Military Aviation News Archive
03/29/2012
Boeing today announced that the UK Ministry of Defence has signed an agreement for the acquisition of one C-17 Globemaster III, bringing the Royal Air Force (RAF) fleet of the world’s most advanced airlifters to a total of eight. Boeing is scheduled to deliver the eighth C-17 later this year.
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03/29/2012
Boeing delivered the last of the Chilean Air Force’s three KC-135E Stratotankers on March 9 after all the aircraft completed Programmed Depot Maintenance (PDM) in San Antonio. The final aircraft arrived at Boeing’s San Antonio facility in June for the maintenance work, which included a variety of depot-level inspections, repairs, maintenance, modification and repainting.
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03/28/2012
Senior leaders from Air Force Reserve Command assembled here March 26-27 during the 2012 Senior Leader Conference to discuss the future of the command.
The theme of this year's conference was "Full Operational Capability: Full Spectrum Combat Capability with Unparalleled Efficiency" and how the Air Force Reserve fits into the big picture of the total force.
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03/28/2012
Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer said on Wednesday it booked $180 million in orders for its Super Tucano light attack fighters for border monitoring and counter-insurgency missions in Burkina Faso, Angola and Mauritania.
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03/28/2012
Before the launch of a top-secret spy satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base, a fleet of small drones will be doing some spying of their own.
In yet another use of robotic aircraft, RQ-11 Raven drones equipped with high-powered video cameras will fly around the craggy launch site northwest of Santa Barbara, scouring the ground below to ensure that the area is clear for blastoff.
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03/28/2012
The US Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) scoping out the possibility of buying a full-motion simulator for its fleet of Polish-built PZL M-28 Skytruck light transport aircraft.
A Request for Information (RfI) issued by the USAF is designed to help the service in "assessing the viability of procuring an M-28A Weapons System Trainer," the document reads. The USAF asks potential contractor to respond by 30 April.
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03/27/2012
Embraer said it expects a cancelled US Air Force contract for light attack aircraft to be re-tendered “within weeks” in a deal seen as crucial to the defence ambitions of the Brazilian aircraft producer. Embraer’s bid to sell 20 of its Super Tucano to the US for use in Afghanistan comes as the world’s third largest commercial jet maker is looking to grow its defence sales by nearly 10 per cent this year.
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03/27/2012
AUSTRALIA'S Cocos Islands territory could be used as a staging point for spy flights by United States military drones over the South China Sea, according to an US newspaper report.
Citing US and Australian sources, The Washington Post said the Pentagon was eyeing the Indian Ocean territory's coral atolls as an ideal site to launch Global Hawk surveillance drones, as well as manned surveillance flights.
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03/27/2012
The severe budget austerity gripping much of Europe does not augur well for air forces looking to achieve leaps in capability for the next decade. It is somewhat a matter of luck, then, that foreign demand is effectively pushing stingy treasuries to provide funding to field upgrades. The list of European militaries likely to benefit from these export-driven enhancements is long and includes the Swedish, French, British and German air forces.
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03/27/2012
Business leaders, elected officials and others in Michigan are joining forces to persuade Air Force brass to pull back the throttle on their plan to cut hundreds of Air National Guard personnel in Macomb County, Battle Creek and Alpena. The planned cuts have done the seemingly unthinkable.
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03/27/2012
Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer has selected AdaCore's GNAT Pro avionics software as part of its strategy to upgrade Brazilian Air Force AMX combat aircraft. GNAT Pro, a commercial-grade open source software written in Ada computer programming language, has seen its usage expand from aviation to other means of transport and public and private sector systems.
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03/27/2012
Europe's ability to develop next-generation combat aircraft has been dangerously eroded, and will reach "a point of no return" unless collaborative funding decisions are made soon, a new industry study warns. Commissioned by the European Defence Agency (EDA), the Future Air Systems for Europe (FAS4Europe) group study says "the situation for future air systems is severe, with some important industrial capabilities and technologies already at risk".
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03/27/2012
The message is embarrassing but clear: with India failing to get its act together to build a strong defence-industrial base (DIB) unlike China, it will continue to be the world's largest arms importer in the foreseeable future. So, gleeful global armament giants are again lining up to hard-sell their aircraft, helicopters, drones, submarines, howitzers, futuristic infantry combat vehicles, missiles, assault rifles and carbines at India's biennial arms jamboree here.
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03/27/2012
The first night refueling in the history of the Lockheed Martin F-35 program was completed Thursday at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Piloted by U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Peter Vitt, AF-4, an F-35A conventional takeoff and landing variant, rendezvoused with an Air Force KC-135 tanker and successfully received fuel through the F-35’s boom receptacle.
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03/27/2012
Airbus Military has successfully completed receiver qualification of the two primary aircraft-types that the UAE Air Force will refuel from the three A330 MRTT multi role tanker transports that it currently has on order.
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03/26/2012
It may seem difficult to believe, but the United States can fly an unarmed military reconnaissance aircraft anywhere over Russia and 32 other nations, with only 24 hours notice of the intended flight plan. The Russian Federation has a reciprocal right to conduct aerial photography flights over the United States and other treaty members. Over 840 of these reconnaissance missions have been flown over Europe, Russia and North America since 2002 under the auspices of the Open Skies Treaty.
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03/26/2012
Congress and the Pentagon are in favor of commissioning stealthy new bombers at $55 billion apiece. But it's not clear why we need so many expensive features. When the Obama administration dispatched three B-2 bombers from a Missouri air base on March 19 last year to cross the ocean and reach Libya, it put roughly $9 billion worth of America's most prized military assets into the air.
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03/26/2012
There have been a number of articles lately about the U.S. developing a new unmanned aerial vehicle in secret. Dave Majumdar, at Air Force Times, recently had an article about how the U.S. Air Force’s decision to postpone development of a next generation unmanned combat aircraft suggests that service might be developing something else in the “black world.”
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03/26/2012
A recent study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) indicates India was the biggest arms importer in the period 2007-11, accounting for 10 percent in the weapons volume. China, which in 2006 and 2007 was the world’s top arms importer, has now dropped to fourth place. Globally the volume of international transfers of major conventional weapons was 24 percent higher during 2007-11, as compared to the 2002-06.
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03/26/2012
Boeing will showcase a comprehensive portfolio of products and services at Defexpo India 2012, including the C-17 Globemaster III, P-8I, AH-64D Apache, CH-47F Chinook, V-22 Osprey, ScanEagle and 737 Airborne Early Warning & Control. Defexpo takes place March 29 to April 1 at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi.
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03/25/2012
A decision on the choice of the Royal Navy's new combat jet has been delayed yet again following disagreements between senior officers and defence ministers. The Government is poised to perform an about-turn on its choice of plane to fly from two new aircraft carriers that will enter service in 2020.
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03/25/2012
The US Air Force has begun to deploy Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptors upgraded with enhanced air-to-ground strike capabilities to the operational fleet, starting with the 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska. "The 525th Fighter Squadron was the first Combat Air Forces squadron to receive an [Increment] 3.1 modified aircraft," says squadron commander Lt Col Paul "Max" Moga.
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03/25/2012
With the guts of a Boeing 767 commercial airplane, the new KC-46A air refueling tanker, under development by the Air Force, will present a significant advancement in refueling technology when it rolls off the assembly line in four or five years.
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03/25/2012
Media coverage of President Barack Obama’s high-profile visit to Australia and plan to boost U.S. presence in Asia may mask America’s shrinking global footprint. The combination of concern over China and the U.S. debt crisis could set Washington on a course to becoming a mere regional power in the Asia Pacific.
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03/24/2012
The U.S. Air Force has released a draft request for proposals (RFP) for the combat rescue helicopter (CRH) program, a successor to the ill-fated CSAR-X competition to replace the service’s Sikorsky HH-60G Pave Hawk search-and-rescue helicopters. The CRH will be a scaled-back version of the $15 billion CSAR-X program. The Pentagon settled on Boeing’s HH-47 Chinook in 2006 for the program but ultimately cancelled the order in 2009 after successive protests, amended proposals and delays.
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