Engineers are having trouble extracting data from the flight data recorders of an A400M airlifter that crashed May 9 near Seville, Spain, killing four crewmembers.
India’s plan to procure midair refueler aircraft is progressing well, the country’s defense minister says, marking a major step to increase the operational reach of the air force.
Australia has begun building the infrastructure it will need to support its planned force of at least 72 Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightnings, with much of the work driven by U.S. demands for tightened security of the aircraft and their systems.
Aviation Week defense editors on the recent success of Dassault’s Rafale and Saab’s Gripen fighters and what that means for the rest of the market. Will it spell doom for the Eurofighter Typhoon? Does Boeing’s F-18 have a shot at more orders in Kuwait. And a peek at the upcoming competition for a Turkish fighter.
By implementing common interfaces, software and hardware, the U.S. Army anticipates considerable savings in development time, testing, procurement, training and, ultimately, deployment.
Despite many procurement disappointments, there are also many examples of defense programs which have worked as planned and have stood the test of time.
The cost and scope of two projects in Brazil—co-development and production of Saab JAS 39E/F Gripen fighters and construction of five submarines, the last of them nuclear-powered—will delay launching other major projects, such as renewal of the country’s surface fleet and the SisGAAz ocean and littoral surveillance system, according to industry executives at the LAAD defense and security show here in April.
A small research effort reveals that Japanese defense ministry technologists believe a radical alternative to the fighter as an instrument of air control may soon be available.
If Qatar chooses to exercise an option for 12 additional Rafales, Dassault Aviation could be on the hook to deliver nearly 100 combat jets to foreign buyers by around the end of the decade.
