Military Aviation News Archive
03/04/2013
Embraer’s EMB-314 Super Tucano trainer and light attack turboprop continues to rack up global orders, solidifying its position as the globe’s pre-eminent manned counter-insurgency aircraft. The latest order set of about $180 million expands the plane’s footprint into 3 African states: Angola, Burkina Faso, and Mauritania. They join Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Indonesia as customers for this aircraft.
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03/04/2013
As the federal budget looms large on the horizon, the Canadian military is bracing for some serious budget cuts. And with the Conservatives looking to trim spending, the Defence Department appears to be the government’s primary target. From the numbers being bandied about, the national press speculate that the department can expect to have its annual funding chopped across the board by as much as 10 per cent (about $1.8 billion).
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03/04/2013
The U.S. Air Force wants to purchase an extended-range (ER) version of the MQ-9 Reaper, allowing the service to strike deeper into enemy territory using fewer vehicles in a post-Afghanistan environment. “They've approved it; it's a matter of details now,” Chris Pehrson, director for strategic development with Reaper builder General Atomics, told Defense News. “The program is going to go forward.”
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03/04/2013
On the eve of the National People’s Congress, the chief of China’s Communist Party, Xi Jinping, is emphasizing his role as a champion of the military, using the armed forces to cement his political authority and present a tough stance in growing territorial disputes with American allies in the Pacific region.
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03/04/2013
The UN Security Council’s independent panel of experts, who monitor sanctions imposed on Darfur in 2005, said on Friday that Sudan’s government has violated UN sanctions on the Darfur region by carrying out air strikes and using aircrafts from Belarus and Russia.
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03/04/2013
Things are still up in the air regarding a military aircraft flyover at this month's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway – due to the automatic federal budget cuts called sequestration.
That’s because military training exercises – including operations for armed forces jet squadrons and high-profile aircraft such as the Air Force Thunderbirds and the Navy’s Blue Angels – are among the expenses targeted in the $85 billion budget cuts that Congress and President Barack Obama failed to stop.
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03/03/2013
UTC Aerospace Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX), won a contract to provide the advanced DB-110 airborne reconnaissance system on the F-16 platform for the Turkish Airborne Reconnaissance Program (TARP).
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03/03/2013
Dubbed the “entente frugale” by wags and criticised by some as a dangerous dilution of military sovereignty, Franco-British defence cooperation is nonetheless growing stronger. Shrinking budgets, a less indulgent United States and Europe’s diminishing military clout in the world have bolstered the two countries’ determination to work together.
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03/03/2013
Chad's military chief announced on state television late Saturday that his troops deployed in northern Mali had killed Moktar Belmoktar, the terrorist who orchestrated the attack on a natural gas plant in Algeria that left 36 foreigners dead.
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03/03/2013
Moving ahead with plans to execute further budget-cutting actions — but stopping short of enacting major cuts — the U.S. Navy on Saturday issued orders to plan and prepare to cancel and shut down a variety of operations and procurement efforts. The moves are in response to a presidential directive signed Friday evening by President Obama to begin the forced federal spending cuts known as sequestration.
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03/03/2013
The Navy has fine-tuned its operational strategy and honed its combat skills after a major exercise, which saw both the western and eastern fleets come together for intensive manoeuvres, in the Arabian Sea over the last 30 days.
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03/03/2013
As it rapidly modernises its military, China today claimed that its new J-15 fighter jet which will operate from its recently-acquired aircraft carrier, can cover a radius of 1,000 kms in attack missions. The J-15 fighter jet is able to cover an area with a radius of over 1,000 km on attack missions, Sun Cong, a chief designer of the plane told state-run Xinhua news agency.
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03/03/2013
Deep spending cuts mean Australia must develop a new national security strategy relying on a less potent defence force than is currently planned, the Gillard government has been warned. The navy's planned fleet of 12 big submarines could have to be cut back to six smaller boats and the number of Joint Strike Fighters to be bought reduced from 100 to as few as 30 if the government does not intend to restore defence spending.
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03/03/2013
Office of the House of Representative Ander Crenshaw, U.S Government has issued the following News Release: – Congressman Ander Crenshaw, a member of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, today (2/27) lauded the Air Force’s announcement of a $950 million contract for 20 Super Tucano light air support (LAS) aircraft to Sierra Nevada and its partner, Embraer. The decision means the creation of at least 50 high-skilled jobs in Northeast Florida.
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03/03/2013
The proposed move is announced after yet another problem was found with one of the aircraft during an inspection. A cracked turbine blade on one plane was discovered last week, but tests have shown that this was a unique problem. The Pentagon grounded the entire fleet, but has now lifted the no-fly.
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03/02/2013
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has been cleared to resume flight operations, six days after a crack discovered in the engine caused the fleet to be grounded. Flights will resume Friday afternoon weather permitting, according to program officials. “Following engineering analysis of the turbine blade which developed a crack, F-35 flight operations have been cleared to resume,” the Joint Program Office and Pratt & Whitney said in a joint statement, released late Thursday night.
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03/02/2013
Dubbed the "entente frugale" by wags and criticized by some as a dangerous dilution of military sovereignty, Franco-British defense cooperation is nonetheless growing stronger.
Shrinking budgets, a less indulgent United States and Europe's diminishing military clout in the world have bolstered the two countries' determination to work together.
Read More...
03/02/2013
After Col. Jeannie Leavitt finished pilot training at the top of her class in 1992, she was given her first choice of aircraft, with a few restrictions. Her first choice, the F-15 Strike Eagle, wasn't yet an option for female pilots. "I was told you finished No. 1, but you cannot pick a fighter," Leavitt said. "You cannot pick a bomber. You cannot pick a special ops aircraft. There was a whole list of aircraft I couldn't fly, and I was directed to choose among the other aircraft."
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03/02/2013
American military readiness starts deteriorating at midnight. Flights will be grounded. Ships will stay dockside. Army unit training will stop. That’s the assessment of the top Pentagon officials in the wake of abrupt and deep budget cuts that will take effect Saturday.
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03/02/2013
Japan on March 1 further relaxed a self-imposed ban on weapons exports by approving the dispatch of locally made components for the U.S.-built F-35 stealth fighter jet, despite concerns that Israel will buy the plane and thereby contravene an export embargo observed for more than four decades.
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03/02/2013
With $85 billion in automatic cuts to the federal budget taking effect beginning Friday, millions of fans across the country will miss out on precision flying by the Navy's Blue Angels and the Air Force's Thunderbirds, military officials said.
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03/02/2013
Stiff budget cuts that take effect Friday because of a political standoff over America’s burgeoning debt could crimp U.S. military activity in the Asia-Pacific, just as Washington seeks to reassure friends and allies of its staying power in the region.
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03/02/2013
Sudan's government has violated U.N. sanctions on the Darfur region by carrying out air strikes and using aircraft from Belarus and Russia despite pledging not to in the vast arid area in the country's west, U.N. experts say. The U.N. Security Council's independent panel of experts - who monitor sanctions imposed on Darfur in 2005 - also said it was investigating whether Sudanese troops had violated the sanctions by using Iranian armored personnel carriers in Darfur.
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03/02/2013
In the first two months of 2013, Russia sold over $2.5 billion worth of weapons to other countries, the head of the Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation said Friday.
“In the first month of this year, we sold arms worth $1 billion. In the first two months, total weapons sales exceeded $2.5 billion,” Alexander Fomin told Ekho Moskvy radio.
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03/01/2013
An Indonesian senior official said on Thursday that process of cooperation between Indonesia and South Korea in jointly developing advanced fighter jet was postponed due to transition of power in South Korean government.
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