Military Aviation News Archive
03/05/2013
In just a few weeks, the French air force will take delivery of the very first operational A400M from Airbus Military’s final assembly line in the Spanish city of Seville. Not only will it mark a key milestone for the €20bn-plus (£17bn) programme, but it will also have major significance for Britain, both for the military and for industry through manufacturing and exports.
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03/05/2013
Ukraine is considering leasing out a carrier-deck pilot training site in Crimea to other countries, Ukrainian First Deputy Defense Minister Oleksandr Oleinik said on Monday. Under a 1997 bilateral agreement, Russia occasionally uses Ukraine's Nitka Naval Pilot Training Center as the only training facility for its carrier-based fixed-wing pilots, but that could change, Oleinik said.
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03/05/2013
Russia will deliver attack helicopters and air-defense systems to Iraq before the summer, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Monday. Delivery of the Russian arms will start as soon as financial matters are dealt with, he added. “I believe the first arms deliveries from Russia to Iraq will start before the beginning of the summer at the latest,” he said in an interview with Golos Rossii Radio.
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03/04/2013
More than £300m is to be invested in training and defensive equipment linked to the introduction of the RAF's new transport fleet, it has been announced. The MoD is buying 22 A400M Atlas transport aircraft to replace the RAF's fleet of C-130 Hercules planes, with the first aircraft set to enter service in late 2014.
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03/04/2013
Choppergate raises question marks over Dassault's re-entry into MMRCA. Dassault Aviation flew back into the race after being ejected initially for technical non-compliance. Deal to acquire 12 helicopters from AgustaWesland for VVIP use has gone sour due to allegations of kickbacks paid to alter tender requirements in its favor.
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03/04/2013
Effective 21st-century warfare requires the ability to conduct airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and strike mobile targets anywhere, around the clock. Current technologies, however, have their limitations.
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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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