Defence Aviation News

The F-35 Lightning II Helmet Mounted Display System (HMDS) will make its CANSEC debut this year in the Rockwell Collins exhibit (Booth 1103). The HMDS, manufactured by Rockwell Collins ESA Vision Systems, provides F-35 pilots with unprecedented situational awareness for piloting the most advanced aircraft in the world. The virtual head up display provides pilots with day and night operation capability and a binocular wide field of view. Rockwell Collins specializes in leveraging commercial avionics for military applications while also providing its customers with high performance communications in any environment. Journalists and show attendees are invited to the company’s exhibit at CANSEC 2014 to learn more about Rockwell Collins avionics and communications products, solutions and systems integration capabilities, including: Advanced, proven airborne products, systems and solutions ARC-210 – Airborne programmable software defined radio...

Russia fulfils all of its obligations under the FGFA programme with India, Russian Ambassador to India Alexander Kadakin said at the Defexpo-2014 security systems exhibition in New Delhi. “We pay no attention to negative publications that appear from time to time and claim that Russia does not fulfil its obligations under the fifth generation fighter aircraft programme. Russian-Indian military-technical cooperation under this programme develops as scheduled, and we have not received any official complaints from the Indian side,” he said. Vyacheslav Dzirkaln, Deputy Director of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, told Itar-Tass at the exhibition that all such publications had been written to order. “We have no official complaints from India with regard to the fifth generation fighter aircraft. All negotiations take place under the agreements reached earlier,” Dzirkaln said.Commenting on one such article in the Business Standard, Dzi...

SRINAGAR: A MIG-21 fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed on Tuesday in Bijbehara area of Anantnag district in Kashmir, killing the pilot.  The MIG-21, which was on a routine exercise, crashed in the fields at Mirhama in Bijbehara area, 45 kms from here, defence sources said.  Pilot Raghu Bansi was killed in the crash, they said. The MIG-21 had taken off from technical airport here this morning, the sources said.  The cause of the crash was not immediately known. A team of IAF officials have rushed to the spot.                                                             Source : TOI

In development since 2007, Sikorsky recently acknowledge the existence of an unmanned version of UH-60 Black Hawk. According to Sikorsky the helicopter will be able to carry autonomous missions without having a pilot on board. The helicopter could be deployed as early as 2015. “The ability for the pilot to leave the cockpit for potentially dull and dangerous missions significantly reduces crew limitations and increases Black Hawk flight operations.” said Chris Van Buiten, vice president of Technology and Innovation at Sikorsky. The new variant of the UH-60 Black Hawk could be flown manned as well as unmanned depending on the requirement of the mission. The technology would allow full pilot control of the helicopter for complex missions. The helicopter will have technologies used on MQ-1 Predator. The need for an unmanned Black Hawk came into light after two Black Hawks were shot down in Mogadishu, Somalia back in 1993. With over four decades of service, there are many var...

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense has announced plans to hold joint drills of the Ukrainian and Polish air forces. Under the plan, Ukraine’s Mikoyan MiG-29 and Sukhoi Su-27 jet fighters will participate in the military exercises along with Poland’s F-16s and Mikoyan MiG-29s, the ministry said in a statement. The Safe Sky 2014 drills are scheduled from May to July, the statement said. The drills will be focused on the tactical aspects of intercepting air targets. The latest move comes as Russia-backed troops are concentrating in Ukraine’s Crimea. The pro-Russian forces have taken over a number of Ukrainian military facilities there to tighten their grip on the Black Sea peninsula. Ukraine’s defense minister and former Navy chief, Igor Tenyukh, said in a television interview March 9 that during the past weeks, Russia’s Black Sea fleet has expanded its military presence in Crimea from 12,500 troops to an estimated 18,768 troops.               ...

Russia will face “further consequences” if Moscow attempts to legitimise any attempt by Crimea to break away from Ukraine, David Cameron and Angela Merkel have warned. The Prime Minister and the German Chancellor said the proposed referendum in a week’s time on the occupied peninsula is illegal. The pair discussed the crisis at a dinner on Sunday night during the Prime Minister’s two-day visit to Germany. A Downing Street spokesman said: "They both agreed that the priority is to de-escalate the situation and to get Russia to engage in a contact group as swiftly as possible. "They reiterated their view that the proposed referendum in Crimea would be illegal and that any attempt by Russia to legitimise the result would result in further consequences. "They also agreed that we must keep working to support the Ukraine government, including identifying how the international community can help to stabilise the economic situation." Vladimir Put...

Tensions are mounting as Russian troops step up their presence in Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and world leaders push for a diplomatic solution to the escalating crisis. As ideological battle lines are drawn around the world over the situation, leaders are painting vastly different pictures of the realities on the ground. Here are some of the questions at play, with a look at how key players are weighing in: Who's in charge of Ukraine? How far will Putin go in Ukraine? Can bloodshed be prevented in Crimea? Crimea downplays Russian ultimatum Russia's take: Viktor Yanukovych remains Ukraine's elected leader, and Ukraine's new government is illegitimate. Russian United Nations envoy Vitaly Churkin called it an "armed takeover by radical extremists." Ukraine's take: Ukraine has a legitimate government and is set to have new presidential elections on May 25. "Let's give an opportunity for that to work," Ukrainian Ambassador to the ...

Russian troops and military planes were flowing into Crimea on Monday in violation of accords between the two countries, Ukrainian border guards said. Since Sunday, 10 Russian combat helicopters and eight military cargo planes have landed on the flashpoint Black Sea peninsula, the guards said in a statement, while four Russian warships have been in the port of Sevastopol since Saturday. Kiev received no warning regarding the troop movements, even though that is required by the international laws regarding the stationing of Russia's Black Sea navy in Crimea. Under these agreements, Ukraine should receive notice of any troop movements 72 hours in advance. Russian fighter jets twice violated Ukraine's air space over the Black Sea during the night on Sunday, Interfax news agency quoted the defence ministry as saying on Monday. It said Ukraine's air force had scrambled a Sukhoi SU-27 interceptor aircraft and prevented any "provocative action...

Russia showed no signs of backing down Monday even as world leaders threatened sanctions and sternly rebuked the country for sending troops into Ukraine. At an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss the unfolding crisis, Ukraine's envoy asked for help, saying that Russia had used planes, boats and helicopters to flood the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea with 16,000 troops in the past week. "So far, Ukrainian armed forces have exercised restraint and refrained from active resistance to the aggression, but they are in full operational readiness," Ukrainian Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev said. As diplomats at the meeting asked Russia to withdraw its troops and called for mediation to end the crisis, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin insisted his country's aims were preserving democracy, protecting millions of Russians in Ukraine and stopping radical extremists. He said ousted President Viktor Yanukovych remains Ukraine's elected leader and ...

The European Union has condemned "acts of aggression" against Ukraine and threatened Russia with sanctions unless Russian troops are returned to their barracks in Crimea before Thursday. During a tense, emergency meeting of European foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday East European countries, led by Poland and Lithuania, pushed hard for a strong EU commitment to take action against Russia. In a further development last night, Poland called an emergency meeting of Nato ambassadors for Tuesday on the basis of a clause in the military Alliance allowing members to "request consultations whenever their territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened". European divisions over Russia were highlighted when Germany watered down an EU statement condemning the Russian seizure of Crimea as an "invasion" and delayed a decision on kicking Russian out of the G8 or further sanctions until an emergency summit of European lea...

Ukraine mobilized for war on Sunday and Washington threatened to isolate  Russia  economically after President Vladimir Putin  declared he had the right to invade his neighbour in Moscow's biggest confrontation with the West since the Cold War. "This is not a threat: this is actually the declaration of war to my country," Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said in English. Yatseniuk heads a pro-Western government that took power in the former Soviet republic when its Moscow-backed president, Viktor Yanukovich, was ousted last week. Putin secured permission from his parliament on Saturday to use military force to protect Russian citizens in Ukraine and told US President Barack Obama he had the right to defend Russian interests and nationals, spurning Western pleas not to intervene. Financial markets reacted to the escalating tensions when trading opened in Asia on Monday, with oil and wheat futures jumping and stock indexes falling. Russian forces ...

Attending a ceremony held at the 3rd Main Jet Base Command in the province of Konya to put into service the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft as part of the project entitled ‘Peace Eagle’, President Gül underscored the fact that these highly developed aircraft, which are owned by very few countries, have made not only the Turkish Air Force and the Turkish Armed Forces but also the Republic of Turkey even stronger, carrying Turkey to a very privileged position among its allies. The President noted that “today is a special day for the Turkish Air Force, which was one of the world’s first aeronautical organizations and which is increasingly getting stronger each day on the basis of what Atatürk once said: ‘the future is in the skies’. We are a nation that was introduced to aircraft 100 years ago, that used them in World War 1 and that made planes before cars. I am very proud at observing that we have augmented our aeronautical defence capability with the c...

Despite incessant technical problems and delays, the US military has no plans to cancel the new  F-35  fighter jet, the costliest weapons program in Pentagon history. The Joint Strike Fighter has been touted as a technological wonder that will dominate the skies but it has suffered one setback after another, putting the project seven years behind schedule and $167 billion over budget. As the Pentagon prepares to unveil its proposed budget for 2015, the program’s survival is not in doubt but it remains unclear how many planes will be built in the end and how many foreign partners will be willing to buy it. Why has the F-35 program reached the point of no return? After more than a decade since it was launched, officials insist there is no going back on the program, as the plane is supposed to form the backbone of the future fighter jet fleet. The US Air Force and the Marine Corps have not invested in an alternative, having put all their eggs in the F-...

Team Apache Sensors, including the U.S. Army Apache Attack Helicopter Project Management Office, the U.S. Army Aviation Flight Test Directorate and Lockheed Martin, conducted a test flight of the Apache AH-64E Modernized Day Sensor Assembly (M-DSA) during an event at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., yesterday. The test flight demonstrated the maturity of M-DSA and the enhanced capabilities it brings to the Modernized Target   Aquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (M-TADS/PNVS), the precision targeting and pilotage system for the AH-64D/E Apache helicopter. “We are looking forward to the reliability and maintainability improvements that this laser will bring to the M-TADS system,” said Lt. Col. Steven Van Riper, U.S. Army Apache Sensors Product Manager. “This system will help to further reduce the burden on our aircrews, and they will be able to reap the benefits of the performance improvements.” M-DSA increases M-TADS/PNVS designat...