Special Purpose

Military Aviation News Archive

ROBOT FIGHTER JET X-47B AUTONOMOUSLY LANDS ON AIRCRAFT CARRIER

07/20/2013

The US Navy’s newest fighter is a high-tech batwing the size of an F/A 18 Super Hornet. The stealthy X-47B can carry 4,500 pounds of weapons at half mach speed, up to 40,000 feet, and over 2,400 miles. The aircraft lacks but one thing. A cockpit. The X-47B is a next-generation military drone.

Georgia On Its Mind: Lockheed Martin Delivers First HC-130J to Moody Air Force Base

07/20/2013

The first Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] HC-130J Combat King II to be assigned to Air Combat Command’s (ACC) 347th Rescue Group at Moody Air Force Base, Ga., was ferried today from the company’s Aeronautics facility located here. Maj. Gen. H. D. Polumbo, Jr., commander, Ninth Air Force, Air Combat Command, Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., flew the Super Hercules (Lockheed Martin aircraft serial number 5725) to Moody AFB.

General says US considering use of force in Syria

07/19/2013

The top U.S. military officer told a Senate panel Thursday the Obama administration is deliberating whether to use military power in Syria, where a civil war entering its third year has killed almost 93,000 people. Amid an increasing clamor among President Bashir Assad's opposition for active U.S. involvement, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey said during congressional testimony that he has provided President Barack Obama with options for the use of force.

If David Cameron wants a military capable of toppling Assad, he’ll have to pay for it

07/19/2013

Libya is a success from which David Cameron might not recover. This, at any rate, seems to be the fear of Sir David Richards who has marked his exit as head of the military with a Daily Telegraph interview. He appears to reinforcing a point David Cameron once made: ‘I am not,’ he once said, ‘a naive neo-con who thinks you can drop democracy out of an aeroplane at 40,000 feet.

FGFA boasts cutting-edge life support systems

07/19/2013

The Russian Sukhoi T-50 fifth generation fighter jet is equipped with cutting-edge computerized life support systems, including an oxygen station securing unlimited breathing gas supply and advanced pilot’s compensation system that anticipates gravity overload.

Israel Is Letting Its Guard Down

07/19/2013

If finally compelled to do so, Israel is able to destroy the Iranian nuclear-weapons program, even if at breathtaking risk. Whether or not Israel succeeds on that front, it faces yet another existential military problem, less immediate and on a different register, in regard to which it has made the wrong choice.

RAF Fairford Air Tattoo: Ten of the best aircraft to see

07/19/2013

If you are going to the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford this weekend make sure not to is the top 10 aircraft.

The Impact of a Declining Defense Budget on Combat Readiness

07/19/2013

Combat readiness is defined as “[t]he ability of US military forces to fight and meet the demands of the national military strategy.” This is the most important factor to our war fighters, but as basic as it is to them, it remains a complicated subject for others to understand. Due to its multidimensional and somewhat diffuse nature, it also has few natural supporters.

Russia Delays India’s 5th-Gen. Fighter Program

07/19/2013

According to news reports this week, the Indian Air Force (IAF) might have to wait longer before it can induct its first fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) after Russia, with which it is co-producing the platform, imposed delays and unexpectedly hiked development costs.

Japan and South Korea scramble Russian aircraft from military exercise

07/19/2013

A Russian military exercise involving nuclear bombers caused neighbours Japan and South Korea to scramble as they were found near Hokkaido and the Korean Peninsula on Monday. Japan and Russia reported that both aircrafts were intercepted by three Japanese fighters. The Russian Defense Ministry also said that both bombers were on practice strikes and had been airborne for 7 hours since taking off from Ukrainka Air Base in Amur Oblast.

Pentagon Stands By Russian Arms Deal

07/19/2013

The Pentagon has no plans to halt a $550 million deal with Russia to acquire helicopters for the Afghan Special Mission Wing, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said Thursday. In late June the Special US Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction urged the Pentagon to put the deal on hold until the unit was fully recruited and properly trained.

Boeing Maritime Jet Gains Favor in Australia, Paring Drone Need

07/18/2013

Australia plans to buy more Boeing Co. (BA) P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol jets than initially projected to replace planes dating from the 1970s, reducing its requirement for drones built by Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) Funding for the purchase will be sought next year, with talks under way about the exact mix of P-8s and MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft, the head of the Royal Australian Air Force, Air Marshal Geoff Brown, said in an interview in London.

Dambusters to get new F-35 Lightning II fighter

07/18/2013

Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton, head of the RAF, will today announce the famous 617 Squadron will become the first to fly the F-35 stealth fighter known as the Lightning II. The decision secures the future of the world-famous squadron when it stops flying its ageing Tornado GR4 jets next year.

Air Force Thunderbirds Resume Practice for 2014 Air Shows

07/18/2013

The Thunderbirds F-16 fighter jet demonstration team will take to the air to train in preparation for the 2014 show season. Nationwide, attendance has "plummeted" 40 to 80 percent at air shows this season without military aircraft on display.

Training for joint, U.K. F-35 programs heat up

07/18/2013

The largest fleet of F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighters ramped up to 28 aircraft June 25, bringing in new capability for the F-35 Integrated Training Center as the team trains to provide combat operations capability in the years ahead. The U.S. Navy's Strike Fighter Squadron-101 received a second F-35C from Lockheed Martin, Fort. Worth, Texas. The Navy's variant is designed to land on the decks of aircraft carriers.

Panama wants help from UN after finding North Korean arms on ship

07/18/2013

Panama says it wants the United Nations to investigate why a rusting North Korean cargo ship was carrying rockets, missile parts and even a couple of Cold War-era fighter jets from Cuba under sacks of brown sugar. The United States has said any shipment of arms or related material aboard the freighter would violate at least three U.N. resolutions.

Lakenheath: Fighter jets are back in the air again - for now

07/18/2013

Two of 48th Fighter Wing’s F-15 Eagle Squadrons are now back in the skies over Suffolk following the announcement in April that the planes would be out of action until September. But base commanders have warned that the resumption of “critical training” could only be for the next two and a half months.

5000 tanks? Russia military exercise deemed a 'response to a hypothetical attack by Japanese and U.S. forces.'

07/18/2013

The bear never sleeps? Why, it seems like old times. Russia President Vladimir Putin has journeyed to witness his nation’s biggest military maneuvers since Soviet times, and some observers say, in modern history. On the march across Siberia: 160,000 troops accompanied by 5,000 tanks and 320 tons of equipment. And in the Pacific, there are 70 ships at sea, and 130 combat aircraft overhead, including nuclear bombers.

Combat drone scrubs carrier landing 2nd time in 4 attempts

07/18/2013

A Navy program that twice landed a combat drone successfully on an aircraft carrier last week aborted its last attempt on Monday, the program’s second scrubbed effort in four tries during a period of testing at sea.

Russia Planning to Buy Aerial Drones in UAE – Source

07/18/2013

The Russian military is planning to purchase aerial drones in the United Arab Emirates, a defense industry source said Wednesday. “We are talking about at least two United 40 Block 5 models developed by the company ADCOM Systems,” the source, who preferred to remain anonymous, told RIA Novosti.

Over 40 Aircraft Start War Games in W. Russia

07/18/2013

Russia’s Air Force has begun a large-scale exercise in the west of the country involving the "biggest-ever deployment of the service's new Sukhoi Su-34 strike aircraft," a Defense Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday. The exercise, centered on the Voronezh airbase, will involve over 40 aircraft and helicopters from the Western Military District, 10 military airfields and two military testing ranges, military district press service chief Oleg Kochetkov said.

Only privately owned Harrier jet flying in to EAA AirVenture 2013

07/17/2013

Art Nalls may have first gained mass attention after holding the Guinness World Record from 1973 to 1975 for building and riding the world’s smallest bicycle, but today Nalls is best known in the aviation community for entertaining crowds with the world’s only privately owned Harrier jet fighter.

Seized missile radars on N. Korean ship a threat to aircraft

07/17/2013

Missile radar systems discovered aboard a North Korean-flagged ship that had last been in Cuba could be upgraded to make air-defense systems more effective at shooting down modern military aircraft, military analysts said Tuesday.

First B-52 departs to depot for CONECT upgrade

07/17/2013

The first B-52H Stratofortress departed Barksdale July 16 and headed to the depot at Tinker AFB, Okla., for the Combat Network Communications Technology upgrade. The CONECT upgrade will allow B-52 crews to receive and send real-time digital information such as updated intelligence, mapping or targeting information while the aircraft is in flight.

Indian AF Official Removed After Dassault Bribery Charge

07/17/2013

Following complaints from an official of France’s Dassault, which is the preferred vendor in the $11 billion Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) program, an Indian Air Force official was dismissed from service today.