Military Aviation News Archive
02/18/2015
Sen. Debbie Stabenow Tuesday pledged her support for the A-10 aircraft fleet to members of the Base Community Council at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Harrison Township. The U.S. Air Force has announced plans to retire the A-10 aircraft fleet from Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Harrison Township in fiscal year 2017, a decision that could have huge financial impact in Macomb County and the region.
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02/18/2015
A French Defense Ministry official denied a media report that France is in the final stage of talks for a sale of up to 36 Rafale fighter jets to Qatar. "Certainly not," the defense official said when asked about a Reuters report that the negotiations with Qatar were in the "final stage." The Reuters report quoted a senior French source.
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02/18/2015
The State Department announced Tuesday it would allow sales of armed drones to allies and partners on a case-by-case basis, a move that stands to dramatically expand exports of American-made unmanned aircraft around the world. The Obama administration said that, under a new policy, it would expand the sale of unmanned military aircraft but would approve the sales individually.
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02/18/2015
The mega-competition to build South Korea's indigenous fighter jet, dubbed KF-X, kicked off on Feb. 9. But the first round of bidding in the country's largest-ever arms procurement deal failed due to an insufficient number of participants. Only the team of Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Lockheed Martin submitted a proposal for the KF-X program by the deadline, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).
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02/18/2015
The 10th edition of the biannual Aero India show will not showcase a flight display by any Russian aircraft, despite ongoing programs between the two countries, while the US is expected to have the largest corporate presence with 64 companies, according to the Indian Ministry of Defence.
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02/18/2015
British Prime Minister David Cameron praised Boeing [NYSE: BA] for providing excellent value, and a close partnership with the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (MOD), which led to a five-year extension of the contract under which Boeing supports the Royal Air Force’s Chinook helicopters.
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02/17/2015
Australia, Italy, the UK, the Netherlands and Norway are all hitting new milestones as the F-35 comes closer to entering their combat forces. Australia, the Netherlands and the Italians will all train at Luke AFB with the Aussies being the first to arrive, the Dutch next month and the Italians at the end of the year. The British are training with the Marines at Beaufort Marine Corps Air Station and their first plane has arrived their already with operational testing going on in Edwards.
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02/17/2015
After a crippling three decade wait by the Indian Air Force for the home-made fighter jet Tejas, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has reportedly set a deadline of a month for training and maintenance manuals to be shared with pilots. The first Tejas- a Light Combat Aircraft- was presented with much fanfare last month to the Air Force by the manufacturer - state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, which is based in Bangalore.
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02/17/2015
The US unit of Europe's Airbus Group was awarded a contract modification worth $220.5 million to build 41 more UH-72A Lakota light utility helicopters for the US Army, planned as flight trainers at Fort Rucker, Alabama. A service budget official said at a roundtable with reporters earlier this month that next year marks the last of the Lakota fleet for the active Army. The president's budget request for fiscal 2016, released Feb, 3, included $187 million for 28 more helicopters.
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02/17/2015
The raids by the Egyptian air force on Islamic State (IS) camps and arsenals is an escalation in Cairo’s 20-month campaign against the cult. The strikes were in retaliation for the murder by mass beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic workers held hostage by IS in Libya. The air action coincided with Egypt’s shift from a defensive to an offensive strategy for containing and ultimately defeating IS in northern Sinai.
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02/17/2015
It's been more than six months since the United States first sent warplanes to conduct airstrikes against the militant group ISIS, and four months since the formation of an international coalition to help fight the terror group. Since then, warplanes from Western and regional members of the coalition have flown hundreds of missions against ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria.
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02/17/2015
President Xi Jinping is expected to authorize robust defense spending for this year despite China's slowing economy, determined to strengthen the country's armed capabilities amid growing unease in Beijing at Washington's renewed focus on Asia. While China keeps the details of its military spending secret, experts said additional funding would likely go toward beefing up the navy with anti-submarine ships and developing more aircraft carriers beyond the sole vessel in operation.
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02/17/2015
Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain does not think much of the raw data the Air Force recently released on the A-10 attack jet, which the service is trying to shelve and which he wants to keep. Air Force tallies show the so-called “Warthog” has killed more “friendly” troops and Afghan civilians since 2010 than any other U.S. aircraft, USA Today reported.
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02/17/2015
France and Egypt were poised on Monday to sign a multibillion-euro deal for the first sale of the Rafale fighter jet despite human rights concerns. French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was to travel to Cairo to sign the €5.2bn deal for 24 Rafale fighters that Paris hopes will prompt others to snap up its premier combat jet.
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02/17/2015
Egyptian warplanes staged a second wave of airstrikes against ISIS targets in Libya on Monday in retaliation for the slaughter of 21 Egyptian Christians by ISIS militants, Egypt's state-run Ahram Online reported, citing security officials. The airstrikes followed an earlier wave that struck ISIS camps, training areas and weapons depots, the military said in a statement.
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02/16/2015
The US Air Force's desire to gradually phase out operation of the Fairchild Republic A-10 is in no way indicative of a lack of enthusiasm for the close air support (CAS) mission, its chief of staff Gen Mark Welsh says. Welsh treated reporters at the Air Force Association annual air warfare conference in Orlando, Florida, to an impassioned defence of the CAS mission and plans to retire the A-10, which he said can fly to about 2028, regardless of funding levels.
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02/16/2015
New regional war unfolding in central Africa as Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad unite against Boko Haram – with help from France, America and Britain. An MI-24 helicopter gunship, bristling with rockets, clattered over the swirling brown current of the Chari river before landing in Chad's capital, N'Djamena. Moments later, two state-of-the-art Rafale jets – the pride of the French air force – swept overhead, bound for the same airport.
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02/16/2015
Looking east to the bloody conflict gripping Ukraine, NATO-member Poland has kicked off an unprecedented military spending spree worth billions to overhaul its forces as Warsaw believes peace in Europe is no longer a given. The escalation of tensions with Russia over its annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and subsequent role in the crisis in that country's east has sounded the alarm on NATO's eastern flank in countries that were under Moscow's thumb during the Cold War.
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02/16/2015
A British politician has called for an end to British tax payers money going to Argentina after it was reveals that the country has reached an agreement with China to purchase fighter jets capable of attacking the Falkland Islands as talks with Beijing start to produce results.
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02/16/2015
Retiring Vice Adm. David H. Buss, who stepped down as the Navy's "air boss" Jan. 22, has guided the Navy's F-35C Lightning II through some difficult times. But he insists the controversial next-generation fighter jet is now well on its way to becoming operational and, more than that, is essential to the future of carrier air wings. "I'm very happy with where we are with the program now," Buss said during an interview at his office at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego.
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02/16/2015
The Navy's newest amphibious assault ship, America, has some of the fleet's most advanced command and control capabilities and electronic warfare technology, but one low-tech asset has won over sailors and Marines who have been underway: space Compared with earlier big-deck amphibs, the America has more room throughout its aviation spaces. This allows the ship to generate sorties farther from shore,
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02/16/2015
After days of ferocious attacks, a ceasefire went into effect after midnight Sunday in Ukraine, followed by brief accusations of violence. President Petro Poroshenko ordered the Ukrainian military to hold its fire against pro-Russian militants in the nation’s East. The separatist Donetsk People’s Republic also announced a truce. The ceasefire aims to end 10 months of violence in eastern Ukraine.
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02/16/2015
The question of what airplanes the Indian Air Force will be flying in 2030 is not easy to answer. The important factor is how the Indian economy grows in the next decade which determines how much money is spent on defense. And even when there is money to spend, previous Governments had the lazy attitude that “lets just buy it from another country”. At least Narendra Modi is the first Prime Minister to push “Make in India” even for defence purchases.
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02/15/2015
Islamic State fighters led a suicide attack on an air base where U.S. and coalition troops are training Iraqi forces after taking a nearby town, the first territorial gain by the militant group in months, the Pentagon said Friday. Most of the Islamic State fighters died in the attack, killed either by Iraqi government forces or by detonating their suicide vests, said Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman.
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02/15/2015
VLADIMIR PUTIN has been accused of putting the Russian economy on a “war footing” as the Kremlin spends billions of pounds a year on nuclear submarines, combat jets, supersized drones and ballistic missiles. Admiral Lord West of Spithead, a former head of the Royal Navy, said Russia’s rearmament of its military forces was “extremely worrying”. It would be “madness” if Britain slashed defence spending after the next election, he added.
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