October, 2014 Military Aviation News
10/31/2014
In a single 24-hour period this week, Russia dispatched 19 combat aircraft — including “Bear” strategic bombers — to probe North Atlantic Treaty Organization air defenses. It also test-launched a ballistic missile in the Barents Sea, north of Sweden, that hit a target in Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East.
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10/31/2014
The US Air Force's (USAF's) goal to make its new fleet of Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter combat aircraft operationally deployable in August 2016 has been imperilled by lawmakers' efforts to halt the service's plan to retire its Cold War-era Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt close air support (CAS) aircraft fleet, the Pentagon's F-35 programme manager said on 30 October.
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10/31/2014
Canadian warplanes have begun flying combat missions over Iraq although no bombs have yet been dropped. CF-18 fighters and Canada’s surveillance spy planes and a refuelling tanker have all flown sorties over Iraq starting Thursday, sources say. The fighters also flew a second combat mission Friday morning. Bad weather thwarted the CF-18s’s ability to launch air strikes Thursday as their laser-guided munitions were frustrated by the clouds.
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10/31/2014
This week, Russian aircraft have probed NATO defenses to a degree unseen since the Cold War. Fighter aircraft from eight NATO members were reportedly scrambled to intercept more than two dozen aircraft just on Tuesday and Wednesday. As the Wall Street Journal report details, the intercepts of Russian aircraft have occurred more than one hundred times this year, which is about three times the number of intercepts conducted last year.
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10/31/2014
UK today said the Europe-backed Eurofighter could hold negotiations with India for the supply 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) if the talks for the multi-billion dollar deal with French major Dassault Aviation do not make progress. Making it clear that his country respects the "position the Indian government has adopted", visiting UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said.
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10/31/2014
A US military expert believes North Korea has the ability to miniaturize nuclear warheads for its medium-range missiles, however Pyongyang does not appear to have technical capacity to conduct tests, Yonhap News Agency reported on Thursday. “My analysis is that North Korea could probably miniaturize a warhead that should fit for a Rodong missile,” director of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Program at the International Institute for Strategic Studies Mark Fitzpatrick told Yonhap News.
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10/31/2014
Kabul has not asked for more Russian Mi-17 helicopters, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan Chris Belcher told RIA Novosti on Thursday.
Russia's Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) has announced on Thursday that the deal between the United States and Russia for the Mi-17 helicopters was completed on October 29.
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10/30/2014
The “friendly fire” airstrike that killed five American soldiers in Afghanistan on June 9 is the first known case of a battlefield catastrophe that can be linked to automatic defense spending cuts that greatly curtailed prewar training. A review of the worst American fratricide in the long Afghanistan war also shows that the military’s official investigation faults a Green Beret commander.
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10/30/2014
Welcome back to history, mariners of the world! Your post-Cold War holiday from history is drawing to a close—if it hasn’t expired already. Last week’s imbroglio between the Swedish Navy and an apparent Russian submarine in the Stockholm archipelago was only the most recent reminder of certain verities about combat at sea.
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10/30/2014
Most political observers would agree that Barack Obama’s presidential election victory in 2008 was the product of an unprecedented alignment of factors, from his use of technology and social media, to the economy going into free fall under the Republican administration in autumn of that year.
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10/30/2014
Brazil's decision to buy the Swedish JAS-39E/F Gripen (or Gripen NG) has opened a tantalising possibility for India's defence ministry (MoD), which is frustrated after 33 months of negotiations with French company, Dassault on the proposed purchase of 126 Rafale medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA).
On Monday, Swedish defence giant, Saab, which builds the Gripen, announced Brazil had signed a contract for 36 Gripen NG fighters for $5.475 billion.
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10/30/2014
The Air Force says the U.S. bombing campaign against Islamic extremists is exacerbating its shortage of plane-maintenance experts—a gap that is rekindling tensions with Congress about how to manage the nation’s combat aircraft. To keep U.S. planes flying over Syria and Iraq, Air Force officials said they have had to deploy hundreds of midlevel maintenance personnel to the overseas missions.
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10/30/2014
The French government believes that India is about to become the first customer for the Rafale fighter aircraft despite the long and hard bargaining over price and work-share arrangements. In three months from now, it will be three years since the Indian Air Force selected the Rafale from a field of six competitors to fulfil its requirement for 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA).
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10/30/2014
As many as 12 Russian combat aircraft Su-27 and two combat training aircraft Su-27 will be deployed at the airfield in Bobruisk, BelTA learned from Russian Defense Minister, Army General Sergei Shoigu on 29 October. “Next year we will deploy 12 combat aircraft Su-27 and two training aircraft Su-27 in addition to a wing of four Mi-8 helicopters at the airfield in Bobruisk,” said Sergei Shoigu.
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10/30/2014
Sweden recognized a state of Palestine on Thursday, describing the decision as a crucial step it hopes will lead the way for others. "In the light of the international law analysis, we see no reason to delay this decision," Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said. She said the decision was made based on the fact that the state "met the criteria of international law."
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10/30/2014
Moscow and Beijing are continuing talks on the delivery of Su-35 Flanker multirole fighters to China and the contract is currently being clarified, the deputy general manager of Russia’s arms export company said Wednesday. “Russia and China are continuing negotiations on the Su-35 and the process of agreeing the documents is ongoing.
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10/29/2014
Three and half months after Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, Dutch prosecutors investigating the tragedy now believe the aircraft may have been shot down by another aircraft, according to a senior prosecutor in a German media interview. Since the downing of the aircraft on July 17 this year, Russian officials have repeatedly said that they have radar imagery proving that the Boeing 777 was in fact shot down by Ukrainian military aircraft.
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10/29/2014
New photos that have appeared on Chinese aviation websites suggest that mass production of the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC) J-15 carrier-based multirole fighter is gathering pace. Two new J-15 aircraft, numbered 104 and 105, are ready for delivery by SAC to the People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force (PLANAF). The new additions take the total of known J-15 aircraft to 11, including prototypes.
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10/29/2014
The soldier commanding CF-18 fighter jets and other aircraft deployed to the Middle East says these forces are "on target" to launch operations against Islamic State jihadists by Saturday.
"That means we have all the support in place, plus the command and control capacity to have the ability to conduct national targeting, to validate targets," said Lt.-Gen. Jon Vance, the decorated Afghan veteran who took over Canadian Joint Operations Command in September.
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10/29/2014
There is a buzz in the air about New Delhi’s intentions of shooting down the 2007 agreement with Moscow for the joint development of fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) or at least put it on the hold to generate the funds for financing the Rafale deal with France. Under the estimated $20-30 billion mother-of-the-deals for the acquisition of 126 medium multirole combat aircraft (MMRCA).
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10/29/2014
Giving a big push to its defence business, Tata Advanced Systems (TASL) has teamed up with Airbus Defence and Space, a division of Airbus Group, to bid for Indian Air Force's transport aircraft replacement programme. If awarded the contract, the combine will manufacture and supply C295 transport aircraft to replace the IAF's Avro planes, the two companies announced on Tuesday.
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10/29/2014
Navy pilots got their first look Tuesday at the aircraft that only the youngest among them might get to fly within the next decade. The F-35C Joint Strike Fighter made its debut at Naval Air Station Oceana. It was followed here from Eglin Air Force Base in Florida by an F/A-18 Hornet, the jet it is supposed to replace.
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10/29/2014
A deal for new jets to operate from RAF Marham has moved a step closer, with the Government poised to sign a contract in the coming weeks. The Ministry of Defence said yesterday that it had reached an agreement in principle for the first batch of the Lightning II stealth combat aircraft, which will operate from the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carriers, as well as the Norfolk base.
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10/29/2014
According to the Latvian military, on Oct. 28, the German Air Force Eurofighter jets on QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) at Amari, Estonia, to provide NATO Baltic Air Policing were scrambled to intercept seven Russian Air Force planes flying in international airspace over the Baltic Sea. The German interceptors identified the Russian planes as a large package, made of attack planes and escort, which included 2x MiG-31 Foxhound, 2x Su-34 Fullback, 1x Su-27 Flanker and 2x Su-24 Fencer jets.
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10/29/2014
Trucks with heavy armament to help the Syrian Kurdish self-defense forces against the Islamic State (IS) militant group on Tuesday left the capital of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Erbil and now moving toward the Syrian city of Kobani via Turkey. “Peshmerga have crossed the Turkish border and in few hours they will be in Kobani,” leader of the Syrian self-defense forces Saleh Muslim was quoted by the CNN Turk TV channel as saying.
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10/28/2014
Defence and security company Saab has signed a contract with the Brazilian Federal Government (Ministry of Defense through the Aeronautics Command, COMAER) covering the development and production of 36 Gripen NG fighter aircraft for the Brazilian Air Force. The total order value is approximately SEK 39.3 billion. Saab and COMAER have also signed an Industrial Co-operation contract to deliver substantial technology transfer from Saab to Brazilian industry.
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10/28/2014
Last week, defense journalist Giovonni Colla spent some time in Greece at Araxos Air Base to capture what would be a bittersweet moment in the history of combat aviation – the retirement of the humble, but incredibly effective, Ling-Temco-Vought A-7 Corsair II. Though it's better known as the SLUF. Or Short Little Ugly Fucker.
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10/28/2014
For decades, the Pentagon has been toying with the idea of upgrading the B-52 bomber, first built in the mid-1950s. Will they finally get around to it, this time? The U.S. Air Force is taking a serious look at overhauling the nearly 60 year-old B-52 bomber—including a new engine for the ancient plane. The question is not whether it makes sense, but why it hasn’t been done before.
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10/28/2014
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has successfully completed the upgrade of first Su-30MKI multi-role combat aircraft at its facility in Nashik, Maharashtra, India. The company test pilots will now fly the aircraft to validate its performance before handing it over to the Indian Air Force (IAF) next month, as reported by Business Standard.
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10/28/2014
The U.S. Department of Defense and Lockheed Martin have reached an agreement in principle for the production of 43 F-35 Lightning II aircraft. Officials anticipate the Low-Rate Initial Production lot 8 (LRIP 8) contract to be finalized in the coming weeks. The contract is for fiscal year 2014 with deliveries beginning in 2016.
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10/28/2014
Boeing this month delivered to the U.S. Army, 75 days ahead of schedule, the 300th CH-47F Chinook helicopter. “This marks another benchmark for the CH-47F program,” said Lt. Col. Michael Hauenstein, the Army’s CH-47F product manager, Office of the Project Manager, Cargo Helicopters. “More importantly, we have met this benchmark ahead of schedule, within cost, and produced an aircraft that performs as required worldwide.
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10/28/2014
Since the beginning of 2014, Russia has sold $9.8-billion in arms and military equipment abroad, the deputy director of Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation said Tuesday.
“According to the figures for October of this year, Russia has exported arms and military equipment totaling $9.8 billion,” Anatoly Punchuk, who is heading the Russian delegation at the Euronaval-2014 exhibition in Paris, told RIA Novosti.
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10/28/2014
The Unites States is examining the claims that Islamic State (IS) militants could possess modern anti-aircraft missile systems that can down passenger jets, Spokesperson for the US Department of State Jen Psaki said. According to German media reports, the German foreign intelligence agency BND reportedly briefed the country's parliament at the end of last week on the new threat coming from the violent IS grouping.
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10/28/2014
The US Department of Defense confirmed that the Islamic State (IS) has limited anti-aircraft weaponry in its arsenal, Commander Elissa Smith at the Office of the Secretary of Defense told RIA Novosti on Monday. “We can confirm ISIL [IS] has limited anti-aircraft artillery capability, mostly used in a ground combat role.
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10/27/2014
THE scourge of ISIS — a female Kurdish warrior who was credited with killing 100 jihadists — may have herself died in the desperate battle to prevent the city of Kobani falling into extremist hands. But her sisters-in-arms fight on. The young woman, known only by the pseudonym ‘Rehana’, became world famous after a picture of her flashing a “V” for victory sign went viral on social media.
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10/27/2014
The soldiers snapped to attention and a Union flag was lowered towards the parched desert sand. With this brief ceremony, Britain’s 13-year war in Afghanistan came to an end. Only a few score soldiers were on parade, the music was piped American marching tunes and the whole occasion was conducted under the hovering protection afforded by Apache attack helicopters.
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10/27/2014
Ninety percent of the world’s trade flows by sea and the majority of that through narrow, vulnerable straits such as Malacca, Singapore and Taiwan. This has forced the Asia-Pacific region to outspend all other nations, except the US, in procurement of ships and submarines. The dangers are real. Taiwan Adm. Chen Yeong-kang said regional territorial disputes could disrupt sea lines of communication (SLOC) in the region.
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10/27/2014
Last week Chief of the Russian Air Force Viktor Bondarev announced that a Russian airbase would be established in Babruysk in 2016. An article from the Moscow Times on expanding the Russian air force presence abroad, subsequently reprinted in the Guardian, painted a rather dramatic, yet not entirely correct picture.
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10/27/2014
As the pilots of 1st Attack Reconnaissance Battalion, “Task Force Wolfpack,” 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, continue their high tempo of flight hours in their area of operation, fuelers from Echo Company, 1st ARB operate 24 hours a day to support the continuous refuel missions to maintain the CAB’s air presence in the battlefield.
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10/27/2014
Japan began exercises Monday with the U.S. Army in Hokkaido, a day after it started naval maneuvers with Russia 800 km away off the coast of Vladivostok. The drills illustrate the balance Prime Minister Shinzo Abe must strike between his attempts to mend relations with Russia and the need to bolster his country’s alliance with the United States as a backstop to a more assertive China in the region.
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10/27/2014
Bharat Karnad’s article, “Impending MMRCA Waste”, published in The New Indian Express on October 3 is a clear attempt to keep the MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) pot boiling—it warrants a response only to sensitise the environment of the truth, just as the learned professor tries to undermine it with his needless ranting on the MMRCA.
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10/27/2014
From the battlefield near Baiji, an Islamic State jihadist fired a heat-seeking missile and blew an Iraqi army Mi-35M attack helicopter out of the sky this month, killing its two crew members. Days later, the Islamic State released a chilling series of images from a video purporting to capture the attack in northern Iraq: a jihadist hiding behind a wall with a Chinese-made missile launcher balanced on his shoulder.
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10/27/2014
China is testing a new generation of military aircraft which includes the country's first and most advanced stealth fighter believed to form the backbone of its air force. The photos of fourth-generation stealth fighter J20, Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AEW&CS) aircraft KJ-500 and Y-20 large military transporter, reportedly conducting tests flights, were published on a popular military forum, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
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10/26/2014
The Indian air force has temporarily suspended flying on its entire fleet of an estimated 200 Sukhoi Su-30MKIs, following an uncommanded ejection involving the type on 21 October. “Flying of the Su-30 fleet has been temporarily suspended. The Court of Inquiry is in progress and certain specific checks are being conducted on the aircraft,” says India's defence ministry.
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10/26/2014
The Ministry of Defence is speeding up plans to upgrade the RAF’s Typhoon jets with precision missiles in case they are one day needed to bomb Isil fighters in Iraq. Defence sources said Britain’s role in the unexpected campaign against Islamist militants had exposed a shortage of ground attack jets which will only get worse as the RAF’s ageing Tornado planes retire.
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10/26/2014
Russian Ambassador in New Delhi Alexander Kadakin claims Chinese Sukhoi Flankers will swat the Rafale like mosquitoes, but what’s more worrying is India is willing to spend $30 billion on a stop-gap aircraft. Fighter planes fall into two categories – the hunters and the hunted. The French are pitching their Rafale as the dogfight duke that is the crème de la crème of jet fighters.
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10/26/2014
India has chosen to buy anti-tank guided missiles from Israel, rejecting a rival US offer, as the right-wing government clears projects worth $13.1 billion to modernise its ageing military, official sources said on Sunday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government will buy 8,356 Spike missiles and 321 launchers from Israel in a deal worth 32 billion rupees ($525 million), defence ministry sources told AFP.
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10/26/2014
With Russia asserting itself in Ukraine and the Baltic States and the U.S. and its allies embroiled in conflict against Islamic State militants, there is mounting concern among defense analysts that the U.S. and western Europe should not continue to reduce defense spending. Unless President Barack Obama and Congress abruptly reverse course, the U.S. defense budget is scheduled to absorb automatic reductions, known as the sequester.
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10/26/2014
The upcoming Zuhai airshow taking place in China next month will provide an opportunity to get first impressions of the new stealth jets and modernized fighter aircraft currently under development or recently delivered to the People's Republic of China Army, Air Force, Navy.
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10/26/2014
A new generation of aircraft expected to form the backbone of the Chinese air force have purportedly been captured on film and posted online by military enthusiasts. The photos of the fourth-generation stealth fighter J20, Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AEW&CS) aircraft KJ-500 and Y-20 large military transporter, reportedly conducting tests flights, were published on a popular military forum on Saturday.
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10/26/2014
India cleared on Saturday a bulk of defense projects worth $13 billion in a bid to boost the country's national defense preparedness, the Indian Defense Acquisition Council (DAC) said.
According to defense ministry sources, the major decisions taken by the Defense Acquisition Council include the construction of six submarines in India at the cost of about Rs 50,000 crore and the purchase of more than 8,000 Israeli anti-tank guided missiles.
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10/26/2014
Kurdish armed forces have retaken control of town Zumar in northern Iraq and pushed Islamic State (IS) militants out of several nearby villages, a Kurdish security official said Saturday. A source in the Kurdish intelligence told Reuters that Islamic State fighters had put up a fight as they were evicted by local Kurdish forces, who made considerable gains on Saturday morning.
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10/25/2014
Russia has announced the start of work on the creation of a sixth-generation fighter jet. The body is to be made of composite materials and it should attain high speeds and have the latest electronic warfare equipment, avionics, and a propulsion system. However, the kind of combat missions the new vehicle will be expected to fulfill are unclear.
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10/25/2014
Recent reports of Egyptian military aircraft bombing Islamist militant positions in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi have highlighted once more how the Mediterranean state has become a contested site of regional proxy wars. The projection of Middle Eastern rivalries onto Libya’s fractured landscape has a long pedigree, dating back to the 2011 revolution and perhaps even further.
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10/25/2014
Rebels opposed to President Bashar Assad called Friday for help from the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State, saying the Syrian military is close to encircling the city of Aleppo and cutting off rebel supply routes to Turkey. In a statement, the Syrian Opposition Coalition, once hailed by the United States as the only legitimate representative of the Syrian people, called for U.S. assistance, warning of dire results if Assad’s forces are able to seize the town of Handarat.
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10/25/2014
If Darth Vader had a fighter jet, it would be an F-22 Raptor.
Though the Blue Angels are the stars of this weekend’s air show, the ferocious looking Raptors are the baddest birds on the planet. It’s been said that in dogfight training with other U.S. fighters, flying the F-22 is almost unfair.
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10/25/2014
The airstrike coalition aimed at quashing the Islamic State (IS) militant group is gaining momentum, Pentagon Press Secretary and Spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby stated. "We believe the strategy is working. The coalition continues to gain momentum and strength," Kirby was quoted as saying on the Pentagon's Twitter account Friday.
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10/25/2014
The United States and Russia continue to implement the New START Treaty against all odds, US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control Rose Gottenmoeller said. "The United States and Russia are continuing to implement the treaty in a businesslike manner, despite all the tensions," Gottenmoeller was quoted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as addressing students Friday.
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10/24/2014
The Islamists have looted military garrisons across the region, and now have tanks, armoured personnel carriers, anti-tank weapons and artillery. Boko Haram claims to have downed a Nigerian fighter jet (and has filmed the beheading of the pilot), so it may have anti-aircraft guns, too. The archbishop of Maiduguri speaks of its “inexhaustible boxes of ammunition”.
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10/24/2014
US and allied aircraft have flown nearly 6,600 sorties in the air war against the Islamic State group and dropped more than 1,700 bombs, the American military. The flights for "Operation Inherent Resolve" include thousands of mid-air fuelling runs, surveillance sorties and 632 air strikes in Iraq and Syria, according to US Central Command.
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10/24/2014
Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] delivered another C-130J Super Hercules to the 61st Airlift Squadron at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, today. Little Rock AFB’s new C-130J was ferried from the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics facility here by Maj. Gen. Michael Stough, director of Strategic Plans, Requirements and Programs, Headquarters Air Mobility Command, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois.
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10/24/2014
Swedish Navy stated Friday, that the alleged foreign submarine, which was hunted for in Stockholm archipelago waters, is very likely to be a mini-submarine. Swedish Navy's Rear Admiral Anders Grenstad said at a press conference, that at least one underwater craft was detected by the Armed Forces. "It was a mini-submarine, not a submarine," Grenstad specified.
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10/24/2014
Russia will sue France if Paris refuses to honor a contract on construction of two Mistral-class helicopter carriers for the Russian Navy, Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Ivanov said Thursday.
"We will file a lawsuit and demand compensation [if the contract is not fulfilled], as it's commonly done in a civilized world," Ivanov told reporters.
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10/24/2014
A Russian spy plane has been intercepted by Nato jets over the Baltic Sea, the alliance says, amid heightened tensions in the region. Estonia summoned Russia's ambassador on Wednesday after its military said the Ilyushin-20 plane had entered its airspace for about a minute. But Russia said the plane had been on a training flight and had not violated Estonian airspace.
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10/23/2014
Claims by a Libyan lawmaker that airstrikes by Egyptian planes against jihadists in the country were actually conducted by Libyan pilots appears highly unlikely, according to two aviation experts. The Egyptian intervention marked the first time in decades that the most populous Arab country took part in a conflict outside its borders. But the idea that it outsourced airstrikes to Libyan air force pilots is preposterous, according to those experts.
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10/23/2014
With Islamic State (ISIS) militants proving more resilient to US-led airstrikes than was originally envisaged, US President Barack Obama’s strategy in Iraq and Syria is coming under ever-greater scrutiny. Over the weekend, Sen. John McCain, a Republican, called for “more boots on the ground”, the further arming of Kurdish Peshmerga forces, creating a no-fly zone and buffer zone in Syria and ratcheting up the number of US-led airstrikes.
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10/23/2014
Roketsan and Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] signed a teaming agreement today for collaboration on the SOM-J, a new generation air-to-surface Standoff Cruise Missile for the F-35 Lightning II.
The SOM system is an autonomous, long-range, low-observable, all-weather, precision air-to-surface cruise missile. The SOM-J variant is tailored for internal carriage on the F-35 aircraft.
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10/23/2014
A single US airdrop of weapons that were intended for Kurdish fighters and most likely fell into the Islamic State (IS) hands will not give any odds to IS fighters, Pentagon Spokesperson Steve Warren said. "One bundle of weapons and medical supplies, airdropped by US forces to Kurdish fighters in Syria, most likely fell into enemy hands," Warren told reporters Wednesday. "One bundle worth of equipment is not enough equipment to give the enemy any type of advantage at all.
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10/23/2014
The Russian Ministry of Defense has denied the claim by the Estonian military that a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft breached Estonian airspace, the Ministry's Media Affairs and Information Department said on Wednesday. "The Russian military aircraft did not breach Estonian airspace. On October 21, 2014 a Russian military aircraft that had been conducting a planned training flight from Khrabrovo military base in Kaliningrad flew over neutral waters in the Baltic Sea," said the statement.
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10/22/2014
Heavy security controlled the scene at 4 Wing, Cold Lake, as six CF-18 Hornet fighter jets took off from northern Alberta Tuesday morning with their sights set on Iraq. Minister of Defence Rob Nicholson was on the ground as the pilots deployed to Iraq and acknowledged the elevated security on home-soil after a soldier in Quebec was killed and another injured Monday in what appears to be a 'lone wolf' terrorist attack.
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10/22/2014
The Swedish military is reported to be hunting the seas around Stockholm for a damaged Russian submarine, as an amateur photographer captured a picture of a submerged object in the water. Rear Admiral Anders Grenstad said the armed forces had made three separate sightings of "foreign undersea activity" in the past few days, which has seen the launch of a large search operation reminiscent of the Cold War.
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10/22/2014
If the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was learning to fly stolen Syrian fighter jets, it may have seen its fleet of three reduced to just one "ineffectual" aircraft. CBS News' George Baghdadi reports Information Minister Omran Zoubi said late Tuesday that Syrian military aircraft had shot down two of three fighter jets allegedly stolen by ISIS as it rampaged across northern Syria seizing army and air bases in the Aleppo region.
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10/22/2014
Brazilian planemaker Embraer unveiled its new KC-390 military transport Tuesday as the country expands its foray into the global security and defense air transport market. Developing the KC-390, the biggest plane Embraer has produced, cost 4.6 billion reais ($1.9 billion), paid by the Brazilian Air Force in partnership with Argentina, the Czech Republic and Portugal.
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10/22/2014
Britain finally got its own locally made large UAVs operational in late 2013 and since August some have been seen in Afghanistan. This has been a long time coming because it was back in 2006 that the British began developing the Watchkeeper UAV and by 2010 got one airborne for the first time. The Watchkeeper 180 and the Watchkeeper 450 are both are based on Israeli designs (the Hermes 180 and 450).
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10/22/2014
U.S. Defense Department leaders have called for a renewed effort to sustain America’s military technological dominance, but to do so they will have to fight an uphill battle against entrenched bureaucratic interests competing over a shrinking budgetary pie. Whether this initiative will be more than simply Pentagon pabulum depends on the future direction of the Navy’s carrier air wing.
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10/22/2014
Robbin Laird, a member of our Board of Contributors, and Ed Timperlake conducted what looks like it will be the last interview with Gen. Mike Hostage, the head of Air Combat Command, before he retires in early November. Hostage has overseen the Air Force’s transition to fifth generation aircraft with the introduction of the F-22 and preparations for introduction of the F-35 fleet.
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10/22/2014
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has grounded its entire fleet of Russia-developed Sukhoi-30 fighter aircraft to undergo safety checks, an IAF spokesperson said in an official statement Wednesday. "The fleet has been grounded and is undergoing technical checks following the latest accident in Pune. It would be back in air only after a thorough check," Wing Commander Simranpal Singh Birdi said.
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10/22/2014
NATO scrambled fighter jets - including two Canadian F-18's - twice in two days to intercept Russian military aircraft over the Baltic Sea, it said Tuesday amid reports that Russian military activity in the region is increasing. Lt. Col. Robert Gericke said the Russian aircraft were flying in international airspace and had not violated the territory of alliance members. Two Canadian F-18 Hornet jets were scrambled from the Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania on Monday to intercept a Russian Il-20.
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10/21/2014
Official Minsk is yielding to the Kremlin’s pressure in terms of allowing a larger Russian military presence in Belarus. The Kremlin does not intend to modernise the Belarusian army or equip it with modern weapons, as this could strengthen Belarus’ political independence. By beefing up her military presence in Belarus, Russia aims to fortify her western borders and exert additional pressure on the Belarusian leadership, as well as on other countries in the region.
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10/21/2014
Britain will deploy both Reaper and Rivet Joint drones to Syria “very soon” to participate in surveillance missions, to gather intelligence on Islamic State (IS/ISIS/ISIL) militants. The drones will be armed, but not permitted to fire on targets.
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10/21/2014
The Oklahoma Air National Guard has confirmed a fighter jet that crashed in Elk County is from Tulsa, Okla. Colonel Max Moss, Director of Media and Civilian Relations for the Oklahoma National Guard, said two F-16 Fighting Falcons were involved in a mid-air collision during a training exercise southwest of Howard, Kan.
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10/21/2014
Over the weekend, General Tom Lawson, a Royal Canadian Air Force officer and currently the Chief of Defence Staff — Canada’s top soldier — told CTV’s Question Period that our CF-18s are a world-class fighter capable of getting the job done in Iraq. The General noted, rightly, that although the CF-18s were first ordered in the early 1980s and are thus in their early 30s, they have been repeatedly (and relatively recently) upgraded and modernized.
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10/21/2014
The family that controls Dassault Aviation SA (AM), the maker of combat aircraft and Falcon luxury jets, may increase its stake when minority shareholder Airbus Group NV (AIR) sells some of its holdings in coming months. Dassault Aviation Chief Executive Officer Eric Trappier held out that possibility yesterday, saying the family led by 89-year-old Serge Dassault would be able to purchase stock. Dassault Aviation won investor approval last month to acquire as much as 10 percent of its stock.
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10/21/2014
The Syrian opposition has asserted that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant formed an air combat fleet. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said ISIL captured fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft from Iraq and Syria in mid-2014. The London-based monitoring group said ISIL acquired at least three Russian-origin fighter-jets as well as an unspecified number of combat helicopters. “The combat aircraft are believed to be the MiG-21,” Syrian Observatory said.
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10/21/2014
Lockheed Martin is hosting the 26th annual Hercules Operators Council (HOC) here, Oct. 20-23. More than 900 representatives from 32 nations are attending to discuss C-130 Hercules operations, support, upgrades and new fleet acquisition. This year’s theme of “Transforming Partnerships” provides insight into how relationships between Lockheed Martin, Hercules operators, suppliers and support teams have defined the C-130’s first 60 years of flight and how these partnerships will shape the next seve
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10/20/2014
From the battlefield near Baiji, an Islamic State jihadist fired a heat-seeking missile and blew an Iraqi army Mi-35M attack helicopter out of the sky this month, killing its two crew members. Days later, the Islamic State released a chilling series of images from a video purporting to capture the attack in northern Iraq: a jihadist hiding behind a wall with a Chinese-made missile launcher balanced on his shoulder; the missile blasting from the tube, its contrail swooping upward as it tracked it
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10/20/2014
South Korea is threatening to break an agreement with BAE Systems to upgrade its fleet of KF-16s, opening a window of opportunity for competitor Lockheed Martin to reclaim its dominance in the lucrative F-16 upgrade market. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) selected BAE Systems’ North American subsidiary in December 2012 as prime integrator to take charge of software and hardware upgrades for 134 KF-16 aircraft.
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10/20/2014
The military procurement agency signed a 7.3 trillion won ($7 billion) deal to purchase 40 Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighters for the Air Force's next-generation fighter (F-X), although it was previously informed of engine faults by the U.S., claimed an opposition lawmaker, Monday. Rep. Ahn Gyu-baek of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy argued that the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) tried to cover up the problem involving the project.
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10/20/2014
Lebanon is buying 18 upgraded UH-1H transport helicopters for about $10 million each (including training, spare parts and maintenanceequipment). Lebanon already has 23 older UH-1s. Lebanon uses its UH-1s for combat as well as transportation. For combat the Lebanese have modified the UH-1s to carry 250 kg (550 pound) and 400 kg (880 pounds) and launch tubes for multiple 68mm unguided rockets.
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10/20/2014
The Swedish military has made three sightings of foreign undersea activity in its waters during the past few days amid reports a suspected Russian submarine is in the area. Rear Adm. Anders Grenstad said yesterday that the activity the armed forces had registered - two incidents on Friday and one on Sunday - was in the Stockholm archipelago and nearby coastal area. He declined to give any details about any operation to track the vessel. The scenario is reminiscent of the Cold War when Sweden's a
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10/20/2014
China is building a fleet of a hundred large transport aircraft that will be able to deploy troops all around the world, according to a Russian military expert. In an article published Oct. 16 on the Russian Council website, Vasily Kashin, a China expert at the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow, says that the People's Liberation Army hopes to complete the project by 2020.
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10/20/2014
Against the backdrop of delays in several of its major projects, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today told DRDO to speed up and complete its programmes in time as the world will not wait for it. Urging the country’s only defence research agency to give more opportunities to the youth, the Prime Minister suggested that DRDO should take initiatives in projects which would help in easing the lives of the armed forces personnel.
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10/20/2014
Boeing Co. (BA) is revising its master schedule for developing the new U.S. Air Force aerial tanker, adding to uncertainty about a plane that already has run up an estimated $1 billion in excess costs for the contractor. The Air Force “has been continually monitoring” Boeing’s “progress on their internal schedules, and as we get” the contractor’s proposed revised time line “we will continue to assess the milestones,” Ed Gulick, a spokesman for the service said in an e-mailed statement.
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10/20/2014
What qualities make a great fighter aircraft? Speed or maneuverability? Armament or ruggedness? How many enemies it shot down, or how often it managed to avoid being shot down? Perhaps it is all of these factors, or none. Maybe greatness is just being the right aircraft in the right place at the right time. Whatever the reason, some fighters go on to become legends, while others are derided as turkeys.
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10/20/2014
The U.S. military said it has airdropped weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to Kurds defending the northern Syrian town of Kobani from Islamic State militants. That could strain U.S.-Turkish relations. The “first-of-its-kind” supply mission came as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was in Jakarta trying to enlist Southeast Asian leaders in what one U.S. official called the global "effort to combat violent extremism."
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10/19/2014
The number of times Japanese fighter jets scrambled to ward off Russian military aircraft more than doubled in the last six months, amid diplomatic tensions between the two countries which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is keen to ease. The increased activity in Japan's north also comes as the armed forces pivot their focus southwards towards China, the assertive Asian giant which is seen in Tokyo as the more immediate challenge.
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10/19/2014
An unmanned US plane on a top-secret, two-year mission to space has returned to Earth and landed in California. The aircraft, resembling a miniature space shuttle and known as the Orbital Test Vehicle or X-37B, spent 674 days in orbit around the planet.
It was the unmanned plane's third space flight, but its mission has been shrouded in mystery.
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10/19/2014
Sweden's military continues to investigate reports of "foreign underwater activity" in the Stockholm archipelago using high-tech equipped naval vessels, aircraft and home guard forces. Chief of operations Jonas Wikstrom says the information "from a credible source" that sparked the operation Friday was still considered worth pursuing the intelligence operation.
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10/19/2014
The Air Force’s mission with the MC-12 Liberty in Afghanistan is over. The 4th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron flew its last flight Oct. 1 at Bagram Air Field, the last of more than 40,000 combat missions and more than 200,000 hours of surveillance flights since 2009. The Army stood up Joint Task Force Thor at Bagram to take over the MC-12 mission from the Air Force.
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10/19/2014
Militia commander Yuri Bereza and his 150 Ukrainian irregulars were closing in on pro-Moscow separatists in their last stronghold in this eastern city when Russian troops and armor thundered in out of nowhere to cut them off in the suburb of Ilovaisk. No satellite or drone surveillance detected the sudden movement of the Russian columns. No word of the impending attack had been radioed from the border guard base the invaders had to have passed.
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10/19/2014
Gen. Lori Robinson received a fourth star Thursday and became head of Pacific Air Forces, making her the first woman to lead the major air command. Robinson, who now oversees more than 46,000 personnel, 10 wings, nine bases and about 400 permanently assigned aircraft in a region that encompasses 52 percent of the globe, is the Air Force's second female four-star general after Gen. Janet C. Wolfenbarger, who was promoted to the service's highest rank in 2012.
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10/19/2014
The Rafale fighter aircraft the Indian Air Force is buying from France “will be swatted like mosquitoes in an August night” by Chinese combat planes in a war, Russian ambassador to India Alexander Kadakin claims. Russia’s MiG-35 aircraft was an early loser in the competition to sell 126 medium multirole combat aircraft to India, a deal that could be one of the largest military contracts in the world topping $20 billion.
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10/19/2014
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced Saturday he was going to sign a demobilization decree next week that would allow conscript soldiers to opt for volunteer military. “I have prepared a decree – to be issued next week – that will demobilize all those who want to serve on contract. What for? Because it’s only fair to serve in the army and earn more,” Poroshenko said during an interview with several TV channels.
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10/19/2014
Reports of Islamic State (IS) pilots flying stolen jet fighters over the Syrian city of Aleppo have not been confirmed by coalition forces, the Pentagon said. "We do not have any operational reporting of ISIL flying jets in support of ISIL's activity on the ground," the US Central Command Commander Gen. Lloyd Austin said during a press briefing on Friday. "I cannot confirm that," he added.
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10/18/2014
The Indian Air Force (IAF) was never more vulnerable. Its combat squadron strength is down to 31 squadrons of fighter aircraft (approximately 600) as against a sanctioned strength of 42 squadrons (around 800). Two-and-a-half squadrons comprising 50 of its frontline multi-role combat aircraft, Mirage 2000, have been grounded for nearly two months after two crashes in a span of less than 10 days because of engine trouble.
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10/18/2014
Extensive maintenance and modernization work on the Italian aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi is being completed months ahead of schedule. The Italian Navy said on Friday that work on the carrier is now slated to be complete at the Taranto Arsenal, a Navy shipyard and base, on Nov. 10, instead of March of next year, when the ship completes post-refit sea trials.
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10/18/2014
Libyan bombing operations in 2011 has inspired the UK Royal Air Force’s (RAF) largest ever fighter upgrade program known as the Phase 1 enhancements (P1E). The UK has started using the upgraded package Typhoon aircraft, developed by BAE Systems working together with its Eurofighter Partner companies, the RAF and UK Ministry of Defense, (MOD) as part of the P1E. The capabilities have been developed based on the operations in Libya, BAE systems said in a statement Thursday.
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10/18/2014
AUSTRALIAN bombing raids are believed to have killed dozens of terrorists in the past week, following two successful air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq. As Treasurer Joe Hockey made a surprise visit to Australia’s base in the UAE, the Chief of Joint Operations, Vice Admiral David Johnston, confirmed that Australian forces had for the first time conducted at least two successful combat operations using FA/18 super hornets to kill the enemy on the ground.
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10/18/2014
ARMED with AGM-114 Hellfire anti-armour missiles, free-flight rockets, and 30mm automatic cannon, the army’s $40 million Tiger helicopters are ready for combat. And they were put through their paces yesterday as part of the Defence Force’s annual Exercise Chong Ju at Puckapunyal Army Base, with The Daily Telegraph given exclusive behind-the-scenes access.
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10/18/2014
Honduras bought two combat planes from Brazil's Embraer and received donated military aircraft worth $36 million from Taiwan, part of the Central American country's efforts to step up its fight against drug traffickers, a senior military official said on Friday.
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10/18/2014
The coalition mission against ISIS militants is "not likely" to achieve its goals within six months, Canada's senior general said Friday. Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Tom Lawson said the mission is a difficult one, against a "barbarous opponent." ?"I think it's a bit strong to expect that all the measures of success will be fulfilled in six months. Is there a scenario where it could happen? Maybe, but not likely," Lawson told reporters.
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10/18/2014
On Oct. 16, some media outlets reported the news that airstrikes against jihadists in Libya were conducted by Egyptian Air Force aircraft piloted by Libyan officers. Free Libya Air Force (as the Libyan Arab Air Force was dubbed in 2011), is equipped with a handful of front line fighter jets, most of which are obsolete, scarcely overhauled Soviet combat planes that have survived the uprising and the subsequent fierce struggle between militias. Among them, there are a handful of Mig-21 Fishbeds.
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10/17/2014
Iraqi pilots who have joined Islamic State are training its members in Syria to fly three captured fighter jets, according to a UK-based activist group that monitors the conflict. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said witnesses had seen the planes being flown around a military airport in Aleppo. Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the SOHR, said IS was using Iraqi officers who were pilots under ex-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to train fighters in Syria.
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10/17/2014
India and Russia may finally settle on a number of delayed defense deals including the Fifth Generational Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) program during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India this December. Putin met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the BRICS summit in July where both leaders reportedly agreed that the $30 billion program to build 200 jets should move forward.
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10/17/2014
India Friday successfully test-fired its indigenously-developed nuclear-capable sub-sonic long-range cruise missile 'Nirbhay' that can hit a target 1,500 km away. The missile was test-fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in Odisha's Baleswar district. The missile has a capacity to hit targets at a distance of 1,500 km and was successfully test fired at 10.03 a.m. Friday, said B.K. Das, additional director of Chandipur Integrated Test Range.
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10/17/2014
The stated objective of the American-led bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria is to "degrade, and ultimately destroy" the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) — language carefully crafted to imply a gradual process that may take months, even years. Yet just over two months into the campaign, some are already asking for results.
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10/17/2014
The F/A-18s needs spare parts and in too many cases they’re being taken from brand new jets. This is a risk to national security and pilots’ lives. The U.S. Navy’s elite cadre of fighter pilots—made famous by Top Gun—are not flying nearly often as they would like. Instead, many of the Navy’s elite Boeing F/A-18 Hornet strike fighter squadrons are sitting on the ground with only two or three flyable jets available.
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10/17/2014
Defence giant BAE Systems has upgraded a clutch of the RAF’s Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets to boost the aircraft’s abilities to attack enemy targets both in the air and on the ground. The supersonic Typhoon was originally designed as a Cold War-era fighter to take on fleets of enemy aircraft, like a modern day equivalent of the Second World War’s iconic Spitfire. But modern operations in warzones like Afghanistan and Iraq have proved the need for the Eurofighter to perform as a bomber and eng
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10/17/2014
Four Yak-130 aircraft will be commissioned by the Belarusian Air Force in Q1 2015, BelTA learned from Major-General Oleg Dvigalev, Air Force and Air Defense Commander. “We are about to begin the practical implementation of the contract to buy Yak-130 combat training aircraft for the Air Force. Four aircraft are expected to be delivered to Belarus in Q1 2015 and we will begin using them,” said Oleg Dvigalev.
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10/17/2014
Russia's Southern Military District (SMD) aviation regiment has received six new Su-34 fighter-bombers, renewing the regiment's fleet by 75 percent, the SMD press service said Friday."In accordance with the plan of re-equipping the troops of the SMD, a separate bomber aviation regiment, stationed in the Rostov region [town of Morozovsk], has received another batch of new fighter bombers Su-34 in the amount of six units.
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10/17/2014
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) recently awarded Lockheed Martin a $124.6 million fixed-price contract for the manufacture and delivery of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) ground components. The contract provides for the delivery of U.S. government THAAD launchers, support equipment, fire control and communication spares, and launcher spares.
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10/17/2014
Boeing delivered the 18th P-8A Poseidon aircraft to the U.S. Navy ahead of schedule October 14, where it joined other Poseidon aircraft being used to train Navy crews. The P-8A departed Boeing Field in Seattle for Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla., and was Boeing’s fifth delivery this year.
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10/15/2014
Bell Helicopter on Monday unveiled a full-scale model of its V-280 Valor — the next generation in tiltrotor aircraft — at the Association of the United States Army annual meeting here. Slightly larger than the UH-60 Black Hawk, the V-280 is a third-generation tiltrotor aircraft designed for the Joint Multi-Role demonstrator and Future Vertical Lift programs.
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10/15/2014
Russia is due to establish an airbase in Babruysk, in eastern Belarus, in 2016 and deploy Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jets, Russian Air Force Commander-In-Chief Colonel General Viktor Bondarev said on Wednesday. “The airbase of the Russian and Belarusian Air Force will be created in 2016. Su-27 fighter jets will be based there,” Bondarev told reporters during his three-day visit to the facilities under construction.
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10/15/2014
The US Army is counting on the Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopter to remain in service for the foreseeable future, which will require incremental upgrades beyond the most up-to-date E model aircraft that have already seen thousands of hours of combat. All of the army’s AH-64Es should be out of Afghanistan by the end of the current fiscal year, after which time they will be reset for future missions, Col Jeff Hager, the service’s Apache project manager.
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10/15/2014
The two aircraft based at Gowen Field are once again proving their worth in combat. The Apache helicopter and the A-10 are on the front lines in the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. This just four months after the A-10 was dubbed obsolete. As Roland Beres shows us it now has a chance to prove the critics wrong.
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10/15/2014
Members of the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment are known for flying Navy SEALs, Army Rangers and other elite members of the U.S. military into combat at a moment’s notice, even when they might take fire themselves. But they sometimes do so with twin-rotor Chinook helicopters that have been in use for years, and are looking to modernize.
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10/15/2014
U.S. and partner-nation military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria yesterday and today, using bomber and fighter aircraft to conduct 22 airstrikes, U.S. Central Command officials reported. Separately, Centcom officials said, U.S. military forces used attack aircraft yesterday to conduct an airstrike against ISIL in Iraq.
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10/15/2014
Russia's Irkut aircraft maker will deliver 30 Su-family fighter jets and 30 Yak-130 combat trainers to the Russian Armed Forces, the company said Monday. "The year 2015 will be a record-setting year for us as we will deliver 60 aircraft, including 30 of the Su-family and 30 Yaks," head of Irkut, Oleg Demchenko, said in an interview with Rossiya-24 TV channel.
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10/15/2014
Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] received a $90.6 million foreign military sale contract from the U.S. Army to provide Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (M-TADS/PNVS) systems to the Qatar Emiri Air Force. Qatar marks the 14th international customer for the M-TADS/PNVS system.
Fielded in 2005, M-TADS/PNVS provides Apache pilots with long-range, precision engagement and pilotage capabilities for safe flight during day, night and adverse weather missions.
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10/13/2014
Spectators at the Miramar Air Show witnessed the end of an era in Marine aviation and a beginning, when a helicopter that served in the Vietnam War flew its last active duty performance and a stealthy, supersonic F-35B fighter jet flew its San Diego debut.
The CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter is being retired from Marine Corps service and replaced by the MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor, which can fly faster and farther carrying more weight.
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10/13/2014
More than a decade of constant combat and the oldest airframes in the history of the service has degraded the Air Force’s mission capability to the lowest in recent memory, meaning more work for airmen who must keep them safe to fly and less flying time for planes in need of constant work.
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10/13/2014
Footage showing Australian bombs obliterating Islamic State targets won't be publicly released. Defence head Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin says the conflict with Islamic State isn't a video game. He says Australia had not released this imagery in 2003 when RAAF Hornets assisted in Iraq and that practice had not changed.
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10/13/2014
Turkey agreed to allow the US-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS) to use its military bases to fight against the extremist group, Agence France-Presse reported Monday. US crews have long operated out of Incirlik Air Base in the south of Turkey, with some 1,500 airmen stationed there.
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10/13/2014
Director of UAV development programs at Russia’s Vega Radio Engineering Corporation Arkady Syroyezhko told RIA Novosti that economic sanctions against Russia had made the manufacturers of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) operate more effectively. “The import substitution program could help [Russian defense] industry to apprehend its drawbacks and to use its existing internal reserves.
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10/12/2014
US forces based in Kuwait could be set to mobilise to Iraq as 10,000 Islamic State militants to the west of that country prepare for an assault on the capital Baghdad. The militants have battled Iraqi government forces in the Anbar province on the western edge of Baghdad since January but are now amassing for a major push after a series of debilitating attacks including multiple car bomb missions on Sunday.
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10/12/2014
The sprawling campus where the Antonov company once designed and built prototypes of the world’s largest transport aircraft — flying whales whose very bulk symbolized Soviet might — lacks buzz these days. A few derelict airplanes sit along the weed-choked apron connecting its huge construction hangars; cats saunter through the muted assembly shops; flight simulators sit empty.
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10/12/2014
Bashar Assad could make Barack Obama’s war against the Islamic State a lot more complicated if he chose. The military commanded by Syria’s president has the air defenses to threaten the American bombers, fighters and drones that Obama has ordered to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
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10/12/2014
Militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria have recently adopted a tactic that involves burning dozens of old tires in order to create a smokescreen to “mislead” warplanes targeting their positions, a military official told Al Arabiya News. “Apparently, this idea came to ISIS militants through some former Iraqi army officers, because it resembles one of the ways used by Saddam Hussein,” said Army General Mohamed al-Askary , spokesman for the Iraqi Defense ministry, said Saturday.
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10/12/2014
Built to be the deadliest hunter killer aircraft of all time, the F-35 has quite literally become the hunted. In every scenario that the F-35 has been wargamed against Su-30 Flankers, the Russian aircraft have emerged winners. America’s newest stealth aircraft – costing $191 million per unit – is riddled with such critical design flaws that it’s likely to get blown away in a shootout with the super-maneuverable Sukhois.
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10/12/2014
It said troops from the Yorkshire Regiment were training Iraqi Kurds to use UK-supplied heavy machine guns. The soldiers are expected to spend a week in Irbil, in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. Royal Air Force Tornado jets based in Cyprus have been flying combat missions over Iraq since September.
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10/11/2014
An outer suburb of Baghdad located only eight miles from the city's airport has now been breached by Islamic State (ISIS) forces as the jihadist group inches ominously close to Iraq's capital. The suburb of Abu Ghraib has been infiltrated by ISIS militants who are currently engaging in hit-and-run style attacks on local Iraqi security forces.
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10/11/2014
Obama’s no-boots-on-the-ground pledge is keeping America from fighting an effective air campaign in Iraq and Syria. Within the U.S. Air Force, there’s mounting frustration that the air campaign against ISIS in Syria and Iraq is moving far more slowly than expected. Instead of a fast-moving operation with hundreds of sorties flown in a single day—the kind favored by many in the air service—American warplanes are hitting small numbers of targets after a painstaking and cumbersome process.
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10/11/2014
The Air Force could not determine if it paid jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney “fair and reasonable” prices for spare parts for engines that power the stealthy F-22 Raptor, a Department of Defense Inspector General’s report has concluded. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, based at Wright-Patterson, also could not determine how much it paid for individual spare parts under a $1.6 billion sustainment contract on the F119 engine on the fifth-generation, supersonic fighter jet.
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10/11/2014
Boeing said Wednesday that the first test plane for its KC-46 Air Force aerial-refueling tanker program is expected to fly in late November or early December. That's a delay of two months or more beyond the projection Boeing's leadership gave in July, when Chief Financial Officer Greg Smith predicted on an earnings call with analysts that first flight would be late in the third quarter.
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10/11/2014
From high in the sky, the most notable feature of this bit of northern Iraq is Mount Sinjar, a weather-eroded ridgeline no one had heard of until Iraq's Yazidi Christian minority sought refuge from Islamic State (IS) forces. Australia has been here before, air-dropping emergency food aid in a pair of mercy flights conducted by C-130 transport aircraft in August.
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10/11/2014
Two Canadian CF-18 fighter jets based out of Lithuania intercepted a Russian military aircraft as it flew over the Baltic Sea on Tuesday morning. Officials say the Canadian fighters identified the aircraft as a Russian AN-26 transport plane, then shadowed it for about 10 minutes as it travelled through international airspace from one Russian port to another.
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10/10/2014
Russia's Southern Military District (SMD) aviation regiment has received six new Su-34 fighter-bombers, renewing the regiment's fleet by 75 percent, the SMD press service said Friday. "In accordance with the plan of re-equipping the troops of the SMD, a separate bomber aviation regiment, stationed in the Rostov region [town of Morozovsk], has received another batch of new fighter bombers Su-34 in the amount of six units.
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10/10/2014
Canadian lawmakers have approved sending up to six CF-18 fighter aircraft to participate in airstrikes in Iraq, along with one CC-150 aerial refueling tanker, two CP-14 Aurora surveillance aircraft and one airlift aircraft, according to the Canadian prime minister’s office.
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10/10/2014
The United States has launched nine more airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) militants sieging the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani near the Turkish border, razing IS-held buildings and machinery, the US Central Command reported late on Thursday. "US military forces continued to attack ISIL terrorists in Syria today using bomber aircraft to conduct nine airstrikes," the Command said in a news release.
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10/09/2014
In response to heightened tensions caused by the crisis in Ukraine, the Finnish Air Force has stepped up and strengthened its aerial drills on 6 October, the country's defence forces have announced. Air-to-air combat drills are to take place from Rovaniemi, Oulu, Kuopio-Rissala, and Pudasjärvi air force bases in the north, while surveillance sorties are concentrating in the south.
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10/09/2014
The Norwegian Government has asked for new budget authorizations for a total value of 6.9 billion kroner for the acquisition of six new F-35 fighter aircraft and additional equipment and services for 2015. Including these aircraft, the New Fighter Aircraft program will have been authorized to acquire 22 of the new aircraft, with deliveries to begin by the end of next year.
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10/09/2014
A US military aircraft has crashed in a field near houses and a school in Lincolnshire. Witnesses saw the F-15D come down in a field off Broad Gate, Weston Hills, near Spalding at about 15:30 BST. The pilot ejected from the aircraft and police said he had escaped with very minor injuries.
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10/09/2014
The unmanned aircraft industry rejects the term "drone" claiming it is technically inaccurate, however companies are divided on a new name for the devices, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. "We need another name for it, but I'm not sure what that new name should be," venture-capital executive Zack Porter was quoted as saying by WSJ.
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10/09/2014
The Australian Air Force has launched its first airstrikes against Islamic State positions in Iraq, the country’s Defense Ministry said in a statement early on Thursday. “Overnight the Australian Air Task Group operating in the Middle East attacked its first target in Iraq. Two bombs were dropped from an F/A-18F Super Hornet on to an ISIL facility,” the ministry said.
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10/08/2014
A small change in foreign investment rules-by doing away with minimum 51% holding by a single Indian entity in a defence venture-has helped Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Aerospace and Punj Lloyd bag licences that they had been waiting for. While increasing the foreign direct investment (FDI) cap for defence to 49%, the government did away with the clause that had been in the policy for years, as part of a strategy to attract investment in local manufacturing units.
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10/08/2014
U.S. warplanes have carried out almost 90 percent of airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) while Arab and European countries all together carried out the remaining 10 percent, U.S. defense officials said on Monday. A total of about 2,000 air raids have been launched against the militant group, of which the U.S. Air Force carried out 1,768 (88.4 percent), Agence France-Presse reported citing U.S. defense officials.
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10/08/2014
A U.S.-led air war is turning the tide against Islamic State in the besieged Syrian border town of Kobani, Kurdish forces said Wednesday, a day after Canada’s Parliament voted to approve air strikes of its own. Kobani, under attack by the Sunni militants for three weeks, is vital to Islamic State’s efforts to cement control of Syria’s north. Their advance has driven 180,000 of the area’s mostly Kurdish inhabitants to flee into adjoining Turkey.
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10/08/2014
Airbus Group NV (AIR) is preparing to reduce its stake in Dassault Aviation SA (AM) by almost half, selling shares to institutional investors and back to Dassault in a transaction valued at about 2 billion euros ($2.52 billion). The European planemaker is exploring opportunities to sell because the U.S. economy, the largest driver of the business-jet market, is rebounding, suggesting demand for aircraft will pick up, Marwan Lahoud, the head of strategy at Airbus Group, said by phone yesterday.
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10/08/2014
Australia's Super Hornet pilots have pulled out of their first armed airstrikes in the US-led fight against the Islamic State in Iraq, saying that the risk of killing civilians was too high, Australia's News Limited reported Wednesday. "One of our packages on the first night,had an identified target which it was tracking and that target moved into an urban area where the risks of conducting a strike on that target increased to a point where it exceeded our expectations of the collateral damage."
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10/08/2014
The legislative body of Canada approved the participation of the country's military in the battle against the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq, the BBC reported Wednesday. Canadian military have been authorized to carry out airstrikes against terrorists in Iraq for six months. The deployment of ground troops has been ruled out.
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10/07/2014
When Germany dispatched a naval ship to the Horn of Africa last month for joint anti-piracy operations with other European powers, the vessel arrived without a vital mission component. Its Sea Lynx helicopters – meant to search for seafaring thugs – were back home in Germany, grounded due to maintenance problems.For Germany’s military, hobbled helicopters were only the beginning.
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10/07/2014
The US Navy (USN) plans to base 100 Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter combat aircraft at Naval Air Station (NAS) Lemoore in California, the service's Fleet Forces Command (FFC) announced on 3 October. "The 100 F-35C aircraft will replace 70 ageing [Boeing] F/A-18 Hornet aircraft," the FFC said in a statement.
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10/07/2014
Two Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Super Hornets have returned safely to the Australian support base in the United Arab Emirates after missions on Sunday. They joined aircraft from the US, UK, France, UAE, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain, which have all conducted attacks against Islamic State forces inside Iraq.
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10/07/2014
Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha cannot be faulted when he expresses concern over the slow acquisition of aircraft to replace the ageing fleet. While addressing the media a few days before the 82nd anniversary of the IAF, he admitted that the acquisition process was behind schedule. The IAF has already reached a precarious position. It has just enough aircraft to carry on, depriving the IAF personnel scope for better deployment to protect the borders.
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10/07/2014
Thirteen years ago today the Predator drone saw its first armed reconnaissance mission in Afghanistan. Since then, the U.S. military drone fleet has grown by leaps and bounds. The U.S. Air Force has scores of Predators and Reapers stationed around the globe 24/7, high-altitude drones like Global Hawk patrol the stratosphere, and the U.S. Army and Marine Corps have thousands of small hand-launched unmanned aircraft to support ground troops.
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10/07/2014
October 7 (RIA Novosti) - The entire Russian Air Force is taking part in the All-Russian Civil Defense Drill, Emergencies Ministry spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky said Tuesday. "The air forces from Sakhalin to Kaliningrad are practicing emergency response," Drobyshevsky said, specifying that the drill includes aerial engineer, nuclear, chemical and biological reconnaissance.
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10/06/2014
The use of remotely operated drones as intelligence assets is a key part of U.S. military strategy in the Middle East, where information is proving to be as important as artillery in deterring the Islamic State. As a combat devise, the drone has been a key feature of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy since he was sworn in.
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10/06/2014
The Government's decision to launch air strikes against Isil in Iraq has prompted a number of senior officers to vent their frustration that the Coalition is happy to commit our Armed Forces to action while at the same time reducing their ability to do so as a result of its dramatic cuts to the defence budget.
General Sir David Richards, the recently retired head of our Armed Forces, spoke for many officers who are still serving when he demanded that the Government should urgently review its ap
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10/06/2014
One of the military planes that will be dispatched on the mission is a Polaris CC-150T refuelling tanker. Its job will be to keep the six CF-18 fighter jets supplied with fuel as they strike targets. The government says the CC-150T is maintained by private contractors. L-3 MAS Communications and partner firm Avianor Inc. are responsible for providing complete in-service support for the refuelling plane and the rest of the Department of National Defence’s fleet of CC-150 Polaris Airbuses.
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10/06/2014
The U.S. has begun using Apache AH-64 attack helicopters to strike at ISIS targets inside Iraq, the first time the aircraft have been used for offensive strikes since arriving in Baghdad in early July. Their use opens up a new capability in the airstrike campaign against ISIS in Iraq, but one that also comes with risks, as they could be vulnerable to ground fire.
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10/06/2014
Since commissioning its first aircraft carrier, China's navy has conducted more exercises farther away from its shores and flexing its muscle by closely patrolling areas in disputed waters where Chinese companies are drilling for oil, a top US Air Force commander has said. Air Force General Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, the head of US Pacific Air Forces, said China's naval and air forces in particular are "very much continuing to push" and becoming more active in international waters and airspace in
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10/05/2014
AUSTRALIANS go to war this week, almost 13 years to the day since the war in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001. If those years teach us anything, it’s that war is chaotic, its consequences profoundly destabilising and its outcomes impossible to predict.
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10/05/2014
The Indian Air Force (IAF) chief, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha said on Saturday it was "mysterious" how incursions by Chinese troops into Indian territory took place during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit. "It is always mysterious... the way incursions get timed with visits," Air Chief Marshal Raha said, responding to a question in the recent incursion by Chinese troops in Ladakh area of jammu and Kashmir.
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10/05/2014
America’s most advanced stealth fighter poses a great risk to China’s air defense network — and the military is going to great lengths to learn how to shoot one down. China claims it has a new passive detection “radar” capable of identifying stealth aircraft, including the more advanced F-22 Raptor fighter based at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam.
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10/05/2014
A recent spate of dangerous midair encounters between American military aircraft and Chinese and Russian planes in the Pacific is the result of increasingly assertive strategies by both U.S. adversaries to project power far beyond their borders, according to the top U.S. Air Force commander in the region. Air Force Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle, the head of U.S. Pacific Air Forces, said China’s naval and air forces in particular are “very much continuing to push” and becoming more active.
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10/05/2014
The Indian government, acting on Air Force demands, has offered to spend $12 billion to encourage private firms to establish an aircraft manufacturing facility — a move that would break Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s monopoly on aircraft manufacturing after years of delays on several projects. Specifically, the Indian government has offered an advance order for the homemade light combat aircraft (LCA) Mark-2, a Defence Ministry source said.
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10/05/2014
Keith Barton, who came from Ventura County to attend the opening ceremony of the Miramar Air Show, looked at the fighter jets and other military gear and was pleased. "The world can be a very nasty place," said Barton, 47, who runs a medical supply outfit. "It's good to know we have this kind of capability."
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10/05/2014
Russian team of inspectors is planning to conduct an observation flight with Russian An-30B observation aircraft over the territory of Spain, said the head of the Russian National Center for Reducing Nuclear Threat, Sergei Ryzhkov. This will be the 31st Russian observation flight over the territories of the states, parties to the Treaty on Open Skies, in 2014.
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10/04/2014
First came the superfast X2 helicopter. Now Sikorsky Aircraft has put that experimental technology into a more mature package, the S-97 Raider. Sikorsky hopes that the sleek, speedy design of the S-97, unveiled Thursday, will win the favor of the US Army as a potential replacement for OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter, an airframe whose history dates back to the Vietnam War era, and as an aerial platform for special operations units.
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10/04/2014
The Air Force believes a recent Department of Defense Inspector General report that critiqued Air Force MQ-9 procurement plans to buy 401 Reaper aircraft, stating that 46 aircraft may not be needed, is based on data that is out of date. "The data in the report is a year old," said Lt Gen Robert Otto, Air Force deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. "The Air Force is only buying 346 aircraft, 55 fewer than the 401 figure contained in the report.
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10/04/2014
Pesident Obama, who swept to power in 2008 in part on his promise to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq, is clearly a reluctant warrior. His concern about getting involved in "mission creep" in the deserts of Iraq, where nearly 4,500 troops have died, recently led him to make this promise to U.S. soldiers: "I will not commit you and the rest of our armed forces to fighting another ground war in Iraq."
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10/04/2014
The U.S.-led coalition attacking Islamic State in Iraq and Syria now boasts dozens of nations although President Barack Obama has yet to secure UN Security Council authorization and the legality of the entire campaign remains murky. In Iraq, the attacks have the legitimacy conferred by being formally at the request of the Baghdad government. In Syria, where a civil war is raging, there’s no request from Bashar al-Assad’s regime – which Mr. Obama still wants toppled – or the UNSC.
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10/04/2014
Prime Minister Stephen Harper Friday announced a combat mission for Canada in Iraq. Here’s what you need to know.
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10/04/2014
Islamic State (IS) fighters in Iraq and Syria have switched tactics and started concealing their forces in response to a campaign of US-led airstrikes, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said Friday. "Not surprisingly, they have gotten better at concealment. Before the airstrikes ... they pretty much had free reign. They don't have that free rein anymore, because they know we're watching from the air," Rear Adm. Kirby told reporters at the Pentagon.
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10/04/2014
Any Turkish action on the territory of Syria will be interpreted as aggression by Damascus, the country's foreign ministry said Friday as quoted by SANA news agency. "Damascus will interpret any action on the part of Turkey on its [Syria's] territory as aggression," the ministry said in a statement.
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10/03/2014
Britain’s Royal Air Force has detected a defect within the Eurofighter Typhoon jets, causing production in Germany to be put on hold whilst the fault is investigated. Both Germany and Britain have halved the recommended annual flight time for the jets from 3,000 to 1,500 hours annually as a precaution, and Germany is refusing to take possession of any new jets until the problem is solved.
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10/03/2014
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has successfully conducted the maiden test flight of the first series production standard Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA) from its facility in Bangalore, India. Piloted by HAL Test Flying Chief Air Commandore (Retd) KA Muthana, the aircraft took off without any telemetry support and landed safely in less than 30 minutes, as reported by Flightglobal. The flight test takes the indigenously built aircraft closer to final clearance and induction into the IAF.
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10/03/2014
A BBC correspondent across the border in Turkey saw explosions and smoke rising from buildings hit by shells. IS has moved to within a few kilometres of the town despite US-led air strikes seeking to halt its two-week offensive. On Thursday, Turkey's prime minister promised it would do whatever it could to prevent the fall of Kobane.
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10/03/2014
Prime Minister Stephen Harper will provide details on Friday of an expanded military contribution to battle militants in northern Iraq.
A spokesman for Harper says the prime minister will also talk about ongoing humanitarian support.
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10/03/2014
The U.S. Air Force and Navy agree on one thing; AI (artificial intelligence) is going to be a major element in future combat aircraft avionics (aircraft electronics). This is in large part due to the fact that AI has been a growing factor in avionics for decades in the form of software controlled landingsystems for commercial aircraft, system monitoring and a growing number of other uses. All this began with the software developed for instrument landings (where the pilot relied on instruments, w
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10/03/2014
David Cameron has announced that II Squadron, comprising 16 Tornados, will no longer be disbanded in March as it will help with air strikes in Iraq. The squadron was due to be broken down in March as Britain withdraws from operations in Afghanistan and replaced by a new squadron of advanced Typhoon fighters.
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10/03/2014
Another batch of Cold War-vintage A-10 “Warthogs” is on its way to Afghanistan, even though the Pentagon says it no longer needs the plane. About a dozen of the snout-nosed “flying guns” will arrive in Afghanistan early this month as part of a six-month deployment for the 122nd Fighter Wing of the Indiana Air National Guard, according to U.S. Central Command.
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10/03/2014
Russian Mi-17 helicopter has been a "game changer" in the movement of Afghan forces and supplies in the fight against Taliban insurgents, the United States Army general in charge of American operations and the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said.
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10/02/2014
The resolution - passed with a three-quarters majority - will also permit foreign troops to use Turkish territory for the operation. Turkey has been under pressure to play a more active role in the US-led fight. The government dropped its reluctance to combat IS militants directly after the release of 46 hostages last month. The Turkish citizens had been held by IS in northern Iraq.
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10/02/2014
Defence said an RAAF surveillance aircraft and refuelling plane supported a coalition flight and returned to Australia's base in the Middle East. Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced yesterday that Australian planes would be supporting the US-led coalition against IS targets in Iraq. He told Parliament no decision had been taken yet to commit Australian combat aircraft to the fight against the "apocalyptic death cult".
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10/02/2014
As the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (Tejas) prepares to go into series production, a safety audit of the entire fighter jet development programme is underway to ensure reliability of the new combatant. Sources said EADS, now known as Airbus Group, has been hired as the consultant for the safety audit. The move comes before IAF pilots start training on the aircraft. The training of the pilots has been delayed as the flight manuals of the aircraft were still being written.
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10/02/2014
Canadian CF18 Hornet fighter jets armed with Sidewinder missiles intercepted a Russian air force aircraft over the Baltic Sea, the RCAF revealed Monday.The drama took place Sept. 11 in international air space, Lt.-Col. David Pletz said in an interview. The Canadian warplanes flew beside a Russian An26, looked into the cockpit and then followed the potential intruder for several minutes, said Pletz, the commander of the detachment of four CF18s based in Lithuania and head of the CATF.
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10/02/2014
Boeing completed initial flight and delivery of the first, new-build MH-47G configured Chinook helicopter to the U.S. Army Special Operations Aviation Command Sept. 29, 2014 – a full month ahead of schedule.
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10/02/2014
Iraq's Ministry of Defense has received the third batch of Russian Mi-35M helicopters, as part of a contract signed in 2012, an official representative of the Centre for Analysis of World Arms Trade (CAWAT) told RIA Novosti Wednesday. "The exact number of helicopters in the third batch is not mentioned, but, most likely, Baghdad received four Mi-35Ms, like in the first two batches," the CAWAT representative said.
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