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Tupolev is upgrading Tu-22Ms for ops in Russia’s expanding sphere of influence There’s no bomber quite like a Backfire. In many ways, Russia’s Tu-22M3 is a Cold War throwback. An intermediate-range, variable-geometry machine, the Tupolev design really gave NATO planners headaches in the 1970s and ’80s. If the Cold War had turned hot, Tu-22Ms would have attacked high-profile targets including American aircraft carrier battle groups in the Mediterranean and Atlantic. The bombers also would have struck European ports and key airfields, with the aim of severing supply routes to the U.S. Today, the Backfire is the only supersonic bomber in...

The Boeing B-52 - sometimes known as the Stratofortress - is a long-range, jet-powered strategic bomber which is widely expected to prop up the US Air Force well beyond the year 2045 Before our marathon eight-hour flight Captain Thomas Hyde, the commanding officer of one of the B-52 bombers, briefly describes the mission. He says we will be doing a number of simulated bombing runs around what he calls "the island". He makes it sound like a short training flight over a remote abandoned outcrop of rock somewhere in the North Sea. But the island he is referring to is...

IAI's refuel tanker By Jun Ji-hye Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is moving to join the competition to win a contract to supply the nation's Air Force with four in-flight refueling tankers. IAI's participation is creating a three-way battle, along with Boeing and Airbus, who are also bidding to win the 1.4 trillion won ($1.4 billion) acquisition project. The Israeli company held a media briefing session in Seoul Wednesday and stressed that its B767 MMTT (Multi Mission Tanker Transport) is the comprehensive solution to the air ability of the Air Force. "The IAI is proposing the pre-owned B767-300ER to be the...

The U.S. Air Force has sent its most advanced bomber to Europe for the first time, amid the still-festering Ukraine crisis. Two B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, the most sophisticated warplanes ever employed in combat by the U.S., will be based for a "short-term deployment" at Fairford, a Royal Air Force base in England 90 miles (150 km) west of London -- just three hours flight away from the Russian border.

North Korea has a new anti-ship missile with a range of 130 km that poses a big threat to South Korea's elderly patrol corvettes. A recent propaganda film shown on North Korean state TV shows the missile is similar to the U.S.' Harpoon missile, a military source here said Sunday. "It's probably either the Russian-developed Kh-35 Uran or a copy." The missile was shown among the country's closely guarded submarines, which were also featured for the first time. The Kh-35 was developed in Russia in the mid-90s and has been exported to Burma, India and Vietnam. It is hard to...

About 1,300 people were evacuated after a Marine jet carrying ammunitions crashed in a Yuma, Arizona neighborhood Wednesday. The pilot ejected safely. A Marine spokesperson said the jet was trying to land when it crashed in the backyard of a home about a mile from Marine Corps Air Station-Yuma. Authorities say there have been no reports of injuries related to the crash. A Marine spokesperson said the AV-8B Harrier was carrying four 500-pound bombs and 300 rounds of 20-milimeter ammunitions. A one-mile area around the crash site was evacuated so a military explosives disposal team could safely retrieve the ordnance....

NEW DELHI: A MiG 29K naval combat aircraft has suffered damage while landing on the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya during operations in Arabian Sea off the coast of Goa, a Navy official said today. The Russian-origin aircraft had taken off from the Naval airbase INS Hansa in Goa yesterday and was landing on the aircraft when it carried out a 'hard-landing' causing damage to the nose-wheel undercarriage, the official said. The pilot of the aircraft is safe and the further details of the damage are being assessed, they said. The Navy has ordered a Board of Inquiry (BoI) into the...

The Iraqi Air Force can list a fighter aircraft in the inventory for the first time in more than a decade on 5 June with the delivery of the first of 36 Lockheed Martin F-16IQ Block 52 aircraft on order. Iraqi ambassador Lukman Faily formally received the two-seat, Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229-powered F-16IQ during a ceremony at Lockheed’s factory in Fort Worth, Texas, becoming the 28th country to take delivery of a the 40-year-old F-16. As the first of six two-seat F-16Ds on order – along with 30 single-seat F-16Cs – the aircraft was delivered with a full load of...

Lockheed Martin Corp. ( LMT ) is expected to sell 65 of its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets to Canada in a deal worth more than $8.2 billion, Reuters reported Thursday on its website, citing people familiar with the process. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's cabinet still must approve the transaction, although people told Reuters that key members of Harper's cabinet support the purchase from Lockheed following an 18-month review of the country's needs. A spokesman for Harper's office told Reuters the

NEW DELHI: India is closely tracking Russia's move to directly supply Mi-35 attack helicopters to Pakistan by lifting an informal arms embargo. But officials here also say that Russian arms have in any case been surreptitiously finding their way to Pakistan through China for years now. "Yes, there is some concern here. But then, other countries like the US and France also sell their weaponry to both sides of the line of control. If the French sell Agosta-90B submarines to Pakistan, they sell the Scorpene submarines to us," said a senior defence official. This comes in the backdrop of Russian...

NASA is just about ready to test-launch its so-called flying saucer into the edge of space. The Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator is literally a flying saucer. The original launch date of June 3 was scrubbed because of weather. The next potential launch date is Thursday, June 5, NASA said. "The agency is moving forward and getting ready for Mars as part of NASA's Evolvable Mars campaign," said Michael Gazarik, associate administrator for Space Technology at NASA Headquarters, in a news release. "We fly, we learn, we fly again. We have two more vehicles in the works for next year."

The AC-130 flying gunship fleet is one of the most fabled and feared assets in the entire USAF inventory. Known for its ability to unleash a broadside of cannon fire in the dead of night, the newest of the AC-130 lot is more about smart bombs than raining lead and howitzer shells down on the enemy. Before the turn of the decade it became clear that the aging AC-130 fleet was in low supply and exceedingly high demand. As a result the Air Force Special Operations Command decided that it should augment the existing fleet on AC-130H and AC-130Us in...

The RAAF’s AGM-158A Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-Off Missile (JASSM) has achieved its Final Operational Capability (FOC), Minister for Defence, Senator David Johnston has announced. The weapon – which is built by Lockheed Martin and is also in use by the USAF – was acquired under Project AIR 5418 to give the RAAF’s classic Hornet fleet a 300km+ stand-off precision strike capability. “The Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-Off Missile is now fully in service and is an extremely capable, long range missile that meets the future requirements of Air Force,” Senator Johnston said in a statement. “Successful JASSM integration forms a key piece of...

"On July 23, 1983, in the small town of Gimli, Manitoba, Captain Robert Pearson and Co-Pilot Maurice Quintal expertly glided a 100-ton Boeing 767 carrying 69 people to a safe landing without engines, air brakes or flaps, and minimal control of the aircraft......" .....;

On Friday the 23rd of May 2014 the Norwegian Government presented a bill to Parliament where it proposes to invest nearly NOK 3.7 billion (USD 622 million) in the third and final phase of development of the Joint Strike Missile. The JSM has been in development since 2004 and is one of the most advanced military development programs ever conducted in Norway. Its objective is to equip future Norwegian F-35 combat aircraft with a weapon that allows for successful engagement of highly defended sea- and land targets at very long range. Joint Strike Missile (JSM) in the internal carriage bay...

Move part of budget cuts * More pilotless planes being used in Gaza operations * U.S.-made Apache still in service By Dan Williams TEL AVIV, May 28 (Reuters) - Israel has phased out one of its two types of U.S. attack helicopter in favour of using more drones, military officers have told Reuters, reflecting a need for lighter and cheaper air power to counter Islamist guerrillas on its borders. They said Israel's last squadron of Cobras, built for tank-hunting and eluding surface-to-air missiles, was pulled from service late last year. The decision was previously kept under wraps but disclosed in...

One of the biggest concerns of the Spanish navy about its future -- the 'expiration' of the Harrier fighters and their complicated succession – has now been solved by a 70-million euro plan to extend their service life beyond 2025. Their intended replacement, the American F-35B, must wait "until it becomes financially accessible" for Spain. Spain has secured the future of its naval air wing, after years of uncertainty about what vertical takeoff fighters it would operate after 2020. After the loss of the aircraft carrier 'Principe de Asturias’ -- an ideal platform for STOVL fighters, but which has now...

American company Textron Airland is bidding to sell its “budget” Scorpion jets to the Swiss government at one-seventh the cost of Swedish Gripen fighter planes turned down by voters in Switzerland this month. “The Scorpion is ideally suited to Switzerland’s circumstances,” Textron Airland president Bill Anderson is quoted as telling Tages Anzeiger in a report this week. “It is cheaper than the Gripen and still meets 90 percent of the tasks at hand,” Anderson said. “We could offer the jet to Switzerland for less than $20 million.” Swiss voters on May 18th shot down a deal approved by the government...

A U.S. Air Force KC-135 and French Rafale involved in an mid-air emergency over Mali. Taken from a 100th ARW (Air Refueling Wing) KC-135 Stratotanker during what seemed to be (at least until then) a routine aerial refueling mission in support of Operation Serval, in Mali, the above image shows a French Air Force Rafale jet breaking to the left to separate from the tanker after the tip of IFR (In Flight Refueling) probe was severely damaged. According to the Escadron de chasse 01.091 “Gascogne”, who posted the image, the aircraft, with full load of weapons, was refueling from the...

MOSCOW, May 22 (RIA Novosti) – Talks with foreign partners to purchase Russia’s Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopters will begin in earnest in 2016 or 2017, a representative of Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport said Thursday. The Ka-52 was unveiled internationally at the 50th Le Bourget airshow last June. “This is the case of a prospect of 2016-2017,” Vladislav Kuzmichev told RIA Novosti at the HeliRussia 2014 expo in Moscow. Kuzmichev added that the the helicopter is currently being demonstrated to potential customers. The Ka-52 Hokum-B is a modification of the Ka-50 Hokum. It has a maximum speed of 350 kilometers per...