Military Aviation News Archive
03/05/2018
The JAS-39 Gripen is the Swedish defense industry’s largest export, financially. The Gripen has seen considerable success replacing aging fighters in former Warsaw Pact countries, and has also seen sales in Africa, the Americas and Asia. But why is the Gripen successful on the export market? How does it stack up against other NATO products and Soviet jets?
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03/05/2018
Workers on the Typhoon line at Warton in Lancashire were given the news they had long dreaded last October. Faced with dwindling orders, BAE Systems was slowing down production of the fighter jet to a trickle. About 750 jobs would be cut at Warton and its sister plant Samlesbury, the defence giant said, part of 1,400 job losses across its military air business. The production rate is expected to drop to 11 Typhoons a year — down from the previous rate of 20.
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03/05/2018
Reserve airmen of the 920th Rescue Wing are doing their part to keep aircraft here up to snuff, as they await the arrival of a new combat rescue helicopter and HC-130 recovery planes. And while leaders at the base are craving more modern planes, they're still years away from formal delivery. For the most active Reserve unit -- and the only Reserve rescue wing in the Air Force - officials said they need and want the best to be ready for the missions they are already tasked to do.
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03/05/2018
Some time in the next several weeks or months, the Lockheed Martin F-35 programme will pass a historic milestone. The system development and demonstration phase that began 17 years ago appears poised – barring any unforeseen showstoppers – to conclude by the end of summer. The aircraft, engine, simulators and logistics system will shift from development to operational status, albeit six years behind schedule.
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03/02/2018
Russia's surprise deployment of Sukhoi Su-57s to a base inside Syria has positioned its new stealth fighter within the same region of operations as the Israeli air force's Lockheed Martin F-35I. Video footage appearing to show Su-57s arriving in Syria was confirmed by pictures captured by an Israeli imaging satellite. The new type's deployment marks the peak of Moscow's direct intervention so far in Syria's long-running civil war.
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03/02/2018
With Lockheed Martin having marked the latest milestone in its C-130J “Super Hercules” programme on 9 February – the delivery of its 400th example – we use Flight Fleets Analyzer data to detail the type’s sales performance so far.
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03/02/2018
US military officials have launched a new affordability initiative for the Lockheed Martin F-35 programme that targets labour costs and manufacturing efficiency, says Vice Adm Mat Winter, the F-35 programme executive officer.
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03/01/2018
On Feb. 21, 2018, the Iraqi government announced that the Iraqi air force had reopened its academy at Balad air base. U.S. Central Command announced that the Coalition Aviation Advisory and Training Team will help establish standardized training programs. Forty cadets will start their coursework in March 2018.
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03/01/2018
Saab is poised to start ground-test activities with its first GlobalEye surveillance aircraft, having unveiled the heavily-adapted Bombardier Global 6000 for launch customer the United Arab Emirates. Rolled out at the Swedish company's Linköping site on 23 February, the modified business jet is the first of three such "swing-role" platforms ordered by the Gulf nation since November 2015.
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02/28/2018
The basic training plane for Air Force pilots, the propeller-driven T-6 Texan, is returning to flight almost one month after being grounded after a series of unexplained physiological events (what we used to call suspected hypoxia incidents). As is the case with most such groundings, the service was very careful to call these “multiple unexplained physiological events.” A statement notes the incidents “differed from classic hypoxia, which is caused by oxygen deprivation.”
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02/28/2018
By cancelling the single engine fighter jet procurement and expanding it to include twin engine fighters, the government is trying to find a different result by trying the same thing as it was done in the previous MMRCA tender which it scrapped in 2015. The reason apparently is due to the furore created over the Rafale deal and the government does not want allegations later as there were only two contenders for the single engine jet, Lockheed Martin F-16 and SAAB Gripen.
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02/27/2018
IT’s a next generation combat jet of many names. It was the PAK FA. It was the T-50. Now it’s the Su-57. It’s Russia’s answer to the United States’ cutting-edge F-22 “Raptor” stealth fighter. Now, more than 15 years after the F-22 entered service, Russia is on the brink of pitting the best its military aviation industry can offer against its rival in Syria. F-22 versus Su-57: It’s the ultimate face-off between East and West.
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02/27/2018
Russia’s deputy defense minister claimed Thursday that Moscow has tested over 600 new weapons and other military equipment in Syria since intervening in the conflict in 2015. “The chance to test in real combat can’t be overestimated,” Yuri Borisov asserted, adding that “customers have started queuing up for the arms that have proven themselves in [battle].”
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02/27/2018
Since the Syrian civil war erupted nearly seven years ago, perhaps the most dramatic regional diplomatic development has been the steady reemergence of Russia as a major player in the convoluted world of Middle East politics. As a reward for its intervention in Syria, Russia has received 49-year leases on an airbase and port facility there.
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02/27/2018
For more than 60 years, the U.S. Navy has relied on steam power to catapult planes off the decks of aircraft carriers, leaving behind a telltale trail of steam rising from the track. A new generation of carriers will rely on something far more technologically complex: an electromagnetic system that could potentially launch more aircraft off the deck and at a faster rate than traditional steam methods.
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02/27/2018
The US Air Force has no firm plans to replace a wide area surveillance capability if Congress later this year approves a proposal to retire the Northrop Grumman E-8C JSTARS in 2025, the head of the US Air Force’s Air Combat Command says.
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02/26/2018
An internal military investigation into the downing of an Israeli F-16 jet by a Syrian anti-aircraft missile on February 10 has shown that the aircraft’s crew did not respond properly to the threat and made a “professional error.” However, the probe also found that the pilot and navigator were right to abandon the warplane after it was hit.
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02/25/2018
Our initial analysis has been outright confirmed and at least two Russian Su-57s have been forward-deployed to Khmeimim Air Base in western Syria. Satellite imagery dated February 23rd, 2018 shows two of the aircraft parked on the base's tightly packed fixed-wing tactical aircraft ramp.
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02/24/2018
With the Indian Navy’s first two carriers INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant deploying Russian built MiG-29K multirole fighters from their decks India has sought a new source of fighters for its third and largest carrier – INS Vishal. While the Vikramaditya, a heavily modified former Soviet Kiev class carrier, is currently in service and the Vikrant, the country’s first domestically built carrier, is in its late development stages, the INS Vishal remains in the mid-design stage and has yet to see
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02/24/2018
Russia has sent its most advanced fighter jet to Syria, a US military official tells CNN. It's a deployment that could potentially increase the level of danger to US forces operating inside the country. The Su-57 is Moscow's most sophisticated military jet and comes equipped with stealth capability. Russia's move comes despite a promise from President Vladimir Putin to scale back Russia's military commitment in the country.
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02/24/2018
A Qatari order for the F-15 Advanced Eagle will introduce a new structural upgrade for the wing that could be offered as a service life extension option for the US Air Force’s F-15Cs and for the fleets of other international customers, a top Boeing manager says.
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02/24/2018
Twenty years ago, Lockheed Martin made its first delivery of a C-130J to launch operator the UK Royal Air Force, following a troubled development and testing programme which was very much at odds with its chosen moniker: “Super Hercules”.
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02/24/2018
Saab has unveiled its first GlobalEye surveillance aircraft, revealing the extensively modified Bombardier Global 6000 business jet in the livery of launch customer the United Arab Emirates air force.
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02/23/2018
The Canadian government has announced that five bidders — Boeing, Dassault, Eurofighter, Lockheed Martin and Saab — are eligible to compete for a long sought-after contract to replace the country’s 88 CF-18 fighters.
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02/23/2018
The UK Ministry of Defence will publish a new combat air strategy document later this year, which defence secretary Gavin Williamson says will “bring together the best of British engineering, skill and design, and deliver a compelling vision for the future of air power".
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