April 14, 2016 Military Aviation News
04/14/2016
Despite plentiful signs that Russia-China relations are growing ever closer, naysayers suggest that Moscow and Beijing are constrained from moving beyond a tepid collaboration. An awkward Cold War history, cultural misunderstanding, geopolitical competition, economic and demographic asymmetries and even a visceral contempt are said to comprise the myriad reasons why Chinese and Russians just cannot get along, let alone engage in strategic coordination.
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04/14/2016
Air Force Special Operations Command plans to fly small, tactical off-board drones from its AC-130 gunships in combat for the first time later this year, which will give crews better views of the battlefield. Tactical off-board sensing, or TOBS, is intended to improve AFSOC’s targeting capabilities in poor weather or other challenging conditions.
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04/14/2016
The U.S. Air Force operates a small fleet of radar planes that can track the movement of ground forces day or night, rain or shine. No kidding, the planes can peer through the murkiest sandstorm to pinpoint the location of hostile forces, identifying what kind of vehicles they are operating, what direction they are moving in, and at what speed.
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04/14/2016
The Canadian government has launched a defense review that is widely expected to scale back or eliminate some of the military’s planned equipment programs and could see niche roles emerge for the country’s military. But the Liberal Party government, which came to power in October promising a leaner, more agile Canadian military, has assured Parliament that some key roles, such as search and rescue operations and equipment, will remain untouched.
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04/14/2016
Current Saudi orders “include 150 combat aircraft and thousands of air-to-surface missiles and anti-tank missiles from the [United States], 14 combat aircraft from [Britain] and an undisclosed but large number of armoured vehicles from Canada with turrets from Belgium,” the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute noted in its 2016 review of global arms sales.
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04/14/2016
The U.S. Air Force said on Wednesday said it still expected to declare an initial squadron of Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets ready for combat between August and December, despite delays in the jets' computer-based logistics system. The four-star generals who run Air Combat Command and Air Force Materiel Command reviewed flight milestones and other aspects of the $379 billion F-35 program at Hill Air Force Base in Utah last week.
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04/14/2016
Russian media reports that Jordan is consulting with Moscow on buying a batch of Su-32s, a export derivative of Russia’s Su-34 Fullback fighter-bomber, which itself is an evolution of the Su-27 Flanker series of fighter aircraft.
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04/14/2016
In one of the most aggressive actions in recent memory, Russian warplanes conducted “simulated attacks” on the a U.S. Navy vessel in the Baltic Sea on Tuesday, repeatedly flying within 30 feet of the ship, according to a defense official.
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04/14/2016
North Korea has allegedly deployed one or two Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missiles (also known as Rodong-B or BM-25) on its eastern coast, South Korean media reports. The missiles were spotted in the area of the eastern port city of Wonsan, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said early on Thursday citing government sources.
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04/14/2016
As the Pentagon prepares to increase its troop numbers in Iraq to combat Daesh, the terrorist group’s presence in Egypt is having the opposite effect, prompting a US military drawdown.
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