Special Purpose

Military Aviation News Archive

U.S. builds up military bases in Italy for African ops

10/16/2013

The U.S. deployment of 200 Marines to a naval base in Sicily for possible operations in Libya, a short hop across the Mediterranean, underlines how the Americans have been building a network of bases in Italy as launch pads for military interventions in Africa and the Mideast.

Sweden Plans Defense Spending Boost

10/16/2013

The Swedish government’s promise to bolster defense spending and inject more capital into equipment procurement programs has failed to impress the country’s military establishment. The Defense Ministry said in September that expenditures on defense would increase by US $220 million in 2014-17, yielding an annual increase of $60 million a year. The armed forces budget for 2013 amounts to $6.2 billion.

Concerns Rise As Indian Fighter Negotiations Drag On

10/16/2013

India’s Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) contract with Dassault Aviation is not likely to be signed before April 2014, despite the Indian air force’s (IAF) concerns about maintaining its tactical air deterrent capability.

ACC Training Units Flying, Some Combat Coded Units Still Down

10/16/2013

The US Air Force’s Air Combat Command (ACC) ended a shutdown-imposed grounding of training aircraft last week , but some combat craft remain grounded.

Will Russia ever have its own aircraft carrier?

10/16/2013

It seems that water and air are incompatible as natural element. However, there is such a thing as naval aviation. Judging by modernization plans, Russian naval aviation will see great changes in the future. After years of debate about whether Russia needs a fleet of vessels with aircraft on decks or surface ships and submarines would be enough, Russian admirals have chosen a sort of "American" model of the fleet: naval groups with an aircraft carrier in the center.

In Israel, lingering bitterness over a failed fighter project

10/16/2013

The U.S. decision to award Israel's Elbit Systems the contract to co-produce the flight helmet for Lockheed Martin's advanced F-35 stealth fighter illustrates the close links between the U.S. and Israeli defense sectors. Israel's buying 20 of the fifth-generation jets and eventually wants as many as 75. State-owned Israel Military Industries is already manufacturing components for the F-35.

China media: US aircraft carrier

10/16/2013

The US Navy conducted float tests of the USS Gerald R. Ford on 11 October and its sea trials are likely to begin in 2016, reports say. "USS Ford is bound to pose a huge impact on the existing Chinese naval equipment," Chen Hu, executive editor of a Chinese military magazine, told the Wen Wei Po, adding that the "Chinese aircraft carrier technology is currently 30 years behind that of the US".

The Italian Job

10/15/2013

The Pentagon has spent the last two decades plowing hundreds of millions of tax dollars into military bases in Italy, turning the country into an increasingly important center for U.S. military power. Especially since the start of the Global War on Terror in 2001, the military has been shifting its European center of gravity south from Germany, where the overwhelming majority of U.S. forces in the region have been stationed since the end of World War II.

Israel tests long-range air refueling in exercise tied to Iran strike

10/15/2013

Israel has completed what officials termed a long-range air combat exercise that included air refueling, an element vital in any attack on Iran. The Israel Defense Forces said several squadrons of U.S.-origin fighter-jets participated in an exercise over Greece and its islands in the Mediterranean.

Boeing’s Charges to Pentagon Questioned in Audit for Fourth Time

10/15/2013

Four times in the past five years, the Pentagon’s inspector general has found that Boeing Co. (BA:US) collected excessive or unjustified payments on U.S. defense contracts. In the latest of four audits since 2008, the watchdog office said the Chicago-based company charged the U.S. Army for new helicopter parts while installing used ones “Boeing significantly overstated estimates” of new components needed for CH-47F Chinook helicopters and “primarily installed used parts instead”.

Tyndall pilots train to 'own the sky'

10/15/2013

"MOJO 1 is engaged, Bullseye 323/24," said Lt. Col. Christopher 'Moto' Davis, 325th Training Support Squadron Adversary Air Operations officer. He had just merged at more than 400 knots bringing him beak to beak with an F-22 Raptor. "MOJO 1, PRESS!" his wingman said over the fight frequency. Colonel Davis puts his 1960's T-38 Talon in a full afterburner, maximum G-defensive turn to try to survive mere seconds more against the world's most advanced fighter jet.

Departing Norwegian Government Boosts Defense Spending for 2014

10/15/2013

Norway’s 2014 budget is $7.2 billion, up from $7.06 billion the previous year. The 2014 budget also will be the last major executive financial action by Labor Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s socialist administration, which has been in power since 2005.

In big win for defense industry, Obama rolls back export limits

10/15/2013

The United States is loosening controls over military exports, in a shift that former U.S. officials and human rights advocates say could increase the flow of American-made military parts to the world's conflicts and make it harder to enforce arms sanctions.

Russia to Offer Brazil Stake in Future Advanced Fighter Project

10/15/2013

A Russian military delegation about to visit Brazil will offer joint development of a fifth-generation combat aircraft “of the type” of its own most newest fighter to Brazilian defense officials, a member of the delegation told RIA Novosti Monday.

US, Swedish Military Inspectors to Overfly Russia, Belarus

10/15/2013

A group of US and Swedish military inspectors is set to fly over Russia and Belarus starting from Monday under the international Open Skies Treaty, a Russian Defense Ministry official said. “Within the framework of the international Open Skies Treaty, US and Swedish inspectors flying a Boeing OC-135B observation aircraft will perform surveillance flights above the territories of Russia and Belarus in the period between October 14 and 19,” said Sergei Ryzhkov, head of the ministry’s National Nucl

US arms freeze just symbolic slap to Egypt

10/14/2013

The US decision to suspend delivery of tanks, helicopters and fighter jets to Egypt is more of a symbolic slap than a punishing wound to the military-backed government for its slog toward a return to democratic rule. Egypt has the tanks and aircraft it would need to fight a conventional war, and spare parts from US manufacturers will still be delivered.

The 5th Generation Is Cursed

10/14/2013

The Russian answer to the American F-22, the “5th generation” T-50 (or PAK-FA), is in big trouble. Several key components are facing serious development problems. The key item in trouble is the new engine, which is still stuck in development. Russia always had problems building competitive engines. In the past, to get the power needed, they built engines that lasted only a fraction as long as Western engines.

PLA to continue development of attack helicopters: expert

10/14/2013

China will continue to develop attack helicopters to build on the success of the WZ-10 and WZ-19 unveiled last year, said Du Wenlong, a military analyst from Beijing, in a interview with the People's Daily Online, the official website of the state-run People's Daily.

IAF to HAL: Build Swiss trainer aircraft, don't develop your own

10/14/2013

Last year, the IAF purchased 75 PC-7 Mark II trainers for 557 million Swiss Francs (Rs 3,725 crore). Pilatus has delivered at least 15 of those trainers. When the purchase of 75 trainers from the global market was approved in 2009, it was decided that HAL would simultaneously design and build 106 trainers. But, in July, as reported first by Business Standard (July 29, 'Indian Air Force at war with Hindustan Aeronautics; wants to import, not build, a trainer') the IAF chief wrote to Antony.

S. Korea, U.S. to decide timing of OPCON transfer next year

10/14/2013

Seoul and Washington have agreed to reset the timing of the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) next year after reviewing North Korean threat and the South Korean forces capabilities to deal with it, the defense ministry here said Monday.

Airbus Begins A400M Deliveries, Hopes for Exports

10/13/2013

Airbus Military, the multinational consortium that builds the A400M, will soon deliver the first airlifter to the Turkish military, consortium and Turkish officials said. The first Turkish A400M will operate at an air base in Kayseri in central Turkey. “The first aircraft for the Turkish military will be delivered in the coming weeks,” Tom Enders, CEO of EADS, Airbus’ parent company, said at a Sept. 30 ceremony here for the delivery of the first A400M for the French Air Force.

Mothballed military aircraft: Taxpayer bucks going to waste

10/13/2013

According to information first published by the Dayton Daily News, a dozen transport planes valued at approximately $50 million a pop are going from the assembly line to the graveyard. That's on top of the $567 million the Air Force has spent on the Italian-made C-27J aircraft since 2007. Sequestration is being cited as the reason for the planes not being used.

HSC-25 Rescues Tinian Plane Crash Victims

10/13/2013

Sailors from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 25 helped rescue four people whose plane went missing on a flight from Tinian to Saipan of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Oct. 6.

Air Force: Sequester, shutdown imperil crews and missions

10/13/2013

The Air Force is telling Congress that the double whammy of sequestration budget cuts and the partial government shutdown “endangers the safety of our airmen” and “unnecessarily adds risks” to everyday missions. In a memo to Capitol Hill Friday night, Air Force headquarters at the Pentagon said it has been forced to “take extraordinary actions” to make do with less money.

Portable missiles stoke fears in Syria

10/13/2013

The Syrian government’s shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles and launchers could imperil civil aviation if they fall into the hands of terrorist groups, according to an independent report examining the global proliferation of portable missiles.