Greenwich AeroGroup has agreed to buy military aircraft parts and logistics specialist Aero Precision Industries. Among the main platforms supported by Livermore, Calif.-based Aero Precision are F-15, F-16 and F-18 fighters, C-130 transports and helicopters such as the UH-60/S-70, UH-1, AH-64 and CH-47 types.
Defense » Military Aircraft
News and issues relating to the defense aerospace business, with emphasis on current/in-use, in-development and prospective programs for manned military aircraft and unmanned combat aircraft vehicles (UCAVs).
January 4, 2013 - 10:40am
China’s Ministry of National Defense has formally acknowledged development of the Y-20 military airlifter, four days after images of a prototype appeared on a Chinese Internet forum devoted to military matters. The aircraft was shown undergoing taxi tests at an airfield in Northwestern China, supposedly affiliated with the developer, Xian Aircraft Industry Group of the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (Avic), according to Chinese reports. Also at the site was a J-20 fighter jet prototype.
January 4, 2013 - 10:35am
Oman confirmed a long-expected order for 12 Eurofighter Typhoons, and also decided to buy eight BAE Systems Hawk advanced jet trainers (AJTs). The contract is worth about $3.75 billion; deliveries will begin in 2017. The Typhoons will replace aging Jaguar strike aircraft in the Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO), while the Hawk AJTs will supplement or replace the RAFO’s Hawk Mk103/203s. BAE Systems will provide in-service support.
January 4, 2013 - 10:30am
The U.S. Navy and prime contractor Northrop Grumman completed the first at-sea deck handling tests of the X-47B unmanned combat air system (UCAS) demonstrator last month. The demonstrator aircraft, one of two built for the program, performed numerous activities aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman both in port at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., and during the 15-day test phase at sea.
January 4, 2013 - 10:25am
The U.S. Congress has passed legislation that delays the threatened automatic cuts in federal government spending by two months until March 1, sparing for now a $55 billion reduction in the Department of Defense (DOD) budget for the current fiscal year. That budget currently stands at $552 billion, after the Congress authorized the Fiscal Year 2013 spending bill late last month. The President signed the defense authorization bill on January 3.
January 4, 2013 - 10:20am
There is renewed speculation on unofficial Chinese websites that the country has closed a deal with Russia for licensed production of the Tupolev Tu-22M3 long-range supersonic bomber. But there has been no confirmation from Moscow or Beijing, and a senior military researcher in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has discounted the speculation.
December 21, 2012 - 12:30pm
As with civil aviation operators, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) must ready its aircraft fleet to comply with fast-approaching mandates to operate in the future global airspace system. Failure to meet those requirements will prevent operators from being able to take advantage of preferential routes and altitudes that will be available to properly equipped aircraft.
December 21, 2012 - 12:25pm
Eurocontrol’s Maastricht Upper Area Control Center (Muac) is supplying air traffic data to the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) in a project designed to better coordinate civil and military flights in some of Europe’s busiest airspace. Eurocontrol said the data-sharing system has started initial operations with 11 military controller and two supervisory positions.
December 21, 2012 - 12:20pm
The U.S. Air Force declared the joint-service pilot training and maintenance wing for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter “ready for training” the first instructor pilots on the F-35A conventional takeoff and landing variant, beginning in January. Next summer, the wing will begin training Navy pilots on the F-35C carrier variant of the fifth-generation fighter.
December 21, 2012 - 12:15pm
The U.S. Navy awarded a contract to BAE Systems valued at $400 million over five years to maintain T-34, T-44 and T-6 training aircraft. BAE’s Aerospace Solutions business, based in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., will perform scheduled inspections, repairs, modifications and logistical support of more than 300 aircraft operated by the Chief of Naval Air Training.
