Military Aviation News Archive
07/31/2012
The United States has spent nearly $80 billion to develop the most advanced stealth fighter jet in history, the F-22 Raptor, but the Air Force recently found out firsthand that while the planes own the skies at modern long-range air combat, it is “evenly matched” with cheaper, foreign jets when it comes to old-school dogfighting.
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07/31/2012
Strapped into the cockpit of an F-16 jet fighter, Air Force Col. Scott Brenton has dropped bombs over Bosnia, screamed over the desert in Iraq and strafed Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. But on a recent morning, Brenton flew his combat mission from a leather easy chair in a low-slung cinder block building on the edge of Syracuse.
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07/31/2012
There was at least one thing on which all the participants of the round table, which was held in the Rosbalt information agency, have agreed upon: Russia should continue maintaining the existing fleet of strategic aircraft in a proper condition and continue to upgrade them. The resources for the Tupolev Tu-95MS, Tu-160, and Tu-22?3 allow these aircrafts to remain in service for many years. In these conditions, the improvement of their equipment and weapons is one of the key tasks.
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07/31/2012
Eurocopter has delivered two NH90s to France’s DGA for their deployment by the French Army and Navy. The ceremony celebrating this dual delivery was held at Marignane, the manufacturer’s headquarters, and was attended by the DGA, Dominique Maudet, Eurocopter Group’s Executive Officer for France & Vice President of Global Business and Services, and a number of representatives from France’s armed forces.
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07/31/2012
China would be keen to sell an indigenously developed combat helicopter to India, a senior officer of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) aviation regiment said on Tuesday. Z-9WZ, designed and manufactured in China, was part of a show organised for foreign and local media that included displays and maneuvers by the helicopters on Tuesday.
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07/31/2012
In mid-June, 150 German airmen and eight twin-engine, non-stealthy Typhoons arrived at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska for an American-led Red Flag exercise involving more than 100 aircraft from Germany, the U.S. Air Force and Army, NATO, Japan, Australia and Poland. Eight times during the two-week war game, individual German Typhoons flew against single F-22s in basic fighter maneuvers meant to simulate a close-range dogfight.
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07/31/2012
The UAE will get the benefits of a new technology development in the Eurofighter Typhoon if it selects the aircraft for its multi-role combat type, the European partnership said today. On behalf of the four core nations in the Eurofighter programme, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, a Request for Proposal (RFP) has been issued by NETMA (NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency) to Eurofighter GmbH for the development of an Active Electronically Scanned Array Radar (E-Scan).
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07/30/2012
Inside a spotless hangar here, technicians work on three gleaming new Boeing 737s, painted in the drab grey favoured by the world’s navies. While two of these are marked with the US Navy logo, the third bears markings unusual for this hangar: the Indian Navy’s Devanagari logo: ‘Nau Sena’ (Navy).
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07/30/2012
From his computer console here in the Syracuse suburbs, Col. D. Scott Brenton remotely flies a Reaper drone that beams back hundreds of hours of live video of insurgents, his intended targets, going about their daily lives 7,000 miles away in Afghanistan. Sometimes he and his team watch the same family compound for weeks.
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07/30/2012
Critics say the move to unmanned aircraft blurs battlefield boundaries and makes it too easy to drop a bomb. The transition also is creating a major cultural shift for the Air National Guard.
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07/30/2012
A group of U.S. inspectors will make a one-week surveillance flight over Russia and Belarus in line with the international Open Skies Treaty beginning on Monday, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said. “In line with the implementation of the Open Skies Treaty, a U.S. mission will make an observatory flight over the Russian and Belarusian territories between July 30 and August 4 on board of an OC-135B aircraft,” the spokesman said.
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07/30/2012
The Indian army has successfully test-fired a BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, a spokesman for BrahMos Aerospace, which produces the missile, said on Sunday. “The test launch aimed to check the work of some new systems installed on the missile,” the spokesman said. The missile was launched from the Chandipur missile test range in the eastern province of Orissa.
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07/29/2012
For more than a decade, US fighter pilots have become accustomed to "owning the sky" in wars against insurgents who have no warplanes or air defenses. But in the desert outside Las Vegas, the US Air Force is trying to get back to basics, reminding pilots how to fly against a sophisticated enemy with fighter jets, surface-to-air missiles and satellite jammers.
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07/29/2012
The U.S. Coast Guard took delivery this week of its 14th HC-144A Ocean Sentry maritime patrol aircraft from prime contractor EADS North America. The Ocean Sentry is based on the Airbus Military CN235 tactical airlifter, more than 250 of which are currently in operation by 27 countries.
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07/29/2012
Last month, some college students were challenged by the Department of Homeland Security to try to hack into a drone flying over White Sands. They did it. So what does that mean for security especially in the military? Air Force officials offered some answers and a rare inside look at their remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) training program at Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo.
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07/29/2012
Military helicopters pounded a rebel-held district of Aleppo on Saturday and armoured units positioned themselves for an onslaught that could determine the fate of Syria's biggest city, opposition sources said. Turkey, once a friend but now a fierce critic of the Syrian government, joined growing diplomatic pressure on President Bashar al-Assad, calling for international steps to deal with the military build-up.
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07/29/2012
Japanese and U.S. officials will continue to try to allay the concerns of Japanese people over the safety of the U.S. Osprey military aircraft being deployed in American bases in Japan.
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07/29/2012
Servicemen may be evacuated from the Russian naval base in Tartus, Syria, if it comes under attack, Navy chief Vice Adm. Viktor Chirkov said on Saturday. “I am not the one to issue orders: We have the defense minister [for that],” he said in an interview with Ekho Moskvy Radio. “If we have to evacuate the personnel that is currently deployed there, we certainly will.”
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07/28/2012
A series of malfunctions led the Israel Air Force over the weekend to suspend midair refueling exercises as well as training flights for its fleet of older-model F-16s. On Friday, during a routine midair training flight, the hose disconnected from an F-16I - the IAF's most-advanced combat aircraft - causing light damage. The IAF decided to suspend the exercise and to land both the F-16 and the Boeing 707 refueling tanker.
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07/28/2012
Even amid mounting fears of a massacre in Syria's largest city, the United States must continue applying economic and diplomatic pressure before considering military intervention, America's highest-ranking military official said Friday.
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07/28/2012
The crash landing of the AV-8B Harrier aircraft near Felicity, Calif. Wednesday was caused by an unspecified mechanical failure, military officials stated. The site of the crash landing is still cordoned off by military and law enforcement personnel because two 500-pound bombs attached to the harrier that did not detonate upon impact still pose a danger to the public.
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07/28/2012
America's allies are extremely interested in buying U.S.-made military drone aircraft, positioning American firms well for an expected explosion of unmanned plane sales. In his global travels, Assistant Secretary of State Andrew Shapiro says he detects "an intense interest" among U.S. allies to purchase military drones.
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07/28/2012
A high-ranking source in the Russian Navy Command on Friday denied media reports that a flotilla of Russian warships will remain in the Mediterranean Sea on a permanent basis. “It’s too early to speak about the permanent presence of a naval flotilla in the Mediterranean… there’s no need for it so far,” the source said.
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07/27/2012
After two years of preparation, Colombia's Air Force participated in major military maneuvers with the United States for the first time in simulated air battles over a Nevada desert. "Not only is it a dream come true to be flying with the best air force, but it is also very important for us because we can learn a lot (...) and we can advance our integration with a very modern air force," said Colombian Brigadier General Carlos Bueno.
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07/27/2012
An AV-8B Harrier fighter jet carrying live ordnance crashed Wednesday near here, making this at least the seventh Harrier to crash in eastern Imperial County since 1996. The pilot involved in Wednesday’s crash ejected safely, a Marine Corps Air Station Yuma official said.
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