Military Aviation News Archive
10/18/2013
South Korea's arms procurement agency said Thursday it will speed up the process to buy advanced fighter jets, with the aim of concluding the deal by the end of 2014. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) conducted bids with three contractors to buy 60 combat aircraft between June and August, and listed Boeing's F-15 Silent Eagle as the only jet to come within the 8.3 trillion won (US$7.2 billion) budget for approval.
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10/18/2013
India will finalise a $15 billion deal to buy 126 Rafale fighter jets from France's Dassault Aviation by March 2014, an Indian air force official said on Thursday, after the deal had been held up by differences over local manufacturing. New Delhi picked the Rafale for exclusive negotiations in January 2012 after a bidding contest against Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, made by a consortium involving EADS, Finmeccanica and BAE Systems.
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10/18/2013
Boeing will showcase proven capabilities and technology advances designed to meet the needs of the U.S. Army during the Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting and Exposition, held Oct. 21-23 in Washington, D.C.
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10/18/2013
Russia has started implementation of a multibillion dollar arms deal with Iraq, an official with the Middle Eastern nation’s government said Thursday. Russia is to supply over 10 fully armed and equipped Mi-28NE Night Hunter attack helicopters to Iraq under a $4.3 billion agreement on cooperation in the defense and technology sector signed in 2012.
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10/17/2013
Top Pentagon officials will examine the cost of building and operating the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jet at a major review of the $392 billion program next week that will also provide updates on lingering technical issues. Kyra Hawn, spokeswoman for the Pentagon’s F-35 program office, said a high-level Defense Acquisition Board meeting was expected to proceed on Monday despite the partial government shutdown. The meeting has already been postponed several times.
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10/17/2013
Recent news reports suggest that the US has identified a list of 10 defence technologies for transfer to India. The government is reported to be “reviewing” these offers which could reach as high as 90. The US appears to be finally moving to realise its oft stated stand that it considers India an important strategic partner. It is a significant move from the earlier tightly controlled defence technology exports to India.
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10/17/2013
A spokesman for Boeing’s Ridley Township facility denies the aerospace manufacturer overcharged the federal government for aircraft refitting, a conclusion put forth in an audit report from the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General.
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10/17/2013
After eight years of research and postponement, India’s first indigenous light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas, positioned at HAL Bangalore, has finally been fitted with electronic warfare (EW) systems. Now, new test flights will happen with electronic warfare anytime during November or beginning of December. The 2,348 test flights of the LCA so far have not had electronic warfare.
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10/17/2013
Travelers who fancy themselves flyboys and girls can test their skills at Fly the Dream, a new virtual entertainment store where customers can navigate a simulated flight of an F-16 Falcon, a single-engine fighter aircraft developed by General Dynamics for the Air Force in the early 1970s.
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10/17/2013
The U.S. Air Force’s Air Combat Command has restarted flying operations of training aircraft after civilian defense employees returned to work, Defense News reported Tuesday.
Aaron Mehta writes the command also intends to maintain the mission readiness of combat-coded aircraft as those units remain grounded.
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10/17/2013
Brazil said Wednesday it hopes to develop state-of-the-art combat aircraft with Russia, and purchase surface-to-air missile batteries from Moscow. Brasilia is already in talks with other countries to modernize its air force by purchasing 36 fighter jets valued at up to $5 billion.
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10/17/2013
Russia has proposed establishing a servicing and maintenance center in Peru for its Russian- and Soviet-made helicopters, a senior government official said Wednesday. The offer was discussed at a meeting between Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his Peruvian counterpart Pedro Cateriano, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said.
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10/17/2013
Russia’s state arms export monopoly has signed a $1 billion deal package with Angola to deliver military equipment, build an ammunition plant and provide maintenance services, Vedomosti business daily reported Wednesday. Rosoboronexport will supply 18 Su-30K fighter jets to the southern African nation, the daily said, citing sources at the arms exports company and the Russian military.
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10/16/2013
Another Russian Su-25 ground attack aircraft crashed on September 23rd, killing the pilot. All Su-25s were immediately grounded until the cause of the crash could be found. This is the 17th Su-25 lost in the last decade, which is not unusual for a Russian military aircraft that has been in service since the 1980s. Despite these losses, the Su-25 is still a popular aircraft.
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10/16/2013
The Netherlands recently agreed to buy 37 of the new American F-35 fighter-bombers, and possibly more if money became available. Originally the Dutch were going to buy 85 but the escalating cost of the F-35 forced them to reconsider. Some Dutch leaders wanted to stick with the F-16 and upgrade it or consider another new fighter (Gripen, Eurofighter, or F-18E).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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".
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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.
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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.
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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”.
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