Military Aviation News Archive
06/14/2011
American and Afghan officials are locked in increasingly acrimonious secret talks about a long-term security agreement which is likely to see US troops, spies and air power based in the troubled country for decades.
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06/14/2011
Since winning the $4 billion contract from the U.S. Air Force for development and engineering of the KC-X refuelling tanker last February, Boeing has provided only generalities on the design of its KC-46A. Last week, during a series of media briefings in Philadelphia and St. Louis preceding the Paris Air Show, Dennis Muilenburg, CEO of Boeing Defense & Space CEO, said, “We don’t do airplane design in the public realm.”
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06/14/2011
The House Appropriations Committee cut $8.9 billion from the Pentagon's 2012 budget request, according to the panel's defense appropriations bill, which was released a day before lawmakers meet to mark up the legislation. The panel, which meets Tuesday, is providing $530 billion for the Pentagon's 2012 base budget.
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06/14/2011
The Central Intelligence Agency plans to use armed drones to try to kill al Qaeda militants in Yemen, where months of antigovernment protests, an armed revolt and the attempted assassination of the president have left a power vacuum, U.S. officials say.
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06/14/2011
Canada's combat role in Afghanistan is on track to end in July, and troops are beginning to wind down their military operations and prepare for the journey home. But for a group of specialized military "movers" tasked with staying behind to prepare, pack up, and 'rack and stack' the gear for shipping, months of work is just beginning.
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06/14/2011
The Indian Air Force could lose its combat edge over rivals in the neighbourhood in the next 10 years if it fails to keep pace with its modernisation targets, Air Chief Marshal PV Naik has warned. He said China had embarked on a "modernisation spree" and there had been "considerable development" of infrastructure and "induction of assets across India's northern and eastern borders".
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06/14/2011
NATO allies Poland and the United States signed a deal on Monday for the stationing of U.S. airforce personnel on Polish soil, a symbolically important move for Warsaw as it keeps a nervous eye on neighbouring Russia.
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06/13/2011
Royal Navy fighter pilots are being forced to learn French in order to operate on board France’s flagship aircraft carrier.
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06/13/2011
Russia's Ambassador to India, Alexander M. Kadakin, has said that the Indian Government's decision to reject his country's MiG-35 fighter jets would not affect bilateral ties between the two countries.
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06/13/2011
After more than $77 billion and five years, the F-22 Raptor has never been to war and now can’t even get off the ground. With wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ongoing and bombing raids over Libya, the jet that was once touted as one that “can never be matched” sits, immobile. On Wednesday, Air Command Communications in Langley, Va., had three words regarding the plight of the F-22 Raptor: “Still grounded, sir.”
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06/13/2011
The RNoAF will reduce its F-16 contribution to four jets and will totally withdraw it forces from the NATO-led operation by August 1st, the government said Friday. Defense Minister Grete Faremo said she expects understanding from NATO allies because Norway has a small air force and cannot "maintain a large fighter jet contribution for a long period."
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06/13/2011
In some alarming remarks, U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye was reported as saying in a recent speech that "the U.S. should get ready for continued struggle with China." As relayed by Star-Advertiser columnist Richard Borreca, the context makes clear Sen. Inouye did not just mean political struggle but military struggle, for he said he has concluded over his many years of service "that war is nearly unavoidable" ("Inouye warns against U.S. letting down its guard in Asia,").
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06/11/2011
India’s plans to modernise its ageing air force have triggered a tit-for-tat Pakistani programme that could exacerbate strategic tensions in South Asia, officials and analysts told "The National". Defence analysts said the planned air force expansions were part of an arms race between India and Pakistan that dates back to the 1960s and the height of the Cold War.
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06/11/2011
For the second time in two days, India today successfully test fired indigenously developed air-to-air Astra interceptor missile with an 80 km range from Chandipur in Orissa.
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06/11/2011
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics officials say the company is just days away from delivering its first F-35 Lightning II aircraft to Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.
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06/11/2011
Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, was awarded on June 8 a $107,582,787 modification to a previously awarded fixed-price-incentive-firm contract (N00019-09-C-0010) for the procurement of one Low Rate Initial Production IV conventional take off and landing F-35 aircraft for the government of the Netherlands, including ancillary mission equipment/pilot fighter equipment items.
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06/11/2011
A Senate aide believes there is a feeling among US lawmakers that the Obama administration wants Congress to be responsible for the sale of F-16C/D jets to Taiwan.
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06/11/2011
The Air National Guard has grounded training flights from its Madison base after an F-16 fighter plane crashed this week in central Wisconsin.
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06/11/2011
America’s key strategic alliance throughout the cold war is in far deeper trouble than most members admit. The Atlantic allies face a host of new and old dangers. Without more and wiser European military spending — on equipment, training, surveillance and reconnaissance — NATO faces, as Mr. Gates rightly warned, “a dim if not dismal future” and even “irrelevance.”
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06/11/2011
We’ve written before about the Army’s experiments with how it might use smartphones or tablet computers on the battlefield, but it’s starting to look behind the curve: Consumer-grade mobile devices are already in service elsewhere in the military, including the war zone. Sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson use Apple iPads — a whole crate of ‘em, by the looks of it — to help manage geographical information in the ship’s combat information center.
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06/11/2011
Boeing delivered a second C-17 Globemaster III airlifter to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Air Force and Air Defence today at the C-17 program's final assembly facility in Long Beach. The company is contracted to deliver a total of six C-17s to its UAE customer - four this year and two in 2012.
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06/10/2011
Boeing has revealed its KC-46A tanker is heavier and slightly longer than any previous version of the 767-200 airframe on which it is based, but still refuses to provide essential details about the airframe configuration and refuelling system more than three months after winning the KC-X contract. The company's clamp-down on design details is a departure from its practice on the P-8A, which also involved adapting an airliner, a 737, for a military mission, and in the first round of the KC-X bid
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06/10/2011
Boeing's P-8A Poseidon sub hunter for the U.S. Navy is the base off of which the company could relatively cheaply and easily build other 737-based military aircraft, executives said Wednesday. The Navy plans to purchase 117 of the 737-based P-8As to replace its turboprop Lockheed Electra-based P-3 Orion fleet. The first is set to enter service in 2013.
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06/10/2011
A resolution inspired by Western nations critical of civilian killings in politically-beleaguered Syria is facing threats from two veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council: Russia and China.
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06/10/2011
The Indian air force (IAF) has long had big ambitions, and the pending arrival of a new leader with a broad agenda indicates there will be no easing up in efforts to strengthen the service’s capabilities. The first major revamp of the IAF’s order of battle—revival of border air bases to counter Chinese air force deployments, along with quick acquisitions of new weapons and systems—will be operational priorities for Air Marshal Norman Browne, who takes over as IAF chief at the end of July when A
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