F-16 crash at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina kills pilot
A US Air Force F-16 fighter aircraft crashed during a training mission in South Carolina, killing the pilot, the Pentagon said Wednesday. The plane went down about 11:30 pm Tuesday...
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IAF to urgently procure 21 MiG 29s, 12 Su 30s
The Indian Air Force (IAF) is going ahead with plans to order 33 additional fighter jets from Russia, with the proposal expected to be taken up for clearances by the...
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Su-57 Could Soon Have a Robot in the Cockpit
Russia’s new Su-57 stealth fighter is reportedly undergoing unmanned testing. The Sukhoi Su-57, codenamed “Felon” by NATO, is a large twin-engine stealth fighter in the same rough class as the...
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IAF Mig-29 Crashes in Punjab’s Nawanshahr
Mig-29 fighter aircraft of the IAF crashed in Chuharpur village here on Friday after it developed a technical snag, officials said. The pilot ejected safely and has been rescued, they...
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F-15QA Completes Successful First Flight
Boeing successfully completed the first flight of the F-15QA fighter, the most advanced version of the jet ever manufactured. Developed for the Qatar Emiri Air Force (QEAF), the jet demonstrated...
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Uncorrected Design Flaws Plague the F-35 Program
The latest testing report on the F-35 shows there hasn't been appreciable improvement in the program's overall reliability since 2016 As the F-35 program limps toward the end of its...
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Lockheed Martin Delivers 500th F-35 Aircraft
Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and the F-35 Joint Program Office delivered the 500th F-35. In February, the F-35 enterprise surpassed 250,000 flight hours. The 500th production aircraft is a U.S....
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France, Germany sign contract to develop fighter jet prototype
France and Germany signed a 150 million euro ($161.84 million) deal on Thursday to develop a prototype of the next generation fighter jet, a project seen as vital for Europe...
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A military refueling aircraft crashed Monday afternoon in a soybean field in Leflore County, killing at least 16 and leaving a debris field five miles in radius, officials said. Mississippi Emergency Management Agency Director Lee Smithson said the plane crashed on the Sunflower-Leflore county line. Leflore County EMA Director Frank Randle confirmed that 16 are dead in the crash. “Most of them are gonna be Marines,” he said. He could ...
Category: Military Aviation
Tata Group and American aerospace giant Lockheed Martin today signed an “unprecedented” deal to jointly produce the combat-proven F-16 fighter jets in India, boosting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ plan ahead of his first summit with US President Donald Trump. Under the deal, Lockheed will shift its Fort Worth, Texas plant to India without directly affecting American jobs, a campaign pledge of Trump who has vowed to put ...
Category: Military Aviation
Russian planemaker MiG says its MiG-35 Fulcrum-F fighters will be finished with flight testing by the end of this or early next year, and that they’ll be ready to open up for production and export. “The government trials go according to the schedule and should be completed at the end of 2017, beginning of 2018,” MiG CEO Ilya Tarasenko told Aviation Week’s ShowNews. Under military procurement plans for 2018-2025, Russia ...
Category: MiG News
Qatar has signed a deal for 36 Boeing F-15QA fighter aircraft. The deal is reportedly worth $12 billion, according to media reports quoting official Qatari sources. The deal was finalised in Washington DC by Qatari defence minister Khalid Al Attiyah and US defence secretary Jim Mattis. Attiyah says the deal reflects increased Qatari and US collaboration in the fight against terrorism. The aircraft will also increase interoperability between US and ...
Category: MiG News, Military Aviation
The Chinese-made Y-8F-200 took off from the southern coastal town of Myeik at 1.06pm local time on Wednesday and was heading to Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon. It was on a regular, weekly flight that takes in several coastal towns. Those on board included 106 soldiers and family members and 14 crew, the military said. Myanmar’s military said it lost contact while flying at 18,000ft over the Andaman Sea, 29 minutes ...
Category: Military Aviation
Jun
04
Engine upgrades for the F-35
The F-35 joint program office is eyeing the middle of the next decade for when major upgrades to the engines on the joint strike fighter can proceed. Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, who heads the JPO head, said at last week’s Air Force Association conference that the “mid-2020s” is when the power plant on the joint strike fighter could be refreshed, whether through improvements to the Pratt & Whitney F135 design ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
The Air Force expects to operationalize the F-35’s latest “3F” software iteration by October or September of this year, a development which will integrate additional technology and equip the stealth aircraft with a wider range of weapons such as the Small Diameter Bomb and AIM-9X, service leaders said. After experiencing some challenges during developmental testing, the 3F software drop is now improved and sharpened up for delivery, Brig. Gen. Scott ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
The dual-seat fighter trainer plane JF-17B developed by China made its maiden flight Thursday in southwest China’s Sichuan Province. A variant fighter trainer for the JF-17, JF-17B was developed by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) to meet the requirements of international customers and the global market, according to the AVIC. The AVIC said in a statement that the plane can be used for training in peacetime and can ...
Category: Military Aviation
Two F-35A Lightning IIs and about 20 supporting Airmen arrived at Graf Ignatievo Air Base April 28 from Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England. The F-35As are participating in the first training deployment to Europe. The aircraft and total force Airmen are from the 34th Fighter Squadron, 388th Fighter Wing, and the Air Force Reserve’s 466th Fighter Squadron, 419th Fighter Wing at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. “The United States and ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
On Wednesday, Izvestia newspaper reported that the Kh-35UE tactical cruise missile, an upgrade of the Kh-35 jet-launched subsonic anti-ship missile, has been incorporated into the Sukhoi T-50’s array of potential armaments. The weapon, capable of targeting and destroying everything from landing craft to aircraft carriers, as well as ground targets, including hard points, warehouses and even mobile military equipment, is able to bypass missile defense interceptor systems, as well as ...
Category: Russian Aviation
The serial production of the upgraded Tupolev Tu-160M2 (NATO reporting name: Blackjack) strategic bomber will begin in 2020, a source in Russia’s defense and industrial sector told TASS. There are plans to produce two or three Tu-160M2 planes annually, the source added. “Work to manufacture the plane has begun. Under the contract signed between the United Aircraft Corporation and the Defense Ministry, the Tu-160M2 plane is expected to perform the ...
Category: Russian Aviation
A Russian fighter jet crashed into the sea shortly into a training flight off the coast of Syria, Russia’s Ministry of Defense has announced. “As a result of a technical malfunction during a training flight an incident occurred to a carrier-based MiG-29,” read an official statement. “The pilot catapulted was delivered to the air carrier Admiral Kuznetsov by a rescue crew. The pilot was not hurt, and is ready for ...
Category: MiG News
India is keen to buy MiG-29 fighter jets from Malaysia and upgrade them for use by its air force, Prime Minister Najib Razak has said. Najib said the proposal was among the aspects of military cooperation agreed to by Malaysia and India during his just-concluded visit to New Delhi and talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said the India’s ministry of defense and the Royal Malaysian Air Force (TUDM) ...
Category: MiG News
A fighter jet crashed Wednesday morning in a wooded area near Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, after he had mechanical trouble and steered the aircraft away from a neighborhood, officials say. A witness said the pilot’s first concern was residents’ safety. “I asked him if he was OK and he didn’t even respond to that. He asked if everyone in the neighborhood was OK,” Patrick Dodson said. The D.C. Air National ...
Category: Military Aviation
