Military Aviation
A senior Air Force commander praised Iran’s capability as the only country, besides the US, that can overhaul F14 fighter jets, adding that Iranian experts have mounted new radar and weapons systems on the aircraft to optimize it for new missions. “We can firmly say that the only place in the world that F14 fighters are overhauled is Isfahan (base in Central Iran),” Deputy Commander of Air Force 8th Air ...
Category: Military Aviation
The Air Force, with congressional authorization, will convert 18 primary combat-coded A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft from active units and place them into Backup-Aircraft Inventory (BAI) status with the possibility to convert another 18 at a later date in fiscal year 2015. The secretary of Defense has authorized the Air Force to place up to a total of 36 A-10 aircraft into BAI status. Although Congress has authorized 36 of the ...
Category: Military Aviation
India has announced that a deal to buy 126 Rafale medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) from French manufacturer Dassault Aviation is “effectively dead”. The reason is the announced high cost of the overall project, according to the country’s online newspaper Business Standard. The global tender for 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) was the first time the Indian Ministry of Defense (MoD) had awarded a contract based on life cycle ...
Category: Military Aviation
Four-year-old Steve Rainey sat on the hood of his father’s car at a local airshow watching the small airplanes and helicopters at the airport. When the Thunderbirds in their F-100s sped by, Rainey fell off the car, looked up at the sky and thought, “I’ve got to do that.” Jan. 22, the now chief test pilot flew his 1,000th hour in an F-22 Raptor. Rainey is the second person at ...
Category: Military Aviation
Pictures showed that 14 J-10B fighters painted with the mark of the Air Force of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLAAF) were on the parking apron at the airport of the Chengdu Aircraft Industrial Co., Ltd. under the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), meaning that this type of modified fighter will possibly be deployed to the aviation troops of the PLAAF, according to a recent report on the website ...
Category: Military Aviation
The Administration’s fiscal 2015 budget proposed to retire the entire fleet of A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft beginning in FY2016. This report covers the background to that decision and legislative action as of the end of 2014. The A-10 was designed in the 1970s to perform air interdiction, battlefield air interdiction, and close air support.1 It was principally designed to attack large masses of Soviet tanks and other armored vehicles. ...
Category: Military Aviation
The head of Pakistan Aeronautical Complex said Tuesday that Pakistan had added 50 home-assembled multi-role JF-17 fighter jet to its airforce. Air Marshal Javed Ahmed, chief of the state-owned PAC, said the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) had already received 50 of the home-made aircraft and that the supply of a second tranche would start this month. “The five aircraft of the next block would be inducted (into PAF) this year,” ...
Category: Military Aviation
The U.S. fifth-generation fighters F-22 and F-35 made a splash at the recent, biennial US-Japan Exercise known as “Keen Sword” in Japan. The mid-November exercise saw the participation of 11,000 U.S. personnel from the U.S. Forces, U.S. Naval Forces Japan, the U.S. Army Japan and Marine Expeditionary Forces. J-10 fighter jets from the August 1st Aerobatics Team of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force take off from a military base ...
Category: Military Aviation
Minister for Defence Production Rana Tanveer Hussain told Dawn on Friday the matter was being discussed with Chinese authorities. It is for the first time that a senior government functionary has confirmed talks with China over purchase of the longer-range stealth aircraft — an issue that has been a subject of speculation in defence circles since the 10th edition of the Zhuhai Air Show (China) held earlier this month, when ...
Category: Military Aviation
China’s new stealth jet fighter rocketed skywards Wednesday as Beijing puts on an unprecedented display of openness and military force at the country’s premier airshow. The black J-31 rose in a nearly vertical climb on take-off in Zhuhai before circling back and doing two rolls, in the aircraft’s first announced public appearance. The plane’s existence has been the subject of rumour and speculation for years, with photographs appearing increasingly frequently ...
Category: Military Aviation
NATO detected and monitored four groups of Russian military aircraft conducting significant military manoeuvers in European airspace over the Baltic Sea, North Sea/Atlantic Ocean, and Black Sea on 28 and 29 October 2014. These sizable Russian flights represent an unusual level of air activity over European airspace. QRA scramble on 29 Oct 14 at RAF Lossiemouth. Typhoon: Pilot Name: Q1: 8 Images: OP CONSTANT EFFORT HH_ QRA_ RAF_0883_291130ZOCT14 _50-70MM_OFFICIAL SENSITIVE_ ...
Category: Military Aviation
America’s most advanced stealth fighter poses a great risk to China’s air defense network — and the military is going to great lengths to learn how to shoot one down. China claims it has a new passive detection “radar” capable of identifying stealth aircraft, including the more advanced F-22 Raptor fighter based at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam. The claims appeared in the last week of September in Chinese-language ...
Category: Military Aviation
The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation a $354 million primarily firm-fixed-price contract to expand their RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system (UAS) fleet by three aircraft. Global Hawk operates multiple sensors simultaneously to gather intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data ...
Category: Military Aviation
Romania has given the green light to NATO to base fighters there as the crisis in neighboring Ukraine deepens, its president said Wednesday. “These planes will be part of the NATO integrated defense system alongside the Romanian air force,” Traian Basescu said after a meeting of the country’s defense council. “As many as 200 pilots, mechanics and maintenance personnel will be stationed on Romanian territory,” he said. Basescu has urged ...
Category: Military Aviation
