Military Aviation News-2013

[Tango III]

Airbus Military flies winglet-equipped C295

[Tango III]

Bell Helicopter is being awarded a $418,851,869 for the manufacture of 15 Lot 10 UH-1Y and 10 Lot 10 AH-1Z helicopters for the US. Marine Corps.

Pentagon Contract Announcement

The Pentagon has awarded Bell-Boeing a $1.4 billion contract to purchase long-lead items for 43 CV-22 and MV-22 Osprey

Pentagon Contract Announcement

[Tango III]

Landing gear collapse suspected in Israeli F-16 accident

[Tango III]

Saudi jets bolster US drone attacks on Yemen: report

[Tango III]

Belgium accepts first NH90 transport helicopter

[KERVYN]

good morning, Tango III,

the view in your previous post is well known.. e.g. by the NILS' posts.

but this one is rather UNknown, with the "very-low-vis" BAF marking !


(real colors will be probably for mid' of this year...)

friendly yours,

Etienne

[Tango III]

Hi!

You're right, KERVYN. I think so...Let's wait to see it.

Thanks

[Tango III]

Bulgarian Govt to Buy Third-Hand Fighter Jets from Portugal – Report (excerpt)

[Tango III]

German army Tigers performing initial flights over Afghanistan show it carrying unguided rocket and machine gun pods.


http://www.flightglobal.com/news/art...nistan-380695/

[Fedaykin]

Bulgarian Govt to Buy Third-Hand Fighter Jets from Portugal – Report (excerpt)

Are those the same F-16 Romania wanted?

Clearly the Bulgarian reporter is not happy about the idea!

[Tango III]

U.S. Air Force Halts Troubled Afghan Air Force Transport Deal

[Tango III]

Originally Posted by Fedaykin
Are those the same F-16 Romania wanted?

I think so.

[Fedaykin]

Well they are probably the last few MLU F-16 available on the open market with plenty of life on them. Question is has Romania gone off the idea or is Bulgaria trying to gazump them by offering Portugal more then the Romanians. Presumably Portugal will want to get the maximum financial return from any deal. Or do Portugal have enough spare F-16 to satisfy both countries?

[mack8]

Well they are probably the last few MLU F-16 available on the open market with plenty of life on them. Question is has Romania gone off the idea or is Bulgaria trying to gazump them by offering Portugal more then the Romanians. Presumably Portugal will want to get the maximum financial return from any deal. Or do Portugal have enough spare F-16 to satisfy both countries?

Aparently there are 25 of these F-16s, so there will be enough for both. Don't know what the romanian government will do, i find it deeply humiliating that those idiots even consider these 3rd hand junks, but probably they will just keep the MiGs flying until the last one crashes... then probably they will beg for someone else ( like their american "allies") to do their air policing. Traitors...

[Fedaykin]

Aparently there are 25 of these F-16s, so there will be enough for both. Don't know what the romanian government will do, i find it deeply humiliating that those idiots even consider these 3rd hand junks, but probably they will just keep the MiGs flying until the last one crashes... then probably they will beg for someone else ( like their american "allies") to do their air policing. Traitors...

I would hardly call an F-16 MLU junk mack8, it is a perfectly reasonable solution to both countries defence needs. It is multi role, carries all the latest munitions and can carry a range of different air to air missiles from AMRAAM to IRIS-T. Apparently the Portuguese examples are well maintained and have plenty of flight hours left.

Another nice thing about the F-16 is the large number of overhaul centres to chose from.

[mack8]

I would hardly call an F-16 MLU junk mack8, it is a perfectly reasonable solution to both countries defence needs. It is multi role, carries all the latest munitions and can carry a range of different air to air missiles from AMRAAM to IRIS-T. Apparently the Portuguese examples are well maintained and have plenty of flight hours left.

Another nice thing about the F-16 is the large number of overhaul centres to chose from.

While i'm not exactly up to date with what standards of F-16 Portugal has, i thought they were in the process of upgrading to MLU part of their F-16 fleet, and selling the rest ( the old OCUs?)

[p_shadow]

While i'm not exactly up to date with what standards of F-16 Portugal has

And that's why i've been posting the same thing for the last months!! (no offense to you of course ). So, let me resume once again:

- Portugal received 17/3 F-16A/B-15OCU in 1994's "Peace Atlantis I" deal. They were fresh new and all remaining 19 (one A crashed in 2002) have since been MLUed (the last one made its first MLU flight just weeks ago). These 19 MLU aircraft are NOT for sale. (serials 15101-15120)

- During "Peace Atlantis II" 21/4 F-16A/B-15 were purchased from AMARC stocks in 1999. From these, one is a travelling exhibit, another is on display at Monte Real's AB gate and two others are used for spares. The remaining 21 (17 As and 4 Bs) are being upgraded, the last one should be flying before the summer. One BM crashed in 2008 during its first flight. (serials 15121-15141)

- When the upgrade programme reaches its end this summer Portugal should have 39 F-16MLUs (33 AM + 6 BM)

- In 2005 the Portuguese Government put up for sale 12 F-16MLU and even released the serial numbers of 10 of the aircraft involved. These are the only F-16s available for sale. Some (specially the two-seaters) have much more flying hours than others because they went out of the upgrade line much earlier too (and Bs usually fly more, also) but basically the single-seaters are not the most flown for sure. A quick review on some of the mentioned aircraft's first flight after MLU dates:
- F-16BM 15139 (2004)
- F-16BM 15138 (2005)
- F-16BM 15137 (2006)
- F-16AM 15125/15126/15127/15128 (2007/2008)
- F-16AM 15129 (2009)
- F-16AM 15130 (2010)
- F-16AM 15131 (2013)

These aircraft are MLU-M5 and have excellent capabilities, have Falcon-UP and STAR and can fly a few more thousand hours but as they've been flying here in Portugal for some time i doubt they'll fly 25 more years in Bulgaria or Romania even they were sold tomorrow. So, basically i share the Bulgarian General's opinion about this sale possibility, but i don't understand this part:

the Portuguese deal was the best option because it included everything necessary for the operation of the planes, while Gripen and Italy offered only the planes without arms and with only the most basic land equipment for their operation.

What arms was he talking about? I'm pretty sure we don't even have enough for our needs much less to sell! Regarding equipment, i don't believe we have excess of anything that may be of much use to them. Let us wait for more episodes of this story....


Abraços!

[Tango III]

Satellites Spot China’s Mysterious New Warplane

[Tango III]

Airbus A330 MRTT

European Airbus bags multi-crore deal to supply six refuelling aircraft to IAF

[Fedaykin]

Again!

[Deino]

T-50I for Indonesia

[Tango III]

Canadian Military Would Need To Outsource F-35 Refueling

[Fedaykin]

Reading between the lines I would say this is more about cutting the cost of the CC-150 Polaris by putting in the excuse of non compatibility. The space for the probe and the under skin plumbing is the same as in the B and C model. I can't believe it would cost that much to have it installed on the A model. The other option is to pay airbus to equip the Polaris with the Boom. I smell a rat here!

[Sign]

Airbus Military flies winglet-equipped C295

it doesnt look like an effective AEW platform with those winglets on a high winged AC.

[Voodoo]

Canadian Military Would Need To Outsource F-35 Refueling

I really don't understand my government sometimes. Why don't we drop the F-35 and buy the Rafale or Typhoon already. Or as will happen buy the stupid bug.

[Tango III]

USAF to field F-22 life support mods this January

[Tango III]

NH Industries aims for new NH90 orders in 2013

[Tango III]

Dassault Sees Prospects For Rafale In Canada

[thobbes]

Bulgarian AF retires MiG-21

And another one bites the dust.

That leaves Serbia, Croatia and Romania as last operators of MiG-21 in Europe and from what I've heard Serbs one are due for retirement June 2013.

[ZuluAlfaKilo]

I really don't understand my government sometimes. Why don't we drop the F-35 and buy the Rafale or Typhoon already. Or as will happen buy the stupid bug.

Why not just fit booms to those A310s so that they can refuel all of Canada's present and future aircraft? The boom on the KC-30 (MRTT) was initially tested by EADS on A310s.