Military Aviation News Archive
05/13/2011
Air Force Fighter Plane Crashes in Gboko - A Nigerian Air Force Fighter Jet F-7Ni at the early hours of Wednesday, crashed at Mbaniongu Mbazaam, near Yandev in Gboko local government area of Benue State. The ill fated jet crash landed near the Yandev Community Secondary School, at kilometer 4, Buruku road, but no casualties were recorded in the accident. In a statement by the Command Public Relations Officer of the Tactical Air Command of the force in Makurdi, Wing Commander Adebayo Makun, the t
Read More...
05/13/2011
In the U.S. Army, aviation remains a growth industry, especially the unmanned kind. The service continues to purchase hundreds of drones, ranging from large Predator-like aircraft to backpack size Ravens. Now the Army is seeking yet another big-ticket item: a long-endurance unmanned helicopter that can fly at high altitudes and survive in extreme weather conditions. While the Army owns and operates hundreds of fixed-wing unmanned air vehicles, rotary-wing UAVs have been a tough sell. After many
Read More...
05/13/2011
A Canadian Forces detachment of five CF-18 Hornet jet fighters last week completed its deployment to Keflavik, Iceland, in support of the NATO-Iceland Air Policing Program.
Read More...
05/13/2011
Fort Wayne’s fighter-jet base is an example of the Air National Guard’s accomplishments and challenges during a budget crunch, the Guard’s top officer said Wednesday on Capitol Hill. Lt. General Harry Wyatt was responding to questions from Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing. Coats noted that the 122nd Fighter Wing in Fort Wayne made “a successful conversion” from F-16 jets to A-10 planes last year.
Read More...
05/13/2011
India may have ejected American fighters out of the $10.4 billion race to supply 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) but US really has no reason to crib. Decks have now been cleared for the biggest-ever Indo-US defence deal: the $4.1 billion contract for 10 C-17 Globemaster-III giant strategic airlift aircraft.
Read More...
05/13/2011
Boeing received a $23.7 million contract on May 9 to perform Initial Production Fielding Support modifications on 49 CH-47F Chinook helicopters at the Boeing Millville Modification Center. The contract period extends the current work of modifying Chinook aircraft at the Boeing Millville facility for another year, from May 2011 through April 2012.
Read More...
05/12/2011
Leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee called on the Pentagon today to re-examine U.S. military basing plans in East Asia, saying billions of dollars may be saved in South Korea, Japan and Guam.
Read More...
05/12/2011
The US Navy deployed an unprecedented three aircraft carriers to support Operation Geronimo, and gave very strong air cover to the SEALs who hunted down Osama bin Laden in Pakistan’s Abbotabad city. An analysis of the operation, the deployment pattern, and the possibilities of a clash with Pakistani forces clearly indicate that at least two squadrons of the US Navy’s sophisticated F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets, one or two EA-18 G Electronic Attack Growlers, two aerial refuellers and one E-8C Joint Su
Read More...
05/12/2011
The Air Force is planning to buy a "light attack and armed reconnaissance" aircraft for use by U.S. and foreign pilots in counter-insurgency warfare. At about $10 million per plane, it's probably the cheapest combat aircraft the service will buy in this century -- which is one reason why few politicians or pundits are paying attention. But the competition to select a winning aircraft raises broader questions about the way the military buys weapons, and in particular whether Pentagon policymakers
Read More...
05/12/2011
Russian Helicopters, which designs and manufactures civil and military rotorcraft, has indefinitely suspended an initial public offering (IPO) in which it expected to raise $500 million in London and Moscow, the company said on Wednesday.
Read More...
05/12/2011
Lockheed Martin F-35 Program Flight Test Update, May 11th, 2011 -- Since the last F-35 flight test program update issued March 31, Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II aircraft have conducted 125 test flights, bringing the total number of flights for the year to 331.
Read More...
05/11/2011
"This is turning into the best shop window for competing aircraft for years. More even than in Iraq in 2003," a prominent defense analyst told Reuters. "You are seeing for the first time on an operation the Typhoon and the Rafale up against each other, and both countries want to place an emphasis on exports. France is particularly desperate to sell the Rafale."
Read More...
05/11/2011
Bangalore: The maiden flight of the naval variant of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) will take to the skies in July, exactly a year after it rolled out from the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited's (HAL's) Aircraft Research and Design Centre hangar in Bangalore. "We would be conducting the first flight of the LCA Naval Prototype-1 (NP1) – a trainer aircraft -- in July. The aircraft is currently undergoing a series of ground tests, and preparations are on for the flight certification which is mandator
Read More...
05/11/2011
The F16 is a 40-year-old single-engine aircraft which has been the mainstay of the Pakistani Air Force while the F18 did not fulfil the IAF's parameters.
Read More...
05/11/2011
The Indian Defence Ministry’s announcement that the Russian Mig-35 failed to make the short list for the Indian tender to purchase 126 warplanes under the MMRCA (Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft) programme was bad news for the Russian Aircraft Building Corporation MIG. But it was not exactly a “bolt from the blue”. The result was expected. Why?
Read More...
05/11/2011
A Honeywell Inc. system for providing oxygen to F-22 pilots is being investigated as a possible source for malfunctions that prompted the Air Force to ground its premier fighter jet after reports of five incidents since late April, according to officials. “The inquiry is not solely focused” on Honeywell’s on- board oxygen generating system, Air Combat Command spokeswoman Captain Jennifer Ferrau said in an e-mail. “However, that is one area investigators will look at.”
Read More...
05/11/2011
Lockheed Martin has installed its 1000th GKN Aerospace-manufactured nacelle for its C-130J military airlifter on the second of four aircraft destined for the Qatar Emiri Air Force.
Read More...
05/11/2011
The first F-35A production aircraft that will be delivered to Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., later this year takes off from Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base on Friday, May 6, with Lockheed Martin test pilot Bill Gigliotti at the controls.
Read More...
05/11/2011
Boeing today delivered the first of six C-17 Globemaster III airlifters to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Air Force and Air Defence during a ceremony at the company’s final assembly facility in Long Beach.
Read More...
05/10/2011
The maiden test flight in January 2011 of China's J-20 stealth fighter prototype is an important strategic milestone in several different respects, and is part of an ongoing effort by China to develop advanced military technology. The J-20 is the first combat aircraft developed by China that qualifies as "state of the art" by Western measures. It also shows that China has mastered "stealth shaping" technology—the essential prerequisite for developing stealth aircraft.
Read More...
05/10/2011
Northrop Grumman will today unveil a small new spy plane that it secretly developed in San Diego and the Mojave Desert to compete in the fast growing market for aircraft that can do everything from stalk terrorists to patrol borders to provide live video of natural disasters.
Read More...
05/10/2011
Mr Obama visits Poland at the end of the month and is expected to confirm the stationing of F16 combat aircraft on Polish soil during meetings with Bronislaw Komorowski, his Polish counterpart, and other central and eastern European leaders. Citing diplomatic sources, the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza claimed that 16 US jets will move from their current home at the Aviano air force base in Italy to Lask in central Poland, and will be stationed on a rotational basis from 2013.
Read More...
05/10/2011
Details on the Chinese J-20 fighter are scant as the project has been developed under extreme secrecy, but an analysis conducted by the conservative Washington D.C.-based defense policy think tank The Jamestown Foundation based on the little publicly available information concluded that the fighter "will be a high performance stealth aircraft, arguably capable of competing in most cardinal performance parameters... with the United States F-22A Raptor, and superior in most if not all cardinal per
Read More...
05/10/2011
US company Alliant Techsystems (ATK) has formally announced that it had been contracted by Jordan’s King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau (KADDB) to convert two CASA/Airbus Military CN-235 twin-engine transport aircraft into light gunships for the Royal Jordanian Air Force.
Read More...
05/10/2011
The U.S. Air Force has accepted into its fleet the first of a planned 1,763 production-model Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters.
Read More...