Military Aviation News Archive
10/24/2013
Sequestration could cause the US Air Force to delay purchasing “four to five” F-35A joint strike fighters in fiscal 2014, according to top Air Force acquisition officials. The Marine Corps and Navy could each cut one of its F-35B and F-35C variants, as well, if the automatic cuts are not overturned by Congress.
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10/24/2013
From munitions to missiles, top officials of all four U.S. services on Wednesday told a congressional panel that continued forced spending cuts will bring “historic lows” that would seriously threaten the military’s readiness and capability.
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10/24/2013
A Swiss fighter jet crashed in poor weather in central Switzerland on Wednesday, and the pilot and a passenger were missing with little chance they survived, the military said.
The Swiss Federal Department of Defense confirmed the F/A-18 two-seater fighter jet went down in the afternoon near a military airport in Alpnachstad in the Lake Lucerne region.
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10/24/2013
Two Turkish fighter jets have been recently scrambled to intercept a Russian military plane in international airspace over the Black Sea in a rare air incident between the two countries, the Turkish military said. The General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces said in a statement on Wednesday that two F-16 jets were scrambled on Tuesday afternoon to prevent a potential violation of Turkish airspace after a Russian Ilyushin II-20 plane was detected flying in parallel to Turkish coast.
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10/24/2013
Russia’s Defense Ministry will send a delegation to NATO military exercises in November, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday. The exercises, named Steadfast Jazz 2013, will be held on November 2 to 9 in Poland and Baltic states, the North Atlantic alliance has announced.
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10/23/2013
The government is to acquire additional multi-purpose military aircraft from Air Bus Military of Spain to boost Ghana’s air services support operations at the United Nations-led mission in Mali. The Ghana Air Force recently won a UN air services contract to operate a UN aviation unit in Mali in support of the peacekeeping mission in that country.
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10/23/2013
The Pentagon is preparing to pull out of Kyrgyzstan, the former Soviet bloc nation where Fairchild-based tanker crews have flown thousands of combat refueling missions over Afghanistan since the start of the war. The Defense Department said Monday it will vacate Manas Transit Center by July rather than attempt to negotiate a lease extension for continued use of the expeditionary base. The transit center serves as a staging point for aerial refueling missions and as a northern air supply route.
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10/23/2013
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's back-to-back visits to Russia and China from October 20 to 24 reflect the evolution of India's external relations in a world with shifting power balances. The challenges lie in consolidating relations with tried and trusted friends with declining power, while forging understandings with adversaries with rising influence who seek to advance their interests through tactical overtures of friendship.
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10/23/2013
The back-and-forth volley between critics and backers of a plan to base F-35 fighter jets in Vermont continued Tuesday, featuring new claims about safety issues involving the plane. Pierre Sprey, who helped design the F-16 jet for the Pentagon in the 1960s and 1970s, said the F-35 is not being built fast enough, or being flown enough, to work out any glitches by 2020, when the Vermont Air Guard hopes to begin flying it.
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10/23/2013
Niger’s air force inaugurated a new helicopter hanger last week, to accommodate its recently acquired Gazelle helicopters. The new facilities are further evidence of the Air Force’s expanding capabilities – Niger has taken delivery of seven new aircraft this year. The new hangar was formally opened on October 17 at the Niger Air Force’s Base Aerienne 101 next to Niamey-Diori Hamani International Airport in a ceremony attended by various French and Nigerien officials.
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10/23/2013
The United States may have committed war crimes in its campaign of drone strikes on targets in Pakistan and Yemen over the past four years, killing civilians indiscriminately in its stated pursuit of terrorist targets, two prominent human rights groups said in reports released Tuesday.
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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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