Military Aviation News Archive
12/03/2013
Lockheed Martin will demonstrate the latest advancements in simulation and training for the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. The event, Dec. 2-5, is the world's largest modeling, simulation and training conference.
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12/03/2013
Russia and the United States will hold a joint military exercise next July, a spokesman for Russia’s Central Military District said Monday. Col. Yaroslav Roshchupkin said the drill, dubbed Atlas Vision 2014, will be held in the Chelyabinsk Region in the Urals.
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12/02/2013
Syrian government helicopters dropped barrels full of explosives on a rebel-held town near the northern city of Aleppo, killing at least 50 people in two separate attacks over the weekend, activists said on Sunday. The shelling hit near a bakery in the town of al-Bab, located east of Aleppo, killing at least 24 people, said Rami Abdurrahman of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Akram al-Halabi, a rebel spokesman based in nearby in Aleppo.
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12/02/2013
U.S. special operations aviation experts are asking industry for new software tools to help helicopter pilots evade enemy radar and radar-guided missiles and weapons. Officials of the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) Special Operations Mission Planning Office (SOMPO) at Fort Eustis, Va., have released a broad-agency announcement (H92238-14-R-0001) for the Threat Modeling for Enhanced Helicopter Mission Planning program.
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12/02/2013
Faced with the twin challenges of a harsher competitive international marketplace and reduced national defense spending, Saab is launching a battle plan to increase profits and sales. The program will include cost-reduction initiatives and a greater focus on expanding high-in-potential niche business areas such as drone design and production.
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12/02/2013
Under abnormal conditions and in an unfamiliar location, maintainers from Royal Air Force Lakenheath had to use their creative minds and adaptability to ensure mission success during the first-ever Israeli “Blue Flag” exercise.
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12/02/2013
Electronic warfare (EW) experts at the BAE Systems Electronic Systems segment in Nashua, N.H., will build 262 AN/ALE-55 fiber optic towed decoys (FOTDs) and 70 electronic frequency converters (EFC) under terms of a $28.2 million U.S. Navy contract announced last week.
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12/02/2013
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.
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12/02/2013
The U.S. Navy’s X-47B UCAV (unmanned combat air vehicle) successfully carried out more tests aboard an aircraft carrier during November. In this case both existing X-47Bs were used. This comes after an X-47B made two out of three carrier landings for the first time on July 10th. The November tests further stressed the capabilities of the automatic landing system, especially in high speed and complex (different directions) winds. The autolanding systems passed all these tests.
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12/01/2013
Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera on Saturday denied Beijing’s claim that it scrambled fighter jets in response to Self-Defense Forces aircraft that had entered China’s new air defense identification zone, saying Tokyo has received no such reports. “There have been no abnormal situations, such as (Chinese) aircraft suddenly approaching (SDF planes in the ADIZ), as announced by China yesterday,” Onodera, surrounded by reporters, said Saturday morning.
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12/01/2013
Tension escalated over the East China Sea after China scrambled its fighter jets to monitor US and Japanese planes in the new defence zone on Friday. China's defence ministry said its military was on "high alert," and prepared to act "based on different air threats to firmly ensure air-defence safety."
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12/01/2013
The U.S. military is conducting daily flights through China’s newly declared air-defense zone without notifying Beijing authorities in advance, a U.S. defense official said today. The disclosure indicates that U.S. flight activity in the area, where China has unilaterally sought to exert control, is more extensive than was previously known. The Pentagon had acknowledged a flight by two unarmed B-52 bombers through the air zone earlier this week.
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12/01/2013
China, Japan and the United States are continuing their tense standoff in Beijing's disputed new air defense zone Friday - a treacherous situation that both sides warn could lead to violence, intended or not. To this point, a senior official in U.S. President Barack Obama's administration said Friday that commercial airlines are being told to abide by Beijing's call to notify it of plans to traverse the newly declared zone over the East China Sea, even if the U.S. government doesn't recognize it
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12/01/2013
Chief of Air Staff (CoAS) Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne on Saturday stressed on the significance of jointmanship in the armed forces. "Any future operational response will demand an integrated strategy and employment of service specific strengths in a joint operation," he said. Browne, who also heads the Chiefs of Staff Committee, was addressing the passing out parade of the 125th course at the National Defence Academy (NDA), Khadakwasla.
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11/30/2013
China today scrambled several fighter jets to monitor military planes of the US, Japan and South Korea in its newly declared air defence zone over the East China Sea amid a call by President Xi Jinping to the PLA to enhance war capabilities. The Chinese fighter jets identified and monitored the two US and 10 Japanese aircraft during their flights through the zone early Friday, Defense Ministry spokesman Colonel Shen Jinke was quoted as saying by the state-run China News.
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11/30/2013
The Nigerian Air Force is considering buying Super Tucano trainer and light attack aircraft from Brazilian manufacturer Embraer. Nigerian Vice President Namadi Sambo expressed interest in purchasing the Super Tucano during a meeting with his Brazilian counterpart Michel Temer earlier this week.
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11/30/2013
The Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) is to equip its new Boeing F-15SA (Saudi Advanced) Eagle combat aircraft with a disorientation recovery function capability, the US Department of Defense (DoD) disclosed on 27 November. Boeing has been awarded a USD15.5 million contract to fit the system, which is designed to automatically recover the aircraft should the pilot lose situational awareness. While details of the particular system to be fitted to the F-15SA have not been disclosed.
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11/30/2013
The Air Force mission that calls for it to dominate the air, transport troops and materiel and provide communications and intelligence are all critical to American military success, but performing them is hard for the public to visualize because much of this goes on behind the scenes, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III said.
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11/30/2013
The Pentagon said yesterday that American forces will continue normal operations despite China scrambling fighter jets to monitor US and Japanese aircraft in Beijing’s newly declared air defense zone. China’s announcement last weekend that it was extending an air defence identification zone (ADIZ) over islands disputed by China and Japan was disregarded by several nations, and US B-52 bombers entered the area.
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11/30/2013
On the surface, the fight over whether to protect the A-10 combat aircraft, affectionately known as “the Warthog,” looks like nothing more than a typical Beltway slugfest, with those who love it squaring off against those who want to leave it, and all being far from the attention of taxpayers.
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11/30/2013
The Czech Defence Ministry says it is close to a deal to sell most of its surplus combat planes. The potential buyer, the US firm Draken International, is reportedly interested in acquiring 28 L-159 planes that would be used as practice targets for US pilots. If agreement is reached, the Defence Ministry will receive around 500 million crowns for the planes.
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11/30/2013
A senior Russian defense official said Friday that talks will be held next month on the planned deployment of an airbase in Belarus. Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told reporters in Moscow that several potential locations have been identified in Belarus, but that further consultations were needed with the neighboring former Soviet nation's authorities.
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11/30/2013
A helicopter that was attacked in eastern Afghanistan apparently belonged to a Russian company, Russian diplomats said Friday. Unidentified men fired at the helicopter in the province of Gardez on Thursday. No injuries were reported, and damage from the attack was limited to a single bullet hole in the aircraft’s side, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Kabul said.
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11/29/2013
The Chinese planes had conducted "normal air patrols" yesterday as "a defensive measure and in line with international common practices,'' said Shen Jinke, spokesman for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force, according to state news agency Xinhua. Shen said China's air force would remain on high alert and take measures to protect the security of the country's airspace.
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11/29/2013
The RAF has begun training on the Puma Mk2 helicopter following a multi-million pound upgrade programme. Crews from the RAF’s 33 and 230 Squadrons are carrying out training flights on the upgraded aircraft from their base at RAF Benson in Oxfordshire. The £260 million upgrade means that the helicopters benefit from new engines which give them 35% more power and improved fuel efficiency to allow them to fly faster and twice as far as the Puma Mk1. They also have highly advanced digitised glass co
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