Military Aviation News Archive
08/22/2014
The U.S. Navy’s move toward developing a carried-based unmanned combat aircraft might eventually afford the service the ability to strike targets at long-range, but there are ethical and legal questions that linger should the Pentagon develop a fully autonomous system. As currently envisioned, the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) will be autonomous, but it will have a “man-on-the-loop” according to Rear Adm. Mat Winter.
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08/22/2014
The 61st Airlift Squadron at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, received another Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules airlifter today. Brig. Gen. Brian Robinson, vice commander, 618th Air and Space Operations Center (Tanker Airlift Control Center), Scott AFB, Illinois, ferried the aircraft from the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., facility here.
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08/21/2014
The Middle East hosts a formidable array of air power. Between them, the six nations of the Gulf Co-operation Council possess more than 600 combat-capable aircraft. Add Jordan, Turkey, and Egypt, and you have 1,000 more. Why, then, is only the US dropping bombs on the jihadis of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) as they expand their “caliphate” in the heart of the region?
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08/21/2014
Flight restrictions on Lockheed Martin’s F-35 are hampering the Pentagon’s ability to conduct software tests that the plane must pass before it can be declared combat-ready by next July, according to the Pentagon’s weapons-testing office. The start of rigorous in-flight testing on the initial software for the Marine Corps version of the fighter is already five months late and may be further delayed by the flight restrictions imposed on the 20 test aircraft and 79 training jets.
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08/21/2014
Iraqi officials have given their American counterparts clear signals that Baghdad is willing to let U.S. fighter jets operate out of Iraqi air bases, a move that would allow planes to stay airborne longer and deliver more strikes. But the Obama administration, at least for now, doesn't seem all that interested.
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08/21/2014
The Air Force has temporarily grounded 82 of its aging F-16 fighter jets after structural cracks were found near the cockpits. The first cracks were discovered July 31 during post-flight inspections of a F-16D model, which is a two-seat variant primarily used for training. Subsequent inspections found that more than half of the F-16Ds were affected.
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08/21/2014
The Obama administration is not thought to be considering qualitatively new military options against the Islamic State (Isis) in the wake of its beheading of American journalist James Foley. While Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that Isis “must be destroyed”, another US official said the horrific, recorded slaying had not changed US policy options for striking the jihadist entity that has overrun much of northern, western and central Iraq.
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08/21/2014
The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) is participating in a large-scale multilateral air combat exercise in Darwin, Australia, involving 100 aircraft and 2 300 personnel from seven participating nations. Codenamed Exercise Pitch Black , this year's biennial exercise will take place from Aug 1 to 22 and see the RSAF deploying about 300 personnel, six F-15SG and eight F-16C/D fighter aircraft, a Gulfstream 550 airborne early warning aircraft, and a KC-135R air-to-air refuelling aircraft.
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08/21/2014
The newest configuration of the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the F-16V, has reached a major capability milestone with the integration of a new Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar. “Completing this milestone on schedule demonstrates our ability to meet program commitments,” said Roderick McLean, vice president and general manager of the F-16/F-22 Integrated Fighter Group at Lockheed Martin.
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08/21/2014
The United States is considering the possibility of sending additional troops to Iraq to step up security in American offices, located in the country, Agence France-Presse reported. “We are considering sending fewer than 300,” a senior US official told the agency Wednesday, adding that the request was initiated by the State Department. An official decision on the issue has not been made yet, the source stressed.
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08/21/2014
Independence supporters have downed a Ukrainian Air Force Su-25 Frogfoot attack plane over the Luhansk region late on Wednesday, a spokesman for the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine said. Earlier a number of media reports suggested that a war plane had been shot down in the region.
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08/20/2014
Set aside the positive bilateral relations between China and India, the Chinese troops have started infiltrating in the Indian territory yet again. This time they have entered 25 to 30 km deep into Indian territory in Burtse area of North Ladakh, officials sources said. This is the very place where they had established their tents last year, which led to a tense 3-week stand-off.
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08/20/2014
Japanese battle tanks, helicopters and elite troops stormed the foothills of Mount Fuji Tuesday in a first-of-its-kind display of the tactics and equipment the nation's military could use to defend or retake islands in and around the East China Sea. The maneuvers involving some 60 Japanese military aircraft, including Apache attack helicopters, marked the first time Japan's Self-Defence Forces (SDF) have simulated a remote island battle as part of an annual live-fire exercise.
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08/20/2014
This undated photo obtained by The Associated Press from the Small Arms Survey, shows a man-portable air defense systems, or MANPADS. Armed groups in Syria have an estimated several hundred portable anti-aircraft missiles that could easily be diverted to extremists and used to destroy low-flying commercial planes, according to a new report by a respected international research group. It cites the risk that the missiles could be smuggled out of Syria by terrorists.
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08/20/2014
Engine technology being developed for a British space plane could also find its way into hypersonic aircraft built by the U.S. military. The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory is studying hypersonic vehicles that would use the Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE), which the English company Reaction Engines Ltd. is working on to power the Skylon space plane, AFRL officials said.
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08/20/2014
The Indian Air Force (IAF) will buy one more Lockheed Martin C 130J Super Hercules medium-lift aircraft apart from the 12 contracted for to make up for the loss of one plane in an accident in March. The IAF chief, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, told India Strategic magazine (www.indiastrategic.in ) in an interview that the induction of the C-130Js, as also the heavy-lift Boeing C-17 Globemaster IIIs had "brought about a paradigm shift in our airlift capabilities".
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08/20/2014
The Air Force has grounded over half of its F-16D Fighting Falcons, the service’s Air Combat Command (ACC) announced Tuesday. The initial damage, described in a Pentagon release as “canopy sill longeron cracks found between the front and rear pilot seats,” was discovered after a routine post-flight inspection on one of the jets. The discovery of cracks led to a fleet-wide inspection order.
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08/20/2014
The bilateral training between the Greek and U.S. air forces continues this week with more large-force employments, or LFE. Fighter pilots normally fly together in what is called a four-ship formation -- four pilots with assigned roles and duties who protect each other. During this week's LFE, multiple groups of four-ships, both Greek and U.S., must partner to execute a mission or overcome a simulated threat.
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08/20/2014
The U.S. military, at the request of host nations in the region, is no longer identifying the specific land-based aircraft carrying out airstrikes in Iraq, a defense official told Military Times on Tuesday. When airstrikes against the Islamic State began Aug. 8, a Pentagon spokesman identified the aircraft involved as carrier-based F/A-18s. But when land-based aircraft joined the mission, U.S. Central Command identified them only generically, as fighters, bombers or drones.
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08/20/2014
Israel is interfering with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigations into alleged war crimes and human rights violations in the Gaza Strip, according to Amnesty International representatives. “We’re doing everything we can, both Human Rights Watch and us, to do all the documentation we can, both on the ground in Gaza and remotely. But not being able to have researchers there does create difficulties,” Deborah Hyams told Reuters Monday.
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08/19/2014
It was one small button push for man and one giant catapult launch for the Navy’s unmanned air combat program Sunday as the X-47B flew its first takeoffs and landings with F/A-18s on the aircraft carrier Roosevelt. Off the Virginia coast, two Hornets and one X-47B practiced launches and traps in the same pattern, testing the unmanned jet’s ability to take off and land safely, then move out of the way to allow a manned aircraft to come in right behind it.
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08/19/2014
US military aircraft have carried out 35 air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq over the past three days, destroying more than 90 targets, the Pentagon said Monday. The strikes marked the most intensive US bombardments of IS positions since they began on August 8.
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08/19/2014
The Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] C-130 Hercules reaches another major milestone Aug. 23 marking the 60th anniversary of its first flight at Burbank, California, in 1954. To honor this historic C-130 anniversary, Lockheed Martin invites members of the worldwide Hercules community to share their C-130 memories, experiences, photos and videos. From Aug. 18 through Sept. 30, stories can be shared through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube.
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08/19/2014
Iraqi counterterrorism forces and Kurdish Peshmerga have retaken the Mosul Dam, previously controlled by Islamic State (IS) militants since August 7, AFP reports citing Iraqi security spokesman Lieutenant General Qassim Atta. According to BBC, he told state television that the dam had been “fully cleansed”. According to another source, IS militants still control the dam and are hiding in “sensitive places” of the structure to avoid airstrikes.
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08/19/2014
US military on Sunday conducted airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) insurgents, formerly known as ISIS or ISIL, near the Iraqi’s largest dam, located near the northern city of Mosul, according to United States Central Command website. “The strikes destroyed three ISIL armed vehicles, an ISIL vehicle-mounted anti-aircraft artillery gun, an ISIL checkpoint and an IED emplacement,” the US Central Command said. All strike aircraft exited the strike area safely.
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