Military Aviation News Archive
09/27/2013
Recent comments by the Air Force chief of staff were cause for excitement for those who work in the J-STARS mission at Robins Air Force Base. The Air Force has previously listed its top three acquisition priorities as the KC-46A refueling tanker, a long-range strike bomber and the F-35 fighter. However, while speaking at an Air Force Association conference, Gen. Mark Welsh added a fourth priority, which is new planes for J-STARS, or Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System.
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09/27/2013
A U.S. Air Force crew ferried an MC-130J Commando II Special Operations Forces tanker from the Lockheed Martin facilities here yesterday. The Super Hercules aircraft is assigned to Air Force Special Operations Command and will be based at Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England. The Commando II supports such missions as in-flight refueling, infiltration/exfiltration, and aerial delivery and resupply of special operations forces.
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09/27/2013
Indonesia has received the last delivery of Sukhoi fighter jets it ordered from a Russian producer, thus turning its Sukhoi Flanker air superiority fighter jet fleet into one full squadron. The delivery of the last two Su-30 Mk2 planes took place on Wednesday in Indonesian air forces base of Hasanuddin, located in the capital city of South Sulawesi province, Makassar where the air forces' 11th squadron wing 5 is based.
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09/27/2013
Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., has placed a hold on the White House’s nominee for Air Force secretary, blocking the confirmation process of Deborah Lee James until questions are answered regarding potential cuts to the A-10 Thunderbolt attack aircraft, according to an Ayotte aide.
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09/27/2013
Those intellectual swashbucklers from the Center for a New American Security are at it again, this time with an essay over at Foreign Policy detailing the dangers likely to accompany drone operations in Asia. Precipitating their commentary was China's first deployment of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) over the Senkaku Islands. The overflight took place earlier this month, timed to coincide with the one-year anniversary of Tokyo's nationalization of the archipelago. (So much for Chinese subtlet
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09/26/2013
British defense company BAE Systems PLC, one of the world’s largest, may be unique within the global defense industry as a company well prepared for reduced U.S. military spending, wrote UBS AG analysts on Wednesday. “BAE Systems is unique in our defense coverage in that it has a large enough growth market in the Middle East (mainly Saudi Arabia) to offset the decline in the U.S. defense,” wrote defense analyst Charles Armitage in a research note.
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09/26/2013
India is set to buy American defence equipment worth five billion US dollars and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who left for the United States today, is carrying a long shopping list. Among the hardware that India is looking to purchase are six additional C-130 J Hercules Medium Lift Aircraft, 22 Apache Attack Helicopters, 15 Chinook Heavy Lift Helicopters and about 140 M-777 ultra-light towed Howitzers.
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09/26/2013
South Korea's decision to reject a bid by Boeing to supply 60 warplanes and to re-issue a tender was made in the interests of better technology but may not be justified given North Korea's weak air capabilities, experts said on Wednesday.
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09/26/2013
Pratt & Whitney and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) have begun testing of Pratt & Whitney's unique, adaptive supersonic fighter engine fan rig based on a full-scale F135 development fan to advance the next generation of military fighter engine technology.
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09/26/2013
South Korea's government bowed to public pressure on Tuesday and voted down a bid by Boeing to supply 60 warplanes, saying it would restart the multi-billion tender process to get a more advanced, radar-evading fighter. Lockheed Martin's F-35A, previously considered too expensive, has shot to the front of the line in the race for the contract after the defence ministry singled out a fifth-generation fighter as the preferred option.
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09/25/2013
As shown in the first section of this paper, Buzan and Waever emphasise that South Africa holds the regional unipolarity in Southern Africa RSC by its economic dominance over neighbours and the predisposition of regional states to accept its leadership. This section attempts to validate this proposition in the 2000s and to include, based on methodological guidelines of neorealist theory of International Relations, indicators related to material capabilities to evaluate the polarity of the region
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09/25/2013
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei Tuesday slammed reports that China is attempting to steal unmanned military drone technology from the United States as "groundless". China and the U.S. has formed the cyber security working group and the two sides conducted smooth communications on the cyber security issue, said the spokesman, adding that such reports are groundless and is not good for China-U.S. cooperation on cyber security.
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09/25/2013
European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. plans to improve its bid to sell 60 Eurofighter Typhoons to South Korea, and top Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. when a competition for the combat jets is reopened.
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09/25/2013
The U.S. Air Force has saved hundreds of millions of dollars by changing the way it flies equipment out of Afghanistan, using shorter trips to the Persian Gulf rather than direct routes to the United States, a general said. A fleet of a dozen C-17 cargo planes and additional commercial aircraft lift the gear from Kandahar and other bases in Afghanistan to ports in the Gulf, where it's loaded onto ships bound for the U.S., according to Gen. Paul Selva, commander of Air Mobility Command.
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09/25/2013
The U.S. military has been forced to relocate a large fleet of drones from a key counterterrorism base on the Horn of Africa after a string of crashes fanned local fears that the unmanned aircraft were at risk of colliding with passenger planes, according to documents and interviews.
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09/25/2013
The Pentagon has released the names of the Navy pilots killed in a helicopter crash in the Red Sea Sunday. They are Lt. Cmdr. Landon L. Jones, 35, of Lompoc and Chief Warrant Officer Jonathon S. Gibson, 32, of Aurora, Ore. Both were stationed at North Island Naval Air Station. Both men are married and each has two small children.
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09/25/2013
It said that one of the Lockheed Martin F-16 made a first flight with an empty cockpit last week. Two US Air Force pilots controlled the plane from the ground as it flew from a Florida base to the Gulf of Mexico. Boeing suggested that the innovation could ultimately be used to help train pilots, providing an adversary they could practise firing on.
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09/25/2013
Lockheed Martin Corp. and its partners in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program will have another year to cut the advanced jet's cost and rebid on a multibillion-dollar contract with South Korea after that country's rejection of a rival plane built by Boeing Co.
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09/25/2013
Russia’s Defense Minister has urged defense firms to speed up work to develop combat drones, a senior industry official said Tuesday. Oleg Bochkarev, deputy head of the government Military-Industrial Commission, told RIA Novosti that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had issued instructions to this effect in July.
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09/24/2013
The Air Force is bracing to cut up to 25,000 total force airmen — nearly 5 percent of the force — over the next five years if the current spending cuts known as the sequester continue, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh told lawmakers Sept. 18. And up to 550 aircraft — about 9 percent of the Air Force’s fleet — could also be cut, Welsh said at a House Armed Services Committee hearing.
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09/24/2013
The Pakistan Air Force contingent comprising combat Pilots and ground technical crew landed back at an operational Air Base in China on Monday after successful culmination of the joint Air Exercise “Shaheen-II”. Earlier the closing ceremony was hosted by Lt Gen Zheng Qun Liang, Deputy Commander PLA Air Force. It was attended by Air Marshal Sohail Aman, Deputy Chief of Air Staff (Operations) and a team of high ranking PAF officials.
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09/24/2013
Sikorsky is set to begin assembly of its S-97 Raider light attack helicopter this week and an announcement from the manufacturer is expected soon. A Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. spokesperson confirmed the schedule, which marks the imminent entry of Sikorsky in a market likely to give the manufacturer an edge, at least for now, over competition in the tactical attack area.
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09/24/2013
The news item was nothing new. It was a virtual repeat of the age-old and familiar story — “India shops for 6 Chinook choppers” — a routine defence ministry initiative to upgrade and modernize the inventory of the Indian Air Force with the latest imported technology that always is an ‘ongoing process’.
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09/24/2013
The U.S. Navy has suspended the search for two San Diego-based helicopter pilots who went down in the Red Sea on Sunday. Navy officials have concluded that it’s “extremely unlikely” that the two people are still alive more than a day after their MH-60S Knighthawk went into the water.
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09/24/2013
Boeing Co. is favored to win an 8.3 trillion-won ($7.7 billion) fighter-jet deal from South Korea, sustaining its F-15 production line and handing a setback to Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) in the world’s biggest combat aircraft tender this year.
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