February 13, 2016 Military Aviation News
02/13/2016
The Air Force must stop relying on older aircraft. It needs to invest in cutting-edge platforms, Gen. Mark Welsh, the service’s chief of staff, told Congress. “The platforms and systems that made us great over the last 50 years will not make us great over the next 50 years,” Welsh told a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.
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02/13/2016
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics is being awarded three Navy contracts devoted to military aircraft, including a $141.9 million deal to modernize Greece’s P-3B, the U.S. Department of Defense announced during its Thursday digest of contracts.
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02/13/2016
The commander of the Afghan Air Force Major General Abdul Wahab Wardak said Thursday that the A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft will start combat operations with the Afghan Air Force from the month of March. During a ceremony “Re-birth of the Afghan Air Force” at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Gen. Wardak said the Afghan Air Force is expecting to receive a total of 8 A-29 aircraft until March.
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02/13/2016
The Nigerian Air Force has armed two of the four Dassault Aviation-made Alpha jets it procured from the United States in 2015. Prior to arming the jets, the planes purchased from the United States could not be used in combat operations due to their inability to carry weapons. Instead, the jets were designated for training purposes.
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02/13/2016
Alenia Aermacchi (Finmeccanica, Stand G55) is promoting two new roles for the M346–companion training, and dissimilar air combat training (DACT). “Our existing customers told us it would make an excellent aggressor,” company test pilot Giacomo Ianelli told The International Fighter Conference in London last November. Singapore was the first export customer for the Italian jet, and operates 12 of them for advanced pilot training at Cazaux airbase in France.
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02/13/2016
Six test and evaluation F-35 fighters are on a simulated deployment to conduct key initial operational capability mission sets, the Air Force said. The sets are suppression of enemy air defenses, close air support and air interdiction. The achievements of the F-35A squadron's ability to deploy, employ and sustain operations will set the benchmark capability for the Air Force to declare F-35A initial operational capability, which is scheduled for this fall.
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02/13/2016
Last week Nigeria joined a dubious international clique when it bombed a logistics base used by the militant group Boko Haram in the country’s northeast. Though the airstrike itself was unremarkable—the Nigerian Air Force has conducted hundreds of strikes against Boko Haram in recent months—it was the first Nigeria has delivered via an unmanned drone.
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02/13/2016
Now that Iran is sitting on a pile of cash and the import ban on conventional military hardware has been partially lifted following the nuclear deal, the Islamic Republic is looking to replace its hodgepodge of vintage military hardware. This may soon include producing Russian Su-30 multi-role fighters and T-90 tanks within their own borders.
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02/13/2016
A combined Boeing/U.S. Air Force aircrew aboard the KC-46 tanker successfully refueled an F/A-18 aircraft in flight February 10th. The air refueling was the program’s first using the KC-46’s hose and drogue system. During the 4+ hour flight, the tanker’s air refueling operator smoothly transferred fuel to the F/A-18 flying at 20,000 feet.
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