August 2012
The first batch of F-16 fighter jets bought by Iraq are due to be delivered in two years, US officials said on Tuesday as the top American military officer was on a visit to Baghdad. Washington agreed last year to sell 36 F-16 jets to Baghdad in a multi billion dollar deal aimed at increasing the capabilities of Iraq’s fledgling air force, a weak point in its national defenses. The first batch of those F-16s are ...
Category: Military Aviation
Russian fighter maker Sukhoi’s T-50 fifth-generation stealth fighter has completed initial approach trials to a flight refueling aircraft, the company said on Tuesday. The aircraft, T-50-2, made approaches to an Il-78 tanker in company with a Su-25UB trainer/strike aircraft. The second prototype, T-50-2 is currently conducting a range of flight trials to test the new plane’s flight envelope in subsonic and supersonic regimes and in different configurations. The first prototype, T-50-1, is ...
Category: Russian Aviation
The F-35 Lightning II accomplished a significant test milestone Aug. 8 when the aircraft successfully released a weapon in flight. BF-3, a short take-off and vertical landing F-35 variant, executed an inert 1,000-pound GBU-32 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) separation weapon over water in an Atlantic test range while traveling at 400 knots at an altitude of 4,200 feet. “While this weapons separation test is just one event in a series ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
The Russian Air Force will receive some 180 brand new planes and helicopters by the end of the year, the Air Force Commander in Chief Major General Viktor Bondarev said. The country’s air force has already received several new Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback warplanes and will get another 12, along with Kamov Ka-52 Alligator and Mil Mi-28 Havoc helicopters, as well as trainer jets including 15 Yakovlev Yak-130 Mitten aircraft, Bondarev said ...
Category: Russian Aviation
Russia’s Sukhoi aircraft company is carrying out state acceptance trials of its Su-35 advanced fighter jet at the Russian Air Force’s flight test center, the company said on Wednesday. The aircraft has already undertaken more than 650 flights as part of the trials. The Air Force will accept another six Su-35s before the end of the year. “The technical characteristics of the aircraft and its military capabilities are in general in line ...
Category: Russian Aviation
Aug
03
How to defeat F-22
The fast, stealthy F-22 Raptor is “unquestionably” the best air-to-air fighter in the arsenal of the world’s leading air force. That’s what outgoing Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz wrote in 2009. Three years later, a contingent of German pilots flying their latest Typhoon fighter have figured out how to shoot down the Lockheed Martin-made F-22 in mock combat. The Germans’ tactics, revealed in the latest Combat Aircraft magazine, ...
Category: Military Aviation
