Military Aviation
Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptors have been cleared to fly for the first time in four months, but the oxygen problem that grounded them remains a mystery to the US Air Force. It will be two months before F-22A pilots regain full operational capability of the fighters after the four-month hiatus, Gen Norton Schwartz, USAF chief of staff, said on 20 September. The USAF’s wide-ranging safety investigation, which was prompted by ...
Category: Military Aviation
The Obama administration plans to supply state-of-the-art weapons for Taiwan’s existing F-16 fighter fleet as part of a potential $5.85 billion upgrade, a U.S. official involved in Taiwan policy said on Tuesday, amid a push to shape perceptions about the deal. “I do not have the impression that anything is being held back, frankly,” said the official, referring to Taipei’s request for technology involved in the “retrofit” of about 145 ...
Category: Military Aviation
The Indian Air Force will seek a more powerful engine for the Sukhoi T-50 fifth-generation stealth fighter jet that is being jointly developed by Russia and India for delivery in 2018, a top government official said. The air force is aiming to induct 250 Sukhoi T-50s with stealth technology, 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft and 120 indigenously built light combat aircraft, known as the Tejas, in addition to upgrading RAC ...
Category: Military Aviation
The U.S. Air Force on Wednesday cleared its F-22 Raptor fleet to return to service following a four-month grounding over concerns that the jets’ pilots weren’t getting proper oxygen. Bases are cleared to start flying the fighter jets under a “return to flight” plan with new rules including daily inspections of the life-support systems that the Air Force announced earlier in the week, said Staff Sgt. Heidi Davis, spokeswoman for ...
Category: Military Aviation
Sep
20
Romanian F-16 deal in doubt
Romanian President Traian Basescu told Pro TV he pointed out during his visit to the United States that Romania cannot afford to buy F16 fighters without a long-term financing solution. Romania may sign a contract to buy the planes only if a long-term financing solution is found, said the head of state. Romania cannot afford to pay billions of dollars in the next five or six years, but will be ...
Category: Military Aviation
The Boeing Company has received a contract from the U.S. Air Force to provide mission planning support for the F-22 Raptor. The order, valued at up to $24 million if all options are exercised, was awarded under the Air Force’s Mission Planning Enterprise Contract-II (MPEC-II). Boeing is one of five contractors selected in June 2010 for MPEC-II, an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity program with an approximate total value of $920 ...
Category: Military Aviation
Iraq had frozen the $4.2 billion deal earlier this year amid the Arab Spring pro-democracy uprisings, but the prospects were “promising” for the contract to now move ahead, General Russ Handy, head of the US air forces in Iraq, said. “They are seeking to buy a larger number of F16s (than) they had originally, up to 36. This first letter of offer and acceptance is for 18 of them, so ...
Category: Military Aviation
Lockheed Martin has started final assembly on the last F-22A Raptor ordered by the US Air Force, but the delivered fleet remains grounded over concerns about the pilot’s breathing system inside the cockpit. Lockheed has mated the fuselage sections of the F-22A with USAF serial number 09-4195. In final assembly, the company’s workers in Marietta, Georgia, will instal the wings, tails, landing gear and Pratt & Whitney F119 engines, among ...
Category: Military Aviation
Boeing announced it has been awarded a one-year, $2.9 million contract by the U.S. Air Force to develop and validate a modification of the A-10 aircraft’s Digital Video Audio Data Recorder (DVADR). The modification will provide a near-term solution to supportability issues with a major subcomponent in the DVADR system. The contract is a task order under the umbrella of the A-10 Thunderbolt Life-Cycle Program Support (TLPS) contract that is ...
Category: Military Aviation
It sounds like the F-22s are coming back, but that doesn’t mean the Air Force has determined what caused pilots to return from flying with antifreeze in their blood and propane in their lungs. Defense News is reporting that the four-month grounding of the F-22 fleet will soon be lifted and that a meeting scheduled last Friday would determine if there would be any restrictions that remain on the Raptors. ...
Category: Military Aviation
The November 2010 crash of a U.S. Air Force F-22 was caused by a malfunction with the aircraft engine’s bleed air system, an industry source said. The pilot, Capt. Jeff “Bong” Haney of the 525th Fighter Squadron, was killed in the accident. An Air Force accident report said the F-22, tail number 06-4125, had a bleed air problem that caused both the stealth fighter jet’s Environmental Control System (ECS) and ...
Category: Military Aviation
When the six F/A-18 Hornets in the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels flight demonstration team thrill the crowds at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River Air Expo in Maryland this weekend, they’ll be soaring on biofuel. Each of the six Hornets will be powered by a 50/50-blend of jet fuel and camelina-based biofuel, according to a Navy press release. Camelina is a high-oil flowering plant grown in rotation on land used ...
Category: Military Aviation
The budget wars are heating up when a senior senator starts attacking weapons programs important to other legislators in his own party. That’s what happened yesterday, when Senator Saxby Chambliss assailed Pentagon purchases of Boeing’s carrier-based F/A-18 Super Hornet, saying the plane is “obsolete” and “will be of limited to no value in any future threat scenario.” In a letter to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, Chambliss argued that if ...
Category: Military Aviation
As a hope of making another great leap in improving South Korea’s military might, South Korea’s first surveillance airplane, known as Airborne Early Warning and Control plane, arrived at an Air Force base on Aug. 1. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) in Seoul said that a Boeing E-737 early-warning and control aircraft landed at the Air Force base in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang, after completing tests by South Korean Air ...
Category: Military Aviation
