Military Aviation News Archive
05/06/2014
A Ukrainian helicopter has been shot down over the pro-Russian stronghold of Slavyansk as the security situation in the country continues to worsen. Ukraine's defence ministry said the pilots survived. Elsewhere in the east of the country four paramilitary policemen were shot dead in fighting. A number of other rebels and civilians are also thought to have been killed or injured, according to Sky's Stuart Ramsay, who is in eastern Ukraine.
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05/06/2014
Paratroopers from the 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) planned and executed an aerial resupply mission at Adazi Drop Zone here Friday. Approximately 150 paratroopers from the brigade are currently participating in exercises in Latvia, which are part of a series of expanded American land force training activities with European partners that are scheduled to take place in the next few months and beyond.
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05/06/2014
Eight leading senators appealed to the Senate Appropriations Committee to save the Air Force’s controversial A-10 aircraft fleet from the Pentagon budget’s chopping block as lawmakers inch closer to a final draft of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2015. The proposal to retire the fleet of 353 A-10s, Air Force officials have said repeatedly in both interviews and recent testimony on Capitol Hill.
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05/06/2014
Pakistan has made it possible for China to win the third slot among the world's exporters of multi-role jet fighters after the United States and Russia, the Chinese government controlled website, Huanqiu.com said. Islamabad has contacted for approximately 100 FC-1 Xiaolong fighters worth $2.52 billion from China. The Pakistani buying and air displays of the single engine multi-role combat Xiaolong fighters, also known as the JF-17 Thunder.
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05/06/2014
Britain's Royal Navy has quietly recommissioned a fighter squadron to train the next generation of ‘Top Gun’ aviators who will eventually fly from the decks of its giant new Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers. 736 Naval Air Squadron has been back in business for almost a year. It was formed from a civilian-run operation used to help train navy ships how to defend themselves from air attacks and flies ageing but nimble Hawk T1 aircraft.
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05/06/2014
Several media reports this weekend blamed a ’70s-era Air Force spy plane for causing more than 200 flights at Los Angeles International Airport to be canceled or diverted.
So it is true?
Not according to the Air Force.
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05/06/2014
The U.S. Army awarded Lockheed Martin a $80.6 million production contract for the Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (M-TADS/PNVS) on the AH-64 Apache helicopter. This Lot 9 contract includes production of eight targeting and pilotage systems and spares for the U.S. Army and nine systems for the Indonesian Army. Indonesia is the 13th international customer to purchase the M-TADS/PNVS system.
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05/06/2014
Boeing delivered the 100th EA-18G Growler to the U.S. Navy, marking a major milestone in the program that has transformed airborne electronic warfare capability for the U.S. and its allies. A derivative of the F/A-18F Super Hornet, the Growler is the only aircraft in production that provides tactical jamming and electronic protection for U.S. and allied forces. Growlers provide a unique capability to nearly all U.S. combat missions and are expected to be in service until at least 2040.
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05/06/2014
Russia plans to send the initial batch of the Yakovlev Yak-130 jet trainers to Syria until the end of 2014, with further plans to fully complete the contract for 36 aircraft in 2016, the Kommersant newspaper wrote Monday, citing a source close to Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport.
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05/06/2014
Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport will display its latest weapons systems and military hardware at the SOFEX-2014 exhibition this week in Jordan, the company has said. The company said it expects potential buyers are likely to pay particular attention to Russian noiseless and flameless weapons, sniper rifles, submachine guns and special melee weapons.
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05/05/2014
A new United States agreement with the Philippines is not likely to result in many immediate operational changes for troops in the Pacific region, but it clears the way for the Pentagon to invest in new construction and infrastructure there, and sets the stage for new U.S.-built facilities along the shores of the contested South China Sea.
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05/05/2014
France scrambled a fighter aircraft Sunday after a jetliner slightly veered from its course and lost radio contact with the ground over western France, military officials said. The Washington-bound United Airlines Boeing had taken off in Rome, the air force information service SIRPA said.
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05/05/2014
Battle-tested and proven defence technologies will soon be manufactured in Jordan for armed forces across the Middle East, including the UAE. Africa’s largest defence and aerospace business, Paramount Group, announced a strategic joint venture with Jordan’s state-owned defence manufacturer, the King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau (KADDB) on Sunday.
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05/05/2014
It's been a little over two months since things started getting crazy in Ukraine, and Russia decided to invade Crimea. Though progress has been steady and at times seemingly slow, the situation has continued to escalate and just this week, the "worst case scenario" started to become a reality when we witnessed what appear to be the beginnings of an all-out war.
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05/05/2014
Given the chaotic defense budgetary environment, one could be forgiven for overlooking the fact that some truly strategic issues are at play in the defense authorization bill markup taking place in Congress this week. One key issue involves how Congress deals with the Navy’s poor choices in the development of a future carrier-based drone, or in Pentagon-speak, the Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike, or UCLASS, program.
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05/05/2014
A fighter aircraft's lethality in air-to-air combat is governed by the air-to-air missile that it carries. Since the Independence, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has mounted French, Russian and British missiles on its fighters. On Sunday, an IAF Sukhoi-30MKI fighter conducted the first test launch of the indigenous Astra air-to-air missile, which the Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) is developing at its missile cluster in Hyderabad.
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05/05/2014
An April-released study by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments paints grim pictures for America's combat-aviation forces. Air Force aircraft are the "smallest and oldest the service has ever fielded." Enemy technology risks also apply to Navy and Marine Corps aircraft.
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05/04/2014
Designed based on the Liaoning carrier purchased from Ukraine, China's first domestically built aircraft carrier is likely to enter service with the People's Liberation Army Navy in 2024, according to Kanwa Defense Weekly operated by Andrei Chang, also known as Pinkov, a military analyst from Canada.
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05/04/2014
South Korea recently ordered over 76 AIM-9X Block 2 Sidewinder air-to-air heat seeking missiles and 24 CATM-9X-2 Captive Air Training Missiles and various other accessories all for about $98 million. The CATM look like the actual missile but cannot launch and are carried on aircraft for training purposes and can do everything but launch.
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05/04/2014
The deleted data on the flight simulator of missing MH370 pilot Capt Zaharie Ahmad Shah has yet to be fully recovered, said the Inspector-General of Police. Retrieving the data, said Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, was a difficult process even with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
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05/04/2014
An operation to free the town has begun this morning. At 4:00 local time, the troops began to take control over checkpoints around Slovyansk. The terrorists, who seized the town, report that Ukrainian troops have resumed the anti-terrorist operation. Two servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were killed and several others were injured when two Mil Mi-24 helicopters came under fire outside of Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry has said in a press release.
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05/04/2014
Tuesday night, Biloxi City Councilman Kenny Glavan will present a resolution urging lawmakers to keep ten C-130J airplanes at Keesler Air force Base. Saturday, we learned from Rep. Steven Palazzo that the measure to move the planes to Arkansas has been temporarily delayed.
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05/04/2014
A Canadian “six-pack” has landed in the Ukraine crisis. This is the slang used at Ottawa’s defence headquarters for the half-dozen CF-18 combat aircraft sent in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty. With the jets’ arrival in nearby Romania, it’s important to understand the direction in which Russian aggression is heading, and a technique Moscow uses in its expansionist strategy: the playing of the Russian ethnic “card.”
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05/04/2014
The so-called stealth jet costing the MoD billions of pounds can, in fact, be seen by the radar of potential enemies, it has been revealed. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has been designed at huge expense to fly unnoticed through enemy airspace and attack targets without being detected. Taxpayers have already spent £1.3?billion developing the jet, while the MoD plans to buy 48 of them at a cost of up to £100?million each.
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05/04/2014
China has yet to complete tests on its J-31 stealth fighter but already ranks third in the world for export contracts for multi-role fighters for 2010 to 2017, behind the United States and Russia. This shows the country has become a major exporter of military aircraft without relying on fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft.
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