Based in London, Tony covers European defense programs. Prior to joining Aviation Week in November 2012, Tony was at Shephard Media Group where he was deputy editor for Rotorhub and Defence Helicopter magazines. Tony has covered avionics, unmanned vehicles, the supply chain and cyberwarfare.
LONDON – Bristow says plans for the company to take on the U.K.’s search-and-rescue helicopter capability are “on schedule and on budget.” In revealing the helicopter operator’s first-quarter results Aug. 4 in Houston, Jonathan Baliff, Bristow’s new president and CEO, told analysts that construction work on two new bases at Inverness and Humberside airports was already well underway and that both would be operational in the first quarter of 2015, with other bases at eight other locations around the U.K. following later.
The U.S. Navy has conducted limited airstrikes against militant fighters in Iraq, less than a day after President Barack Obama gave the green light for air operations over the country. Two Boeing F/A-18 Hornets from the USS George Bush dropped 500 lb. laser-guided bombs on mobile artillery pieces being used by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) insurgents near Erbil in the North of the country during the morning of August 8. According to the Pentagon, ISIL was using the artillery to shell Kurdish forces defending the city.
