Military Aviation News Archive
07/01/2014
BAE Systems is restructuring part of its operations in Saudi Arabia to allow greater local participation as part of a government programme to increase the industrial base of the world’s largest oil producer. The UK-based defence contractor said on Monday that it was creating a holding company with Riyadh Wings Aviation Academy that would control the stakes it owns in three local Saudi businesses.
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07/01/2014
On a day in which the Department of Defense awarded 29 separate defense contracts, Raytheon came away the big winner Friday, winning no fewer than six separate awards - and more than half the funds on offer, $469.2 million in all. Raytheon's big win of the day was a $275.4 million contract modification to supply the U.S. Navy with an unspecified number of Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) all-up rounds (AUR refers to live-fire rounds, completely assembled and lacking only wings and fins for guidance).
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07/01/2014
French foreign minister Laurent Fabius on Monday said he was “pretty optimistic” that the $20 billion (around Rs.1.2 trillion) deal to supply India with 126 Rafale fighter jets would be clinched early—something he said would open the doors for further defence cooperation with India.
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07/01/2014
When the Air Force was split off from the Army to form an independent military service after World War Two, airmen got almost all the planes and soldiers got almost all the helicopters. Ever since then, Army Aviation has been about rotorcraft. There are heavily-armed Apache helicopters for killing enemy armored vehicles, agile Black Hawk helicopters for lifting troops into combat areas, and twin-rotor Chinook helicopters that carry larger numbers of soldiers, supplies and equipment.
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07/01/2014
International political and security developments are casting a shadow on this year’s Farnborough International Airshow. The U.S. and its allies are presenting strong fronts as they draw down forces in Afghanistan. But given the threat of new sanctions and unrest in Ukraine, the Russian military will not bring its aircraft to the show.
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07/01/2014
Iraq has received the first batch of Sukhoi Su-25 'Frogfoot' ground attack aircraft that have been supplied by Russia, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on 29 June. Video footage was released of at least one single-seat Su-25 being offloaded from an Antonov An-124 'Condor' strategic transport aircraft at an undisclosed airbase in Iraq, with the MoD saying that five aircraft had been delivered in all.
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07/01/2014
Boeing today formally offered to the Republic of Korea (ROK) the KC-46, the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation tanker, as Korea prepares to acquire four aircraft for its first tanker squadron. “We’ve been a strategic and industrial partner with the Republic of Korea for more than six decades and remain committed to helping Korea strengthen its defense capabilities and aerospace industry,” said Eric John, president of Boeing Korea.
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07/01/2014
Boeing and the Royal Canadian Air Force today celebrated the delivery of the 15th CH-147F Medium-to-Heavy-Lift Helicopter, ensuring advanced operational capability for the Canadian Chinook fleet. “The Medium-to-Heavy-Lift Helicopter project is making an exemplary contribution to the Canada First Defence Strategy,” said Col. Andrew Fleming, program manager for the Medium Heavy Lift Helicopter Project Management Office.
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06/30/2014
Russian military advisers helped to prepare Iraq’s air force to use five newly delivered combat planes in its campaign to recapture areas of the country’s north that fell to an al-Qaeda breakaway. The used Russian Sukhoi combat aircraft arrived in Iraq as government ground forces, backed by helicopter gunships, pressed their offensive to drive Sunni fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant from the northern city of Tikrit.
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06/30/2014
On the country’s southern coastal tip lies a facility as big as three soccer fields in which Korea Aerospace Industries’ engineers are busily producing its flagship aircraft and helicopters to meet their delivery deadlines. KAI makes FA-50 fighter jets, supersonic trainer T-50s, which the light attacker was based on, and the Surion utility helicopter. Now it seeks to expand its portfolio to accommodate the defense needs of Korea’s armed forces, as well as those of its allies.
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06/30/2014
Thus far, Iraq’s rapid unraveling has not been a major concern for Moscow. The situation in the country rarely features prominently in Russian news reporting — where Ukraine and Russian domestic matters dominate — and does not appear to be a top priority for senior Russian officials, though Russian President Vladimir Putin did recently express “full support” for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s efforts to combat militants driving the Iraqi military from cities and towns.
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06/30/2014
For all the glitz and glamour of its high-tech sector, Israel is a small country with limited resources, still forced to devote a large chunk to the military. One reflection of that down-to-earth reality is up in the sky. The Israeli Air Force has to make every dollar count, especially as the cost of the best warplanes and defense systems skyrockets. The air force’s aptly named Extension of Life Division helps keep costs down by keeping old planes up.
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06/30/2014
When Queen Elizabeth II arrives at Rosyth dockyard just outside Edinburgh at the end of this week to name the first of two aircraft carriers being built by a BAE Systems-led consortium, the Royal Navy’s new flagship and the British head of state are sure to hog the limelight.
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06/30/2014
Royal Air Force Typhoons have flown 1,000 miles from Lincolnshire to Turkey to take part in a special combat air exercise. The XI squadron based at RAF Coningsby has taken to the skies to train alongside the Turkish Air Force and other international partners to increase a working relationship in the event of emergency operations.
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06/30/2014
The Indian Air Force or IAF may lose its traditional conventional edge against Pakistan if the contract to buy 126 Rafale medium multi-role combat aircraft or MMRCA is not clinched immediately, senior IAF officials told Defence Minister Arun Jaitley at an extensive briefing recently.
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06/30/2014
DRDO's claim about being in a position to export Light Combat Aircraft Tejas has been dismissed as premature and unrealistic by former top IAF officers who want it to focus on getting the indigenous fighter plane inducted into own air force first. "It is good to have ambitions but there are several miles to go before we can talk or think about exporting LCA.
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06/29/2014
On Saturday, thousands of Iraqi troops backed by tanks and air power attacked Tikrit from four directions, state TV said. It said there had been complete success in clearing Isis from the city, with some militant commanders among the 60 killed. It said the other insurgents there had fled. Tikrit fell on 11 June to rebels of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis).
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06/29/2014
Territorial disputes in the South China Sea have highlighted the ongoing tensions between China and countries including the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam, with the US also weighing in recently with its proposals for a bigger military presence in the region. Both Vietnam and Malaysia are undergoing regional military build-ups, and the Philippines doubled its defence budget in 2011 after pledging to conduct joint military exercises with the US.
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06/29/2014
It remains to be seen whether the United States will opt for manned or unmanned airstrikes against ISIS fighters in Iraq. Today, Jacquelyn Schneider and Julia Macdonald weigh up the pros and cons of both options and remind us that any type of military response will confront significant problems.
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06/29/2014
Marines are coming to grips with the reality that they will not have the big-ticket hardware that they had hoped for. So they are adjusting their plans and strategies with the knowledge that they will have to live with existing equipment and lower-cost alternatives. The Marine Corps is determined to modernize its tactical aviation arm and acquire the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter. But other desired weapons will have to wait.
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06/29/2014
The last Avro Vulcan, one of the coolest warplanes of the Cold War era, takes to the skies again this weekend. The plane, born of the days when the world seemed constantly under threat of nuclear war, was meticulously overhauled some time ago, but has flown intermittently because keeping it aloft is so expensive. The nonprofit Vulcan to the Sky Trust, which owns and operates the plane, is bringing it out again for the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
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06/29/2014
The Obama administration is flying armed aircraft over Iraq, defense officials said on Friday, adding that the flights were aimed at gathering intelligence and ensuring the safety of US personnel on the ground rather than conducting strikes. "What I would tell you is that we continue to fly both manned and unmanned aircraft over Iraq at the ... Iraqi government's request, predominantly for reconnaissance purposes. Some of those aircraft are armed," Rear Admiral John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman,
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06/29/2014
It was recently revealed that Serbia had no combat aircraft available for duty, mainly because money had not been spent by the Defense Ministry to buy batteries for the aircraft. Serbia doesn’t have much of an air force to begin with (26 MiG-21s, four MiG-29s and 18 J-22s) and the cost of maintenance has been a struggle keep up with. The air force insists that three MiG-21s and three MiG-29s are available for service but no one has seen any of them flying lately.
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06/29/2014
Tucked inside a hangar at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport is a fleet of tactical jets that rivals what many small countries possess. They belong to Draken International, which is vying for a potentially game-changing contract with the U.S. Navy. The company already provides a variety of aviation services for the U.S. Department of Defense and the civilian marketplace. These services include threat simulation, aerial refueling and airborne adversary support.
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06/29/2014
The U.S. Air Force has grounded its fleet of stealthy Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSF) after one aircraft caught fire on takeoff Monday at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. While the pilot got out of the stricken jet without injury, the roughly $200 million machine could be a total loss. “The airplane aborted during takeoff due to a fire in the rear of the aircraft, the pilot egressed safely without injury, and the fire was extinguished.
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