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Bell Helicopter announced today that it will lay off 1,100 employees. The Fort Worth-based helicopter company has a location on Pont Des Mouton Road in Lafayette, according to the company's website. The company did not release specifics on which locations will see layoffs, but the communications director did say in a news release that the reduction in workforce will apply to all areas of the business, both management and non-management, and covered and non-covered workers. In addition to its Pont Des Mouton location, Bell Helicopter broke ground in August last year on an 82,300-square-foot aircraft assembly center near the Lafayette...

A small gyrocopter that flew through miles of the nation’s most restricted airspace before landing at the U.S. Capitol was “indistinguishable” on radar from non-aircraft such as a flock of birds, a kite or a balloon, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday. FAA Administrator Michael Huerta told a House committee that the slow-moving gyrocopter appeared as an “irregular symbol” on radar monitored by air traffic controllers. Huerta and other officials said the small, unidentified object did not pose an apparent threat before landing on the Capitol’s West Lawn April 15. Forensic analysis conducted later identified a slow-moving...

A US Air Force refuelling aircraft disappeared off the radar over the English Channel last night. The Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker left Amiens in northern France at 0.05am local time (11.05pm BST) and was last reported on a flight tracking website between Dover and Calais 15 minutes later. It is not yet known why the plane - flying under the code QID72 and based at Mildenhall in Suffolk - fell off the radar at 0.20am. The US Air Force was unavailable for comment.

LINKOPING, Sweden, April 27 (Reuters) - Swedish defence company Saab said on Monday there was growing interest for its Gripen fighter jet from countries spread across Russia's European flank, amid rising tensions rise over Ukraine. Czech Republic and Hungary already operate 14 Gripens each under leases, and a senior Saab executive said he was open to more such deals as others with limited budgets seek more modern air power. "Even if they don't expect a Russian intervention, there are more tensions and air policing becomes necessary, so if you only have a few MiG-21s you would like to have a...

On April 22, 2015, the X47B UCAV became the first unmanned aircraft to be refueled in the air. It took place off the coast of Maryland and Virginia in the Atlantic Test Ranges.

NEW DELHI: Indian Air Force has initiated a proposal to purchase three more Boeing C-17 Globemaster III aircraft from the US for about Rs 8,700 crore, impressed as it is by the cargo carrier's varied utility that includes carrying out of large-scale humanitarian assistance operations such as the ongoing relief effort in earthquake-hit Nepal. The IAF has told the government that it wants to add three very heavy transport aircraft to its fleet of 10 C-17s that were ordered in 2011 and inducted in 2013, officials said. The IAF has pressed the case for three more C-17s after being informed...

The union looking to organize workers at Boeing's South Carolina plant has put its plans in a holding pattern, claiming workers are so opposed to signing up that they chased labor leaders off their porches at gunpoint. The North Charleston plant, which opened in the right-to-work state four years ago and builds fuselages for 747s and 787s, employs about 7,500 workers. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers had been trying to build support for a vote this week on unionizing 3,175 production and maintenance workers, but called off the vote days before it was to happen.

For several years, the Afghan air force has flown Russian Mi-35 Hind gunships. The iconic, armored helicopters are better known as “flying tanks” for their ability to spew bullets and rockets — while absorbing gunfire. But the Afghans probably won’t fly their Hinds a year from now. The helicopters are getting old and falling apart — and with Washington’s relationship with Moscow at its lowest point in decades, the Pentagon is buying tiny American choppers to replace them. On April 9, the Afghan air force received six American-made MD-530F gunships. In 2013, In 2014, the Pentagon decided to send a total of 12 armed...

Being a fighter pilot, in general, sounds like a sweet gig on the surface. You fly in fast jets, and you get to wear sunglasses a lot. But to the 100 Saudi fighter pilots bombing Houthi rebels in Yemen right now, it just got better. Saudi prince Al-Waleed bin Talal promised each and every one of them a Bentley. Oddly enough, bin Talal deleted the tweet shortly after, but I think the offer still stands. In case your Arabic is a little rusty, the original reads: I congratulate your success of Operation Decisive Storm and the start of Operation Restore...

The roar of Super Dave Mathieson's aerobatic aircraft has been grounded over noise complaints. The full-time air show pilot, who made Chilliwack his home base a few years ago, received notification from Transport Canada earlier this month that he could no longer perform the aerobatics under 2000 feet at Chilliwack Airport, citing proximity to "noise sensitive or livestock" areas.

WARSAW, April 21 (Reuters) - Poland looks set to award a total of $8 billion in military contracts to Raytheon of the United States and Europe's Airbus, local media and industry sources said on Tuesday, striking a transatlantic balance as it faces rising tensions with Russia. Speculation over the deals rose as President Bronislaw Komorowski, Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz and Poland's defence minister gathered to discuss the modernisation of the country's armed forces. A press briefing was scheduled for 1400 GMT, but Polish officials declined to elaborate. Daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported Warsaw had chosen U.S. firm Raytheon, the maker of...

The Obama administration’s decision this month to sell almost $1 billion in U.S.-made attack helicopters, missiles and other equipment to Pakistan will fuel conflict in South Asia without fulfilling the objective of helping the country fight Islamist extremists. Pakistan’s failure to tackle its jihadist challenge is not the result of a lack of arms but reflects an absence of will. Unless Pakistan changes its worldview, American weapons will end up being used to fight or menace India and perceived domestic enemies instead of being deployed against jihadists. Competition with India remains the overriding consideration in Pakistan’s foreign and domestic policies....

BAE Systems Maritime rolled out the bridge module of the Royal Navy’s second Queen Elizabeth Class carrier, the HMS Prince Of Wales yesterday, and it looks more like it should be orbiting a planet in the Outer Rim and launching Tie Fighters than sailing the high seas. The 70,000 displacement ton carrier will be commissioned in 2020, and like her sister, the Queen Elizabeth, she will carry around 40 aircraft. The mainstay of which will be the Royal Navy’s F-35Bs, along with pretty much every helicopter asset in service with UK forces, including Merlins, Apaches, Lynx Wildcats and Chinooks. Top...

Precision weapons and networked targeting have helped maintain America’s military superiority for decades. But technology marches on. New defense exporters are joining the global game with advanced and well-priced offerings, creating potential threats to the U.S. and its allies, and weakening Western influence. The Pentagon has a plan to cope with these evolving threats, but is it enough? To understand what’s happening, consider the global automotive industry. South Korea’s Hyundai Motors became a serious global competitor by leveraging the rapid diffusion of technology, an initial edge in cheap labor, and a “good enough” product for value buyers. Their success wasn’t...

An artist’s representation of a Harpoon Anti-Ship Missile. Boeing Image Hoping to build off of the Navy’s extensive inventory of existing anti-surface missiles, Boeing plans to compete a modified version of the Harpoon RGM-84 anti-ship missile (ASM) for the over the horizon ASM capability for the Littoral Combat Ship and the modified LCS Frigate program, the company announced on Tuesday during the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition 2015. Boeing’s bid would add a new warhead and a reconstituted engine for a range of more than 130 nautical miles — up from the about 70 nautical mile range of the current Block...

The US Air Force and Navy plan to pursue the development and acquisition of sixth-generation F/A-XX fighters; they consider the fleet of existing jets incapable of handling their Russian and Chinese fifth-generation counterparts, something which they feel constitutes a real threat to national security. The Chinese Chengdu J-20 and the Russian Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA are becoming a real threat to the US Air Force and Navy, according to The National Interest, an international affairs magazine. "When you see these next-generation fighters, the PAK-FA out of Russia and the J-20 out of China, and some of their new missile technology, our...

The U.K. Ministry of Defense has released an accounting of all the aircraft in Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and British Army service — and the overall tally is tiny … and getting tinier. As of March this year, the air forces of the United Kingdom possessed no more than 362 combat-ready warplanes and drones plus 249 helicopters — a mere 611 military aircraft. Britain’s air force, navy and army together have another 93 planes and copters that are in deep maintenance or rework plus 18 that are in storage. None of these 111 aircraft are immediately available for combat. It’s worth noting that...

Brazilian planemaker Embraer SA and Swedish partner Saab AB hope to devise a plan by June for exporting the Gripen fighter jet from the South American country beginning in 2023, a senior Embraer official said on Tuesday. Jackson Schneider, the head of Embraer's defense unit, said deliveries of 36 Gripen NG single-engine jets to the Brazilian Air Force from a joint assembly plant in the country would begin in 2018. It could wrap up as early as 2023, opening up export capacity. The companies formalized their partnership in the $5.4 billion program on Tuesday at the LAAD defense fair in...

With Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s big announcement in Paris that New Delhi would purchase 36 Dassault Rafale multi-role fighters off-the-shelf (prêt-à-porter, if you will) in a government-to-government deal, the future of the $20 billion tender for India’s medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) that was being negotiated between France’s Dassault Aviation and the Indian government fell into limbo. That ambiguity was resolved on Monday, three days after Modi’s announcement, when Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar clarified that the $20 billion tender would not move forward. Just like that, the “mother of all defense deals,” as India’s MMRCA project was known,...

China has signed a contract with the Russian state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport for the purchase of the S-400 air defense systems, the company's chief executive Anatoly Isaikin said in an interview with the Russian daily Kommersant. "I will not disclose the details of the contract, but yes, China has indeed become the first buyer of this sophisticated Russian air defense system. It underlines once again the strategic level of our relations," Isaikin said, when asked whether it was true that Beijing signed a contract for the purchase of four S-400 divisions in September 2014. Isaykin also said that "many countries"...