Alenia Aeronautica, Dassault Aviation and Saab on June 19 signed a letter of intent to expand cooperation in UAVs to medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) drones, but said the work would have to be funded with government money. If the project goes ahead, the MALE unmanned aircraft will compete with EADS’ ambitions to develop such a UAV in Europe.“With the success of …
Lockheed Martin and Alenia Aeronautica have confirmed the rough schedule of events that will lead up to an Italian final assembly line turning out Joint Strike Fighters (JSF) by 2014.Construction of a final-assembly and check-out (FACO) line at northern Italy’s Cameri air base might start in 2010 and last two years, said Tom Burbage, Lockheed Martin’s executive vice president for …
Israel today used its indigenous Shavit launcher to successfully insert into space its newest Ofeq-7 spy satellite.The June 11 launch — at 2.40 a.m. from a military base along the nation’s central Mediterranean coast — marked a much-needed success after the September 2004 loss of Ofeq-6 due to failures of the launch vehicle. The newest space craft, with its high-resolution …
The demonstrator for a European combat drone, Neuron, has entered the definition phase of the technology program, the Délégation Générale pour l’Armement, France’s defense procurement agency, said in a June 12 statement.The 19-month definition stage is intended to freeze the design and determine the systems and interfaces for the technology demonstrator for a combat UAV. The Neuron program is budgeted …
BAGHDAD – A U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jet crashed Friday during a close air support mission for ground forces in Iraq — a rare loss of the workhorse aircraft. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Robert Gates came to Baghdad on an unannounced visit, and the U.S. military said five soldiers had died. An Air Force announcement, which referred to the 12:27 …
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As the U.S. Navy moves toward next-generation aircraft such as the Joint Strike Fighter, the service faces a difficult transition, according to the Navy’s vice commander for aviation.“Managing old and new assets at the same time is historically a very difficult part of getting systems into the fleet,” said Rear Adm. Stephen Enewold, vice commander of Naval Air Systems Command, …
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan has asked the United States for aerial refueling planes and is considering leasing vertical take-off and landing jets to help counter the threat from China, a defense official said on Friday.br /The aim is to maintain the combat ability of the island’s air force in the event of a Chinese attack on its airfields.br /China has …
Prototypes of the Japanese Self-Defense Force’s new C-X cargo and P-X maritime patrol aircraft were recently revealed by the Ministry of National Defense’s Technical Research and Development Institute (TRDI).In photos posted to the TRDI Web site, the C-X appears similar to the 1970s-built Kawasaki C-1 transport plane. The photos show a conventional military transport design with two turbojet engines slung …
a href=”http://bp3.blogger.com/_RRbP6fpJWAc/RmylKwp6wWI/AAAAAAAAARA/Wg2FafwPRho/s1600-h/27_11342.jpg”img id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5074612484417700194″ style=”FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand” alt=”" src=”http://bp3.blogger.com/_RRbP6fpJWAc/RmylKwp6wWI/AAAAAAAAARA/Wg2FafwPRho/s320/27_11342.jpg” border=”0″ //a There has been much written on what it’s combat capability will or will not be, questions of: “Is it worth it?” by any number of experts, pundits, and politicians and of course the big one: “will it be on time?” One of the latest …
