Military Aviation News Archive
05/13/2013
China has formed its first aircraft carrier-borne aviation strike force, significantly enhancing the navy's blue-water capability, amid maritime territorial disputes with neighbours including Japan and Vietnam. "A carrier-borne aviation force has been formally established as part of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy," the state-media reported.
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05/13/2013
Israel’s military grounded a fleet of high-altitude surveillance drones on Sunday after one was downed over the Mediterranean Sea. The military said it intentionally crashed the unmanned aircraft late Saturday because of a malfunction. The IAF Heron-1 UAV was downed by the air force after its controllers discovered an engine failure. The failure was discovered during a routine flight over the Mediterranean, off the coast of Netanya.
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05/13/2013
Almost four years after the MV-22 Osprey arrived in Afghanistan, trailing a reputation as dangerous and hard to maintain, the U.S. Marines Corps finally has had an opportunity to test the controversial hybrid aircraft in real war conditions. The reviews are startlingly positive. The unusual aircraft, which takes off and lands like a helicopter but turns its rotors to fly like an airplane, are being used for everything from freight to hundreds of assaults.
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05/13/2013
After deliberating for nearly a decade South Korea has finally agreed to purchase 36 U.S. AH-64E Apache helicopter gunships. A lot of the opposition was because of price. So five years ago the U.S. offered South Korea 36 refurbished AH-64s, rebuilt to like-new condition, for about $23 million each. That was a nearly 60 percent discount off the then current price of new ones. These helicopters would have a useful life of about 10,000 hours in the air.
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05/13/2013
This week the Navy will launch an entirely autonomous combat drone — without a pilot on a joystick anywhere — off the deck of an aircraft carrier, the George H. W. Bush. The drone will then try to land aboard the same ship, a feat only a relatively few human pilots in the world can accomplish. This exercise is the beginning of a new chapter in military history: autonomous drone warfare.
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05/13/2013
Even as the western and eastern fronts with Pakistan and China are bolstered with additional Sukhoi-30MKI squadrons, India has also kick-started plans to base its most lethal "air dominance'' fighter in south India to keep a "strategic eye'' over Indian Ocean.
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05/13/2013
North Korea has decried “blackmail” and “provocation” in the arrival of the US aircraft carrier group Nimitz to its southern neighbor. The warships will take part in joint exercises with South Korea, as tensions in the peninsula run high.
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05/13/2013
Dassault Aviation, the French maker of Rafale fighter jet which is in exclusive negotiations with the Indian ministry of defence for the $12 billion Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) tender is facing rough weather at home. In the latest strategic defence review carried out under the insistence of the French government, last month, France has capped the purchase of Rafale fighter jets to 225.
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05/13/2013
Russian military inspectors will make a surveillance flight over the territory of Bulgaria under the international Open Skies Treaty within a period starting Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry has reported. Russian experts will conduct the inspection flight on board an Antonov An-30B (Clank) aircraft between May 13 and 17, a ministry spokesman told journalists.
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05/13/2013
A new Russian carrier-deck pilot training site will be ready for operation by next year, Navy Commander Admiral Viktor Chirkov said on Sunday, replacing a Soviet-era base in Ukraine which Kiev has said it may lease to other countries. The work on the training facility in the city of Yeisk, on Russia's Black Sea coast, “is proceeding according to plan,” he said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
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05/12/2013
Chinese cyber spies have been caught trying to steal the secrets of Britain’s most sophisticated combat jet, The Mail on Sunday has learned. A covert unit within the Chinese Army has been using highly sophisticated cyber weapons in a desperate attempt to acquire classified information about the stealthy Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).
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05/12/2013
After years of planning and months of detailed preparation Spitfire day finally arrived. On Thursday down on the Bo’ness Road the huge replica warplane was unveiled as this district’s tribute to 71 aircrew who died while serving at Grangemouth aerodrome during World War II.
The air cadets whose idea it was must be delighted that their plan to honour that lost generation has been fulfilled of a permanent reminder of a very important part of our modern history.
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05/12/2013
The Indian Navy is all set to induct a Boeing P-8I into its force this year, making it the second navy after the US to have such aircrafts, a senior naval official said. The first long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft, P-8I, would be inducted this year, the official said. "The Indian Navy would be only the second operator of this aircraft after US Navy to operate the P8 Poseidon.
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05/12/2013
The Indian Navy has commissioned its first squadron of MiG-29K/KUB shipborne fighters, dubbed the "Black Panthers," a MiG spokesperson in India said on Saturday. The ceremony at an airbase in Dabolim, in the state of Goa on India's west coast, was attended by India's Defense Minister A K Antony, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral D K Joshi and MiG Director-General Sergei Korotkov.
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05/11/2013
Just moments ago, CNN’s Barbara Starr reported that U.S. combat Marines in the South of Spain are now on alert for deployment into Libya to assist with evacuation of Americans. A senior military official confirmed that although the Marines are still in Spain, they could be on the move soon if the U.S. government issues an evacuation order. The 500 Marines are equipped with, among other combat equipment, six MV-22 Ospreys for rapid insert and evacuation.
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05/11/2013
While Iran's got a somewhat less than "Epic" new propeller-powered UAV, China might be jumping on the stealth drone bandwagon sooner than you thought. Extremely blurry photos posted on Internet forums over the past few months may show a Chinese stealth UAV, supposedly called the Lijan or Sharp Sword, along the lines of the U.S. Navy's X-47B.
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05/11/2013
On May 11 the Navy will commission the first of three MiG-29K squadrons at its base in Goa. One is for training. The 16 aircraft originally ordered have all been delivered, as have four of a further 29. They will fly from the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (previously Admiral Gorshkov), which has taken five years longer than planned to be refitted. Later, they will also fly from the Indian-built aircraft carrier (IAC-1), which is under construction in Kochi in Kerala.
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05/11/2013
Taiwan recently promoted a female C-130 pilot to be the first female squadron commander. Lieutenant colonel Chen Yueh-Fang joined the air force in 1992, at a time when women were first being allowed to attend flight school. She was one of six (out of 14) female flight school students who completed flight training. She was told the male and female students would be treated the same and they were. She was in the second class that allowed women to compete.
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05/11/2013
As Jérôme Camps, an engineer at Dassault Aviation’s main design center, showed off a ghostlike 3-D model of one of the company’s small jets here recently, his hand passed through the plane’s skin to reveal an intricate web of support structures as well as a jumble of multicolored cables and pneumatic tubes, rendered in vivid detail.
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05/11/2013
If building a MALE UAV, and a turboprop trainer – Hurkus, due to fly for the first time in the coming weeks – wasn’t enough, Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) has embarked on early studies for a national combat aircraft program. While it is only in the concept phase for the moment, with assistance from Swedish fighter manufacturer, Saab, senior officials will make significant decisions on the program at the end of the year.
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05/11/2013
Due to prolonged delays in the ambitious Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) project, the future plans for an Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) for the Indian Air Force (IAF) has been shelved temporarily. The 'Tejas' LCA has taken 30 years already, at an escalated project cost of Rs 5,489 crore. Since the LCA project was sanctioned in 1983 at a cost of Rs 560 crore, the time overrun has resulted in a 10-fold increase in the project cost.
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05/11/2013
Russian paratrooper divisions will receive unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) within the next three-to-five years, Colonel-General Vladimir Shamanov, Commander of Russia’s Airborne Forces, told journalists on Friday. “UAV subdivisions already exist within the reconnaissance and special operations sections, in the artillery and the air-defense sections of the Airborne Forces.
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05/10/2013
From trademark tanks and fighter jets to the latest, unrivalled missile defense systems – the Victory Day parade stages a military show right in the heart of Russia’s busy capital. RT takes a closer look at the defense technology in the spotlight. Over 11,000 servicemen from all the branches of the Russian armed forces marched through Moscow’s central square to mark the 68 year of WWII Victory.
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05/10/2013
The Strike UAV (SIHA) project was formally given the go-ahead by Turkey’s Defence Industry Executive Committee in July 2012 and the SSM is currently preparing an RfP for the programme’s preliminary concept phase. The work will be carried out by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), using its Anka medium altitude long-endurance UAV as the point of departure for development of the SIHA, which is expected to weigh around 5000 kg with an external payload capacity of 1000 to 1500 kg.
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05/10/2013
In southwestern Afghanistan, this reporter for The Washington Times recently hitched a ride on a helicopter manned by Afghans, including the pilot and two door gunners, as well as U.S. military personnel. The 20-minute flight was aboard an Mi-17, a Russian-made aircraft that Afghans have learned to fly.
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