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Israel's Elbit Systems announced yesterday that it was awarded contracts from an Asian country in a total amount of approximately $85 million. A pilot of the Royal Thai Air Force preparing for a mission in an upgraded F-5T, wearing a DASH helmet. Note the Python IV missile on the wingtip. Israel’s Elbit Systems announced yesterday that it was awarded contracts from an Asian country in a total amount of approximately $85 million; the majority of the amount will be for an avionic upgrade of F-5 aircraft, to be performed over a three year period. The balance is for the supply...

How do two stolen jet fighter engines get from the United States, to Malaysia, then to Argentina, Uruguay and finally to Iran? No one is entirely sure just yet. But the two engines are still in the wind, and no other air force, except Iran's, would touch them (their parts numbers are in the hands of police everywhere). It all began last December, when Malaysia began an investigation into the theft of two General Electric J85-21A jet engines in 2007 and 2008. Each of the six F-5 fighters used by the air force uses a pair of these engines. Packed...

Two missing US-made fighter jet engines, worth 29 million dollars and stolen from a Malaysian military airbase, have been traced to Argentina, police said Thursday. Police chief Musa Hasan said officers were checking with their counterparts in Buenos Aires to confirm if the missing engines are still in the country. "The stolen engines have been taken to Argentina," the police chief told AFP. "We have to check if the engines are still in that country." Musa told the Star newspaper that several top airforce officers, including generals, are expected to be questioned in connection with the theft. Four people, including...

The future of supersonic flight is taking shape in the very skies where the sonic boom first signaled the conquest of the sound barrier. This time, however, researchers hope to make a much quieter mark on history. The Shaped Sonic Boom Experiment uses a specially modified F-5E Tiger fighter jet to show that aircraft may be shaped so as to lessen the force of the shock wave created as it goes supersonic, thus producing a quieter sonic boom. "It is the forerunner of the future of supersonic flight," said Northrop Grumman chief test pilot Roy Martin, who piloted the modified...