Military Aviation News Archive
10/23/2013
Russian aircraft maker MiG has started flight tests of series-produced MiG-29K/KUB carrier-based fighter jets slated for delivery to the Russian Navy, the company said Tuesday. The Russian Defense Ministry signed a contract with MiG in February 2012 for delivery of 20 MiG-29K single-seat and four MiG-29KUB two-seat carrier-based fighter aircraft.
MiG is expected to deliver the first four aircraft by the end of 2013.The aircraft will operate from Russia's sole serving carrier.
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10/23/2013
Iran's Revolutionary Guards have presented Russia with an unmanned spy plane that Tehran says was reverse-engineered from a US machine it claims to have captured last year, local media reported. "The drone built by the IRGC is a symbol of the technical capabilities of Islamic Iran and today we presented a real model of it as a gift to (Russian Air Force Commander) Lieutenant General Viktor Bondarev and the Russian people," Commander of Iran’s Khatam ol-Anbia Air Defense Base.
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10/23/2013
Lockheed Martin is hosting the 25th Hercules Operators Council (HOC) here, Oct. 21-24. More than 900 representatives from 36 nations are attending to discuss C-130 Hercules support, operations, upgrades and new fleet acquisition. This year’s theme of “Proven and Still Proving It” provides insight into how the C-130 Hercules has not only proven that it is the world’s most versatile airlifter, but also continues to set new standards for flexibility and multi-mission capabilities.
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10/23/2013
Boeing is assembling a third KC-46A test aircraft for the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation aerial refueling tanker program at the company’s Everett factory, keeping the program on schedule to complete production of four test aircraft by the third quarter of 2014.
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10/22/2013
Turkey will get the first batch of Airbus A400M Military Transport Aircraft in November 2013, the Anadolu agency reported today. According to a report, this type of military aircraft was previously purchased by such countries as Germany, France and Belgium.
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10/22/2013
As Iraq's government grapples with a rising al-Qaida insurgency in which thousands have been killed, officials say the military has started taking delivery of Russian arms as part of a landmark $4.3 billion contract signed in October 2012.
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10/22/2013
Turkey’s procurement authorities will reissue an order for the first two F-35 joint strike fighters the country intended to buy but suspended at the beginning of this year.
“We will submit a request to the Defense Industry Executive Committee in December or January to renew our order for the first two aircraft,” Turkey’s top procurement official, Murad Bayar, said.
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10/22/2013
The head of Russia’s air force, Gen. Viktor Bondarev, met his Iranian counterparts in Tehran to discuss boosting military cooperation between the countries, local media reported Monday. Talks centerd on “electronic listening systems, radar and missiles,” Brig. Gen. Farzad Esmaili, head of Khatam-ol-Anbia Air Defence Base, said in comments quoted by daily Sharq.
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10/22/2013
NATO intends to dramatically scale back its ambitious plan to train a fully functional Afghan air force and focus only on the most critical missions Afghans will need to perform after the combat mission ends by December 2014, according to the head of the Afghan air training command for the Western alliance.
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10/22/2013
Senior Defense Department officials have been accelerating a dialogue with China, carried out through personal visits with Chinese counterparts to establish and strengthen military-to-military relationships. In a flurry of travel by top Pentagon officers, Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, the Air Force chief of staff, just returned from China – the first visit there by the Air Force’s top officer in 15 years.
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10/22/2013
Madagascar’s Air Force recently received a second Humbert Aviation Tetras light aircraft from France, the latest in a series of aircraft acquired from that country. France’s Ambassador to Madagascar, François Goldblatt, handed the aircraft over to Général de Corps d’Armée, André Lucien Rakotoarimasy, at Base Aéronavale Ivato, Antanànarìvo, on April 10.
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10/22/2013
The South Korean Air Force has lost an average of 2.5 fighter jets in crashes every year since 2000, with many of them involving aging, soon-to-be retired aircraft deployed over three decades ago, a report showed Monday. A total of 35 combat jets have crashed nationwide since 2000, killing 38 pilots and one mechanic, according to the Air Force report submitted to parliament for an annual audit.
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10/22/2013
In the skies above Djibouti, members of the U.S. and French Air Forces joined together in an unlikely training scenario, pitting helicopters against fighter aircraft in a simulated hostile rescue situation. Members of Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa's 303rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron partnered with French air force Mirage 2000-5 fighter pilots here to conduct a combat exercise in which U.S. HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters recovered downed aircrew while being engaged by enemy fighters.
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10/22/2013
Lockheed Martin has entered into an agreement — known as an Undefinitized Contract Action — with the U.S. Government for the Foreign Military Sale of the first two of 25 potential C-130J Super Hercules airlifters for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Specifically, this contract action is for the purchase of two KC-130J refueling tankers.
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10/21/2013
On 18 October a new headquarters building was opened at Šiauliai Air Base of the Lithuanian Air Force for NATO’s Air Policing mission in the Baltic States, the Ministry of National Defence of Lithuania has informed. The new object, a part of the vital infrastructure of NATO’s Air Policing mission, will ensure more convenient service conditions for air contingents deployed to protect the Baltic airspace.
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10/21/2013
From the moment Turkey announced plans two years ago to acquire a long-range missile defense system, the multibillion-dollar contract from a key Nato member appeared to be an American company's to lose. For years, Turkey's military had relied on Nato-supplied Patriot missiles, built by the American companies Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, to defend its skies, and the system was fully compatible with the air-defense platforms operated by other members of the alliance.
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10/21/2013
For six decades, slow progress in developing indigenous defence equipment and a Nehruvian squeamishness about exporting arms have together made India’s presence in the international arms only that of a buyer — last year the world’s biggest. That has begun to change. A large Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) team is heading to Seoul, in South Korea, where it will be one of the biggest exhibitors at the Aerospace and Defence Exhibition (ADEX-2013) later this month.
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10/21/2013
Turkish ambitions to develop and build the first ever made-in-Turkey fighter aircraft and at the same time buy a new generation, multinational combat jet may go beyond Turkey’s financing capacity, industry sources and experts said.
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10/21/2013
India had scrambled scores of fighter jets to tackle migratory birds for weeks mistaking them for enemy drones in a sensitive border region. The Indian Air Force (IAF) deployed fighter aircraft after radars flagged unsolicited intrusion into Indian territories along the border region in the western state of Gujarat.
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10/21/2013
A group of military inspectors from Germany and Latvia is set to fly above Russia and Belarus starting from Monday under the international Open Skies Treaty, a Russian Defense Ministry official said.
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10/20/2013
The move follows a series of US weapons deals in recent years that have bolstered the air power and missile arsenals of Gulf States, which view Iran as a menacing rival with nuclear ambitions. The pending sale comes as the United States and five other major powers pursue high-stakes diplomacy on Iran’s disputed nuclear program, with talks this week portrayed as positive by both sides.
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10/20/2013
In declining to accept a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council that it had actively sought for two years, Saudi Arabia pouted that it could not abide by the Security Council’s “double-standards.” Saudi Arabia had just won the seat last Thursday at a UN General Assembly election, along with Chad, Chile, Lithuania and Nigeria.
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10/20/2013
The title is both subtle and clever, red for the communist aircraft designs flown and eagles for the pilots from the USA who tested them. The aircraft addressed by author Steve Davies (one of the Red Eagle pilots) are the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG 17 “Fresco”, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG 21 “Fishbed” and Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG 23 “Flogger” — each individual aircraft given a program name which began with HAVE (e.g., HAVE DOUGHNUT for the MiG 21 flight testing in early 1968).
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10/20/2013
Russia will begin Sunday monitoring flights over NATO members Slovakia and the Czech Republic under the international Open Skies Treaty, the Russian Defense Ministry said. “A group of Russian inspectors is scheduled to conduct surveillance flights over Slovakia and the Czech Republic on board an An-30B aircraft from October 20 to 26 as part of the implementation of the international Open Skies Treaty,”.
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10/20/2013
Russia and Brazil are at the final stages of talks on the delivery of Russian Pantsir-S1 air defense systems to the Latin American country, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
A Russian delegation, led by Shoigu, visited Brazil to discuss prospects of bilateral defense and space cooperation, including the sales of Pansir-S1 and Igla missile systems, during the Latin American tour on October 14-17.
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