Iraq: Combat Caravan in action (video)

In the last few days the Iraqi television aired footage showing the Iraqi Air Force bombing local Al Qaeda bases during counter-insurgency operation in Fallujah and Ramadi.

Militants, in control of more than half of Fallujah, have been clashing with security forces in the anti-government campa near Ramadi, to the west of Iraq’s capital town Baghdad.

Z-19 fitted with Longbow-style radar breaks cover

The first images have emerged of a new variant of the Harbin Z-19 light attack helicopter, equipped with a new mast-mounted active millimeter-wave (MMW) radar that appears similar to the Lockheed Martin AN/APG-78 Longbow fire control radar fitted to the Boeing AH-64 Apache.

Lockheed gets fresh JASSM orders from USAF

The US Air Force has awarded $449 million in contracts to Lockheed Martin to produce additional AGM-158 joint air-to-surface standoff missiles (JASSM), the company says.

Lockheed says the Lot 11 and 12 contracts, awarded on 19 December 2013, call for the production of 340 of the basic version of the missile and 100 of the extended-range JASSM-ER. The company says it will also supply systems engineering work, logistics support, tooling and test equipment under the contract terms.

PAK FA stealth features patent published

Details of the Sukhoi Design Bureau's work on the stealthy aspects of the T-50 PAK FA fighter aircraft emerged in late December 2013, when the company's patents were published.

According to the patent paperwork, taken together, all of the stealthy measures offer significant improvements over legacy fighter designs. The papers claim that the radar cross-section (RCS) of an Su-27 was in the order of 10-15 m 2 , with the intention being to reduce the size of the RCS in the T-50 to an "average figure of 0.1-1 m 2 ".

India May Close Interim MMRCA Deal Soon

With national elections looming in India, speculation is growing that contracts for the long-delayed medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA), as well as the multi-role tanker transport (MRTT), could soon be signed. However, the MMRCA pact might cover only the supply of 18 Dassault Rafale aircraft from the French production line, leaving further negotiations for the remaining 108 required to be concluded by the new government. India announced its choice of the Rafale in January 2012. But negotiations subsequently stalled over offsets, the transfer of technology and the role of Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL). 

Canada yet to decide which fighter jet will replace CF-18

Canada may be edging toward calling a competition to replace its aging CF-18 air force jets amid competing claims and "war" between rival suppliers Boeing and Lockheed Martin, analysts say.

Canadian media say the Boeing Co.'s campaign for Canada choosing its Super Hornet as a replacement for the near obsolete CF-18 has focused on recent U.S. budget troubles as an argument for ditching Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Debate emerges over US support for airpower in Iraq

T-6A Texan II: fighter training Iraqi pilots

As Iraqi security forces clashed with Al-Qaeda-backed militants who have seized Fallujah and Ramadi during the week of 6 January, new questions were raised in the US about providing air support to the Iraqi government.

Representative Adam Kinzinger, a Republican from Illinois and a US Air Force (USAF) veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, criticised the US government for "short-sighted policy decisions and hurried withdrawal from the region".

USAF returns fire-damaged B-2 to service

The US Air Force and Northrop Grumman have completed a nearly four-year maintenance process to return one of the service’s fire-damaged B-2 bombers to active service.

During the lengthy repair process, the price of which the USAF has not disclosed, technicians determined the cause of the fire and developed new procedures for repairing composite aircraft structures, says the USAF in a media release.

AIDC F-CK-1A/B Ching Kuo IDF

Taiwan initiated development of the Indigenous Defense Fighter (IDF) started in May 1982, after the U.S. government refused to sell F-16 and F-20 to Taiwan. 

Congratulations to the Indian Naval Aviation

A refitted former Soviet aircraft carrier has reached the Indian coast after leaving Russia’s northern shipyard in mid-November, media report said on Wednesday. The Vikramaditya, a refurbished Russian carrier formerly known as the Admiral Gorshkov, arrived at a naval base in Kanwar in the western state of Karnataka on Tuesday, Indian IBN television reported citing sources in the Navy.