Military Aviation News Archive
10/07/2015
The US State Department has approved a potential $243 million sale of five MQ-9 Block drones and associated equipment to Spain, US Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a press release on Tuesday. "The Spanish Air Force intends to use the MQ-9s for homeland security, peacekeeping, peace enforcement, counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations," the press release read. "The estimated total cost [of the sale] is $243 million."
Read More...
10/07/2015
A spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said that the Turkish Defense Ministry proposed to Russia on Tuesday setting up a joint working group to coordinate actions and prevent incidents regarding the Russian operations in Syria.
Read More...
10/07/2015
Russia has deployed its notorious Mi-24 helicopter gunships to Syria, where they are part of the operation against Islamic State terrorist targets. According to Colonel Igor Klimov of the Russian Air Force in Hmeymim Air Base in Syria, the Mi-24 helicopters are currently being used for patrolling the area around the airfield and for potential search and rescue missions. The Mi-24 is considered to be one of most deadly and versatile helicopters in the world.
Read More...
10/06/2015
As Russian warplanes fly over Syria, neighboring NATO member Turkey says its fighter jets could open fire on them if they stray into Turkish airspace. The threat is serious and highlights the danger of a direct military confrontation between Russia and its old Cold War adversaries, including not just Turkey but the United States.
Read More...
10/06/2015
Two US Navy F-35C test aircraft have begun a second round of developmental testing at sea aboard the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower, aimed at smoothing the aircraft’s entry into service in 2018.
Read More...
10/06/2015
In an interview with India Strategic and at remarks at his annual pre-Air Force Day briefing here October 3, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha observed that the Indian Air Force (IAF) was “terribly short” of modern aircraft, and that the Government was alive to this. “The contract negotiations with the French are in process… Our intent is to conclude the agreement at the earliest,” he said.
Read More...
10/06/2015
Norway's ministry of defence is using a strategic defence review to push for significant funding increases for the country's armed forces, as well as underscore the importance of the F-35 joint strike fighter to the Norwegian Air Force.
Read More...
10/06/2015
Following its deployment of combat aircraft inside Syria, Russia may also be considering placing some of its air force assets in Iraq. Speculation has increased after Iraq's prime minister Haider al-Abadi on 1 October said that he would "welcome" air strikes by Russia in his country if Moscow made such a proposal – a scenario which he told television channel France 24 has not happened yet.
Read More...
10/06/2015
The Russian expeditionary force in Syria could generate as many as ninety-six fixed-wing combat aircraft sorties per day, assuming they have well-oiled logistics and properly trained maintenance crews. But that is a best-case scenario during a “combat surge”; more realistically, the thirty-two Russian jets at Latakia might be able to generate only twenty sorties per day.
Read More...
10/06/2015
Russian warplanes on bombing runs over Syria twice entered Turkish airspace over the weekend, causing “extreme danger” through “irresponsible behavior,” NATO said Monday. Turkish fighter planes scrambled both times and identified the intruding aircraft, which then returned to Syria.
Read More...
10/06/2015
The Royal Netherlands Air Force selected Lockheed Martin’s Sniper® Advanced Targeting Pod (ATP) to equip its F-16 fleet, becoming the 21st international customer to acquire the multi-mission system. The contract was awarded through the Dutch Defence Materiel Organisation and includes 29 Sniper ATPs as well as support equipment, training and sustainment. Pod deliveries will begin in the first quarter of 2016.
Read More...
10/06/2015
Lockheed Martin is trying to convince the US Air Force to abandon its plans to replace Lockheed's U-2 spy plane with Northrop Grumman's RQ-4 Global Hawk, an unmanned, long-range surveillance platform.
Read More...
10/06/2015
In November of 2010, Chinese state-owned manufacturer Avicopter unveiled the AC-311, a single-engine helicopter capable of carrying up to six people. On September 28, the company conducted the first test-flight of its military version, the Z-11WB. Maintaining the high visibility of the AC-311, the new helicopter has modifications which allow it to "carry out ground support, attack, battlefield reconnaissance, command, counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics, counter-smuggling, and other tasks,".
Read More...
10/05/2015
NATO officials issued a warning to Russia on Monday, and the United States began what officials called urgent consultations with Turkey, after Turkish fighter jets intercepted a Russian warplane that entered its airspace over the weekend.
Read More...
10/05/2015
Turkey said it intercepted a Russian jet that violated its airspace over the weekend. The country called in the Russian ambassador and lodged a strong condemnation of the violation, Turkey's foreign ministry said in a statement Monday. "The Russian Federation will be responsible for any undesired incident that may occur," the ministry warned.
Read More...
10/05/2015
Russia’s military intervention in Syria has expanded radically in two directions. DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources report that China sent word to Moscow Friday, Oct. 2, that J-15 fighter bombers would shortly join the Russian air campaign that was launched Wednesday, Sept. 30. Baghdad has moreover offered Moscow an air base for targeting the Islamic State.
Read More...
10/05/2015
The contract for the French-made Mistral aircraft carrier was signed while President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi was on a visit to Paris in September, and the aircraft carrier is scheduled to arrive in Egypt in March. France had originally agreed to build two Mistral class aircraft carriers for Russia. When the deal was frozen over the Ukraine crisis, Russia retained the right to ensure that the ships could only be sold to third parties acceptable to Moscow. It had no objection to Egypt purchasing one
Read More...
10/05/2015
Russia’s bombing of anti-regime rebels in Syria has been described as a disaster for the US-led coalition’s efforts to destroy Isis, the Islamist militant group, but the Kremlin’s real challenge to Washington is in the skies above the war-torn country.
Read More...
10/05/2015
The Department of National Defense (DND) has scheduled on Oct. 12 the bid opening for the P4.9-billion contract for six close-air support aircraft. The procurement is one of 30 multibillion contracts suspended earlier in May pending the go-ahead of President Benigno S. C. Aquino III. These include two navy frigates worth P18 billion, two long-range patrol aircraft worth P5.9 billion, and three air surveillance radars worth P2.68 billion.
Read More...
10/05/2015
Satellite photos analyzed by IHS Janes show China has dramatically ramped up efforts to construct a second aircraft carrier—the first to be built indigenously there. While the new ship will likely not be a match for US aircraft carriers, it is important for a number of reasons, and representative of China's ambitions to be a naval superpower.
Read More...
10/05/2015
The Kh-29L air-to-surface missile used by Russian planes against ISIL in Syria is a weapon that strikes targets with a precision less than two meters, give or take.
Read More...
10/05/2015
Early on the morning of Sept. 30, a Russian three-star general approached the American embassy in Baghdad, walked past a wall of well-armed Marines, to deliver face-to-face a diplomatic demarche to the United States. His statement was blunt: The Russia military would begin air strikes in neighboring Syria within the hour — and the American military should clear the area immediately.
Read More...
10/04/2015
Given heightened tensions over Russia’s support for Iran and the Syrian regime, the recently announced sale of ten unmanned IAI Searcher 3 drones to Russia seems unusual at face value.
However, Israel’s decision to sell weapons to the country it sees as the principal benefactor of its enemies is just the latest chapter of a long and often complicated history of military cooperation between Israel and Russia.
Read More...
10/04/2015
Making up the core of the force deployed in Syria are SU-24 fighters (known to Nato as Fencers) and SU-25 ground-attack jets (Frogfoots), two workhorse warplanes. The battle-tested models, which date back to Soviet times, were familiar sights over battlefields such as Chechnya and Ukraine.
Read More...
10/04/2015
IAF chief Arup Raha sounded optimistic about the ongoing negotiations with the French government for buying Rafales but admitted that adding up numbers to increase fighter jet strength remains a challenge.
Read More...