Military Aviation News Archive
12/08/2011
The Department of Defense (DOD) is looking to mobile application development to improve its development of sensors for drones and other military surveillance, reconnaissance, and intelligence vehicles.
Read More...
12/08/2011
The current financial crisis in Greece has led to enormous cutbacks in government spending. The military has not been exempt. This year alone, the defense budget will be cut about a third. Over the next two years, the reduced budget will be cut another 15 percent. The army will lose 11 of its 30 brigades, but the air force has disbanded one of 16 squadrons, but kept the aircraft in service by moving them to surviving squadrons. The navy has retired some older patrol boats.
Read More...
12/08/2011
France warned on Wednesday that defence giant Dassault would halt production of its Rafale multirole fighter jet if it remains unable to sell any abroad. "If Dassault doesn't sell any Rafales abroad, the production line... will be stopped" once France has received the 180 aircraft it has ordered, Defence Minister Gerard Longuet told a small group of journalists including AFP.
Read More...
12/08/2011
U.S. moves to strengthen its military alliances in Asia are not aimed at containing China, a top U.S. defense official said Thursday. She said her comments came in response to Chinese questions about a decision to base 2,500 Marines for training in Australia next year. Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy said she communicated that message to her Chinese counterparts during annual defense talks in Beijing.
Read More...
12/08/2011
The United States is in discussions with Libya over ways to help rebuild the country's military, which the U.S. military considers essential to unify the country and bring rival militias under national control.
Read More...
12/08/2011
An airborne signals intelligence system configured specifically for the newest C-130J aircraft has been delivered to the U.S. Air Force by Lockheed Martin. The system, which is part of the Senior Scout program that enables C-130 aircraft to be used for tactical signals intelligence and reconnaissance, will undergo acceptance testing in December.
Read More...
12/08/2011
Lockheed Martin delivered the first Modernized Day Sensor Assembly (M-DSA) upgrade prototype units to the U.S. Army for use on the Apache attack helicopter. Five System Design and Development (SDD) Laser Rangefinder Designators (LRFDs) were recently delivered to the Army under a three-year contract awarded to Lockheed Martin in September 2008 to modernize the Apache’s Day Sensor Assembly.
Read More...
12/07/2011
Russia started the first day at an arms show in Malaysia with a preliminary agreement on the delivery of six Su-30MK2 fighters to Indonesia, the Kommersant business daily said on Wednesday. Kommersant cited a Russian source at the talks with Indonesia during the LIMA-2011 arms show on the main island of Langkawi as saying that a contract on the Su-30MK2 delivery could be signed as early as by the end of 2011.
Read More...
12/07/2011
So just how often do US military drones "disappear"? The US military acknowledged Sunday that one of its unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAV’s, had gone missing over western Afghanistan late last week. “The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status,” a statement released by NATO forces in Afghanistan said Sunday.
Read More...
12/07/2011
The U.S. drone that apparently fell into Iran's hands was part of a joint CIA-military reconnaissance operation, Fox News has learned. A senior U.S. official confirmed to Fox News that the spy plane was being used for the CIA-military operation along the Afghan-Iranian border when it lost connectivity and disappeared.
Read More...
12/07/2011
Eurofighter Typhoon will take pride of place as one of the highlights of the daily flying display at LIMA 2011 as it debuts at the show. On Tuesday 6 December the world’s most advanced multi-role combat aircraft, flown by BAE Systems’ Typhoon Test Pilot, Nat Makepeace, will take to the skies for the first time over Langkawi, demonstrating its incredible agility and speed.
Read More...
12/07/2011
Combat Electromagnetic Environment Simulators for E-3 aircraft are being provided to the U.S. Air Force by Northrop Grumman. The CEESIM system will be used to support maintenance of the U.S. Air Force E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System, Electronic Support Measures Operational Computer Program software.
Read More...
12/07/2011
Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $835,000,000 firm-fixed-price, time-and-material and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for a Foreign Military Sales Program which will provide the government of Iraq with the following: 18 F-16 C/D Block 52 Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft (12C models and 6 D models); support equipment; technical orders; integrated logistics support; and contractor logistics support.
Read More...
12/07/2011
The Department of Defense is already preparing for more than $400 billion in spending cuts over the next 10 years, and if the automatic reductions dictated by the 2011 Budget Control Act are not reversed, that number will increase by an additional $500 billion–$600 billion.
Read More...
12/07/2011
The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] on Nov. 28 received a U.S. Navy contract under the Foreign Military Sales Program to provide the first major upgrades for the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) fleet of eight F/A-18D Hornet fighter aircraft.
Read More...
12/06/2011
Although it's by no means out of the woods yet it seems clear now that the 3DS is having a good Christmas. Key games Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 are both excellent and to judge by the charts they seem to be selling well. But while Nintendo has been shocked into action with their own games they’ll need to rely on other companies to pad out the rest of the system's release schedule. Something this new Ace Combat manages surprisingly well.
Read More...
12/06/2011
Spring 2012 at NAS Patuxent River, Md., and an unusual shape joins the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters flying the pattern at the U.S. Navy’s test center. The tailless flying wing is Northrop Grumman’s X-47B unmanned combat air system demonstrator (UCAS-D), being prepared for autonomous landings on an aircraft carrier in 2013.
Read More...
12/06/2011
The Indian Navy briefly touches upon the national consciousness every year on December 4 when it celebrates Navy Day to commemorate its successful sea-borne bombing of the Karachi harbour in the 1971 war with Pakistan. Similarly, it now makes news whenever its warships successfully interdict Somali pirates and rescue merchant vessels off the Gulf of Aden or elsewhere.
Read More...
12/06/2011
The first set of two Mirage 2000 combat jets of the Indian Air Force (IAF) have flown out for upgrade at the facilities of Thales, the French defence and aerospace giant, as part of a $1.35 billion deal for the 51-aircraft fleet. "Two aircraft - a single seater and a double-seater - have flown out to the French Air Base near Istres. The aircraft will reach Monday-Tuesday after halts in two countries in the Gulf and two in Europe," Thales country director Eric Lenseigne said.
Read More...
12/06/2011
Service in the drone squadrons of Israel, the world's oldest military operator of pilotless aircraft, sometimes begins on the fields of teenaged model plane enthusiasts. Veteran air force officers scout new talent among radio-controlled model clubs, a drone commander said Monday during a rare media tour of his unit.
Read More...
12/06/2011
The global economic crisis and the pressure it creates on defense spending means the U.S. and its allies must agree on new ways to split and share their military responsibilities, a top former U.S. defense official said.
Read More...
12/06/2011
An interservice battle fueled by disagreements over the purchase and operation of small, fixed-wing cargo planes has divided the Air Force from its own National Guard component and the Army. The debate between the parties over the future of the C-27J cargo aircraft, built by L-3 Communications and Alenia, has intensified in recent weeks in advance of the Pentagon finalizing its 2013 budget proposal, which is expected to determine the fate of the program.
Read More...
12/06/2011
Gloom and doom from one side, glee and visions of sugar plum fairies from the other: As usual, the Pushmi-pullyu beast that is America’s political elite has it exactly wrong as it weighs the dire (or wondrous) implications of “Draconian” cuts facing the U.S. armed forces over the next decade.
Read More...
12/06/2011
A U.S. super-secret spy plane believed to be in Iranian possession could be a major loss for the U.S. military -- and a major gain for Iran. According to a senior U.S. military source with intimate knowledge of the Sentinel drone, the aircraft likely "wandered" into Iranian air space after losing contact with its handlers and is presumed to be in tact since it is programmed to fly level and find a place to land, rather than crashing.
Read More...
12/06/2011
Lockheed Martin received two contracts totaling $30.6 million from the Naval Surface Warfare Center for the Target Sight System (TSS), the fire control system for the U.S. Marine Corps’ AH-1Z Cobra attack helicopter.
Read More...