Military Aviation News Archive
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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,".
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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10/04/2015
The Russian air force’s long-range striking power in the region comes from the twelve Su-24M2 Fencer jets that Russia has sent to its base in Latakia, Syria. The Fencer is a mature design as it was launched in the 1960s. But despite the age, Russia’s remaining fleet of Su-24s has been heavily upgraded with modern systems.
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10/04/2015
UK Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to by 20 new drones to fight Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. Britain is part of an international coalition of more than 60 countries, including the United States, Arab and European nations, working together to dismantle and destroy ISIL in Syria and Iraq.
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10/03/2015
U.S.-backed rebels in Syria appealed to the Obama administration Friday for antiaircraft missiles to defend their positions against relentless Russian airstrikes that have so far mostly targeted the moderate opposition to President Bashar al-Assad’s rule.
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10/03/2015
In another sign of the increasingly close relationship between the two nations, Pakistan is to use Chinese technology in its drones. Pakistan had several requests for drone technology rejected by the United States, and went on to manufacture its own indigenous drones. Those drones have seen combat action in the tribal regions, where Pakistani troops are fighting Islamic militants along the border with Afghanistan, writes Syed Fazl-e-Haider for The National.
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10/03/2015
IAF's Su-30 fighter plane pilots are focusing on beyond visual range combat and night flying capabilities even as they gear up for the installation of the 'game changer' BrahMos missiles, with a strike range of nearly 300 kms, in the aircraft.
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10/03/2015
A United States military transport plane crashed at an airfield in Afghanistan on Friday, killing all 11 people on board, the U.S. military said, adding there were no reports of enemy fire at the time. The cause of the crash at Jalalabad airfield was under investigation, a spokesman said, refusing to rule out the possibility that there may be dead or wounded on the ground. First responders were on the scene, he said.
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