Military Aviation News Archive
03/03/2020
Ten Spanish Air Force EF2000 “Tifóns”, pooled from ALA11 and 14, split in two cells and supported by 2x RAF A330 Voyager tankers are currently on their way to Nellis AFB where they will take part in RF 20-2.
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03/03/2020
The Ministry of Defence (Mindef) is in the “final stages” of acquiring four F-35B Lighting II multi-role combat aircraft, with an option to buy eight more, after receiving approval from the US government and Congress. This was revealed by Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen in Parliament on Monday (2 March), during his ministry’s Committee of Supply (COS) debate.
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03/03/2020
In a room packed full of U.S. Air Force personnel this past week, SpaceX founder Elon Musk issued a bold pronouncement: “The fighter jet era has passed. ... Locally autonomous drone warfare is where it’s at, where the future will be.” The reaction in the room was immediate — a collective pause.
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03/03/2020
Boeing has resurrected and is showing off its Powered JDAM concept believing that the US Air Force (USAF) is keen to buy low-cost cruise missiles. The company has increased development work on the concept within the last 18 months, it says at the Air Force Association Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Florida on 28 February. The project was originally begun about eight years ago, but had been put on the back burner due to lukewarm interest from the service.
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03/02/2020
Turkey's military shot down two Syrian government fighter jets over northwest Idlib, hours after forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad brought down a Turkish drone over the region.
In a Twitter post on Sunday, Turkey's defence ministry said its forces struck two SU-24 aircraft in response to the downing of the drone.
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03/02/2020
General Atomics has revealed what appears to be a previously unknown unmanned aircraft concept, called Defender, that is capable of air-to-air combat and mid-air refueling. The company says that its primary mission would be to protect "high-value airborne assets," such as airborne early warning and control aircraft, standoff reconnaissance planes, and aerial refueling tankers.
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03/02/2020
In 2008, military observers within and outside of Russia noted the poor performance of the Russian Air Force (VVS) in the five-day Russo Georgian War. In the aftermath of the conflict, Moscow instituted a vigorous new round of military modernization and reforms. These reforms were put to the test when in September 2015 Putin committed the newly reorganized Aerospace Force (VKS) to its first expeditionary war, a bid to prop up the faltering regime of Bashar-al Assad in Syria.
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03/02/2020
Lockheed Martin is developing a new variant of its iconic F-16 single-engine fighter in order to compete in India’s 2019 tender for 110 new warplanes. But don’t count on the American firm’s “F-21” to win the contract. According to journalist Angad Singh, the likely winner is French company Dassault’s Rafale twin-engine fighter.
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03/02/2020
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II’s profitability could suffer due to the programme losing access to less expensive parts suppliers in Turkey. Ankara was booted from the Joint Strike Fighter programme in July 2019 after the country decided to buy the Russian-made Almaz-Antey S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile battery. That weapon system is advertised as being anti-stealth, a capability the US Department of Defense takes seriously and wants the F-35 to avoid.
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03/01/2020
More than 300 Airmen with the 555th Fighter Squadron, also known as the “world famous, highly-respected” Triple Nickel, completed the first leg of their deployment after departing Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar in late Feb. 2020. The Triple Nickel is an F-16 Fighting Falcon squadron that provides combat air power and performs air and space control and force application roles including air interdiction and close-air support in support of joint, NATO, and combined operations.
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03/01/2020
As Pakistan’s relationship has soured with the United States in the past two decades, Pakistan’s armed forces have largely looked towards Chinese suppliers for equipment. While China has long supplied Pakistan’s armed forces, the relationship has deepened in recent years, with Pakistan making major purchases of top-of-the-line Chinese export equipment.
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03/01/2020
The two Tu-142 planes came south outside Norwegian air space on February 26th and 27th. Major Brynjar Stordal, press spokesperson with the Norwegian Armed Forces, said to the Barents Observer that “these Russian aircraft operates relatively routinely over the seas north of Norway,” but, he added “it is not common that they fly as far south as they did this week.”
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03/01/2020
Five years of relentless bombardment tilted the course of the war in Assad’s favor—and continues to do so today as heavy bombing paves the way for Assad’s forces to crush the last major rebel stronghold in Idlib province—if it doesn’t trigger Turkish intervention first. However, the air campaign has cost the Russian military at least nineteen manned aircraft (eleven helicopters and eight airplanes) between 2015–2018, leading to the deaths of twenty-three crew and thirty-seven passengers.
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03/01/2020
The US Air Force’s (USAF) decision to cancel the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW) and proceed with Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) came down to size and shape of the missile, in addition to budgetary pressures and a desire to move toward production faster. The HCSW programme was cancelled several weeks ago. The ARRW programme passed its critical design review on 27 February.
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02/29/2020
The US and the Taliban have signed an "agreement for bringing peace" to Afghanistan after more than 18 years of conflict. The US and Nato allies have agreed to withdraw all troops within 14 months if the militants uphold the deal. President Trump said it had been a "long and hard journey" in Afghanistan. "It's time after all these years to bring our people back home," he said.
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02/29/2020
Belarusian Air Force pilots have made the first few flights in Su-30SM fighter jets. The pilots' experience had been limited to theoretical training before that, representatives of the Belarusian Defense Ministry told BelTA. Pilots of the Baranovichi airbase have experience of flying Su-27 aircraft, a predecessor of the Su-30 model. The two-seater Su-30SM can be used for combat missions and for training new pilots.
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02/29/2020
A former American special envoy to Syria has suggested that the U.S. should consider military intervention in the northwest of the country after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in an airstrike there. The Turkish soldiers died Thursday when a Syrian airstrike hit a military base in the Behun area of Idlib province, where the Syrian regime—backed by its Russian and Iranian allies—is trying to crush the last significant area held by Turkish-backed rebels.
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02/29/2020
Following President Ilham Aliyev’s visit to Rome, Azerbaijan and Italy have reached a military agreement over Baku’s purchase of the 5th generation warplane Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master from Italy. A number of significant documents were also signed between countries during the visit that will strengthen the Azerbaijani Air Forces’ fleet.
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02/29/2020
Speaking in front of a crowd of fighter pilots for the US Air Force (USAF), technology entrepreneur Elon Musk pronounced the end to the manned fighter jet era. “The fighter jet era has passed,” says the founder of rocket builder SpaceX and artificial intelligence company OpenAI at the Air Force Association Air Warfare conference in Orlando, Florida on 28 February.
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02/29/2020
Safran believes it now understands the reasons behind the crash of a Patroller unmanned air vehicle (UAV) last December – an incident that took place shortly before the initial example was due to be delivered to the French army. The aircraft was destroyed when it came down near the town of Saint-Mitre-Les-Remparts on 6 December during an “industrial reception flight” from Istres air base in the south of the country.
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02/28/2020
When the Times of India revealed that the Indian air force was revising its single-engine fighter competition to encompass twin-engine jet designs, a collective groan likely rang from New Delhi to Washington—and even Stockholm.
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02/28/2020
Dassault chief executive Eric Trappier regrets the breakdown of the UK-France defence partnership that would have seen his company team with BAE Systems on a next-generation fighter, saying a “political decision” was behind last year’s launch of the Franco-German Future Combat Air System initiative.
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02/28/2020
The US Government has cleared the sale of four Textron AT-6C Wolverine light attack aircraft to Tunisia in a deal worth $326 million. The approval of the potential Foreign Military Sale was announced in a Defense Security Cooperation Agency notification to Congress. In addition to the aircraft, the package will include a range of bombs, over 3,000 Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System (APKWS) rockets, sensors, guns, training, technical support, and other products and services.
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02/28/2020
New variants of the Xian Y-20 strategic transport look set to make their public debut, as the four-engined type assists relief operations related to the Coronavirus outbreak in the city of Wuhan. In addition to the transport variant, a tanker variant and an airborne early warning (AEW) variant are planned, according to a Global Times report citing Teng Hui, who commands an air force aviation regiment and is a Y-20 pilot.
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02/28/2020
Lockheed Martin’s hypersonic Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) is wrapping its critical design review. ARRW wil officially pass the milestone on 27 February and the US Air Force (USAF) is pleased with the missile’s development progress, says John Varly, vice-president of hypersonics with Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. ARRW development is being led by Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control in Orlando, Florida.
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