Military Aviation News Archive
09/08/2011
India will procure over 300 Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter jets and Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA) at a total cost of Rs 64,408 crore to strengthen the combat capability of the IAF, the government said today. Replying to a question on procurement of combat aircraft in the Rajya Sabha, Defence Minister A K Antony said, "Su-30 MKI aircraft and Tejas LCA are the major modern combat aircraft that have been contracted for induction into the Indian Air Force."
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09/08/2011
As many a driver knows to their cost, putting the wrong thing in your petrol tank at the local garage is an embarrassing business. But when it's military aircraft you're dealing with instead of a Ford Focus - such a mistake can be very expensive indeed. That's what red-faced air chiefs have discovered after de-icer was wrongly added to £1.5million of aviation fuel – rendering it unusable.
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09/08/2011
It is bit of a trick question: It happened last week when 28 of the fighter jets took off from Langley Air Force Base to avoid tangling with Hurricane Irene. But the experience was more than historical trivia for pilots of the 1st Fighter Wing, who have been unable to fly their aircraft since early May. The Air Force grounded its Raptor fleet on May 3, expressing initial concerns about its oxygen supply system, then expanding its examination to encompass the entire aircraft.
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09/08/2011
For four years, a doctor commuted between his clinics in Texas in a $5 million turboprop with jazzy metallic stripes and ruby stones embedded on the drink cabinet inside. The plane featured exotic wood veneers and polished chrome, and his daughter’s initials were in the tail number.
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09/07/2011
Iran began testing its military aircraft in a first phase of war games on Tuesday, official news agency IRNA reported. During the 10-day war games, different types of Iranian aircraft - including the domestically manufactured Saeqeh (Thunderbolt) - will be tested.
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09/07/2011
Granting Taiwan's politically sensitive request for new F-16 fighter aircraft would merely maintain the island's air power capabilities, not boost them, the chief executive of Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), the plane's manufacturer, said on Tuesday.
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09/07/2011
A MiG-21 ‘Bison’ fighter aircraft crashed into a paddy field on Tuesday near Shambu, about 15 km from Rajpura in Patiala district, during a routine sortie, while the pilot ejected to safety. The aircraft was on a routine sortie from Ambala airbase and the crash occurred at 10:30 am when it developed some snag while returning to the airbase from Rajpura side.
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09/07/2011
Thanks to the provisions of the Budget Control Act and the subsequent directions of President Obama's budget director, Jack Lew, the Department of Defense is figuring out how to trim $1 trillion from its current and planned budgets. Perhaps the principal target in the sights is the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program (aka the Lightning II.
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09/07/2011
When Marine Cpl. Dakota Meyer plunged into Afghanistan's Ganjgal Valley, he was sure he wouldn't come out alive. "I don't think there was ever a question in my mind if I was going to die," Meyer said. "It was just when." Inside the narrow valley, Taliban insurgents were dug into the high ground and hidden inside a village, pouring down deadly fire at Afghan forces and their American advisers. Armed militants swarmed the low ground to try to finish off the troops.
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09/07/2011
Soldiers who fly hand-launched drone scouts to spot enemies on the battlefield may soon get a deadly robotic device capable of also delivering a knockout blow. The U.S. Army has ordered its first batch of small suicide drones that are capable of launching from a small tube, loitering in the sky and then diving at a target upon command.
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09/07/2011
Boeing today announced it has been awarded a one-year, $2.9 million contract by the U.S. Air Force to develop and validate a modification of the A-10 aircraft's Digital Video Audio Data Recorder (DVADR). The modification will provide a near-term solution to supportability issues with a major subcomponent in the DVADR system.
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09/07/2011
The Lockheed Martin led unmanned K-MAX® team successfully completed a five-day Quick Reaction Assessment (QRA) for the U.S. Navy’s Cargo Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) program.
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09/07/2011
Investigators have found one of the two flight recorders at a crash site of a Russian MiG-31 Foxhound fighter jet in the Urals, a source in the investigation committee said. The jet exploded in a fireball minutes after taking off from a military airfield in the Perm region in the early hours of Tuesday. Both pilots were killed in the crash. "We have found one of the flight recorders and will continue the investigation of the crash site tomorrow," the source told RIA Novosti.
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09/07/2011
A Russian Mikoyan MiG-31 fighter jet crashed in the Urals on Tuesday, killing both pilots, officials say. The jet exploded in a fireball minutes after taking off from a military airport in the Perm region in the early hours of Tuesday. It was on a routine training flight, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said.
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09/06/2011
Boeing strategic alliance with Bell Helicopter – Textron, ‘The Bell Boeing (NYSE:BA) V-22 Program’ has received a $34 million order from the U.S. Air Force. The Bell Boeing (NYSE:BA) V-22 Program will deliver a new Wing Part Task Trainer to Kirtland. According to the contract the Bell Boeing (NYSE:BA) V-22 Program will upgrade a CV-22 Cabin Part Task Trainer (CPTT) and two fuselage aircrew/maintenance trainers at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., to create a full-fuselage Cabin Operational Flight
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09/06/2011
On September 1, 2011 at the Irkutsk Aviation Plant’s airfield – a subsidiary of JSC IRKUT Corporation, pilots of Algerian Air Force performed first solo flights on the Yak-130 combat trainer jet.
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09/06/2011
Irkut Corporation's plans to upgrade the Indian Air Force's (IAF's) Su-30MKI fleet will provide the fighter with capabilities similar to that of fifth-generation combat aircraft, Russian industry officials have said. Speaking at the Moscow Air Show on 19 August Alexei Fedorov, the head of Irkut, announced that in addition to upgraded cockpit avionics and enhancements to the aircraft's radar, the so-called 'Super Sukhoi' will also receive modifications aimed at improving stealth capabilities.
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09/06/2011
European countries, who take the lead in NATO's Libya mission, could not get the job done without vital military capabilities provided by the United States, the alliance's chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Monday.
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09/06/2011
Lockheed Martin, the world's largest defense company, is counting on stealth technology to beat Boeing and Eurofighter in a Japanese fighter contest that may be worth more than $4 billion. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has better anti-radar capabilities than Boeing's F-18 Super Hornet and Eurofighter's Typhoon, as it was specifically designed in a shape that would be hard to detect, said Craig Caffrey, a London-based analyst at IHS Jane's DS Forecast, which advises defense suppliers.
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09/06/2011
The reach and capability of China’s navy and air force are expanding, posing a growing risk to security in Asia, military officials say. A new aircraft carrier that began sea trials this summer and the public test flight in January of an advanced fighter jet designed to rival U.S. technology are just two examples of China’s growing military might, U.S. officials say.
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09/05/2011
A frame agreement for the maintenance of Bulgarian-owned jetfighters MIG-29 was signed Saturday between the Bulgarian Defense Ministry and the Russian aircraft corporation MIG. The agreement was sealed at the Krumovo airfield where Bulgaria is marking the 100th anniversary of the country's aviation with a large-scale, two-day air show, titled "Skies for Everyone."
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09/05/2011
The whereabouts of about 30 Ugandan pilots, who were flying with the Libyan air force, are unknown, following the rebels’ capture of Tripoli, Libya’s capital. The pilots, who have been flying with the Libyan airforce since 1979, were sent to Russia for training by former President Idi Amin’s regime. A source in security circles, who was privy to the pilots’ training, said; “the majority of them were from the West Nile.”
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09/05/2011
The investment should remind local authorities that just two decades ago, Romania was one of the top ten countries in the world in the field of airplane manufacturing. Prime Minister Emil Boc walks confidently towards the stand. He smiles broadly at the audience and begins his speech by congratulating the Premium Aerotec division of the EADS group for its “successful investment” in the aircraft components factory in Ghimbav.
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09/05/2011
A summer of discontent for the U.S. Defense Department and Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-35 Lightning II may be followed by an even tougher autumn as Congress' debt-ceiling "super committee" mulls big defense budget cuts that could affect the next-generation stealth jet fighter.
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09/05/2011
The Air Force is taking a deliberate, measured approach to an apparent technical problem that has kept its F-22 Raptors on the ground since May 3. The problem may have contributed to a crash last year that killed Capt. Jeffrey “Bong” Haney, 31, of the 525th Fighter Squadron, the “Bulldogs.”
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