July, 2014 Military Aviation News
07/31/2014
The US Department of Defence has confirmed that the body of a teenage stowaway was found in the wheel-well of a military cargo plane. The plane had flown around Africa and then back to Germany, meaning that the DoD cannot confirm how long the body had been there, Pentagon Press Secretary Navy Rear Admiral John Kirby said.
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07/31/2014
The Air Force’s ability to continue developing a fifth generation fighter aircraft fleet ready to meet the challenges of future warfare, hinges in large part, on a steady influx of capable and trained F-22 Raptor pilots. Due to major collaborative improvements at the 43rd Fighter Squadron fighter training unit here, the Combat Air Force, or CAF, is set to receive the largest volume of basic course graduate Raptor pilots in the program’s history.
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07/31/2014
The world’s largest collection of tactical air support fighter jets is stored inside a 100,000-square-foot hangar across from the flight line at Lakeland-Linder Regional Airport. There are eight U.S.-built Douglas A-4K Skyhawks, nine Italian-made Aermacchi MB-339CB fighters and five Aero L-39 Albatross fighters. The hangar is also home to 28 Mikoyan MiG 21s, purchased from Poland, in various parts, waiting to be rebuilt.
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07/31/2014
The UK has set out a future combat aviation force structure to meet the country's post-2030 combat air requirement. In a House of Commons Defence Select Committee (DSC) report published in late July, the UK government sets out a future force structure that includes options for unmanned aircraft, additional buys and upgrades of ordered and current aircraft, as well as a clean-sheet design for a new manned fighter platform.
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07/31/2014
In an important program milestone enabling U.S. Marines Corps Initial Operational Capability (IOC) certification, the Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] F-35B recently completed required wet runway and crosswind testing at Edwards Air Force Base, California. “This testing is absolutely critical to 2B flight software fleet release and the Marine Corps’ IOC,” said J.D. McFarlan, Lockheed Martin's vice president for F-35 Test & Verification.
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07/30/2014
Azerbaijani military pilots has already conducted flights on the aircrafts, got thoroughly acquainted with technical and tactical instructions Baku. Rashad Suleymanov – APA. Russia is planning to export Yak-130 (NATO code: Mitten) combat aircrafts to Azerbaijan. Irkut company, the manufacturer of the aircrafts, told APA in this regard. The Russian side has made a presentation of the aircraft for the Azerbaijani Armed Forces.
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07/30/2014
Even before the Air Force’s new F-35 “fifth-generation” fighter jet is combat-ready, the service is looking ahead to what comes next. At an Air Force Association breakfast Tuesday, Gen. Michael Hostage, the head of Air Combat Command, said studies are underway to come up with a concept for a sixth-generation fighter plane. The aircraft could be completely different than any of its predecessors, Hostage said at the meeting in Arlington, Virginia. “It isn’t necessarily another single-seat fighter.
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07/30/2014
Czech airframer Aero Vodochody has confirmed two customers for most, possibly all, of the L-159 advanced light combat aircraft (ALCA) that were surplus to Czech air force requirements. American tactical flight support contractor Draken International will acquire up to 28 aircraft, redesignated L-159E. Meanwhile, a deal with Iraq finally reached the contract stage last month, an Aero Vodochody spokesman told AIN at the Farnborough Air Show.
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07/30/2014
Boeing today delivered the first multiyear II configured CH-47F Chinook helicopter to the U.S. Army one month ahead of schedule. The delivery was celebrated in a ceremony at the production facility in Ridley Township, Pa. “This delivery is an example of teamwork and commitment to the troops in the field,” said Col. Rob Barrie, project manager, Cargo Helicopter Office, accepting the aircraft for the U.S. Army.
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07/30/2014
The US State Department has approved the sale of 12 Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters to Tunisia. The Tunisians have also ordered 30 T700-GE-701D Engines (24 installed and 6 spares), 26 Embedded Global Positioning Systems/Inertial Navigation Systems, 24 M134 7.62mm Machine Guns, integration of Precision Guided Rocket System capability to permit launch of laser-guided variants of 2.75 rockets.
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07/29/2014
Brazil has signed a contract with Airbus Defence and Space for the acquisition of three Airbus C295 search and rescue (SAR) aircraft, according to a news release from the company. The three aircraft will progressively be delivered to the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) from the end of this year under the terms of an agreement which also includes a five-year Full In Service Support (FISS) contract.
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07/29/2014
The People's Liberation Army will need at least 400 Y-20 cargo planes produced by the Xi'an Aircraft Industrial Corporation in order to catch up with the force projection capabilities of the United States, Russia and India, according to a report published by the National Defense University of China cited in the party-run People's Daily.
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07/29/2014
A day which began with high hopes of peace ended in appalling bloodshed with 24 dead and the ominous prospect of a widening conflict. Ten children were killed in an air strike in Gaza City, while, across the border, nine Israelis were killed in separate incidents. The children were hit by a missile while playing in the Beach refugee camp, adding to the already extraordinarily high numbers of young victims in this war.
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07/29/2014
This is not the time to talk about reducing the number of F-15 fighter jets in Europe, given the situation in Ukraine, according to the new commander of the 48th Fighter Wing, which flies the only F15s in Europe. “What an exciting time to be in Europe and an exciting time to be at NATO, what an exciting time to be around this wing,” said Col. Robert Novotny, an F-15 pilot, who has been on the job for less than a week. “You know we have a lot of challenges, we really do.”
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07/29/2014
Thales announced that its Scorpion helmet-mounted sight and display system (HMSD) had been selected for all new weapons systems sales and upgrades by Airbus Helicopters. The unusual sole-source selection had been made “following a full and open competition,” Thales said. The Airbus Helicopters military product line that could be sold with the HMSD consists of seven helicopters, including the Tiger attack helicopter and the Cougar transport/combat SAR machine.
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07/29/2014
Grob Aircraft revealed another military customer for the G 120TP turboprop trainer. The Mexican air force has ordered 25 and optioned another 15 in a deal worth about $110 million including ground-based training aids. Indonesia, Argentina and Kenya previously selected the German-built aircraft. Powered by a Rolls-Royce 250-17B turboprop, the G 120TP is fitted with lightweight Martin Baker Mk17 ejection seats, and HOTAS controls.
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07/29/2014
More than seven months after it was cleared for being flown by IAF pilots, the entry of the first LCA Tejas in its newly-raised squadron in Bangalore is still awaited as the project has been delayed yet again. IAF has raised its 45 Squadron at Bangalore for allowing its pilots to fly the aircraft and was supposed to induct the first Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) in March this year.
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07/29/2014
Russia’s Air Force will this year receive over 260 new aircraft, a senior defense official said Monday. “Over the past year, the Russian Air Force got more than 200 aircraft. This year, there will be many more of them - over 260; some 80 will be upgraded,” Russian First Deputy Defense Minister, Army General Arkady Bakhin, told journalists.
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07/28/2014
Israel renewed its offensive in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip after Palestinian rockets tore through a fledgling truce, prompting U.S. President Barack Obama to call for an immediate end to the fighting. Shortly after the Israeli military campaign resumed yesterday, Hamas offered to go back to a previous United Nations-backed cease-fire agreement that took effect July 25.
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07/28/2014
A fighter jet of the Russian Air Force crashed in southwestern Russia on Sunday morning, killing the pilot after he disobeyed an order to eject, military officials said, blaming the accident on a technical fault. There were no casualties on the ground. The accident happened at about 9:20 a.m. local time on Sunday when the Mikoyan MiG-29 fighter jet went down in a steppe about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) northeast of the port city of Astrakhan.
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07/28/2014
The war and the Australians have come to Donetsk. As the town empties, forces loyal to the central government in Kiev on Sunday stepped up a ferocious new round of attacks on separatist rebels – forcing Canberra’s first substantive MH17 investigative team to abort what would have been its first day at the sprawling crash site.
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07/28/2014
After more than 14 years of continuous war in Afghanistan and Iraq, not to mention supporting insurgencies in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Syria, the U.S. departs in a zero sum game that has cost tens of thousands of lives, trillions of dollars and leaves the Middle-East totally destabilizedwith conflict everywhere. To make matters worse and seemingly incomprehensible, evidence suggests the U.S. and its partners are planning for war against Iran.
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07/28/2014
The Gen III Helmet Mounted Display System (HMDS) developed for the U.S. F-35 Lightning II fifth generation stealth fighter lets American combat pilots see more of the sky than ever before. Its technology can even allow a fighter pilot to see an enemy aircraft flying below his jet or hidden from his view by the fuselage or wall of his supersonic fighter.
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07/28/2014
VICE News is out at the world's largest international naval exercise, Rim of the Pacific 2014, more commonly known as RIMPAC 2014, shooting footage for upcoming episodes of War Games. Like you'd pretty much expect from a major international naval exercise, a lot of the activity and training is related to stuff that ships do with and relation to each other.
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07/28/2014
From Foxtrot Alpha: A few months back Mike Ballaban posted one of the coolest combat aircraft videos of the year, called 'Fulcrum Drivers,' that put us right into the cockpit of the mighty MiG-29 during some jaw dropping maneuvers. Well now the Fulcrum and its master are back for 'Fulcrum Drivers II.'
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07/27/2014
Palestinian militant group Hamas has announced a 24-hour ceasefire after Israel ended its own truce amid continuing rocket fire from Gaza. All Palestinian militant factions would stop firing from 11:00 GMT, Hamas said. But Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas had already violated its own ceasefire and "Israel will do what it must do to defend its people".
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07/27/2014
Dutch experts have cancelled plans to head to the site of the downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine, international officials say. Fighting between pro-Russia separatists and government troops in the area has prevented access to the site, they add. Earlier, Malaysia said it had struck a deal with the rebels to allow international police at the site.
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07/27/2014
The number of civilians caught up in Israel's Operation Protective Edge offensive has raised international concern and condemnation. During the three weeks since air strikes against Hamas in Gaza began, more than 800 people have been killed on both sides. The UN says the vast majority of Palestinian deaths are civilian. But figures from previous operations in the densely populated Gaza Strip over the last six years show it is not the first time civilians have paid a heavy price.
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07/27/2014
Under intense diplomatic pressure, Israeli leaders decided late Saturday to extend a halt to hostilities in the Gaza Strip through midnight Sunday, but said their troops would maintain defensive positions and continue to ferret out tunnels from Gaza into Israeli territory. Hamas, the militant Palestinian faction that dominates Gaza, rejected the extension of the temporary cease-fire requested by the United Nations, after renewing rocket fire on Israel on Saturday evening.
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07/27/2014
The rescue workers have left, and their tents are gone. The peppermint-striped plastic cordon flutters uselessly in the breeze. Farmers are harvesting wheat in a field where bodies had lain. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was blown out of the sky one week ago on Thursday, deepening tensions between Russia and the West and thrusting at least 10 countries whose citizens were on board into the middle of a war between Ukraine's government and pro-Russian rebels.
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07/27/2014
Europe will harden its line against Moscow after the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, but sniping between Britain and France shows that the road to political consensus will be long and hard, analysts said. The 28 European Union foreign ministers agreed July 22 to stiffen sanctions unless Russian President Vladimir Putin moves toward settling the Ukraine crisis.
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07/27/2014
The thinktank the China Strategic Culture Promotion Association (CSCPA) issued its "CSCPA Report on US Military Power 2013 and CSCPA Report on Japanese Military Power 2013" in Beijing on July 23, blaming the US for deploying more military strength in Asia-Pacific, reports Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po. The report said US military strength in the region increased by 6% in 2013 compared with 2012, reaching 154,100 personnel.
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07/27/2014
Knowing how and when to make a screen grab has suddenly become one of the basic skills of journalism. On the afternoon of July 23, a Russian soldier named Vadim Grigoriyev posted on the Russian social-networking site VKontakte that he'd "been shelling Ukraine all night." He added a couple of photos of artillery pieces and spent shells.
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07/27/2014
Mozambique recently revived its air force by shipping its eight MiG-21 fighters to Romania to be refurbished and upgraded. Some of these aircraft (six single seat fighters and two dual seat trainers) had not flown since the 1990s. Lack of maintenance, especially periodic refurbishment, is what left these aircraft grounded, baking in the tropical heat and rain for two decades.
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07/27/2014
The Republic of Singapore Air Force's (RSAF) F-15SG multirole fighter aircraft are participating in the Red Flag - Nellis multi-national training exercise at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, US, for the first time. In addition to eight F-15SG fighters, RSAF has also deployed eight F-16C/D fighter aircraft, three CH-47 Chinook helicopters, and 290 personnel from its Peace Carvin II, Peace Carvin V, and Peace Prairie detachments for the air-to-air combat training exercise.
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07/27/2014
The awful crash of Malaysian Flight 17 in the Ukraine combat zone seems likely to have been caused by a long-range surface-to-air missile. At this writing, who launched the missile remains undetermined. Regardless of who’s guilty - why is a modern software-driven weapon capable of striking a civilian jet in the first place? All commercial airliners send out transponder signals that identify them as civilian.
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07/27/2014
After days of heavy combat among militias that highlights the chaos in Libya, the U.S. Embassy has been shut down and its staff taken to safety in neighboring Tunisia, the State Department said Saturday. It occurred under the protection of U.S. F-16 fighters and other aircraft, and there were no incidents.
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07/26/2014
A series of explosions at a school run by the United Nations sheltering hundreds of Palestinians who had fled their homes for safety from Israeli military assaults killed at least 10 people on Thursday afternoon and wounded many more. The cause was not immediately clear.
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07/26/2014
More than a week after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was downed over eastern Ukraine, the Dutch-led accident investigation team was preparing Friday to access the crash site for the first time to try to unravel what brought down the Boeing 777. In the coming days, investigators will undertake a focused but limited search of the crash site and debris from the jetliner, the Dutch Safety Board said Friday.
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07/26/2014
AH-64E Apache Guardians from 1st Armed Reconnaissance Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment, 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, conducted deck landing qualifications aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu (LHA 5) off the coast of Hawaii, July 19, as part of the Navy’s Rim of the Pacific Exercise 2014.
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07/26/2014
Fairchild Air Force Base participated in a Red Flag exercise above the Nevada Test and Training Range, July 2014. This exercise is one out of a series of training programs that occur multiple times throughout the year, affording Airmen an opportunity to participate in exercises that showcase the most realistic combat training without real enemy fire. Red Flag occurs at Nellis Air Force Base, outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, and Eielson AFB, outside of Fairbanks, Alaska.
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07/26/2014
The first of 12 new Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon combat aircraft for the Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO) departed the company's production facility in Fort Worth, Texas, on 22 July. The departure, which was disclosed on the Lockheed Martin Code One blog, saw the first four Block 50 F-16s begin the 13,500 km ferry flight to the sultanate.
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07/26/2014
A military base in Poland could soon be repurposed to support NATO in its mission to reassure eastern European allies of its oversight amid the Ukraine-Russia conflict. NATO’s top commander in Europe, Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, told a briefing in Naples this week that he plans to recommend “having capability in the forward area — preposition supplies, preposition capabilities, and a basing area ready to rapidly accept follow on forces.”
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07/26/2014
Barely a year after the world's most sophisticated drone proved it could take off and land on the deck of an aircraft carrier, the project is at a crossroads, with huge implications for the future not only of drone warfare but US seapower writ large. The US navy will soon release a request for proposals from a handful of defense companies for the development of the Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike vehicle, or UCLASS.
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07/26/2014
North Korea recently lifted a flight ban on most of its older warplanes. This ban was imposed in May after a MiG-17 crashed into the sea off the west coast. There was a mechanical failure and given the age of most North Korean aircraft and shortages of spare parts and fuel for flying time over the last decade it was felt prudent to ground most of the air force until the oldest aircraft could be checked for any common problems.
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07/26/2014
The Indian Air Force (IAF) is in the process of inducting more Su-30 MKI aircraft and Light Combat Aircraft, parliament was informed Friday. Defence Minister Arun Jaitley told the Lok Sabha that Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft and Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft would also be procured.
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07/26/2014
The Iraqi government Friday confirmed that Russia has begun delivery of attack helicopters and warplanes as part of an arms deal intended to bolster the foundering military effort to retake the nearly half of Iraq lost this year to Islamist militants.
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07/25/2014
Organizations, businesses and military forces from across the globe gathered in Farnborough, England, to celebrate 100 years of aviation at the Farnborough International Air Show, or FIA, July 14 -20. FIA is a biennial international trade show for the aerospace industry to demonstrate the latest in both civilian and military aircraft capabilities.
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07/25/2014
Pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine, supplied with an increasing amount of advanced weaponry by Russia, have downed more than ten aircraft over the past three months. Since May 2, pro-Russian separatists have been confirmed to have shot down 11 aircraft over eastern Ukraine. Since shooting down flight MH17 on July 17, the rebels have downed an additional two Ukrainian Sukhoi 25 fighter jets.
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07/25/2014
Australia is to take delivery of its first F-35 fighter jet on Thursday from Lockheed Martin. It plans to buy another 72. Australia is building a $1.47 billion New Air Combat Capability Facility and has been referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defense Darren Chester announced on Australian Defense Forces Website.
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07/25/2014
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced his resignation Thursday, creating new uncertainty in his nation at a crucial moment in its military offensive against pro-Russian rebels in the east. The move was sure to distract Ukrainian politicians even as leaders from around the world push for unfettered access to the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down deep inside rebel-held territory.
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07/25/2014
The Swedish defence export agency FXM announced that the Saab Gripen will not be entered for Denmark’s new fighter competition. Denmark has issued an 800-page “Request for Binding Information” (RBI) on alternatives to the Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II stealth fighter; it is one of two international F-35 partners that has not yet committed to the program. The Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet and the Eurofighter Typhoon are the other contenders in Denmark.
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07/25/2014
Why would India buy the Rafale combat aircraft rejected by every other interested country—Brazil, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, South Korea, Singapore, and even the cash-rich but not particularly discriminating Saudi Arabia and Morocco? The French foreign minister Laurent Fabius’s one-point agenda when he visited New Delhi was to seal the deal for Rafale, a warplane apparently fitting IAF’s idea of a Medium Multi-role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) in the service’s unique typology.
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07/25/2014
This week, Lockheed Martin officially took delivery of a key part of the F-35 fighter’s combat functionality—the pilot’s helmet. The most expensive and complicated piece of headgear ever constructed, the F-35 Gen III Helmet Mounted Display System (HMDS) is one of the multipurpose fighter’s most critical systems, and it's essential to delivering a fully combat-ready version of the fighter to the Marine Corps, the Navy, and the Air Force.
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07/25/2014
A ceremony was held today at Lockheed Martin, commemorating the official roll out of the first two F-35 Lightning II aircraft for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). “Today, we celebrate a milestone in the U.S.-Australia partnership, a partnership built on strength, friendship, and technological innovation,” said Frank Kendall, U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics.
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07/25/2014
After lifting more than 4.5 million pounds of cargo and conducting thousands of delivery missions for the U.S. Marine Corps, the Lockheed Martin and Kaman Aerospace Corporation [NYSE: KAMN] K-MAX cargo unmanned aircraft system (UAS) has returned to the United States following a nearly three-year deployment in Afghanistan.
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07/24/2014
Lockheed Martin (LM) and BAE Systems reported progress this month on their rival upgrades for F-16 Fighting Falcons. Two aircraft from each company’s launch customer (Taiwan for LM, South Korea for BAE) are now in rework, ironically just a few miles from each other in Fort Worth, Texas. Meanwhile, the ferry of Iraq’s first two new Block 52 aircraft in September is looking unlikely.
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07/24/2014
It’s become popular to depict American UAVs as some kind of super weapon and a danger to world peace. Anyone who understands how modern warplanes operate knows this is not true, but the mass media and many politicians who find it useful to follow whatever idea the mass media is behind have created a fictional reality in which UAVs do unspeakable things that are unique in human history.
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07/24/2014
Starting on Saturday the SA Air Force (SAAF) will stand up and be counted for operational and combat readiness when Exercise Winter Solstice 1V starts. The two week long exercise will see portions of airspace over Eastern and Northern Cape utilised by jets, helicopters and transport aircraft in partially simulated field training exercise.
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07/24/2014
After more than a dozen years fighting wars against unsophisticated opponents and technology in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Air Force is refocusing its training on tests ripped from the headlines — surface-to-air missiles, chemical weapons and cyber warfare. The training, according to military analysts and the service's top boss, a former fighter pilot himself, is vital to the service as it faces increasingly sophisticated threats from Eastern Europe to the Pacific.
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07/24/2014
The horrifying deaths of 298 passengers of a jetliner shot down over Ukraine have focused the world's attention on a previously unrecognized threat: the proliferation of surface-to-air missiles in the hands of rogue, non-state actors. Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was brought down by a BUK-17, a high-tech Russian-built missile designed to intercept high-speed, high-altitude combat aircraft.
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07/24/2014
Airbus, Boeing and Lockheed Martin have confirmed they have submitted bids to replace the Royal Danish Air Force’s aging F-16 combat jet fleet but Saab has withdrawn from the competition. The Danes invited two European and two US bidders to respond to a request for binding information by July 21 to supply between 24 and 30 jets. Only three of the contenders replied with bids.
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07/24/2014
Two Ukrainian Su-25 fighter jets were shot down on Wednesday in eastern Ukraine near the Russian border. The planes were downed in an area of heavy fighting between government forces and Russian-backed separatists, near where a Malaysia Airlines jet was blown out of the sky last week, killing 298 people and drawing international dismay.
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07/24/2014
Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] recently demonstrated its Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) dual-mode guidance section during a second internally funded flight test at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. During the test, the rail-mounted JAGM flew 6.2 kilometers and initially acquired the target using its precision strike, semi-active laser. The dual-mode guidance section then engaged its millimeter wave radar, and the moving target was destroyed.
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07/24/2014
More than 90 countries are sending their military attaches to Russia’s international air force crew competition Aviadarts, Lt. Gen. Viktor Bondarev, Russian Air Force commander-in-chief said Wednesday. “The costs [of organizing the competition] are comparable to those of the military training,” Bondarev said, without providing the exact figure.
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07/23/2014
The US Air Force’s most advanced fighter aircraft, the F-22 Raptor, saw “action” for the first time in South-East Asia in this year’s biennial Cope Taufan joint exercise with the Royal Malaysian Air Force. More than 40 aircraft were involved in Cope Taufan 2014, which took place from June 9 to 20 (see graphic). It was the biggest such exercise to date and also saw the deployment of a home-grown, purpose-built Command and Control System which proved well up to the complex task.
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07/23/2014
The fully-networked nightmare child of Skynet and a guided missile. More prosaically, it’s the fruit of the USA’s 20-year Joint Strike Fighter programme, designed to replace a multiple older planes in one swoop. This single-seat, single-engine, fixed-wing craft, made by Lockheed Martin, will go into service not only with all three of the US Armed Forces’ major plane-flying forces but also with nine of its allied nations.
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07/23/2014
ndia is still negotiating a long-delayed purchase of fighter jets from France's Dassault Aviation. India initially agreed to the purchase of 126 Rafale fighter jets from Dassault in 2012 but the purchase has been stuck in negotiations which still continue, Defense Minister Arun Jaitley said in a response to a question in the upper house of Parliament Tuesday.
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07/23/2014
What's been described as "one of the world's most unique military aircraft," the MV-22 Osprey Tilt-Rotor, will return after a four-year hiatus at this year's AirVenture. Although the aircraft appeared at AirVenture 2010, this year will be the first time it will perform its full Level III flight demonstration at the event — one of only nine such air show appearances this year across the country.
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07/23/2014
For the Air Force conditions are equally discouraging, according to the report. There are only 28 combat aircraft in flying conditions, and the 'newest' are five Mirage, not all of them operational and which will have to be decommissioned quite soon. “If during a parade you see a wing of ten military aircraft, it does not mean the ten are in combat condition” points out Horacio Jaunarena, a former Defense minister.
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07/23/2014
Landing an aircraft in a low-security environment or transporting potentially hostile personnel are just occupational hazards for combat aircrews. To combat a large variety of threats, the Air Force has fly-away security teams, or FASTs. FAST members are security forces Airmen trained to protect mobility aircraft and travel on planes such as C-17 Globemaster III's and C-130H Hercules here at the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing.
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07/23/2014
Boeing on July 17 delivered on schedule the first of four upgraded French Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft. The upgraded aircraft will increase the fleet’s surveillance, communications and battle management capabilities. The Mid-Life Upgrade – the largest set of modifications to AWACS aircraft for France – will provide the crew with more actionable information and better situational awareness and increase mission effectiveness and efficiencies.
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07/23/2014
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it believed that an end to military hostilities around the crash site of the Malaysian airliner in eastern Ukraine would prevent such tragedies from happening in the future. “We remain convinced that a stop to military actions in the area around the crashed plane, as well as in eastern Ukraine as a whole, would guarantee that such tragedy would never happen again, thus saving many innocent lives,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
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07/23/2014
Jeppesen now offers operators an enhanced version of its industry-leading FliteDeck Pro electronic flight bag (EFB) solution for iPad. New iOS 7-compliant features and functionality of FliteDeck Pro will help airlines and other large operators work more efficiently, with improved access to critical flight information and shared data between devices.
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07/22/2014
ISIL (al Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant) is attracting a specific type or recruit (Islamic fanatics, especially the young, especially teenagers, who are not good for much beyond being suicide bombers) and that is becoming a problem. Many of these recruits are foreigners and foreigners are particularly unpopular in Iraq, especially if they are armed and looking to kill Iraqis.
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07/22/2014
Swedish defence firm Saab has declined to provide a bid for a 30 billion ($4.37 billion) Danish fighter contract while reports indicate that US firm Lockheed Martin is set to land the deal. Three candidates are officially in the running to receive one of Denmark’s biggest public purchases of all time when the military purchases new fighter jets by July 1st 2015.
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07/22/2014
There are still too many unanswered questions about the downing of Malaysia Airlines MH17 over eastern Ukraine on Jul. 17, 2014. Among them, one of the most important deals with the possible error made by the operator inside the SA-11 “Gadfly” (“Buk”) TELAR (transporter erector launcher and radar) who did fire one or more missiles against a civilian plane.
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07/22/2014
For many people, “nonstate actors” are supposed to be ill-equipped militias, warlord bands or Vietcong insurgents in black pajamas. Because they lack sophisticated weapons, so the common assumption goes, they resort to irregular guerilla tactics. But if they somehow got modern precision weapons, it is often argued, they would quickly become a grave danger to state militaries like the Americans’ – or the Ukrainians.
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07/22/2014
The Russian Navy is now equipped with a modernised Ilyushin Il-38 aircraft, designed to hunt down and destroy enemy submarines. The plane is equipped with a conceptually new targeting system and is another example of how platforms long used by the army and navy have been given a new lease of life after modernisation.
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07/22/2014
Four days after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was downed by a surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine, the carrier and other major airlines are still flying over war zones, underscoring how crucial that airspace is to the industry. Airlines have discretion to plan flight routes along airways they think are safe, but rely on governments to issue warnings if they deem airspace unsafe.
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07/22/2014
Airbus Group NV (AIR) said it favors a pan-European deal on military drones after an Anglo-French agreement from which it’s excluded received government backing and the U.K.’s Taranis model began testing stealth technology. A bilateral approach to developing a combat drone that could succeed aircraft such as the Eurofighter ignores both the capabilities of other countries and the success of more inclusive aerospace programs.
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07/21/2014
The revival of the Pentagon’s storied F-35 alternative engine program is unlikely despite a US Senate panel raising that possibility, experts say. Finding billions of dollars for such an effort within the Pentagon’s already capped budget would prove a herculean task, particularly if sequestration caps return in 2016, these experts say.
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07/21/2014
Russian military aircraft will be patrolling Finnish airspace Sunday and Monday as part of annual Open Skies exercises. The military drills will also see the Russians conduct surveillance runs in Estonia.
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07/21/2014
Ukrainian officials said “irrefutable evidence” proves that Russia’s military operated the missile system that blew a Malaysia Airlines jet from the sky, killing 298 people. “This terrorist act was committed with the help of the Russian Federation. We know clearly that the crew of this system were Russian citizens,” Vitaly Naida, Ukraine’s chief of counterintelligence, told reporters on Saturday.
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07/21/2014
For the first time students from the U.S. Air Force Weapons School got to fly with the newly upgraded Sustainment Block-16 B-1B Lancer during the student's Integration Phase (IT) at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. Airmen from the 337th Test and Evaluation Squadron here brought the B-1B to Nellis AFB, allowing weapons school students hands-on time with the new technology.
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07/21/2014
China sent a surveillance vessel to waters off Hawaii even as the country participated for the first time in the world’s largest international naval exercise led by the U.S. The auxiliary general intelligence ship is outside U.S. territorial seas, yet within the 200-nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone, Captain Darryn James, chief spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
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07/21/2014
Republicans and Democrats showed a rare display of bipartisanship last week when members of both parties criticized the Pentagon’s $58.6 billion war budget request, but experts say Congress will likely approve the measure. US lawmakers directed the majority of their frustration at a$5 billion White House request for the newly created counterterrorism partnership fund.
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07/21/2014
The awful crash of Malaysian Flight 17 in the Ukraine combat zone seems likely to have been caused by a long-range surface-to-air missile. At this writing, who launched the missile remains undetermined. Regardless of who's guilty - why is a modern software-driven weapon capable of striking a civilian jet in the first place? All commercial airliners send out transponder signals that identify them as civilian. In most cases, what's employed is a protocol called Mode C, which is not used by militar
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07/21/2014
India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Mark-1, already 20 years late, likely will miss its final operational clearance (FOC) deadline set for the end of 2014, an Indian Air Force source said.
In the run-up to the FOC stage, handling tests are being performed on only one aircraft while the remaining five are still in production. Ideally, handling flight tests should be performed on at least six aircraft to ascertain their operational readiness, the source said.
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07/20/2014
NATO’s main public website published rebuttal of a series of russian accusations against NATO which are based on misrepresentations of the facts. Here is document that sets the record straight.
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07/20/2014
Japan’s defense ministry wants funding to purchase Osprey aircraft starting next year, with the addition of more than a dozen tilt-rotor aircraft over the next few years, despite homegrown protests and concerns regarding the aircraft’s safety. During a recent trip to Washington, D.C., Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera lauded the ability and performance of the controversial helicopter-airplane hybrid in the Philippines, where it was used extensively in typhoon relief operations.
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07/20/2014
The Ukrainian government said on Saturday that it had proof that Russia had provided the surface-to-air missile system that shot down a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet over eastern Ukraine on Thursday, killing all 298 people aboard. That claim came as officials from Malaysia and the Netherlands pleaded for politics to be put aside so they could recover their dead, still lying in a field in a war zone.
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07/20/2014
At least 330 Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians, have died and 2,400 others have been wounded since Israel launched a major military offensive in the Gaza Strip 12 days ago, medical sources told Efe. The number of people killed has risen sharply since the Israeli army escalated its "Operation Protective Edge," a campaign of massive air raids and naval barrages intended to stop rocket attacks from Gaza, by launching a ground invasion Thursday night.
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07/20/2014
It is practically invisible, it gives the pilot a 360 degree vision and it has the most powerful fighter engine in the world. The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, Britain's £70 million stealth jet, is an "infinitesimally small” single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft. “I see everything that happens, 360 degrees around me, at astonishing distances,” said Billy Flynn, F-35 Lightning II pilot.
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07/20/2014
Signaling the end of defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics' monopoly in the domestic aerospace arena, the Modi government on Saturday gave the formal nod for the Indian private sector to tie up with a foreign collaborator to supply 56 transport aircraft to the IAF.
TOI on Wednesday had reported that the defence acquisitions council (DAC), chaired by defence minister Arun Jaitley, would clear the proposed Rs 13,000 crore project in its meeting on Saturday.
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07/19/2014
F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jets that had been grounded at Nellis Air Force Base resumed flying Friday. Nellis spokeswoman 1st Lt. Sarah Ruckriegle said the four F-35s assigned to the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron were cleared to return to the skies after the nation’s fleet was grounded earlier this month following a June 23 fire in one in Florida.
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07/19/2014
History was made once again as crews with the 49th Maintenance Squadron returned the famed F-117 Nighthawk to the Holloman Heritage Park. The completely restored aircraft takes its place in the park following a 4-month restoration project. "After sitting in the New Mexican sun exposed to wind, snow, rain and birds the F-117 had begun to look extremely shabby," said Jim Burrett, 49th Wing historian.
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07/19/2014
Indian Air Force uses a World War-II era lighting system for the landing of fighter and transport aircraft at the Leh airbase at night due to lack of any facility for advanced airfield lighting, CAG pointed out today. The government auditor has found that IAF was using solar gooseneck flares for running flight operations at night at Leh airbase.
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07/19/2014
The US Air Force (USAF) has successfully completed the first flight of the F-15E Strike Eagle fighter aircraft upgraded with the new APG-82(V)1 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar system. Around 47 F-15E fighter aircraft belonging to the 389th and 391st Fighter Squadrons are scheduled to be fitted with the radar by 2017.
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07/19/2014
When a plane like Malaysia Airline Flight 17 is suddenly dropped from the sky by a missile attack launched from a vehicle no larger than a tank, the temptation is to look for the technology that will protect airline passengers from such threats. So should we be equipping commercial passenger planes with missile defense systems?
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07/19/2014
The United States is not planning to give weapons or “lethal” assistance to Ukraine following Thursday’s downing of an airliner in its conflict zone, nor does it plan any major U.S. military response to the crisis, the Pentagon said Friday.Press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby repeated U.S. calls for a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine but said the “focus” of American assistance to Kiev will remain on non-lethal supplies and equipment.
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07/19/2014
The awful crash of Malaysian Flight 17 in the eastern Ukraine combat zone seems likely to have been caused by a long-range surface-to-air missile. At this writing, who launched the missile remains undetermined. Regardless of who’s guilty — why is a modern software-driven weapon capable of striking a civilian jet in the first place?
(Read More...)
07/19/2014
There is no proposal at present to export the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) or BrahMos missile, parliament was told Friday. "There are no proposals at present to export the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas and BrahMos supersonic cruise missile," Jaitley told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.
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07/18/2014
The Buk surface-to-air missile system that pro-Russian separatists allegedly used to shoot down the Malaysian plane has been sneaked into Russia overnight, Anton Herashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister, says on Facebook. (BBC Monitoring)
A total of 121 bodies found at Malaysian plane crash site as of 0700 local (0400 GMT), Ukraine's State Emergencies Service says - (BBC Monitoring via UNIAN news agency.)
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07/18/2014
A Malaysia Airlines passenger plane carrying 295 people was shot down over war-torn eastern Ukraine on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said, and both the government and the pro-Russia separatists fighting in the region denied any responsibility for downing the aircraft. As plumes of black smoke rose up near a rebel-held village of Hrabove, an Associated Press journalist counted at least 22 bodies at the wreckage site 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Russian border.
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07/18/2014
Philippine President Benigno Aquino told his country's neighbours on Thursday that efforts to modernise the military were not aimed at them but rather at strengthening national defence capabilities and tackling disasters. Aquino has allocated 75 billion pesos ($1.72 billion) over five years to upgrade maritime security operations and humanitarian response, buying frigates, fighter-trainers and anti-submarine helicopters.
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07/18/2014
British and Italian Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft are to be able to employ the MBDA Storm Shadow long range cruise missile after a GBP150 million contract to integrate the weapon was announced at the Farnborough International Airshow 2014. Speaking at the show on 16 July, the UK Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology Philip Dunne said the contract is between the four Typhoon partner nations and the industrial consortium that builds the aircraft.
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07/18/2014
The Pentagon may delay the planned withdrawal of U.S. Air Force F-15C fighter jets from Europe, and possibly increase aircraft rotations to the continent, as part of an effort to reassure allies and boost assistance to the region in the wake of Russia's recent aggression in Ukraine, officials told members of Congress Wednesday.
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07/18/2014
The first 389th Fighter Squadron F-15E Strike Eagle received a Radar Modernization Program, or RMP, upgrade here in June. The inaugural flight with the new radar system was flown by Capt. Matthew Riley, a 389th Fighter Squadron pilot, and Maj. Jacob Lindaman, a 389th FS weapon systems officer.
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07/18/2014
The Russian Defense Ministry on Thursday vehemently denied accusations of shooting down a Ukrainian combat plane, calling the claim ‘absurd.' “This claim, as well as all previous accusations by Kiev against the Russian Defense Ministry, is absurd,” a high-ranking military official told RIA Novosti.
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07/18/2014
The Navy landed a 44,000-pound drone aircraft on the USS George H.W. Bush for the first time last summer, a technical feat that was hailed by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus at the time as a historic development in a program that would “radically change the way presence and combat power are delivered from aircraft carriers.”
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07/18/2014
BAE Systems launched a new version of the Striker integrated display helmet for combat aircraft pilots here at the Farnborough Airshow this week. Mark Bowman, the company’s chief test pilot, demonstrated how BAE has leveraged its work on an alternative helmet-mounted display (HMD) for the Lockheed Martin F-35 to produce Striker 2.
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07/18/2014
The Ukrainian government said on Thursday that a Russian military plane had shot down a Ukrainian fighter jet in Ukrainian airspace the previous evening, a serious allegation of direct intervention by Russia’s armed forces. If confirmed, the confrontation would represent the first open and direct involvement by Russia’s military in eastern Ukraine since the separatist rebellion began there in April.
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07/18/2014
The Remotely Piloted Air System (RPAS) P.1HH HammerHead demo aircraft has reached a major milestone and successfully validated its autonomous flight modes. The Mubadala-owned Piaggio Hammerhead has validated and fine tuned its advanced control laws, including augmented modes, flight envelope protection and automatic flight, plus the automatic management of the ground run both in takeoff and landing.
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07/17/2014
The Air Force is cutting thousands of manning and organization officers, and creating a new numbered Air Force to oversee intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, the service announced today. A total of 3,459 positions will be cut in an effort to save $1.6 billion over the next five years. The move comes about a year after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel directed the services to cut headquarters staff by 20 percent.
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07/17/2014
The British Royal Air Force plans to finish technological upgrades of as many as 59 Tornado aircraft by 2016 as part of a modernization plan to keep the plane relevant as the F-35 and Typhoon come on line, officials said at the Farnborough International Airshow. The upgrades included outfitting the planes with precision weapons, improved information exchange and secure communication technology, said Dave Waddington, Tornado Force Commander, RAF.
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07/17/2014
The first B-2 Spirit to "slip the surly bonds of earth" celebrates its 25th anniversary of flight July 17, 2014, providing the Airmen and civilians who work with the airframe a chance to reflect on the strategic impact 20 aircraft can have in the entire Department of Defense arsenal. The image, first envisioned by World War II pilot and poet John Gillespie in his poem High Flight, is illustrative of the first Spirit to ever achieve flight.
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07/17/2014
The Army has lost an initial Senate skirmish over a hotly disputed plan to take Apache attack helicopters away from National Guard units in a budget-cutting move that has infuriated governors and state military leaders. The proposal, which would transfer dozens of the sleek Apache combat aircraft to active-duty units and give larger, multiuse Black Hawk helicopters to the Guard, has gotten high-level support at the Pentagon.
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07/17/2014
ighter jets roared off an American aircraft carrier into a gray sky on Wednesday as the United States kicked off a joint naval exercise off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula, with the South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, calling for strong punishment if North Korea initiated a military provocation.
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07/17/2014
The Modi government is all set to kick-start private sector entry into domestic aerospace arena by giving the green signal to the Rs 13,000 crore project to supply 56 transport aircraft to IAF. The project was put on hold by the previous UPA regime last year after the then heavy industries & public enterprises minister Praful Patel and some others strongly opposed the move to virtually keep state-run units or PSUs like Hindustan Aeronuatics (HAL) out of the mega programme.
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07/17/2014
My first reaction to photos of the Textron Airland Scorpion was not positive, I will admit. The tandem cockpit, twin canted vertical stabilizers and slender straight wing made it look too much like a Citation wearing a Super Hornet costume for Halloween.
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07/17/2014
The Ukrainian combat aviation received reinforcements from Canada. The Canadian government proposes to deliver nearly 20 combat aircraft CF-18A to the Ukrainian military. The information appeared on social networks. Russian English-language television channel Russia Today reported the same.
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07/17/2014
Egypt has become the largest customer for the tactical airlifter, the Airbus C295. It has ordered eight more of the type, taking its total fleet to 20. The new batch of aircraft will be delivered to the Egyptian Air Force by Airbus Defence and Space beginning next year and will follow the 12 aircraft previously ordered, of which six are already in service. The contract also includes a service support package for spares, training, and maintenance of the fleet.
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07/16/2014
The Pentagon is resuming test flights of its new-generation F-35 fighter while investigating the cause of an engine fire last month, but the plane will operate with restrictions and will not fly in the Farnborough International Airshow in England. The Pentagon's press secretary, Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, said it was a "difficult decision" to cancel the hoped-for participation at Farnborough, but the Pentagon remains confident that any of the plane's technical issues can be fixed.
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07/16/2014
Two U.S. military KC-130 air refueling tankers arrived Tuesday at the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture in the first transfer under a bilateral agreement to reduce the burden on Okinawa of hosting U.S. bases.
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07/16/2014
Beechcraft Defense Company is highlighting its portfolio of military and defense products and services at the Farnborough International Airshow this week, emphasizing recent program milestones and orders. The company is displaying its T-6C trainer and AT-6 light attack aircraft at the Textron Aviation chalet in Farnborough, United Kingdom.
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07/16/2014
Selex ES’s Raven ES-05 active electronically scanned array radar has been selected to equip the next-generation Saab Gripen E combat aircraft. The two companies have a long-standing relationship on the Gripen programme that stretches back to 2009. A production-standard radar is already fitted to the Gripen E demonstrator.
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07/16/2014
Ukraine has made fresh charges of Russian involvement in its conflict with separatist rebels, suggesting Moscow may have had a role in an air strike on Tuesday that killed 11 people. The accusations come a day before European Union leaders meet to discuss the crisis, where they might consider adopting fresh sanctions against Russia.
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07/16/2014
The Ukrainian armed forces conducting a military operation in the country’s embattled southeast have suspended combat aviation flights in the area to investigate a recent crash of a military plane, the operation’s press center said on Tuesday. “Aviation flights have been suspended until a special order due to the investigation of Ukrainian Armed Forces' An-26 military transport plane crash in the Luhansk Region on July 14, 2014,” the press center said on its Facebook page.
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07/16/2014
India's negotiations with French aviation major Dassault for 126 Rafale Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) for $20 billion "are progressing well" and the contract is likely "sooner than later in the current financial year (2014-15)" a top military commander has said.The Indian Air Force chief, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, in an interview to India Strategic (www.indiastrategic.in) ahead of the Farnborough Air Show, the first in fact after he assumed office about six months ago.
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07/16/2014
The UK and France have stepped up co-operation on a project that could lead to the two countries developing a military drone capable of combat operations and highly covert surveillance. The British and French governments signed a deal at the Farnborough air show in the UK on Tuesday under which £120m will be spent on a feasibility study about joint development of an UCA – a project involving six companies led by BAE Systems of the UK and France’s Dassault Aviation.
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07/16/2014
The Russian Helicopters holding delivered the last batch of Mi-171E transport helicopters built at the Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant to Chinese company Poly Technologies, a company spokesperson stated Tuesday. It's the last batch under a contract for 48 helicopters signed in 2012 by the Chinese company and Russia's arms exporter Rosoboronexport. In total, with additional contracts, 52 helicopters were delivered, the statement said.
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07/15/2014
Ukraine’s top defense official said Monday that Russia may have shot down a Ukrainian military transport plane, an action that would represent a dramatic new step in the months-long conflict that has engulfed eastern Ukraine. Pro-Russian separatists immediately asserted responsibility for the downing of the An-26 plane over Luhansk, but Ukrainian Defense Minister Valery Heletey said the aircraft had been flying too high for their shoulder-mounted rockets to reach it.
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07/15/2014
The most intimidating aircraft in the world is 25 years old this week and is about to become even more advanced. The nation’s fleet of B-2 stealth bombers, the pride of Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, is poised to get nearly $10 billion in upgrades over the next several years to ensure it remains the most fearsome attack platform in the U.S arsenal.
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07/15/2014
The Farnborough International Airshow has kicked off in a small town west of London, although many Russian aerospace industry delegates had to stay at home due to visa problems. The week-long event, which combines a well-respected trade exhibition for aerospace and defense industries with a spectacular airshow, will run until July 20.
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07/15/2014
The successful consolidation of key parts of Russia’s aerospace industry into the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) is more evident at this year’s Farnborough International Airshow then at any time since the group’s formation back in February 2006. In several press briefings in the months ahead of this year’s show, CEO Mikhail Pogosian, who has been at the helm for much of this vital re-ordering of the once scattered Russian design bureaus, research bodies and production facilities.
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07/15/2014
The integration of new weapons on some combat aircraft has become so expensive that European Defence Agency (EDA) held a workshop to discuss the problem. But Saab (Hall 4 Stand E5 and Chalet C35) has some helpful suggestions, based on its experience with the Gripen. The Swedish fighter served as the development platform for the Iris-T and Meteor air-to-air missiles, and other weapons were successfully added on time and budget.
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07/15/2014
The Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace is ready to test by this year end a smaller version of its 290-km eponymous supersonic cruise missile for deployment on combat aircraft and submarines. BrahMos chief A Sivathanu Pillai also supported the idea of the country relying on its own weapons and systems to meet the needs of its armed forces, saying that Indian defence scientists and production agencies have proved their capabilities in this regard.
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07/15/2014
The Czech Defense Ministry on Monday signed a contract with local aircraft producer Aero Vodochody on the sale of the state's redundant L-159 combat aircraft to the U.S. company Draken, said Aero Vodochody Vice-president Petr Kudrna. Aero Vodochody has a license with Czech government for the sale of military materiel abroad.
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07/15/2014
The U.S. Air Force has extended Boeing’s [NYSE: BA] work remanufacturing warhead arming devices for the nation’s air-launched cruise missile (ALCM), helping to ensure the readiness of the system. Under a new two-year contract, valued at $7.3 million, Boeing will remanufacture warhead arming devices for the air-launched cruise missile. The contract includes an option for six additional years at an estimated value of $50 million.
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07/15/2014
Russian Helicopters Company is to present its latest models of civilian and combat helicopters at the Farnborough International Airshow 2014 in Britain, the company’s spokesperson stated. Together with Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport, Russian Helicopters will present Ansat-U, a light helicopter designed for training military pilots.
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07/15/2014
The first modernized Il-38N anti-submarine warfare plane will be delivered to the Russian Navy on July 15, an Ilyushin Aviation Complex spokesperson told RIA Novosti. The company completed repair and modernization work on the first mass-produced Il-38N anti-submarine warfare plane for the Russian Navy.
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07/14/2014
BRITAIN’S Special Forces will be backed by a £1.1billion war chest in the battle on terror, David Cameron will announce today. Drones, state-of-the- art radar and high-tech surveillance equipment will beef up our military might at home and abroad. They will also provide vital intelligence for the SAS on secret missions or in hostage situations. The equipment will also be used to counter the rising threat from Isis militants in Iraq.
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07/14/2014
The U.S. Marine Corps' new aviation chief this week said he plans to hold down "big wish lists" for upgrades to existing warplanes and helicopters so he can maximize purchases of new planes like the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jet.
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07/14/2014
Eurofighter is wheeling out some heavy artillery for Farnborough, with the world premier on Tuesday of the new Captor-E active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar which it believes will power up its export sales campaign. The AESA-equipped aircraft on display is a UK Royal Air Force Tranche 1 single-seater. IPA5 has been extensively modified at BAE Systems' site at Warton in Lancashire to carry Captor-E and performed its first "shakedown" flight last week.
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07/14/2014
The Farnborough air show opens today with Prime Minister David Cameron announcing a £1.1 billion package of investment in military capabilities such as drones. Visiting the biennial show in Hampshire, Mr Cameron will be unable to see the new F-35 fighter aircraft which had been due to be at Farnborough today but has still not been given clearance to fly by the Americans following an engine fire in Florida last month.
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07/14/2014
Sub-Saharan African countries have ramped up acquisition of sophisticated multirole fighter aircraft and combat helicopters in a continental buying spree driven by efforts to confront evolving security threats, but also by national aspirations to assert regional power.
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07/14/2014
Raytheon Company has started integrating Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) capabilities for the U.S. Air Force's largest airplanes to ensure that the service meets an international deadline for equipping military aircraft with the latest satellite-based cooperative aircraft tracking technology.
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07/14/2014
The Philippines has offered a US$1.5 billion budget to defense contractors around the world for phase one of its three-tier armed forces modernization program. It wishes to strengthen its bargaining chips in the dispute over the South China Sea's disputed territories, reports the US Defense News Weekly.
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07/14/2014
Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine is shaping Moscow’s military priorities, but also sparking a response by some East European NATO members. In Russia, the Defense Ministry is planning to boost the country’s air defense capability in Crimea while some East European neighbors are raising military spending to overhaul their air defense and air combat capacities.
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07/14/2014
The UK’s new military air safety regime has contributed to the delayed entry into British service of some new platforms, such as the Airbus A330MRTT Voyager tanker, the Thales Watchkeeper UAS and the L-3 Integrated Systems Airseeker (the UK version of the USAF’s RC-135 Rivet Joint SIGINT aircraft). As a result, some UK aerospace industry managers have expressed dissatisfaction with the Military Aviation Authority (MAA), in off-the-record comments to this editor and others.
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07/14/2014
There’s the beloved Warthog. The stealthy Raptor. And now: the Pegasus. These names for the A-10, F-22 and new KC-46 tanker — just like all other U.S. military aircraft names — were put through the wringer at an Air Force office established to make sure new planes get names that reflect their missions.
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07/13/2014
An Israeli air strike hit a home for disabled people on Saturday as the Operation Protective Edge in Gaza continued for a fifth day, with the death toll passing 120 Palestinians. Two were killed in the strike that hit a charitable association for the disabled in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, while three others died in a second attack in western Gaza City, local health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.
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07/13/2014
In Ukraine the Russian backed Donbas separatists have suffered serious defeats in the last few weeks and are further weakened by internal disputes and less support from Russia. Ukrainian security forces have entered most rebel held areas and basically crippled Russian efforts to annex the Donbas. The two Ukrainian provinces (Donetsk and Luhansk) which comprise the Donbas are now mostly under government control.
(Read More...)
07/13/2014
A Chinese businessman in Canada hacked into Boeing’s computers and stole information about United States military aircraft and weapons, the Justice Department said on Friday, describing a corporate espionage case that is unusual for the huge amount of data involved. The businessman, Su Bin, spent years taking data from Boeing, the FBI said in court documents, and working with two unidentified contacts in China sought to sell the information to companies there.
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07/13/2014
Militia of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) downed a Mil-24 (Mi-24) helicopter of the Ukrainian Air Force, the Novorossiya news agency of the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk said on Saturday. On the outskirts of the town of Snezhny in the Donetsk region the militiamen managed to shoot down a Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopter from a shoulder-carried air defence system and to destroy the enemy’s several combat units, it said.
(Read More...)
07/13/2014
Despite the new administration’s plans to hike defense spending by 20 percent, funding will rise by only 2.3 percent above proposals announced by the outgoing government due to India’s sluggish economy. In addition, the government is boosting foreign direct investment (FDI) from 26 percent to 49 percent. Yet analysts say that since foreign investors lose out on the control that a 51 percent stake provides, the new FDI limit still won’t be lucrative for the overseas firms.
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07/13/2014
The Royal Saudi Air Force’s Typhoon aircraft completed 10,000 flying hours recently, BAE Systems Saudi Arabia PR and communications director Monther M. Tayeb told Arab News. “The Typhoon aircraft’s performance is significant in the history of any fleet. Eurofighter Typhoon is the world’s most advanced swing-role combat aircraft simultaneously providing deployable air-to-air and air-to-surface capabilities,” he said.
(Read More...)
07/13/2014
For United Aircraft (UAC), Russia’s state-owned aerospace giant, the last 12 months appear to have been a period of consolidation and reinforcement. Its two flagship civil programmes have made solid if unspectacular progress, largely avoiding the calamities of previous years. And on the military side, deliveries of current models have continued apace to its defence ministry clients in Moscow - as well as healthy number to export customers.
(Read More...)
07/12/2014
Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera arrived at the Pentagon on Thursday in a gleaming MV-22 Osprey, the revolutionary, though controversial, tilt-rotor aircraft that can take off like a helicopter but fly like an airplane. The point was plain — and plane. If I’m riding in it, Onodera seemed to say, it’s safe.
(Read More...)
07/12/2014
The U.S. knows Russia and Iran are providing fighter aircraft to help Iraq combat Islamic extremists, but Washington is not coordinating assistance with either Russia or Iran, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Friday. Hagel was asked at a Pentagon news conference about reports that Iranian and Russian planes are flying combat missions over northern Iraq and why Washington is not seeking to coordinate with them.
(Read More...)
07/12/2014
Textron Inc. and AirLand Enterprises LLC are in advanced talks to sell as many as 100 Scorpion combat jets—developed by the partners on their own dime—in an unusual move for military aircraft. "We are well beyond initial discussions with at least three potential customers," said Bill Anderson, president of the Textron AirLand venture that has developed the Scorpion. The plane has been on the market less than a year and first flew in December.
(Read More...)
07/12/2014
The threats to peace and order on the global seas are growing. China’s authoritarian government launched 17 new warships in 2013 and is in the process of producing 30 more this year. One of the country’s aircraft carriers nearly grazed a U.S. missile cruiser off the Chinese coastline in December, prompting U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Harry Harris to bemoan China’s “increasingly assertive behavior in the region.”
(Read More...)
07/12/2014
Air power is about more than fighters and bombers. In the case of the U.S. Air Force, it is also about supporting the rest of the joint force with vital enablers such as aerial refueling, long-distance transport, and timely intelligence. This commentary is about the intelligence — or to be more specific, what the military calls “intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance” (ISR).
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07/12/2014
Airbus Defence and Space Military Aircraft is scheduled to deliver the first of 22 A400M airlifters to the Royal Air Force in September. The delivery of aircraft MSN15 not only will mark the start of operations by a third country, but also represents the introduction of new capabilities as an important step along the type’s development roadmap. To get those capabilities into service has necessitated an intensive flight-trial campaign in the first part of this year.
(Read More...)
07/12/2014
Japan scrambled its Air Self-Defense Force jets a record number of times between April and June to deter Russian and Chinese aircraft approaching its airspace, amid rising tensions over territorial disputes. The Japanese Air Force has been repeatedly tested since April, with fighter jets being sent to monitor unidentified aircraft approaching Japanese airspace no fewer than 340 times in the space of twelve weeks.
(Read More...)
07/12/2014
Russia is to present the most advanced military aircraft at the Farnborough International Airshow in England, Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport reported, RIA Novosti reports. "We traditionally participate in this prominent airshow and try to present the latest trends and the most promising export models there.
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07/12/2014
The naval variant of India's indigenous light combat aircraft (LCA) is due to soon begin ramp trials. Avinash Chander, scientific adviser to the Defence Minister and Director General Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), told India Strategic magazine (www.indiastrategic.in) that the LCA-Navy had already done more than 25 test flights from a runway.
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07/12/2014
Boeing [NYSE: BA] and Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. [NYSE: UTX] have been selected to help develop the Joint Common Architecture (JCA) standard for the U.S. Army’s Joint Multi-Role (JMR) Science and Technology program, an element of the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) initiative.
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07/11/2014
British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who concluded his two-day India visit on Wednesday, informed the top Indian leadership that London was ready to supply Eurofighter military aircraft to the South Asian country. He lobbied the Narendra Modi government to purchase the Eurofighter jets from the UK, suggesting that those would be far better compared to combat jets manufactured by France’s Rafale.
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07/11/2014
This is the hi-tech cockpit of America's new $1 trillion fighter jet – which uses Siri style voice control. Manufacturer Lockheed Martin displayed the cockpit of an F-35 fighter jet in Britain for the first time yesterday at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. The F-35 jet cost a staggering $1 trillion to develop and the RAF has ordered 14 at £180 million each.
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07/11/2014
MBDA’s Meteor missile has successfully completed a firing campaign on board the Saab Gripen fighter, marking the complete validation of the integration of the weapon with the aircraft.
The testing of the beyond visual range air-to-air missile was conducted in March in collaboration with the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV), and was the last major milestone the Meteor had to pass before it could enter operational service on board the Swedish air force's Gripen C/Ds.
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07/11/2014
Britain and France plan to sign a memorandum of understanding for the study of a combat drone, bringing their air forces closer to an advanced fighter program worth billions, defense ministry spokespersons of the two countries said. On July 15, during the Farnborough International Airshow, Defense Ministers Philip Hammond and Jean-Yves Le Drian are due to sign the agreement to launch a two-year feasibility study for the high tech combat drone, the French spokesperson said.
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07/11/2014
The Defense Department said on Thursday it had launched a contest to develop a new long-range bomber, which is expected to pit Northrop Grumman Corp. against a team led by Boeing Co. BA 0.00% and Lockheed Martin Corp. for a contract that analysts value up to $80 billion. A decision is expected next spring on who will build between 80 and 100 bombers that the Pentagon wants to peg at less than $550 million apiece and enter service in the middle of the next decade.
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07/11/2014
The first UK appearance of the combat jet due to be used on Britain's new aircraft carriers has been cancelled. It was hoped the F-35B Lightning IIs would be at the Royal International Air Tattoo in Fairford, Gloucestershire which, starts on Friday. But last week the entire fleet of F-35's was grounded in the US following an engine fire.
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07/11/2014
In its first major military decision since taking office, the new Indian government is backing the completion of India’s first indigenously-built aircraft carrier. According to local media outlets, the Narendra Modi government agreed on Wednesday to release funds to complete the construction of the long-delayed Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC), the INS Vikrant.
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07/11/2014
Today, the Department of Defense announced an agreement aimed at reducing the price of an F-35 Lightning II 5th generation fighter to the equivalent of today’s 4th generation fighters by the end of the decade. Designated “The Blueprint for Affordability,” the DoD and F-35 industry partners – Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems signed an agreement to implement cost reduction initiatives to lower the production costs of F-35 aircraft.
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07/11/2014
Russian long-range aviation bases are increasing their presence in the Arctic, the press service of the Eastern Military District reported Thursday. "The crews of Tupolev Tu-95MS strategic bombers at the Arctic long-range aviation base in Amur Region, have tripled their flying rate this year. By performing these tasks, the crews gain valuable experience in offline piloting over featureless terrain for a long period of time," the chief of the press service, Colonel Alexander Gordeyev, said.
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07/10/2014
Extremists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, pose a “clear and imminent threat” to the United States, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday, singling out lawmakers who may have been underwhelmed by his classified testimony on Iraq and Afghanistan from Capitol Hill on Tuesday.
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07/10/2014
The Pentagon is considering under what circumstances it will recommend President Barack Obama authorize the use of a missile-equipped drone to kill the leader of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, CNN has learned. Any such mission to kill al-Baghdadi would have to be approved by Obama, according to several defense officials CNN has spoken to at length.
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07/10/2014
The Canadian military has released details on its new $100 billion wish list for new gear, and it's a revealing look at how the service views the future of war. The laundry list of hardware was released as part of Ottawa’s new procurement strategy, which was hastily installed following the government’s bungling of the F-35 acquisition process.
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07/10/2014
An Air Force report into the crash of a Pave Hawk helicopter in which North Idaho airman Staff Sgt. Afton Ponce was killed concluded Wednesday that bird strikes against the helicopter caused the crash in early January. Ponce was among the four airmen killed when their helicopter crashed on January 7, 2014.
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07/10/2014
Northrop Grumman Corp. has decided to build the next-generation bomber at its Palmdale, Calif., factory if it wins the $50 billion contract, a senior Northrop official told California lawmakers last week. A Northrop win would mean at least 1,500 new jobs in Palmdale and $420 million in tax breaks.
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07/10/2014
Russian-Chinese joint military drills are aimed at strengthening bilateral cooperation, not threatening alleged enemies, Kremlin Chief of Staff Sergei Ivanov said Wednesday during a meeting with students from Beijing University of Foreign Languages.
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07/09/2014
The Pentagon’s costly fleet of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters is grounded, just a week before the military’s jet of the future was to have its coming-out party at two air shows in Great Britain.
The latest problem for the $400 billion program, which is already seven years behind schedule, came after an engine on one of the F-35s caught fire during a June 23 takeoff from Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
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07/09/2014
India on Tuesday successfully test-fired the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from a defence base in Odisha, an official said. It has a range of 290 km and can carry a conventional warhead of up to 300 kg. The missile was launched from the Integrated Test Range in Chandipur in Balasore district, about 230 km from Bhubaneswar.
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07/09/2014
A timely report on the UK’s maritime air power capabilities has claimed the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier – officially named on 4 July – is a wise acquisition, based on the strategic advantage the vessel will bring to the nation. The Royal Aeronautical Society’s paper, Current and Future Maritime Air Power for the UK, released on 3 July, says although the design and development have been debated in recent years, it remains an advantage for the UK to possess the HMSQueen Elizabeth.
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07/09/2014
Stephen F. Cohen published an article in The Nation on July 1 entitled “The Silence of American Hawks about Kyiv’s Atrocities.” It makes for an interesting read, though it places virtually all the blame for the distressing crisis in Ukraine on the Ukrainian government and Washington. That situation, however, cannot be painted in the black and white strokes used by Dr. Cohen; there are many shades of gray.
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07/09/2014
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Tuesday he had raised a $12 billion fighter jet deal being negotiated by French company Dassault with India’s government during talks with his counterpart in New Delhi, suggesting London has not given up all hope on the giant contract.
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07/09/2014
If you drool at air shows and dream of someday flying in a military jet without having to do any extra push-ups, this might be your chance. A Harrier jump jet goes up for auction later this month, and one lucky new owner could put this former military training plane in the skies again. You’ll just have to ship it over in a container first.
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07/09/2014
Jordan is to arm the six IOMAX Border Patrol Aircraft (BPA) Block 1 precision strike turboprop aircraft that were gifted to the country by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2013, a senior company official has confirmed to IHS Jane's . This new capability will allow the BPA aircraft to carry six GBU-58 250 lb precision-guided bombs and/or six AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. Additionally, precision strike weapons training will begin immediately for the Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF).
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07/09/2014
Deepening its involvement in the crisis in Iraq, Iran has sent three Russian-made attack planes to the Maliki government that could be deployed against the Sunni militants who have wreaked havoc on Iraqi military forces, American and Iraqi officials said Tuesday. Delivery of the Su-25 aircraft, which American officials said had already conducted missions in western and northern Iraq.
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07/09/2014
It appears Ottawa has put on hold its decision to purchase next-generation F-35 fighter jets. It should go one step further and junk the purchase of any new fighters, period – saving $45-billion in the process. Canada does not need fighter aircraft. New Canadian fighters would almost certainly never be involved in serious strike or aerial combat operations and are not required to protect Canada’s populace or sovereignty.
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07/08/2014
Sixteen people were killed and five injured when a Vietnamese military helicopter crashed in the capital Hanoi early Monday during a training exercise, a top military official said. "The plane was carrying 21 people and it crashed during a parachute training exercise, killing 16 and injuring five others," Lieutenant General Vo Van Tuan, army deputy commander, told AFP.
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07/08/2014
The Iraqi Government is reportedly threatening to cancel a defence agreement with the US over the latter's delay in the supply of fighter jets. Unnamed sources close to Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told The Sunday Times that he is planning to cancel the strategic framework agreement signed with the US in 2008. "If Maliki revokes the agreement, Obama will see both Russia and Iran step in to fill the gap, especially where military contracts and logistics are concerned," one source said.
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07/08/2014
Raytheon has been awarded a more than $163 million contract to maintain a medium range air-to-air missiles program. Raytheon will provide engineering, program management and contractor logistics support for the AMRAAM central processing unit, Raytheon said Thursday. Raytheon will perform the task in Tucson, Arizona until Jan. 31, 2017.
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07/08/2014
The top US commander in Europe said he will probably need more troops to counter the renewed military threat from Russia that is roiling the far eastern region of Europe. But first he has to persuade the Pentagon to officially halt the US military drawdown that has been underway in his command since the Cold War ended.
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07/08/2014
With a few teeth-clenching exceptions (the Korean War's MiG Alley battles), since 1944, American land, sea and air forces have enjoyed the military and diplomatic benefits of U.S. air superiority. Unfortunately, in 2014 there are strong indications that America's air advantage is diminishing.
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07/08/2014
This month’s U.K. aviation-show extravaganza is shaping up very differently for two new fighter planes at opposite ends of the price spectrum. For the Lockheed Martin Corp. F-35 Joint Strike Fighter—the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program at $399 billion—time is running out to prepare for its planned international debut at two upcoming U.K. airshows starting Friday. The F-35 fleet remains grounded in the U.S. as investigators probe the cause of a June 23 engine fire on one of the planes.
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07/08/2014
Defence and security company Saab and FMV have concluded missile integration firings with Gripen and the MBDA Meteor BVRAAM (Beyond Visual-Range Air-to-Air Missile). These latest firings, conducted earlier this year, further verified missile integration with Gripen and validated seeker performance and missile range. This was the last major trials task required to clear the new missile for operational service on the Gripen C/D multi-role fighter.
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07/08/2014
Airmen from 17 different squadrons participated in the third annual 432nd Wing Hunt here, June 27- July 2. The remotely piloted aircraft crews, which fall under the 432nd Air Expeditionary Wing, were tested on their tactical skills in both the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper, using real-world scenarios during the competition.
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07/08/2014
Moscow and Baghdad have signed an urgent contract to supply Iraq with Russian Su-25 attack aircraft (estimates vary from five to 10 units). For Iraq, these supplies are a matter of national security. Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki’s government is in dire need of attack aircraft in order to support ground forces on their mission to confront Islamists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), who have taken control of large parts of the country in recent weeks.
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07/08/2014
Prime Minister Tony Abbott sat in the pilot seat of a F-35 Joint Strike Fighter at the time he announced his government will buy an additional 58 planes at a cost of at least A$12.4 billion. But imagine if there was no need for a pilot to fly inside the so-called fifth generation aircraft. The F-35 is said to be the smartest and most complex fighter jet on the planet, designed to conduct lethal strikes on air and ground targets without being detected by radar.
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07/07/2014
As the Fourth of July weekend comes to an end, most Americans are still recovering from BBQs and fireworks displays. For several hundred U.S. military personnel, however, the end of the weekend just marks the start of another week in Iraq, helping the struggling Iraqi government fend off the militants that have taken over a vast swath of territory.
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07/07/2014
Recently the web site of the Russian company that makes the MiG-29 fighter posted a document stating that four Syrian MiG-29s had been upgraded in 2011 to the MiG-29SM standard. When this tidbit made the Western news media the document on the Russian web site suddenly had the reference to the four Syrian MiG-29s removed.
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07/07/2014
Afghan forces are struggling to wrest back control of territory from the Taliban in an operation seen as critical to preserving Kabul's hold in the country's south in the wake of a U.S.-troop drawdown. A resurgent Taliban last month amassed hundreds of fighters in northern parts of Helmand province—a hotbed in the long-standing insurgency against Afghanistan's central government and the focus of President Barack Obama's troop surge in 2009 and 2010.
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07/07/2014
The antiquated state of North Korea’s military equipment has resulted in a series of accidents, with the most recent being a half-century-old Soviet-era fighter that came crashing into the West Sea. A North Korea source told the JoongAng Ilbo recently that a MIG-17 fighter jet crashed into western waters late May. After the accident, Pyongyang issued a mandate prohibiting the use of Air Force aircraft, including the MIG-17 model.
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07/07/2014
India has sought foreign technical assistance to help reduce the weight of its military training aircraft being developed by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL). Development of the HJT-36 Sitara intermediate jet trainer aircraft has struggled with technical issues and three incidents, delaying adoption by the Indian Air Force (IAF), its sole customer.
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07/07/2014
Driven out of their key stronghold in eastern Ukraine, pro-Russia separatists regrouped yesterday in the city of Donetsk, vowing to renew their fight against the government in Kiev before thousands of cheering supporters at a rally. Ukrainian troops on Saturday forced the rebels out of Slovyansk, a city of about 100,000 that had been the center of the fighting. The government's success there suggested it may finally be making gains in the months-long battle against the insurgency.
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07/07/2014
Defence and aerospace giant BAE Systems has seemingly borrowed from Hollywood script-writers with futuristic concepts for military and civil aircraft. The company has revealed four technologies it reckons could transform the way aircraft engineering could evolve by 2040. Dubbed ‘The Transformer’, one design envisages smaller combat jets that join together in flight to boost fuel efficiency and increase their range before splitting up to attack.
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07/07/2014
rom fabric and wires to fly-by-wire, almost 100 years of Carrier Aviation will be represented at RNAS Yeovilton Air Day on Saturday, July 26. With the Royal Navy's next generation aircraft carrier being named on July 4 and edging closer into service, types as diverse as the WW1-era Sopwith Triplane, the cutting-edge Dassault Rafale and the Wildcat HM2 will highlight naval airpower, past, present and future at the show.
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07/07/2014
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius’ visit to India will hopefully pave the way for an early finalisation of the long-stalled agreement on France’s delivery of Rafale fighter aircraft to India. While his visit did not culminate in an announcement as to when an agreement will indeed be signed, face-to-face talks between the two sides could have provided a push for a tying of the last knots before the finalising of an agreement.
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07/06/2014
Despite complaints by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that the United States has been slow in its delivery of F-16 fighter jets, no Iraqi pilot team has qualified to fly the aircraft in combat and none will be ready before mid-August, according to an official at the U.S.-based program where the pilots are being trained.
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07/06/2014
Australia's newest and most expensive defence technology acquisition, the high-tech F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, has been grounded in the US where it is being built, after one of the stealth bombers experienced an unexplained engine fire. Australia is expected to take possession of its first two JSFs within weeks - more than two years after they were originally planned to be delivered.
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07/06/2014
So, what is happening? Why have leaders from three P5 nations chosen to visit New Delhi in such a short space of time? Is there a common thread in their India visits? Well, here is one word answer: business. No, it is not business in the sense of trade and investment. It is much more lucrative than that. It pertains to defense deals which are generally big-ticket and tend to go into billions of dollars.
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07/06/2014
As friction increases between China and Vietnam over the South China Sea, an important question is how Vietnam’s military, famed decades ago for its resilience and guerrilla warfare, measures up. For the last two months, Chinese and Vietnamese Coast Guard vessels have been jostling each other around a billion-dollar Chinese oil rig that Vietnam says was unilaterally placed in its waters by Beijing.
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07/06/2014
The Lockheed F-117A Night Hawk was an aircraft developed over decades and benefiting from a combination of advanced American engineering and also unique theories about stealth from a Russian scientist that Ben Rich, Lockheed’s top man over the design of secret new military aircraft, believed would give a new American fighter an edge over any other jet or ground defenses.
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07/06/2014
The lack of noise within the aircraft was noticeable compared to the C-17, C-130 or other aircraft. The seats are more comfortable as well. I did not hear the engines start up, and so was surprised when the aircraft took off. And then the incredibly rapid takeoff demonstrated its capability to lift from very, very short fields. The plane had a very stable performance in flight. And all of this is happening inside a very large cargo aircraft.
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07/06/2014
Foreign forces, small in numbers but militarily potent, are already in Iraq, positioned to shape the outcome of the bloody sectarian war threatening to tear the country apart. But it’s clear that while the U.S., Russia and Iran are willing to commit military personnel, munitions or both to the fight, the three have different and sometimes opposing objectives.
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07/05/2014
Russia is letting separatist rebels use its territory to attack Ukrainian border posts, a top security official charged Friday as clashes in southeastern Ukraine killed nine more government troops. National Security Council Secretary Andriy Parubiy also said Russia was massing troops near the Ukrainian border — a statement that could not immediately be verified.
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07/05/2014
ncredible images have been released by the Department of Defence which captures Australian military aircraft during some recent aerial refueling operations. Some of them include hornets flying in a formation over Australia's Northern Territory while another shows a Seahawk helicopter on the deck of HMAS Melbourne in Jervis Bay, south of Sydney.
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07/04/2014
The area controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) expanded suddenly after ISIS made a move into central Iraq from the east of Syria. While the world spoke about this expansion, weapons that ISIS seized, many of which were U.S. weapons given to the Iraqi army, became the main point of discussion.
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07/04/2014
For the economy Japanese prime minister Abe has arrows, for foreign policy he wants missiles and for the constitution, well, has just driven a tank over it. The world changed on July 1. That sentence is not a resort to a clapped-out cliché. When the Tokyo cabinet "reinterpreted", in fact overrode, a key clause in its constitution meant to ensure the country's post-war pacifist approach, it ushered in an era of uncertainty.
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07/04/2014
Five new Reaper drones, the most recent addition to the RAF’s arsenal, have started combat operations in Afghanistan, according to the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The unmanned aircraft, which are based at Kandahar airfield, are being used to collect intelligence to help UK and USAF operations, with the latest deployment doubling the RAF’s Reaper force in the region.
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07/04/2014
Russia is likely to deliver additional Su-25 Frogfoot ground attack aircraft to the Iraqi Ministry of Defence (MoD) by September this year. Russian ambassador to Baghdad Ilya Morgunov told RIA Novosti that the country will supply five to ten Su-25 fighters to Iraq by the end of summer. The contracts for military hardware signed in 2013, are being implemented according to schedule Morgunov added.
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07/04/2014
Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) was awarded a $163,223,113 fixed-price/fixed-price-incentive/cost-plus-incentive contract for Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) Program Support and Sustainment (PSAS). The PSAS contract provides sustaining engineering, program management, contractor logistics support and accomplishes the diminishing manufacturing sources and material shortage tasks of extending the life of the AMRAAM Central Processing Unit.
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07/04/2014
The U.S. Army has started equipping aviation brigades with drones as it retires aging reconnaissance helicopters and pushes to further integrate unmanned technology amid budget cuts. Combat aviation brigades at Fort Bliss, Texas, and Fort Carson, Colorado, are expected to finish divesting OH-58 Kiowa Warrior scout helicopters and adding RQ-7 Shadow unmanned aerial systems later this year, according to Col. Thomas von Eschenbach.
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07/04/2014
The mass media recently made much of a study of American UAV accident reports. These revealed that since 2001 there have been 194 major accidents (an incident causing more than two milliondollars’ worth of damage, which usually, but not always, means the UAV was too badly damaged to be repaired) since 2001. That’s about 15 a year. This is old news to people in the military of those who read military aviation publications regularly.
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07/04/2014
Iraq's military is incapable of mounting an offensive against Sunni militants who have seized large sections of the country, the top U.S. general said Thursday, suggesting the U.S. might have to play a larger role in helping Iraqis defeat the regional threat. Initial assessments from U.S. military teams in Iraq have found that the country's military can defend Baghdad, but wouldn't be able to uproot the extremist group known as Islamic State, which is consolidating control across the Middle East
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07/04/2014
Procurement of so-called fighter drones to protect German armed forces remains controversial, but Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen has finally disclosed her plans for the aircraft: The German military should receive drones, she said, but these can only be deployed with parliamentary approval. EurActiv Germany reports.
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07/03/2014
On Jul. 1, all the seven operational Su-25 Frogfoot attack planes operated by the Pasdaran (informal name of the IRGC – the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution) have completed their deployment to Imam Ali Airbase where they will join the ex-Russian Air Force Su-25s already delivered to Iraq in the air war against ISIS (Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant).
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07/03/2014
Iraq has taken delivery of its first batch of Mil Mi-28NE 'Havoc' (Night Hunter) attack helicopters, as well as additional Mil Mi-35M 'Hind' assault helicopters, Russian state media announced on 2 July. The first three Mi-28NE helicopters and four new Mi-35M helicopters arrived in-country aboard Antonov An-124 'Condor' transport aircraft, a military-diplomatic source reportedly told the ITAR-TASS news agency.
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07/03/2014
It's still not clear where the 750 US troops now deployed to Iraq are going to be, or what they're going to be doing. On Tuesday, however, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that one of their most important tasks will be to assess whether Iraq's military and police are up to protecting their territory and/or taking back the parts of the country overrun by hardline Sunni militants.
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07/03/2014
The crash occurred approximately 35 miles southwest of Fort Drum, New York according to an Air Combat Command Accident Investigation Board report released today. The mishap aircraft and mishap aircrew were assigned to the 17 4th Attack Wing, Hancock Field Air National Guard Base, New York. The aircraft, valued at $10.6 million, was destroyed on impact; there was no damage to private property.
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07/03/2014
The Iraqi Air Force (IqAF) has reportedly received from Iran a number of Sukhoi Su-25 'Frogfoot' ground-attack aircraft to augment those already supplied by Russia. A video and statement posted on the Iraqi Ministry of Defence (MoD) website on 1 July announced that a second batch of five jets had arrived "over the skies of Baghdad" to join the five aircraft that came from Russia aboard an Antonov An-124 'Condor' cargo aircraft on 29 June.
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07/03/2014
The Pentagon insisted Tuesday that there is "no mission creep” in Iraq despite the rising number of U.S. troops in the embattled country with more on the way. Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, confirmed that 650 American troops were on the ground in Iraq, all of them dispatched by President Barack Obama since June 16.
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07/03/2014
The US Navy (USN) has awarded billions of dollars in contracts for US and Australian Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers, as well as for US Northrop Grumman E-2D Advanced Hawkeyes, the Pentagon announced on 30 June. A USD1.94 billion fixed-price-incentive-fee contract was signed for the full-rate production of 11 Lot 38 F/A-18E aircraft and 21 EA-18G aircraft for the USN and 12 EA-18Gs for Australia, the Pentagon said.
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07/03/2014
Boeing recently helped expand the U.S. Navy’s maritime patrol capabilities with delivery of the 14th P-8A Poseidon aircraft. The P-8A, delivered on schedule, is now with its squadron at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla. Boeing will deliver seven more of the maritime patrol aircraft this year.
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07/03/2014
Boeing today confirmed that the new 787-9 Dreamliner and the P-8A Poseidon will participate for the first time in flying displays at the Farnborough International Airshow, which runs July 14-20. This year's airshow marks the 40th anniversary of Boeing's participation at Farnborough.
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07/02/2014
The US Air Force has begun conducting armed unmanned air vehicle (UAV) operations over Baghdad, to protect advisers deployed to aid in the fight against insurgent militants in Iraq. The UAVs are flying alongside armed manned aircraft, Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm John Kirby said in a statement on 30 June, and have been deployed to escort US military advisers who have entered the country to help the Iraqi government counter the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIS) terrorist movement.
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07/02/2014
Almost 70 years ago, a pioneering British company performed the first test of an innovation which was to transform the cockpit of the jet fighter, and has since saved the lives of thousands of pilots. Carried out on 24 July 1946, the milestone was the first in-flight use of an ejection seat. Conducted from the rear cockpit of a Gloster Meteor flying at 278kt (515km/h) and 8,000ft, the test subject was not a fighter pilot, but volunteer Bernard Lynch, who worked for Martin-Baker as a fitter.
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07/02/2014
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's timing was impeccable: July 1 marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of Japan's Self-Defense Forces (SDF), the de-fanged fighting force that has protected the country since its creation from the ashes of post-World War II Japan. Following the announcement, it is also the day that, some would argue, the name ceased to have any meaning.
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07/02/2014
Vladimir S Mikhaylov, the former commander of the Russian Air Force and director of the Moscow-based United Aircraft Corporation's Military Aviation Programs Directorate, told Russia's Radio RSN on June 28 that China is about to sign a contract to import Sukhoi Su-35 fourth-generation fighters from Russia.
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07/02/2014
France has proposed to give India a 1 billion euro ($1.4 billion) credit line to fund sustainable infrastructure and urban development projects, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Tuesday. The credit line would be available over three years and would be delivered through the French Development Agency, Fabius, who began his India visit on Monday, told reporters in New Delhi.
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07/02/2014
Violence in Ukraine escalated sharply Tuesday, as artillery shells and airstrikes pierced the relative calm of a 10-day ceasefire hours after President Petro Poroshenko allowed it to expire. Both sides appeared to be readying for a protracted battle after days in which the fighting diminished but did not disappear.
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07/02/2014
The big gray aircraft that wheel above the Pine Barrens played a critical role for America in Iraq and Afghanistan, fueling the air bridge for troops and equipment, stretching halfway around the globe. But the KC-10 Extender air refueling tankers at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst may be in danger of early retirement. The jets and the thousands of New Jersey jobs they support are in a squeeze between tightening budgets and the time lapse for bringing on the Air Force's next-generation tankers,
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07/02/2014
The F-35 Lightning II European debut in July will be welcome, but it remains the Punch and Judy program of the defense aerospace sector, with boosters and detractors taking turns to bash each other’s argument as to the project’s value — or lack thereof.
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07/02/2014
A U.S. Air Force crew ferried the 20th C-5M Super Galaxy to Travis Air Force Base, California, from the Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] facilities here on June 30. Travis’ second Super Galaxy, Aircraft 85-0010 was delivered 28 days ahead of the contracted schedule. A total of 52 Super Galaxy aircraft are scheduled to be delivered to the Air Force.
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07/02/2014
Iraq is to receive from five to ten Russian Su-25 ground attack aircraft by September, Russian Ambassador to Baghdad Ilya Morgunov said Tuesday. "From five to ten [planes] will be delivered by the end of the summer,” Morgunov said. “The contracts [for military hardware], signed in 2013, are being implemented according to schedule.”
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07/01/2014
Pro-Russian separatists likely used weapons supplied by Moscow to shoot down Ukrainian aircraft in recent weeks, NATO's top commander General Philip Breedlove said Monday.
Russia was maintaining a large troop presence near Ukraine's border and had provided anti-aircraft weapons and other hardware to the rebels, Breedlove told a Pentagon news conference.
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07/01/2014
BAE Systems is restructuring part of its operations in Saudi Arabia to allow greater local participation as part of a government programme to increase the industrial base of the world’s largest oil producer. The UK-based defence contractor said on Monday that it was creating a holding company with Riyadh Wings Aviation Academy that would control the stakes it owns in three local Saudi businesses.
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07/01/2014
On a day in which the Department of Defense awarded 29 separate defense contracts, Raytheon came away the big winner Friday, winning no fewer than six separate awards - and more than half the funds on offer, $469.2 million in all. Raytheon's big win of the day was a $275.4 million contract modification to supply the U.S. Navy with an unspecified number of Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) all-up rounds (AUR refers to live-fire rounds, completely assembled and lacking only wings and fins for guidance).
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07/01/2014
French foreign minister Laurent Fabius on Monday said he was “pretty optimistic” that the $20 billion (around Rs.1.2 trillion) deal to supply India with 126 Rafale fighter jets would be clinched early—something he said would open the doors for further defence cooperation with India.
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07/01/2014
When the Air Force was split off from the Army to form an independent military service after World War Two, airmen got almost all the planes and soldiers got almost all the helicopters. Ever since then, Army Aviation has been about rotorcraft. There are heavily-armed Apache helicopters for killing enemy armored vehicles, agile Black Hawk helicopters for lifting troops into combat areas, and twin-rotor Chinook helicopters that carry larger numbers of soldiers, supplies and equipment.
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07/01/2014
International political and security developments are casting a shadow on this year’s Farnborough International Airshow. The U.S. and its allies are presenting strong fronts as they draw down forces in Afghanistan. But given the threat of new sanctions and unrest in Ukraine, the Russian military will not bring its aircraft to the show.
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07/01/2014
Iraq has received the first batch of Sukhoi Su-25 'Frogfoot' ground attack aircraft that have been supplied by Russia, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on 29 June. Video footage was released of at least one single-seat Su-25 being offloaded from an Antonov An-124 'Condor' strategic transport aircraft at an undisclosed airbase in Iraq, with the MoD saying that five aircraft had been delivered in all.
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07/01/2014
Boeing today formally offered to the Republic of Korea (ROK) the KC-46, the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation tanker, as Korea prepares to acquire four aircraft for its first tanker squadron. “We’ve been a strategic and industrial partner with the Republic of Korea for more than six decades and remain committed to helping Korea strengthen its defense capabilities and aerospace industry,” said Eric John, president of Boeing Korea.
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07/01/2014
Boeing and the Royal Canadian Air Force today celebrated the delivery of the 15th CH-147F Medium-to-Heavy-Lift Helicopter, ensuring advanced operational capability for the Canadian Chinook fleet. “The Medium-to-Heavy-Lift Helicopter project is making an exemplary contribution to the Canada First Defence Strategy,” said Col. Andrew Fleming, program manager for the Medium Heavy Lift Helicopter Project Management Office.
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