April 14, 2015 Military Aviation News
04/14/2015
Taiwan’s defence planners are in a precarious position. Modernization of the PLA has irreversibly tilted the qualitative edge towards Beijing, and Taiwan lacks the wherewithal to engage in an arms race with its powerful neighbour, who happens to claim Taiwan as part of its territory. Perhaps the only way out is to redirect efforts towards asymmetrical platforms: Taiwan needs to mount anti-access/area-denial (A2AD) capability on its own.
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04/14/2015
Russia’s potential delivery of anti-aircraft S-300 missile systems to Iran has long been shrouded in controversy and contradictions. But with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decree allowing shipments of these high-precision systems to Tehran, will Moscow finally make good on these deliveries? Public statements from Russian officials suggest Moscow is serious about supplying this hardware to Iran after Putin’s April 13 decree lifting an earlier ban on these shipments.
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04/14/2015
Russia and its Nato neighbours in the Baltic have agreed dramatic increases in their military budgets, in marked contrast to countries that are further west and away from potential conflict zones, according to a report published by a leading think tank. Spending on arms will rise this year by 60% in Russia, by 50% in Lithuania, by nearly 20% in Poland, and by nearly 15% in Latvia, says the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Sipri.
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04/14/2015
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is visiting Washington Tuesday at a crucial moment in the war against the Islamic State. The recapture of the Sunni city of Tikrit, north of Baghdad, has brought the war to an inflection point, and two major questions now loom for military officials: Where should the counter-offensive go next and what more do the Iraqis need from Washington to press it?
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04/14/2015
The Department of Defense daily releases a list of U.S. and coalition airstrikes conducted in the previous 24 hours against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) forces across war-torn Iraq and Syria. Periodically a news outlet will use the strike data to weigh the effort by the United States and allies in trying to use air power alone, plus training of indigenous forces, to destroy radical Muslims spreading violence and fear.
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04/14/2015
The Navy is in the midst of sweeping changes in aviation, particularly in the future carrier air wing. As engineers continue to develop the F-35C Lightning II, the carrier variant of the stealth aircraft that has suffered repeated delays, service officials are trying to ensure an adequate number of F/A-18 Hornets and Super Hornets are available to operate at sea.
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04/14/2015
The defence minister indicated on Monday a $25-billion Indian tender for buying 126 advanced combat aircraft had virtually been scrapped, with New Delhi stressing any future deal for Rafale fighter jets would be through direct negotiations with the French government.
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04/14/2015
The Islamic State (ISIL) terrorist group has lost up to 30 percent of its territory in Iraq to US-led coalition forces, the US Department of Defense (DoD) announced in a statement. “Some 25 percent to 30 percent of Iraqi territory has been taken back from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIL] terrorist group control by coalition forces,” Army Col. Steve Warren said in the DoD statement on Monday.
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04/14/2015
The Pentagon issued an official complaint Sunday over a Russian SU-27 fighter's interception of a US RC-135U reconnaissance plane over the Baltic Sea, citing the plane's "unsafe and unprofessional maneuvers" in close proximity to the spy plane, AP has reported.
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04/14/2015
The political and military crisis in Ukraine prompted European countries to increase their military spending, an arms watchdog said Monday. "The Ukraine crisis has fundamentally altered the security situation in Europe, but so far the impact on military spending is mostly apparent in countries bordering Russia.
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