March 17, 2016 Military Aviation News
03/17/2016
A unique U.S. Navy F/A-18F bearing a brown camouflage scheme has likely had many question why a US Navy Strike Fighter would be such a color. A recent pass by the “Rhino” deep through “Rainbow Canyon” should put those questions to rest as the jet almost disappears as it races through the canyon at a very low level.
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03/17/2016
A military aircraft crashed in the Ecuadorian eastern province of Pastaza, killing all 22 people on board, military authorities said. The accident occurred at around 2:30 pm local time(1930 GMT), when the soldiers were to conduct a parachuting exercise, the Defense Ministry of Ecuador said in a statement.
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03/17/2016
Raytheon engineers have developed a software solution for integrating of new weapons into older aircraft. The software can be implemented across various platforms and current bomb rack systems.
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03/17/2016
Defence giant Lockheed Martin claims to have made a major breakthrough in its bid to perfect the SR-72 – dubbed the "Son of Blackbird". The firm claims to have developed a prototype capable of reaching Mach 6 – six times the speed of sound. The current airspeed record of Mach 3.5 is held by Lockheed's SR-71 Blackbird – seen as the "father" of the new superplane.
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03/17/2016
ISIS has claimed it has shot down an armed Iraqi Air Force Cessna with a 57mm anti-aircraft gun near the city of Kirkuk. The terrorist organisation has released footage showing the aircraft banking at an extreme angle as it plummets to the ground. The Iraqi Air Force has admitted it has lost the Cessna 208 Caravan, which was armed with Hellfire missiles, but blamed the crash on a 'technical fault'.
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03/17/2016
Remotely piloted aircraft don't fly themselves as autonomous super machines. They also don't require only a single pilot and sensor operator to function. The RPA enterprise of MQ-1 Predators and MQ-9 Reapers is maintained or operated by Airmen from more than 30 Air Force career fields, each one playing a key role in supporting every combat air patrol. The patrols enable combatant commanders access to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities at all times.
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03/17/2016
Despite its history of cost overruns, the Pentagon's fifth-generation fighter program is on course to realize significant savings in coming years, the program manager said this week. Jeff Babione, Lockheed Martin's program manager for the F-35 program, told reporters Tuesday that the cost of the F-35A - the Air Force variant of the aircraft -- was expected to drop from nearly $100 million per plane to about $85 million by 2019, thanks to efficiencies and cost-cutting manufacturing technologies.
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03/17/2016
The F-35A Lightning II program took another step toward initial operational capability on Tuesday when two aircraft assigned to the 62nd Fighter Squadron successfully employed four laser-guided bombs on the Barry M. Goldwater Range. This marked the first weapons release by F-35s assigned to the 56th Fighter Wing at Luke Air Force Base.
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03/17/2016
Additional F-16s from the US remain central to Pakistan’s modernization efforts, but analysts say since there could be hurdles ahead, surplus fighters may be a credible alternative. News reports here citing senior officials have stated that the air force requires some 190 new aircraft to replace its legacy Mirage III/5 and Chengdu F-7 fighter fleets by 2020.
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