August 29, 2014 Military Aviation News
08/29/2014
China’s efforts to protect its submarine gateway to the South China Sea could broaden from standoffs with U.S. military planes to announcing an air defense identification zone, according to two retired army officers. China could seek to restrict the air space around Hainan Island as the U.S. routinely runs surveillance flights in the area, retired Colonel Yue Gang said. The move would mirror a zone China set up in November over portions of the East China Sea disputed with Japan.
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08/29/2014
Kiev and its Western backers accused Moscow of sending Russian troops and armor to fight alongside rebels in eastern Ukraine, dimming hopes for a diplomatic solution to the crisis and prompting the U.S. and Europe to threaten new sanctions. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko convened an emergency meeting of his security chiefs Thursday and vowed that "Ukraine can defend itself."
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08/29/2014
Now is the time for Saudi Arabia to man up. There is broad agreement that the black-clad savages of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham pose a profound threat first to neighboring Arab regimes and only then to Europe and the United States. Yet amid the debate over how a reluctant U.S. or timid Europe should respond, there is no discussion of what Saudi Arabia should do. This is a remarkable omission that ought to shame the Saudis.
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08/29/2014
The Czech Republic moved a step closer to completing a deal to sell 12 subsonic fighter planes to Iraq after the Defence Ministry and plane maker Aero Vodochody agreed on conditions, defence officials said on Thursday. The Czech army has a surplus of the L-159 fighters, made by Aero and used as training or light combat aircraft, and has been looking for a buyer. In July, the Czechs signed a contract to sell 14 L-159 planes to U.S. company Draken International.
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08/29/2014
U.S. Air Force Air National Guard Maj. Matthew Mutti said that if the pilot whose F-15C jet crashed in Virginia on Wednesday ejected, that pilot is trained, if not equipped, to survive in the wild. Every Air Force member who flies goes through an extensive 19-day survival, evasion, resistance and escape, or SERE, course taught at Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington State.
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08/29/2014
In case you haven't noticed, the military enjoys its abbreviations. That's especially true of the flying forces, which seemingly speak in nothing but shorthand. While we will endeavor to explain as many of those phrases as possible in this series, today, we'll focus on one of the most common types – the combat air patrol, or CAP.
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08/29/2014
If combat aircraft are sent, they would probably be six of the RAAF’s 24 Super Hornet fighter-bombers. They would need to be escorted to the Middle East by a flying tanker, possibly one of the RAAF’s KC-30s. If the RAAF tankers are not ready for such a mission, the Hornets could be refuelled by a US tanker based on the island of Diego Garcia or by a contacted civilian tanker.
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08/29/2014
Boeing will participate in the annual MSPO International Defence Industry exhibition in Kielce, Poland, which runs Sept. 1-4. The company will highlight several of its defense products and services including the AH-64 Apache and AH-6i combat helicopters, the KC-46A Pegasus aerial refueling tanker, and unmanned aerial systems such as the ScanEagle, among other programs.
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