Military Aviation News Archive
12/18/2013
After many false starts, Europe looks ready to back plans for a drone development programme aimed at cutting its reliance on U.S. and Israeli rivals and bolstering its position in the industry. European Union leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday will throw their weight behind a drive to build a next-generation European surveillance drone by 2020 to 2025, according to a draft communiqué seen by Reuters.
Read More...
12/18/2013
The 2013 sale of 22 Swedish JAS 39E Gripen jet fighters to Switzerland was the last act in a very contentious competition between the Gripen, the French Rafale, and the Anglo-German (mainly) Eurofighter. Most of the secret evaluations of the three fighters were recently leaked to the media and provided some interesting insights on all three aircraft. The Gripen won the competition not because it was the best fighter but because it was OK on all counts and it was the cheapest.
Read More...
12/18/2013
Various units from the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps came together to exercise their ability to conduct combat operations across the Pacific by participating in a nonstop operations surge Dec. 10 to Dec. 13 on Guam and the nearby island of Tinian.
Read More...
12/18/2013
For the first time, agencies involved in designing and developing light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas will display to the country what a pilot can do in its cockpit while the aircraft is in the sky. Dedicating the aircraft to the nation, National Flight Testing Centre (NFTC) pilots will take it to the skies during an official flypast this Friday, marking the second Initial Operational Clearance (IOC-2) of Tejas.
Read More...
12/18/2013
Before the sun rises, the sound of an F-16 Fighting Falcon can be heard taking off, breaking the dull silence of the morning as they participate in a two week close air support training exercise with various squadrons and units.
Read More...
12/18/2013
A helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan has killed six US soldiers, the deadliest day for American troops in the country since March. There was no fighting reported in the area where the aircraft came down, Nato said in a brief statement, and Afghan officials including the provincial governor and police chief said the chopper had suffered a mechanical fault.
Read More...
12/18/2013
Well before the Joint Strike Fighter has flown one combat mission, the Air Force is already talking about the next generation of fighter aircraft that will succeed it. Despite the budget crunch that has paralyzed most military modernization programs, Air Force leaders are talking about developing the sixth generation fighter jet as well as a new cargo plane that would replace the C-130 and C-17.
Read More...
12/18/2013
Iran believes its contract to buy S-300 missile defense systems from Russia is legitimate and expects it to be fulfilled, Iran’s ambassador to Russia said Tuesday. Mehdi Sanai said the systems “are defensive, so no international laws, norms and rules are violated.” Sanai said that he had discussed the issue with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during the latter’s visit to Iran, and noted Moscow’s “good will in its resolution.”
Read More...
12/17/2013
A MiG-31 'Foxhound' combat aircraft operated by the Russian Air Force (Voyenno-Vozdushnye Sily - VVS) crashed in the Far Eastern Primorye region on 14 December, national media disclosed. The twin-seat interceptor came down some 26 km from the Tsentralnaya Uglovaya airbase near Vladivostok, RIA Novosti reported. Both crew members are said to have ejected safely.
Read More...
12/17/2013
Cassidian, EADS’ military division soon to be transformed into Airbus Defense and Space) celebrated last week the delivery of the 400s Typhoons jet fighter to the customer – the German Luftwaffe. On December 4th the 400th Typhoon that received the marking ‘31+06’ at the company’s Military Air Systems Center at Manching, near Munich was the 112 Typhoon delivered to the German Air Force.
Read More...
12/17/2013
The four diminutive cargo planes parked on the National Guard air base in this Rust Belt town last year never would have been selected for a recruiting poster. Lacking the grace of a fighter or the girth of a freighter, the newly built twin-prop aircraft were the minivans of combat aviation — unsexy, utilitarian haulers of people and gear. But that didn’t matter to pilots and ground crews here. They loved the planes, as did troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Read More...
12/17/2013
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel toured the Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf last week reassuring them the United States is not abandoning them while seeking a rapprochement with Iran, their main rival, and one way to do that is make available advanced weapons systems that have long been withheld.
Read More...
12/17/2013
Japan will boost its military spending in coming years, buying early-warning planes, beach-assault vehicles and troop-carrying aircraft, while seeking closer ties with Asian partners to counter a more militarily assertive China.
Read More...
12/17/2013
The Air Force will spend more money to boost combat readiness if Congress passes a budget to reduce the impact of sequestration, but the military branch is still exploring how additional dollars might impact spending, the service branch's top leaders said Friday. Acting Secretary of the Air Force Eric Fanning and Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh briefed reporters on the state of the military service in an annual address.
Read More...
12/17/2013
The plan to export Czech-made L-159 fighter jets to Iraq has definitively failed, daily Hospodárské noviny (HN) writes today, adding that Iraq signed a contract for the purchase of 24 FA-50 combat aircraft from South Korea earlier this month. The Czech Aero Vodochody aircraft maker negotiated about the possible sale of L-159s worth about $1 billion for several years.
Read More...
12/17/2013
A batch of Su-34 fighter jets was delivered to Russia’s military Monday in the final consignment under a 2008 deal with the Defense Ministry for Sukhoi aircraft maker to deliver 32 of the two-seat bombers. The aircraft, also known by the NATO codename Fullback, were handed over at the Novosibirsk aircraft plant, which is part of the Sukhoi holding company.
Read More...
12/17/2013
Russia’s Air Force has grounded all MiG-31 Foxhound interceptor jets while investigators establish the cause of a crash of one of the planes, RIA Novosti has learned. The temporary suspension was imposed after a MiG-31 crashed near the Tsentralnaya Uglovaya airbase outside Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East on Saturday, an Air Force source said. The two-man crew guided the aircraft to a deserted area before ejecting to safety and they were released from hospital Monday.
Read More...
12/16/2013
On November 25th Pakistan announced that it had put the two locally made UAVs designs (Burraq and Shahpar) into service. Pakistan has used some foreign (mostly Chinese) made UAVs in the last decade, without much success. These two new models are means to give the Pakistani military something they can use on a regular basis. While the basic technology of recon UAVs is widely available, the ability to build and maintain reliable UAVs is another matter.
Read More...
12/16/2013
The US Army has successfully used a vehicle-mounted laser to shoot down numerous mortar rounds and drone aircraft for the first time. Taking place over the course of several weeks, the test involved destroying more than 90 incoming mortar rounds and multiple drones. Eventually, the Army hopes to test an even more advanced laser system that could shoot down more dangerous weapons, such as incoming cruise missiles.
Read More...
12/16/2013
India is yearsbehind the Chinese military withthe Communist neighbour currentlyoutnumbering the country’scombat power by a 3:1ratio, a defence ministry documenthas revealed.India hopes to bridge the gap inthe next 15 years by improvingits fighting capacity with newstealth jets, aircraft carriers,nuclear-powered submarines,warships and land-based strikeformations.
Read More...
12/16/2013
China’s declaration of an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea on November 23 confounded many observers, including veteran China-watchers. The move alarmed China’s neighbors and was met with a rapid U.S. response, which involved flying two unarmed B-52s through the zone as a form of calibrated defiance.
Read More...
12/16/2013
Yemen's parliament on Sunday called for a stop to drone attacks in a symbolic vote that reflected growing public anxiety about Washington's use of the unmanned aircraft to combat al-Qaeda in the impoverished country. Motions passed by the Yemeni parliament are not binding and can be struck down by the president, and are seen as no more than recommendations to the government.
Read More...
12/16/2013
U.S. Air Force bomber experts are surveying industry to find companies with the expertise to upgrade power control and distribution systems aboard the B-52H jet bomber to apply MIL-STD-1760 power to the B-52H's bomb-bay and underwing weapons.
Read More...
12/16/2013
Three decades after the project started, India's Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas is all set for initial operational clearance and production, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief Avinash Chander said Sunday. The DRDO got permission to start the programme to design and develop an indigenous Light Combat Aircraft way back in 1983.
Read More...
12/16/2013
Enhancing the Army Special Forces' capabilities to airdrop combat vehicles and heavy equipment, DRDO has developed a a heavy system which can drop loads up to 16 tonnes from the IL-76 transport aircraft using parachutes.
Read More...