Aerospace Daily & Defense Report, July 7, 2016

The Italian air force has begun acceptance testing on a new fleet of maritime patrollers based on the ATR-72 regional airliner.

The Royal Jordanian Air Force wants to offload another 15 early model Lockheed Martin F-16s as it moves more toward counterinsurgency platforms like special-mission Air Tractors and AC-295 light gunship.

Avic has begun deliveries of its Y-20 Kunpeng heavy airlifter to the Chinese air force, nine years after the program was launched.

With signs emerging earlier this year that all was not going as well as it once did, Raytheon and Thales have divvied up and downsized their defense joint ventures (JVs).

The Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) is aiming to become the first navy to have a fully unmanned mine-countermeasure force, Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen says.

Resourcesat 2A will be launched by the powerful XL version of India’s indigenous Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle later this summer.

The company is focusing attention on three key programs: Bombardier’s CSeries airliner, Embraer’s KC-390 airlifter and the Sikorsky S-76 helicopter.

ESTONIA re-organized defense ministry, combining three departments into Defense Investments Department. Finance department to be eliminated. FNSS SAVUNMA SISTEMLERI A.S. has contract to upgrade Turkish Land Forces Kaplan and PARS 4x4 vehicles with anti-tank missiles. SAAB has AUS37m ($28m) contract to sustain combat system on Australian Anzac-class frigates. Covers work from July 2016 until December 2017.

Seven Turkish military personnel have been killed after their Sikorsky S-70 Black Hawk crashed in Northern Turkey. The S-70A operated by Turkey’s Jandarma General Command crashed into a forest in low-visibility conditions near the town of Giresun on Turkey’s Black Sea coast. Seven of the 15 onboard were killed; the other eight were injured and taken to the hospital. The helicopter had been returning to Giresun after visiting outposts in the region. In a statement, the Turkish Armed Forces General Staff said the cause had not been determined.

The Reaper was flying in the skies above Syria when the operator lost control, according to a July 5 statement from Shaw Air Force Base, S.C.

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