May 29, 2015 Military Aviation News
05/29/2015
U.S. and Canadian fighter jets are to practise intercepting foreign aircraft high over the Arctic in the coming days as Russian military flights up to the edge of North American airspace increase. “This is probably the most active they’ve been since the end of the Cold War,” said Maj.-Gen. David Wheeler, commander of 1 Canadian Air Division and the officer overseeing his country’s role in exercise Amalgam Dart.
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05/29/2015
The U.S. watched Islamic State fighters, vehicles and heavy equipment gather on the outskirts of Ramadi before the group retook the city in mid-May. But the U.S. did not order airstrikes against the convoys before the battle started. It left the fighting to Iraqi troops, who ultimately abandoned their positions.
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05/29/2015
The Senate Armed Services Committee, as promised, is pushing to keep the A-10 flying, and wants to direct the Air Force to find maintainers for the F-35 in other ways, including grounding F-16s and cutting back on headquarters staff. The committee in the last week of May released its report on its version of the fiscal 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, which blocks any A-10 retirement and calls for the Air Force to maintain a minimum of 171 combat-coded A-10s.
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05/29/2015
Lightning II is a STOVL aircraft: Short Take Off Vertical Landing. It will place the UK at the forefront of fighter technology, giving the RAF a true multi-role all weather, day and night capability, able to operate from well-established land bases, deployed locations or the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers.
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05/29/2015
I had not given much thought to the flight plan of the airline I recently booked to go back to the U.S. from Vietnam, but recent events in the airspace over the South China Sea prompted an online search. As I discovered, my commercial flight would fly not far from where a U.S. surveillance plane was warned to leave on May 20 by a Chinese radar operator.
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05/29/2015
The Indian Air Force, facing a severe shortage of fighter aircraft, will have the opportunity to boost its combat strength with an unusual asset - fitting guns and rockets on Hawk trainer aircraft, bought for training IAF pilots before they entered the cockpits of high performance fighters like the MiG-21. On Tuesday, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and UK-headquartered BAE Systems (BAE), agreed to explore the development of a "Combat Hawk" which could even be exported to friendly foreign countries.
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05/29/2015
Boeing [NYSE: BA] today formally opened a new avionics maintenance and repair center in the Yeongcheon Industry District of Daegu-Gyeongbuk Free Economic Zone. The 10,000 square-foot facility will test and repair aircraft electrical systems, reducing repair times and yielding significant inventory cost savings for the ROKAF. The new facility underlines both Boeing’s growing role as a global enterprise and its participation in the growth of the domestic Korean aerosp sector.
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05/29/2015
The purchase volume of Russia's fifth-generation T-50 PAK-FA fighter jets, to be produced in 2017, will be limited only by on the manufacturer's production capability, Russian Air Force Commander Col.Gen. Viktor Bondarev said Thursday. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said in March that the ministry could reduce the purchases of PAK-FA fighters, due to "new economic circumstances."
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05/29/2015
A Russian MiG-31 (Foxhound) interceptor successfully downed a cruise missile that was fired by a Tu-95MS (Bear) strategic bomber over the Pemboi Range in Russia’s northwestern region, the Russian Defense Ministry’s Central Military District’s press service said Thursday.
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05/29/2015
The Russian Defense Ministry will purchase no less than 50 new Tu-160 (Blackjack) heavy strategic bombers when production is renewed, Russian Air Force Commander Col.Gen. Viktor Bondarev said Thursday. “No less than 50 aircraft over time will be purchased in order to cover the costs that will go into production,” Col.Gen. Bondarev said without specifying when production would begin.
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05/29/2015
It's the modern era's military strategy of choice: overwhelming air power delivering precision-guided punishment backed by intelligence on the ground, with minimal exposure for soldiers of the striking side. Seductive though it is to risk-averse governments with war-weary publics, the approach has its limits — and these are on display in Syria and Iraq, where a U.S.-led coalition has carried out over 4,100 airstrikes against Islamic State radicals yet failed to stop the extremists.
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