Military Aviation News Archive
05/30/2020
The Syrian Air Force suffered major losses between 2011 and 2015 as their aircraft and helicopters were unleashed on rebels and civilian supporters. The Syrian warplanes were in no shape for this much activity and took a beating. Of the 370 usable fixed wing war planes available in early 2011, after two years about half were out of action because of combat or wear and tear.
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05/30/2020
Two B-1B Lancers on May 29 flew another long-range bomber task force flight to Eastern Europe, integrating with Ukrainian fighter jets and Turkish KC-135s for the first time as well as multiple other allied nations. The flight of B-1s from the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., marked a rare trip into the Black Sea region where they met with Ukrainian Su-27s and MiG-29s.
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05/30/2020
It has been sixty years since the first prototype of the Northrop F-5 family of lightweight fighter-bombers took its first flight on July 30, 1959. The F-5 played an important but understated role in the Vietnam War and continues to fly today—albeit with updated equipment—with some air forces and private combat flight training contractors, proving its capability to compete with some of the latest technologically superior light fighters.
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05/30/2020
U.S. Africa Command observed movement of Russian combat aircraft at Khmeymim Air Base in Syria. Last week, the intelligence spotted there a batch of unmarked MiG-29 Fulcrums, the fourth-generation fighter jets. It appears that the planes landed there before departing to Libya, where they could "support forces aligned with rogue Libyan general Khalifa Haftar, who has been fighting for years against the country's U.N.-recognized government". Warzone.com reported that, citing the social media.
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05/29/2020
Often referred to as an “aerial quarterback,” the U.S. F-22 Raptor is designed as a “first look, first shot, first kill” kind of air dominance fighter intended to ensure air supremacy and, in many cases, establish a safer “air corridor” for less stealthy and maneuverable aircraft to attack.
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05/29/2020
Eurofighter Typhoon is the most advanced multi-role aircraft in the world and it's known for its flexibility and agility. The jet fighter provides air-to-surface and air-to-air capabilities. This is the only aircraft on the market with advanced weapon availability and sufficient processing power to support missile in-flight updates. Flexible and efficient, Eurofighter Typhoon can carry up to 6 bombs, a targeting pod, and a cannon. It has true swing-role capabilities.
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05/29/2020
The delivery of the first four Rafale fight aircrafts was supposed to have arrived by the end of May from France but due to the outbreak of the coronavirus it was postponed by two months. The aircrafts reportedly cannot be matched by India’s rivals China and Pakistan. Defence sources told Asia’s premiere news agency, ANI: “The first four aircrafts including three twin-seater trainer aircrafts and one single-seater fighter aircraft would start arriving by the end of July at the Ambala airbase.
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05/28/2020
China's two aircraft carriers will be deployed in August near Taiwanese waters for military exercises, according to reports. The aircraft carriers Liaoning and Shandong will be deployed together in the Yellow Sea's Bohai Bay for combat readiness drills which could include a simulation of a future assault on Taiwan's Dongsha, or Pratas, Islands, according to the Global Times, Taiwan News and reports from Australia.
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05/28/2020
The U.S. Navy has released a video and images showing two fully-armed Russian Su-35 Flanker-E fighter jets flying dangerously close to one of its P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol planes over international waters in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea today. The incident comes after U.S. Africa Command issued a press release, along with images, some of which a P-8A appeared to have captured, showing Russian combat jets making their way to Libya to reinforce mercenaries and other forces.
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05/28/2020
Powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A turboprop, 180 KT-1s are in service globally. The Republic of Korea Air Force operates 106 examples. Other users include Turkey (40), Peru (20), and Indonesia (14). Cirium fleets data shows that Senegal currently operates 25 aircraft - most of which are helicopter - with the training mission performed using six Daher TB 30s. In April 2018, Senegal became the first buyer of the new-generation Aero Vodochody L-39NG, with an order for four armed examples.
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05/26/2020
The United States will send 1,200 Marines to Australia in coming weeks amid increasing tensions between Western nations and China over COVID-19. The main force will begin arriving in Darwin in early June but an advance party of 54 Marines has been stationed in the Northern Territory for two months. The US and Australian governments postponed this year's deployment of Marine Rotational Force - Darwin in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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05/26/2020
Sukhoi Su-35, the 4++ Generation supersonic multirole Russian fighter will soon join the Egyptian Air Force. Russian news agency TASS quoted a military-diplomatic source as saying that the production of Sukhoi Su-35 jets for Egypt have started.
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05/26/2020
The Indian Air Force will operationalise a second squadron of the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft this week. IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria will operationalize the squadron at Sulur in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday. The IAF’s Number 18 Squadron, “Flying Bullets”, will be raised with Tejas aircraft in the Final Operational Configuration. “The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria, will operationalise No. 18 Squadron ‘Flying Bullets’ of the Indian Air Force on May 27.
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05/25/2020
The Italian Navy has celebrated a major milestone in the life of its LHD/aircraft carrier hybrid, the Cavour, following a 16-month complex overhaul and modernisation that will allow the vessel to embark the fifth-generation F-35B, conduct complex combat operations, transport marines and conduct humanitarian support and assistance in a single platform package.
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05/24/2020
As a Soviet successor state, the small Central Asian Republic of Georgia inherited a number of advanced Soviet made weapons systems following the USSR's collapse which continue to form the bulk of the country's inventory until today. Unlike other larger successor states such as Ukraine and Kazakhstan, Georgia's armed forces received few aerial warfare systems, with the only significant acquisition being approximately twenty Su-25 attack jets.
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05/24/2020
Moscow’s efforts to develop, test and procure its new Su-57 fifth-generation stealth fighter have long stalled, with numerous setbacks and delays. While progress has been made, ongoing issues appear to beleaguer aspects of this complex development process, especially following the high-profile crash of an Su-57 prototype during a test flight on December 24, 2019, in Khabarovsk region, in Russia’s Far East.
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05/23/2020
The U.S. Navy is sending an increasingly obvious number of ships into a disputed Asian sea to prove that COVID-19 won’t stop it from resisting China’s maritime expansion, observers say.
U.S. Cold War foe China, which claims about 90 percent of the South China Sea, never halted military activities in the resource-rich tropical sea, despite the disease outbreak in its own country. Washington now wants its Asian allies – smaller countries fearful of China’s reach – to know they have not been forgo
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05/23/2020
A little over a year since Greenville’s Lockheed Martin Corp. facility welcomed its first production line, the aerospace manufacturer remains on track to introduce South Carolina’s first F-16 Fighting Falcon within two years — with some potential new customers in the works.
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05/23/2020
The F-35 pilot who flew the two infamous supersonic missions that inflicted damage to the jet’s stealth coating and tail wants to set the record straight. When pilots conduct supersonic intercepts or find themselves needing to race away from an enemy during combat, they will be able to take the F-35 to its furthest limits of speed and altitude — most likely without any permanent damage to the aircraft, he told Defense News in an exclusive interview.
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05/22/2020
Senior Russian military officials have announced that the emerging Su-57 5th-generation stealth fighter recently met nearly all of its specified performance requirements during state testing, raising questions as to the actual state of its operational sophistication.
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05/22/2020
U.S. B-1B Lancers trained with Swedish Gripen fighter jets over Sweden Tuesday, a first in the bomber’s 35-year history, the Air Force said. A pair of the bombers flew from Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., to integrate with the Swedish Armed Forces jets and conduct close-air support training with Swedish Joint Terminal Attack Controller ground teams at Vidsel Test Range, the Air Force said in a news release Thursday.
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05/22/2020
Satellite imagery has emerged showing at least one MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter jet at an air base in Libya under the control of forces aligned with rogue general Khalifa Haftar. This follows reports that six MiG-29s, as well as a pair of Su-24 Fencer combat jets, had recently arrived to join Haftar's Libyan National Army, or LNA.
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05/22/2020
Lockheed Martin won a contract to sell its Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod (ATP) and two other sensors to two dozen countries and US military services – a deal worth up to $485 million. The US Air Force (USAF) granted the company the indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract (IDIQ), which has a $485 million ceiling, via the Foreign Military Sales process.
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05/21/2020
The US Navy (USN) has started final tests of two systems competing to win the service’s Next Generation Jammer Low Band (NGL-LB) competition, which aims to develop a jammer for Boeing EA-18G Growlers. Tests of systems developed by L3Harris and Northrop Grumman are part of that programme’s Demonstration of Existing Technologies phase. They are planned to run through summer at NAS Patuxent River in Maryland, the US Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) said on 18 May.
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05/21/2020
Boeing Defence UK has named STS Aviation Services as its conversion partner for the Royal Air Force’s (RAF’s) future fleet of five 737NG-based E-7A Wedgetail surveillance aircraft, after Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group withdrew from the project. Announcing the selection on 20 May, Boeing said the narrowbodies will be prepared for military service using a hangar at Birmingham airport which was previously occupied by Monarch Aircraft Engineering (MAEL).
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