Military Aviation News Archive
09/17/2021
China’s deployment of radar, anti-ship and anti-air missile platforms, and combat aircraft to outposts in the South China Sea has greatly expanded its ability to project power in waters far from its coast, according to a US think tank. “This feature will illustrate how these three capabilities are fundamentally linked, and how China’s aircraft carriers can take advantage of them to comfortably conduct operations at greater distances,” the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) said Wednes
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09/17/2021
Airmen with the 332nd AEW continue to return to base following various forward deployments in support of the Afghanistan noncombatant evacuation operation. Overall, more than 100 332nd AEW personnel forward deployed to Afghanistan and various bases in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility to assist in operations.
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09/17/2021
Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) has started working with digital twin technology for the design and production of the National Combat Aircraft (MMU), Turkey’s long-awaited 5th generation fighter jet due to leave the hangar on March 18, 2023.
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09/17/2021
Somewhere in the California skies, a real-life scenario similar to scenes from the movie classic “Top Gun” has been playing out this week. And those planes in mock combat have been taking off out of Fresno. A pair of F-117 fighter jets arrived in town Monday for aerial combat training against the F-15 planes based out of the 144th Fighter Wing, the military airbase located next to Fresno Yosemite International Airport.
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09/16/2021
Japan could be the next partner nation for the trinational, British-led next-generation fighter program, an official hinted at the DSEI arms trade show in London. The United Kingdom, Sweden, and Italy are jointly developing cutting-edge technologies to feed into the Future Combat Air System effort. The FCAS is to eventually lead to a core fighter aircraft and a raft of new capabilities alongside it by 2035.
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09/16/2021
Taiwan said it intercepted a fleet of nine military aircraft that took off from coastal China and flew sorties near the island on Wednesday, as the Taiwanese armed forces conducted anti-landing drills as part of their largest annual exercise.
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09/15/2021
The United States may not be the only power to utterly and completely disregard Beijing's claims to the near entirety of the South China Sea. Just last month, China announced that it would demand that all "foreign ships" report their course, call signs, and cargo before entering what Beijing has said are its territorial waters.
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09/15/2021
Air Force Reserve Command kicked off a week-long exercise, Rally in the Rockies 2021, by landing a C-130J Super Hercules aircraft on the highway near Rawlins, Wyoming on September 13, according to a release from the Defense Visual Information Distribution Services (DVIDS).
Military officials say that the highway closed early in the morning to ensure the aircrew could safely practice recovering personnel without access to a runway within simulated enemy territory.
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09/15/2021
On the day that America observed the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, its most potent tool for responding to future such assaults was operating near the places they are most likely to originate. The USS Ronald Reagan, hosting 90 strike fighters and other combat aircraft, was underway in the North Arabian Sea, near the mouth of the Persian Gulf and within easy reach of Afghanistan.
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09/13/2021
A British firm is set to strike a deal that will see it design and develop a replacement for the Red Arrows' aircrafts. Suffolk-based Aeralis was given £200,000 by the RAF to develop a new aircraft that could be converted from basic trainer to aggressive fighter by swapping engines and wings earlier this year.
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09/13/2021
The Han Kuang exercises, the nation’s major war games, are to start today and run for five days. The drills are to include a military aircraft emergency takeoff and landing exercise on a regular roadway on Wednesday, featuring all three fighter jet models in Taiwan’s fleet, a military source said last week.
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09/13/2021
Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi, a subsidiary of industrial conglomerate Rostec, introduced a new fighter, dubbed “Checkmate,” at the 2021 edition of the biennial Russian MAKS Airshow. The reveal followed what is perhaps the most sophisticated mass-marketing campaign of any Russian military hardware product, replete with multiple teasers and promotional videos, slick chess iconography, a dedicated splash page with a countdown timer, and a healthy dose of Twitter trolling.
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09/13/2021
"Excellent news: Greece has just announced its intention to acquire six additional Rafales. Together, we are working to build true European autonomy," French Defence Minister Florence Parly tweeted. Greece was the first European country to buy the combat jets made by Dassault Aviation.
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09/13/2021
A Middle-East nation, amid regional tensions, is spearheading massive modernization efforts to replace its aging Mirage 2000 fighter fleet. Billions of dollars have been invested in a bid to procure 96 super-sophisticated aircraft. The US, the UK, and France are the key recipients of these contracts. One of the richest nations in the world is now interested to acquire F-35s from the US after signing deals to acquire Dassault Rafales, Eurofighter Typhoons, Boeing F-15EX.
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09/12/2021
F-16 fighter jets from the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) were scrambled in response to a potential air threat on Saturday morning (Sept 11). A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "After ensuring that our security was not compromised, we stood down our aircraft." Mindef added that on average, RSAF fighter aircraft are deployed to investigate and deal with 350 potential air threats each year.
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09/12/2021
On Sunday, Taiwan accused China of sending 19 strike fighters, four strategic bombers and one surveillance aircraft into its air defence zone. Since 2013, it’s launched more than 4400 flights to test the defences of its least compliant neighbours. Why? International affairs analysts say they’ve uncovered a pattern.
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09/12/2021
Col. Todd Nehls of the Wisconsin Army National Guard had just completed a year-long tour of duty for the National Guard Bureau, to be the Wisconsin National Guard’s subject matter expert on terrorism, shortly before the Sept. 11 terror attacks. “I was in disbelief,” Nehls said when he learned that terrorists had flown passenger jetliners into both World Trade Center towers. “Though this was a scenario talked about for years, few listed it as probable.”
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09/11/2021
Russia’s Su-30SM multi-role fighter jets arrived in Belarus to form a joint military training center for the two countries’ air forces and air defense, the Belarusian defense ministry reported on Wednesday. The aircraft landed at the Baranovichi airfield in the Brest region, 94 kilometers away from Hrodna, which homes the training center. The aviators are supposed to carry out joint combat duty to guard and patrol the borders of the supranational Union State.
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09/10/2021
Indonesia has quietly signed a contract with Lockheed Martin for C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft, multiple sources have told Defense News. Photos taken during the Indonesian Air Force chief’s visit to the aircraft’s production line suggests construction on the first aircraft is underway. The government and industry sources told Defense News that Indonesia will acquire five C-130Js under a Direct Commercial Sales contract.
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09/10/2021
A second U.S. Marine Corps squadron in Japan has declared its F-35B fighters are ready for operations, less than a year after officially kicking off the process of transitioning to the stealthy fifth-generation aircraft. The 1st Marine Aircraft Wing announced Thursday that Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 242 attained initial operational capability with the Lockheed Martin-made jet, 10 months after transitioning away from the Boeing-made F/A-18D Hornet.
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09/10/2021
During Red Flag Alaska 21-3, fighter jets complete multiple sorties, practice tactical maneuvers, and multi-squadron simulated combat objectives. Spending numerous hours in the air at a time requires a hefty load of fuel to keep them airborne. How are fighter jets able to stay in the air for prolonged periods? It’s in large part because of the KC-135 Stratotanker, which acts as a gas station in the sky, allowing jets to refuel midflight without the need to touch back down.
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09/10/2021
The U.S. Navy’s second new America-class Amphibious Assault Ship, which can carry F-35B Joint Strike Fighters, is now making great progress toward deployment and operational service with the completion of the Final Contract Trials (FTC).
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09/09/2021
A Navy aircraft carrier strike group and a destroyer steamed separately through the South China Sea on Wednesday, just days after China imposed a law requiring foreign vessels to give notice before entering waters claimed by Beijing. The guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold “asserted navigation rights and freedoms” within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands, according to a 7th Fleet news release Wednesday.
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09/09/2021
India’s Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on Wednesday cleared the much-delayed purchase of 56 C-295 medium transport aircraft to replace the Indian Air Force’s ageing fleet of Avro-748 planes, the defence ministry announced on Wednesday. The deal is expected to be worth $2.5 billion.
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09/09/2021
Members of the 1st Fighter Wing and 192nd Wing from Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, participated in Red Flag Alaska 21-3 at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, from Aug. 12 - 27, 2021. Red Flag-Alaska 21-3 is a large-scale exercise meant to simulate a real-world combat scenario, hosted by Pacific Air Forces and conducted over the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex.
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