Military Aviation News Archive

Report: Syria Arms Imports Surge Thanks to Russia

03/19/2012

Syria imported nearly six times more weapons in 2007-2011 than in the previous five-year period, with Russia accounting for 72 percent of the arms supplies to President Bashar Assad's regime, an international research institute said Monday.

The F-35 – the UK’s Last Manned Combat Aircraft Procurement?

03/19/2012

Recently, the UK Ministry of Defence announced that it was changing its Procurement decision on the Joint Strike Fighter, the Lockheed F-35 Lightning II, from the STOVL F-35B to the CV F-35C, with a planned order of 50 aircraft. It was deemed that the extra payload and range capability of the F-35C, coupled with the larger deck size of the new carrier provided a cost-effective procurement compared with the F-35B.

Why Syria Won't Get the Libya Treatment from the West

03/19/2012

One year ago, on March 19, 2011, Western leaders, alarmed by the disaster unfolding in Libya, voted in the U.N. Security Council to intervene militarily with "all necessary means," arguing that they could not stand by and watch civilians get massacred. As a result of the U.N. resolution, NATO launched a bombing campaign, led by Britain, France and the U.S., and flew about 10,000 bombing sorties over Libya, helping to obliterate Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year dictatorship in just seven months.

Russia Confirms MiG-29K Order for Navy

03/18/2012

Russia’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) finally awarded the Russian Aircraft Corporation a firm order for 24 MiG-29 carrier-capable fighters. MiG will deliver 20 single-seat MiG-29Ks and four MiG-29KUB two-seaters between 2013 and 2015. The Russian Navy stated its intention to introduce the MiG-29K two years ago, but the order was not confirmed until now. Currently, Russia’s sole carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov, is equipped with Sukhoi Su-33 fighters modified from the original Su-27 design.

The real mission of the Blue Angels

03/18/2012

It’s true that the fly boys of Thunder over Utah widen our eyes as they streak across our skies, it’s true that we are awestruck and entertained, and it is true that thousands coming into town to enjoy the show ought bring a weekend boost to our local economy. But when you stop and listen to more than the roar of those jets, you find that these fly boys and the fine crewmen that accompany them are here on a mission, a mission that echoes from their proud calling.

China engaging in military buildup while US cuts forces

03/18/2012

An expert on Communist China says the United States could be making a grave mistake by cutting back on defense spending while China is doing just the opposite. Beijing recently announced a new defense budget of approximately $106 billion, which equates to an 11.2-percent increase. Cheng says this increase coupled with last years 12.7 percent increase means that China is now spending more on its military than all other Asian nations combined.

AF-Guard Aircraft Brawl Continues

03/18/2012

A top U.S. Air Force official on Friday disputed the conclusions of an Ohio Air Guard captain that have caught the attention of the Pentagon and Congress - its assertion that the service inflated the lifecycle costs of its C-27J Spartan in order to justify killing the aircraft. Congress has repeatedly questioned service leaders about the analysis done to justify the cuts made to the Air Guard in the service’s 2013 budget submission.

Canada bails out of NATO airborne surveillance programs

03/18/2012

The Canadian Forces hope to save $90 million a year by pulling out of NATO programs operating unmanned aerial vehicles as well as airborne early warning planes, according to documents obtained by the Citizen. Defence Minister Peter MacKay gave U.S. officials a heads-up last year about the withdrawal, pointing out that it will free up 142 Canadians assigned to NATO for new jobs, the documents show.

Stress of combat reaches drone crews

03/18/2012

Drone crews protect U.S. ground troops by watching over them 24 hours a day from high above. Sitting before video screens thousands of miles from their remote-controlled aircraft, the crews scan for enemy ambushes and possible roadside bombs, while also monitoring what the military calls "patterns of life." Only rarely do drone crews fire on the enemy. The rest of the time, they sit and watch. For hours on end. Day after day. It can get monotonous and, yes, boring. It can also be gut-wrenchin.

China's Air Force Modernizes On Dual Tracks

03/17/2012

As China starts to put together a modern, integrated air force, which could reach 1,000 fighters by 2020, it is developing the components of a future force of stealthier combat aircraft, new bombers and unmanned, hypersonic and possibly space-based combat platforms. These could emerge as soon as the early 2020s.

Assembly of first RAAF JSF starts soon

03/17/2012

Australia's first Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft, the forerunner of as many as 100 advanced combat aircraft, is set to start down the production line in the next few weeks. Air Vice Marshal Kym Osley, head of defence's new air combat capability program, rejected criticism of the JSF by organisations such as Air Power Australia (APA) on grounds they had not seen all the classified US data on the aircraft's performance.

Swedish rescuers find wreckage of crashed plane

03/17/2012

Rescuers have found the wreckage of a Norwegian military plane that crashed with five people on board during an exercise in northern Sweden. Rescue spokesman Mathias Hansson told The Associated Press that parts of the C-130 cargo aircraft were found early Saturday scattered over a glacier on mount Kebnekaise, Sweden's highest mountain.

Supersonic biplane puts an end to those sonic booms

03/17/2012

Biplanes once ruled the skies in the pioneering days of aviation and World War I. Now the old aircraft design could make a comeback in the silent supersonic jets of tomorrow. A newer version of the biplane could reach supersonic cruising speeds without causing ear-splitting sonic booms, according to computer simulations by MIT and Stanford University researchers. They built upon the design of German engineer Adolf Busemann, who originally envisioned triangular wings connected at their tips.

Source of DoD Commercial Bandwidth Funds is Drying Up

03/17/2012

With a primary source of funding for commercial satellite capacity drying up, the U.S. Department of Defense must find an alternative means to feed the tremendous appetite for bandwidth generated by unmanned aircraft, according to a U.S. Air Force official. For the past decade or so, the Pentagon has relied heavily on Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) accounts funded by wartime supplemental appropriations bills to pay for commercial satellite services.

U.S. Chooses Aerosonde, Other UAVs for ISR Services

03/17/2012

The U.S. military has awarded contracts for UAVs to perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) services potentially worth nearly $1.5 billion. The main beneficiary appears to be AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems, which proposed the Australian-built Aerosonde small unmanned aircraft system.

Indian Acquisitions Explode On Land, In Air

03/17/2012

Filled with military deals harvested over the past few years, the Indian defense pie is getting bigger and sweeter, on land and in the air. But the country faces major hurdles in making those plans real. First, the good news: Over the next five years, India plans to renovate or replace its Soviet-era kit with $50 billion in new equipment, making Asia’s third largest economy a lucrative market for foreign companies such as Boeing and Dassault.

Turkish military helicopter crashes

03/17/2012

A Turkish military helicopter has crashed into a house near the Afghan capital, killing 12 Turkish soldiers on board and two young girls on the ground, Turkish and Afghan officials say. The helicopter, a Sikorsky, was on a mission for US-led NATO forces when it went down near Kabul on Friday, the Turkish military said in a statement. 'Twelve of our military personnel on board were martyred,' it said.

Budget 2012: Military plays catch-up but China a long march ahead

03/17/2012

Modernization of the over 13-lakh strong armed forces will continue in a steady albeit sluggish manner, with the defence outlay being hiked to Rs 1,93,408 crore (around $39 billion) to cater for some major fighter, aircraft, helicopter and howitzer deals to be inked in the coming fiscal.

Iran Produces New Military Drone

03/17/2012

Iranian experts managed to produce a new type of drone which is capable of carrying out military and border patrol missions. The new remote-controlled aircraft, called Shaparak (Butterfly), has a maximum operational radius of 50 kilometers (31 miles), and a maximum flight ceiling of 15,000 feet (4,572 meters), Reza Danandeh Hakamabad, the aeronautics engineer in charge of the project, said on Friday.

Gaddafi’s Advanced Anti-Aircraft Missiles Are Now Pointed at Israel

03/16/2012

Advanced anti-aircraft missiles which belonged to former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi have fallen into the hands of Hamas and Hezbollah, according to a new report. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department. Speaking to Aviation Week, which first broke this story, about the Russian made hardware, the Israeli official said,“They are in the Gaza Strip. I don’t know in what numbers. They also are in Lebanon.”

MIT studying how to land drones on carriers

03/16/2012

MIT says it is trying to make design changes to military drones that will enable the aircraft to recognize the hand gestures of flight crew assigned to guide them on to the deck of aircraft carriers. The Navy has long-term plans to add robotic drones to carrier air wings, and Northrop Grumman's San Diego operation has has been doing work on a prototype of the plane known as the X-47B.

Crews search for missing Norwegian military plane

03/16/2012

Search crews were looking for a Norwegian military aircraft that went missing over Swedish mountains Thursday, officials said. The Hercules airplane from the Norwegian Air Force was taking part in a military exercise when it lost radio contact with authorities, said Per Froberg, a spokesman for Sweden's air navigation services. There were five people on board.

Military giving Air Guard cuts a harder look

03/16/2012

U.S. Air Force officials confirmed Wednesday they are considering a counterproposal to a plan for cutting 5,100 jobs in the Air National Guard, including 152 at the Fort Wayne base. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said he and the chiefs of the National Guard Bureau and the Air National Guard have been reviewing suggestions on base realignments offered two weeks ago by President Obama’s Council of Governors.

China’s Defence Budget 2012: Implication’s For India’s Security – Analysis

03/16/2012

China’s Defence Budget 2012 announced in the first week of March 2012 significantly draws global and regional attention in that China has shot through its defence expenditure over the $ 100 billion mark, making China’s military expenditure at the global level, second only to that of the United States, even though there exists a wide differential between the two.

Defence Budget hiked by more than 17%

03/16/2012

With several defence deals including the one to procure 126 combat aircraft for the IAF expected to be clinched this year, the Defence Budget was today substantially hiked by more than 17 per cent to Rs 1,93,407 crore from last year's Rs 1,64,415 crore. Of the total outlay, over Rs 79,500 crore would be spent on procuring modern weapons systems and military hardware.