visited Israel recently to finalize a purchase of Israeli fighter-jets. The Kfir has not been in operational use by the Israel Air Force for nearly 20 years and will be upgraded by Israel Aircraft Industries if the contract is signed. The deal is going ahead at a low point in Israeli-Argentine relations.
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03/24/2014
Even as Russia's annexation of Crimea is answered with an economic, rather than a military, response from the West, the crisis is provoking some uncomfortable reckoning on the part of NATO. Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has called it a “wake-up call” that should prompt both the U.S. and Europe to ratchet up their commitment to the transatlantic alliance.
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03/24/2014
The plane crash occurred during a routine flight on Friday, March 21. The pilot and navigator ejected safely. The accident will be investigated by a special commission. The 7th Brigade of the Ukrainian Air Force of Ukraine is based near Starokonstantinov, it contains Su-24 and L-39 training aircraft of Czech production. No civilian casualties and destruction reported.
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03/24/2014
The same week that the US Air Force said it had figured out a way to get its counterparts in Taiwan new radars for its 146 F-16 fighter jets, sources at Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) are accusing US officials of lying to them and avoiding questions on the impact that the cancellation of the upgrades on the US side will have on Taiwan.
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03/24/2014
One in three of the RAF’s £60million Typhoon fighters are also grounded, according to the latest government figures. RAF sources claim that wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and the crisis in Libya have all taken their toll on frontline aircraft, some of which have been on operations for almost 12 years.
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03/24/2014
A deepening crisis in Ukraine has sharpened the defense policy of NATO member states in Eastern Europe, with the Estonia prime minister calling for higher military spending and Poland seeking early orders for missile defense and drones. Warsaw and the Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — have been among the most vocal following Russia’s military intervention in Crimea, while a European Union summit pledged on March 21 to sign political cooperation pacts with Georgia and Moldova.
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03/24/2014
The Russian military force on Ukraine's eastern border is 'very, very sizeable and very, very ready', according to Nato's top military commander. General Philip Breedlove said he was worried they could make a move for Moldova's breakaway Transdniestria region. 'There is absolutely sufficient force postured on the eastern border of Ukraine to run to Transdniestria if the decision was made to do that and that is very worrisome,' said Nato's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.
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03/24/2014
Electronic warfare (EW) experts at the Exelis Electronic Systems segment in Clifton, N.J., will provide the U.S. Navy with 42 sophisticated EW systems designed to protect Navy combat aircraft from incoming radar-guided missiles.
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03/24/2014
Australia is likely to push ahead with the acquisition of its first operational F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft, according to a report by an independent defence think tank. In a report released on Monday, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute says it makes most sense for the federal government to commit to spending between $8 billion and $10 billion on 58 of the fighters, which are expected to enter service in 2020.
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03/24/2014
Turkey, which backs the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, warned Damascus against testing its determination and pledged a tough response if Syrian warplanes violate its airspace again. It was the most serious incident since Turkish warplanes last September downed a Syrian helicopter that Ankara said was 2km inside its airspace.
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03/23/2014
As the world remains riveted on Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, Russian President Vladimir Putin is shifting gears to Latin America. As first outlined by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu last February, Putin now plans to keep the United States off-balance as Moscow sets up actual military bases and massive arms sales in the Latin American region.
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03/23/2014
The modern world that emerged from the end of the Cold War and the disastrous terrorist attacks of 9/11 has deceived the United States and her traditional allies into assuming that war between states was a thing of the past. As the world sees Russian advances in Eastern Europe and Chinese power plays in the Asia-Pacific region, U.S. partners such as the Philippines should use these watershed events as case studies for developing stronger defense policies.
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03/23/2014
Ukraine’s government has decided to set aside an additional 6.8 billion hryvnia (US $697 million) for defense spending to mobilize troops, modernize weapons and improve the operational capacities of the country’s armed forces, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said.
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03/23/2014
Bangor-based Denroy Plastics has secured a £1 million contract to supply more parts for the world's most advanced military combat aircraft. And to celebrate the deal the Eurofighter plane performed a fly-over at the Balloo road site yesterday before landing at RAF aldergrove.
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03/23/2014
Less than 2,000 of Ukrainian troops serving in Crimea decided to leave the peninsula for Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday. "As of March 21, less than 2,000 out of 18,000 Ukrainian servicemen staying on the territory of the Republic of Crimea decided to go to Ukraine," the ministry said in a statement.
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03/22/2014
France will offer to send four fighter jets to the Baltic states and Poland to boost NATO air patrols over the region, a source close to the French defence minister said Friday. Besides the Rafale and Mirage 2000 aircraft, Paris will also offer to ensure "AWACS patrols from France around twice a week" if asked by NATO, the source said during the minister's visit to the Estonian capital Tallinn amid the Ukraine turmoil.
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03/22/2014
MacDill Air Force Base is hosting its annual AirFest show this Saturday and Sunday. As a preview for the event, members of the media were invited to a ride-along flight on a KC-135 Stratotanker as it completed a training refueling mission. I boarded the massive plane as both a reporter and Air Force wife whose husband is training to become an aviator. I hoped the Airfest "preview flight" would give me a hint as to what my husband will be doing one day.
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03/22/2014
Delays in testing critical software for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 jet are threatening to delay the Pentagon’s most expensive weapon program and boost development costs, according to congressional investigators. “Persistent software problems” have slowed testing to demonstrate the aircraft’s war-fighting, navigation, targeting and reconnaissance systems, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said.
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03/22/2014
The United States is puzzling over how to block cruise missiles that theoretically could be launched from the Gulf of Mexico, even after throwing some of its most advanced technologies at the problem. Russia and Iran have been cited as possible threats that might, at some point, lurk in the waters just off U.S. shores.
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03/22/2014
Western weapons manufacturers waging an uphill battle to drive up revenues are finding their market share eroded by a potent new competitor – Russia. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in its latest report “Trends in International Arms Transfers – 2013” says Russia’s exports of major weapons increased by 28 per cent between 2004-2008 and 2009-13.
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03/22/2014
Back in the late 1960s the aircraft chosen as the nation’s key strike weapon into the new millennium — the F-111 swing-wing fighter/bomber — was derided as the “flying Opera House’’ or the “widow maker” due to cost blowouts, delivery delays and serious technical problems that caused several fatal crashes.
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03/22/2014
Iraq is negotiating about the purchase of redundant Czech L-159 combat planes with their maker, Aero Vodochody, the website of weekly Hospodárské noviny writes today. Iraq showed interest in new Czech combat aircraft in 2012, but it eventually bought planes from South Korea.
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03/22/2014
The Philippines said on Friday it will buy $524.7-million worth of aircraft from South Korea and Canada as part of a military upgrade amid territorial disputes with superpower neighbour China. The contracts to be signed on March 28 will include the purchase of 12 FA-50 fighter jets from state-run Korea Aerospace Industries for 18.9 billion pesos (US$417.95 million), Defence Undersecretary Fernando Manalo told reporters.
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03/22/2014
A total of 72 military units in Crimea have hoisted Russian flags instead of Ukrainian and applied to join the Russian armed forces, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday. "Yesterday, 72 military units almost in full strength decided to join the Russian armed forces. We are now dealing with service and citizenship issues of officers and soldiers from these units,” he said.
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03/21/2014
There’s an old saying in the military that we’re always training for the last war, so fixated on the lessons of our most recent conflict that we’re blind to the emerging threat. For years, that last war was the Cold War, and the emerging threat was the insurgents of Iraq and Afghanistan. Slowly, painfully, eventually, the military reoriented itself. The result?
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03/21/2014
Boeing has announced it will be displaying its powerful Super Hornet at the Royal International Air Tattoo this year. The multi-role fighter, originally developed by the United States Navy and now in service with the Royal Australian Air Force at Fairford on July 12 and 13.
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03/21/2014
Ukraine will play host, but the US military will call the shots, in an upcoming military exercise called Rapid Trident that will bring together some 1,300 international forces in Ukraine for a long-planned exercise. Although the United States canceled Atlas Vision 2014, which was scheduled to take place in July in the northeastern Russian city of Chelyabinsk, the Pentagon says it will go ahead with plans for a multinational military exercise this summer in Ukraine.
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03/21/2014
If your windows rattled Thursday, no need to worry. That was just the Air Force, not an earthquake. The Air Force's aerial demonstration team, the Thunderbirds, arrived Thursday afternoon at MacDill Air Force Base as its F-16 pilots prepared for this weekend's Tampa Bay AirFest 2014.
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03/21/2014
The Air Force is surging ahead with work to extend the service life of its fleet of F-16 fighter jets despite recent budget cuts to programs aimed at upgrading the planes, service officials said. The service is in the early phases of a Service Life Extension Program, or SLEP, for about 300 of its fleet of 976 F-16s designed to add eight to ten years of additional combat life to the aircraft, said Maj. Sean Tucker, F-16 program element monitor.
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03/21/2014
The US Air Force (USAF) is defending plans to retire entire fleets of aircraft over the next five years, citing budget pressure and the need for better technology. The USAF favoured procurement of new platforms in its fiscal year 2015 (FY 2015) budget proposal in order to keep pace with adversaries' increasing technological sophistication, officials said on 18 March. However, doing so forced service planners to make difficult cutbacks in its legacy fleets.
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03/21/2014
The Israel Air Force showed off its new cutting-edge training aircraft, the M-346, on Thursday. The plane underwent a successful test flight, and was presented at a ceremony in Italy by provider Alenia Aermacchi. Officials from the Defense Ministry brokered theUSD $1 billion dollar deal to purchase 30 jets from the Italian manufacturer in July 2012, and on Thursday representatives from the ministry and the IAF attended the event.
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03/21/2014
Large air forces are rare. As a result ten nations (U.S., China, Russia, India, North Korea, Egypt, South Korea, Pakistan, Japan, and Taiwan) have about 60 percent of the combat aircraft in service. But while the U.S. has only 19 percent of the 15,000 combat aircraft in service, they have a far higher percentage of the air combat capability. This becomes clear when you take into account the quality of the aircraft, pilots and support services.
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03/21/2014
Ukraine would be inflicting unnecessary damage upon itself if it breaks off ongoing cooperation with Russia’s defense industry, a senior Russian official said Thursday. “If the Ukrainian leaders who recently came to power choose the path of destructive engagement with Russia, I think they will be punishing themselves, punishing the Ukrainian people, who are happy to work with our businesses,” Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said.
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03/20/2014
Russian President Vladimir Putin defied Western warnings and signed a treaty to annex Ukraine's Crimean peninsula Tuesday, while accusing the United States and its allies of going too far in luring post-Soviet nations away from Moscow.
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03/20/2014
After many so-called "phantom attacks" conducted inside Syria in recent months were attributed to Israel, the nation's air force performed widespread attacks on Syrian targets over the night of 18 March.
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03/20/2014
U.S. lawmakers who oppose the Pentagon's dealings with Russia's state-owned arms exporting firm are using Moscow's intervention in Ukraine to press the argument that contracts with Rosoboronexport should end.
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03/20/2014
The worst-case scenario in the Russia-Ukraine crisis would be a war between the two states. How do their respective forces compare? Russia has about four times as many soldiers as Ukraine does, twice as many tanks, and more than six times as many combat aircraft. The huge imbalance in forces reflects the defense budgets of the two countries. Russia spends about $78 billion on its armed forces annually, Ukraine $1.6 billion.
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03/20/2014
The volume of Indian imports of major weapons rose by 111% between 2004/08 and 2009/13 and its share of the volume of international arms imports increased from seven to 14 % the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reports. At the same time Pakistan’s imports of major arms increased by 119%.
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03/20/2014
Citing growing budget shortages (and the enormous costs of developing and building the new F-35) the air force plans to retire 410 combat aircraft (and about a hundred support planes) in the next five years. These include 340 A-10s and 70 F-15Cs. In that same time period over a hundred new F-35s would enter service leaving the air force with about 300 fewer combat aircraft.
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03/20/2014
Phantom Swift, a prototype Boeing initially built in less than a month, has been accepted to be part of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) X-plane program. DARPA is trying to mature a new aircraft configuration capable of both efficient hover and high-speed cruise.
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03/20/2014
France should either fulfill its contract obligations under a June 2011 contract to deliver two Mistral-class warships to the Russian navy or return the money, a Russian deputy premier said on Wednesday. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Monday that Paris will consider canceling the 1.2-billion-euro deal if Moscow provokes further escalation in Ukraine.
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03/19/2014
Although India has temporarily suspended its part in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines jet, it has turned out to be a costly affair, experts say. In the hunt for MH370–which India dubbed Operation Search Light—the country deployed six ships – three each from the navy and the coast guard. It also lent Dornier aircraft belonging to the navy and the coast guard and even its P-8I, a long-range maritime patrol and anti-submarine aircraft, to the effort.
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03/19/2014
The Air Force would be forced to make heavy cuts to its fighters and bombers if Congress rejects plans to retire the A-10 without providing additional funding, a top budget official said today. The administration’s plan to cut the entire A-10 fleet, including infrastructure and depots, would save the Air Force $3.7 billion, plus another $500 million in cost avoidance, said Maj. Gen. James Jones, the deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements.
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03/19/2014
The U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon has been making headlines for its role in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The long-range aircraft's main mission is hunting and killing submarines, but it's not just a tool for dropping torpedoes and killing enemy ships. The sensors and hardware on board can make this 130-foot airplane an essential part for the MH370 search.
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03/19/2014
A Eurofighter Typhoon combat jet is due to fly for the first time with an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar later this year, marking a crucial milestone in the drawn-out development of the fighter’s new sensor. Managers at Selex, a partner in the Euroradar consortium planning the Typhoon’s leap to AESA, are confident the demonstration will persuade all four partner countries to sign a development contract this summer, possibly at the Farnborough International Airshow.
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03/19/2014
In Crimea today, soldiers wearing Russian uniforms stormed a Ukrainian army base and took its commander captive, killing one Ukrainian officer, according to the Ukrainian government, while a Crimean news agency reported that a pro-Russian defense force member had been shot and killed. These events came shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty making Crimea a part of Russia.
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03/19/2014
The UK has offered to deploy a number of Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft to Lithuania to bolster the NATO-led Baltic Air Policing Mission, a senior government minister announced on 17 March.
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03/19/2014
Dassault Aviation of France is making an aggressive bid to sideline the F-35 and to sell its own jet fighter to Canada, offering to transfer technology, create jobs and share billions of dollars in business if Canada buys its Rafale fighter to replace its outdated fleet of CF-18s.
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03/19/2014
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that the country was open to further cooperation with NATO, but remained opposed to the organization’s presence in historic Russian territories. “We are not opposed to cooperation with NATO, not at all, but we are opposed to a military alliance … hosted outside our fences next to our home or on our historic territories,” Putin said.
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03/18/2014
The Russian Army’s recent tactical exercises in the Rostov, Belgorod and Kursk regions have attracted heightened attention from her neighbours, with Kiev being particularly alarmed. The acting defence Minister in Ukraine Admiral Igor Tenyukh even suspected Moscow of preparing for an offensive. According to Admiral Tenyukh, Russia had amassed an alignment of forces consisting of 220,000 troops, 1,800 tanks and more than 400 helicopters allegedly for these exercises.
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03/18/2014
This is the fifth installment in a series on the worsening relations between Japan and China. In October last year, about one month before China established an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea, the People’s Liberation Army Navy carried out a large-scale military drill called Maneuver-5 on the high seas about 700 kilometers south of Okinawa Island.
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03/18/2014
Selfridge Military Air Museum officials recently announced their 2014 general public hours of operation for their Museum and Air Park as noon to 4:30 pm on Saturdays, Sundays, Independence Day and Memorial Day, from April 5 through October 26. The Air Museum and Air Park will be closed during the 2014 Selfridge Air Show on September 6 and 7 due to traffic flow considerations.
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03/18/2014
Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18A/B Hornet and Hawk 127 Lead-In Fighter aircraft from RAAF Base Williamtown will conduct intensive air support training in the Great Lakes Area near Bulahdelah on Tuesday, March 18 and Wednesday, March 19. Commander of Air Combat Group, Air Commodore Tony Grady said the two types of jet aircraft would carry out training activities that involved the provision of medium level and close air support for ground-based personnel.
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03/18/2014
The missing Malaysian Airlines plane reportedly flew as low as 5,000ft and used “terrain masking” to avoid radar detection for almost eight hours after it was apparently hijacked. As dozens of nations continued to search for the plane, Malaysia’s New Straits Times newspaper reported that the Boeing 777 dropped to low altitude to avoid commercial radars.
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03/18/2014
The first KC-130J Super Hercules tanker assigned to a U.S. Marine Corps Reserve squadron was ferried today from the Lockheed Martin facility located here. This KC-130J is assigned to the Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 234 (VMGR-234) stationed at Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base, Texas.
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03/18/2014
The U.S. Air Force declared initial operational capability (IOC) for Lockheed Martin’s Sniper® Advanced Targeting Pod - Sensor Enhancement (ATP-SE) and has now deployed the system to support combat operations in theater.
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03/18/2014
The U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center awarded Lockheed Martin a foreign military sales contract to support the Republic of Korea’s Peace Krypton reconnaissance aircraft system. This contract is valued at approximately $9 million. Lockheed Martin has been providing sustainment engineering and logistics support to the Republic of Korea since 1996, the year that the corporation was awarded the prime contract to develop the Peace Krypton system.
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03/18/2014
Ukraine’s Parliament voted Monday to partially mobilize the country’s military reserves amid a tense standoff with Russia following a popular vote in Crimea to secede and join Russia on Sunday, the Ukrainian UNIAN news agency reported. A decree by acting president Oleksandr Turchynov to mobilize tens of thousands of reservists was approved of by 275 of 308 sitting deputies in a session of Ukraine’s parliament, according to the agency.
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03/18/2014
The United States and Russia combined supplied over half of all arms exports worldwide in the past five years, according to new data on the industry compiled by a European think tank. The US topped the list of arms exporting countries, accounting for 29 percent of shipments worldwide in the five year period through 2013, with Russia taking second place with 27 percent, according to the report published Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
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03/17/2014
More than 95 percent of Crimean voters backed joining Russia and seceding from Ukraine during Sunday's referendum, the head of the Crimean commission for holding the referendum said after more than a half ballots were counted. According to Mikhail Malyshev, only 3 percent chose to restore the 1992 Crimean Constitution and remain an autonomous republic within Ukraine, while 1 percent of ballot papers were declared void.
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03/17/2014
It has also revived questions about why the Malaysian military did not immediately notice what was happening, and what gaps there might be more generally in military air defences in a region where the defence and security temperature is high at the moment. It has now emerged that Malaysian primary military radar tracked an unidentified contact that flew right across the country's air space, now confirmed to be MH370. But no action, it seems, was taken.
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03/17/2014
U.S. military leaders plan to spend $2.45 billion next year on unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) procurement and research, with the RQ-4 Global Hawk, MQ-9 Reaper, and the experimental U.S. Navy Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance And Strike (UCLASS) system expected to be the biggest winners.
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03/17/2014
Lt. Cmdr. Mark DeBuse, a flight surgeon for the Blue Angels, said it best when he said his job is like caring for the health and well being of top-notch professional athletes. While these athletes are not competing in high-profile football games or boxing matches, they are maneuvering 24,500 pound jets capable of traveling at almost twice the speed of sound, or 1,400 miles per hour. More impressively, Blue Angels pilots do this without the aid of a G-suit.
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03/17/2014
China is about to undergo a comprehensive reform of its military and national defense. This measure is to be steered by none other than Chinese President Xi Jinping. Xi in his capacity shall oversee a group responsible for planning and executing such reform measures. In addition, the president is also the chairman of the national Central Military Commission. This is a powerful body and as chairman, Xi effectively has entire control of the chinese military.
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03/17/2014
On February 11th the U.S. Navy had its first flight test of a new IRST (Infa-Red Search & Track) pod. IRST uses a high resolution infrared (heat sensing) radar to positively spot and identify a potential aerial target This is done by comparing what IRST sees to 3-D models of known aircraft stored in the pod computer. This is similar to the ATFLIR (Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared) pods used to spot surface targets.
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03/17/2014
Phasing out the A-10 attack aircraft could cost Tucson 2,000 jobs — and that’s just one of many changes in store for Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, the proposed 2015 Air Force budget shows. If Congress approves the cuts, D-M would see ongoing — though, in some cases, diminished — missions including electronic warfare and unmanned aircraft operations.
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03/17/2014
Philippine President Benigno Aquino on Sunday said the Philippines has inked a deal to buy 12 fighter-trainer planes to beef up its territorial defense operation. Speaking at the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio City, Aquino also said that bidding for the procurement of two twin-engine naval antisubmarine helicopters "is also set to begin."
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03/16/2014
Ukraine really needs an answer to the Russian military amassing just over its border. So it’s government is scrambling to pull together an instant army, drawing on whoever is available — students, computer geeks, restaurateurs, aging veterans. “This is our land and our spirit is stronger. We’re prepared to die for our country, we’ve already proved that. The Russians have nothing to die for here,” says Viktor Pandzhakidze, who said he wishes he could volunteer.
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03/16/2014
The Indian Air Force's (IAF) quest for its first fifth generation fighter has been running into the usual back and forth with the Russians as well as domestic discord with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). It seems on top of the reported delays, the Russians are also hiking the costs associated with the Fifth generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) project.
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03/16/2014
I’d been planning to prompt some discussion on The DEW Line earlier in the week about the Eurofighter programme, to coincide with a feature article of mine which appeared as the cover story for the latest issue of Flight International, but a four-day trip to Sweden means it’s now a Friday Fighter topic instead.
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03/16/2014
The radar blip that was Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 did a wide U-turn over the Gulf of Thailand and then began moving inexorably past at least three military radar arrays as it traversed northern Malaysia, even flying high over one of the country’s biggest cities before heading out over the Strait of Malacca.
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03/16/2014
Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., March 14, 2014 - The first Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II assigned to the 56th Fighter Wing was officially delivered during a ceremony attended by dignitaries and hundreds of local civic leaders, wing military and civilian members here today. The F-35A Conventional Takeoff and Landing variant, known as LF 5030, is the first of 144 F-35As scheduled for delivery to the base.
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03/16/2014
Russia has dispatched four Tu-95MS strategic bombers on a 24-hour patrol over the Arctic Ocean, Air Force commander Lt. Gen. Viktor Bondarev said Friday. Bondarev said the four aircraft left their home base at the Ukrainka airbase in Russia’s Far East late on Thursday to carry out a 12-hour non-stop combat patrol mission over the Arctic.
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03/16/2014
The LynxOS-178 real-time operating system (RTOS) will be used in the Rockwell Collins Flight2 avionics management system, for the Royal Air Force of Oman's C-130 upgrade program. The Rockwell Collins Flight2 avionics system will provide the Royal Air Force of Oman C-130 aircraft with unrestricted access to global airspace by meeting Communication, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) airspace requirements that are currently identified.
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03/14/2014
Dassault Aviation said on Thursday it is ready to rebid for a multibillion-dollar Canadian combat-aircraft contract if Ottawa backs out of a plan to buy U.S.-made F-35 combat aircraft to replace the country's aging fleet of F-18 fighter jets. The Canadian government needs to start replacing the F-18s by 2017 which would imply an initial order by this year.
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03/14/2014
The U.S. Department of Defense released its annual report on the state of North Korea’s military earlier this month. The short 22-page document paints a picture of a North Korean military that is slowly atrophying under a lack of funding. Nevertheless, the report begins by acknowledging that North Korea “remains one of the United States’ most critical security challenges.”
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03/14/2014
Six Russian Su-27 fighter jets and three military transport planes with ground support personnel arrived Thursday at an airbase in Belarus to boost the airspace defenses of the two countries' Union State, the Russian Defense Ministry said.The ministry said the aircraft from the Western military district have been deployed to the Babruysk airbase in line with a bilateral agreement on the joint protection of the Union State's airspace.
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03/13/2014
Prime Minister Stephen Harper will provide details on Friday of an expanded military contribution to battle militants in northern Iraq.
A spokesman for Harper says the prime minister will also talk about ongoing humanitarian support
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03/13/2014
Sweden's Defence and Security Export Agency said Wednesday the Czech Republic has approved an agreement to lease 14 Gripen fighter aircraft until at least 2026, opening the way to potential new maintenance contracts for the aircraft's manufacturer, Swedish defense group Saab AB.
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03/13/2014
More than 300 members of Team Holloman from in and around the Tularosa Basin and the Sacramento Mountains gathered to witness the future of the 49th Wing as the 54th Fighter Group was officially welcomed to the base in an activation ceremony here March 11.
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03/13/2014
The Indian Air Force's (IAF) quest for its first fifth generation fighter has been running into the usual back and forth with the Russians as well as domestic discord with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) . It seems on top of the reported delays, the Russians are also hiking the costs associated with the Fifth generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) project.
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03/13/2014
NATO deployed two surveillance aircraft Wednesday to monitor Ukraine's air space and Black Sea ship movements as Russia consolidated its military buildup in Crimea. NATO headquarters spokesman Lt. Col. Jay Janzen said one aircraft based in England would observe Russian air and sea movements from Polish air space, while the other based in Germany would fly over Romania.
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03/13/2014
The future of Selfridge Air National Guard Base took a dramatic turn Wednesday as a new Air Force plan called for the elimination of the A-10 aircraft at the Harrison Township facility in exchange for the addition of KC-135 mid-air refueling planes. The proposal would retire the base’s 18 A-10 Thunderbolts in fiscal year 2017 and then mitigate the damage to Selfridge’s viability by doubling the number of KC-135 tankers to 16.
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03/13/2014
Ukraine accused Russia on Wednesday of conducting a large military buildup near the countries’ border that raises the threat of an invasion, but Moscow denied that. Andriy Parubiy, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told reporters in Kiev that Russia has deployed more than 80,000 troops, up to 270 tanks and 140 combat planes close to the border, creating the “threat of a full-scale invasion from various directions.”
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03/13/2014
LONGBOW International, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, received a $96 million contract in 2013 from AgustaWestland to support LONGBOW Fire Control Radars on U.K. Apache AH Mk.1 aircraft. The five-year contract includes engineering services, integrated logistics support and an in-country repair capability.
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03/13/2014
Belarus will ask Russia to deploy up to 15 additional combat aircraft on its territory in response to increased NATO military activity along the country’s borders, President Alexander Lukashenko said Wednesday. NATO has begun military exercises in Poland near the borders with Belarus and Ukraine amid the current political standoff between Russia and the West over the fate of Ukraine’s Crimea region.
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03/13/2014
A US navy destroyer began joint exercises Wednesday with Romanian and Bulgarian warships in the Black Sea, about 130 miles from Crimea, the Reuters news agency reported. The mission was cited by the White House last week as a sign of the United States’ commitment to the region amid ongoing turmoil in Ukraine – which also borders the Black Sea – that threatens to split the country apart.
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03/12/2014
Turkey, a partner in the multinational A400M airlifter consortium, is wrangling with the group over disputed technical snags blocking acceptance of its first aircraft. Turkey received its first A400M late last year. But it has not yet given its official acceptance, citing technical failures, which has deeply annoyed consortium members.
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03/12/2014
Russia, which is at loggerheads with Washington over the spreading political crisis in Ukraine, is threatening to undermine a longstanding military relationship between the United States and one of its traditional allies in the Middle East: Egypt. A photograph of Russian President Vladimir Putin shaking hands with Egypt's de facto leader Field Marshal Abdel Fateh Al Sisi was flashed across newspapers and TV screens in the Arab world last month.
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03/12/2014
Ukraine's government appealed for Western help on Tuesday to stop Moscow annexing Crimea but the Black Sea peninsula, overrun by Russian troops, seemed fixed on a course that could formalize rule from Moscow within days. With their own troops in Crimea effectively prisoners in their bases, the new authorities in Kiev painted a sorry picture of the military bequeathed them by the pro-Moscow president overthrown two weeks ago.
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03/12/2014
The Philippines said Friday a deal has been reached to buy 12 fighter jets worth P18.9 billion ($415.7 million) from South Korea as the country struggles to modernize its military.
“We did not only inch closer, we are almost there,” Undersecretary Fernando Manalo, chairman of Bids and Awards Committee, told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo Friday after Manila and Seoul reached a conclusion on the negotiations for the acquisition of 12 FA 50 lead-in fighter jets.
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03/12/2014
The Air Force plans to cut nearly 500 planes from its inventory over the next five years if the Defense Department’s Fiscal 2015 budget request is approved by Congress, the service announced Monday. The reductions — which would affect the active duty, Guard and Reserve — would be implemented in 25 states and the District of Columbia, according to a diagram provided by the Air Force.
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03/12/2014
Women are physically not suited to fly fighter planes, Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha said on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a function here, the Air Force chief said women are physically not suited for the job and they might face problems while flying fighter planes.
He was responding to questions on why women are not allowed to fly fighter planes of the Indian Air Force when the forces of Pakistan and China had allowed them.
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03/12/2014
Say hello to Top Gun 5.0. Veteran fighter pilots Andrew Jackson and David Bell are the two men at the tip of the spear as the RAAF shifts towards its next-generation combat aircraft, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The two Squadron Leaders, based at RAAF base Williamtown near Newcastle, will be the first Australians to fly the multi-billion dollar machine, billed as the most tech-heavy fighter plane on the planet.
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03/12/2014
An airborne division based in central Russia began large-scale exercises Tuesday against the backdrop of an ongoing political and security crisis in Ukraine. The Defense Ministry said units of the 98th Guards Airborne Division, based in Ivanovo, a city east of Moscow, were put on high alert and moved to unspecified locations to “check readiness” in simulated combat conditions.
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03/11/2014
Six US troops in Afghanistan were killed and one wounded in a helicopter crash Tuesday, but it was unclear if Taliban fire caused any of the casualties after the chopper went down. Military officials said insurgents did not shoot down the UH-60 Blackhawk, but they were investigating whether any of the US troops were killed by gunfire from Taliban militants after the crash.
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03/11/2014
Joint Base Charleston could see some job cuts in 2015. According to its public affairs office, the base could lose one of its four flying squadrons. Those cuts would come if Congress approves the Air Force's proposal laid out in President Obama's 2015 budget.
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03/11/2014
The Air Force plans to replace all National Guard A-10 units with new flying missions to make sure their states and bases will not lose positions, according to budget documents obtained by Air Force Times. The Air Force plans to cut the entire A-10 Thunderbolt II fleet, which includes 107 Warthogs assigned to the National Guard at four bases: Gowen Field Air National Guard Base, Idaho; Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Mich.; Martin State Airport. Md.; and Fort Wayne International Airport, Ind.
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03/11/2014
Your editorial assumes that the A-10 Thunderbolt is headed for retirement — just because that has been proposed. You then take a huge leap, writing: “The proposal to decommission the A-10 could easily lead to a decision to close Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, the training site for A-10 pilots.”
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03/11/2014
The 10 C-130J aircraft the Air Force Reserve seems determined to move from Keesler Air Force Base have yet another potential new home. President Barack Obama's 2015 budget request has spurred the Air Force Reserve Command to plan to move the 10 transport planes from Keesler's 815th Tactical Airlift Squadron -- also known as the Flying Jennies - to the newly reactivated 913th Airlift Group at Little Rock Air Force Base.
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03/11/2014
The number of aircraft and personnel at Hurlburt Field should not significantly change because of planned shifts in aircraft inventory, including the elimination of two types of planes based there, according to Air Force Special Operations Command. The U-28 and MC-130P Combat Shadow will be eliminated in the next couple years, but new aircraft will be introduced, according to the Department of Defense’s most recent budget proposal.
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03/11/2014
Decisions made in the next few months on buying additional Joint Strike Fighter aircraft could give the RAAF a huge advantage over any adversary. Air Force chief Air Marshal Geoff Brown says that given the long lead times on complex weapons systems like fighter aircraft, the force Australia will field in 2025 and beyond is "pretty much" decided by decisions to be made in the next few months.
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03/11/2014
Polish government officials said Monday that the U.S. military was sending 12 F-16 fighter jets and about 300 servicemembers to their country in response to the situation in Ukraine. Some U.S. aircraft and servicemembers had already arrived in Poland on Monday, with the remainder expected later in the week, a spokeswoman for Poland’s Defense Ministry said.
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03/11/2014
Lockheed Martin received a $14 million contract in 2013 from the U.S. Army to design, integrate and qualify a High Reliability Turret for the Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (M-TADS/PNVS) on the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.
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03/10/2014
It was the first time the legendary Russian Sukhoi-30 Flankers flew in American airspace, and it kicked up a controversy. In August 2008 India sent its top of the line Su-30MKI fighter to participate in Exercise Red Flag at Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas. Known for its complex war gaming, Red Flag involves simulated air combat and coordination between friendly air forces. In 2008 the participants included the French and South Korean air forces.
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03/10/2014
NASCAR is a sport where a few seconds could mean the difference between celebrating a victory or going home disappointed. The crew works as fast as possible to change the tires and refuel the vehicle to keep it out of the pit, and get it back on the track. Much like NASCAR's need for less time, aircraft depend on time to keep watch over forces on the ground and transport wounded warriors who need immediate care. And like the race engines on the vehicles, aircraft need fuel to keep them going. Bu
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03/10/2014
The carrier is out. The carrier is in. The carrier is in, but only if money goes up. More planes are back in — well, sort of, but we’ll have to see. The new buying plan for littoral combat ships is — not yet decided on. The plan for laying up and modernizing half the fleet’s cruisers is almost ready but — not quite yet. New rules for counting the battle force are — not quite there, either.
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03/10/2014
North Korea has the fourth largest military in the world when it comes to manpower, with as many as 1.2 million people serving on active duty. But in terms of modernization there is — thankfully — much room for improvement. Despite the country’s economic limitations, it remains “one of the United States’ most critical security challenges,” according to the Defense Department’s new report to Congress on the military developments in North Korea.
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03/10/2014
The Russian deputy prime minister in charge of defense said “overt threats” by the United States and NATO demonstrate the necessity of equipping the Russian army with modern weapons. “A hope that after the overt threats by the US and NATO nobody will doubt the necessity of rearming our army and fleet and of reviving our defense industry and military science,” Dmitry Rogozin wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday.
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03/09/2014
Six F-15C Eagles and more than 60 U.S. airmen from RAF Lakenheath, England, were en route Thursday to Lithuania to bolster NATO’s air policing mission over the Baltics region amid the crisis in nearby Ukraine. The Associated Press later reported that the fighter jets had arrived at Siauliai air base, Lithuania.
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03/09/2014
India imports most of its warplanes. Efforts to develop an Indian capability to develop and manufacture these aircraft has so far failed. Worse, the most numerous type of combat aircraft, the MiG-21, is being retired because of old age and the fact that even when new the MiG-21 was dangerous to fly. India had planned to buy 126 “light fighters” to replace the MiGs but that effort has come undone by several factors.
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03/09/2014
In what looked for all the world like a game of geopolitical chess, with multimillion-dollar pieces of military hardware serving as the pawns, the United States made several military moves to contain the Russian incursion into Crimea this past week. If not necessarily designed to force a military confrontation, these at least seemed to prepare for such an eventuality.
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03/09/2014
Legendary aircraft such as the Lancaster, Spitfire, Hurricane and Dakota will be joined by the RAF’s state of the art multi-role combat aircraft, the Typhoon and the basic trainer aircraft, the Tucano on Saturday July 12 and Sunday July 13. The Typhoon and Tucano will also be flying on Friday, July 11, as part of the special Red Arrows Pit Day.
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03/09/2014
Russia’s Defense Ministry is considering a ban on US inspections of Russian nuclear weapons under the New START deal over the standoff in Ukraine, a ministry source told RIA Novosti on Saturday. The ban would be a reaction to the US decision to suspend military cooperation with Russia over Ukraine, said the source, who requested anonymity.
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03/09/2014
A mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) was denied entry to Ukraine’s breakaway region of Crimea on Saturday. Warning shots were fired after the military assessment team from OSCE states neared the checkpoint in the city of Armyansk, according to OSCE’s official Twitter account.
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03/09/2014
The suitability of the controversial F-35 jet fighter as a replacement for the Royal Canadian Air Force's aging CF-18s is getting even murkier, if that's possible. The fighter-replacement program has been thrown into limbo already over cost issues and development delays, with Ottawa considering whether to abandon the U.S.-sourced F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and reboot the search for another candidate.
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03/08/2014
Sikorsky Aircraft will build the next-generation Combat Rescue Helicopter for the U.S. Air Force under a contract that could be worth as much as $15 billion. The Air Force is rearranging its budget to get the program started, Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James said.
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03/08/2014
Amid a surge of Islamic militancy in North Africa, a team of fewer than 50 U.S. special operations troops with a single helicopter arrived at a remote base in western Tunisia last month. Their mission: train Tunisian troops in counter-terrorism tactics. The operation was one of dozens of U.S. military deployments in Africa over the last year, often to tiny and temporary outposts. The goal is to leverage American military expertise against an arc of growing instability in North Africa and many su
(Read More...)
03/08/2014
Israeli air force fighters have been scrambled four times on 7 March so far, when Syrian combat aircraft approached the border with Israel on the Golan Heights. Syrian opposition sources reported that the Syrian air force bombed the village of Rdir El - Bustan using so-called "bomb barrels", and approached the Israeli border on their way to and from their targets.
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03/08/2014
Royal Air Force pilots are currently undergoing training on the UK's next generation stealth combat aircraft at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. Squadron Leader Hugh Nichols is the first UK instructor pilot to perform a vertical landing in the F-35B Lightning II - the UK’s next generation stealth combat aircraft.
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03/08/2014
The commander of a US military air transit center in Kyrgyzstan said Thursday that the facility has performed its final mission, well ahead of its scheduled closure later this year. Colonel John Millard said flights from the base for in-flight refueling and cargo and personnel transport in support of operations in Afghanistan had been completed. Remaining work will focus on clean-up and transferring the facility over to the Central Asian nation’s authorities by a July 11 deadline, Millard said.
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03/08/2014
New questions are being raised about whether the F-35 stealth fighter is the right aircraft for Canada after a U.S. general acknowledged the jet is limited in what it can do and needs to be accompanied on its missions by another multi-million-dollar aircraft. The issue for Canada and other potential F-35 buyers is that the other aircraft referred to by the general – the F-22 – isn’t available for foreign sales because of its sophisticated technology.
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03/08/2014
Lawmakers criticized the Pentagon’s fiscal 2015 defense budget today, arguing that it will strip the National Guard of two key combat aircraft – the AH-64 Apache helicopter and the venerable A-10 Warthog. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s defense spending plan proposes to retire the entire fleet of A-10 aircraft, a close air support platform designed to kill Soviet tanks during the Cold War. The A-10 is operated by the Air National Guard and has been highly effective against ground targets during
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03/08/2014
Russia’s Western Military District has begun large-scale air defense drills at its southern testing range of Kapustin Yar on the backdrop of further escalation of tensions with the West over Ukraine. Kapustin Yar, located some 450 kilometers (280 miles) east of the Ukrainian border, will host about 3,500 troops and over 1,000 units of military hardware for about a month. The exercise will culminate with live-firing drills, involving S-300, Buk-M1 and other air defense systems.
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03/06/2014
The U.S. military is increasing its presence in Poland and the Baltics in response to the crisis in Ukraine, officials said Wednesday. The military will deploy jets now in the Britian — six F-15 fighters and one KC-135 re-fueler — to Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania, a U.S. defense official told NBC News.
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03/06/2014
The Obama administration took steps Wednesday to support the defenses of U.S. allies in Europe in response to Russia's takeover of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the U.S. was stepping up joint aviation training with Polish forces. The Pentagon also is increasing American participation in NATO's air policing mission in its Baltic countries, he said.
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03/06/2014
Underfunded, underequipped and with its senior leadership often seen close to Moscow, Ukraine's military has been something of a no-show in its confrontation with Moscow. But that, experts say, has probably been largely deliberate. Ukrainian forces have been involved in some stand-offs with Russian forces particularly around bases in Crimea, some of which have long been shared between Kiev and Russian forces attached to the Black Sea Fleet.
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03/06/2014
The president's $496 billion budget proposal for the military has nothing but good news for Sikorsky. In it, the Pentagon plans to buy more Black Hawk helicopters than last year and to move forward with a new multibillion-dollar program for a combat rescue helicopter, the competition for which Sikorsky was the sole bidder.
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03/06/2014
The Air Force would cut 20,400 airmen and about 2,700 civilian jobs and retire dozens of planes under a $109.3 billion fiscal year 2015 budget request focused on replacing an aging aircraft fleet and boosting readiness hurt through sequestration, according to federal budget documents released Tuesday.
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03/06/2014
China announced its biggest rise in military spending in three years on Wednesday, a strong signal from President Xi Jinping that Beijing is not about to back away from its growing assertiveness in Asia, especially in disputed waters. The government said it would increase the defence budget by 12.2 percent this year to 808.23 billion yuan ($131.57 billion), as China seeks to develop more high-tech weapons and to beef up coastal and air defences.
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03/06/2014
Japan’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) has posted an impressive interactive stop/play website that explains to readers in animated graphic terms the flight patterns of Chinese military aircraft in the East China Sea “China has rapidly intensified its activities surrounding Japan’s airspace, expanded its operational areas, and diversified its flight patterns,” said the website.
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03/06/2014
Canada’s CF-18 fighter jets are due to retire in 2020. They need to be replaced, but no fully operational F-35s will be available by that date. Stephen Harper has a decision to make: buy another model of fighter jet, or face a dangerous capability gap. He cannot expect our pilots to fly supersonic aircraft beyond their lifespan.
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03/06/2014
Russia has strengthened its airbase in Armenia with a batch of overhauled MiG-29 fighter jets, a military official said Tuesday. Russia’s 3624th Air Base at the Erebuni airport in Yerevan previously hosted at least 16 MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter jets operating under the framework of air defense agreements concluded between the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
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03/05/2014
Turkey scrambled eight F-16 fighter jets to intercept a Russian IL-20 reconnaissance aircraft over the Black Sea coast on Monday when the Russian military plane began flying parallel to Turkish airspace, the Turkish military announced on Tuesday.
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03/05/2014
The Swedish Armed Forces sent extra air defence to the island of Gotland on Tuesday in response to a large-scale Russian training exercise being carried out in the Baltic Sea. "Due to the increased air operations in the area, and especially as a result of the Russian training exercise going on, we've decided to base parts of our regular incident response team on Gotland," Göran Mårtensson at the Armed Forces (Försvarsmaktens) said in a statement.
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03/05/2014
After a decade-long delay, Korea’s indigenous fighter program is about to officially hit the road with bidding by partner firms scheduled for next month. However, which design concept to go with — a single- or twin-engine aircraft — is emerging as the biggest sticking point in the program, codenamed KF-X.
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03/05/2014
U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles and Hellenic air force F-16s flew a combined 270 missions during two weeks of NATO training at Souda Air Base, Greece. The 494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, known as the Mighty Black Panthers, departed Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, Feb. 13, to work alongside the pilots of the HAF's 343rd Squadron at the 115th Combat Wing on the Greek island of Crete.
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03/05/2014
The Air Force on Tuesday released a 2015 budget that translates into fewer airmen and fewer aircraft across its active-duty, reserve and guard components with officials saying the service has chosen to recapitalize the fleet versus upgrading legacy aircraft. Air Force personnel would drop across the force from 503,400 to 483,000 under the 2015 plan.
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03/05/2014
Alenia Aermacchi's first Tranche 3 Eurofighter Typhoon for the Italian Air Force has been rolled out of a company plant, the company reports. Eurofighter is a multi-role combat aircraft and is produced by a European consortium consisting of Alenia Aermacchi/Finmeccanica, BAE Systems and Cassidian in Germany and Spain.
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03/05/2014
The Pentagon unveiled a $496 billion base budget on Tuesday that looks beyond Afghanistan to future U.S. security challenges after a dozen years of war, cutting the military to afford more training and new weapons as it adapts to an era of tighter spending. The budget set the Obama administration on a collision course with Congress by trying to eliminate popular older weapons systems and curb military compensation while seeking $26.4 billion in additional defense spending.
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03/05/2014
Russia announced on Tuesday the deployment of newly modernized warplanes at its military base in Armenia that has already been reinforced with more sophisticated weaponry in recent years. The Russian Armed Forces’ Southern Military District said in a statement that “a batch of fourth-generation multipurpose MiG-29 fighter jets” has arrived at a military airport in Yerevan after undergoing “capital repairs.”
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03/05/2014
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday called the acting authorities in Ukraine illegitimate, but said a military intervention in Russia’s western neighbor would be a last resort. The remarks were the first public comments from Putin on the crisis in Ukraine since protesters in the capital, Kiev, swept to power last month.
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03/04/2014
Russian troops and military planes were flowing into Crimea on Monday in violation of accords between the two countries, Ukrainian border guards said. Since Sunday, 10 Russian combat helicopters and eight military cargo planes have landed on the flashpoint Black Sea peninsula, the guards said in a statement, while four Russian warships have been in the port of Sevastopol since Saturday.
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03/04/2014
The U.S. Navy is set to order 33 fewer Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets than originally planned over the five years starting in fiscal 2015 due to budgetary pressures, a defense official said Monday. In a move that will sharply slow work on the F-35 model built to land on aircraft carriers, the Navy will ask Congress to fund 36 F-35Cs instead of 69, said the official, who could not speak publicly ahead of Tuesday's release of the 2015 budget request.
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03/04/2014
The U.S. and its NATO allies have trained with the Ukraine military and pumped millions of dollars into that country's defense, but given the size of its armed forces, Ukraine could offer little resistance should its Crimea engagement with Russia escalate into a shooting war. Russia has about 845,000 troops as compared to Ukraine's roughly 130,000, according to the BBC, which cites figures from the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
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03/04/2014
India has finally sealed a work share agreement with the French-firm Dassault Aviation for building 70 per cent of the Rafale fighters domestically, according to New Delhi Television. India will acquire 18 of the 126 Rafale fighter jets it is buying from France in "fly away" condition, and the rest will be manufactured by the local firm Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
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03/04/2014
The Uganda People’s Defence Force Air Wing (UPDF-AW) is moving its combat aircraft from Entebbe to Nakasongola Air Base to alleviate congestion. Entebbe International Airport is the main base for UPDF-AW aircraft but it has becoming increasingly congested, which could pose a problem for future operations and increase the risk of collisions.
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03/04/2014
The European Union accused Russia of “acts of aggression” and a “clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty” in a strongly-worded statement Monday that condemned the movement of troops into Crimea. EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels demanded an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops to the areas of their bases in Crimea under international agreements reached with Ukraine.
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03/04/2014
Russian naval warships and coastal troops conducted live fire exercises Monday in the country’s western Kaliningrad and Leningrad Regions, a Ministry of Defense spokesperson said. The exercises, part of a combat readiness test ordered by President Vladimir Putin last week, come amid a growing international crisis as evidence mounts that Russian troops have been deployed across Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.
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03/03/2014
Pakistani warplanes bombed the hideout of a militant leader, killing five insurgents, the military said on Sunday, only a day after the Pakistani Taliban declared a one-month ceasefire to pursue stalled peace talks with the government. The target of the attack, Mullah Tamanchey, directed a deadly assault against a convoy carrying a polio vaccination team and security forces on Saturday in which 12 people were killed, the military said.
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03/03/2014
The Moscow-based Military Parade has revealed more details on China's mysterious indigenous aircraft carriers currently under construction in Dalian and Shanghai. In an report on Feb. 28, the Russian website said that the first vessel — known as 001A and designed by the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation — is being built in Dalian in northeast China's Liaoning province and will be equipped with a steam catapult.
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03/03/2014
A new Chinese fighter jet with stealth capabilities, the Chengdu J-20, was observed conducting a successful test flight Saturday at noon. Photos and video of the flight were leaked on military forums like Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter. But this is not some big secret, NATO and western nations are familiar with the new plane, however they don't necessarily like having their F-22 Raptor, which reportedly costs as much as $361 million per aircraft to build.
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03/03/2014
The search for the pilot of a jet that crashed near a U.S. Navy range in Nevada continued Sunday, the Navy said in a press release. The pilot's name is being withheld until family is notified. The crash of the U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18C happened at about noon ET Saturday at Naval Air Station Fallon, about 60 miles east of Reno. The aircraft appears to be a "total loss," the Navy said.
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03/03/2014
The Pentagon for years has said it would intervene to protect vulnerable areas of the industrial base during a period of declining defense spending. Now it’s acting on that policy.
Senior US defense officials last week said the Pentagon’s fiscal 2015 budget proposal, which is being sent to Congress on March 4, would put money toward preserving at-risk sectors of the industrial base to protect technological know-how.
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03/03/2014
Hill Air Force Base will celebrate a milestone in the coming days when the first F-35 stealth fighter jet rolls out of its maintenance hangars, powers up its engines and flies back into service. How quickly — and at what cost — more F-35s leave Hill and return to home bases around the world will be a key issue for the weapon that is expected to cost more than a trillion dollars over its life span.
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03/03/2014
Boeing Co is considering a slower build rate and other options to keep production of its EA-18G electronic attack planes running into 2017, and give Congress time to add more orders, a top company executive told Reuters in an interview. The St. Louis production line for Boeing's F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers is slated to shut down after 2016 unless the Pentagon's No. 2 supplier wins additional U.S. or foreign orders for the planes soon.
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03/03/2014
Ukraine has closed its airspace to military aircraft. Acting president Oleksandr Turchynov announced Sunday that Ukraine had closed its airspace to non-civilian aircraft. Ukraine's acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk accused Russia of "declaring war", citing the decision for Russian forces to surround military bases in Crimea.
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03/03/2014
Ukrainian servicemen stationed in Crimea are leaving en masse their military units and handing over weaponry and arsenals to local pro-Russia authorities and militia, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported Sunday. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry immediately denied the report, which was also circulated by other Russian media, calling it “a provocation.”
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03/02/2014
A temporary U.S. base in Romania that will serve as the primary hub for American forces leaving Afghanistan officially reached its full operating capacity Friday. Since Feb. 2, some 6,000 American servicemembers have transited through the center at Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base, located about 25 miles northwest of the Black Sea city of Constanta and about 2,500 miles northwest of Afghanistan.
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03/02/2014
The U.S. Air Force is mothballing its last eight AC-130H gunships. Only 47 AC-130 gunships have been built, the first of them, the AC-130A, entering service in 1968. Some were upgraded to AC-130Es. Eleven were upgraded to AC-130H in 1972 and the eight surviving aircraft of that group are now being retired, not scrapped.
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03/02/2014
Workers at Northrop Grumman's 1-million-square-foot facility in El Segundo have been cranking out fuselage sections for the Navy's F/A-18 fighter jet for decades. But now, the end may be near. Since entering service in 1983, the lithe twin-engine fighter-bomber has been a symbol of U.S. military might, catapulting from aircraft carrier decks and obliterating targets in the sky and on the ground.
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03/02/2014
For years, Singapore’s ST Engineering Marine has been parading a ship model of a landing helicopter dock (LHD) vessel that could handle the jump-jet variant of the F-35 joint strike fighter. The model was most recently on display at last month’s Singapore Airshow. And while Singapore’s Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) won’t confirm that it has plans to build such a vessel, it’s also not denying it.
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03/02/2014
Poland is scrapping previous plans to buy F-16 fighter jets in five years, but what it will buy instead is up in the air. The Defense Ministry wants to wait and buy fifth-generation jets, which experts say could be F-35 joint strike fighters. The deal would enable a technological leap for the Polish military by replacing its Soviet-designed aircraft with high-end fighters.
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03/02/2014
Russian leader Vladimir Putin told US President Barack Obama in a telephone conversation Sunday that Moscow reserved the right to protect its own interests and those of Russian speakers in the event of violence breaking out in eastern Ukraine and Crimea.
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03/02/2014
Ukraine appealed for assistance from NATO on Saturday, asking it to use all possible measures to ensure its territorial integrity and protect its people. The call came hours after Russia’s parliament approved the deployment of military forces in Ukraine, in response to what Moscow claims is the threat being leveled against its servicemen and Russian citizens in the southern Crimea Peninsula.
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03/02/2014
US President Barack Obama signaled his administration’s alarm Friday at indications of military movements by Russian troops inside Ukraine’s region of Crimea and warned Moscow that there would be costs for any armed intervention. International media earlier in the day reported Russian troops entering Crimea, and soldiers identified as being with the Russian armed forces stationed on the peninsula blockaded at least one airport, which nonetheless appeared to still be operating.
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03/01/2014
Turkey continues to be embroiled in a dispute with aircraft manufacturer Airbus over an order of A400M airlifter military transport planes. Turkey's Undersecretary for Defense implied that the conditions of the contract had not been met; the aircraft received for acceptance tests by Turkey's defense did not reportedly meet the agreed criteria.
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03/01/2014
Second Line of Defense is currently visiting the Pacific and soon will visit the Wedgetail squadron, which currently operates from RAAF Base Williamtown, near Newcastle, New South Wales. During the exercise AWACS and Wedgetail played the core command and control role and F-22s in Alaska (which includes one flown by an Aussie exchange pilot) worked effectively with Wedgetail.
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03/01/2014
Could Russia intervene militarily in Crimea to safeguard its strategic interests? Or, to put the question a different way, has Russia already intervened? Nobody yet knows the identities of the armed men who seized control of Simferopol airport. But their equipment, their vehicles and their behaviour all signal that this is a trained military unit, not a rag-tag group of pro-Russian loyalists.
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03/01/2014
Russia is bolstering the ongoing army drill in the Western Military district which began after a surprise order by President Vladimir Putin with 80 more combat helicopters amid rising tensions in Ukraine's Crimea region. Mil Mi-24 and Mi-8 helicopters are being redeployed from their bases to the emergency airfields, flying up to 500kms.
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03/01/2014
Russia’s military will invest 2 trillion rubles ($55.3 billion) in building up its aerospace defense weapons over the next six years, defense officials said Friday. Deputy Defense Minister Yury Borisov said the goal is to spend the funds on developing the Aerospace Defense Forces, or VKO, by 2020 to make sure they were capable of combating existing and future types of air and space attacks.
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