November, 2014 Military Aviation News
11/30/2014
These new pictures show the RAF's next-generation F-35B fighter, bristling with fearsome state-of-the-art weaponry.
However, the deadly-looking weapons are actually trial or 'dummy' ordnance, which are identical in fit and form to their lethal counterparts but incapable of causing damage.
A UK test team including personnel from BAE Systems, has successfully completed initial aircraft handling trials for ASRAAM and Paveway IV weapons on the F-35B Lightning II aircraft at Patuxent River Naval Ai
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11/29/2014
The British Royal Navy’s new full-size aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth could deploy for the first time around 2020. Her sister Prince of Wales should follow in 2022. But the vessels’ American-designed F-35B jump jets won’t be fully operational with the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy until 2023. That’s a problem—one that the U.S. Marine Corps could help solve with its own F-35Bs, which could be ready for combat as early as July 2015.
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11/29/2014
The United States has shifted its air combat fleet assets to expand the war effort against Islamic State of Iraq and Levant.
Officials said the U.S. military has been ordered to transfer aircraft and other resources from Afghanistan to the Middle East to bolster air strikes on ISIL in Iraq and Syria. They said the U.S. Air Force has been moving such assets as the A-10 ground-attack aircraft and Reaper combat unmanned aerial vehicle to bases in Kuwait.
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11/28/2014
In recent test series, US Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II the combined test force configured to carry weapons load operated by the Royal Air Force completed initial aircraft handling trials carrying ASRAAM and Paveway IV weapons. The tests were carried out at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, MD in the USA by a test team including personnel from the UK BAE Systems.
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11/28/2014
Russia’s increasingly assertive – and some say militaristic – foreign policy hit a little closer to home recently. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that the Russian military would soon be conducting bomber patrols worldwide, including in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico – the United States’ proverbial backyard. “In the current situation we have to maintain military presence in the Western Atlantic and Eastern Pacific as well as the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico,” said Shoi
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11/28/2014
Canadian military aircraft tasked with fighting the Islamic State in Iraq are spending most of their time on the ground. Canada is contributing six CF-18 fighter jets, two Aurora military surveillance aircraft and a Polaris refuelling plane to the U.S.-led bombing campaign against ISIL.
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11/28/2014
Russia is ahead of schedule in accomplishing the task to modernize 30 percent of its military hardware by 2016, a senior defense official said Thursday. "We have already surpassed this goal in general, although we still have the entire 2015 at our disposal," Anatoly Gulyaev, head of the Armaments Department at the Russian Defense Ministry, said in an interview with Rossiya 24 television.
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11/28/2014
India is not planning to cancel the deal on purchasing French Rafale jets despite earlier media reports that it would do so if France refuses to deliver Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia, a high-ranking source in Indian Defense Ministry told Sputnik Thursday. "So far the Rafale deal with France is on, there is no problem in it," the source said.
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11/27/2014
In a concerted effort to avoid combat, U.S. advisers in Iraq are pioneering new techniques for calling in airstrikes against Islamic State militants. The procedures allow U.S. pilots to bomb targets without the need for U.S. advisers on the ground to work alongside Iraqi forces. U.S. military officials say the techniques include low-tech workarounds, such as Iraqi commanders using cellphones to request airstrikes.
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11/27/2014
As India draws closer and buys more military hardware from Israel, questions are raised about what that will mean to traditional key defense suppliers, the US and Russia, as well as New Delhi’s relations with Palestine. Global powers including France, the UK, Japan, the US and Israel have been keenly courting India – the world’s largest arms importer – in their quest to bag some lucrative deals as New Delhi begins an ambitious defense upgrade plan with an estimated budget of $100 billion.
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11/27/2014
With the almost $20 billion MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project for 126 Rafale fighters stuck in the final stages, French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will be holding talks with his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar next week in a bid to resolve the imbroglio. As was first reported by TOI, 90% of the draft contract for the complex MMRCA project has been finalized, under which the first 18 jets are to be delivered to IAF within 36-48 months of the deal being inked.
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11/27/2014
NATO E-3 AWACS aircraft flew their last mission over Afghanistan in September 2014. Since 2001 American AWACS have been available in Afghanistan and still are. NATO AWACS arrived in northern Afghanistan in 2011 to mainly handle the growing number of NATO transports and warplanes operating up there. In three years these AWACs flew 1,273 operational (as opposed to training or administrative) sorties, average about ten hour each.
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11/27/2014
An attack aircraft that the Pentagon is trying to get rid of has been deployed to the Middle East to take on the Islamic State. A squadron-sized element of A-10 Thunderbolts arrived in the region during the week of Nov. 17-21, according to the Air Force. The aircraft were previously being used in Afghanistan.
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11/27/2014
New rules for the 9,800 U.S. troops staying in Afghanistan next year will let commanders order airstrikes or night raids on Taliban forces who pose a significant threat to the Afghan government, defense officials said. The rules came in an order recently signed by President Obama that clarified the authorities U.S. military commanders will have after the official end of the combat mission in December.
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11/27/2014
The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency reported that the US State Department had approved the sale to Iraq of a transport aircraft package of total $800 million, which will allow the Iraqi air force to continue conducting humanitarian relief operations beyond 2015.
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11/27/2014
GoPro, an American corporation that develops, manufactures and markets high-definition personal cameras, popular with surfers and other sportsmen, is set to expand its business, Wall Street Journal reports on Wednesday. It will now develop its own line of consumer drones. The multi-rotor helicopters will carry high-definition cameras likely resembling those currently sold by GoPro, such as the GoPro Hero series.
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11/27/2014
14 fighter jets are scheduled to land in Crimea’s Belbek military air base, Capt. 1st Rank Vyacheslav Trukhachev, a spokesman for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, told RIA Novosti. The fighter jets are comprised of ten upgraded Su-27SM's and four Su-30's. All of them are fourth-generation fighter jets. Four of the aircraft deployed in Crimea are newly manufactured, according to Trukhachev.
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11/26/2014
Russia is ready to supply 'standard' versions of the Su-35 combat aircraft to China, Sukhoi first deputy director general Boris Bregman recently told IHS Jane's . "During talks we informed the Chinese side that we can supply a standard version of the Su-35 fighter, which has been fully completed, tested, and received Russian Air Force certification," he said on the sidelines of Airshow China 2014 in Zhuhai.
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11/26/2014
When pictures of Mariam Al Mansouri – the first female fighter pilot in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – traveled around the world in September, it symbolized the changing role of women in the Arab world and the collective fight against the Islamic state. But it also captured a new military phenomenon: after decades of strategic irrelevance, Arab air power is on the rise.
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11/26/2014
The Russian Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA stealth fighter could prove to be a formidable competitor to American fifth-generation combat aircraft such as the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Indeed, in some measures, the new Russian warplane will exceed both U.S.-built jets, but the PAK-FA is not without its flaws.
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11/26/2014
Boeing delivered the sixth P-8I maritime patrol aircraft to India, on schedule, on Nov. 24, arriving at Naval Air Station Rajali to join five others being used by the Indian Navy. The P-8I is part of a contract of eight awarded in 2009. The final two deliveries are scheduled for 2015.
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11/26/2014
Boeing has made a redesigned photography and video website, www.BoeingImages.com, available for worldwide access. The website, which hosts nearly 15,000 photos and more than 100 videos, provides easier searching and licensing capability for commercial uses. But of these, more than 2,500 photographs are also now available for aviation enthusiasts to purchase as either prints or framed artwork.
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11/25/2014
Navy Vice Adm. Scott H. Swift was nominated Thursday to become the next commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, the Pentagon announced. Swift has been serving as director of the Navy Staff in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington for the past year. His appointment means that he is in line to receive his fourth star as a full admiral.
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11/25/2014
U.S. President Barack Obama has ousted his defence secretary, Chuck Hagel, in the wake of a growing perception that the fight against Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS, is teetering and rudderless. Hagel's tenure lasted less than two years and has been defined by a lack of firm vision weakened by statements that often appear to conflict with those of Obama.
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11/25/2014
A total of 74% of the close to 2,000 simulators in the defence sector are made by five manufacturers. L-3 Link Simulation & Training, a division of L-3 Communications, leads the market with a 24% share of active simulators, according to Flightglobal's latest Military Simulator Census.
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11/25/2014
Which phrase do you prefer? Many hands make light work or too many cooks in the kitchen? It's a question that some members of NATO might be asking after the statements made by Domingo Ureña Raso, the executive vice president of military aircraft for European aerospace giant Airbus.
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11/25/2014
Don’t be swayed by exaggerated concerns that budgetary austerity on Capitol Hill will undermine U.S. defense firms. Every fiscal year, when the political Kabuki theater draws to a close, the Pentagon almost always gets its way in the last act. Regardless, torrid emerging market demand for sophisticated jet fighter aircraft made in the U.S. will more than make up for any procurement shortfalls.
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11/25/2014
High over northern Iraq, a crewman in an RAAF Super Hornet was viewing an Islamic State fighter on the aircraft's sophisticated night vision camera when the man suddenly vanished. He had disappeared into a well-concealed cave complex in the side of a hill. And that was the genesis of a major air raid by Australian and coalition aircraft, launched within 24-hours of the initial sighting.
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11/25/2014
Ahead of President Vladimir Putin's visit here early next month, India has told Russia to come back with a plan to substantially reduce the delivery timeframe for the stealth fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) if it wants to seal the futuristic project by next year. The plan till now was that India would begin inducting the stealth fighters only 94 months — at the earliest — after the two countries inked the final design and R&D contract.
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11/25/2014
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has signed for its first four operational Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft as part of the Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP 8) production lot, it was announced on 21 November. The order marks an initial buy from the MoD's Main Gate 4 acquisition approval process for 14 jets to equip the Royal Air Force's (RAF's) 617 Squadron, which is scheduled to stand-up as the UK's first operational F-35B unit in 2016.
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11/25/2014
Since the CIA first used a drone in a targeted killing in 2002, the United States has conducted 500 targeted drone strikes, killing an estimated 3,674 people, including 473 civilians, the Atlantic reported. Drone attacks have become one of the symbols of post 9/11 counter-terrorist strategies.
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11/24/2014
France's Dassault Aviation (AVMD.PA) declined comment on Monday on a media report that said France could soon sell at least two dozen Rafale combat jets to Qatar. Europe 1 radio reported France was in "very advanced negotiations" to sell a tranche of at least 24 of the Dassault-built fighters to the Gulf state, which has been seeking a total of 72 warplanes to renew and expand its fleet of French Mirage 2000 jets.
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11/24/2014
The Marine Corps' most unique aircraft is going to get a bigger punch. A Marine Corps planning document shows that officials want to arm the MV-22B Osprey with more weapons so the aircraft can support the service's new crisis response forces that carry out missions like embassy evacuations. An "enhanced weapon systems is in early development to increase all-axis, stand-off, and precision capabilities," according to the service's recently-released 10-year aviation plan.
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11/24/2014
Competition for Seoul’s project to procure four aerial tankers is heating up as contenders highlight the ways they can help enhance South Korea’s air defense with several months to go until the announcement of the winner. Currently three competitors ? Boeing’s KC-46, Airbus’ A330 MRTT and Israel Aerospace Industries’ B767 MMTT ?
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11/24/2014
When Textron AirLand first announced the Scorpion—a lightweight surveillance and strike aircraft—last year, it raised a few eyebrows. Now the American company is talking about the first two potential customers for the diminutive jet. Namely, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates.
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11/24/2014
As Tyler Rogoway predicted since the very first blurry images of J-31 hit the internet, China's youngest stealth project was meant for export as much as for PLAAF use. Pakistan is now said to be beyond the initial discussion phase for buying the stealth jet. This comes during a time of increasing tension with India, whose air combat capabilities have ballooned over the last decade.
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11/24/2014
Defence minister Philip Dunne said the deal will “cement the central role of Norfolk in military aviation.” RAF Marham will play a key role in maintaining the new UK fleet, with the planes expected to be in the service for 30 years. Last month it was announced that an agreement in principle had been reached for the four F-35B aircraft. Today’s announcement confirms the official order.
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11/23/2014
Russia’s increased military presence in the Baltic Sea area, including its air force, has prompted some officials to compare it to the Cold War. Here’s a summary of the most serious incidents reported across the region.
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11/23/2014
With procurement funds steadily shrinking, requirements are markedly informed by budgetary constraints rather than mandated by capability considerations. Consequently, innovative and cost-efficient solutions are increasingly sought and valued. This is particularly true for counterinsurgency operations in low-contested environments in which the enemy possesses only negligible air-defense assets.
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11/23/2014
Outside Nato’s headquarters in Brussels, the national flags of 28 member states fly in a proud circle. Even after decades of defence cuts, these countries still account for 58 per cent of global military spending, giving Nato more firepower than any other alliance on Earth. Yet, if Nato is a giant, it has often seemed a sleeping one — at least since the Cold War ended in a bloodless victory more than two decades ago.
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11/23/2014
China appears to be flexing its considerable military muscle, building a massive island that could host an airstrip in an area of the South China Sea that has become a source of regional tension over disputed territorial claims. IHS Jane’s said satellite imagery it obtained showed that in the past three months Chinese dredges have created a land mass that is almost the entire length of Fiery Cross Reef in the contested Spratly Islands.
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11/23/2014
More than 900 people have been killed by US-led airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS) militant group in two months, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Saturday. "SOHR documented the death of 910 people since the U.S led coalition started its strikes on Syria in 23/Sep until last night. Including: 52 civilians (8 children, 5 women), killed by coalition air strikes on oil fields and refineries in al-Hasakah and Der-Ezzor countrysides, al-Raqqa, Around Menbej northeast of Aleppo,
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11/22/2014
Two Russian strategic bombers circled the U.S. island of Guam last week in what U.S. defense officials say is the latest in a series of nuclear provocations by Moscow. The bombers were identified by air defenses as Tu-95 Bear H nuclear-capable aircraft that circumnavigated the strategic U.S. military outpost on Friday—amid heightened tensions with Moscow regarding a new buildup of Russian forces in and along the border of eastern Ukraine.
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11/22/2014
Since she was a young girl, Carey D. Lohrenz had set her sights on becoming a U.S. Navy pilot. Getting there wasn't easy, but she did, making history as the first woman assigned to fly an F-14 Tomcat fighter. On Thursday, Lohrenz spoke at the Associated Pennsylvania Constructors fall seminar at the Hershey Lodge in Derry Township, where she shared her experiences as well as the lessons she learned during her career as a Navy fighter pilot.
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11/22/2014
Japan has officially decided to procure the V-22 Osprey for its military tilt-rotor requirement, as well as the Global Hawk unmanned surveillance system and E-2D Hawkeye command and control aircraft. The choice of the Osprey, while widely expected ever since the country laid out a requirement for 17 such aircraft in its National Defense Program Guidelines, released in April, may have political ramifications for the government of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
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11/22/2014
President Obama has signed a secret order authorizing an expanded combat role for U.S. forces in Afghanistan in 2015, according to a report from the New York Times. The order, which was signed in the last few weeks, will allow U.S. forces to carry out combat missions against Taliban fighters who pose a threat to American military personnel or Afghanistan's government. It also allows American fighter jets, bomber aircraft and drones to be deployed in support of Afghan troops on combat missions.
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11/22/2014
Mainland China's ongoing military modernization has continued to shift Taiwan-China military balance in Beijing's favor despite warming cross-strait relations, a U.S. congressional commission report said Thursday. Despite the recent cross-strait rapprochement, “the core sovereignty and security issues between Taiwan and China remain unresolved,” according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission's (USCC) annual report to the U.S. Congress.
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11/22/2014
I’ve had a number of references on Defence Watch to the CF-18 modernization, which the Conservative government says will keep the fighter aircraft flying until 2025. But a knowledgeable Defence Watch reader and former fighter pilot points out that the upgrade was never intended to expand the actual flying life (ELE) of the CF- 18. It will add various upgrades to the cockpit but it has nothing to extend the actual flying state of the plane. That instead will be done through increased maintenance
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11/22/2014
In less than three months, Nigeria’s military has lost three aircraft around Yola, northeastern part of the country in its war with Boko Haram. The first casualty was the disappearance of an Alpha Jet, with two missing crew members on September 12; followed by two helicopter accidents this month (November) alone. This high rate of accidents can be attributed to either of the two persistent, contributory factors in our military aviation: poorly trained pilots or poor aircraft maintenance.
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11/22/2014
“The Indian Air Force (IAF) today, with a dedicated service to the nation, is a modern technology-intensive force distinguished by its commitment to excellence and professionalism. Keeping pace with the demands of contemporary advancements, the IAF continues to modernise in a phased manner and today it stands as a credible air power counted amongst the fore-most professional services in the world.”
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11/22/2014
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Russian program of testing new types of weapons is in accordance with international obligations and Russia is not starting arms race.
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11/21/2014
As the system integrator, the contract will represent an order value of £365 million to BAE Systems. This will give Eurofighter Typhoon one of the most advanced radar systems in the world providing a wider field of regard than any other combat aircraft. Other benefits include increased detection and tracking ranges, advanced air-to-surface capability and enhanced electronic protection measures.
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11/21/2014
The Navy is beginning to work on a a next-generation carrier-launched fighter jet to replace the existing F/A-18 Super Hornet and Growler aircraft by 2030 and supplement the F-35C the Pentagon is still developing, service officials said. The Navy effort, called the F/A-XX program, includes early work on the desired technological capabilities for the new aircraft. The idea is to have a new aircraft ready and producible by the time existing F/A-18s reach their end-of-service dates.
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11/21/2014
India is likely to go in for 106 more Swiss Pilatus PC-7 basic trainer aircraft (BTA), the bulk of which will be produced domestically, to help train rookie IAF pilots in a project worth around Rs 7,000 crore. This comes after defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics' attempt to develop its own BTA called HTT-40 failed to pass muster with the defence ministry.
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11/21/2014
Admit it. You don’t know where Chad is. You know it’s in Africa, of course. But beyond that? Maybe with a map of the continent and by some process of elimination you could come close. But you’d probably pick Sudan or maybe the Central African Republic. Here’s a tip. In the future, choose that vast, arid swath of land just below Libya.
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11/21/2014
Airbus Group NV on Thursday said the French government has agreed to place an order for 12 military airborne-refueling aircraft.
Including related support services, the deal is valued at about €3 billion ($3.76 billion), the French government said. France is scheduled to get first of the planes in 2018, a second a year later and the rest at a rate of two a year, the Toulouse-based company said.
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11/21/2014
The Army will inactivate the 159th Combat Aviation Brigade this year, officials announced Thursday. The 159th CAB is the first of three aviation brigades expected to be cut as part of a five-year aviation restructuring initiative. The other two have not been announced. The 159th, which recently returned from Afghanistan, is one of two combat aviation brigades in the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
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11/21/2014
A new viral video appears to depict a Ukrainian soldier hurling a small drone aircraft into the air, providing a glimpse into how Kiev’s soldiers are using low-grade military technology against Russian-backed separatists. The footage has gone viral after being posted to YouTube on Monday and appears to show the drone under gunfire after it takes off. It isn’t clear what kind of aircraft it is, but the video shows the drone buzzing over fields riddled with craters and what looks like an airfield.
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11/21/2014
Wildlife is not the only thing that enjoys the vast empty expanses of America's northern-most state. There is so much room to train over Alaska's fully outfitted air combat ranges that there is really no other place in the world quite like it for military aircrews and weapons and tactics testers to push their hardware and skills to the limit.
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11/21/2014
NATO allies are concerned over France’s possible delivery of Mistral-class helicopter carriers to Russia, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday at a press conference at a military air base close to Tallinn. Russia and France signed the €1.2 billion ($1.5 billion) deal for the two Mistral-class ships in June 2011.
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11/20/2014
The Islamic State terrorist army, in its rapid arms buildup, is now searching for foreign technicians who can come to Syria and Iraq and show its fighters how to use and maintain their weapons.
A U.S. military officer familiar with the Islamic State said that the Sunni extremist group is sending word through the arms trade’s secretive black market that it needs outside advisers — and is willing to pay.
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11/20/2014
Allied jets in Iraq Wednesday targeted a complex of bunkers and tunnels that was uncovered by chance in an earlier U.S. strike. The bunkers were found when Islamic State of Iraq & Al-Sham jihadists were seen withdrawing to the area, between the Kurdish-held city of Kirkuk and ISIS-held Mosul, during a concerted attack by Kurdish peshmerga and Iraqi government forces.
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11/20/2014
An MP today called for a revamp of Malaysia’s defence policy to meet new threats, especially those coming from the South China Sea. “The Defence Ministry must implement a 50:50 deployment ratio between the Peninsula and Sabah/Sarawak and a 35:35:30 split in resources among the Army, the Navy and the Air Force,” Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong told the Dewan Rakyat today.
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11/20/2014
Despite attempts by the Air Force to retire the A-10 Thunderbolt II, nicknamed for its toughness and one of the military’s most beloved airplanes, a scrappy band of lawmakers has put up a fight that has started to yield some results. But if the A-10 survives, the Air Force warns, the already delayed introduction of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter could face another setback.
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11/20/2014
What does it feel like to push a button, launch a surface-to-air missile, and blow a B-52 bomber out of the sky? Ask Nguyen Van Phiet. As a young North Vietnamese military officer, his SA-2 rockets were credited with downing four of the giant Boeing Stratofortresses during U.S. raids on and around Hanoi in December 1972.
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11/20/2014
Burma’s largest ethnic armed group, the United Wa State Army (UWSA), has denied reports that it recently acquired a “large number” of Chinese-manufactured anti-aircraft weapons. A Nov. 18 report by Jane’s Defence Weekly stated that the UWSA had come into possession of the third-generation FN-6 shoulder-mounted surface-to-air missile launchers.
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11/20/2014
France is soon to send more combat aircraft to join those already fighting ISIL in northern Iraq, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Wednesday. Defence sources said Le Drian indicated during parliamentary question time that six Mirage fighter-bombers would be deployed to reinforce French air operations against ISIL which are currently being assured by nine Rafale combat aircraft based in the UAE.
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11/20/2014
According to the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, the Russian Federation is continuing to amass forces at the border. These forces include radar stations and Mig-31 Foxhound combat planes, which are interceptors capable of a maximum speed of Mach 2.83. An unspecified amount of Mig-31s based at Perm have been deployed to Millerovo airfield, in the Rostov region, close to the border with Ukraine.
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11/20/2014
A military intelligence unit has arrived in Lithuania from Denmark to take part in joint exercises, the Lithuanian Defense Ministry has announced. "In order to strengthen deterrence in the Baltic region, in accordance with an agreement of NATO countries, military personnel from Denmark arrived in Lithuania on November 19. About 140 of the Danish military servicemen from an intelligence unit will take part in joint exercises with Lithuanian ground force military units," the ministry said.
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11/19/2014
Pakistan continues to proceed with improvements to its JF-17 Thunder jet fighter program, but the recent Zhuhai air show also revealed possible longer term ambitions to acquire stealth aircraft, namely the Shenyang FC-31. According to Pakistan officials at Zhuhai, progress is being made to improve the JF-17’s avionics and software, and to fix a probe.
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11/19/2014
Nigeria's air force has expressed an interest in acquiring the Textron AirLand Scorpion strike and surveillance aircraft in order to counter the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency in the country. The service currently operates both dedicated strike and surveillance types – the Chengdu F-7Ni and ATR 42, respectively – but believes that a low-cost aircraft with a dual capability would enable quicker and more precise counter-insurgency operations.
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11/19/2014
India has a vast landscape and to protect its territory Indian Air Force has inducted Sukhoi-30 MKI as the premiere fighter airplane. It is a stealth aircraft which can deceive the enemy’s radar and can hit the accurate target even in the enemy’s area and can return back successfully. The fighter aircraft was originally inducted from Russia.
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11/19/2014
The Office of the Secretary of Defense awarded the U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] Sniper® Advanced Targeting Pod (ATP) team the 2014 Performance-Based Logistics (PBL) Award, which recognizes outstanding achievements in providing operational support to warfighters. The team received the subsystem PBL award, which is one of three PBL awards presented annually to government/industry teams.
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11/19/2014
Military and military-technical cooperation between Russia and China are becoming increasingly important as the international situation is becoming more complex, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday. "Unfortunately, the situation in this [Asia-Pacific] region, in North Africa and elsewhere in the world generally becomes more and more difficult each year.
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11/19/2014
A senior US arms control official announced that the NATO ballistic missile defense system is aimed at defending US allies against a limited number of ballistic missile strikes from rogue groups or states such as Iran and North Korea and not targeted at Russia.
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11/18/2014
The United States has approved additional military sales to Iraq despite devastating failures by the Iraqi military this summer which resulted in the surrender to Islamic State of Iraq and Levant of U.S. origin military platforms. The State Department has endorsed two Iraqi military requests from the United States as it struggles to recover territory lost to ISIL. Officials said the requests, which amount to nearly $700 million, would include air weapons as well as spare parts.
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11/18/2014
The U.S. Air Force deployed four F-22 Raptors from Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, to Eglin Air Force Base, earlier this month for the unit's first operational integration training mission with the F-35A Lightning II assigned to the 33rd Fighter Wing here. The purpose of the training was to improve integrated employment of fifth-generation assets and tactics. The training allowed both units to gain operational familiarization and capture lessons learned to improve future exercises.
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11/18/2014
When the littoral combat ship Fort Worth left San Diego Bay on Monday, it marked a new chapter in drone use by the Navy. The ship’s 16-month deployment to Asian waters is the first to send manned and unmanned helicopters out to work together. The Fort Worth carried one MQ-8B Fire Scout, an unmanned helicopter engineered in San Diego by Northrop Grumman.
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11/18/2014
The Aviaindra-2014 Russian and Indian joint drills have started at the Halwara air base in northwest India, Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Igor Klimov told the reporters on Monday. "The drills' scenario comprises joint day and night flying with the engagement of ground targets by Russian-Indian crews on Sukhoi Su-30MKI (Flanker-H) fighters, and Mil Mi-35 (Hind-E) and Mil Mi-17 (Hip) helicopters," the official said.
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11/17/2014
With newly war-tested batteries of drone-killing Patriots, air defenders of Israel Air Force (IAF) Wing 168 are earning equal footing with F-16s in guarding the skies against new and growing unmanned threats. The Wing’s Patriot force forms the ground-based node of Israel’s extensively integrated air defense network — historically junior partner to IAF fighters in their joint intercept mission against air-breathing threats.
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11/17/2014
Boeing will train Royal Australian Navy and Australian Army helicopter pilots for the next 25 years through a $A600 million contract that broadens the company’s partnership with Australia’s armed forces. For the JP 9000 Phase 7-Helicopter Aircrew Training System (HATS) effort, Boeing Defence Australia (BDA) teamed with Thales to develop a low-risk solution around the Airbus EC135, one of the world’s most proven helicopters.
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11/17/2014
PR agency Viva has been appointed by Eurofighter GMBH – management company for the Typhoon combat aircraft – to work on its new in-house magazine. Viva is working with the organisation’s communications team in Munich to produce a series of features for the new quarterly, Eurofighter World, which focuses on the Typhoon aircraft.
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11/17/2014
A leaked US document has raised new questions about Canada’s involvement in the F-35 program and given critics of the fighter jet as well as opposition members of Parliament new ammunition to accuse the Canadian government of misleading the public about the proposed acquisition. An Oct. 27 briefing by US Air Force Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, F-35 Program Executive Office director, outlined how Canada intends to initially purchase four F-35s.
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11/17/2014
America loves technology. As a nation, our cultural predilection for technical ingenuity has created the conditions for economic prosperity, scientific discovery, and military superiority. However, the worldwide proliferation of American free market ideas and liberalism (not to mention technology) has led to the emergence of an increasingly competitive global innovation landscape.
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11/16/2014
Less than three days after a military helicopter on surveillance mission crashed in Damare, a suburb of Girei Local Government Area of Adamawa state, another chopper believed to belong to the Nigerian Air Force has gone down around the same area.
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11/16/2014
Russia is placing civilian flights at risk by dispatching jet fighters and bombers into European airspace without following safety procedures, according to Nato’s secretary general. Jens Stoltenberg told the Telegraph that Nato fighters had intercepted Russian military aircraft over 100 times so far this year, compared with 30 such incidents in 2013.
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11/16/2014
Outside Nato’s headquarters in Brussels, the national flags of 28 member states fly in a proud circle. Even after decades of defence cuts, these countries still account for 58 per cent of global military spending, giving Nato more firepower than any other alliance on Earth.
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11/16/2014
The U.S. Air Force went to war in Afghanistan in 2001 badly unprepared for fighting fleet-footed Taliban insurgents who blend in with the rough terrain. In particular, the Air Force’s jet fighters—designed and equipped for supersonic combat against Soviet planes—lacked sensors capable of scanning the ground below for small bands of enemy fighters.
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11/16/2014
For more than a decade, India shopped around the world for more than $1 billion worth of helicopters to replace about 200 of its military’s aging light-utility aircraft. But in August, the new nationalist government surprised many when it abruptly scrapped the request for global bids to buy the helicopters in favor of manufacturing them in India instead.
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11/16/2014
When China’s stealthy, twin-engine J-31 took to the skies over Airshow China in Zhuhai last week, the skies were cloudy, but the message the country wanted to send was clear. Beijing not only plans to sell a new fighter — it also wants to sell itself on the world stage. “I think the public unveiling of J-31 certainly shows the Chinese military is now more confident and transparent,” said Wang Dong, director of the School of International Studies, Center for Northeast Asian Strategic Studies.
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11/15/2014
China showed off its new J-31 stealth fighter at Airshow China in the city of Zhuhai to an audience of potential foreign buyers. It seems like everything is made in China nowadays, but the U.S. has still kept one piece of manufacturing, weapons, especially high-tech ones. China aims to change that, as the J-31 gets ready to compete with Lockheed Martin’s F-35.
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11/15/2014
Friday marked the final landing for the U.S. Navy's EA-6B Prowler. Squadron VAQ-134 landed back at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island before noon, after flying cross country from the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush. The squadron, also known as the "Garudas," completed 104 combat missions over Afghanistan and was called upon to support operations against ISIS, flying another 109 combat missions according to the Navy.
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11/15/2014
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was not alone when it crashed last July, according to new radar data released by a Russian air safety consultancy. Referring to readings taken by a radar station located in Rostove, near the Ukranian border, CEO of Aviation Safety consultancy Sergey Melnichenko told Russian daily Moskovsky Komsomolets that there were one or two planes in the air close to the Boeing 777 aircraft when it crashed in eastern Ukraine.
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11/15/2014
The Airbus Group warned Friday that the costs associated with a much-delayed military transport plane could increase after the European aerospace giant failed to meet a deadline for equipping the aircraft with combat capabilities. Airbus said the latest production snag involving the A400M Atlas cargo plane — which cost 20 billion euros, or $25 billion, to develop — risked adding to the €4 billion in added expenses that the group has already absorbed since 2006.
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11/15/2014
The US Department of Defense is concerned over Russia's increasing military presence near the gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, said US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. "Well, the very aggressive Russian behavior over the last few months is a concern," Hagel said Friday at the Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, as stated on the department's official website.
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11/14/2014
An unidentified Middle Eastern country is in “advanced” talks to make the first foreign purchase of a fighter jet jointly developed by Pakistan and China. The joint sales team from the Pakistan Air Force and China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corporation also known as CATIC, are in advanced talks with 10 other countries to sell the JF-17 Thunder, said PAF Air Commodore Khalid Mahmood, who heads sales and marketing for the fighter jet.
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11/14/2014
An Algerian Air Force MiG-25 'Foxbat' combat aircraft crashed during a training exercise on 11 November, national media reported. The single-seat Soviet-era fighter came down near a live-fire range at Hassi Bahbah in the north of the country, the Algerian Press Service reported the National Defence Ministry as saying. The pilot ejected safely and was recovered shortly after.
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11/14/2014
The carrier variant of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft has completed more than 100 catapult launches and arrested landings during its first two weeks of sea trials, pilots and officials told reporters aboard the USS Nimitz (CVN 68) on 13 November. The two C-model test aircraft on board Nimitz , CF-03 and CF-05, have already satisfied 95% of the threshold requirements for the first of three rounds of sea-based Development Testing I (DT-I), according to US Navy.
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11/14/2014
A group of F-15 fighter jets flew over eastern and southeastern Massachusetts today as part of a planned training and media mission, officials said. The 104th Fighter Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard had planned to fly five of its F-15 Eagle fighter jets from its Westfield base to Hanscom Air Force Base, where the flyover was scheduled begin at about 8:10 a.m., said Lieutenant Colonel James Sahady, spokesman for the Massachusetts National Guard.
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11/14/2014
Two weeks into Canada’s six-month mission in Iraq, the Canadian Forces is having a hard time finding Islamic State targets to destroy. Col. Daniel Constable, the mission’s commander in Kuwait, acknowledged the problem Thursday as he provided more details about a Canadian airstrike Tuesday that destroyed an ISIL artillery piece and killed an unknown number of militants.
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11/14/2014
India's frontline combat aircraft Sukhoi-30 fleet, which was grounded after a crash near Pune, will be back in air "within a week's time", said Air Force Chief Arup Raha today. He also said that the findings of a Court of Inquiry into the crash are being finalised. This is the longest period that the Russian-made aircraft has been grounded since 2009 when its operation was suspended for nearly three weeks following an accident.
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11/14/2014
The Indian Air Force on Friday expressed hope that the multi-billion contract for 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) would be inked "sooner than later", saying the project is "very important" for it to replace some of the obsolete fleet under its command. "MMRCA deal is very important for which which we have been stating right from the beginning. Everybody knows, government knows, the public knows (that it is) to replace some of our obsolete fleet which have served the nation well.
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11/14/2014
The U.S. Navy received its 200th submarine-hunting MH-60R “Romeo” helicopter from Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] following a patch signing with Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron Seven-Two (HSM-72). The cornerstone of the U.S. Navy’s anti-surface and anti-submarine operations, MH-60R helicopters have flown more than 250,000 hours in operation with the Fleet, providing increased surveillance and situational awareness.
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11/14/2014
Two US Air Force F-16 fighter jets are scheduled to start military drills in Estonian airspace Thursday, the country's Defense Forces announced. For two days, the American fighters and Estonian air traffic controllers will conduct flights in Harju County in the northern part of the county, according to a statement published Wednesday on the website of the Estonian Defense Forces.
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11/14/2014
A detachment of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) will be introduced in Russia's Chukotka Autonomous Area, the country's Eastern Military District (EMD) representative Alexander Gordeev told journalists Thursday. "The detachment will be stationed at one of the airfields near the city of Anadyr," Gordeev said. It is planned that airfield-based UAVs and mobile systems will make up part of the detachment's service. Only contract servicemen will be operating the drones.
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11/13/2014
Russian troops and heavy weaponry, including tanks, artillery and anti-aircraft systems, have streamed across the border into Ukraine in recent days, U.S. Defense Department and military officials confirmed Wednesday to NBC News. The exact number of Russian troops and vehicles now operating within eastern Ukraine remains unclear.
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11/13/2014
Sweden recently announced another export customer for its JAS 39E Gripen jet fighter. This time it was Brazil, which ordered 36 aircraft. This is the largest export order so far. Most of the other five export customers received only 14 aircraft, and often on lease, not purchase. Brazil is buying the Gripens for $150 million each (including spares, training and support). The Brazil sale might still be cancelled, but that appears unlikely.
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11/13/2014
A deadly Indian naval accident last week underscored the nation’s need for the upkeep of military hardware, a requirement that’s seen stoking opportunities for private companies following an easing of defense rules. A little-publicized change in June scrapped a rule that forced private companies to obtain permits before seeking military maintenance work.
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11/13/2014
Russia's long-range bombers will conduct regular patrol missions from the Arctic Ocean to the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, the military said Wednesday, a show of muscle reflecting tensions with the West over Ukraine. A statement from Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu came as NATO's chief commander accused Moscow of sending new troops and tanks into Ukraine — a claim quickly rejected by Russia.
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11/13/2014
The Pentagon's most famous mad scientists have started asking around to see if anyone has any bright ideas about how to launch and recover drones from other aircraft in flight. The recent announcement by DARPA — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — has resulted in a little cascade of nerdgasms shivering across the internet, particularly by those who are just a little too into The Avengers because of the movie's ginormous flying-ship-helicopter-base-carrier thing.
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11/13/2014
A group of F-15 fighter jets will be flying over eastern and southeastern Massachusetts on Thursday as part of a planned training and media mission, officials said. The 104th Fighter Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard will fly five of its F-15 Eagle fighter jets from its Westfield base to Hanscom Air Force Base, where the flyover will begin at about 8:10 a.m., said Lieutenant Colonel James Sahady, spokesman for the Massachusetts National Guard.
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11/13/2014
As of 1500 (Eastern Standard Time) 11 November 2014, Canada’s Air Task Force-Iraq conducted 62 sorties, according to the Canadian Forces. CF-188 Hornet fighters conducted 42 sorties, CC-150T Polaris aerial refueller conducted nine sorties, delivering some 418,000 pounds of fuel to coalition aircraft; and CP-140 Aurora aircraft conducted 11 reconnaissance missions.
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11/13/2014
The US Department of Defense signed a $306 million contract to continue logistics and sustainment services for the RQ-4 Global Hawk, an advanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance unmanned aircraft, defense contractor Northrop Grumman has said.
"The new agreement continues an existing contract for Global Hawk maintenance, inventory management, parts procurement and other tasks necessary to ensure the availability of the Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system.
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11/13/2014
Russia's decision to refuse supply of S-300 (SA-10 Grumble) surface-to-air missile defense systems to Iran was made under pressure from Western countries, Iranian ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanaei stated Wednesday. "Attempts of Russia or Iran to enter into relations with the West have always had a bad impact on our Russian-Iranian relations. An example of this is the situation with the supply of the S-300s and the imposition of sanctions," Sanaei said at Russia's Civic Chamber session.
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11/13/2014
The press service of Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense stated that it was “a Mi-24 helicopter belonging to the Republic of Armenia’s armed forces,” and that it “made an attempt to attack Azerbaijani positions.” According to a statement issued by the ministry, the helicopter was shot down in the vicinity of the village of Chemengly in the Agdam district of Azerbaijan, and crashed in territory controlled by Azerbaijani forces. Azerbaijani forces were deployed to secure the crash site.
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11/12/2014
The White House's new $5.6 billion request for additional funding to fight the military advances of the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria contains specific provisions that begin to detail the scope of the missions launched so far and how expensive it will be to station US ground troops in Iraq in the coming months.
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11/12/2014
Aviator morale plummeted in 2012 when it became evident that the U.S. Air Force’s F-22 Raptor stealth fighters were choking their pilots. The stealth fliers’ moods got so bad that the flying branch assigned a psychologist to help with “allaying pilot concerns.” That’s one surprising revelation in Air Combat Command’s official history for 2012, a heavily-redacted copy of which War Is Boring obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
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11/12/2014
A pair of Norwegian F-16s intercepted a Russian flight of mighty Su-34 'Fullback' fighter bombers off the coast of Denmark this week. It is said that this was the first time that Norway, which shares a border with Russia and is active in surveying their military drills, has intercepted the greatly enhanced deep strike optimized variant of the Su-27 Flanker.
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11/12/2014
Argentina’s Defense Minister Agustin Rossi announced on Oct. 21 that his government would purchase 24 Saab Gripen E fighters. So far, so good for Saab. But as my colleague Andrew Chuter at Defense News pointed out, Rossi’s announcement seemed to ignore a likely insurmountable hurdle to the sale: Britain, its longtime foe, has a near veto on the export of the combat jet as a result of the substantial number of UK systems in the jet.
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11/12/2014
The largest submarine hunt in Swedish waters since the end of the Cold War. A near collision between a Russian military plane and a Swedish passenger aircraft carrying 132 people. And the abduction of an Estonian official from the territory of the NATO member, only days after U.S. President Barack Obama visited the Baltic nation.
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11/12/2014
The Russian aviation industry in 2007 was largely concentrated on military aircraft, with 15% civil aircraft for 85% military. With this in mind the state United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) consortium, which incorporates all Russian aircraft manufacturers, set a goal to reverse this ratio by 2025 : that of building two-thirds of civilian aircraft to one third military aircraft.
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11/12/2014
Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] received a $40.3 million contract from the U.S. Air Force for follow-on production of Paveway II Plus Laser Guided Bomb (LGB) kits. The contract represents the majority share of fiscal year 2014 funding and the eighth award under the five-year indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract. Deliveries will begin in June 2015 and will include computer control groups and airfoil groups for GBU-10 and GBU-12 bombs.
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11/12/2014
NATO is set to continue its military pressure on Russia and has held numerous exercises on Russia's border, a senior Russian Defense Ministry official said Tuesday. "It is evident that our colleagues from NATO are set to continue military pressure on Russia, which… is unlikely to make Europe safer," Sergei Koshelyev, the head of the Defense Ministry's department for international military cooperation, told journalists.
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11/12/2014
Gill Rosenberg, a Canadian-born 31-year-old woman who had emigrated to Israel, made contact with YPG, the People’s Protection Units in Syrian Kurdistan, via the internet. In 2009 Rosenberg was arrested in a joint Israeli police and FBI operation on suspicion that she had been part of a criminal racket that cheated elderly American citizens out of their money by posing as lottery officials and convincing the unsuspecting seniors to pay for fictitious services, according to the Israeli news.
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11/11/2014
The final version of the two-seater trainer jet Tejas (PV-6) made its maiden flight today, in a milestone for India's overall indigenous Light Combat Aircraft programme. The aircraft took to the skies at 13.36 PM and was piloted by Group Captain Vivart Singh along with Group Captain Anoop Kabadwal.
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11/11/2014
The Persian Gulf kingdom of Qatar recently received the first two of 24 Pilatus PC-21 basic flight training aircraft. In 2012 Qatar joined its neighbors (Saudi Arabia and the UAE) by adopting the PC-21. Qatar is in the midst of expanding its combat air force from nine Mirage 2000 fighters to as many as 72 modern jet fighters.
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11/11/2014
The first U.S. troops to enter an active combat zone since President Barack Obama ordered the American military back to Iraq arrived Monday in Anbar, the Iraqi province where Americans suffered their heaviest losses during the 2003-2011 occupation, the Pentagon announced Monday. The force of 50 troops has been tasked with determining how to send more American advisers and trainers to the restive province to prepare Iraqi forces to combat the Islamic State.
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11/11/2014
Amid the whine of high-performance jet engines at the start of an air show in Zhuhai, the Chinese government is hoping to generate a different sort of buzz: admiration, and perhaps purchases, of its shadowy J-31 stealth fighter, which is expected to make its first public appearance. For almost 20 years, the event, Airshow China, has been a showcase for the country’s homegrown hardware, and a marketplace for those interested in selling to the world’s most populous country.
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11/11/2014
An exportable Chinese fifth-generation fighter jet will be equipped with gas-turbine jet engines developed and assembled by Russian companies, confirmed the head of Russian delegation at the Airshow China exhibition. The mid-sized advanced J-31 fighter jet developed by Shenyang Aircraft Corporation got off the ground for the first time on October 31, 2012, and has been in the process of modification ever since.
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11/11/2014
The U.K. Ministry of Defense, in collaboration with the Armaments Procurement Agency of the French Ministry of Defense, has allocated $190 million to the following companies to continue design studies for the Future Combat Air System (FCAS): Dassault Aviation, BAE Systems, Thales, Selex ES and Rolls-Royce Snecma.
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11/11/2014
The Russian Knights aerobatic team has qualified to perform on Tuesday at Airshow China 2014, Russian Air Force representative, colonel Igor Klimov said. “The Knights carried out a qualifying flight in Zhuhai and examined the region of upcoming flights. The training took 30 minutes; they flew in groups of five, four, and in a pair and also rehearsed individual aerobatics under both normal and adverse weather conditions.
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11/11/2014
he Russian military have started drills at the Kamhud alpine training facility in Armenia that should see personnel learning to operate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the Southern Military District press service reported Monday. "During theory classes commanding officers will study new methods of training the staff in a mountainous area.
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11/11/2014
Iran has successfully tested an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based on the American RQ-170 drone downed on Iranian territory in 2011, the aerospace division head of the country's Revolutionary Guard Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh was quoted as saying by IRNA news agency Monday.
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11/10/2014
More than three months into the American-led air campaign in Iraq and Syria, commanders are challenged by spotty intelligence, poor weather and an Iraqi Army that is only now starting to go on the offensive against the Islamic State, meaning that warplanes are mostly limited to hitting pop-up targets of opportunity.
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11/10/2014
The UK carried out its first drone attack on Islamic State militants in Iraq over the weekend, the Ministry of Defence has said. An RAF Reaper drone was involved in coalition missions near Baiji, the site of Iraq's largest oil refinery. The MoD said the drone "successfully attacked" militants who were laying improvised explosive devices.
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11/10/2014
The U.S. Air Force doesn’t say much about its radar-evading RQ-170 Sentinel spy drone—the batwing robot that news photographers first spotted at an airfield in Afghanistan in 2007. But a close reading of the scant info the flying branch has made public helps us fill in the gaps. We can assert that the Sentinel is a regular visitor to the sprawling Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, from where the flying branch and the Navy keep a close eye on China and North Korea.
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11/10/2014
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the investigation of the MH17 crash site is stalling due to constant shelling of the rebel-controlled area in eastern Ukraine by Ukrainian government forces. Mr Putin told Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak that rebels were not hindering access to the site of the Malaysia Airlines crash, in which 298 people died in July when the aircraft came down in an area controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
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11/10/2014
A mustasched metallurgical engineer with a penchant for straight talk and untucked shirts has just been made responsible for about Rs240,000 crore ($40 billion) of defence purchases that India’s armed forces urgently need. As India’s new defence minister, Manohar Parrikar, 58, will have to fast-track some of the biggest defence deals that India, the world’s largest arms importer, has even undertaken.
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11/10/2014
Indonesian and South Korean defence ministries have signed an agreement to continue the joint development of the Korean Fighter Experimental, Indonesian Fighter Experimental - Ed (KFX / IFX) aircraft. Equipped with 4.5th generation technology, KFX / IFX would be a multi-role combat aircraft featuring more advanced capabilities than the Lockheed Martin-built F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft.
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11/10/2014
RD-93 engines made in Russia will power the Chinese J-31 fifth generation fighters, Sergei Kornev said; he has also mentioned that there is a solution to the problem of China making copycat copies of Russian weapons. A Russian-made RD-93 engine will power the Chinese J-31 fifth generation fighter, Rosoboronexport official told RIA Novosti Monday.
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11/09/2014
As pundits, analysts and the blogosophere attempt to predict all the ways in which the midterm elections have changed the political landscape in Washington, it doesn't take a political scientist to realize that the A-10 Warthog's future now looks much brighter than it did on November 3rd.
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11/09/2014
Argentina’s Defense Minister Agustin Rossi surprised just about everybody when he announced on Oct. 21 that his government intended to buy 24 Saab Gripen E fighters to re-equip his nation’s ancient Air Force. But Rossi’s request appeared to ignore a likely insurmountable hurdle to the sale: Britain, its longtime foe, has a near veto on the export of the combat jet as a result of the substantial number of UK systems in the jet.
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11/09/2014
Night after night for the past six weeks, U.S. fighter jets have streaked into the muggy sky from this vast desert airfield, their afterburners spewing orange flames as they head north on bombing runs over Iraq and Syria. The American presence at Al-Dhafra, which the Pentagon has not publicly acknowledged, is a vital part of the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State militants: The base’s twin runways have launched more strike aircraft — including the Air Force’s most-sophisticated warplane.
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11/09/2014
An Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter plane dropped three fuel tanks on outskirts of Gwalior city on Saturday during an in-flight emergency. MiG-21 fleet's upgraded Bison variant was on a training mission at Gwalior airbase when the pilot was forced to jettison the tanks. They were dropped 5 km from the base runway and landed on a field 500m away from a residential locality, said sources.
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11/09/2014
Despite their dramatic topic, military museums used to be dry stuffy collections, mainly appealing to soldiers and scholars. But the galleries have grown up, capturing the interest of young visitors with theme-park thrills and dynamic displays, says Dr. Charles H. Cureton, chief of the museums division at the Center of Military History in Fort McNair in Washington.
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11/09/2014
The final version of the two-seater (trainer) version of Tejas (PV-6) made its maiden flight today, in a milestone for India's overall indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas Programme. The aircraft took to the skies at 13.36 PM and was piloted by Group Captain Vivart Singh along with Group Captain Anoop Kabadwal. This is the 16th Tejas variant to have flown as part of the project that has been in the pipeline for over two decades.
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11/09/2014
The US-led airstrikes have targeted a group of Islamic State (IS) leaders, smashing a convoy of 10 trucks, Sky News reported Saturday. According to the broadcaster, the airstrikes targeted the IS leaders when the latter were having a meeting in a house in al-Qaim, which is on the Iraqi-Syrian border. The broadcaster did not, however, specify whether the number one IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was among the targeted leaders or not.
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11/08/2014
One of the consequences of the Republican win in this week's midterm elections is that the A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft, a warplane that had been on the chopping block due to budget cuts but is popular with U.S. troops, will probably survive for a few more years. That's because the plane has powerful friends among the Senate's new Republican majority. But that creates a battle for resources with the Air Force's newest, and most expensive project, the Lockheed Martin F-35.
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11/08/2014
In back-channel dealings, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has been secretly seeking early delivery of four F-35 deep-strike warplanes as part of a firm commitment to buy more while officially maintaining it is abiding by an open and transparent evaluation of Canada’s combat aircraft needs.
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11/08/2014
Different model helicopters for combat search-and-rescue and light attack missions have been handed over to Indonesia's military by Airbus Helicopters. The aircraft are the EC725 Caracal and Fennec family of helicopters. The EC725 is a long-range tactical transport with a cruise speed of 177 miles per hour and a range of 533 miles.
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11/08/2014
Two West Ada County neighborhoods, the Idaho National Guard and officials throughout the state were rocked by the deaths of two Guard pilots whose Apache helicopter crashed south of Gowen Field Thursday night. Stien P. Gearhart, 50, of Meridian and Jon L. Hartway, 43, of Kuna, both chief warrant officers with the Idaho Army National Guard, crashed during a night training mission. But no information was available Friday about the details of that mission or what caused the Apache to go down.
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11/08/2014
Ukraine said Russia is expanding its military presence in rebel-held areas as pro-Russian fighters attacked Ukrainian forces with artillery after as many as 200 separatists were killed. “The war is not over yet,” Igor Plotniskiy, the newly-elected head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic said in video statement televised and posted on the LPR website. The LPR wants “maximal integration with Russia,” he said.
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11/08/2014
All three service branches of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) and the United States military forces have begun major joint exercises Keen Sword in Japan, the country's Defense Ministry said Saturday. According to the Ministry, the drills with more than 40,000 participants – 30,700 Japanese and 10,000 US - 25 warships and 260 aircraft, will last until November 19th.
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11/08/2014
The United States is going to deploy 1,500 additional troops to Iraq as part of the country’s mission to combat the Islamic State (IS) militant group, Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby announced in a statement on Friday. “The commander in chief has authorized Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to deploy to Iraq up to 1,500 additional US personnel over the coming months, in a non-combat role, to expand our advise and assist mission and initiate a comprehensive training effort.
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11/08/2014
Egypt is interested in enhancing its cooperation with Russia and plans to purchase modern Russian-made military equipment, the country's former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nabil Fahmy told Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency Friday. "We deeply respect Russia and value our cooperation. Yes, we have agreed on developing our military cooperation as well and it is already developing.
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11/07/2014
NATO fighter jets intercepted a Russian military aircraft over the Baltic Sea, the latest in a spate of similar incidents that have grown in frequency during the conflict in Ukraine. F-16s based in the Baltic region intercepted a Russian IL-20 surveillance plane, Latvia’s army said today on its Twitter account. The encounter took place near Latvia’s territorial waters, it said. Ukraine’s military said Russia’s airforce had put some of its units on high alert.
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11/07/2014
Korea has urged Bangladesh to purchase training and combat aircraft and high-tech defence hardware from the country. Korean First Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Ambassador Cho Taeyong made the call at the second Bangladesh-South Korea Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) in Seoul on Wednesday. Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque led the Bangladesh delegation at the FOC.
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11/07/2014
Israeli ministers are lining up against the purchase of a second squadron of advanced F-35 stealth fighters from the United States, saying the $3 billion needed for the deal could be put to better use. Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz told a government meeting Wednesday that the money for the highly-touted deal should instead be spent developing Israel’s drone force and buying more relatively inexpensive rockets that can be launched from the air, sea, or land, Israeli daily Haaretz repo
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11/07/2014
The top U.S. military commander in the fight against ISIS said airstrikes are working to erode the terror group's capabilities and warned militants that the U.S. military is listening to them. Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, who heads the U.S. Central Command, made those remarks at an event Thursday with the Atlantic Council, which was moderated by CNN anchor and Chief Washington Correspondent Jake Tapper.
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11/07/2014
Raytheon has begun flight tests of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA's) Persistent Close Air Support (PCAS) programme, the company announced on 5 November. Raytheon plans to conduct live-fire test flights "early next year", company spokesman John Patterson told IHS Jane's on 6 November.
Raytheon is the systems integrator for PCAS and is working under a USD25.5 million contract for the programme's third phase, according to a company statement.
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11/07/2014
The UK Royal Air Force (RAF) recently refuelled US Navy (USN) combat aircraft for the first time using its Airbus Defence and Space (DS) Voyager KC.3 tanker-transport aircraft, it was announced on 6 November. The tanking, which was carried out under the terms of a special operational clearance, saw the Voyager pass fuel to USN Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler combat aircraft on 18 October in support of operations over Iraq.
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11/07/2014
The Coast Guard and Air Force were searching the Gulf of Mexico off Panama City, Fla., on Thursday afternoon for an F-16 Falcon fighter jet that presumably crashed. The jet was assigned to the 53rd Weapons Evaluations Group at Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City, the Air Force said. The Air Force said it lost contact with the pilot about 9:15 a.m. Only one person was on board, the Coast Guard said.
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11/07/2014
President Barack Obama's administration is trying to open channels of communication with Iran regarding the war on ISIS.
Amid revelations that Obama sent a letter to Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last month pointing out the countries' shared interest in beating ISIS, a senior U.S. official and a Western diplomat tell CNN that Washington has gone through the Iraqis to communicate with Iran.
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11/07/2014
The recent US airstrikes launched in northwestern Syria were not targeted against the al-Qaeda affiliated Jabhat Al-Nusra terrorist group, Gen. Lloyd Austin from the US Central Command (CENTCOM) has said. "We [CENTCOM] did conduct a number of strikes and the strikes were focused on the Khorasan [extremist] group," Gen. Austin said Thursday at an Atlantic Council event.
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11/06/2014
China is set to debut its new Shenyang J-31 stealth fighter at the Zhuihai international airshow next week. Although the fighter's exact specifications are unknown, it could be a match for the F-22 and the F-35, Dave Majumdar writes for USNI News citing several US military officials and pilots. This sense of the capabilities of the J-31 are largely based on the successes China has had in industrial espionage against US targets.
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11/06/2014
With the expansion of air strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS, into Syria in September, President Barack Obama exposed himself to a new round of criticism from armchair commanders at home and abroad. It is time for the Obama administration to clarify the Syria component of its strategy to combat ISIS.
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11/06/2014
Gliding over mountain tops and maneuvering through deep valleys, Marines with Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 252 honed their tactical navigation skills and Assault Landing Zone techniques at Hunter Army Airfield, Ga., Oct. 23. Tactical navigation training simulates a combat environment where ground threats cause pilots to maneuver aircraft through disparate terrain to conceal their location and evade threats.
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11/06/2014
The UK is to step up its operation in Iraq three years after the last combat troops left the country, the Defence Secretary has announced. Michael Fallon said the move was necessary to challenge the growing threat posed by Islamic State terrorists. He stressed that the move would not involve putting troops on the ground. Instead, military personnel will take part in a "limited" training mission for local security forces.
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11/06/2014
TatukGIS customer Battlespace Simulations (BSI) is increasingly successful licensing its flagship Modern Air Combat Environment (MACE) to the U.S. Armed Forces for simulated combat training and mission rehearsal. MACE provides computer generated forces (CGF), sometimes referred to as semi-automated forces (SAF), and threat generation for distributed simulation environments, Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) training capability, Electronic Warfare (EW) simulation capability.
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11/06/2014
Literally for decades—since well before the 1991 Iraq war—the U.S. Air Force has been trying to get rid of the A-10 Warthog close air support aircraft. The A-10’s spectacular performance in four wars in Iraq—twice—plus Kosovo and Afghanistan has frustrated these efforts. In those conflicts, the A-10 outperformed all other U.S. aircraft in killing tanks and other vehicles and supporting infantry engaged in combat-at both very short—“danger close”—and longer ranges.
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11/06/2014
Cooperation between France and the UK is seen as the optimum way to progress a UCAS (Unmanned Combat Air System) solution, whilst supporting both governments’ intentions for closer defence ties. The joint study contract of €150m/£120m is to be supplemented with additional French and UK national funding to the combined value of €100m/£80m in the same period.
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11/06/2014
There has been a "negative development" in the security situation in Norway, and terrorists could attempt to carry out an attack in the country within the next 12 months, the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) said Wednesday. "Within the next 12 months it is likely that there could be threats or attempts to carry out terrorist attacks in Norway.
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11/06/2014
Russia has secured $7.7 billion in arms contracts with foreign customers since the beginning of 2014, the country's President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday. "As a result, the foreign orders portfolio shows a steady trend at around $50 billion," Putin said at a meeting on Russia's military-technical cooperation.
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11/05/2014
NATO member Poland said Tuesday it will acquire combat drones as part of a multi-billion-euro revamp of its armed forces amid heightened tensions with Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis. “We will use these drones to defend our territory,” Deputy Defence Minister Czeslaw Mroczek told AFP.
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11/05/2014
The Ministry of Defence is gambling an awful lot on the stealth characteristics of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (“Britain orders more F-35s as part of biggest-ever defence project”). It is clear from the initial order of just four operational airframes that the RAF and Fleet Air Arm will struggle to afford to field these exorbitantly priced aircraft in anything other than token numbers.
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11/05/2014
Discovery Air Defence Services Inc. has begun the deployment of Douglas A-4 Skyhawk aircraft to Germany ahead of a five-year training contract that is set to begin in early 2015, the company announced on 29 October. The subsidiary of Canadian specialist aviation company Discovery Air has started the transfer of seven upgraded A-4N aircraft to Wittmund in northern Germany.
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11/05/2014
As China continues its rise to superpower stature, Beijing is trying to rapidly increase its firepower. China’s attempts to seriously upgrade its military — with next-generation fighter jets, ballistic missiles, and advanced naval vessels — is partly aimed at keeping pace with the US. The two are in a veritable arms race in east Asia. The US engaged in a “pivot to Asia,” focusing military and diplomatic attention on an increasingly important part of the world.
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11/05/2014
A team of experts from Russia has arrived in Pune to investigate the recent accident involving the Sukhoi 30 MKI aircraft at Theur village on October 14. Regular sorties of the fighter plane have been suspended due to the ongoing inquiry. The Russians will carry out a technical evaluation of Sukhoi-30 fighter planes, the entire fleet of which has been grounded for over two weeks following the crash of this frontline combat aircraft of Russian make at Theur, about 30 km from Pune.
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11/05/2014
Bombs dropped from Australian Super Hornet combat aircraft in Iraq have hit 14 targets, 11 of which were destroyed, defence officials have said. The Australian Defence Force provided the figures on Wednesday for operations conducted since the government gave the go-ahead for RAAF strikes against Islamic State (Isis) militants in early October.
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11/05/2014
Foreign air forces ordering the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) will be able to customize the mission data packages loaded onto their aircraft in a compromise that defense officials say both preserves U.S. security and allows allies a greater degree of customization of their fighters. Loading specific mission data packages onto the stealth fighter had been a bone of contention amongst the partner nations helping to develop the F-35.
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11/04/2014
The growing influence of Islamic State militants poses a threat to Russia's security, and there is a possibility that these extremists are supported by Western security services, retired Lt. Gen. Nikolai Pushkarev, formerly of the Russian Armed Forces’ Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) told RIA Novosti.
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11/04/2014
A Russian Northern Fleet nuclear submarine on Wednesday fired a test intercontinental missile from the Barents Sea to the country's far eastern Kura Range on the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement Wednesday. "Within the frameworks of testing the reliability of marine strategic nuclear forces, the Tula [nuclear submarine] launched a Sineva intercontinental ballistic missile from the Barents Sea to the Kura Range [in Kamchatka]," the statement says.
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11/04/2014
The top commander overseeing the international military effort in Afghanistan, U.S. Army Gen. John Campbell, is assessing whether more coalition troops should stay in the country to train Afghan troops for longer than would be allowed under the Obama administration's current plans for a complete withdrawal in 2016.
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11/04/2014
The last time I was in the United States, I had the honor of receiving the only gold medal I’m likely to get my hands on these days. It came from the Association of Old Crows, an electronic warfare and information operations advocacy group founded in the U.S. in 1964. As the first British recipient, the medal was both a recognition of the United Kingdom’s role in electronic warfare and a symbol of the deep cooperation between American and British personnel in a field.
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11/04/2014
The top U.S. general in Europe wants to increase U.S. rotational forces in Eastern Europe and stockpile more military equipment across the continent in response to continued agressive moves by the Russian military. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove spoke to reporters at the Pentagon on Monday after a spate of tense confrontations involving Russian military aircraft flying in unusually large formations in the airspace of America’s European allies.
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11/04/2014
The US Department of Defense (DoD) plans to choose and announce European and Asia-Pacific locations for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities for the F-35 the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter airframe and engine, the DoD's programme manager for the stealthy combat aircraft programme said on 30 October.
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11/04/2014
The team of 10 experts is currently in Pune, the Sukhoi-30 base, probing the crash that took place on October 14 near there with both the pilot seats ejecting without any command during landing. The pilots were safe but the aircraft crashed about 20 kms short of the runway. The fleet was grounded a week later. The Russian experts along with IAF personnel and officials from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited besides others are conducting a complete evaluation of the fleet of about 200.
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11/04/2014
At 17.17-17.20, the Boeing 777 was in Ukrainian airspace near the city of Donetsk at the height of 10100 m. An unidentified combat aircraft (presumably a Su-25 or MiG -29), which was a tier below, on a collision course, in the cloud layer, sharply gained altitude and suddenly appeared out of the clouds in front of the civilian aircraft and opened fire on the cockpit, firing from a 30 mm caliber cannon or smaller.
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11/04/2014
Tensions between Russia and the West have been steadily growing over the past few months, as there has been a sharp uptick in Russian bombers and fighters flying missions over Europe. This increase in activity has taken place against the backdrop of a frozen conflict in Ukraine, which has already pitted Russia and the West against each other.
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11/04/2014
The US Navy’s most expensive plane, the F-35C Joint Strike Fighter, has finally made its first ever recorded landing on an aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz in San Diego, the military has announced. Cmdr. Tony Wilson, a 43-year-old Navy test pilot, made the first landing. “The aircraft handled phenomenally. I couldn’t make it go off the glide slope, it was that smooth of a jet,” Wilson told reporters assembled on the Nimitz.
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11/04/2014
The international coalition against Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization has carried out 14 airstrikes on IS positions in Syria and Iraq in the last two days, the US Central Command said Monday. "US and partner nation military forces continued to attack ISIL terrorists in Syria Sunday and today using fighter and bomber aircraft to conduct five airstrikes.
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11/03/2014
Singapore will join 33 other nations in a multinational coalition to combat the Islamic State terror group, country's Defence Minister said today. The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) has previously participated in multinational coalition efforts against religious extremists who pose a terrorist threat to the country and its citizens, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said .
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11/03/2014
Sweden hopes Saab’s $5.4 billion Gripen-E deal with Brazil can open a dialogue with Finland, which is on course to replace its F/A-18 Hornets in the next 10 years. Finland could engage in a further upgrade of its Hornets, but in reality there is “no other option” beyond acquiring a new combat jet type, said Finnish Defense Minister Carl Haglund.
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11/03/2014
Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 fighter jet is slated to begin two weeks of developmental testing on board the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier, marking another key milestone for the Pentagon's biggest weapons program. Weather permitting, the first of two F-35 C-model jets slated for the testing is due to arrive on the carrier on Monday. That will mark the first time the new warplane will land on a carrier using a tailhook that had be redesigned after initial problems engaging the cable.
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11/03/2014
The CEO of the Eurofighter Typhoon consortium on Monday said he is confident of winning a new export order for the combat plane to avoid having to reduce production. The consortium, founded in 1986, has only sold the Typhoon to Austria, Saudi Arabia and Oman, outside of the consortium's home markets of Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain. The United Arab Emirates last year decided against placing a 6 billion pound ($9.60 billion) order.
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11/03/2014
South Korea dropped a plan to send an aerobatics team to an air show in China less than two weeks before the event, after Washington raised concerns about exposing key U.S. fighter-jet technology. The South Korean air force’s Black Eagles team, which consists of eight T-50 light combat aircraft, was scheduled to be a main attraction at the China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, the country’s main aviation trade show, in the southern coastal city of Zhuhai.
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11/03/2014
Canadian CF-18 fighters jets have dropped laser-guided bombs over Iraq for the first time as part of the ongoing combat mission against ISIS, the Department of National Defence confirmed Sunday. Two CF-18s targeted ISIS positions with laser-guided GBU-12, 500-pound bombs "in the vicinity of Fallujah," a large city in central Iraq about 70 kilometres west of the capital Baghdad, according to a statement released by Minister of National Defence Rob Nicholson.
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11/03/2014
China has successfully developed a laser defense system that can shoot down small-scale low flying drones within a two kilometer radius in five seconds, Xinhua news reported. The laser system with its precision, speed and low noise can shoot down drones at an altitude of 500 meters and a speed of 50 meters per second (180 kilometers per hour or 112 miles per hour), the news agency reported on Sunday evening citing a statement published by the China Academy of Engineering Physics.
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11/02/2014
NATO jets in the Baltic countries intercepted two Russian military aircraft today as the alliance said Russian air activity has surged on its borders.
F-16 jets from NATO’s Baltic air policing mission intercepted a Russian Su-27 fighter and Eurofighter aircraft later shadowed an IL-76 military transport plane, Latvia’s army said on its Twitter account. It reported interceptions of seven Russian jets yesterday and on Oct. 28.
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11/02/2014
The RAF has intercepted Russian military aircraft as they neared UK airspace for the second time this week, the Ministry of Defence has said. The Soviet-era Tupolev Tu-95 aircraft – also known as a Bear bomber – flying in international airspace was intercepted by Typhoon fighters from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland on Friday and escorted through British skies. A spokeswoman said the Russian aircraft had been picked up by the RAF control and reporting centre at Boulmer, Northumberland.
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11/02/2014
Iraqi Peshmerga forces have started combat operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Kobane, less than twenty four hours after arriving in the besieged Syrian town.
Peshmerga fighters in Kobane, a town near the Turkish border that has become a focal point in the battle against the armed group, fired at least six rockets from pick-up trucks at ISIL positions on Saturday.
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11/02/2014
The United States has acknowledged that Islamic State of Iraq and Levant deployed surface-to-air missiles. The Defense Department has determined that ISIL achieved limited air defense capability. Officials said ISIL acquired the weapons from Iraqi or Syrian arsenals.
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11/02/2014
President Obama’s refusal to consider committing U.S. ground forces to the fight against the Islamic State, or ISIS, has revived a debate about the effectiveness of airpower that is as old as military aviation itself. The question involves the degree to which airpower alone can win wars. In response to the horrors of trench warfare in World War I, airpower theorists such as Italy’s Giulio Douhet and America’s Billy Mitchell conceived the idea of bombing targets in the enemy’s heartland.
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11/02/2014
China's mysterious fifth-generation J-31 stealth fighter jet, set to make its debut later this month, could form a lethal tandem with the country's existing J-15 carrier-based fighter aircraft, says a Chinese military expert. The J-31, also known as "Gyrfalcon," or Falcon Hawk by some military enthusiasts, is a twin-engine, mid-size fifth-generation jet fighter currently under development by Shenyang Aircraft Corporation.
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11/02/2014
The U.S. is concerned Chinese jets may engage in further risky intercepts of its military aircraft, even after starting talks aimed at avoiding such encounters, the new commander of U.S. air forces in the Pacific said. A Chinese fighter jet flew within 20 feet of a U.S. P-8 Poseidon aircraft flying at more than 400 miles an hour near Hainan Island -- China’s gateway to the contested South China Sea -- on Aug. 19, an encounter that the Pentagon described as “unsafe and unprofessional.”
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11/02/2014
North Korea has deployed a new submarine, capable of carrying ballistic missiles, another step forward in the nuclear weapon development. Sources in the government of South Korea have said that the North “imported a Soviet-era Golf-class diesel submarine and modified it”, according to a Yonhap News report. Subs of this series are also known as ‘Project 629’. They are powered with a hybrid diesel-electric engine and are able to carry ballistic missiles and/or Scud missiless.
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11/01/2014
At 09:20 am (Moscow time), this silo-based Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from Plesetsk in Arkhangelsk Oblast. A few minutes later, the dummy nuclear warhead hits its target on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s far eastern corner, the Ministry of Defense reports. The Ministry adds that the Topol-M missile has an “extremely high accuracy of target destruction.”
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11/01/2014
Argentina has expressed interest in buying 24 Gripen E fighters from Brazil, which has just inked a licensing deal with Sweden permitting the South American country to manufacture its own copies of Saab’s new single-engine fighter. “Our willingness to cooperate with Argentina, our neighbor and ally, is total,” Brazilian defense minister Celso Amorim said.
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11/01/2014
South Korean President Park Geun-hye has praised the deployment of South Korea’s FA-50 aircrafts on Thursday, while ordering the country’s military to remain at full readiness, Yonhap News Agency reported. “Now, our security situation is very grave”, Park said in a ceremony, marking the deployment of the fighter jets, as quoted by Yonhap News.
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11/01/2014
A second pair of CF-18 Hornet fighter jets returned Friday from a combat mission over Iraq with a full bomb payload because cloud cover had obscured Islamic State positions. For the same reason the first two Canadian combat aircraft – which launched from an airfield in Kuwait on Thursday along with a Canadian Aurora CP-140 spy plane and a CC-150 air-to-air refueling tanker – also did not drop their munitions during a six-hour mission over territory held by Islamic State.
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11/01/2014
Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby during a press briefing on Friday stated that Russian Air Force planes pose a risk to civil aviation. “Well, we certainly don't see this - these increased flights and activity as helpful to the security situation in Europe. Clearly, they - they pose the potential risk of escalation.
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11/01/2014
One pilot died and another one was seriously injured in the suborbital spaceplane SpaceShipTwo crash on Friday in Mojave Desert, California, CNN reported. “One person died and another was seriously injured as a result of Friday's incident involving Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo,“ California Highway Patrol Officer Jesse Borne said, as quoted by CNN.
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