December 12, 2014 Military Aviation News
12/12/2014
The US government has brought charges against a Chinese citizen who is alleged to have tried to smuggle critical information related to the F-35 fighter jet out of the United States and into China. Reuters reports the individual in question is an engineer named Yu Long, who worked on the design of the F-35's engine. The documents Long is charged with trying to smuggle pertained to the testing and equations used to engineer titanium that is used in the F-35 engine.
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12/12/2014
Canadian warplanes bombed an Islamic State militants’ checkpoint in northern Iraq this week, the federal government says. James Bezan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Defence, told the House of Commons on Thursday that CF-18s struck their target Wednesday. “Our CF-18s dropped one 500-pound bomb on an ISIL [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] vehicle checkpoint about 250 kilometres to the southwest of Mosul,” Mr. Bezan said.
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12/12/2014
The US military has taken another giant step into the world of Star Wars with the activation of a new laser weapon that it now considers operational and ready for action. The remarkable new laser weapon system, or LaWS, was demonstrated aboard the USS Ponce, operating in the Persian Gulf in tests conducted earlier this year. On December 10, the Navy released graphic videos showing the laser’s use against drones, setting them on fire and causing them to fall from the sky.
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12/12/2014
The Navy is trying to build a next-generation super-drone that it can launch from an aircraft carrier and refuel in mid-air. n the first quarter of 2015, the US Navy will pick a winner from among the four defense contractors asked to design a version of the aircraft.
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12/12/2014
The A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft, central to the Idaho Air Guard’s mission at Gowen Field?in Boise, would be protected for a year in the omnibus spending bill that was headed to final passage in the House Thursday. The appropriations bill denies the Obama administration’s request to retire the A-10s, also known as Warthogs, and provides $337.1 million to keep them flying in 2015.
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12/12/2014
One of America's most potent air combat creations doesn't hang as a poster on adolescent boys' walls or gets featured in a Bruckheimer blockbuster. The humble yet game-changing Miniature Air Launched Decoy has had a quiet history and it is already operational in two iterations. Now, this radar stumping super-missile is becoming a 'networked' kamikaze smart drone.
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12/12/2014
IAF Chief Arup Raha today said the Court of Inquiry (CoI) into the October crash of a Sukhoi-30 combat aircraft, that led to the grounding of the entire fleet for a month, will be completed in a fortnight, days after the Russian envoy indicated human error behind the incident. Refusing to comment on Russian Ambassador Alexander Kadakin's recent statement indicating human error behind the crash, the Air Force chief said he does not want to pre-empt anything.
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12/12/2014
Just when we thought Japan and China were finally warming up to each other, five Chinese military aircraft were reportedly observed flying menacingly close to the islands of Japan. Believed to be capable of posing a threat to Guam according to a military expert, the five military aircraft were spotted flying over the area between the islands of Okinawa and Miyako. Japan reported the incident that occurred in 6 December, according to Want China Times.
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12/12/2014
The Department of Defense has assigned F-35 Regional Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul and Upgrade (MRO&U) capability for airframes and engines for the European Region. The assignments were based on data compiled and analyzed by the F-35 Joint Program Office that was collected from European Partners and their industries.
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12/12/2014
The Republic of Tunisia received its second C-130J Super Hercules during a ceremony today at the Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] facility here. Tunisia received its first C-130J in April 2013, marking the first delivery of a J-model to an African nation. Lockheed Martin signed a contract in 2010 with Tunisia to deliver two C-130Js, as well as to provide training and an initial three years of logistics support.
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