Military Aviation News Archive
09/27/2014
The history of women serving in armed conflicts probably goes back hundreds of years - if not longer. In the United States, during the American Revolution, women served on the battlefield as nurses, water bearers, laundresses and saboteurs. Ever since then, their roles in the military have continued to expand in numbers, skills and responsibilities.
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09/27/2014
Six Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft and two mid-air refuelling aircraft of the Britsih Air Force will be here next week on their way to Singapore and Malaysia to take part in an exercise. "Six Royal Air Force Typhoons and two A330 Voyager tanker transport aircraft will be staging through Delhi, between September 30 and October 2, en route to long-planned drills in Singapore and Malaysia called Exercise BERSAMA LIMA 2014," a British High Commission release said.
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09/27/2014
The US-led coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) now counts 62 countries among its members, according to list published by the State Department on Thursday. Twenty of the partners, which include two non-states in the form of the European Union and Arab League, are providing air support or other military equipment. Others, broken down below, are supplying logistical or humanitarian aid.
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09/27/2014
The United States have carried out another series of airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS) positions on the Syrian territory, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Saturday, citing an anonymous US defense official. "I can confirm US air operations are ongoing in Syria," the official was quoted by the agency as saying.
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09/27/2014
The United Kingdom is prepared to make the case to extend airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS) beyond Iraq into Syria, if the circumstances call for it, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Friday. Speaking in the Today program on BBC Radio 4, Hammond said that, if the circumstances are right, and if Britain feels that it can contribute to the goal of defeating the IS and its poisonous ideology, it will make the case for extending airstrikes into Syria.
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09/26/2014
Maj. Mariam al-Mansouri, the first female fighter pilot in the history of the United Arab Emirates, led the the Gulf state's bombing raids over Syria this week. Photos of al-Mansouri, beaming from her cockpit, that were released by the country's state news agency have taken social media by storm.
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09/26/2014
Russia's Eastern Military District troops are on their way home after taking part in massive Vostok-2014 war games in the country's Far East, the Defense Ministry said early Friday.
"Troops with the Eastern Military District, Pacific Fleet, Air Force, Long-Range and Transport Aviation are now on their way to the loading points to then travel by rail, sea and air [to their home bases], while the aircraft are regrouping to head for their air bases, and Pacific Fleet vessels are also regrouping.
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09/26/2014
The cooperation of Russia and NATO in Afghanistan has been halted, including a helicopter project, Russia’s envoy to NATO Alexander Grushko told RIA Novosti on Thursday. "NATO has walked away from these projects and adheres to this decision," Grushko said, specifying that the helicopter project was also halted.
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09/26/2014
The French Air Force could strike positions of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization in Iraq on Thursday, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told RTL radio Thursday morning. "At the very time I'm talking to you, French planes are in the sky over Iraq and, if necessary, will strike [IS positions]. If they do not they will continue to identify the goals that become targets tomorrow," the minister said.
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09/25/2014
India is considering powering its second domestically built aircraft carrier with a nuclear propulsion plant, according to a Tuesday report by news agency Press Trust of India. The design of the carrier is ongoing and nuclear power is still an option for the carrier, said Director General of Naval Design Bureau, Rear Admiral Atul Saxena, in response to questions from reporters.
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09/25/2014
Europe’s Panavia Tornado will remain in use as a relevant frontline asset for more than another 10 years, according to its programme partners, even though one of its main operators does not plan to retain the type beyond the end of the decade. The multinational effort that led to the Tornado’s creation began in 1969, and partner nations Germany, Italy and the UK on 16 September formally marked the 40th anniversary of the variable geometry design’s first flight.
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09/25/2014
British Prime Minister David Cameron will hold a parliamentary debate Friday on whether the U.K. should participate in airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq, Downing Street said, amid gathering domestic support of military intervention to tackle the extremist group in Iraq. Mr. Cameron is in New York attending the United Nations General Assembly where he is talking to partners about what more the U.K. and others could do to contribute to the international fight against Islamic State.
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09/25/2014
The Obama administration trumpets a resolute coalition that includes Arab nations, but the majority of the attacks targeting ISIS militants are coming from American warplanes and destroyers. Just what are the U.S. allies in the region bringing to the fight that President Barack Obama said “isn’t America’s fight alone?”
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09/25/2014
The U.S. and two Arab allies took aim Wednesday at a key source of financing for Islamic State militants, bombing 12 of the oil refineries controlled by the terrorist group in Syria, the military said. Black market oil contributes up to $2 million a day to the militant group, and the attacks targeted the small-scale refineries in remote sections of eastern Syria in an effort to choke off its funding.
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09/25/2014
South Korea formally announced on Wednesday that it would buy 40 F-35A fighter jets from the American defense contractor Lockheed Martin in a deal that includes transfers of technology for the development of the country’s own advanced fighter jet. South Korea picked Lockheed Martin’s F-35A as the sole choice for its air force’s new fighter jet in November and has since been negotiating the terms of the deal.
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09/25/2014
The Dutch government has decided to send six F-16 fighter jets to Iraq to help the US-led international coalition in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher said Wednesday. "The Netherlands will make six F-16s available for the first phase of the campaign, for one year," Asscher said as quoted by Agence France-Presse.
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09/25/2014
The use of fifth generation US stealth F-22 Raptor fighters against the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization in Syria could be explained by the United States’ fear of Syrian air defense forces, military experts told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.
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09/25/2014
Royal Australian Air Force fighter jets and personnel have arrived to the United Arab Emirates to take part in operations against the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization, Australian Associated Press reported Wednesday. "There are 400 Royal Australian Air Force officers, eight Super Hornets, a Multi Role Tanker Transport aircraft, and a Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft in the contingent.
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09/24/2014
Prime Minister David Cameron supports airstrikes targeting Islamic State in Syria by the U.S. and five Middle Eastern allies and will discuss how the U.K. might contribute to efforts against the militant group in the coming days, the British government said Tuesday. "The PM will be holding talks at the United Nations in New York over the next two days on what more the U.K. and others can do to contribute to international efforts to tackle the threat we all face from ISIL [Islamic State]," the st
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09/24/2014
Lawmakers have rejected the Pentagon's request to shift as much as $1.5 billion in war spending to buy eight new Lockheed Martin F-35 jets and 21 additional Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopters. The Defense Department asked for the additional jets and helicopters in a Sept. 8 request for permission to shift, or reprogram, about $2 billion in its war operations budget, partly to pay for expanded operations against Islamic State extremists in Iraq and Syria.
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09/24/2014
Supporters of the A-10 “Warthog” fighter say the Pentagon should halt plans to scrap the jet, saying it is needed in the campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The Pentagon has pushed for years to retire the A-10, which provides close air support for troops on the ground in battle, anticipating the need for more advanced aircraft in future ground wars.
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09/24/2014
At least a dozen Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships are carrying out flights in Azerbaijan in the second joint Turkish-Azerbaijani military exercises conducted so far this year. The F-16 fighter jets, C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft and Super Cobra and Black Hawk helicopters reportedly arrived in Azerbaijan on Thursday to take part in what the Defense Ministry in Baku called “large-scale” exercises of its ground forces that ended on Saturday.
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09/24/2014
The F-22 Raptor, one of the most expensive fighters in the world, undertook and successfully completed a combat mission for the first time ever Monday in Syria. The next generation Raptor, which has a total program price tag north of $79 billion, had sat out two wars and at least one previous smaller conflict since going operational in late 2005 before being called on to hit a single target in Syria Monday: an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) "command and control building."
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09/24/2014
Russia is very secretive with data on their military budget. But during a recent speech the commander of the Russian Air Force let slip some interesting bits. He said that the aircraft the air force was now buying (Su-30s, Su-35s, Su-34s) cost over a “billion rubles” ($28 million) each. That was known to be an understatement and it ignored the fact that the three aircraft, although all derived from the older Su-27, are each quite different.
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09/24/2014
Israel shot down a Syrian fighter jet that entered its airspace over the Golan Heights, the first such strike in nearly 29 years amid heightened fighting between the regime and rebels for control along the sensitive border. The intercept is the latest sign of instability along the Golan Heights frontier stemming from the Syrian civil war, although former Israeli air force officers said they believed that the Syrian jet crossed into Israeli-controlled airspace by accident.
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