Military Aviation News Archive
11/21/2013
The Russian military is getting a total of 67 new combat aircraft this year, an official from the United Aircraft Corporation said Wednesday. “Sixty-seven new aircraft were slated to be delivered in 2013, and they will all be delivered,” Vladimir Mikhailov, director of military aviation programs at the UAC, said at a roundtable conference on state defense contracts hosted by RIA Novosti.
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11/21/2013
A new military transport plane will be put in service with Russia’s Baltic Fleet by the end of this year, a spokesman for the Western Military District said Wednesday. The An-140-100 plane is a lightweight turboprop cargo aircraft designed by Ukraine’s Antonov bureau and manufactured under license in Russia by the Aviacor aviation plant in the Volga region.
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11/20/2013
The Philippines will divide up the typhoon-ravaged central Visayas islands between countries to maximise relief efforts, a senior officer has said, as President Benigno Aquino made efforts to improve aid distribution 11 days after the storm hit. The country is still struggling to get aid to devastated areas due to the extent of the destruction, which has left four million people displaced.
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11/20/2013
Lt. Gen. (ret.) David Deptula noted the crucial importance to the United States of an expanded role of coalition airpower at a key fighter conference in London. “the future needs an agile operational framework for the integrated employment of allied military power,” Deptula said. “Multi-nationality may be the only way to meet our fighter force requirements.”
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11/20/2013
Defense spending by GCC nations is steadily rising, despite the decline in the West. Defense spending in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) is estimated to have grown about 20 percent from 2011 to 2012, according to budget figures compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), all independent think tanks.
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11/20/2013
AN East Lancashire-based defence giant has denied that it has already signed a deal with the United Arab Emirates for 60 Typhoon fighter jets. A spokesman for defence company BAE Systems, which is based in Samlesbury and Wart-on, said that ‘positive’ talks have been going on between them, the UAE, and the government for ‘some time’. However, the company has refused to be drawn on when a deal might be signed, and for exactly how much it might be worth.
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11/20/2013
A Republican senator on a leading defense panel in Congress has moved to block the Air Force's plans to retire the A-10 Warthog attack plane. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., working with Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., has introduced an amendment to the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act that would limit the service's ability to retire the aircraft. The legislation sets policy goals and spending targets for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.
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11/20/2013
The head of Bell Helicopter said on Tuesday he was encouraged by foreign interest in the V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft that his company builds with Boeing Co , but Bell may face additional layoffs if not enough orders emerge. John Garrison, president and chief executive of Bell Helicopter, a unit of Textron Inc , said the U.S. Marine Corps' use of the V-22 to provide disaster relief in the Philippines illustrated the capabilities of the aircraft, which can fly as fast as a plane but land like a helic
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11/20/2013
When political leaders from Italy and Israel gather for a summit in Turin next month, they will celebrate a flourishing friendship — one in which Italy helps Israel obscure its bloodstained reality. The official talk ahead of the 2 December meeting is of political, economic and cultural agreements. Passing under the radar, however, is the intense military cooperation between the two countries.
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11/20/2013
The Russian air force has started training pilots who will form the core of the country’s third aerobatics team, set to fly new Yak-130 combat trainers on Victory Day, an aircraft industry source said Tuesday. “The training of the Yak-130 aerobatics team has begun with the goal of participating in the Victory Day parade over Red Square on May 9, 2014,” the source said.
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11/20/2013
The Pakistan Aeronautical Complex MFI-395 Super Mushshak is being marketed across the region to meet 21st Century training requirements. And, with its innovative glass cockpit, unobscured bubble canopy and lightweight ejection seats, Pakistan's indigenously produced primary trainer aircraft projects a modern and high-tech image.
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11/20/2013
AMMROC (Advanced Military Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul Center) and Eurocopter have completed the overhaul, modification, and delivery of the first Eurocopter AS565 (PANTHER) aircraft to the UAE Joint Aviation Command (JAC).
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11/19/2013
A bipartisan group of lawmakers last week urged Defense Department leaders to hold off on any plans to cut the A-10 and provide more scrutiny to the Air Force’s budget plans. The letter, signed by 13 senators and 20 representatives, calls on Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, to “actively scrutinize” the Air Force’s fiscal 2015 budget proposals.
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11/19/2013
Argentina's worries over creditors' backlash to its 2001 sovereign default and scant cash resources threaten to isolate the Latin American country's forces in regional military collaboration networks. This month, Argentina stayed away from Cruzex 2013, the largest air maneuvers by regional air forces. Buenos Aires said it canceled its participation to avoid international creditors pouncing on its military assets in ongoing claims from the debt default.
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11/19/2013
Lockheed Martin has yet to receive any official word from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with regard to the proposed sale of an additional 25 F-16E/F Block 60 Desert Falcon combat aircraft announced earlier in the year, a company official told IHS Jane's on 18 November.
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11/19/2013
Iran unveiled a new aircraft Monday that it says is the biggest drone yet to be developed in the Islamic Republic, capable of staying aloft for up to 30 hours. Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said the reconnaissance and combat drone Fotros has a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles). That would cover much of the Middle East, including Israel. The earlier Shahed-129 (Witness-129) drone is reported to have a similar range, but can only stay aloft 24 hours.
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11/19/2013
GCC nations involved in a massive drive to bolster their combat aircraft fleets are likely to acquire new lead-in trainer jet capabilities to match, but only after deciding which fighter types they will operate. If two is a trend, then the process of acquiring fighter jets before deciding on the destination of your trainer order is already in play, with Saudi Arabia and Oman tying the purchase of the latest advanced jet trainer version of the BAE Systems Hawk to the acquisition of combat aircraf
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11/19/2013
With turbulence hitting India's biggest defence project in the making, the critical joint development of the fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) with Russia, defence minister AK Antony on Monday stressed "both sides must give their best" for the "significant programme".
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11/19/2013
Boeing has selected Bombardier's Challenger 605 business jet as the platform for its Maritime Surveillance Aircraft (MSA) program, which offers the global market a capable, low-risk maritime surveillance system based on Boeing’s proven P-8A mission system technology.
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11/19/2013
Russia’s state arms exporter will deliver more than $13 billion worth of military equipment to foreign customers in 2013, a senior defense industry official said Monday. “It’s a new record. We have been increasing sales every year,” Russian Technologies (Rostech) CEO Sergei Chemezov said at the Dubai Air Show 2013.
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11/19/2013
Japan placed its air force on alert after two Russian bombers flew near its airspace, a local news agency reported Monday, citing Japan’s Defense Ministry. The pair of Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bombers was spotted off Tokyo over the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, Kyodo news agency reported.
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11/18/2013
If sequester remains in effect, the US Air Force’s combat search-and-rescue (CSAR) mission is in danger of disappearing, according to multiple defense sources. Funds for new CSAR helicopters are not included in the service’s fiscal 2015 budget proposal that includes sequestration spending cuts, the defense sources said. Moreover, funds to extend the lives of about 90 battle-worn Sikorsky HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters is not part of the sequester budget.
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11/18/2013
Raytheon Company received the 1,000th AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-To-Air Missile (AMRAAM®) rocket motor from Nammo Group, a leading propulsion products company based in Raufoss, Norway. The motor is scheduled to be installed in a production AIM-120C7 missile later this month.
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11/18/2013
Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt, Chief of the Air Staff, Pakistan Air Force, attended the inaugural ceremony of Dubai Air Show 2013 inaugurated in Dubai on Sunday. A large number of delegations from different countries including Air Chiefs of a number of Air Forces were also present at the occasion, says a press release issued by the PAF. Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of UAE, inaugurated the Air Show.
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11/18/2013
A Navy guided missile cruiser hit by a malfunctioning drone during a training exercise returned to San Diego, where investigators will assess the damage and determine what went wrong, a Navy official said Sunday. Two sailors were treated for minor burns after the USS Chancellorsville was struck by the unmanned aircraft during radar testing Saturday afternoon, off Point Mugu in Southern California.
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