July, 2021 Military Aviation News
07/31/2021
The Michigan National Guard, in coordination with the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and local partners, plans to close a portion of Michigan State Highway M-32 for five hours on August 5 to test its ability to land aircraft on roadways designed for cars and trucks.
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07/31/2021
The South China Sea has been a hotbed of naval activity this week, with a British aircraft carrier strike group, an American surface action group, and forces from China's People's Liberation Army all staging exercises in the contested waterway. The British Royal Navy's aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth has been the center of attention, with state-run Chinese media outlets and diplomats accusing Britain of stirring up trouble in the disputed waters at the behest of the United States.
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07/31/2021
Tempest is more than just a next-generation aircraft, it’s a connected system designed to respond to future combat environment challenges. UK’s Ministry of Defense has just made a huge step towards bringing Tempest to life, by awarding BAE Systems a contract that officially kicks off this groundbreaking project.
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07/29/2021
With congressional members rejecting the U.S. Air Force’s plans to make substantial cuts to some of its oldest aircraft fleets, the service will put its plan to shift some close air support aircraft to Arizona on hold as it figures out other options.
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07/29/2021
According to sources, Russia is now developing a two-seat Su-57 fighter for tandem flight with the Okhotnik combat drone, TheDefensePost reported. The latest version of the fifth-generation stealth fighter is being reportedly designed to control four Okhotniks simultaneously, Russian state media outlet TASS reported, citing a source.
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07/29/2021
Four additional Dassault Rafale multirole combat aircraft have arrived in Qatar, having left France on 27 July. This delivery of three single-seat Rafale EQ and a twin-seat Rafale DQ means that nine aircraft remain to be delivered under the Qatar Emiri Air Force’s (QEAF's) order for 36 aircraft.
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07/29/2021
More than 250 personnel assigned to the 325th Fighter Wing packed up and went on temporary duty to Naval Air Station Key West, Florida, from July 10 - 24. They travelled in support of the 43d Fighter Squadron’s F-22 Formal Training Unit capstone. Units from Tyndall Air Force Base and Eglin AFB were present to ensure F-22 Raptor student pilots, who flew in 54 sorties for the dissimilar air combat training over the southern Gulf of Mexico, were met with success.
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07/29/2021
Drone warfare is on the rise. From single unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), we have witnessed the progress of drone swarms in quite a short period of time. But as countries engage in drone warfare and drone defense systems, it is becoming a necessity for drones to have their own attack systems as well. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) had recognized this need a while ago and initiated the LongShot program, whose rendering was recently released by General Atomics.
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07/27/2021
The United States Air Force is sending more than two dozen F-22 stealth fighters to an exercise in the western Pacific this month, an unusually large deployment of the powerful jets that analysts say sends a strong message to a possible adversary in China. Pacific Air Forces in Hawaii this week said approximately 25 F-22s Raptors from the Hawaii Air National Guard and from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, will deploy this month to Guam and Tinian islands for Operation Pacific Iron 2021.
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07/27/2021
Thirty years ago, the Air Force teamed with our Navy, Army, Marine Corps and coalition partners during Operation Desert Storm to sweep the skies of Iraqi MiG fighters, destroy Iraq’s war-fighting infrastructure and decimate its fielded forces. In 1991, America’s Combat Air Force maintained and operated aircraft like the F-15C Eagle and the A-10 Warthog to win the short and decisive conflict.
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07/27/2021
Eighteen months after receiving its first fifth-generation jet fighter, the F-35C Lightning II, a California-based squadron is ready for a carrier deployment and full combat operations. The squadron was the first to achieve that status among not only Marine aviators but aviation units for all the services.
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07/27/2021
The Canadian Foreign Policy Institute’s recent open letter effectively argues why buying new fighter jets is wholly unjustifiable given present and probable existential threats. Consider: forest fires this year have killed more people in Canada than enemy aircraft ever have.
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07/26/2021
On Tuesday, Rostec, Russia’s state-owned defense conglomerate, unveiled its new stealth fighter at the MAKS air show. Before the unveiling, photos had been taken of a mock-up plane underneath a tarp; the tarp was later removed, and viewers were able to gather first impressions from the plane’s shape. Soon after photos of the revealed mockup were made public, Rostec opted to unveil the plane publicly, allowing for closer study.
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07/26/2021
“The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) held exercises in all major Chinese sea areas over the past week in moves that displayed the PLA’s determination and preparedness,” Chinese state-controlled media proclaimed. At the heart of the storm was Taiwan. Beijing believes it is getting above itself. It has accepted at least two US military flights carrying supplies and diplomatic envoys. It has also dared to open a diplomatic office in Lithuania under the name of “Taiwan”.
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07/26/2021
As the nation's security forces battle insurgents and bandits across the country, the federal government has procured a total of 32 different types of fighter planes, combat helicopters, and associated platforms since 2015, a period of six years, according to statistics obtained by THISDAY. The war against insurgency has dragged on for 11 years with thousands of people killed and an estimated three million people displaced.
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07/25/2021
Russian anti-aircraft artillery systems in Syria intercepted a number of missiles launched by Israel in airstrikes this week in an area southeast of Aleppo, according to a Russian military official.
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07/25/2021
The Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) program aims to build a homegrown fifth-generation fighter jet with “sixth-generation characteristics,” intended to replace the aging fleet SEPECAT Jaguar, Dassault Mirage 2000, and MiG-27. The AMCA is eyeing a complementary role for the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) air superiority fighters, to serve as a flexible force multiplier with versatile missions.
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07/24/2021
Russia has presented India with an offer of 21 MiG-29 fighters, Asia News International reported citing a spokesperson for Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation.
India is currently considering the offer, according to the outlet. The offer comes a year after India’s council for defense purchases approved the acquisition of the fighter along with 12 Su-30MKI fighters amid a border standoff with China.
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07/24/2021
French aerospace and defense firm Thales has been awarded a contract to provide new avionics equipment for Rafale fighters to enhance their operational effectiveness. The company will supply the cutting-edge French combat aircraft with digital multi-function displays and Scorpion helmet-mounted sight and display systems.
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07/24/2021
A portion of a Northern Michigan highway will be closed when the U.S. Air Force trains personnel to land on civilian roadways as part of the annual Northern Strike war-readiness training exercise next month,
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07/24/2021
Rosoboronexport, the state-owned company in charge of promoting and selling Russian military equipment abroad, signed 13 export contracts, worth approximately € 1 billion, during the first 2 days of MAKS 2021.
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07/22/2021
By the end of September 2021, the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is expected to respond to a Request for Proposal from the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF). The Malaysian Air Force has sent out a global request for low-cost light fighter aircraft. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a top officer has confirmed to Financial Express Online “The Company will be responding to the RfP from RMAF for the Light Combat Aircraft `Tejas’. And it has to be sent at the end of September.”
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07/22/2021
As the U.S. Air Force restructures its aircraft inventory to compete with China, the service is taking calculated risks in its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft portfolio, a top general said Wednesday. In its fiscal 2022 budget request, the Air Force proposed mothballing four of its 16 E-8 JSTARS aircraft, which are used for ground surveillance and targeting, as well as 20 Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 30 surveillance drones.
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07/21/2021
Chinese aerial incursions into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) have received a lot of attention since the island’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) began making the data public in September 2020. Understandably, the larger scale incidents, like that of June 15 – the largest thus far, involving 28 aircraft – have generated heated debates about the rationale for the incursions.
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07/21/2021
Japan’s defense minister has confirmed that the U.S. ally will base its Lockheed-Martin F-35B Lightning II Short Take off and Vertical Landing or STOVL fighter jets at the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands.
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07/21/2021
Turkey’s Baykar has begun the conceptual design phase of what it hopes will become the jet-powered unmanned aircraft system, better known as Combat Unmanned Aerial System (MIUS).
The company also has released an official rendering of its future unmanned fighter jet, which shows new combat drones during sorties from TCG Anadolu, Turkey’s first amphibious assault ship.
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07/21/2021
Russian President Vladimir Putin got a sneak peek of a new fifth-generation lightweight single-engine fighter jet at an air show just outside of Moscow on Tuesday. Russian aircraft makers unveiled a prototype of the stealth fighter dubbed “Checkmate” for the 68-year-old leader at the MAKS-2021 International Aviation and Space Salon in Zhukovsky, ahead of its official unveiling later in the day, according to a statement from Rostec, the state-owned military giant which is responsible for exportin
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07/20/2021
Landing a civilian variant of military aircraft on the island of Taiwan is yet another "salami-slicing" provocation by the US, and it sent a wrong signal to Taiwan secessionists, Chinese mainland analysts said, after the US reportedly landed a civilian variant of a warplane on the island on Monday. The Chinese mainland will not allow US military planes' recent landings on the island of Taiwan to become routine, experts said.
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07/20/2021
Adopting new manufacturing technologies has often proven to be a game changer for companies seeking to enter a new market or retain their leadership in an existing one. For GE, 3D printing is the latest tool for staying ahead of its competitors in the aircraft industry.
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07/19/2021
China claims that J-20 is equal to the US F-22 Raptor and even superior in some aspects. In a 2014 interview with Chinese Phoenix TV, Song Zhongping, a former officer in the Second Artillery (China’s missile force), claimed that China was not going to export the J-20 for fears that its fifth-generation technology could fall in the wrong hands.
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07/19/2021
Since 2018, the Marines have ramped up their efforts to train in the Nordic region and to operate in Cold Weather. With the Nordics ramping up their defense capabilities, and working greater integration with each other and with their North Atlantic partners, there are enhanced opportunities for Marines to work in the region as well.
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07/19/2021
Russian aircraft makers say they will present a prospective new fighter jet at a Moscow air show that opens next week. The new warplane hidden under tarpaulin was photographed being towed to a parking spot across an airfield in Zhukovsky, outside Moscow, where the MAKS-2021 International Aviation and Space Salon opens Tuesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to visit the show's opening.
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07/18/2021
Chairman Xi Jinping insisted it would never happen. But it has. China has permanently stationed combat aircraft on its illegal artificial island fortresses in yet another South China Sea escalation. Y-8Q anti-submarine patrol and KJ-500 airborne early warning & control (AWAC) aircraft were spotted by the US Naval Institute in May. It didn’t seem entirely unusual. Such aircraft had dropped in on the islands before.
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07/18/2021
Two years ago, the Liberal government launched a multi-billion-dollar competition for 88 new fighter jets. The government is now evaluating three bids: Lockheed Martin’s F-35 stealth fighter, Boeing’s Super Hornet, and SAAB’s Gripen. Early next year, the government expects to choose the successful bid and award the contract.
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07/17/2021
The US withdrawal from Afghanistan has resulted in the resurgence of the Taliban in the country. While the Afghan forces continue to counter the insurgents at various places, Afghanistan’s Vice President Amrullah Saleh has accused the Pakistan Air Force of extending help to the Taliban. Amid the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, the Taliban has taken control of a major trading town located on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, the Spin Boldak-Chaman border post.
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07/17/2021
Russia’s Central Military District (CMD) announced on Thursday that the country’s armed forces have conducted combat readiness exercises in new geographic areas. The drills were held in the regions of Samara, Saratov, Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, and Krasnoyarsk. Similar exercises were also conducted in the Republic of Khakassia.
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07/17/2021
A new commander returned to Okinawa and took charge of America’s largest combat air wing Friday during a ceremony in sweltering heat at Kadena Air Base. Brig. Gen. David Eaglin took command of the 18th Wing from Brig. Gen. Joel Carey at a hangar ceremony flanked by over 200 airmen and two aircraft, including the iconic F-15C Eagle. Eaglin arrived from Osan Air Base, South Korea, following a two-year stint as deputy commander of 7th Air Force.
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07/17/2021
The United States Air Force is sending more than two dozen F-22 stealth fighters to an exercise in the western Pacific this month, an unusually large deployment of the powerful jets that analysts say sends a strong message to a possible adversary in China. Pacific Air Forces in Hawaii this week said approximately 25 F-22s Raptors from the Hawaii Air National Guard and from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, will deploy this month to Guam and Tinian islands for Operation Pacific Iron 2021.
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07/15/2021
According to Polska-Zbrojna, the Polish Air Force is readying its Lask-based F-16s to deploy to Iceland, to support NATO’s Icelandic Air Policing. The deployment of the Polish aircraft is to begin as of August this year. Lt. Col. Michal Kras, Detachment Commander hailing from the Polish Air Force, referred to the deployment, in the interview for Polska Zbrojna, as a demonstration of allied solidarity. The Polish Aircraft would be engaged in air policing efforts in the North Atlantic.
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07/15/2021
The Air Force faces an uphill fight with its plans to cut five units worth of C-130s, largely from the Guard and Reserve. The service, however, says the tactical airlift fleet can afford to absorb some risk and that there could be future lift possibilities outside of the venerable Hercules. USAF wants to cut 55 C-130 tails, down to a fleet size of 255. Lt. Gen. David S. Nahom, the deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, said that number “covers what we need for our tactical airlift fleet a
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07/15/2021
Hawaii Air National Guard F-22s are deploying to an exercise in the Western Pacific that includes a large number—about 25—of the stealth fighters from Hawaii and Alaska that are a key part of the “kick down the door " force for any possible conflict with China. “Pacific Iron 2021 " will focus on deploying and sustaining air power from smaller and dispersed bases on Guam and Tinian Island in the Northern Mariana Islands and also includes about 10 F-15E Strike Eagles and two C-130J cargo aircraft.
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07/15/2021
India is all set to ink another major defence deal with the United States (US), to acquire fighter jet engines worth $700 million. Negotiations are almost over for the engines that will be used to power the homegrown Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).
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07/15/2021
Anatolian Eagle (AE) does not need introductions: organized by the Turkish Air Force at Konya Air Base, in central Anatolia, south of Ankara, Turkey, AE is a very well-known series of exercises hosted by the Turkish and attended each year by several foreign air arms. It is inspired by the U.S. Red Flag and Maple Flag series, the aim of which is to train fighter pilots for the first few days of a modern conflict.
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07/15/2021
Russian defense giant Rostec published a Youtube video on Tuesday teasing a new fighter jet that is expected to be unveiled at the MAKS-2021 aviation exhibition. The trailer featured a blurry, long-distance shot of an aircraft, accompanied by B-roll footage of what appears to be —namely, the United Arab Emirates, India, Vietnam, and Argentina—reacting to the announcement.
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07/14/2021
Yesterday, the first 2 new Beechcraft T-6C Texan II training aircraft arrived in Colombia, out of a total of 8 acquired in 2020. According to the press release of the Colombian Air Force (FAC for its initials in Spanish), the official reception ceremony took place at the Air Combat Command No.1. It was attended by the Minister of National Defense, Diego Molano Aponte, and General Ramsés Rueda Rueda, Commander of the Colombian Air Force.
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07/14/2021
Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) locally produces more than 600 aircraft components in cooperation with around 250 national companies, which will prevent a total of $500 million from leaving the country to foreign suppliers in the coming years. The company contributes to the development of the auxiliary industry at all stages from production processes to tests of the final product, as well as research and development (R&D) activities in the engineering and technical fields for high-tech produc
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07/14/2021
Key U.S. ally the United Kingdom is growing its defense investments in its land, air and sea platforms, the nation’s defense chief said July 13. “We are giving our forces the military strength they need to deter adversaries in this new competitive age,” said Ben Wallace, U.K. secretary of state for defense. “We are investing heavily in modernizing our warfighting capability.”
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07/14/2021
The Indian Air Force (IAF) is likely to operationalise its second squadron of the Rafale combat aircraft by the end of July and it will be based in Hasimara air base in West Bengal, officials said on Tuesday. The first squadron of the Rafale jets is stationed at Ambala Air Force station in Haryana. The first batch of five Rafale jets arrived in India on July 29, 2020, nearly four years after India signed an inter-governmental agreement with France to procure 36 of the aircraft at a cost of arou
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07/13/2021
Against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia and Malaysia have elevated their strategic partnership by launching the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) on 27 January 2021. Given the tenacious strategic context of Southeast Asia today, CSP defence cooperation has high potential spinoffs for Australia and Malaysia.
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07/12/2021
With the older Chetak and Cheetah helicopters at the fag-end of their technical life, India’s chopper arsenal needs urgent upgradation. The Indian armed forces are set to request the government to acquire “a minimum inescapable quantity” of the Russian Kamov-226-T helicopters in a fly-away condition, reported The Times of India.
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07/12/2021
The Chinese military’s use of ageing J-7 jets in a Taiwan fly-past last month has raised questions about why the second-generation fighters were deployed alongside more modern warplanes. Military sources raised the possibility that the planes had been converted into drones, which offer a cost-efficient way of honing the People’s Liberation Army’s combat drills and testing Taiwan’s response, and added they may also have been a way of testing whether all the island’s warplanes have resumed operati
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07/11/2021
It’s big. It’s remote. It’s mysterious. It’s an enormous radioactive desert in “outback” China. And Beijing is building its equivalent to Area 51 there. Two of them. The arms race between East and West is once again heating up. Stealth is old news. As are cruise missiles and high-flying spy planes. The “black” projects of the 2020s are all about drones, artificial intelligence and sixth-generation combat aircraft.
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07/10/2021
The Department of the Air Force has announced plans to move close air support and rescue missions, including A-10 Thunderbolt II and HH-60 Pave Hawk weapons schools and test squadrons, to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base beginning in fiscal year 2022. The proposed plan would transfer rescue and attack missions, aircraft and personnel to Davis-Monthan AFB as part of the Air Force’s vision of making the base the Center of Excellence for close air support and rescue missions.
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07/10/2021
The U.S. Department of Defense loves a good buzz phrase: capability over capacity, making the tough choices, taking risk now to reduce future risk. The DoD has used all three to rationalize a fiscal 2022 budget that shrinks the U.S. military’s size in the hope that new technologies will eventually lead to new acquisitions. The truth is the proposed budget is the latest in a series of funding requests that have fallen short of what the DoD needs to rebuild for the future.
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07/10/2021
Afghan Air Force Major Dastagir Zamaray had grown so fearful of Taliban assassinations of off-duty forces in Kabul that he decided to sell his home to move to a safer pocket of Afghanistan's sprawling capital. Instead of being greeted by a prospective buyer at his realtor's office earlier this year, the 41-year-old pilot was confronted by a gunman who walked inside and, without a word, fatally shot the real estate agent in the mouth.
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07/10/2021
Experts say U.S. fifth-generation fighter aircraft — the stealthy F-22 and F-35 — remain the best in the world. However, China is upgrading its J-20 “Mighty Dragon” to try to close the gap.
The J-20A, developed by Chengdu Aerospace Corp., is the People’s Liberation Army Air Force’s heavy twin-engine, single seat, low observability, multi-role jet that made its first flight in 2011.
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07/08/2021
Russian fighter jets have been filmed 'buzzing' a US spy plane over the Black Sea in the latest standoff between Moscow and western powers in the contested region. Footage released by the Russian Defence Ministry showed two Sukhoi Su-30 fighters flying close alongside a Boeing P-8 Poseidon of the US Navy on Tuesday evening. The Kremlin said fighters were scrambled as the plane approached its airspace and blocked in from 'violating the state border'.
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07/08/2021
Israel, the United Kingdom and pilots for the U.S. Marines conducted a trilateral exercise known as Tri-Lightning 2 in Israel as the UK’s Queen Elizabeth carrier is making its way through the Mediterranean. The drill was built on another exercise called the Falcon Strike, which took place in Italy in early June in which the United States, UK, Italians and Israelis practiced with F-35 jets and other aircraft.
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07/07/2021
NATO and Partner nations scrambled fighters to meet increased Russian air activity across the Baltic Sea. Spanish Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon fighters met the Russian aircraft to ensure the safety and security of the Baltic Sea Airspace. Partners Sweden and Finland also joined.
According to the Lithuanian Ministry, Spanish Typhoons carried out the most sorties — eight — between June 14 and 20.
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07/07/2021
The Chinese J-31 jet somewhat lacks when it comes to F-35B-like vertical take-off-and-landing, Can China's fifth-generation, carrier-launched J-31 fighter take on US-made F-35C or F-35B? Well, there are some factors to consider that shed light upon this question.
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07/07/2021
The “Black Knights” of U.S. Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 314 have taken their next step ahead of deploying on Navy aircraft carriers for the first time. The squadron of Marine Corps F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters officially attained full operational capability, the service said in a news release issued last week.
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07/07/2021
U.S. Navy aerial warfare experts are asking Raytheon Technologies Corp. to build 565 AIM-9X precision short-range infrared-guided air-to-air missiles for jet fighters and other combat aircraft under terms of a $328.2 million contract announced last week.
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07/06/2021
In late June, a Brazilian Naval Aviation’s H225M helicopter took off from the Foudre-class landing platform dock ‘NDM Bahia’ to conduct a firing trial of an air-launched anti-ship Exocet AM39 missile. The missile was fired against the ex. Inhaúma-class corvette ‘Jaceguai’ – a ship decomissionned in 2019. It hit the corvette’s bow leading to its sinking.
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07/06/2021
117 ‘First Jet' Squadron has been reactivated as an F-35I training unit, ahead of it becoming an operational squadron at a later date. As with the IAF's two existing operational F-35I units – 140 Sqn ‘Golden Eagle' and 116 Sqn ‘Defenders of the South' – 117 Sqn is located at Nevatim Air Base (also known as 28 Air Base) in southern Israel's Negev Desert. All three units form the IAF's Adir Division.
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07/05/2021
A Chinese military aircraft flew into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Sunday afternoon (July 4), marking the third such intrusion this month. A single People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine warfare plane entered the southwest corner of Taiwan’s ADIZ, according to the Ministry of National Defense. In response, Taiwan sent aircraft, broadcast radio warnings, and deployed air defense missile systems to monitor the PLAAF plane.
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07/05/2021
Last September, with a razor-thin majority, 50.1% of Swiss people voted in favor of a $6.5 billion budget to buy 30-40 new jets under the Air 2030 Program, which includes upgrading the country’s aircraft and defense systems. According to Swiss media reports, the 36 F-35A jets can be bought for $5.4 billion costing $2 billion cheaper than other jets. “With 336 points, [the F-35A] showed the highest overall benefit and was the clear winner with a lead of 95 points or more over the other candidates
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07/05/2021
“This milestone is a testament to the dedicated work of the joint government, military and industry teams sustaining, maintaining, operating and flying F-35s around the globe,” said Bridget Lauderdale, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program. “With every delivery and every flight hour, the enterprise gets more mature and effective and we are laser focused on continuing to deliver the most capable, available and affordable 5th Generation fighter aircraft.”
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07/05/2021
When ASPI began its work, the F-35 joint strike fighter was Australia’s biggest and most expensive program ever. (Now that label has passed back to the submarines.) The F-35 arrived 10 years late. (The Attack-class submarine program exhibits similar tardiness.) The F-35 is now slowly delivering what Australia wants. Because of the delay, Australia spent $6 billion on an ‘interim’ Super Hornet capability, later topped up with another $3 billion on Growler electronic-warfare aircraft.
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07/04/2021
A Philippine air force C-130 aircraft carrying combat troops assigned to fight Muslim militants crashed and exploded while landing in the south Sunday, killing at least 42 army soldiers on board and three civilians on the ground in one of the worst disasters in the air force’s history.
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07/02/2021
The 80th Fighter Squadron trained in Red Flag-Alaska 21-2 at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, from June 14 to 25. The first full-fledged Red Flag exercise following the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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07/02/2021
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) signed a contract, worth USD $50 million with Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defense to upgrade Kfir aircraft for the Sri Lankan Air Force. The deal includes replacing the aircraft’s basic avionics with the advanced 4+ generation fighter aircraft avionics in order to one day integrate advanced radar, sensors, communication systems, and new helmets.
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07/02/2021
On June 24 the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency authorized the sale of a dozen Lockheed-Martin F-16 Block 70/72 jet fighters and associated weapons to the Philippines totaling $2.43 billion. Such a sale could fulfill Manila’s requirement long-standing plans to procure Multi-Role Fighters (MRF).
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07/02/2021
Switzerland has chosen Lockheed Martin's F-35A Lightning II as its next-generation fighter jet, the government said on Wednesday, angering opponents who have pledged a new referendum to overturn what they dubbed an unnecessary "Ferrari" option.
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