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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About thirty Tupolev-22M3 strategic bombers from Russia's Long Range Aviation fleet will be modernized by 2020, Russian Air Force spokesman Colonel Vladimir Drik said on Tuesday. "We plan to upgrade about thirty strategic bombers to the M3M standard,” Drik said. Tu-22M3 (NATO reporting name Backfire-C) is a supersonic, swing-wing, ...
Category: Russian Aviation
The Russian Air Force is testing and will soon deploy an advanced tactical air-to-air missile that will greatly enhance its operational effectiveness, the service's commander Col Gen Alexander Zelin said on Tuesday. The missile will be carried by MiG-31BM Foxhound supersonic interceptors/fighters and will subsequently be used by other ...
Category: MiG News
Russia’s Sukhoi aircraft manufacturer started test flights of its third series-produced Su-35S Flanker-E multirole fighter on Tuesday, the company said. The aircraft took off from the Komsomolsk-on-Amur airfield in Russia’s Far East, spending more than two hours in the air testing propulsion and control systems. The Su-35 Flanker-E superiority fighter is powered by two 117S engines with thrust vectoring. It can effectively engage several air targets simultaneously using both guided ...
Category: Russian Aviation
The Russian Air Force has completed flight tests of the modernized Sukhoi Su-25UBM ground attack-trainer aircraft, Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Vladimir Drik said on Tuesday. “Air Force commander Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin signed off on the completion of flight tests for the Su-25UBM at the end of December 2011,” Drik said. The Su-25UBM is a heavily modernized variant of the Su-25 capable of training and strike missions, and is fitted with ...
Category: Russian Aviation
Indonesia has signed a $470 million contract with Russia to buy six Sukhoi Su-30MK2 jet fighters for the Indonesian Air Force, The Jakarta Post daily has reported. The deal was confirmed by Russian defense-industry and diplomatic sources, but the Sukhoi aircraft maker and arms exporter Rosoboronexport declined to comment. Deliveries will start after 2013. Indonesian Deputy Minister of Defense Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin said his office had handed over the contract to ...
Category: Russian Aviation
The Pentagon is gearing up to restructure Lockheed Martin Corp’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program for a third time in three years, sources said, with production of more than 120 more planes to be postponed to save money and allow more time for development. The latest changes should save the Pentagon about $15 billion from fiscal 2013 through 2017 and will be part of the fiscal 2013 budget plan to be ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
The Russian Air Force will receive over 60 modernized MiG-31 Foxhound interceptor aircraft by 2020, the Defense Ministry said. A modernization contract was signed by the ministry and Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation in December last year. “We are planning to upgrade more than 60 MiG-31 interceptors to the MiG-31BM version by 2020,” Air Force spokesman Vladimir Drik said last week. Relatively few MiG-31s have been modernized to the MiG-31BM version ...
Category: MiG News
Today four serial Su-34 frontline bombers went up in the sky from the runway airport of the Novosibirsk Aircraft Production Association (NAPO) and off to the place of their deployment at the air base in Voronezh. Two more aircraft will arrive there in the next few days. The aircraft delivery is carried out in the framework of the five-year state contract signed in 2008 to supply 32 Su-34 frontline bombers ...
Category: Russian Aviation
India’s Air Chief on Wednesday flew a one-hour sortie in a Sukhoi combat jet in a bid to restore his pilots’ confidence after doubts were raised over the aircraft’s safety following a crash on December 13, the third since the plane was inducted in 1997. After the flight, Air Chief Marshal Norman Anil Kumar Browne told the personnel at the Indian Air Force (IAF) base at Lohegaon in Pune that ...
Category: Russian Aviation
Japan has chosen the F-35 stealth fighter jet to replace its aging F-4s as the mainstay of its air defence fleet. Tokyo announced it would buy a total of 42 of the Joint Strike Fighters from defence giant Lockheed Martin, in a deal worth some $8bn (£5bn). The jet was chosen over the Eurofighter Typhoon and Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet. The announcement comes amid regional uncertainty following the death of ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
Russia will provide an additional 42 Sukhoi frontline fighters to India under an agreement signed today, taking the bilateral defence cooperation to new heights. With this pact, the total number of acquired or contracted aircraft by India in various stages of manufacture of the frontline SU-30 MKI fighters increases to 272. The agreement for the upgraded Sukhois was signed by Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma and Russian Federal Service for ...
Category: Russian Aviation
The most expensive weapons program in U.S. history is about to get a lot pricier. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, meant to replace nearly every tactical warplane in the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, was already expected to cost $1 trillion dollars for development, production and maintenance over the next 50 years. Now that cost is expected to grow, owing to 13 different design flaws uncovered in the last ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
China and Russia are apparently chomping at the bit to get a look at the American spy drone that went down over Iran. But if Iranian officials are to be believed, all they have to do is fire up YouTube to get a glimpse. On Thursday, an Iranian news site quoted military sources as saying that Russia and China have already asked Iran to view the remains of an American ...
Category: Military Aviation
Senator John McCain took to the Senate floor this afternoon to criticize Lockheed Martin’s handling of the Joint Strike Fighter program and pressed for the company “to assume an increased share of any cost overruns.” McCain, who cited AOL Defense’s interview last week with F-35 program head Vice Adm. David Venlet, pointed to the LRIP Lot 5 negotiations with Lockheed. “It is at this exact moment that the excessive overlap ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
