April 15, 2014 Military Aviation News
04/15/2014
Australia is likely to commit to buying 58 more Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightnings this month, setting aside the alternative of consolidating its combat aircraft squadrons on the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The decision will increase the country's total commitment to 72 F-35s and expand the Royal Australian Air Force's fast-jet fleet, counting a separate order for 12 EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft as additional to, not part of, the fighter force renewal.
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04/15/2014
Boeing’s development of a new aerial-refueling tanker for the U.S. Air Force is “generally on track,” according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, as it starts a fast-paced flight testing schedule with little margin for delays or other problems. However, the airplane maker could have to pay for projected cost overruns, which the Air Force estimated to be as much as $787 million, according to the report, which was released last week.
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04/15/2014
Israel has been preparing to produce the first components for the U.S.-origin Joint Strike Fighter. The state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries is working on production lines for the wing assembly of the F-35 fighter-jet. The wing assembly was awarded by Lockheed Martin as part of Israel’s order of 19 fifth-generation combat aircraft over the next four years.
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04/15/2014
The United Nations Security Council has held an emergency session to discuss the escalating crisis in Ukraine, just hours before a deadline by Kiev for pro-Russian separatists to disarm by Monday morning or face a "full-scale anti-terrorist operation" by its armed forces.The Council began meeting at 8pm (0000 GMT on Monday) at Russia's request after Moscow called Kiev's plans to mobilise the army to put down a rebellion by pro-Russian militants in eastern Ukraine "criminal."
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04/15/2014
Not surprisingly, 2014 will be another big year for the U.S. Navy’s X-47B UCAV (unmanned combat air vehicle). During the last few years this unmanned combat aircraft has successfully carried out numerous tests aboard aircraft carriers. There are two X-47Bs available for this and both are being used. The X-47B made its first catapult launch from an aircraft carrier on May 14th 2013.
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04/15/2014
Pro-Russian protesters cemented their control of administrative buildings in at least nine cities in the east of Ukraine on Monday, refusing to abide by an order from the central government in Kiev to leave or face being forced out by an “anti-terrorist operation”.
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04/15/2014
The troubled F-35 combat aircraft program has turned a corner. At least that’s what program advocates claimed last Tuesday at a hearing before the Airland Subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Program head Lt. Col. Christopher Bogdan asserted that “the program is making slow and steady progress on all fronts.”
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04/15/2014
In much of Southeast Asia, budgets are smaller and ambitions more limited compared with neighbors to the north, and many countries are trying to rid themselves of much older equipment. But Singapore and Vietnam are generally better equipped and have more extensive plans.
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04/15/2014
Denmark has fired the starting pistol in its contest for a new fighter aircraft, sending out requests for information to four manufacturers. Officials from the New Combat Aircraft Program have sent what they call Requests for Binding Information (RBI) to Boeing for the F/A-18F Super Hornet, to Eurofighter for the Typhoon, to Lockheed Martin for the F-35A and to Saab for the Gripen E, as the country looks to replace its aging fleet of F-16 Fighting Falcons.
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04/15/2014
Malaysia is likely highly interested in acquiring Russia’s latest air defense missile systems, building on existing bilateral military-technical cooperation, Russia’s state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said Monday.
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