Military Aviation News Archive
03/19/2014
In Crimea today, soldiers wearing Russian uniforms stormed a Ukrainian army base and took its commander captive, killing one Ukrainian officer, according to the Ukrainian government, while a Crimean news agency reported that a pro-Russian defense force member had been shot and killed. These events came shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty making Crimea a part of Russia.
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03/19/2014
The UK has offered to deploy a number of Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft to Lithuania to bolster the NATO-led Baltic Air Policing Mission, a senior government minister announced on 17 March.
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03/19/2014
Dassault Aviation of France is making an aggressive bid to sideline the F-35 and to sell its own jet fighter to Canada, offering to transfer technology, create jobs and share billions of dollars in business if Canada buys its Rafale fighter to replace its outdated fleet of CF-18s.
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03/19/2014
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that the country was open to further cooperation with NATO, but remained opposed to the organization’s presence in historic Russian territories. “We are not opposed to cooperation with NATO, not at all, but we are opposed to a military alliance … hosted outside our fences next to our home or on our historic territories,” Putin said.
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03/18/2014
The Russian Army’s recent tactical exercises in the Rostov, Belgorod and Kursk regions have attracted heightened attention from her neighbours, with Kiev being particularly alarmed. The acting defence Minister in Ukraine Admiral Igor Tenyukh even suspected Moscow of preparing for an offensive. According to Admiral Tenyukh, Russia had amassed an alignment of forces consisting of 220,000 troops, 1,800 tanks and more than 400 helicopters allegedly for these exercises.
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03/18/2014
This is the fifth installment in a series on the worsening relations between Japan and China. In October last year, about one month before China established an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea, the People’s Liberation Army Navy carried out a large-scale military drill called Maneuver-5 on the high seas about 700 kilometers south of Okinawa Island.
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03/18/2014
Selfridge Military Air Museum officials recently announced their 2014 general public hours of operation for their Museum and Air Park as noon to 4:30 pm on Saturdays, Sundays, Independence Day and Memorial Day, from April 5 through October 26. The Air Museum and Air Park will be closed during the 2014 Selfridge Air Show on September 6 and 7 due to traffic flow considerations.
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03/18/2014
Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18A/B Hornet and Hawk 127 Lead-In Fighter aircraft from RAAF Base Williamtown will conduct intensive air support training in the Great Lakes Area near Bulahdelah on Tuesday, March 18 and Wednesday, March 19. Commander of Air Combat Group, Air Commodore Tony Grady said the two types of jet aircraft would carry out training activities that involved the provision of medium level and close air support for ground-based personnel.
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03/18/2014
The missing Malaysian Airlines plane reportedly flew as low as 5,000ft and used “terrain masking” to avoid radar detection for almost eight hours after it was apparently hijacked. As dozens of nations continued to search for the plane, Malaysia’s New Straits Times newspaper reported that the Boeing 777 dropped to low altitude to avoid commercial radars.
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03/18/2014
The first KC-130J Super Hercules tanker assigned to a U.S. Marine Corps Reserve squadron was ferried today from the Lockheed Martin facility located here. This KC-130J is assigned to the Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 234 (VMGR-234) stationed at Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base, Texas.
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03/18/2014
The U.S. Air Force declared initial operational capability (IOC) for Lockheed Martin’s Sniper® Advanced Targeting Pod - Sensor Enhancement (ATP-SE) and has now deployed the system to support combat operations in theater.
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03/18/2014
The U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center awarded Lockheed Martin a foreign military sales contract to support the Republic of Korea’s Peace Krypton reconnaissance aircraft system. This contract is valued at approximately $9 million. Lockheed Martin has been providing sustainment engineering and logistics support to the Republic of Korea since 1996, the year that the corporation was awarded the prime contract to develop the Peace Krypton system.
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03/18/2014
Ukraine’s Parliament voted Monday to partially mobilize the country’s military reserves amid a tense standoff with Russia following a popular vote in Crimea to secede and join Russia on Sunday, the Ukrainian UNIAN news agency reported. A decree by acting president Oleksandr Turchynov to mobilize tens of thousands of reservists was approved of by 275 of 308 sitting deputies in a session of Ukraine’s parliament, according to the agency.
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03/18/2014
The United States and Russia combined supplied over half of all arms exports worldwide in the past five years, according to new data on the industry compiled by a European think tank. The US topped the list of arms exporting countries, accounting for 29 percent of shipments worldwide in the five year period through 2013, with Russia taking second place with 27 percent, according to the report published Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
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03/17/2014
More than 95 percent of Crimean voters backed joining Russia and seceding from Ukraine during Sunday's referendum, the head of the Crimean commission for holding the referendum said after more than a half ballots were counted. According to Mikhail Malyshev, only 3 percent chose to restore the 1992 Crimean Constitution and remain an autonomous republic within Ukraine, while 1 percent of ballot papers were declared void.
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03/17/2014
It has also revived questions about why the Malaysian military did not immediately notice what was happening, and what gaps there might be more generally in military air defences in a region where the defence and security temperature is high at the moment. It has now emerged that Malaysian primary military radar tracked an unidentified contact that flew right across the country's air space, now confirmed to be MH370. But no action, it seems, was taken.
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03/17/2014
U.S. military leaders plan to spend $2.45 billion next year on unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) procurement and research, with the RQ-4 Global Hawk, MQ-9 Reaper, and the experimental U.S. Navy Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance And Strike (UCLASS) system expected to be the biggest winners.
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03/17/2014
Lt. Cmdr. Mark DeBuse, a flight surgeon for the Blue Angels, said it best when he said his job is like caring for the health and well being of top-notch professional athletes. While these athletes are not competing in high-profile football games or boxing matches, they are maneuvering 24,500 pound jets capable of traveling at almost twice the speed of sound, or 1,400 miles per hour. More impressively, Blue Angels pilots do this without the aid of a G-suit.
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03/17/2014
China is about to undergo a comprehensive reform of its military and national defense. This measure is to be steered by none other than Chinese President Xi Jinping. Xi in his capacity shall oversee a group responsible for planning and executing such reform measures. In addition, the president is also the chairman of the national Central Military Commission. This is a powerful body and as chairman, Xi effectively has entire control of the chinese military.
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03/17/2014
On February 11th the U.S. Navy had its first flight test of a new IRST (Infa-Red Search & Track) pod. IRST uses a high resolution infrared (heat sensing) radar to positively spot and identify a potential aerial target This is done by comparing what IRST sees to 3-D models of known aircraft stored in the pod computer. This is similar to the ATFLIR (Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared) pods used to spot surface targets.
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03/17/2014
Phasing out the A-10 attack aircraft could cost Tucson 2,000 jobs — and that’s just one of many changes in store for Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, the proposed 2015 Air Force budget shows. If Congress approves the cuts, D-M would see ongoing — though, in some cases, diminished — missions including electronic warfare and unmanned aircraft operations.
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03/17/2014
Philippine President Benigno Aquino on Sunday said the Philippines has inked a deal to buy 12 fighter-trainer planes to beef up its territorial defense operation. Speaking at the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio City, Aquino also said that bidding for the procurement of two twin-engine naval antisubmarine helicopters "is also set to begin."
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03/16/2014
Ukraine really needs an answer to the Russian military amassing just over its border. So it’s government is scrambling to pull together an instant army, drawing on whoever is available — students, computer geeks, restaurateurs, aging veterans. “This is our land and our spirit is stronger. We’re prepared to die for our country, we’ve already proved that. The Russians have nothing to die for here,” says Viktor Pandzhakidze, who said he wishes he could volunteer.
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03/16/2014
The Indian Air Force's (IAF) quest for its first fifth generation fighter has been running into the usual back and forth with the Russians as well as domestic discord with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). It seems on top of the reported delays, the Russians are also hiking the costs associated with the Fifth generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) project.
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03/16/2014
I’d been planning to prompt some discussion on The DEW Line earlier in the week about the Eurofighter programme, to coincide with a feature article of mine which appeared as the cover story for the latest issue of Flight International, but a four-day trip to Sweden means it’s now a Friday Fighter topic instead.
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