Military Aviation News Archive
10/15/2011
How far is China’s military reach? The answer depends on what it wants to do. A Chinese warship deployed to the Mediterranean this year, so, by that yardstick, global reach is at hand. But the isolated ship only supported civilian evacuations from Libya, and had no real military potential.
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10/15/2011
Defense leaders said Thursday that the Pentagon must be spared from deeper budget cuts than those already planned, and the nation's top military officer suggested that three separate versions of the F-35 might be unaffordable. Gen. Martin Dempsey, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee that he is "concerned about the three variants and whether we can go forward in this fiscal environment with all three."
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10/14/2011
Egyptian warplanes are patrolling the Sinai without Israeli consent, despite a 1979 peace treaty limiting Egypt’s military presence in the peninsula, Egypt’s air force chief said on Thursday. Parts of the Sinai have been off-limits to Egyptian troops under the terms of the 1979 treaty by which Israel agreed to end its occupation but in recent months the army has deployed reinforcements with Israeli consent to tackle suspected Islamist militants.
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10/14/2011
The French government has told Airbus and other contractors working on the A400M multi-role military transport aircraft program that it won't take delivery of the aircraft it has ordered starting in 2013 unless Airbus improves the terms of a maintenance contract for the planes. The move is seen as an attempt by the French government, struggling to cut public spending and shrink the country's yawning budget gap, to get more attractive pricing from Airbus on the maintenance deal.
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10/14/2011
BULLETS and bombs are so 20th-century. The wars of the 21st will be dominated by ray guns. That, at least, is the vision of a band of military technologists who are building weapons that work by zapping the enemy’s electronics, rather than blowing him to bits. The result could be conflict that is less bloody, yet more effective, than what is now seen as conventional battle.
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10/14/2011
In mid-August, talk show host Stephen Colbert asked U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice why the United States had not intervened to save the lives of Syrians as it had in Libya. Ambassador Rice replied that Syrian opposition members had told U.S. diplomats, "What they want from the United States is more leadership, political pressure, and sanctions, but very clearly no military intervention."
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10/14/2011
The Air Force and Army secretaries have sent the House Armed Services Committee a letter requesting the MC-12 "Liberty" spy plane program be kept with the Air Force, and thus at Beale Air Force Base. But a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Wally Herger, R-Chico, said the letter might not mean the MC-12's move between service branches is dead.
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10/14/2011
The Marine Corps has responded to our story on the military’s apparent manipulation of the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor’s safety record. “No one is more focused on the safety of the Marine V-22, or any other aircraft the Marines fly, than the Marine Corps,” a statement issued Thursday by the Corps assures, “because we know that those aircraft are flown by our Marines and carry our Marines and other coalition personnel into combat.”
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10/14/2011
Over the last two years, the United States has sent over the largest helicopter force ever seen in Afghanistan. Most of the aircraft in Afghanistan are helicopters, and most of these belong to the U.S. Army. By itself, U.S. Army aviation would be one of the largest air forces in the world.The U.S. Army has 20 CABs (Combat Aviation Brigades). Twelve are active duty units, and eight are from the reserves.
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10/13/2011
New statistics released by European air controllers show the vast superiority of the US air force over EU countries and the density of US military traffic in European skies.
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10/13/2011
A team at the Electronic Systems Center, working in conjunction with the Boeing Co. and personnel from several Air Force, Air Force Reserve and Army bases, is working to get important warfighter-requested capabilities onto the AWACS platform.
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10/13/2011
Under the U.S. Air National Guard evaluation of a future Light Attack and Armed Reconnaissance (LAAR) to be operated by the U.S. and Afghan air forces, the Air Force is seeking a low cost, light fighter capable of flying at altitudes up to 30,000 ft. above sea level, with a range up to 900 nautical miles, and mission endurance of six hours.
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10/13/2011
Tyndall Air Force Base received two T-38 Talon jets last week that will serve as simulated enemy aircraft for F-22 Raptor pilots. Tyndall, east of Panama City, is home of the 325th Fighter Wing which provides training for pilots of the F-22 Raptor, the country’s premier air superiority fighter.
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10/13/2011
EADS North America CEO Sean O’Keefe has applauded the U.S. Army’s call for a flight demonstration of potential offerings to replace the aging Kiowa Warrior armed helicopters.
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10/13/2011
A new batch of Mi-28N Night Hunter attack helicopters has been delivered to a pilot training center near Moscow, Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Vladimir Drik said on Wednesday. “The helicopters have been delivered to the Torzhok training center to improve the pilot training program there,” Drik said.
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10/12/2011
The 100th anniversary marking the fall of China’s last imperial dynasty upped tensions in the Taiwan Strait, with Chinese President Hu Jintao calling for “reunification through peaceful means” and his Taiwanese counterpart, Ma Ying-jeou, responding that he was just fine with the status quo. The last thing needed is outside provocation. So we applaud the Obama administration’s compromise decision last month to go ahead with a $5.85 billion deal to upgrade Taiwan’s existing fleet of F-16 fighter
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10/12/2011
Israel's quest for a new jet trainer for the air force has moved toward South Korea's T-50 after Korea Aerospace Industries said it was joining with Lockheed Martin, which makes the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Israel is buying, to market the supersonic aircraft. The air force is seeking a replacement for its fleet of Vietnam-era Douglas A-4 Skyhawks, with the T-50 Golden Eagle competing against the M-346 Master built by Alenia Aermacchi of Italy.
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10/12/2011
The U.S. Navy reached a new milestone for a futuristic new stealth drone when it successfully retracted its landing gear and flew in cruise configuration for the first time, engineers announced Tuesday. Developed by Northrop Grumman, the X-47B is a tailless, strike fighter-sized unmanned aircraft designed to take off from and land on moving aircraft carriers at sea. New images released today depict a futuristic, almost UFO-like vehicle.
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10/12/2011
Russia is desperate for the world to think of it as a superpower again. Last week, Vladimir Putin — the country’s once and presumed future president — proposed the formation of a “Eurasian Union” among former Soviet states. The move was widely seen as a challenge to the West, and a push to reestablish Moscow’s former empire.
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10/12/2011
The Army has given up on developing an entirely new armed scout helicopter for now, but plans to invite companies with existing helicopters that can do armed reconnaissance to demonstrate their wares.
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10/12/2011
Unmanned aircraft used by the Air Force for espionage and combat have been stung by malware. Should we be worried?
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10/12/2011
The U.S. Army awarded Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] a $19 million follow-on production contract for the VNsight low-light-level TV capability for Apache attack helicopters.
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10/11/2011
Insitu Inc. announced today that its ScanEagle unmanned aircraft system (UAS) delivered real-time video to Canadian Forces during the largest military exercise to date in the Far North.
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10/11/2011
The People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) on Sunday denied rumors that one of its experimental fighter aircraft had crashed during a test flight in Shaanxi Province after Hong Kong and Taiwanese media reported the news. The reports said that an all-weather, single engine J-10B -multirole fighter aircraft had crashed at the China Flight Test Establishment in Xianyang, Xi-an, adding that the pilot was killed in the accident as he attempted to save the aircraft.
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10/11/2011
The Indian Air Force (IAF) will induct in June 2013 the first of the 10 C-17 Globemaster-III heavy airlifters it has purchased from the US, and then order six more. IAF chief, Air Chief Marshal Norman Anil Kumar Browne, told India Strategic defence magazine (www.indiastrategic.in) in an interview that Boeing would deliver all the already ordered 10 aircraft between 2013 and 2014, and that once the IAF was satisfied with their performance, six more would be ordered.
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