All articles by Ryan Finnerty – Page 19
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NewsLockheed to integrate latest air defence suppression missile with all F-35 variants
The manufacturer of the advanced F-35 stealth fighter received a $97 million Pentagon contract to begin early development work on integrating the Northrop Grumman AGM-88G Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile – Extended Range with all three variants of the fifth-generation jet.
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NewsUS Navy seizes Iranian precision munitions bound for Yemen
Washington claims the materials seized during a commando raid of a maritime vessel are Iranian-made ballistic missile and cruise missile components, including propulsion systems, guidance units, and explosive warheads.
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NewsPentagon unveils first-ever national strategy for defence industry
The new National Defense Industrial Strategy hopes to address significant challenges that arose within critical manufacturers following the Covid-19 pandemic, including lack of critical inventory and labour shortages, and a slow-to-adapt government acquisition process.
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NewsUSA, UK strike Houthi targets in Yemen following drone and missile attack
Fighter aircraft and cruise missiles launched from American warships struck more than a dozen sites in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, the first time in the escalating conflict that Western forces have directly targeted the Iran-backed proxy force on the Arabian Peninsula.
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NewsUSAF tests rapid fighter deployment with Bahrain
Military planners at the Pentagon and regional headquarters around the world are exploring methods for maintaining the sortie generation needed to establish air superiority without relying on large, established airfields that are easier for adversaries to target – a concept known as agile combat employment.
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NewsLockheed delivers first Block 70 F-16s to Slovakia
The NATO member and former Soviet Bloc country plans to acquire 14 of the single-engined, multi-role combat aircraft – replacements for 13 RAC MiG-29 fighters Slovakia donated to Ukraine in 2023.
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NewsRestored Norwegian F-16s join Ukraine support effort
Oslo has sent two of its decommissioned Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters to a training site in Denmark, where Ukrainian crews are preparing to receive the Western combat jet from donor governments in the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium and now Norway.
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NewsAurora begins fabrication of X-65 ‘active flow control’ jet
The Boeing subsidiary is under contract by the Pentagon’s secretive Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to design and fabricate a novel aircraft that uses so-called “active flow control’ to manoeuvre, rather than traditional mechanical aerodynamic surfaces like flaps and rudders.
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NewsUSAF crew ejects from B-1B in South Dakota crash
All four crew aboard a US Air Force Boeing B-1B supersonic bomber safely ejected from a crash on Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota, for which the cause is not yet known.
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NewsHermeus completes ground testing on first Quarterhorse hypersonic testbed
The non-flying Quarterhorse Mk 0 test article is the first of four aircraft in the Quarterhorse programme, through which US start-up Hermeus aims to produce a hypersonic vehicle capable of reaching Mach 4 and surpassing the all-time airspeed record held by Lockheed Martin’s SR-71 Blackbird.
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NewsUS helicopters sink three Red Sea vessels during attempted hijacking
While responding to a distress call from a commercial vessel, US Navy helicopters from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight Eisenhower sank what the Pentagon describes as three small boats originating from the Houthi-controlled region of Yemen.
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NewsTurkey seeking US permission to produce F-16 fighter engines domestically
The GE Aerospace F110 engine powers the Lockheed Martin F-16s used by the Turkish air force, as well as prototypes of Ankara’s domestically-produced Kaan fighter.
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NewsUS Army to purchase thousands of counter-UAV interceptors from Raytheon
The US Army plans to purchase 6,700 Coyote jet-powered drone interceptors from Raytheon, including an explosive warhead variant and a secretive “non-kinetic” model that uses electronic warfare or directed energy.
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NewsUS Navy expands fighter maintenance support to cover air force F-16s
Amid the ongoing retirement of older model Boeing F/A-18 strike fighters, the US Navy is using excess capacity at its fighter maintenance depots to assist the US Air Force in sustaining its Lockheed Martin F-16 jets.
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NewsUSAF tests reverse flow air refuelling using C-5M to top off KC-10
The reverse refuelling concept turns the US Air Force’s massive Lockheed Martin C-5M Super Galaxy strategic lifters into “floating gas stations”, freeing up more dedicated tanker aircraft to refuel tactical craft.
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NewsNetherlands prepares to transfer first 18 F-16s to Ukraine
Amsterdam says it will make an initial tranche of 18 fighter aircraft available to Ukraine, out of 42 F-16s the Dutch government previously committed to providing the Ukrainian air force from its own fleet.
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NewsUS Congress restores funding to F-35 adaptive engine programme
Although the Pentagon wants to move on from the Adaptive Engine Transition Programme, lawmakers in the US Capitol approved $280 million in 2024 to fund the research programme that generated two prototype adaptive cycle powerplants for the F-35 stealth fighter.
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NewsBoeing delivers two F-15EXs with two more expected by year-end
The delivery marks the third and fourth examples of the latest F-15 variant turned over to the US Air Force, which hopes to supplement its growing fleet of fifth-generation fighters.
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News‘Franken-bird’ project attempts to splice together damaged F-35s
Lockheed Martin and the US Air Force say the salvage mission represents the first-ever attempt to remove viable airframe sections from damaged aircraft and re-connect them into an airworthy jet.
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NewsUS Congress halts KC-135 replacement until USAF produces stealth tanker acquisition plan
The 2024 defence spending plan approved by lawmakers in Washington bars the US Air Force from issuing a formal strategy to phase out the ageing Boeing KC-135 tanker fleet, until the service produces an acquisition strategy for the Next Generation Air-refuelling System survivable tanker.