February 05, 2016 Military Aviation News
02/05/2016
The US Air Force has not only ditched long-standing plans to retire the hardy Fairchild Republic A-10 attack airplane but is launching a follow-on wing replacement programme to keep the combat veteran flying well into the next decade.
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02/05/2016
Retired Royal Australian Air Force wing commander Chris Mills doesn’t like the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that Canberra is buying from the United States. Noting the new plane’s sluggishness and poor results in simulated air combat against the latest Russian fighters, Mills has called for Australia to lobby the United States for F-22 Raptors.
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02/05/2016
Equatorial Guinea has acquired two C295s from Airbus Defence and Space. One will be used for troop transport and the other for maritime surveillance. A government announcement late last month said Equatorial Guinea representatives visited the Airbus Defence and Space facility in Seville, Spain to sign the deal. The first aircraft is expected to be delivered in September.
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02/05/2016
Indian Navy Aviation today stands poised on a springboard that would propel the Fleet Air Arm to greater heights with a quantum leap in the forces' offensive capabilities. Indian Navy has been building its fleet air arm with an aim to acquire a formidable and sturdy defence capability. The exponential growth of a fledgling Fleet Requirement Unit with ten amphibian Sealand aircraft in 1953 into a modern force is testimony to the Navy’s aspirations and resolve in developing this arm.
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02/05/2016
The Obama administration wants to enlarge the U.S. military presence in eastern and central Europe next year by stockpiling heavy weapons, armored vehicles and other military equipment across the region, a substantial expansion of U.S. efforts to counter a resurgent Russia.
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02/05/2016
In the Department of Defense's budget request for 2017, the Air Force has conceded what to many has been obvious—that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will not be ready to take the place of the A-10 Thunderbolt II (also known as the "Warthog") in close air support missions any time soon. In its budget request, the Air Force is seeking funds to keep the A-10 flying, and DOD officials say the aircraft will remain in service until at least the 2022 fiscal year.
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02/05/2016
The military risks committing itself to buying billions of dollars of F-35 fighter jets before they have demonstrated they are fit for combat, a new Pentagon report warns. The development of the Joint Strike Fighter F-35, a fifth-generation stealth jet, has been beset by spiraling costs and schedule delays. The program's price tag is nearly $400 billion for 2,457 planes -- almost twice the initial estimate.
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02/05/2016
On Thursday, the Saudi embassy in Washington, DC said in a Twitter message that the Saudi Ministry of Defense stands ready to deploy ground troops to Syria to aid in the international anti-Daesh coalition efforts. The Guardian said on Thursday citing unnamed Saudi sources that Saudi Arabia could deploy "thousands of special forces," "probably in coordination with Turkey."
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02/05/2016
Belarus has reached a preliminary agreement with the Russian Irkut Corporation to acquire Sukhoi Su-30 multirole fighters for its Air Force, the country’s deputy defense minister said Thursday. According to Igor Lotenkov, as quoted by the SB – Belarus Segodnya newspaper, these aircraft will replace its outdated Mikoyan MiG-29 fighters.
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02/05/2016
A supersonic BrahMos cruise missile will be tested from a Su-30MKI (NATO reporting name: Flanker-H) fighter jet for the first time in the second half of 2016, the head of Russian-Indian BrahMos Aerospace enterprise, Sudhir Mishra, said Thursday.
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