Military Aviation News Archive
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.
Read More...
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.
Read More...
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.
Read More...
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.
Read More...
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.
Read More...
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.
Read More...
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.
Read More...
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".
Read More...
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.
Read More...
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.
Read More...
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.
Read More...
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.
Read More...
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.
Read More...
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.
Read More...
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.
Read More...
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.
Read More...
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.
Read More...
08/18/2014
The U.S. widened its air campaign against Sunni extremists in Iraq, sending bombers for the first time in support of a Kurdish ground offensive to retake the Mosul Dam and promising to keep up strikes until the strategic post is out of the hands of Islamic State fighters. Kurdish forces who launched the ground operation on Sunday managed to push back the militants from some positions around the dam by the end of the day.
Read More...
08/18/2014
RCAF aircraft were in Cyprus on Friday, waiting to pick up military equipment to transport into Iraq. Senior government officials said the two RCAF cargo planes would use Cyprus as a staging area for its flights. The C-17 and C-130J would be ferrying military equipment and ammunition to Kurdish forces in northern Iraq.
Read More...
08/18/2014
The U.S. Central Command released a video, taken on Saturday, showing a U.S. airstrike targeting, and destroying, an Islamic State armored truck. With the aid of U.S. airstrikes, Kurdish troops are advancing on the Mosul dam, currently controlled by Sunni militants.
Read More...
08/18/2014
Independence supporters have downed a Ukrainian Air Forces MiG-29 fighter in the Luhansk region early Sunday morning, the pilot successfully catapulted and managed to escape, Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Leonid Matyukhin told Ukrainian Channel 5.
Read More...
08/18/2014
Britain is stepping up its military involvement in the fight against jihadi forces from the Islamic State in Iraq after the defence secretary Michael Fallon confirmed that British warplanes are flying deeper into Iraq in a mission that could last "months". As David Cameron declared that Britain should be prepared to deploy its "military prowess" to help defeat the jihadis.
Read More...
08/18/2014
The much-awaited multi-billion Rafale combat aircraft deal with France has moved a step further with the defence ministry finalizing a 'draft contract', according to top defence ministry officials. Rafale was declared the lowest bidder in Janaury 2012 but the deal has not been inked so far on account of escalation in the cost. The Cost Negotiation Committee, which was set up in February 2012 to work out the modalities for the deal has not reached a conclusion after 30 months of negotiations.
Read More...
08/18/2014
The Lebanese Army has asked the United States for military aid that includes new fixed-wing airplanes to use as close air support while battling extremist militants encamped in the mountains outside Arsal, an official briefed on the request told The Daily Star. The aid request also includes replenishing the Army’s ammunition.
Read More...
08/18/2014
A military delegation from Denmark will conduct an observation flight over Russia under the Open Skies Treaty, an official at Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday. “From August 18 to 22, a mission from the Kingdom of Denmark will be conducting an observation flight aboard an An-30B over the territory of the Russian Federation under the Treaty on Open Skies," Ruslan Shishin, acting head of the ministry’s National Nuclear Risk Reduction Center, said.
Read More...