May, 2022 Military Aviation News
05/31/2022
Finland will deploy the US-made F-35 fighter jets to its northernmost region, Lapland, to deter the aggression from Russia as it seeks membership in the defensive alliance NATO. Helsinki is expected to receive the first batch of the aircraft in four years’ time, the country’s air force reportedly said in a statement.
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05/31/2022
The Indian Air Force (IAF) is cutting down its largest fighter jet procurement programme by half and has indicated the likelihood of a change in the procurement model to one which is more acceptable to foreign suppliers for compliance to Make in India requirements in view of the reduced numbers.
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05/31/2022
Taiwan on Monday reported the largest incursion since January by China's air force in its air defence zone, with the island's defence ministry saying Taiwanese fighters scrambled to warn away 30 aircraft in the latest uptick in tensions. Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has complained for the past two years or so of repeated missions by China's air force near the democratically governed island, often in the southwestern part of its air defence identification zone.
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05/30/2022
According to reports, at least one surface-to-air missile was launched at F-16 fighters while they were departing after striking Iranian targets near Syria’s northwestern city of Masyaf.
Exactly who operates the S-300 systems in Syria is unclear. However, reports suggest that Russian military personnel oversee operations of the Syrian S-300s, and Damascus needs Moscow’s authorization before it can fire them.
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05/30/2022
The Japanese government is considering choosing British aerospace and defense contractor BAE Systems to support prime contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) in developing the F-X next-generation fighter aircraft for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF), informed sources said.
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05/30/2022
The announcement to base the first F-35 multirole aircraft up north was made by the Finnish Air Force on Friday. “The Air Force’s F-35 fleet will be commissioned first to the Lapland Air Force in Rovaniemi in 2026,” Air Force Commander Brigadier General Juha-Pekka Keränen said.
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05/30/2022
Ukraine pushes back Russians to previous positions around Sievierodonetsk and a reported small counteroffensive had taken place in Kherson Oblast; meanwhile, Rusia had taken control of Lyman and Svitlodarsk. Ukraine says Russia has lost about 30,000 soldiers since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia continues to construct fortifications in Kherson Oblast.
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05/29/2022
Hundreds of Lithuanian citizens rallied together to raise nearly $5 million to purchase an advanced military drone for Ukraine to use in its ongoing war against Russia. The fundraiser was completed in just three and a half days, and was largely comprised of small donations from ordinary Lithuanian citizens, Reuters reported Saturday, citing Laisves TV, a Lithuanian internet broadcaster that launched the effort. The money, a total of $4.7 million, will now be used to purchase a Bayraktar TB2 mili
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05/28/2022
Ukraine has started receiving Harpoon anti-ship missiles from Denmark and self-propelled howitzers from the United States, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Saturday, saying the arms would bolster forces fighting Russia's invasion. "The coastal defence of our country will not only be strengthened by Harpoon missiles – they will be used by trained Ukrainian teams," Reznikov wrote on his Facebook page.
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05/28/2022
President Vladimir Putin has signed a law enabling people over 40 to enlist for the armed forces. They are expected to be people of normal working age. Previously the army had age limits of 18-40 years for Russians and 18-30 for foreigners. Russia is presenting it as a move to recruit more technical specialists. The new law says specialists are required to operate high-precision weapons and "experience shows that they become such by the age of 40-45".
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05/28/2022
Tensions with Russia have been escalating in the area since Finland and Sweden submitted applications to join NATO on May 18. A Mikoyan MiG-31 'Foxhound' and a Sukhoi Su-24 'Fencer' jet were intercepted near Norway’s airspace on Thursday. The jets were observed outside Finnmark, in Norway's far north, but did not enter official Norwegian airspace.
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05/28/2022
The relevant statement was made by the Air Assault Forces Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. “Today Ukrainian servicemen from the anti-aircraft artillery missile battalion of the 95th Separate Air Assault Brigade have shot down another combat helicopter used by Russian occupiers, Ka-52 ‘Alligator’,” the report states.
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05/28/2022
A Swiss alliance seeking to block the purchase of F-35 fighter jets said Friday it had received nearly enough support to put the controversial military contract to a referendum. The left-wing Stop F-35 alliance said it had almost secured the 100,000 signatures required under Switzerland’s direct democracy system to force an issue to a vote. The consortium has said it does not want the jets because they are costly, and because of a number of technical issues reported with the planes.
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05/28/2022
“Today, May 27, around 14.00 o’clock a MiG-29 fighter of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shot down a Russian fighter Su-35, which posed a threat to Ukrainian aircraft in the sky of Kherson region”. This is the very short text that has been released few hours ago on Telegram and other social networks by the Ukrainian Air Force.
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05/27/2022
The Armed Forces of Ukraine eliminated almost 90 Russian invaders, also destroying a helicopter and two enemy mortars in the past day. That’s according to the Operational Command East’s report on Facebook, seen by Ukrinform. It is noted that Ukrainian defenders continue to hold back Russian troops in the east.
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05/27/2022
The commander of the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), Brigadier Carlos de Almeida Baptista Júnior, stated on Monday that he will seek to reduce the number of KC-390 Millennium ordered from Embraer from 22 to 15 units. This is the second time that the FAB intends to reduce the acquisition of the KC-390. Originally 28 units had been ordered from Embraer, but the reduction in the expected Defense budget because of the economic crisis resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.
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05/27/2022
Ukrainian air defenses have claimed another victim: a top Russian fighter pilot. Kanamat Botashev, a retired major general in the Russian Air Force, was killed when his Su-25 ground attack aircraft was hit by a Stinger missile, according to the BBC’s Russian-language service (English translation here), which contacted three of Botashev’s former subordinates.
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05/27/2022
The U.S. military estimates that Russia has lost nearly 1,000 tanks and “a not insignificant amount” of personnel in its now three-month long attack on Ukraine, a senior U.S. defense official said Thursday. “We believe they’ve lost or rendered inoperable almost 1,000 of their tanks in this fight,” the official told reporters, but noted that “they still have a lot left available to them.”
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05/26/2022
Alert 5 reported that US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin disclosed during a press briefing which the Czech Republic has transferred its attack helicopters to Ukraine. “I’m especially grateful to Denmark, which announced today that it will provide a Harpoon launcher and missiles to help Ukraine defend its coast. I’d also like to thank the Czech Republic for its substantial support, including a recent donation of attack helicopters, tanks and rocket systems.
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05/26/2022
Four Chinese H-6 bombers and two Russian Tu-95 bombers conducted joint flights together on Tuesday around Japan and the Republic of Korea, prompting both countries to scramble fighter aircraft to monitor the flights. The joint flights took place the same day U.S. President Joe Biden was meeting his Australian, Indian and Japanese Quad grouping counterparts in Tokyo, though both the Russian and Chinese defense ministries stated that the flights were part of their annual military cooperation plan.
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05/26/2022
A short overview of developments at the front as of the evening of 24 May 2022 according to military expert Roman Ponomarenko: The battle for the Donbas is underway, where Putin has deployed a lot of forces. In Luhansk Oblast alone, the Russians have 25 battalion-tactical groups (20,000 soldiers) and according to President Zelenskyy’s May 23 statement, they have “20 times more equipment” in the Donbas than the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
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05/26/2022
It’s a history steeped in remarkable figures: 54 world records, two million flying hours, operated by 26 different entities across 22 nations, and able to be configured for 17 quite different mission objectives. But now Lockheed Martin’s C-130J Hercules has reached another milestone: the delivery of the 500th airlifter in early 2022.
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05/24/2022
Denmark will arm Ukraine with with a modern Harpoon anti-ship launcher and missiles to protect its coasts, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday after concluding the latest U.S.-led meeting of international defense chiefs to coordinate military aid for Ukraine.
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05/24/2022
With Helsinki and Stockholm now formally requesting membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the world will reach an important juncture. The overwhelming Western anger at Vladimir Putin’s Russia makes ratification by NATO’s 30 legislative branches a strong likelihood in the weeks or months to come. Turkey is objecting now, but some degree of debate, as well as give and take, within the alliance is normal in such matters.
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05/24/2022
Uruguay is negotiating the purchase of six to 12 A-29 Super Tucano aircraft from Brazil for up to $40 million, defense news site Infodefensa reported. The deal would include parts, tools, and replacement material. “Considering the operational availability of these aircraft and the existence of Uruguayan pilots capable of flying them, it would be a matter of a few months to organize a schedule of deliveries, training of flight and ground personnel, as well as the adequacy of facilities.
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05/24/2022
Throughout my 10-year flying career in the United States Air Force, the A-10C Thunderbolt II, affectionately dubbed the Warthog, has been the subject of divestment. There is a joke amongst the A-10 community that discussions of getting rid of the A-10 started 2.5 minutes after the last one rolled off the Fairchild-Republic assembly line in 1984. Despite such quips, there is one resounding fact that defines our community; the mission comes before the plane.
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05/24/2022
Two Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter aircraft have arrived in India to showcase their operational capability at a naval facility in Goa as the Indian Navy plans to acquire a fleet of combat jets for its indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) Vikrant, people familiar with the development said. The demonstration by the aircraft will start this week at the shore-based test facility (SBTF) at INS Hansa, the naval air station in Goa, they said.
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05/24/2022
A veteran Russian diplomat in Geneva has resigned over his country’s invasion of Ukraine in a rare political protest from within the Russian foreign policy establishment. Boris Bondarev, a counsellor at the Russian permanent mission to the United Nations in Geneva, wrote in a public statement: “Never have I been so ashamed of my country.”
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05/23/2022
Technicians linked to the Syrian military’s infamous barrel bombs that have wreaked devastation across much of the country have been deployed to Russia to help potentially prepare for a similar campaign in the Ukraine war, European officials believe. Intelligence officers say more than 50 specialists, all with vast experience in making and delivering the crude explosive, have been in Russia for several weeks working alongside officials from Vladimir Putin’s military.
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05/23/2022
Images of wrecked and abandoned vehicles — casualties in Moscow's invasion of Ukraine — are calling into question the quality and reliability of Russian-made military hardware. A recent report by the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute found that the conflict has damaged the reputation of Russia's defence equipment in Southeast Asia, once a source of considerable revenue for the country.
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05/23/2022
In what was called dubbed a “Special Military Operation,” Ukraine was invaded on Feb. 24, 2022 by a vast Russian army, seeking—in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s own words—to turn Ukraine into a neutral and disarmed state, as well as to “de-Nazify” its government. Russia’s “Special Military Operation” is indistinguishable from a high intensity, full-scale war between unequal contenders: On one side, a nuclear superpower with a vast manpower pool deploying huge stockpiles of modern weapons.
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05/23/2022
The need for speed for military aircraft has long been crucial, especially during the Cold War Era. Whether it’s to outrun the enemies, shorten the aircraft’s exposure to enemy airspace, or prevent the anti-aircraft systems from achieving a full lock and targeting it, speed has long been a reliable form of defense. This had changed in recent years when modern advances focused on stealth and progress in interception methods means the once untargetable and speedy SR-71 was no longer invulnerable.
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05/22/2022
Firefighters were today battling a blaze at a major Russian aerospace institute. The blaze with thick black smoke was at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute in Zhukovsky, a facility involved in research on Russian warplanes. The inferno seen on videos is the latest at strategic Russian sites during the war with Ukraine with suspicions that some may be sabotage.
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05/22/2022
The war in Ukraine has increased Beijing’s sense of urgency to prepare for any change to Taiwan’s status quo, according to analysts, with satellite imagery confirming mainland China has stepped up efforts to get its military shipbuilding schedule back on track. Recent pictures from commercial satellites show construction has resumed at a rapid pace at several shipyards run by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) conglomerate.
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05/22/2022
In the last few years, Beijing has not only increased economic and political pressure on Taiwan but has also flown warplanes across the mutually respected median line. It has become a pattern for the Chinese air force to infiltrate the island’s ADIZ while also deploying its naval forces to conduct drills. The repeated flouting of norms has prompted Taiwan to regularly dispatch its fighter jets to intercept Chinese planes.
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05/22/2022
The report assessed the total combat capabilities of various air services worldwide and rated them accordingly. The Indian Air Force was ranked higher than its regional rival China and placed above the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF), the Israeli Air Force, and the French Air and Space Force. The WDMMA employs a formula that considers values associated with the total combat strength of various countries’ air forces.
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05/21/2022
China’s dependence on Russian fighter aircraft engines may soon affect the People’s Liberation Army Air Force fleet if Russia can’t service or provide engines or parts for up to 40 percent of the Chinese fighters, experts at the China Aerospace Studies Institute conference said May 17.
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05/21/2022
Seven Chinese military aircraft flew into the southwest corner of Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ) Thursday, according to the Ministry of National Defense (MND). The sortie comprised of one Y-8 electronic warfare aircraft, one H-6 bomber, four Shenyang J-16 fighter jets and one Sukhoi SU-30 fighter.
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05/21/2022
So, it is reported that along the entire defense line, the Russian invaders use combat aircraft, multiple launch rocket systems, barrel artillery of large calibers, tanks, mortars of various systems, and also launch rocket and bomb attacks on civilian infrastructure, peaceful residential areas.
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05/21/2022
The US Eielson Air Force Base (AFB) in Alaska has completed the task of standing up two F-35A Lightning II fighter aircraft squadrons. US Air Force (USAF) 354th Fighter Wing (FW) completed its fleet after receiving the final fifth-generation aircraft. A ceremony was held at Eielson AFB on 13 May to mark the achievement.
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05/20/2022
Over the past 24 hours, Ukraine’s Air Force destroyed 20 units of Russian armored vehicles, as well as shot down a cruise missile and a Su-34 fighter-bomber. This was announced on Facebook by the Ukrainian Air Force Command, Ukrinform reports. "On May 18, Air Force strike aircraft under cover of fighter jets hit the area where enemy equipment had been amassed.
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05/20/2022
Wargames that the U.S. Air Force has conducted itself and in conjunction with independent organizations continue to show the immense value offered by swarms of relatively low-cost networked drones with high degrees of autonomy. In particular, simulations have shown them to be decisive factors in the scenarios regarding the defense of the island of Taiwan against a Chinese invasion.
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05/20/2022
The video that you can find in this post has started doing the rounds in the last couple of days.
According to some sources, it was shot in the Severodonetsk region, in the eastern side of Ukraine, and shows two Ukrainian Air Force Su-25s [the guy who filmed it is allegedly Ukrainian and says "it's ours"], whereas other sources on social media identified the attack aircraft as Russian Aerospace Forces Frogfoot aircraft.
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05/19/2022
China's 'One China' Principle and its policy, 'One Country, Two Systems' are ironic to each other. The principle is a desire of China to occupy the island of Taiwan while its policy is a lullaby to promise that Hong Kong would enjoy the same democratic traditions and institutions that its residents used to enjoy even after it is transferred to Beijing.
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05/19/2022
Today, May 18, in the Donetsk and Luhansk directions, Ukrainian defenders repulsed 16 enemy attacks. Fighting continues at two more locations. The press service of the Joint Forces Group has said this in a statement.
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05/19/2022
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine turned the spotlight on Turkey’s status as a regional power. Sweden and Finland’s expected bid to join NATO could further boost Turkish influence if the concerns raised by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who noted his objection to possible Swedish and Finnish membership in the US-led alliance, could be addressed.
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05/18/2022
The Air Force announced Monday it has successfully tested a hypersonic missile off the California coast, marking the latest development in the U.S.' race to catch up to Russia and China in fielding its own weapon on the battlefield. A B-52 Stratofortress bomber out of Edwards Air Force Base released an Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon -- otherwise known as an ARRW -- on Saturday, and the missile reached sound-shattering speed.
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05/18/2022
Eighteen Chinese military aircraft flew into the southwestern and southeastern parts of Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Friday. According to the Ministry of National Defense (MND), the Chinese planes came in two sorties. The first group which flew into Taiwan's southwestern ADIZ was made up of one Y-8 electronic warfare aircraft and two KJ-500 third-generation airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) planes.
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05/18/2022
The Ukrainian military repulsed 12 enemy attacks in the area of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) on May 17, and fighting continues at four more locations. According to Ukrinform, the JFO's press service said this on Facebook. As of 21:00 on May 17, the Ukrainian Joint Forces continued to conduct a defensive operation in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
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05/18/2022
On Monday, Greek government sources confirmed that Greece has decided that the fifth generation fighter aircraft of the Air Force will be the US F-35. Speaking to the Athens-Macedonia News Agency (AMNA) the same sources said that PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed the desire for Greece to join the F-35 program during his meeting with President Biden at the White House.
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05/18/2022
The Russian army has resorted to an increasing reliance on indiscriminate artillery bombardment in Ukraine due to an unwillingness to risk flying combat aircraft. According to Ukrinform, the UK Ministry of Defense said this in its latest intelligence update published on Twitter.
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05/17/2022
China has created mockups of a Taiwanese port and military vessel as targets to test its ballistic missiles, a former Taiwanese Navy officer revealed. Retired lieutenant commander Lu Li-Shih said that the newly-built port appears to be a simulation of the Su’ao naval base in northeastern Taiwan based on satellite images he obtained. He further stated that the nation created a mockup of a Kidd-class destroyer in the desert of China’s Xinjiang province.
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05/17/2022
Sweden and Finland are moving to join NATO, ending decades of neutrality, expanding NATO's border with Russia, and giving the organization a boost in combat power. The move toward the alliance by Sweden and Finland can be seen as a major rebuke of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who sent troops to Ukraine in February, purportedly in part due to concerns about the expansion of the NATO alliance.
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05/17/2022
Around 80 airmen and seven aircraft from the Finnish Air Force are set to participate in the Swedish Air Force’s exercise, Luftförsvarsövning 22 (LFÖ 22). The exercise will take place in southern and central Sweden from 18 to 25 May. Among the seven Finnish Air Force’s aircraft are six F/A-18 Hornet multi-role combat aircraft and one Pilatus PC-12NG multipurpose liaison aircraft.
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05/17/2022
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said recently that Ukraine's military had shot down its 200th Russian aircraft — a figure few would have believed before the war began. "Russia has not lost so many aircraft in any war in decades," Zelensky said in his nightly video message last Friday.
That number can't be independently verified. Still, it points to one of the most striking facets of the war: instead of dominating the skies as expected, Russian pilots are so vulnerable they're reluctant to enter
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05/16/2022
The Air Force has for now dropped plans to retire most of the A-10 ground-attack jets that form a major mission at Tucson’s Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, after the plan was rebuffed by Congress last year. But the Air Force is again moving to retire some A-10s, and recently revealed documents show more than half of the A-10s in service aren’t deployable overseas because the Air Force is starving the aging fleet of critical maintenance and upgrades.
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05/16/2022
Servicemen of the Ukrainian Joint Forces have destroyed two Russian helicopters, three tanks and six armored fighting vehicles over the past day. The Ukrainian Joint Forces reported this on Facebook, according to Ukrinform. According to the report, Ukrainian fighters continue to conduct a defensive operation in their area of responsibility in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
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05/16/2022
After a deal with India for the induction of anti-ship Brahmos missiles, the Philippines government seems interested in upgrading its fleet of military aircraft with help from Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).
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05/16/2022
Military lessons from the Ukraine war are being absorbed quickly in Asia. The message for democracies arming against the threat from authoritarian regimes is to select weapons that are simple and available rather than small numbers of expensive and complex ships, aircraft and vehicles that may not survive the first hours of conflict.
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05/16/2022
The U.S. Air Force is moving to divest as many as 260 A-10 Warthog aircraft to pursue alternative platforms for Close Air Support (CAS) given that the famous “flying tank” has become unable to maintain its effectiveness in new high-threat environments. However, the A-10 is not disappearing quickly, and debate about its utility to the Air Force continues to surge among lawmakers and other advocates for the combat-tested, highly survivable aircraft known for saving lives in combat.
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05/14/2022
In the night between May 10 and 11, 2022, a U.S. Special Operations aircraft carried out highway operations in western Latvia, marking the first-ever landing of a U.S. military aircraft on a Latvian highway. As part of the annual Trojan Footprint 22 multinational exercise, a U.S. Special Operations Command C-146A Wolfhound, serial #12-3085, landed on the narrow two-lane, A9 highway near Biksti, in western Latvia.
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05/14/2022
Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine failing and its forces are inadequately equipped. That is the assessment of UK defence minister Ben Wallace, who addressed the ongoing war during remarks at the National Army Museum in London on 9 May. Wallace, the Conservative MP for Wyre and Preston North, is a graduate of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.
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05/14/2022
A People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) intelligence ship is currently operating off the north-west shelf of Australia, the Australian Department of Defence said Friday. Australia’s DoD identified the vessel as China’s Dongdiao-class auxiliary intelligence ship Haiwangxing (792) and released imagery and video of the ship.
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05/14/2022
Combat avionics experts at Lockheed Martin Corp. will supervise redesign of the panoramic display in the U.S. F-35 joint strike fighter to stave-off the effects of electronics component obsolescence under terms of a $43.6 million order announced Wednesday.
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05/13/2022
The US Air Force (USAF) reservists and F-35A Lightning II fighters from Hill Air Force Base (AFB), Utah, have participated in Exercise Sentry Savannah 2022. This is the first time USAF reservists and active duty from Hill AFB, an all-volunteer combat-ready force, have participated in the two-week exercise.
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05/13/2022
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said during a visit to the US in April that India would like to be a "good friend" to Western countries. But she added that India didn't want to be weakened, and needed to ensure its security - taken to mean its long-standing reliance on Russian military equipment - would continue.
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05/13/2022
The activities took place in waters between 160 kilometers southwest of Okinawa Prefecture’s Okidaito Island and 150 kilometers south of its Ishigaki Island, said Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi. “The recent activities by the Chinese military may be an attempt to improve their ability to operate aircraft carriers and conduct operations in more distant waters and airspace,” Kishi told a news conference.
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05/13/2022
U.S. Air Force Maj. Josh ‘Cabo’ Gunderson, F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team commander, performs during an air show in Fort Worth, Texas, Oct. 17, 2020. The F-22’s raw power and thrust vectoring technology gives the aircraft super maneuverability in the air-to-air battlespace.
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05/12/2022
Vladimir Putin's Donbas offensive is faltering due to heavy losses and Ukrainian resistance and may even collapse if Russia is unable to muster up significant new combat power, military expert Justin Bronk writes today. Despite the Russian president refocusing efforts from his failed Kyiv offensive to eastern Ukraine, Russia has so far failed to make significant ground in the Donbas region.
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05/12/2022
The first known photo has surfaced of Australia’s newest intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare aircraft, a highly modified version of the Gulfstream G550 business jet, as is seen at the top of this story. The aircraft, dubbed the MC-55A Peregrine by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), was spotted flying from Gulfstream's plant in Savannah, Georgia.
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05/12/2022
Thales has received an order to supply its Scorpion Helmet Mounted Displays (HMD) for the US Air National Guard’s F-16 Falcon combat aircraft fleet. The initial order has been placed under the Nato Support & Procurement Agency’s Aviation programme. The contract under the programme aims to facilitate the procurement of Scorpion HMD and other associated equipment by Nato nations.
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05/11/2022
China's military said on Wednesday that it had monitored and warned a U.S. warship that had sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait, a mission that happened shortly after China carried out drills near the island. The U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet said the guided-missile cruiser USS Port Royal conducted a "routine" Taiwan Strait transit through international waters "in accordance with international law" on Tuesday, the second such mission in two weeks.
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05/11/2022
Recent satellite imagery shows that China is continuing to actively develop its facilities on the disputed Subi Reef in the South China Sea, two months after a top U.S. commander said Beijing had “fully militarized” it.
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05/11/2022
Dozens of fighter jets from across the country have congregated at a center on Georgia's coast this month for "Sentry Savannah," the Air National Guard's largest air combat training exercise.
At least 48 combat jets have taken over the runways at the Air Dominance Center, located at the Savannah Air National Guard Base, in an example of how planes from the active-duty Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, as well as reserve units, use the space.
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05/11/2022
Unmanned aerial systems have rewritten the rules of war, intelligence-gathering and so much more – and now they’re about to change yet again. That isn’t the result of a new aircraft. It’s coming about as the result of ingenious innovation applied to an existing aircraft, the MQ-9B SeaGuardian, which is gaining the ability to do something no aircraft in its class has ever done before: short takeoff and landing, or STOL.
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05/10/2022
China’s aircraft carrier CNS Liaoning (16) has been launching fighters near Japan since last week all the while being shadowed by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer helicopter carrier JS Izumo (DDH-183), according to Japanese forces.Liaoning, together with the Type 055 destroyer CNS Nanchang (101).
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05/10/2022
The Jolly Green II combat rescue helicopter was poised to follow in the footsteps of its predecessor, the Pave Hawk — a stalwart during the war in Afghanistan, time and again rescuing American troops and allies trapped in enemy territory. But in its fiscal 2023 budget released in late March, the U.S. Air Force unveiled a surprise: It wants to scale back its total planned purchases of the Jolly Green II HH-60W by one-third, to 75 in all, citing concerns they could be shot down.
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05/10/2022
Airpower should have been one of Russia’s greatest advantages over Ukraine. With almost 4,000 combat aircraft and extensive experience bombing targets in Syria, Georgia, and Chechnya, Russia’s air force was expected to play a vital role in the invasion, allowing the Russian army to plunge deep into Ukraine, seize Kyiv, and destroy the Ukrainian military. But more than two months into the war, Vladimir Putin’s air force is still fighting for control of the skies.
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05/09/2022
Information we have from sources with Ukraine’s military shows the Russian army continues to bleed men, tanks, APCs, aircraft, artillery, and even ships and patrol boats to attacks by Ukrainian forces. On Saturday, we have these figures of Russian losses from just the Donbas and Luhansk regions: 19 tanks, 20 armored combat vehicles, 4 special armored vehicles, 6 soft-skinned vehicles. 1 special engineering vehicle.
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05/09/2022
The French Defense Procurement Agency DGA took delivery of the seventh Atlantique 2 (ATL2) maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) upgraded to standard 6 on April 25, 2022, and delivered it to the French Navy (Marine Nationale) at the Lann-Bihoué naval air base.
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05/09/2022
Observers record an increase in the activity of the Ukrainian Air Force in the Eastern and Southern regions facing attacks from the Russian army. So far, photos and videos that have appeared on social media in the last few days confirmed that the Ukrainian Armed Forces still have a significant majority of their air combat power available to them, both fixed-wing and rotary-wing.
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05/08/2022
Kyiv said Saturday it has destroyed another Russian ship near the Black Sea's Snake Island, where Ukrainian forces were awarded for heroism after rebuffing Russian demands to surrender. Ukraine's defence ministry said in a statement an armed drone had destroyed a Serna-class landing craft and a missile defence system at the small island under Russian control.
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05/07/2022
The Armed Forces of Ukraine have destroyed one Russian aircraft and 14 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over the past day. The relevant statement was made by the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
“The enemy’s combat aviation continues to act on distance, without entering the air space controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the report states.
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05/07/2022
Taiwan on Friday reported that 18 Chinese military aircraft entered its air defense identification zone (ADIZ). According to the Ministry of National Defense, the planes included six J-11 fighter jets, six J-16 fighter jets, two Xi’an H-6 bombers, two KJ-500 airborne early warning and control aircraft, one Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine warfare plane, and one Shaanxi Y-8 electronic warfare aircraft, reported Taiwan News.
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05/07/2022
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, many of the world’s nations have sought to support Ukrainians by sending weapons. Even before that, though, many countries were offering limited help as a result of the Russian takeover of Crimea, in southern Ukraine, in 2014.
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05/07/2022
The “Warthogs” are back in Europe. Ten Maryland Air National Guard A-10C Thunderbolt II jets arrived in Iceland on Thursday, U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa said in a statement Friday. Designed to destroy Soviet tanks during the Cold War, the iconic attack plane nicknamed for the guttural sound its cannon makes is expected to train over various parts of Europe.
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05/07/2022
The U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) plans to activate a second squadron of adversary aircraft to meet the future air combat training needs of its strike fighter squadrons. The second aggressor squadron will provide the East Coast with training assets similar to those of the West Coast.
According to the Marine Corps Aviation Plan 2022, released this week, the 402nd Marine Fighter Training Squadron (VMFT-402) will be activated in fiscal year 2023 at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina.
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05/06/2022
The Russian Baltic Fleet has announced that it carried out a series of simulated missile strikes of its nuclear-capable Iskander system. This is not the first time that the Russian exclave – roughly the size of Northern Ireland and wedged between Nato and EU members Poland and Lithuania – has made the headlines as part of Russia’s sabre-rattling.
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05/06/2022
The Russians made extensive use of air support by combat aircraft and helicopters. Airstrike missions were launched from airfields in Russia at targets on the front lines in the north, center, and east. Airstrikes were directed primarily at urban targets, while helicopters mainly engaged Ukraine forces in the open areas. Airstrikes employed Su-25, Su-24, and Su-34, while Su-30 provided air cover.
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05/06/2022
In what could be seen as a tough response, a Chinese Y-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft reportedly conducted a maritime patrol mission near the island of Taiwan on May 3, Global Times reported. There have been speculations that the Y-8 aircraft was involved in an accident in March this year.
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05/06/2022
During the Korea Security and Defense Forum held on May 4 in Seoul, a proposal was made to add more FA-50, F-35, and KF-21 fighter jets to shorten the replacement period of its F-4 Phantom and F-5 Tiger II fighters, by three to five years. According to local media news2day, the question was raised at the Air Force Power Development Direction Seminar was held, where the need to accelerate the decommissioning of its older fighter jets to replace them with new «up to date» aircraft was discussed.
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05/06/2022
On Tuesday, the Japanese defense ministry said that the refurbished Soviet-origin PLA’s Kuznetsov-class carrier was photographed launching out and collecting its ship-borne fighter J-15s and early warning helicopter Z-18s. The Ministry also stated that China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier and six accompanying naval warships are undertaking military drills with fighter jets and helicopters in the Western Pacific Ocean.
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05/05/2022
Taiwan signalled on Thursday that it had abandoned a plan to buy advanced new anti-submarine warfare helicopters from the United States, saying they were too expensive. Taiwan had earlier said it was planning to buy 12 MH-60R anti-submarine helicopters, made by Lockheed Martin Corp unit Sikorsky, but domestic media said the United States had rejected the sale as not being in line with the island's needs.
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05/04/2022
More than eight months ago, as the Western-backed Afghan government of Ashraf Ghani crumbled, a portion of the Afghan Air Force flew out of the country and landed in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The Afghans eventually made their way to processing centers in countries like the United Arab Emirates and then on to the United States. Their planes remained in Central Asia, and for now that seems to be where they’ll stay.
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05/04/2022
Taiwan's military on Tuesday said it had a clear grasp of the activities of nearby Chinese forces a day after Japan's Self-Defense Force said China's Navy had recently deployed an aircraft carrier battle group into the Pacific Ocean. Military spokesman Sun Li-fang said Taiwan's military closely monitors Chinese military maneuvers in waters and airspace surrounding Taiwan, and would take "appropriate response measures," without elaborating.
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05/04/2022
Heightened threats from Russia and China don’t automatically translate to a need for more than 100 B-21 Raiders, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. told the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 3. The service may simply bolster the number of escorts that go with the new bomber to do the long-range strike role, he said.
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05/04/2022
A thick dossier of documents passed from one hand to another among officials lined up on a red carpet at the Col. Jesus Villamor Air Base in Manila. Inside the hangar stood two T129 attack helicopters produced in Turkey. "They are to be used against enemies of our state -- terrorists trying to destroy our country," Delfin Lorenzana, the defense secretary of the Philippines said at the April 6 handover ceremony.
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05/04/2022
25 years after it entered service in the U.S. Air Force, the F-22 Raptor is scheduled to receive some major upgrades to keep its edge over future adversaries. Some of these upgrades were unveiled last week in the Fiscal Year 23 Budget request documentation and in an official artwork shared by Gen. Mark Kelly, the Commander of Air Combat Command, in a post about the 15th anniversary of the approval of the first F-22 flight demonstration.
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05/04/2022
U.S. combat jets from New England will soon fly the skies of Eastern Europe. Eight F-35 Lightning II aircraft from the Vermont Air National Guard arrived Monday at Spangdahlem Air Base to bolster NATO and support its air policing mission, U.S. Air Forces in Europe–Air Forces Africa said in a statement Tuesday.
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05/03/2022
The Azerbaijani edition of The Azeri Times reported that, following Turkey, neighboring Azerbaijan closed its airspace for Russian military aircraft. According to The Azeri Times, this is due to intentions to disrupt the transportation of military cargo between Russia and Armenia.
“Azerbaijan has closed its airspace to Russian military aircraft. As a result, Russian military aircraft carrying military supplies from Armenia to Russia were forced to fly over Iran and the Caspian Sea on their way
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05/03/2022
An Australian tanker has refueled a Japanese fighter jet in the air for the first time as part of interoperability trials between the two Asia-Pacific nations. A Royal Australian Air Force KC-30A tanker aircraft was deployed to Japan April 4-27, during which it participated in a flight test engineering program with Japan Air Self-Defense Force Mitsubishi F-2 jets.
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05/03/2022
As Russia scales up anti-West rhetoric, Russia has scaled down their May 9 Victory Day Parade by almost 35 percent. The cuts are so dramatic, and the planned parade so humiliating, that Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, will likely do almost anything to keep the World from focusing overly much upon Russia’s dwindling military prospects.
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05/02/2022
Since the beginning of the war, over 1,000 tanks, around 200 aircraft and at least 2,500 armored fighting vehicles of Russian forces have been destroyed by the Ukrainian army, claimed President Volodymyr Zelensky, as per media reports. The invading Russian army still have more equipment to carry out attacks, he added.
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05/02/2022
Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall and Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown testifying before the House Armed Services Committee said this while revealing their plans for the F-15EX. Instead of replacing numerous older F-15C/D Eagle fighters with the newer, more capable F-15EXs, the Air Force will replace the older F-15s with remotely piloted drones or nothing at all in case the drones weren’t feasible.
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05/02/2022
The United States and its allies have shifted from providing small arms and defensive equipment to hastily ratcheting up deliveries of heavy weaponry to Ukraine as the brutal Russian war there intensifies.
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05/02/2022
On Friday, a Russian AN-30 propeller plane was flying east of Bornholm, a Danish island in the Baltic, before it headed towards Swedish territory. “It is completely unacceptable and extremely worrying in the current situation”, Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod wrote on Twitter on Sunday. Danish F16 fighter jets countered the incursion and the plane then left Danish airspace.
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05/01/2022
Ukraine is again calling on its Western allies, including Greece, to supply it with more Russian-built military hardware. Athens has considerable quantities of Russian equipment Ukraine is familiar with, including BMP-1 tracked infantry fighting vehicles, 9K33 Osa and Tor-M1 short-range and S-300PMU-1 long-range air defense missile systems. If the latter systems ultimately ends up in Ukraine’s arsenal, that would be historically ironic given how Greece came into possession of them in the first p
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05/01/2022
NATO fighter pilots took to the skies several times since Tuesday to track and head off Russian aircraft over the Black and Baltic seas, according to NATO. The Russian planes turned back after each encounter. The alliance announced on Friday that planes took off “multiple times” from April 26-29 to track unidentified planes over the seas before confirming them as Russian aircraft.
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05/01/2022
One aircraft that perhaps came closest to destroying an Israeli F-15 Baz in ‘combat’ was the venerable McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. These nimble little aircraft have been used by both the US Navy and the Israeli Air Force (IAF) as ‘Red Air’ aggressors, using their agility to humble mightier opponents.
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05/01/2022
Serbia on Saturday showed off its new Chinese-made surface-to-air missiles and other military hardware purchased from both Russia and the West, as the country seeks to perform a delicate balancing act over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Members of the public and the media were invited to the display at the Batajnica military airfield near Belgrade, where Chinese and French missiles were lined up beside Airbus helicopters, Chinese-armed drones and Russian MIG-29 jets.
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