Military Aviation News Archive
05/27/2022
The U.S. military estimates that Russia has lost nearly 1,000 tanks and “a not insignificant amount” of personnel in its now three-month long attack on Ukraine, a senior U.S. defense official said Thursday. “We believe they’ve lost or rendered inoperable almost 1,000 of their tanks in this fight,” the official told reporters, but noted that “they still have a lot left available to them.”
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05/26/2022
Alert 5 reported that US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin disclosed during a press briefing which the Czech Republic has transferred its attack helicopters to Ukraine. “I’m especially grateful to Denmark, which announced today that it will provide a Harpoon launcher and missiles to help Ukraine defend its coast. I’d also like to thank the Czech Republic for its substantial support, including a recent donation of attack helicopters, tanks and rocket systems.
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05/26/2022
Four Chinese H-6 bombers and two Russian Tu-95 bombers conducted joint flights together on Tuesday around Japan and the Republic of Korea, prompting both countries to scramble fighter aircraft to monitor the flights. The joint flights took place the same day U.S. President Joe Biden was meeting his Australian, Indian and Japanese Quad grouping counterparts in Tokyo, though both the Russian and Chinese defense ministries stated that the flights were part of their annual military cooperation plan.
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05/26/2022
A short overview of developments at the front as of the evening of 24 May 2022 according to military expert Roman Ponomarenko: The battle for the Donbas is underway, where Putin has deployed a lot of forces. In Luhansk Oblast alone, the Russians have 25 battalion-tactical groups (20,000 soldiers) and according to President Zelenskyy’s May 23 statement, they have “20 times more equipment” in the Donbas than the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
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05/26/2022
It’s a history steeped in remarkable figures: 54 world records, two million flying hours, operated by 26 different entities across 22 nations, and able to be configured for 17 quite different mission objectives. But now Lockheed Martin’s C-130J Hercules has reached another milestone: the delivery of the 500th airlifter in early 2022.
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05/24/2022
Denmark will arm Ukraine with with a modern Harpoon anti-ship launcher and missiles to protect its coasts, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday after concluding the latest U.S.-led meeting of international defense chiefs to coordinate military aid for Ukraine.
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05/24/2022
With Helsinki and Stockholm now formally requesting membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the world will reach an important juncture. The overwhelming Western anger at Vladimir Putin’s Russia makes ratification by NATO’s 30 legislative branches a strong likelihood in the weeks or months to come. Turkey is objecting now, but some degree of debate, as well as give and take, within the alliance is normal in such matters.
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05/24/2022
Uruguay is negotiating the purchase of six to 12 A-29 Super Tucano aircraft from Brazil for up to $40 million, defense news site Infodefensa reported. The deal would include parts, tools, and replacement material. “Considering the operational availability of these aircraft and the existence of Uruguayan pilots capable of flying them, it would be a matter of a few months to organize a schedule of deliveries, training of flight and ground personnel, as well as the adequacy of facilities.
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05/24/2022
Throughout my 10-year flying career in the United States Air Force, the A-10C Thunderbolt II, affectionately dubbed the Warthog, has been the subject of divestment. There is a joke amongst the A-10 community that discussions of getting rid of the A-10 started 2.5 minutes after the last one rolled off the Fairchild-Republic assembly line in 1984. Despite such quips, there is one resounding fact that defines our community; the mission comes before the plane.
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05/24/2022
Two Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter aircraft have arrived in India to showcase their operational capability at a naval facility in Goa as the Indian Navy plans to acquire a fleet of combat jets for its indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) Vikrant, people familiar with the development said. The demonstration by the aircraft will start this week at the shore-based test facility (SBTF) at INS Hansa, the naval air station in Goa, they said.
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05/24/2022
A veteran Russian diplomat in Geneva has resigned over his country’s invasion of Ukraine in a rare political protest from within the Russian foreign policy establishment. Boris Bondarev, a counsellor at the Russian permanent mission to the United Nations in Geneva, wrote in a public statement: “Never have I been so ashamed of my country.”
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05/23/2022
Technicians linked to the Syrian military’s infamous barrel bombs that have wreaked devastation across much of the country have been deployed to Russia to help potentially prepare for a similar campaign in the Ukraine war, European officials believe. Intelligence officers say more than 50 specialists, all with vast experience in making and delivering the crude explosive, have been in Russia for several weeks working alongside officials from Vladimir Putin’s military.
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05/23/2022
Images of wrecked and abandoned vehicles — casualties in Moscow's invasion of Ukraine — are calling into question the quality and reliability of Russian-made military hardware. A recent report by the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute found that the conflict has damaged the reputation of Russia's defence equipment in Southeast Asia, once a source of considerable revenue for the country.
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05/23/2022
In what was called dubbed a “Special Military Operation,” Ukraine was invaded on Feb. 24, 2022 by a vast Russian army, seeking—in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s own words—to turn Ukraine into a neutral and disarmed state, as well as to “de-Nazify” its government. Russia’s “Special Military Operation” is indistinguishable from a high intensity, full-scale war between unequal contenders: On one side, a nuclear superpower with a vast manpower pool deploying huge stockpiles of modern weapons.
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05/23/2022
The need for speed for military aircraft has long been crucial, especially during the Cold War Era. Whether it’s to outrun the enemies, shorten the aircraft’s exposure to enemy airspace, or prevent the anti-aircraft systems from achieving a full lock and targeting it, speed has long been a reliable form of defense. This had changed in recent years when modern advances focused on stealth and progress in interception methods means the once untargetable and speedy SR-71 was no longer invulnerable.
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05/22/2022
Firefighters were today battling a blaze at a major Russian aerospace institute. The blaze with thick black smoke was at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute in Zhukovsky, a facility involved in research on Russian warplanes. The inferno seen on videos is the latest at strategic Russian sites during the war with Ukraine with suspicions that some may be sabotage.
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05/22/2022
The war in Ukraine has increased Beijing’s sense of urgency to prepare for any change to Taiwan’s status quo, according to analysts, with satellite imagery confirming mainland China has stepped up efforts to get its military shipbuilding schedule back on track. Recent pictures from commercial satellites show construction has resumed at a rapid pace at several shipyards run by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) conglomerate.
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05/22/2022
In the last few years, Beijing has not only increased economic and political pressure on Taiwan but has also flown warplanes across the mutually respected median line. It has become a pattern for the Chinese air force to infiltrate the island’s ADIZ while also deploying its naval forces to conduct drills. The repeated flouting of norms has prompted Taiwan to regularly dispatch its fighter jets to intercept Chinese planes.
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05/22/2022
The report assessed the total combat capabilities of various air services worldwide and rated them accordingly. The Indian Air Force was ranked higher than its regional rival China and placed above the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF), the Israeli Air Force, and the French Air and Space Force. The WDMMA employs a formula that considers values associated with the total combat strength of various countries’ air forces.
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05/21/2022
China’s dependence on Russian fighter aircraft engines may soon affect the People’s Liberation Army Air Force fleet if Russia can’t service or provide engines or parts for up to 40 percent of the Chinese fighters, experts at the China Aerospace Studies Institute conference said May 17.
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05/21/2022
Seven Chinese military aircraft flew into the southwest corner of Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ) Thursday, according to the Ministry of National Defense (MND). The sortie comprised of one Y-8 electronic warfare aircraft, one H-6 bomber, four Shenyang J-16 fighter jets and one Sukhoi SU-30 fighter.
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05/21/2022
So, it is reported that along the entire defense line, the Russian invaders use combat aircraft, multiple launch rocket systems, barrel artillery of large calibers, tanks, mortars of various systems, and also launch rocket and bomb attacks on civilian infrastructure, peaceful residential areas.
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05/21/2022
The US Eielson Air Force Base (AFB) in Alaska has completed the task of standing up two F-35A Lightning II fighter aircraft squadrons. US Air Force (USAF) 354th Fighter Wing (FW) completed its fleet after receiving the final fifth-generation aircraft. A ceremony was held at Eielson AFB on 13 May to mark the achievement.
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05/20/2022
Over the past 24 hours, Ukraine’s Air Force destroyed 20 units of Russian armored vehicles, as well as shot down a cruise missile and a Su-34 fighter-bomber. This was announced on Facebook by the Ukrainian Air Force Command, Ukrinform reports. "On May 18, Air Force strike aircraft under cover of fighter jets hit the area where enemy equipment had been amassed.
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05/20/2022
Wargames that the U.S. Air Force has conducted itself and in conjunction with independent organizations continue to show the immense value offered by swarms of relatively low-cost networked drones with high degrees of autonomy. In particular, simulations have shown them to be decisive factors in the scenarios regarding the defense of the island of Taiwan against a Chinese invasion.
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