Military Aviation News Archive
05/30/2015
Since the last decade, India has been on a spree of buying modern weapon systems through its ever increasing defence budget. In particular the Indian Air Force is going through a total revamp. India is the only country which has categorised its fighters as heavy, medium and light combat aircrafts. It has assigned specific roles to its fighters however most are multi-role in nature.
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05/30/2015
Russia will considerably increase its arsenal of Tupolev Tu-160 ("White Swan") heavy strategic bombers, unique machines, able to attack its targets at high speeds, US journalist Zachary Keck pointed out. Citing Col. Gen. Viktor Bondarev, the commander-in-chief of Russia's Air Force, American journalist Zachary Keck pointed out that Moscow is planning to dramatically boost its arsenal of Tupolev Tu-160 ("White Swan") heavy strategic bombers.
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05/29/2015
U.S. and Canadian fighter jets are to practise intercepting foreign aircraft high over the Arctic in the coming days as Russian military flights up to the edge of North American airspace increase. “This is probably the most active they’ve been since the end of the Cold War,” said Maj.-Gen. David Wheeler, commander of 1 Canadian Air Division and the officer overseeing his country’s role in exercise Amalgam Dart.
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05/29/2015
The U.S. watched Islamic State fighters, vehicles and heavy equipment gather on the outskirts of Ramadi before the group retook the city in mid-May. But the U.S. did not order airstrikes against the convoys before the battle started. It left the fighting to Iraqi troops, who ultimately abandoned their positions.
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05/29/2015
The Senate Armed Services Committee, as promised, is pushing to keep the A-10 flying, and wants to direct the Air Force to find maintainers for the F-35 in other ways, including grounding F-16s and cutting back on headquarters staff. The committee in the last week of May released its report on its version of the fiscal 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, which blocks any A-10 retirement and calls for the Air Force to maintain a minimum of 171 combat-coded A-10s.
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05/29/2015
Lightning II is a STOVL aircraft: Short Take Off Vertical Landing. It will place the UK at the forefront of fighter technology, giving the RAF a true multi-role all weather, day and night capability, able to operate from well-established land bases, deployed locations or the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers.
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05/29/2015
I had not given much thought to the flight plan of the airline I recently booked to go back to the U.S. from Vietnam, but recent events in the airspace over the South China Sea prompted an online search. As I discovered, my commercial flight would fly not far from where a U.S. surveillance plane was warned to leave on May 20 by a Chinese radar operator.
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05/29/2015
The Indian Air Force, facing a severe shortage of fighter aircraft, will have the opportunity to boost its combat strength with an unusual asset - fitting guns and rockets on Hawk trainer aircraft, bought for training IAF pilots before they entered the cockpits of high performance fighters like the MiG-21. On Tuesday, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and UK-headquartered BAE Systems (BAE), agreed to explore the development of a "Combat Hawk" which could even be exported to friendly foreign countries.
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05/29/2015
Boeing [NYSE: BA] today formally opened a new avionics maintenance and repair center in the Yeongcheon Industry District of Daegu-Gyeongbuk Free Economic Zone. The 10,000 square-foot facility will test and repair aircraft electrical systems, reducing repair times and yielding significant inventory cost savings for the ROKAF. The new facility underlines both Boeing’s growing role as a global enterprise and its participation in the growth of the domestic Korean aerosp sector.
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05/29/2015
The purchase volume of Russia's fifth-generation T-50 PAK-FA fighter jets, to be produced in 2017, will be limited only by on the manufacturer's production capability, Russian Air Force Commander Col.Gen. Viktor Bondarev said Thursday. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said in March that the ministry could reduce the purchases of PAK-FA fighters, due to "new economic circumstances."
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05/29/2015
A Russian MiG-31 (Foxhound) interceptor successfully downed a cruise missile that was fired by a Tu-95MS (Bear) strategic bomber over the Pemboi Range in Russia’s northwestern region, the Russian Defense Ministry’s Central Military District’s press service said Thursday.
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05/29/2015
The Russian Defense Ministry will purchase no less than 50 new Tu-160 (Blackjack) heavy strategic bombers when production is renewed, Russian Air Force Commander Col.Gen. Viktor Bondarev said Thursday. “No less than 50 aircraft over time will be purchased in order to cover the costs that will go into production,” Col.Gen. Bondarev said without specifying when production would begin.
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05/29/2015
It's the modern era's military strategy of choice: overwhelming air power delivering precision-guided punishment backed by intelligence on the ground, with minimal exposure for soldiers of the striking side. Seductive though it is to risk-averse governments with war-weary publics, the approach has its limits — and these are on display in Syria and Iraq, where a U.S.-led coalition has carried out over 4,100 airstrikes against Islamic State radicals yet failed to stop the extremists.
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05/28/2015
The selection of a foreign contractor to supply the South Korean Air Force with four aerial refueling tankers is just around the corner. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said April 14 that it started price bidding for the 1.48 trillion won (US $1.36 billion) program. Competitors are Boeing, Airbus Defence and Space, and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).
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05/28/2015
Photos posted on military websites in China show the nation's new domestic J-16 twin-seat fighter repainted in a light grey which suggests the aircraft is almost ready to enter service with the People's Liberation Army Air Force, according to People's Daily Online.
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05/28/2015
At the invitation of the government of Sweden, More than 150 Airmen and 12 F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano Air Base, Italy, arrived at Norbotten Wing here in support of Arctic Challenge Exercise 2015. This year, the multinational flying exercise will include approximately 115 combat aircraft from nine different countries including the U.S., Finland, Sweden and Norway. The Arctic Challenge exercise will focus on improving interoperability with fellow air forces.
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05/28/2015
China's steady acquisition of advanced weaponry has driven ambitious Taiwanese requirements, including plans to procure stealth fighters, advanced jet trainers, long-range unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and main battle tanks.
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05/28/2015
The RAAF’s Wedgetail battlespace control aircraft and Hornet fighter bombers may be called on to support Iraqi troops assigned to recapture the key city of Ramadi from Islamic State. The terror group’s fighters swept into Ramadi more than a week ago under the cover of a sandstorm that “blinded” the unmanned patrol aircraft, armed with missiles which had provided a key part of the defences.
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05/28/2015
China’s political and aerospace leadership is painfully aware that its airpower ambitions are severely impeded by the lack of what it calls a “Chinese heart” – modern, indigenous aircraft engines. The Pentagon’s latest assessment on Chinese military capabilities, released on 8 May, is even more blunt, saying: “the Chinese aircraft industry remains reliant on foreign sourcing for dependable, proven high-performance aircraft engines.”
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05/28/2015
The 2013 spending cuts, or sequestration, imposed on the US government forced the US Air Force to scrap or reduce most of its planned training exercise that year, a new Government Accountability Office report, released on Wednesday, said.
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05/28/2015
The secretary general noted that NATO is “intercepting more Russian flights now than just a few years ago.” In early May 2015, Poland, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and France began enhanced air policing duties over the Baltic states and Central Europe. According to a NATO press report, the allies involved in the rotational air policing contributed 22 aircraft for the exercises.
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05/28/2015
The CDR is a key review point in a three-year, $102 million contract awarded to Northrop Grumman in August 2014 for the engineering and manufacturing development portion of the program. “The company successfully completed the critical design review (CDR) of the service's Flexible Strike Phase 1 program on February 3,” Northrop Grumman said on Wednesday.
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05/27/2015
Russia will deliver S-300 missile defence systems to Iran at quote ‘the earliest opportunity'.
That's according the Iranian Deputy Defence Minister, after talks with his counterpart from Moscow, German media reports, quoting news agency AFP. No exact date has been outlined – although previous statements suggest the long-range missile systems, which like this one are designed to combat aircraft and ballistic missiles, would be dispatched before the end of the year.
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05/27/2015
I had not given much thought to the flight plan of the airline I recently booked to go back to the U.S. from Vietnam, but recent events in the airspace over the South China Sea prompted an online search. As I discovered, my commercial flight will be flying not far from where a U.S. surveillance plane was warned on Wednesday to leave by a Chinese radar operator.
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05/27/2015
Islamic State, also known as ISIS, has seized control of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province just 70 highway miles from Baghdad. Fallujah, located between, is already a terror stronghold.
There is little doubt that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi plans to capture the city whose name he bears. A man who declared himself a caliph, Baghdadi knows his home was the seat of the Abbasid caliphate, founded in the eighth century to which ISIS would like to return.
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