April 05, 2014 Military Aviation News
04/05/2014
South Korea's defense chief vowed Friday to promptly prepare measures to step up its air defense, in light of recent border incursions by North Korea's spy drones that have emerged as a new security challenge. In an interpellation session, Kim Kwan-jin said Pyongyang could develop more advanced unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for attack, though the two small aircraft, equipped with small cameras, recently found near the inter-Korean border were rudimentary spy drones.
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04/05/2014
Taiwan's Air Force said Friday that it will begin the process of upgrading its fleet of over 100 F-16 A/B fighter jets in the second half of 2016. Before upgrading its entire fleet of the fighters, Taiwan has sent several of the planes to the United States for a trial to see if the upgrade will work. The planes will be brought back to Taiwan once they pass the testing process, the air force said.
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04/05/2014
Ukraine’s belated decision on March 29 to stop supplying weapons and military equipment to Russia, a month after its troops seized the Crimean peninsula, is likely to lead to the cancellation of numerous international contracts signed by Moscow. The decision is likely to impede Russia’s military-defense industry significantly.
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04/05/2014
I made a simple mathematical error a couple of weeks ago. I said we’ll be buying 54 Joint Strike Fighters but we’re actually getting 58 for a total of 72; unless, of course, we add a couple of spares. At less than $100 million each the nice people from Lockheed will tell you these are virtually giveaway prices – even if the jets do (currently) require more than 16 hours of maintenance for every hour they spend in the sky.
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04/05/2014
Eight 412EP aircraft are being supplied to the Philippine military by Bell Helicopters in a deal financed by the Canadian Commercial Corporation. The utility helicopters that will be manufactured in Canada by Bell have a normal cruise speed of 140 miles per hour and a range of 463 miles.
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04/05/2014
In a ratcheting up of tensions between NATO and Russia, both are accusing the other of failing to uphold agreements signed between the two sides since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Following Russia's annexation of Crimea and the buildup of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine, NATO announced that it was suspending "all practical civilian and military cooperation" with Moscow.
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04/05/2014
Saab has successfully test flown a key passive detection capability for its in-development Gripen E fighter, using dedicated test aircraft 39-7. Developed by Selex ES’s Airborne & Space Systems division, the Skyward-G infrared search and track (IRST) sensor will give the combat aircraft a long-range means of detecting and identifying potential airborne threats, without the need to first switch on its active electronically scanned array radar.
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04/05/2014
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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04/05/2014
Several mothballed Mikoyan Mig-29 Fulcrum fourth-generation fighter jets were returned to combat service in western Ukraine, the country’s Defense Ministry said on Friday. “Specialists of our team have already returned several planes to service,” the ministry quoted an unnamed commander of an Air Force unit near Ivano-Frankivsk as saying. “We are now conducting test flights. Soon, more mothballed fighter jets will take off again.”
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