Military Aviation News Archive
12/28/2013
The Russian Air Force (Voyenno-Vozdushnye Sily [VVS]) is to clear its MiG-31 'Foxhound' combat aircraft to resume flight operations after they were temporarily grounded following a crash in the far east of the country, state media reported on 26 December. The grounding order is to be lifted on 30 December, Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti reported VVS spokesman Colonel Igor Klimov as saying.
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12/28/2013
The induction of the Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas into the Indian Air Force will be a ‘game changer’ for the country’s air defence preparedness, says Avinash Chander, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister. “Though delayed, the India developed fighter aircraft has emerged as a ‘contemporary aircraft’, as good or in a way better than the competitors in its class,” Avinash Chander told Business Line.
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12/28/2013
Textron Inc., the manufacturer of Cessna aircraft, will boost its lineup of propeller-driven aircraft after reaching a deal to buy Beechcraft Corp. for $1.4 billion, as it seeks to counter a slump in business-jet sales. The Providence, Rhode Island-based company will purchase all outstanding equity interests in Beech Holdings LLC, the parent of Beechcraft, it said in a statement yesterday.
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12/28/2013
Australia will deploy two military aircraft to South Sudan for United Nations efforts to restore peace to the world's youngest nation. Australia's Acting Prime Minister Warren Truss announced on Thursday that Australia had agreed to a UN request for support to transport personnel and equipment to the war-torn country.
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12/27/2013
Chinese state media is once again bragging about Beijing’s military prowess, touting the fact that China’s new H-6K strategic bomber can attack U.S. military bases in South Korea as well as the Japanese mainland using long range nuclear cruise missiles. The report features on the prominent pro-Communist Party news website Want China Times.
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12/27/2013
A Russian cargo plane has crashed into a military base, killing all nine crew members.
No casualties were reported among base personnel in the Thursday crash on the outskirts of the Siberian city of Irkutsk. The Emergencies Ministry and the Investigative Committee said the nine crew members on the An-12, a four-engine turboprop, were killed. No cause was immediately determined.
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12/27/2013
Wichita workers on Textron AirLand’s secret multi-mission tactical military jet, the Scorpion, never called the project by its real name until it became public in September. And they rarely used its code name – SCV12-1. “It was too much of a tongue twister,” said Dale Tutt, the Scorpion’s chief engineer. “Most of the time we just called it ‘the project.’ Internally, we all knew what we were working on.”
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12/27/2013
The United States is supplying Iraq with arms and surveillance technology to combat al-Qaeda-backed insurgents amid worsening violence, the New York Times reported Thursday, two years after the last American combat troops left the country.
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12/27/2013
They were put on alert during the most recent anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. If the call came, the Air Force’s newest aeromedical evacuation team members would head for the designated C-130 or C-17 waiting on the Ramstein tarmac, grabbing duffel bags of surgical tools and other equipment from a warehouse and embarking on a race against time and distance.
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12/27/2013
A day-old truce in a besieged rebel-held town near Damascus broke down Thursday as Syrian warplanes bombed the divided northern city of Aleppo for a 12th straight day, activists said. By Wednesday, the Aleppo air blitz that began on Dec. 15 had killed at least 422 people, mostly civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group relying on activists and other sources inside the war-torn country.
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12/27/2013
According to reports by DefenseNews and DefenseTalk, Pakistan launched production of the Block-II JF-17 combat aircraft at the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex near Islamabad. The Diplomat reported earlier this year that Pakistan expected to begin exporting the JF-17 in 2014; the beginning of production last week is set to keep it on track to meet that deadline.
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12/27/2013
Australia will deploy two military aircraft to South Sudan for United Nations efforts to restore peace to the world's youngest nation. Acting Prime Minister Warren Truss announced on Thursday that Australia had agreed to a UN request for support to transport personnel and equipment to the war-torn country.
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12/26/2013
Secret U.S. missile and electro-optics technology was transferred to China recently by Israel, prompting anger from the U.S. and causing a senior Israeli defense official to resign. The head of defense exports for the Israeli Defense Ministry resigned after a U.S. investigation concluded that technology, including a miniature refrigeration system manufactured by Ricor and used for missiles and in electro-optic equipment, was sent to China, according to the Israeli newspaper Maariv.
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12/26/2013
A little more than a year after Macomb County and regional leaders beat back an attempt to substantially cut the number of A-10 aircraft stationed at Selfridge Air National Guard Base – the Air Force is again gunning for the odd-looking planes known as “Warthogs” – this time pushing to eliminate the entire U.S. fleet. The Air Force hopes to retire all 326 A-10 Thunderbolts, including the 18 planes stationed at the Harrison Township base.
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12/26/2013
Australia will provide two military aircraft to move United Nations forces into South Sudan and possibly help with evacuations, but is yet to consider providing any other assistance. The acting prime minister, Warren Truss, made the announcement as he reaffirmed calls for Australians to try to access commercial flights to leave the country after fighting broke out in Africa’s newest country.
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12/26/2013
Preparing to supply 126 Rafale combat aircraft to India, French firm Dassault Aviation is carrying out gap analysis of aerospace PSU HAL's fighter plane production capabilities to recommend upgrades. Dassault Aviation and HAL have to work together to produce 108 Rafale fighter planes in India as part of the contract to supply 126 Medium-Multi-role Combat Aircraft (M-MRCA) to the Indian Air Force.
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12/26/2013
The Russian air force is planning to order an additional batch of new Yak-130 combat trainers because demand for the aircraft is growing, the air force’s top commander said Wednesday. The current contract with Russia’s Irkut aircraft corporation stipulates the delivery of 55 Yak-130s to the air force. A total of 42 aircraft have been delivered so far.
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12/25/2013
Syrian warplanes have killed at least 15 people in Aleppo, raising the death toll to over 360 during the past 10 days of bombings, activists said. The opposition says it will not attend the Geneva-2 peace talks if the regime continues to launch air raids.
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12/25/2013
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe minces no words about his intention to revise the country’s pacifist constitution, while boosting military forces amid growing tensions with China over disputed islands in the East China Sea. “It is my career goal. For what purpose did I become a politician? I definitely want to carry through with it,” the premier told public broadcaster NHK on Sunday.
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12/25/2013
Greek Patriot air defense units “harassed” four Turkish F-4 military aircrafts by putting them under radar-lock while they were flying in international airspace over the Aegean Sea, the Turkish General Staff said in a statement on their website Dec. 24. Military sources told daily Hürriyet the Greek military used Patriots defense units for the first time against Turkish military aircraft, as they previously resorted to military planes.
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12/25/2013
The Israeli military says it has carried out an air strike in the Gaza Strip in response to the deadly shooting of an Israeli civilian who was working along the border fence.
The shooting prompted Israel to warn it would respond “forcefully”.
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12/25/2013
A Chinese military utility helicopter roughly equivalent to the Sikorsky H-60 made its first flight on Dec. 23, state media report. The helicopter, with the unconfirmed designation Z-20, is a 10-metric-ton (22,000 lb.) aircraft suitable for operation from high-altitude fields, China Central Television says. For almost three decades, China has relied on 24 UH-60 Black Hawks bought in the 1980s for such operations.
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12/25/2013
The U.S. Air Force has signed a contract with Pratt & Whitney to have the aerospace company provide maintenance and repair of F119 jet engines through the end of next year. The contract was announced Monday by members of Connecticut’s legislative delegation in Washington. The deal, which is worth $231.46 million, is an extension of an existing contract between the Air Force and the company, which makes and maintains jet engine.
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12/25/2013
Three U.S. aircraft from Hurlburt field were attacked while performing a mission in South Sudan on Saturday, according to a news release from U.S. Africa Command. Three CV-22 Ospreys, tiltrotor aircraft that can function as both airplanes and helicopters, were hit by small arms fire while attempting to evacuate U.S. citizens from the town of Bor, the release said.
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12/25/2013
Aerospace and defense engineers and executives, like the militaries they serve, face adversaries. Certainly, these enemies are of a different nature than those faced by warfighters, but their effect can be just as incapacitating and severe. Military officials facing tight budgets are opting to extend the life of currently fielded aerospace and defense platforms on the ground, at sea, and in the air. In some cases, lifespans are even being doubled.
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