Tag: military aviation

China, Russia, and US Expected to Renew Long-Range Bomber Fleets

Aviation Week reports, “As of 2022, only three countries continue to operate dedicated long-range bombers – China, Russia and the U.S. – with 518 aircraft in service around the world.” Aviation Week Network “projects the number will increase over the next decade to 574 aircraft as the same three operators modernize and expand their fleets.” The next generation of bombers includes “the Air Force’s B-21 and China’s H-20,” while “the largest single family of bombers in service around the world is the Xian H-6 operated by China, itself a platform that can trace its lineage back 70 years to the first flight of the Tupolev Tu-16 just 12 days after the B-52.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

USMC Releases New Aviation Plan

Seapower Magazine reports that the 2022 Marine Corps Aviation Plan, released this week, reduces the “number of F-35Bs in some squadrons from 16 to 10 aircraft.” Lt. Gen. Mark Wise, deputy commandant for Aviation, told reporters on Monday that the change in the numbers in the F-35 squadrons “really had to do with what is the optimum way, so starting with the requirement and moving backwards.”
Full Story (Seapower Magazine)

KC-46’s Faulty Trim Kept Emergency Door from Opening

Air Force Times reported that a “problem with the trim on the KC-46A Pegasus’ overwing exit doors kept it from being able to open, which could have hindered passengers’ ability to escape during an emergency.” The US Air Force’s engineers “worked with KC-46 manufacturer” The Boeing Company “to create and issue a time compliance technical order to modify the refueling tankers’ doors in the field.”
Full Story (Air Force Times)

F-15EX Fires Missile for the First Time in Test

Air Force Times reports that the F-15EX Eagle II on Friday successfully fired “an AIM-120D missile at a BQM-167 target drone over the Gulf of Mexico.” The F-15EX, “which was taking part in an air-to-air weapons system evaluation program known as Combat Archer, found the drone with its sensors, tracked it and fired the missile at it.”
Full Story (Air Force Times)

Tu-160M Bomber Makes First Flight

Aviation International News reports that Tupolev performed the first flight of the first new-production Tu-160M strategic bomber Wednesday. The flight “was undertaken at the Kazan Aviation Plant airfield, and lasted for around 30 minutes.” The first two new-production aircraft are to be handed over to the Russian air force in 2022. The Tu-160M features a “new digital mission avionics suite and large-screen cockpit displays,” a “NV-70M Novella radar and electronic warfare suite,” and new KN-32-02 engines which provide a “13 percent increase in range.”
Full Story (Aviation International News)

KC-46 Cleared to Refuel More Aircraft

Aviation Week reports that the US Air Force “has cleared the KC-46 to refuel five more aircraft types as part of a rollout of interim capabilities before the tanker is fully operational. U.S. Transportation Command can now task the KC-46 to refuel AC-130Js, HC-130Js, MC-130Js, C-5Ms and E-3Gs.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

KC-46 Approved for TRANSCOM Missions

Air Force Times reported that Air Mobility Command announced Friday that the KC-46 Pegasus tanker “is now able to refuel the Air Force’s fourth-generation fighter jets during missions for U.S. Transportation Command, expanding the service’s air refueling capacity and the capability of its newest tanker.”
Full Story (Air Force Times)

Navy Demonstrates Live-Virtual-Constructive Capability of Air Combat Training Tech

ExecutiveGov reports that “the U.S. Navy conducted a demonstration in August to test the live-virtual-constructive capability of the Tactical Combat Training System Increment II in an operational environment.” Naval Air Systems Command said “the Naval Aviation Training Systems and Ranges program office, PMA-205, and Advanced Naval Technology Exercise-21 teams conducted the demonstration using F/A-18 and EA-18G aircraft, an operational destroyer, Joint Semi-Automated Forces System, Next Generation Threat System, a guided missile and an F/A-18 simulator through the Navy Continuous Training Environment.” Capt. Lisa Sullivan, PMA-205 program manager, said: “On the surface side, ships have been using a training LVC mode for a while, networking back and forth to exercise coordinators running complex scenarios. Now aviation is part of the mix through validation of TCTS Inc. II as the host system connecting live aircraft into a LVC environment.”
Full Story (ExecutiveGov)

Lockheed Martin Agrees to Deliver 151 to 153 F-35s in 2022

Reuters reports that Lockheed Martin announced Monday that it had “agreed with the Pentagon to deliver 151 to 153 F-35 fighter aircraft in 2022, fewer than the 169 jets it had hoped to deliver.” Lockheed Martin “also said it was expecting to deliver 156 aircraft to the United States beginning 2023 and for the ‘foreseeable future.’”
Full Story (Reuters)