Military Aviation News Archive
06/17/2016
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress in 2014 that an authorisation had been granted to provide 24 of the type to Qatar, and a $667 million contract was signed on 7 June. In addition to the aircraft, one Longbow radar crew trainer will also be provided, plus ground support equipment and Thales radios. Deliveries will commence in 2019, and the contract will complete in May 2020.
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06/17/2016
Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company, along with the Government of the Republic of Turkey and members of the Turkish aerospace industry have activated contractual agreements under the Turkish Utility Helicopter Program (TUHP) to produce the T70 utility helicopter based on Sikorsky’s successful multi-role Black Hawk utility aircraft.
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06/17/2016
US Naval Forces Central Command said that the US Navy is conducting airstrikes against Daesh from two operational theatres for the first time after the amphibious assault ship Boxer joined the strikes from the Persian Gulf.
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06/17/2016
The issue of establishing Russian military bases in Belarus is not under discussion at the moment, the Belarusian ambassador to Russia told Sputnik on Thursday.
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06/17/2016
Afghanistan sent an official request to Russia for the delivery of helicopters to Kabul, Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Karzai said Thursday. The deputy foreign minister is on an official visit to Moscow, noting that one of the main goals of his trip was to urge Russian partners to provide military support to Afghanistan.
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06/16/2016
The American business magazine, Forbes, observed that Saudi Vision 2030, laid out by Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, second deputy premier and minister of defense, and approved by the Council of Ministers, “would, in an unpredictable manner, enable Saudi Arabia to realize its dream of becoming one of the world’s major weapon manufacturers after having long been a major weapons importing country”.
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06/16/2016
The Botswana Defence Force (BDF) has confirmed negotiations with Swedish aircraft manufacturer Försvarets Materielverk (FMV) are underway for the acquisition of between eight and 12 JAS Gripen "C" and "D" aircraft variants to replace its ageing fleet of US-made F-5 fighter jets.
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06/16/2016
A Chinese ship was "shadowing" a U.S. aircraft carrier in the western Pacific on Wednesday, a U.S. official told CNN. The incident took place as the USS John C. Stennis was sailing to join warships from Japan and India as part of annual maritime exercises conducted by those nations.
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06/16/2016
As additive manufacturing continues to prove its place in the aerospace industry for both prototypes and finished parts, refined and powerful software solutions that capitalize on new workflows continue to be in high demand with the world's top aerospace engineering firms.
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06/16/2016
Saab of Sweden will model its Indian aerospace business line after the company’s venture into Brazil, with plans to create dedicated manufacturing and maintenance facilities for fighter aircraft in India, according to Jan Widerström, chairman of Saab India. Addressing a news conference here, Widerström said the company had aligned supply of the Gripen E fighter aircraft under the “Make in India” policy.
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06/16/2016
The mass production of Y-20 heavy military transport aircraft is set to begin as early as this year. According to Chinese media, the aircraft will also join the military forces around the same time.
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06/16/2016
Poland is likely to send four F-16 fighter jets to take part in a reconnaissance mission in the Middle East prior to the NATO summit scheduled to be held in Warsaw on July 8-9, Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz said Wednesday.
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06/16/2016
The Belarusian Air Force already has Russian-made Su-27 and MiG-29 aircraft in service. Asked about what plans Belarus might have to purchase new aircraft from Russia, Ravkov told RIA Novosti that Minsk intends to "purchase Su-30SM-type aircraft for the armed forces."
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06/15/2016
The Chinese military has a new warplane with an unusual purpose: to beam propaganda and disinformation into hostile territory. In that way, the new, four-engine Y-8GX7 psychological operations plane—also known by its Chinese name, Gaoxin-7—is analogous to the U.S. Air Force’s EC-130J, which it says “conducts military information support operations and civil affairs broadcasts in F.M. radio, television and military communications bands.”
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06/15/2016
An United Arab Emirates (UAE) military aircraft has crashed over Yemen, killing two people on board. The General Command of the UAE Armed Forces said in a statement that the pilot and his co-pilot were killed when their military helicopter went down on Monday.
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06/15/2016
The U.S. Marine Corps is progressing with a new project to arm its MV-22 Osprey aircraft with new weapons such as laser-guided 2.75in rockets, missiles and heavy guns – a move which would expand the tiltrotor’s mission set beyond supply, weapons and forces transport to include a wider range of offensive and defensive combat missions, Corps officials said.
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06/15/2016
The saying “putting the cart before the horse” surely pre-dates the invention of flight, yet it couldn’t be more accurate to describe the Air Force’s shifting and flawed arguments for retiring the A-10 well ahead of schedule, and before we have a proven, tested replacement.
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06/15/2016
U.S. Apache helicopters have entered the fight in Iraq against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told reporters yesterday. "Commanders have used the Apache capability that we positioned there and that [President Barack Obama] authorized them to use some months ago," Carter said as he traveled to Brussels for meetings with his fellow NATO defense ministers.
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06/15/2016
The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) got an early start preparing for the carrier onboard delivery (COD) transition from the C-2 Greyhound to the V-22 Osprey, with the ship’s crew bringing in the tiltrotor aircraft to participate in the command assessment of readiness and training (CARAT) II basic training event.
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06/15/2016
The UK’s Project Centurion activity is on track to deliver a seamless transition between the UK Royal Air Force’s Panavia Tornado GR4 strike aircraft and the multi-role Eurofighter Typhoon later this decade, according to BAE Systems.
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06/15/2016
A Vietnamese fighter jet is missing after vanishing from radar during a training flight along the South China Sea coastline. "We haven’t found the jet yet, we are still looking," according to Senior Lieutenant General Vo Van Tuan, deputy armed services chief of staff.
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06/15/2016
Currently, three countries, the United States, Russia and China, are developing strategic next generation bombers.
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06/14/2016
Kuala Lumpur datelined report in Jane’s Defence Weekly on April 21, 2016 stated Pakistan remains optimistic about regional sales of JF-17 fighter planes. The report, however, noted that the optimism was tempered by the reality that the Sino-Pak joint venture from the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) has had no takers outside Pakistani Air Force (PAF) despite its projection as the best for air defense and ground attack missions.
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06/14/2016
As Iraqi forces backed by U.S. support engage the Islamic State across multiple battlefronts in Iraq, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter announced Monday that American Apache helicopter gunships had been used in combat for the first time since President Obama authorized their use in April.
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06/14/2016
The crash of an ageing MiG-27 fighter jet of the Indian Air Force (IAF) in Jodhpur today has yet again raised a question mark on the need to operate such vintage aircraft. For the IAF, operating the 1970s MiG-27 is a fait accompli — that is to keep flying outdated fighter jets just to maintain a minimum level in terms of numbers.
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