Military Aviation News Archive
11/04/2013
This year Iraq surpassed Iran as the largest exporter of oil to China. This is because of the more severe sanctions imposed on Iran in 2012. Even Iran admits that it’s GDP has shrunk this year as a result. China would like to get more oil from Iran as well, but the sanctions make that difficult. China needs a lot more oil because it is desperate to reduce its use of coal, which is causing more and more air pollution in the north and northeast.
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11/04/2013
Over the last few years the U.S. Air Force has developed a novel way to make the most of the few (180) F-22s it has. This particular solution comes in the form of an F-22 QRF (Quick Reaction Force) that consists of four F-22s and a C-17 full of weapons, maintenance gear, maintainers, specialized pods, weapons, and spare pilots ready to fly to any of hundreds of airports or bases in the world that can handle four F-22s and a C-17.
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11/04/2013
The Mozambican Air Force has taken delivery of a Hawker 850XP business jet, the latest acquisition for the country’s small air arm and a major boost to its capacity. The aircraft entered service in September, according to Air Forces Daily, after being bought second hand from the United States. It left Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport in Florida on its delivery flight on September 9 and had its US registration cancelled on September 18 following its transfer to the Force Aerea de Mocambique.
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11/04/2013
An Israeli military unmanned drone crashed in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, with Palestinians saying they shot it down but Israel blaming a technical malfunction. A security source from the Hamas, movement that rules Gaza, said they had “captured an Israeli drone that was flying over east Jabalia this morning.”
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11/04/2013
Not satisfied with jury-rigged, homemade tanks, an Islamist rebel group fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad has formed its own air force — with real planes. Jaish al-Islam — the Army of Islam — last week published a YouTube video documenting its activities against the Assad regime, in which it showcases its two L-39ZA Albatros fighter aircraft captured earlier this year from a Syrian Air Force base east of Aleppo.
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11/04/2013
Two Turkish F-16 fighter jets were reportedly scrambled overnight after a Russian IL-20 electronic surveillance aircraft probed its borders along the Black Sea cost. It is the third such incident in the past week. Such incursions, which were common during the Cold War, have not been a feature of international politics for some time.
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11/04/2013
Turkey scrambled four F-16 fighter jets on Sunday to intercept Russian Il-20 reconnaissance warplanes flying along the country’s Black Sea coast, news agency PzFeed reported. The Russian Defense Ministry declined to comment. The Turkish government has not released any information about the reported incident.
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11/03/2013
If India and France are able to sign the final contract for the Rafale, then there is a possibility the French fighter-bomber will be armed with Russian claws. According to Boris Obnosov, General Director of Russia’s Tactical Missile Weapons Corporation (TRV), if required the Moscow-based company is ready to adapt Russian missiles for the French aircraft.
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11/03/2013
Imagine this scenario in the not-too-distant future: Tensions in the eastern Mediterranean Sea have been building for months. After exhausting all diplomatic options, the president orders an airstrike against a highly defended enemy weapons depot. Four U.S. fighter jets launch from an aircraft carrier operating at an undisclosed location at sea.
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11/03/2013
The suspension of a portion of US military aid to Egypt is an opportunity to shift the army’s focus away from conventional warfare and toward more effective counter-terrorism operations, military analysts say. Last month, the Obama administration announced it was suspending part of its annual US$1.3 billion (Dh4.78bn) in military aid to Egypt, including the delivery of F-16 fighter jets, M1A1 tank kits and Harpoon missiles.
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11/03/2013
As a leader in the Korean aerospace industry, Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) is the only domestic aircraft manufacturer and total system integrator that designs and assembles world-class aircraft and satellite systems and provides life cycle support for its products.
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11/03/2013
Western defense contractors participating in South Korea’s biennial arms exhibition tried to convince their hosts they would offer assistance to help build the country’s indigenous fighter jet, code-named KF-X. The KF-X effort drew keen attention during the Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition (ADEX) from Oct. 29-Nov. 3, amid growing calls here for upgrading the country’s fighter fleet more sustainably and coming up with plans to fill a fighter gap over the next decade.
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11/03/2013
Russia has increased its weapons shipments to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government since last year, military aid that is likely “more significant” than Iranian arms supplies to Damascus, according to senior US diplomats. “It has increased from a year ago. There are more deliveries, and in some cases, they are militarily extremely significant,” Robert Ford, the US ambassador to Syria, told a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week.
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11/03/2013
The United States will next year buy 30 Russian-made helicopters for the Afghan army, Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said Friday. The batch of Mi-17V-5 military transport helicopters will raise to 63 the quantity of that model supplied under US-Russian deals for the Afghan National Army.
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11/03/2013
A US surveillance plane carrying US and British military personnel took off from an airport in southern Siberia on Friday after being stranded there for two nights over poor weather conditions and unpaid fees. The US plane, making a routine flight over Russia under the international Open Skies treaty, was forced down in Chita on Wednesday because of heavy fog.
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11/03/2013
Two Russian Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers currently on a tour-of-duty in South America will carry out a series of patrol missions over the region in line with the program of combat training, the Defense Ministry said. The nuclear-capable bombers arrived in Venezuela on October 28 and conducted patrols over the Caribbean before landing in Nicaragua on Thursday.
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10/31/2013
An F-35 Lightning II has completed the fighter jet's first guided weapon delivery against ground target, marking the "first time the F-35 truly became a weapon system," the jet's maker Lockheed Martin said Wednesday.
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10/31/2013
Turkey's two F-16 fighter jets on Wednesday intercepted a Syrian aircraft after Turkish military spotted the plane approaching the Turkish border, said a Turkish military statement. A Syrian SU-24 warplane was spotted during a routine flight along the Gaziantep and Hatay region of the southern Turkish border and two Turkish jets taking off from Incirlik Airbase in Adana province in southern Turkey were diverted to avert the Syrian plane.
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10/31/2013
Pakistan will begin exporting the JF-17 Thunder multirole fighter jet next year Pakistani media outlets reported on Friday, citing unnamed officials from the Ministry of Defense Production.
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10/31/2013
Global aerospace giants have moved beyond a wait-and-see approach to make sales pitches for South Korea's fighter jet program during an ongoing international aerospace fair here, carefully navigating the direction of the new acquisition under review by Seoul officials.
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10/31/2013
Defence Minister A K Antony today refused to set a deadline for conclusion of a multi-billion dollar deal to procure 126 Rafale combat aircraft for the Air Force. "This is not the issue. Issue is that contract negotiation committee (CNC) is going on and I or the Government cannot interfere with it... How can I set a deadline," he told reporters here.
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10/31/2013
LONGBOW LLC, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, received a $92.8 million contract from the U. S. Army to provide Life Cycle Contractor Support (LCCS) for LONGBOW programs on the AH-64D and AH-64E helicopters.
The LCCS contract provides integrated logistics support for LONGBOW Fire Control Radar (FCR) systems equipping AH-64D and AH-64E Apache helicopters.
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10/31/2013
Boeing delivered the 12th production P-8A Poseidon on schedule on Oct. 25, enhancing the long-range maritime patrol capabilities of the U.S. Navy. The P-8A departed Boeing Field in Seattle for Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla., where it joined the other Poseidon aircraft being used to train Navy crews. The aircraft is the sixth from the second low-rate initial production contract lot awarded in November 2011.
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10/31/2013
Two Russian Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers arrived in Nicaragua on Thursday after taking off from an airbase in Venezuela, the Russian Defense Ministry said. The nuclear-capable bombers “flew above the neutral waters of the Caribbean Sea, entered the airspace of Nicaragua and performed a planned landing,” the ministry said.
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10/31/2013
The United States covertly tested Soviet MiG fighter planes at the mysterious Area 51 site in the Nevada desert in the 1960s, including one plane secretly obtained by Israel, according to declassified US government documents published this week.
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