All news – Page 6677
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MiG-29s reach North Korea for assembly
North Korea is reported to be assembling 10 MAPO MiG-29 fighters from components bought from Russia, according to defence sources in South Korea. Senior South Korean officials have told the local press that the government has confirmed the North's acquisition of MiG-29 components. It estimates that they are sufficient ...
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Comanche development draws closer
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC Boeing and Sikorsky hope to launch full-scale engineering development of the delayed RAH-66 Comanche helicopter next year following the submission of a $3.1 billion proposal to the US Army. The proposal maps out a 2,000h development and qualification flight test programme to start in 2004. The ...
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New Zealand election threatens F-16 deal
Peter La Franchi/CANBERRA New Zealand's Lockheed Martin F-16 lease arrangement with the USA is threatened by a national election within the next 10 weeks, with the Labour opposition threatening to dump the deal if it wins power. New Zealand Labour leader Helen Clarke used the release of a major ...
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Broach fired
Matra BAe Dynamics has performed two successful firings of the British Aerospace Broach warhead that will form the lethal package for the Storm Shadow conventionally armed stand-off missile. The firings, in the UK, were the final phase of a risk reduction programme. Source: Flight International
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Bell files suit to take military counterfeits off civil market
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Bell Helicopter Textron is campaigning to prevent companies fraudulently selling military-surplus helicopters as commercially certificated. The first of several lawsuits has been filed in Seattle against Washington-based Intrex Helicopters. Bell alleges that Intrex used components from an ex-military UH-1 "and obtained certification of the aircraft ...
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Diamond Star flight test programme begins
Austria's Diamond Aircraft has begun flight testing its production configuration DA40-180 Diamond Star, four-seat piston single, for which it already has more than 200 orders. Four pre-production prototypes have already been flown from its Wiener Neustadt base. During the two-month programme the all-composite, Textron Lycoming IO-360-powered aircraft will perform ...
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Safety suite set to make Atlanta NBAA debut
AlliedSignal's new flight information service (FIS) is the centrepiece of a general aviation (GA) safety avionics suite to be unveiled at the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) convention in Atlanta, Georgia, in October. The system will combine colour weather graphics received via the FIS datalink with the enhanced ground ...
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US Marines aim to give Cobra more venom
The US Marine Corps is working to widen the range of weapons available to the upgraded Bell AH-1Z Cobra attack helicopter, including the radar-guided Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman AGM-114L Longbow Hellfire anti-tank missile. Plans call for the AH-1Z to carry up to 16 laser-guided AGM-114A missiles. The helicopter will be ...
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NATO joins USAF command and control experiment
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC NATO is participating in a US Air Force experiment to test command and control (C2) concepts for expeditionary operations. The Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment (JEFX) now under way combines live and simulated forces in the second large-scale test of technologies which promise to enhance the capabilities of ...
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France and UK invite JOANNA proposals
The French and UK ministries of defence have issued an invitation to tender for a fourth generation electro-optical targeting pod technical demonstrator programme (TDP)that could lead to an operational system entering service late in the next decade. The Joint Airborne Navigation and Attack (JOANNA) TDP will be split equally ...
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Germany doubles NH90 requirement
German procurement agency, BWB, has doubled its initial requirement for NH90 military transport helicopters and delayed entry into service by a year to 2004. While the increase still needs German parliamentary approval, the move is good news for NH Industries ahead of a major decision by the four NH90 nations ...
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Next NMD test will hit to kill says BMDO
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC The US Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) says its objective for the next test of the National Missile Defence (NMD) system will be to demonstrate the "hit-to-kill" capability of the exoatmospheric kill vehicle (EKV). Although ground-based radars for the NMD system will be on line ...
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First RAAF C-130J-30 delivery
The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) was due to take delivery of its first Lockheed Martin C-130J-30 transport on 7 September, 27 months after the original contract delivery date. The RAAF says a further five aircraft are expected before the end of this year, while the final six will arrive ...
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Talon clings on as US Air Force extends upgrade programme
The US Air Force is planning further life extension structural modifications to the Northrop T-38 Talon advanced trainer to complement on-going powerplant, wing and avionics upgrades. A request for proposals for the design and development of new air inlets and fuselage bulkheads is expected to be released before the ...
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Ready for action
The US Air Force aims to make itself light, lean and, most importantly, lethal DeeDee Doke/LONDON The impending transmutation of the US Air Force into a light, lean and lethal expeditionary aerospace force is akin to US-style football, says Maj Gen William Hinton (left). "We haven't changed what ...
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The training drain
The Kosovo conflict pushed the USAF's European forces to the limit - and created a training backlog DeeDee Doke/RAMSTEIN AB An air power victory in the Kosovo conflict did not come without cost to the US Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), which commands 26,000 active-duty airmen at 14 ...
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Financial turnaround
KAL has performed better than expected this year after its worst ever result in 1997 and despite its dubious safety record Andrzej Jeziorski/SEOUL Shim Yi-taek, president of Korean Air, says the airline has outperformed financial expectations, with operating revenue hitting 2.2 trillion won ($1.9 billion). This is "112% of ...
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Safety first
Korean Air is making a concentrated effort to improve safety and save itself from isolation - and possible collapse Andrzej Jeziorski/SEOUL Korean Air (KAL) executives speaking to the press these days face an unusual dilemma: how can an airline confirm, and simultaneously deny, that it has a problem with its ...
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Atlas restart scheduled after engine is cleared
Lockheed Martin is to resume Atlas launches on 10 September, but the maiden flight of its Atlas III booster has been pushed back into 2000. Atlas launches were halted in May following the loss of Boeing's first Delta III, caused by the failure of a Pratt & Whitney RL10 ...
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First Chandra X-ray images released
NASA has released the first two test images from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, deployed into orbit by the STS93 in July. One of the images (left) shows a dramatic view of the leftovers of the Cassiopeia A supernova explosion, revealing debris, shock waves and the bright centre of the ...