The entire fleet of Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighters will reportedly be grounded in order to facilitate a thorough engine inspection. The order comes after the June 23 fire in an F-35A at Eglin AFB in Florida in which the pilot was forced to abandon his takeoff and the aircraft was extensively damaged. The
The US Government has awarded Boeing a US$1.94 billion fixed price contract for the production of 11 F/A-18E Super Hornets and 33 EA-18G Growlers for the US Navy. Included in the Growler procurement are the 12 EA-18Gs for Australia, production of which commenced last month at Northrop Grumman’s El Segundo facility in Los Angeles. The
Former Vice Chief of Defence Force, AIRMSHL Mark Binskin, has been promoted to Air Chief Marshal and sworn in as the nation’s new Chief of Defence Force in a ceremony in Canberra on June 30. ACM Binskin is a former RAAF Mirage and Hornet pilot after transferring from the RAN following the decommissioning of the
Three companies are expected to bid for the Republic of Korea Air Force’s requirement for four air-to-air refuelling tanker aircraft. Boeing has formally offered its KC-46A Pegasus, while Airbus Defence & Space has already announced its intention to pitch its A330 MRTT. A third bid is expected to come from Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI) offering
The Australian government has granted first pass approval of Project SEA 1352 Phase 1 to upgrade the Navy’s stocks of Enhanced Sea-Sparrow (ESSM) missiles. The upgrade will involve the adoption of the Block 2 version of the missile which provides greater guidance accuracy of the missiles against anti-ship missiles and other airborne targets. The new
Sikorsky Aircraft has been awarded a US$1.28 billion engineering and manufacturing development contract to develop a variant of its UH-60M Black Hawk for the US Air Force’s Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) requirement. An initial four Combat Rescue Helicopters will be acquired under the EMD contract, which will see the development and integration of the new helicopter’s rescue
