March 03, 2015 Military Aviation News
03/03/2015
The UK Royal Air Force has conducted 159 air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq with Panavia Tornado GR4s since deploying the type to the region late last year, the Ministry of Defence has revealed. Details of the combat activity were disclosed during a visit to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus by defence secretary Michael Fallon on 1 March.
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03/03/2015
Forty years ago, an attack aircraft Su-25 (GrachRook) took off from an airfield in Moscow suburb Kubinka for its maiden flight. Time has not dimmed its lustre. This aircraft remains a fearsome fighting machine, and can be called the future of Russian attack aviation. At the beginning of 2015, there were 14 air assault squadrons, composed of 150 Su-25; 60 Su-25SM; 52 Su-25SM2 /SM3; and 15 Su-25UB. Of all these storm-troopers 80 more machines will be upgraded to the SM version by 2020.
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03/03/2015
More than 25,000 Iraqi troops and militia fighters began a long-awaited operation Monday to retake the central Iraqi city of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown, from the Islamic State in what many see as a test of the central government’s ability to retake and hold much of the territory lost to the militant group last summer.
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03/03/2015
The Air Force has begun moving A-10 attack jets into backup status, even as it continues to use the plane in airstrikes against the Islamic State. Air Force officials announced the move on Friday. Eighteen planes will be placed into “Backup-Aircraft Inventory” (BAI) status, with the possibility of 18 more being mothballed later this year. The designation means the Thunderbolt II planes are considered to be undergoing maintenance or otherwise unable to fly.
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03/03/2015
Pilots from the U.S. Air Force, Japanese Air Self-Defense Force and Royal Australian air force conducted large force employment (LFE) training here Feb. 19-27, as part of exercise Cope North 2015. This year marks the 86th iteration of the multilateral training exercise, which is a long-standing, multinational event designed to increase interoperability and improve combat readiness and develop a synergistic disaster response capability between the countries involved.
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03/03/2015
Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] and H. N. Burns Engineering Corp. have agreed to collaborate on technology that enhances military helicopter pilots’ ability to fly in low visibility conditions caused by weather, dust or other obstructions. Known as degraded visual environments (DVE), the blinding conditions are a primary cause of major helicopter accidents.
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03/03/2015
Russia's Ministry of Defense has removed the Antonov An-70 military transport aircraft, jointly developed by Russia and Ukraine, from its national armament program, the Izvestia newspaper said. The ministry could also request the return of 2.95 billion rubles (nearly $100 million at the 2010 exchange rate) transferred to Ukraine's Antonov design bureau in 2010, when both countries started research and development work on the project, initially launched in the early 1980s.
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