Military Aviation News Archive
06/23/2011
If you needed any more evidence as to how important unmanned aircraft have become to the US military operations, the US Air Force today said drones have amassed over one million combat hours flown. While that number is impressive, it took the planes known as Global Hawk, Predator and Reaper, almost 14 years to do it, but it could take only a little over another two years to cross the two million mark according to Air Force officials.
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06/23/2011
As the dust over rejection of two U.S. companies from the Rs. 11,000-crore Indian Air Force tender for fighter aircraft settles, official sources said the United States would also have to reconcile with India's unwillingness to sign three military pacts. The U.S. was extremely upset after Boeing and Lockheed Martin were knocked out of the race for the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA).
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06/23/2011
The Boeing Company today announced the supplier team that will provide key components for the U.S. Air Force's KC-46 Tanker. The Air Force selected Boeing on Feb. 24 to replace 179 Eisenhower-era KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft.
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06/23/2011
Iraq's Air Force has followed on a contract with Hawker Beechcraft through the American Air Force Security Assistance Training command to support the force's fleet of King Air 250ER aircraft.
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06/22/2011
The US may be out of India's $10.4 billion MMRCA deal, the biggest in recent times, but its firms are making a last-ditch attempt to at least corner a slice of the pie. US defence major Raytheon announced here that it is willing to supply missiles and weapons systems which can be integrated into both Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Aviation's Rafale, the two jets which have been shortlisted by India for the project.
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06/22/2011
Pilots from the 60th Guard Air Base are now conducting training flights after sunset in spite of the rules held for the past 15 years. The air base command set the military pilots a task of intercepting a target in the air in complete darkness with zero visibility.
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06/22/2011
Boeing could continue manufacturing variants of its F-15 Eagle — a fighter first flown in 1972 - all the way until the 2020s, the president of its military aircraft division confirmed Tuesday. If Boeing can lock in deals with the air forces of Saudi Arabia and South Korea, it could make new investments “for the long term,” Chris Chadwick told reporters, to make its Eagles or Silent Eagles as cheap and easy to produce as they’ve ever been.
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06/22/2011
Airbus Military and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) will jointly develop a new version of an early warning system for the Airbus Military C295 aircraft. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding at the Paris Air Show on Tuesday.
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06/22/2011
U.S. military pride, strength and technology are on display at the 49th International Paris Air Show at the Le Bourget Airport here June 20 through 26. Held every two years, the Paris Air Show provides an opportunity for the U.S. to showcase the best the Department of Defense has to offer in people, aircraft, equipment and training on an international stage.
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06/22/2011
NATO responded on Tuesday to a Congressional threat to cut off funding to the U.S. military involvement in Libya by saying the United States was providing unique assets essential for the success of the mission.
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06/22/2011
Boeing began final assembly of the Indian navy's first P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft this month at the company's Renton factory. The P-8I, based on the Boeing Next-Generation 737 commercial airplane, is a variant of the P-8A Poseidon that Boeing is developing for the U.S. Navy.
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06/22/2011
The Boeing C-130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) is making final preparations for five aircraft to enter the U.S. Air Force Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E) program in early 2012.
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06/22/2011
The Norwegian parliament unanimously approved the funding of four Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II training jets to begin fulfilling Norway’s future air-combat capability requirements.
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06/22/2011
In a special ceremony at its headquarters in Wichita today, Hawker Beechcraft celebrated the delivery of the 700th Beechcraft T-6. The milestone aircraft, a T-6C, was accepted by the United States Air Force (USAF) on behalf of the Royal Moroccan Air Force (RMAF). To date, all of the RMAF aircraft have been delivered on or ahead of schedule and all remaining aircraft, ground support equipment and spares are expected to be in-country ahead of schedule.
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06/21/2011
Radar and missiles major Raytheon has enhanced its presence in India with multiple tie-ups with Indian industry, and has announced that its weapons are capable of being integrated on both of the finalists' aircraft in India's medium multi-role combat aircraft competition. The final two shortlisted for MMRCA are Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale.
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06/21/2011
French aviation firm optimistic about selling multi-dimensional fighter jet to UAE, India and Brazil.
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06/21/2011
Weaponizing crop dusters . . . yeah I know I wish I'd thought of it too, but engineers at Moog Aerospace and Air Tractor beat us to it when they added weapons to the Air Tractor AT-802U single engine turboprop aircraft. No longer spraying chemicals, this lethal aircraft now has precision strike capability with bombs and guns. It is part of the static display at the Paris Air Show this week.
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06/21/2011
Northrop Grumman international head John Brooks speaks in slow, measured tones. His carefully spoken insights reflect a thoughtful, probing intellect - decades of experience in the defence industry. For nearly 30 years Brooks served in the US Air Force, rising to the rank of major general, with experience flying in the Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules and C-141 Starlifter.
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06/21/2011
Nato has admitted civilians were killed during an air strike in Tripoli in the early hours of Sunday morning in the first acknowledged civilian casualties caused by the alliance during the three-month bombing campaign.
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06/21/2011
The first of four C-130J Super Hercules for the Qatar Emiri Air Force took to the skies over the Lockheed Martin facility in Marietta, Ga., June 8.
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06/21/2011
ockheed Martin announced a new website for the F-35 Lightning II aircraft at the Paris Air Show today. The site, http://www.f35.com, provides the most up-to-date information on the F-35 program, including history, program updates, news, photos and videos.
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06/21/2011
Lockheed Martin announced an update to its media briefing schedule for the 2011 Paris Air Show. These events will underscore Lockheed Martin's commitment to meeting our customers' needs in the new reality of increasing global security challenges and affordability requirements.
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06/21/2011
China's fifth-generation fighter program is more for effect than substance, Russia's leading aircraft maker said on Monday.
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06/21/2011
European manufacturer Airbus' hopes of wooing international customers with displays from its military and civil flagship aircraft were hit by a double blow.
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06/19/2011
Prompted in part by the prospect of squeezed Pentagon budgets, U.S. defense groups have been consolidating operations in pursuit of higher value, higher technology pursuits. At L-3 Communications, as at both Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman previously, this means shifting out of service activities where margins are tighter and there is less scope for differentiation in a tight market, according to the New York-based group’s chairman, president and CEO Michael Strianese.
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