
Indications are that the F-35 joint strike fighter program - the most expensive aviation program in Defense Department history - is on track, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics told a Senate panel here June 19. Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee's ...
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Category: F-35 Lightning II

Russia’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) is expected to be the launch customer for the MiG-35 multi-role fighter. Sergei Korotkov, Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG (RAC MiG) general director, said the company and the MoD are negotiating an initial order for 24 aircraft, with an option that would increase the number to about 40. “Today, we are at the stage of preparing contract documents,” Korotkov told reporters on May 31, during a 60th-anniversary ceremony ...
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Category: MiG News

The first in a batch of Su-34 production frontline bombers to be delivered in 2013 to the Russian Air Force under the State Defense Order for the year was delivered by the Sukhoi Company. Following the handover ceremony at the airfield of the Novosibirsk-based V.P. Chkalov aviation plant of Sukhoi, the aircraft departed for its assigned home base. Several more Su-34 bombers will be delivered to the Russian Air Force shortly. The work to ...
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Category: Russian Aviation

The Indian Navy has commissioned its first squadron of MiG-29K / KUB shipborne fighters, dubbed the “Black Panthers,” a RSK MiG spokesperson in India said on Saturday. The ceremony at an airbase in Dabolim, in the state of Goa on India’s west coast, was attended by India’s Defense Minister A K Antony, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral D K Joshi and MiG Director-General Sergei Korotkov. The squadron comprises 12 single-seat MiG-29Ks and four ...
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Category: MiG News

Russia’s fifth-generation T-50 fighter jet will enter service with the country’s armed forces in 2016, and not 2015 as was previously announced, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. “The T-50 fifth generation jet should go into serial production and enter service in 2016,” Putin said at a live Q&A session with the Russian public. The Defense Ministry had earlier said the jet would be ready in 2015. Russia will start state flight ...
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Category: Russian Aviation

The Boeing X-48C research aircraft flew for the 30th and final time April 9, marking the successful completion of an eight-month flight-test program to explore and further validate the aerodynamic characteristics of the Blended Wing Body design concept. All 30 flights were conducted at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center. The X-48C typically flew for approximately 30 minutes on most flights, reaching speeds of up to 140 miles per hour and attaining an ...
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Category: Military Aviation

China has agreed to buy two dozen fighter jets and four submarines from Russia, state media reported Monday, the country’s first large-scale weapons technology purchases from Moscow in a decade. The agreement to buy the 24 Su-35 fighters and four Lada-class submarines was signed just before President Xi Jinping’s weekend visit to Russia, said the People’s Daily, the Communist Party organ, citing state television. The report, which did not give a value for the purchases, said ...
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Category: Russian Aviation