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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The sale of 22 Gripen fighter jets from Sweden to Switzerland was confirmed on Tuesday for a price of more than 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.1 billion). The first delivery will take place in mid-2018, with all 22 planes to be delivered by 2021 at a cost of 3.126 billion Swiss francs. “The negotiations were tough,” said Christian Catrina, who represented Switzerland in the deal, according to the TT news agency. The ...
Category: Military Aviation
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
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is satisfied the Air Force has identified the cause of hypoxia-like symptoms twelve F-22 pilots suffered, and restrictions he placed on use of the fifth-generation fighter will be lifted gradually. Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz and other Air Force leaders told Panetta on July 20 that they are confident the root cause of the symptoms is the ...
Category: Military Aviation
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday he is interested in buying Sukhoi Su-35 Flanker-E multirole fighter jets from Russia to enhance his country’s defense capabilities. “I have already sent a statement to the government of Russia that we are ready to consider buying in the next few years Su-35 fighters to modernize and enhance our defense powers,” Venezuela’s national radio quoted Chavez as saying. The president said that the issues of security, ...
Category: Russian Aviation
Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program accrued the highest number of test points in a single month during June, an accomplishment indicative of the program’s ongoing maturation. Additionally, for the 18th consecutive month the F-35 test program remained ahead of plan. As of June 30, the F-35 Lightning II 5th Generation multirole fighter had conducted 595 test flights in 2012 versus a plan of 445 and accrued 4,830 test points against a plan ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
The Polish Air Force today signed a contract with Airbus Military for the acquisition of five C295 transport aircraft to further expand their transport capabilities. Deliveries will start end of this year and continue into 2013. The aircraft will join the existing C295s currently in service, increasing the fleet to 16 aircraft, and will be used to support the Polish Air Force in its national and international operations. “The C295 is working extremely well with the ...
Category: Military Aviation
Anatoly Isaikin, head of Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state arms exporter, was once again forced to address the string of setbacks plaguing Russian arms manufacturers in India over the past 12 months. This includes the long-suffering Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-35 fighter, whose future on the domestic and foreign markets remains unclear. ...
Category: MiG News
Northrop Grumman Corporation recently demonstrated the ballistic missile detection, tracking and targeting capabilities of the company's elector optical Distributed Aperture System and active electronically scanned array radar, both of which are featured on the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft. Leveraging NASA's Science Mission Directorate-sponsored ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) is to introduce a fourth Sukhoi T-50 stealth fighter into its test and development program this year, the company’s President Mikhail Pogosyan said on Thursday. “We are now testing three aircraft. A fourth will be brought in this year,” he said. Pogosyan had said earlier this year that the firm would introduce a fourth aircraft into the test program but did not disclose when. The first production standard T-50 is ...
Category: Russian Aviation
