BUFF

Boeing Gets OK To Deliver Tanker to Japan By andrew chuter Published: 19 Feb 03:44 EST (22:44 GMT) Print | Email The Japan Air Self-Defense Force has given Boeing the green light to deliver the first of four tanker aircraft it has on order from the U.S. aerospace giant. The delivery approval comes in the wake of the 767 tanker aircraft receiving a Federal Aviation Administration Supplemental Type certificate allowing it to also carry passengers and cargo last week. The JASDF completed a review of the program in the last couple of days allowing it to approve handover of the aircraft to Japanese trading house Itochu ahead of delivery to the air force. The delivery flight of the first aircraft from Boeing's Wichita plant is "imminent," Joe Song, the company's vice president for Asia Pacific business development told reporters at the Singapore Airshow today. A second aircraft is scheduled to be delivered before the end of the first quarter of this year with the final two KC-767s following in 2009. The aircraft will be the first tankers operated by Japan. The 767 tanker, ordered by Japan and Italy, has been beset by technical issues and delays. The first of the Japanese aircraft were originally scheduled to be delivered in 2005. The FAA previously certified the KC-767 for everything except passengers and main deck cargo. In a statement last week Boeing said it used a combination of Japanese and Italian KC-767 tankers to complete the testing. "The completed tests also will help Boeing obtain FAA certification for the Italy KC-767 followed by delivery of the country's first two tankers later in 2008." Boeing said. The Japanese approval comes at just the right time for Boeing. The company's 767 Advanced Tanker is in the final stages of a fierce competition with Airbus for a huge U.S. Air Force order.

By Bruce Rolfsen - brolfsen@militarytimes.com Posted : Tuesday Feb 19, 2008 15:04:52 EST All but a handful of the Air Force’s F-15 Eagles can return to flight, Air Combat Command has decided. The 149 Eagles grounded because key structural parts didn’t meet the original design specifications can fly again once each jet has passed an additional set of inspections, an ACC spokesman said. With the inspections taking six to eight hours for each jet, most of the F-15s should be back in the air in two to three weeks. The decision to allow the 149 jets to begin operating again will give the service 429 flying A through D-model Eagles. Nine F-15s will remain grounded because inspections turned up cracks in the metal beams reinforce the jet’s fuselage. Air Combat Command boss Gen. John Corley reached the return to flight decision on Feb. 15 after his Air Force Materiel Command counterpart, Gen. Bruce Carlson approved a new inspection regime for the jets. While ACC operates most of the Air Force’s F-15s, AFMC has overall responsibility for the jets’ long-term health and sustainment. The F-15s were first grounded on Nov. 3, the day after a Missouri Air National Guard F-15C broke apart in flight while in a nearly 8-G turn. The pilot survived ejecting from the tumbling cockpit. A two-month-long investigation determined that the F-15C broke apart because one of the support beams, called a longeron, had cracked apart because the beam was too thin to handle high-stress of combat maneuvering. A fleet-wide check of other F-15s discovered that nine had similar cracks and another 149 had thin or rough surfaced longerons but no cracks. At first, F-15E Strike Eagles were also grounded but once they passed inspections in November, the bomber version of the F-15 was put back in the air.

Predator B is "Reaper".

The carrier design has space earmarked for catapults in the event that they will ever be needed (more likely electromagnetic than steam though).

& then iirc didn't LM get outbid by Boeing to actually build a pile of them?

the French are desperate to get their first export sales for Rafale. 1. they are currently carrying all the development costs on their own 2. every time some other country has a requirement they look at all the others that have had it in initial tests & not picked it - it's got to give a negative impression. Morocco is another country that supposedly may get Rafales but again only a small no. Cheaper to do a below cost deal for a country that wants 20 or 30 than 1 that wants 150 ...

no catapults planned atm. & if we don't have the budget for new choppers we don't have it for E-2s ...

Algeria Lays Down Russian Arms 18-02-2008 // $1.286-billion contract under threat For the first time in the history of Russian military cooperation, a foreign customers is returning a military hardware purchase. Last week, an agreement was signed on the return of 15 MiG planes acquired by Algeria in 2006 and 2007. Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika begins a visit to Russia today, during which military cooperation will be one of the main topics of talks. Experts say the Algerians actions are not due to objections to the quality of the Russian technology, but because of domestic conditions and problems with third countries. On February 6, head of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technological Cooperation Mikhail Dmitriev held talks with the Algerian armed forces chief of staff Salah Ahmed Gaid. Kommersant has learned that proposed returning the planes immediately, that is, before the president's visit to Moscow, “on the basis of an oral agreement,” with documentary formalities to be taken care of later. However, according to a source in the United Aviation Construction Corp., the Federal Service for Military-Technological Cooperation, Rosoboronexport, the MiG Corp. and the Algerian Air Force signed an official agreement on the return of the planes to Russia. The Ministry of Industry and Energy confirmed for Kommersant on Friday that it was aware of “an agreement being reached with Algeria on the MiGs.” The planes will be returned in the coming months. The contract will not be completely renounced, however, according to a UACC source. He said that Algeria was being offered more up-to-date MiG-29M2 or MiG-35 models or nonaviation hardware in exchange. The cost of one MiG-29M2 or MiG-35 is $5-10 million higher than of a MiG-29SMT. A Kommersant source in the aviation industry says that the lot of Su-30MKI(A) models for Algeria may be increased. In March 2006, a contract was signed for the delivery of 28 Su30MKI(A) jet fighters was signed and three of them were delivered last year. The returned MiGs may be sold to the Russian Ministry of Defense or to a third country. A source in the Federal Service for Military-Technological Cooperation said that it is possible that Algeria will take 15 planes back after they are improved. “It hasn't been determined yet how Algeria will compensate the advances and the forfeiture of the contract, all the more so since the repayment of Algeria's foreign debt was counted into the contract,” said the source. The $1.286-billion contract for 28 one-seat MiG-29SMT and six two-seat MiG-29UB fighters was signed by Rosoboronexport in March 2006, during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Algeria. That contract was part of a package of agreements on military-technology cooperation with Algeria worth a total of about $8 billion. Russia agreed to write off Algeria's debt to the former USSR (about $4.7 billion) as the contract as fulfilled. For the first time, the MiG Corp. delivered the planes with a trade-in program. As new planes were delivered, MiG-29SMT/UB models bought by Algeria in the 1990s from Belarus and Ukraine were returned to MiG. The planes were supposed to be delivered between March 2007 and February 2008, but Algeria refused delivery after May 2007 and demanded that the first 15 planes delivered be returned. Algeria pointed to used or low-quality parts found in the planes. In August, the Algerian president sent a letter about that to Putin. Russia has already received a $250-million advance payment. In addition, since October of last year, Algeria has not made payments of $432 million on other military contracts, tying them to the return of the MiGs. As a result, according to the Russian Finance Ministry, on February 1 of this year, the total of payment received from Algeria on military contracts, recorded in a special account against the country's debt, came to only $1.83 billion. Russia long insisted that the claims were ungrounded. “The bodies of the planes were produced in the 1990s, but that was stipulated in the contract, and everything inside them, all the equipment, was new,” a source at MiG said, adding that Rosoboronexport representatives demanded an explanation that could serve as the basis for breaking the contract. “Algerian representatives wrote a receipt in Russia and in Algeria, then they began using those MiGs and only after that they made their claims,” a corporation spokesman said. Experts connect the claims with the situation inside Algeria and France's attempts to advance its Rafale fighter jet in the region. Deliveries of the MiG-29 were become an issue in domestics politics as well. Bouteflika intends to seek a third term. A competing clan is represented in the security forces of that country. They are using the crisis of the Russian planes to weaken the position of Ahmed Gaid Salah, who is loyal to the president. In addition, Center for the Analysis of Strategy and Technology expert Konstantin Makienko notes, “The Russian breakthrough in Algeria in 2006 was accompanied by powerful opposition by France, especially after President Sarkozy came to power.” Relations between Russia and Algeria have become more complex in other spheres as well. In August of last year, the Algerian minister of energy announced the discontinuation of a memorandum of mutual understanding between Gazprom and the Algerian company Sonatrach, removing the legal basis for cooperation in producing hydrocarbons and liquefied natural gas in Algeria. Nonetheless, Gazprom representatives hope they will be able to return eventually to the joint activities outlined in that document. Alexandra Gritskova, Elena Kiseleva, Konstantin Lantratov

DATE:18/02/08 SOURCE:Flight International UK defence cuts to force Sea King 7 life extension The UK could be set to extend the service lives of its Royal Navy Westland Sea King 7 airborne surveillance and control system helicopters until 2022, because funding pressures look likely to force the deferral of its successor Maritime Airborne Surveillance and Control programme. Envisaged as a manned, network-enabled asset capable of providing assured airborne surveillance and command-and-control services to the RN, MASC will be the third component of the UK's future carrier strike capability, alongside two CVF-class aircraft carriers and Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter - referred to in the UK as the Joint Combat Aircraft. The previous planning assumption for MASC had been to migrate the Sea King 7's Thales Searchwater 2000 airborne early warning radar and Cerberus mission suite into 12 new-build AW101 Merlin airframes with minimum re-engineering. The current aircraft had been slated for replacement from 2018, but with intense pressure on equipment funding in the Ministry of Defence's current planning round, the MASC programme is likely to slip by five years. The MoD and the RN are now planning a capability sustainment programme for the Sea King 7 that will maintain its operation and support through to a revised out-of-service date of 2022. The effort is expected to include communication system enhancements, such as the addition of twin VHF radios to meet Civil Aviation Authority requirements, plus the introduction of Mode 5/S identification friend-or-foe equipment. The sustainment package could also include upgrades being embodied or studied in advance of a planned Sea King HC4 utility and potential ASaC system deployment to Afghanistan this year, including a defensive aids suite, night-vision goggles, uprated Rolls-Royce Gnome 1400-1T engines and Carson main rotor blades. AgustaWestland has, meanwhile, delivered the RN's first of two Sea Kings to have been modified to the ASaC 7 standard to replace two aircraft lost in a mid-air collision off Iraq in March 2003, killing seven personnel.

DATE:18/02/08 SOURCE:Flight International BAE Systems prepares UK's first production Hawk 128 trainer for flight By Craig Hoyle BAE Systems is on track to deliver the UK's first of 28 Hawk 128 advanced jet trainers in August, and maintains that the type has strong long-term sales potential, despite its recent elimination from a contest in the United Arab Emirates and an orderbook that is on course to run dry next year. The first series production-standard Hawk 128 has had its fifth and final software load introduced and its Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour 951 engine installed, says Mike Corfield, BAE's UK AJT programme director. "We've proven all the hardware and the software now, and are pretty much just going through the final clearances," he adds. BAE expects to achieve the aircraft's "power on" milestone this month, before a first flight in June and its scheduled release to service in August. Two more 128s are awaiting equipment installation, and the UK's final example will enter its assembly jigs in December and be delivered late next year. UK pilots and technicians will start conversion training on the new aircraft at BAE's Warton site in Lancashire in September, ahead of the type's entry into squadron service at Royal Air Force base Valley in north Wales. The company also expects to conclude talks with the Ministry of Defence within the next few months on providing through-life support for the new fleet, with this to build on its existing integrated operational support deal on the UK's current Hawk T1/1A trainers. BAE, also seeking export business for the 128, will display its comparable Hawk new development aircraft at this month's Singapore air show. The aircraft will then remain in the country to support further evaluation by its Defence Science and Technology Agency as part of a three-way AJT contest. Similar work was recently conducted with Alenia Aermacchi's M-346 and the Korea Aerospace Industries/Lockheed Martin T-50. BAE is also eyeing emerging Hawk prospects in Europe, Indonesia, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, says business development executive Steve Wearden, with a possible manufacturing joint venture also being considered with India's Hindustan Aeronautics (Flight International, 8-14 January). The company also hopes to secure a follow-on order to build fuselages for additional US Navy Boeing T-45 Goshawks beyond a current production deal that will conclude in mid-2009. "There is a strategy with the T-45 going forward," says Wearden.

Algeria returns Russian MiG jets opting for French Rafale fighters Front page / Russia / Economics 18.02.2008Source: Algeria wants to return 15 fighter jets it bought from Russia because of their poor quality, the Kommersant daily reported on Monday, citing an official from Russia's state United Aerospace Corporation. The official said Russia was proposing to take back the MiG-29 jets, which were delivered to Algeria in 2006 and 2007, but only if Algeria bought more modern and expensive planes such as the MiG-29M2 or the MiG-35. Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for talks on "military cooperation" in the Kremlin on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told AFP, without giving further details. In return for Russia agreeing to cancel Algeria's Soviet-era debts, Algerian authorities bought Russian arms worth 6.3 billion dollars, including 3.5 billion dollars in fighter jets, during a visit by Putin to Algeria in 2006. Rosoboronexport signed a $1.28 billion contract for the delivery of 29 one-seat MiG-29SMT Fulcrum fighters and six two-seat MiG-29UB fighters in March 2006 as part of an $8 billion military-technical cooperation agreement with Algeria. In October 2007, Algeria stopped payments on other military contracts pending the return of the MiGs. The Mikoyan MiG-29 is a 4th generation jet fighter aircraft designed for the air superiority role in the Soviet Union. Developed in the 1970s by the Mikoyan design bureau, it entered service in 1983 and remains in use by the Russian Air Force as well as in many other nations. NATO's reporting name for the MiG-29 is "Fulcrum", which was unofficially used by Soviet pilots in service. It was developed to counter new American fighters such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon, and the F/A-18 Hornet. Experts suggest Algeria may have opted instead for French Rafale fighters as France builds up its presence in the North African state, RIA-Novosti reports. The Dassault Rafale is a French twin-engined delta-wing highly agile multi-role fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation. The Rafale is being produced both for land-based use with the French Air Force and for carrier-based naval operations with the French Navy. It has also been marketed for export. While several countries have expressed interest in the Rafale, there have been no foreign sales as of yet. Source: agencies Bouncing E-Mail Accounts: If you suspect that your

DATE:18/02/08 SOURCE:Flight International Italy approves deal for four Predator B UAVs By Pino Modola The defence committee of the Italian House of Representatives has passed a proposal to procure four General Atomics Predator B unmanned air vehicles for the nation's air force, with the aircraft to join four in-service Predator As. Expected to cost the defence ministry €80 million ($117 million) by 2011, the procurement has been approved despite the recent dissolution of Italy's parliament in advance of a general election expected to take place on 13-14 April. Flown by the air force's Amendola-based 32nd Wing, Italy's current Predator A fleet has amassed more than 3,000 flight hours, including operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Offering a mission endurance of up to 30h, the larger and faster Predator B is already in service with the UK Royal Air Force and the US Air Force to support surveillance activities in Afghanistan, with the latter also having used the UAV to deploy air-to-surface weapons.

The Associated Press Posted : Monday Feb 18, 2008 14:14:41 EST WASHINGTON — Air Force officials are warning that unless their budget is increased dramatically, and soon, the military’s high-flying branch won’t dominate the skies as it has for decades. After more than seven years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Air Force’s aging jet fighters, bombers, cargo aircraft and gunships are at the breaking point, they say, and expensive, ultramodern replacements are needed fast. “What we’ve done is put the requirement on the table that says, ‘If we’re going to do the missions you’re going to ask us to do, it will require this kind of investment,”’ Maj. Gen. Paul Selva, the Air Force’s director of strategic planning, said. “Failing that, we take what is already a geriatric Air Force,” Selva said, “and we drive it for another 20 years into an area of uncertainty.” An extra $20 billion each year over the next five — beginning with an Air Force budget of about $137 billion in 2009 instead of the $117 billion proposed by the Bush administration — would solve that problem, according to Selva and other senior Air Force officers. Yet the prospects for huge infusions of cash seem dim. Congress is expected to boost the 2009 budget, but not to the level urged by the Air Force. In the years that follow, a possible recession, a rising federal deficit and a distaste for higher taxes all portend a decline in defense spending regardless of which party wins the White House in November. “The Air Force is going to be confronting a major procurement crisis because it can’t buy all the things that it absolutely needs,” said Dov Zakheim, a former Pentagon comptroller. “It’s going to force us to rethink, yet again, what is the strategy we want? What can we give up?” The Air Force’s distress is partly self-inflicted, says Steve Kosiak of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington. The F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning, the new jet fighters that will supplant the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Falcon, have drastically higher price tags than their predecessors and require a bigger chunk of the defense budget. “One of the reasons their equipment has aged so much is because they continue to move ahead with the development and presumed acquisition of new weapon systems that cost two to three times as much as the systems they are replacing,” Kosiak said. “It’s like replacing a Toyota with a Mercedes.” It’s not as if the Air Force has gone without any new airplanes. The B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, the C-17 Globemaster airlifter and the CV-22 tilt-rotor, which flies like a helicopter or an airplane, have all been added since the mid-1990s. The Air Force also is planning to spend between $30 billion and $40 billion over the next 15 years for new refueling tankers. A contract is expected to be awarded soon. Those new tankers, however, won’t be flying until 2013. The Air Force isn’t alone in wanting more money, but its appetite is far greater than the other military branches. Shortly after President Bush submitted his defense plan for the 2009 budget year, which begins Oct. 1, each service outlined for Congress what it felt was left out. The Air Force’s “wish list” totaled $18.8 billion, almost twice as much as the other three services combined. “There’s no justification for it. Period. End of story,” said Gordon Adams, a former Clinton administration budget official who specializes in defense issues. “Until someone constrains these budget requests, the hunger for more will charge ahead unchecked.” Current F-15s and F-16s are on average more than 20 years old and have reached a point where spending more money on extensive repairs is a poor investment, Selva said. Originally designed to last 4,000 flying hours, both have been extended beyond 8,000. An F-15 with a comparatively low 5,000 flying hours disintegrated during a routine training flight over Missouri in early November. For the Air Force, that crash has become a touchstone event that demonstrates the precarious state of a fleet collectively older than any in the service’s 60-year history. Following the Missouri accident, more than 400 F-15s were grounded as Air Force mechanics scoured them for defects that might cause a similar accident. The F-15, a twin-engine jet with a top speed of 1,875 miles per hour, is the anchor of the nation’s air defense network. As aircraft age, corrosion eats away at metal parts. Wiring and sealing begin to deteriorate. The fatigue, which can be hard to detect, is most acute in fighters that make turns while going at incredible speeds. “An hour is not an hour” to an aircraft constantly under the strain of G-forces, Gen. John D.W. Corley, head of Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base, Va., said at a news conference last month. “It’s like dog years.” The more an aircraft is flown, the more expensive and more extensive maintenance becomes, Corley and Gen. T. Michael Moseley, the Air Force chief of staff, told the House Appropriations defense subcommittee during a Feb. 6 hearing. The bottom line, the generals said, is older aircraft are in the shop more often and cost more to fly when they are available. It’s not just the fighters that are elderly. Selva, who graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1980, said he remembers hearing about the first flight of the mammoth C-5 transport when he was in first grade. B-52 bombers and KC-135 tankers, which refuel airplanes in flight, have been in the inventory for more than four decades. And mechanics are finding it difficult to keep rust off the A-10 Thunderbolt, a tank-killing plane now a quarter-century old. “If you want to accept that today we’re doing an adequate job with this sort of patchwork of airplanes, when are we no longer able to do an adequate job?” Selva asked. “What’s the next thing that’s going to happen?” Each F-22 Raptor costs about $160 million. The Air Force says it needs 381 of the radar-evading planes and is fighting to keep the production line from being shut down too soon. “We have never rolled off of the requirement to field 381 F-22s,” Selva said. “The real issue at play with the F-22 is when the line closes, it’s closed. Restarting the line will be unreasonably expensive.” The price for a single F-35 Lightning is $77 million, and the Air Force wants close to 1,800 of these fighters. The F-35 won’t be in use for several more years. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said only 183 Raptors are needed. The more Raptors the Air Force buys, Gates said during congressional testimony earlier this month, the less money it will have for the F-35 and other aircraft. About 100 F-22s have been fielded. That aircraft has not been used in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gates added. The Air Force says the Raptors are needed for future threats, with China, Russia and Iran at the top of the list. “Al-Qaida doesn’t exactly have an advanced aerial defense system,” said Maj. David Small, an Air Force spokesman. The public push for more Raptors prompted Gates to rebuke a top Air Force officer, Gen. Bruce Carlson, who said last week that the service remained committed to buying 381 of the aircraft. In a Friday statement, Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said the general’s remarks did not reflect the Air Force’s position. But the statement did not say the service is backing away from its goal of 381 Raptors. Aircraft on the front lines in the terror war are also facing challenges. Officials at Air Force Special Operations Command say it will become increasingly hard to keep two key aircraft flying: The MC-130H Combat Talon II, used to drop commandos into hostile territory and then retrieve them, and the AC-130U, a hulking gunship that flies low to deliver firepower, are both in need of substantial overhauls. “We are literally flying the wings off these two airplanes,” said Brig. Gen. Brad Heithold, director of the command’s plans, programs, requirements and assessments office at Hurlburt Field, Fla. There are only 20 Combat Talons and 17 AC-130Us. This small fleet is in heavy demand by special operations forces around the globe. In 2001, the AC-130Us flew just over 5,200 hours. The gunships logged more than 9,000 hours in 2007. It’s comparable, Heithold said, to putting 70,000 miles on a car in a single year instead of a more normal 12,000 miles. At any given time, several of the Combat Talons or AC-130Us could be in the depot being fixed. That means there are fewer available to fly critical missions. Training flights are also curtailed. Heithold called the situation a “manageable crisis,” but said serious problems could emerge if more money isn’t provided for extended improvements and new aircraft over the next few years. “Any time you have a small number of airplanes that the appetite for continually increases, it’s hard to meet the demand,” Heithold said. “If we don’t wrestle with this now, it’s a looming problem out there.”

Fighter jet training to begin Saturday, February 16, 2008 By TED LaBORDE tlaborde@repub.com WESTFIELD - The new mission of homeland security for the Northeast will not be fully realized for another two to three years, but activity involving the Air National Guard's 104th Fighter Wing will intensify next week when pilots begin daily training with the F-15 Eagle fighter jet. Wing commanders said yesterday F-15 flights out of Barnes Municipal Airport are targeted to begin on Friday. There will be four flights a day, mostly during daylight hours. Pilots and the rest of the unit's estimated 1,300 members continue preparations to assume control of the region's homeland security. Those preparations are being supervised by interim wing commander Brig. Gen. L. Scott Rice, vice commander Lt. Col. James J. Keefe and Lt. Col. Kenneth L. Lambrich, commander of the 104th Operations Group. Lambrich will determine flight training missions of the 20 plus pilots recently transferred to the 104th from the 102nd Fighter Wing in Otis. A seasoned F-15 pilot, Lambrich is one of nine pilots from the 102nd to transfer here and is the first member of that unit to hold a command position with the 104th. Lambrich and Keefe, son of retired Massachusetts Air National Guard commander George Keefe, assumed their positions on Feb. 9. Keefe previously served the 104th as commander of the 131st Fighter Squadron. He and Lambrich are veteran fighter pilots with more than 2,500 flying hours. Both are on leave from their civilian jobs as pilots for United Airlines. Keefe lives in Northampton. Lambrich resides in Sandwich, but plans to relocate to the Westfield area shortly. The 104th has long been considered the best A-10 unit in the Air Force system, and the unit's goal now, Lambrich and Keefe said, is to become the best F-15 unit in the country. The F-15 had been grounded by the Air Force in the final months of 2007 after one began to break apart and crashed on Nov. 2 in Missouri. An inspection for possible structural deficiencies was conducted and the ground order was lifted last month. Lambrich and Keefe said the jets assigned to the 104th are free of structural problems, and, despite the national inspection, F-15s assigned here will undergo inspection by unit maintenance staff. Lambrich and Keefe said they are aware of potential noise concerns from neighbors of the guard base and because of that, flights will be directed to the north, over parts of Southampton, for takeoff. Returning jets to Barnes Municipal Airport will come from the south. "At first, noise levels will be high because of a need to take off with full afterburners during initial flights of each aircraft. But that will decrease as we fly more often," Lambrich said. Keefe said that as training progresses, the base will see an estimated $77 million in construction for support facilities.

17-02-2008 Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian Air Force will consider a US government offer to sell multi-role Block 52 F-16 Fighting Falcon and heavy transport 130-J Hercules planes to Indonesia, a spokesman said. "We will consider buying the planes under our procurement plan for 2010-2014," Vice Air Marshal Soenaryo, chief of the Air Force`s Material Maintenance Command, said here Friday. Speaking after accompanying Air Force Chief of Staff Air Marshal Soebandrio at a meeting with visiting US Under Secretary of the Air Force for Internatinal Affairs Bruce S Lemkin, Soenaryo said the F-16 fighter planes were needed to increase the Air Force`s capacity and deterrent capability as many of its combat aircraft were approaching the end of their service time. Also, procurment of F-16s would fit in with the Air Force`s plan to reduce the variety of its aircraft to economize on maintenance and servicing costs in the 2008-2019 period, he said. The multi-role F-16 Fighting Falcons could replace the force`s F-5E Tiger fighters which had been in service for almost 25 years. "We will possibly build up an F-16 squadron gradually in the 2010-2014 budget years. The interest to acquire the aircraft must first be thoroughly considered at Air Force Headquarters level with due account being taken of the limited amount of state funds available. After approval has been obtained at Air Force Headquarters level, we will submit the plan to the Defense Ministry for acquisition," Soenaryo said. Apart from discussing the US offer to supply F-16 aircraft, the Air Force chief and Lemkin also agreed at their meeting to intensify cooperation between the two countries` air forces in the fields of education, training and spare parts supply.(*)

February 15, 2008 7:34 p.m. EST Annie Simoy - AHN News Writer Islamabad, Pakistan (AHN) - A Pakistani Air Force (PAF) French-made Mirage fighter jet crashed Friday in eastern Punjab killing its pilot. "Pakistan's Air Force announces with great sorrow and grief that a Mirage fighter aircraft, while on a routine operational training mission, crashed 30 Kilometers South East of Sargodha," the government said. According to the statement, PAF pilot Azhar Ismael was killed when the plane suffered a technical malfunction. Senior Air Force officials have ordered an inquiry to determine the accident's exact cause. Pakistan has the second biggest arsenal of Mirage jets, behind France. Pakistan also contracts the maintenance of the jets out to France.

By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer Posted : Saturday Feb 16, 2008 7:11:38 EST A month after the Air Force cleared about two-thirds of its F-15 Eagles to resume flying on Jan. 9, 158 of the fighters — all models A through D — remain grounded as Air Force officials decide whether to fix or retire the jets. Cleared to fly are 280 F-15s, scattered at 16 bases in the U.S. and overseas, according to the latest numbers from the Air Force. Of the grounded jets, nine have cracks in support beams called longerons that reinforce the fuselage. The remaining 149 grounded jets have longerons that were not manufactured to the original specifications. The problems include sections that are too thin or have rough surfaces — flaws that may lead to cracking. Unaffected by the grounding are F-15E Strike Eagles, a bomber version of the F-15, several of which are flying sorties in Afghanistan. The E-models’ larger size and different design meant the jets didn’t have the longeron problems of the F-15’s air-to-air combat version. Lt. Gen. Donald Hoffman, one of the Air Force’s top acquisition officials at the Pentagon, said Thursday that decisions about returning the jets to the sky would likely be made on a plane-by-plane basis. The factors figured into return-to-flight decisions likely include the costs of repairing each fighter, weighed against the jet’s overall condition and where the jet fits into the Air Force’s long-term plans to retire aging aircraft, Hoffman said. The service had been aiming to keep 177 F-15s, dubbed “Golden Eagles,” flying past 2020 and upgrading them with new radars and avionics. A preliminary estimate of the price tag for replacing one longeron is $235,000, Hoffman said. At the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Georgia, a team from the 573rd Manufacturing Squadron is creating 15 longerons, milling aluminum alloy beams to match the original F-15 specifications, a logistics center spokesman said. Other options Besides replacing longerons, there are other options for getting the F-15s airborne. In some cases where the discrepancy between specifications and the plane are minor, the Air Force might allow an F-15 to return to flight without any modifications — what Hoffman called an “engineering solution.” However, the jet would then have to go through more rigorous and regular inspections, such as checking the longerons every 100 fight hours. Air Force officials have also suggested that some longerons that aren’t cracked could be reinforced instead of replaced. The troubled F-15s were built in the 1970s and early 1980s by McDonnell Douglas, a firm that later was bought by Boeing Co. Hoffman said no decision has been made if the Air Force will try to hold Boeing financially responsible for F-15 woes. “We’re still doing our due diligence,” Hoffman said. One problem with sorting out liability is that much of the detailed paperwork for accepting each jet was discarded over the past 25-plus years. The problem jets came off production lines between 1978 and 1985. By percentage, the greatest impact has been with the two-seat B and D models, fighters primarily used for training. All six of the F-15Bs remain grounded, while about 30 of the 41 F-15Ds can’t fly. Air Combat Command boss Gen. John Corley has overall authority over F-15 grounding decisions. The F-15s were grounded on Nov. 3, a day after a Missouri Air National Guard F-15C broke apart as it made a 7.8G right turn at nearly 500 miles per hour. The pilot, Maj. Stephen Stilwell, was able to eject even after the cockpit had snapped away and the tumbling canopy had broken his left arm and shoulder. An accident investigation board report issued Jan. 10 concluded the jet split in two because a right-side longeron supporting the canopy and cockpit cracked apart during the high-G turn. The fracture was a result of the longeron having been built thinner than what specifications called for. The upper side of the longeron should have been 0.1 inch thick. Instead, the longeron varied in thickness from 0.039 to 0.073 inch thick. The crack wasn’t spotted before the crash because the longeron had a predicted life of more than 30,000 flight hours and was never inspected. Stilwell’s jet had logged 5,868 flight hours since it was built in 1980.

15-02-2008 Ahmedabad: In yet another mishap, a MiG-21 jet fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed in marshlands in Kutch near the Indo-Pak border on Friday. But the pilot bailed out safely. The fighter crashed minutes after taking off from the Bhuj airbase, on a routine training sortie. The fighter crashed to the ground just 20 km away from the base, an IAF official said. The pilot, Flight Lieutenant S Agashe, however, managed to bail out and was rescued and brought back to base. The IAF has ordered a court of inquiry to probe the incident. This is the first crash of a MiG-21 this year. So far during the last ten years about 90 fighter planes have crashed. The fighters are ageing and are on the verge of being phased out. The IAF has recently completed upgrade of 125 of these fighters with Russian and Israeli know how. © Copyright 2008 PTI. All rights reserved.

The Bucc. (like those other aircraft of roughly the same era Lightning, Vulcan etc.) was a superb & potent design. When it first went to Red Flag it shocked the USAF with it's capability in the hands of it's crews. Even today if it had modern systems there would be few aircraft that would better it in it's intended role. The pilots loved it -as they said "the only replacement for the Buccaneer is another Buccaneer". But like the F-14 (which I feel lucky to have seen fly & display) they all fell foul of age & increasing cost/serviceability.

don't eat beans! look forward to your photos & enjoy your short respite.

brings back memories of Air Experience Flights in the cadets

been to an optician lately? look at those flowing curves, how can you call that ugly (unless you are on the receiving end of her claws)? Hinch, I've been waiting on that Javelin as long as you have been building it ...

http://www.chroniclejournal.com/stories_local.php?id=92150

Luckily I was (& the Vulcan/Victor) & they were awesome. It really was a crying shame in the 90s to pass the scrapyard in Elgin where the ones from Lossiemouth were all cut up. Some good clips on Youtube though.

Yes as the last 2 Tornado F3 units, plus the East of Scotland University Air Squadron (Grob Tutors), an Army Air Corps Reserve unit with Gazelles, a Territorial Army Engineer Squadron in the Airfield Damage Repair role & 612 Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force (a medical unit). We were due to be getting Typhoons shortly but the Saudi order put that back for a while ...