Military Aviation News Archive

03/30/2011
While civil aviation traffic has gone down slightly, military traffic in the flight information region handled by Malta Aviation Traffic Services (MATS) has gone up “exponentially”, according to chief operations officer Robert Sant.
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03/30/2011
Enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya required four sorties by NATO aircraft in the past 24 hours, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
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03/30/2011
A lot of self-proclaimed “patriots” seem to love oil as much as they love America. Maybe the military’s use of biofuels can change some minds, as a F-22 Raptor was able to go Mach 1.5 times on 50% camelina oil blend.
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03/30/2011
The only remaining flying Vulcan – the last all-British designed and built military aircraft – flew out of RAF Lyneham for the last time today.
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03/30/2011
Here's an insider's explanation of why the Air Force's hot new F-22 fighter jet is exactly the wrong aircraft for shooting at Qaddafi's forces on the ground in Libya.
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03/30/2011
Lockheed Martin rolled out the first aircraft in a new fleet of MC-130J Combat Shadow IIs for the U.S. Air Force’s Special Operations Command (AFSOC) during a ceremony here today.
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03/30/2011
Boeing today announced that it has been awarded a $31 million follow-on contract from the U.S. Air Force for two more C-130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) kits. The agreement, part of a low-rate initial production (LRIP) contract awarded in 2010, also includes support for logistics, engineering and installation, as well as spares support equipment.
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03/29/2011
It's even tougher if you do it Bob Haymond's way - on your stomach in the rear of an Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker flying at 21,000 feet and 300 miles per hour, while you work the controls of a 40-foot fuel hose as it plunges toward a second military plane flying so close you could spit on it.
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03/29/2011
Romania's Supreme Defense Council (CSAT) on Monday authorized the use of Romanian aerodromes by United States military aircraft, for aerial refueling, as part of the operation to enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1973.
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03/29/2011
The United States used low-flying combat aircraft against Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's ground troops, the Pentagon said Monday, but denied it was directly supporting the rebels. "We have employed A-10s and AC-130s over the weekend," US Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, director of the US military's Joint Staff, told reporters, without giving specifics about targets.
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03/29/2011
Twelve fighter aircraft of the United Arab Emirates arrived last night in the base of Decimomannu in Sardinia, preceded by an UN A-330/200 aircraft, landed at the "Mario Mameli" of Cagliari, which carried the material logistics to support the jet.
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03/29/2011
“We’re not done. We’re going to build 179 of these, and then we’ll build another 179 for the U.S. Air Force,” he said after a celebration of the company’s tanker win with U.S. Reps. Norm Dicks and Rick Larsen, both D-Wash. “My guess is there are a hundred (orders) out there internationally.”
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03/29/2011
Faulty maintenance procedures were found to have caused the March 9 in-flight failure of the engine generators aboard an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, the program office said last week. Those procedures have now been revised, and the entire fleet of F-35s has been cleared to resume flight operations.
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03/29/2011
U.S. and coalition forces have accomplished the no-fly zone aspect of the United Nations mission in Libya, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said during a television interview aired March 28.
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03/29/2011
The U.S. Army’s Joint Attack Munition Systems (JAMS) Project Office and Lockheed Martin successfully fired a multipurpose AGM 114R HELLFIRE II “Romeo” missile with a live warhead and penetrated a brick-over-block target in its sixth proof-of-principle (POP) test.
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03/29/2011
The Air National Guard is contributing to Operation Odyssey Dawn with Airmen from 11 air refueling wings supporting the international coalition enforcement of a United Nations authorized no-fly zone, National Guard officials said March 22 here.
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03/28/2011
No foreign troops will be deployed and there will be no NATO presence on the ground in Libya, NATO Spokesperson Oana Lungescu said Monday.
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03/28/2011
The 28 ambassadors of Nato's policy-making North Atlantic council met in Brussels to agree the rules of engagement for the air campaign aimed at protecting civilians against Gaddafi's onslaught, with Turkey and Germany keen to narrow the scope of the operations and France bristling at any constraints on its more gung-ho approach.
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03/28/2011
Qatar became the first Arab country to fly fighter planes over Libya in support of the coalition-imposed no-fly zone on Friday. The importance of the Qatari contribution, which is set to be followed by the UAE, was recognised by Libya's opposition movement, based in Benghazi.
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03/28/2011
The air force is in the final stages of choosing between two training aircraft, the supersonic T-50 Golden Eagle built by South Korea's Korean Aerospace Industries and Lockheed Martin Corp. of the United States, and the transonic M-346 produced by Alenia Aermacchi of Italy.
The initial order of 20-30 training jets will mark the first time in 40 years that the Israeli air force will buy jet aircraft not manufactured in the United States.
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03/27/2011
The U.S. Air Force is investigating whether the On-Board Oxygen Generating System (OBOGS) found on several U.S. Air Force warplanes, including the F-22 Raptor, might be defective.
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03/27/2011
rench fighter planes in Misrata (200 km east of Tripoli) have destroyed "at least" five Galeb fighter planes and two combat helicopters MI-35 of forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, said on Saturday the staff of the French armies.
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03/27/2011
All the missions are run at night and "we have to wear night vision goggles for the duration of the sorties," Thulin said. "It's very dark in Libya, you can see the desert, you can see the towns, but that's about it. It's much darker than I expected to be. It's much darker than our training in northern Italy."
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03/27/2011
Coalition warplanes attacked Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's home town of Sirte in northern Libya early on Sunday, the country's state television reported.
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03/26/2011
A French warplane destroyed one of Moammar Khadafy's military jets in a dramatic display of air power yesterday - the first shoot-down since the US-led coalition imposed a "no-fly" zone over Libya. The Rafale fighter jet spotted the Libyan aircraft breaching the zone as it was approaching an airfield near the embattled town of Misrata - the site of a seesaw battle between pro-Khadafy and rebel forces - and blasted it with an air-to-ground missile as it landed.
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