The federal government will go ahead with the conversion of 12 of Australia’s 24 F/A-18F Super Hornets into EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion. The decision, announced today, will see Australia become the only country besides the United States to operate Growlers, a specialised variant of the Super Hornet.
The hull of Australia’s first Landing Helicopter Dock, the HMAS Canberra, has departed Spain on its way to Melbourne. Carried by heavy lift vessel the Blue Marlin, the hull is expected to take 40 to 50 days to reach Australia, where assembly of the vessel’s superstructure will take place at BAE Systems’s Williamstown shipyard. “In
Boeing has marked the 50th anniversary of its CH-47 Chinook helicopter and says it believes the workhorse transport – already its longest running production program — will be around for another 50 years. More than 1,200 Chinooks have been delivered to 18 operators since the first was handed over to the US Army on August
The largest multi-national air force exercise in the southern hemisphere is drawing to a close today as Exercise Pitch Black 2012 wraps up. The three week exercise, built around an opposing force scenario, saw large formations of aircraft operating out of RAAF Bases Tindal and Darwin in the Northern Territory. About 100 aircraft and 2200
Embraer has delivered the first of ‘several’ EMB-145 Airborne Early Warning and Control planes to the Indian Air Force. The aircraft, based on Embraer’s ERJ-145 regional jet, was delivered under a 2008 contract that includes training, technical support, spare parts and ground support equipment, Embraer said. Citing a confidentiality clause, the Brazilian planemaker has not
A US Air Force experimental hypersonic missile has failed in its latest attempt to fly at six times the speed of sound. The X-51A Waverider — designed to reach a speed of Mach 6, or roughly 5,800km/h — crashed into the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday after a control fin failed prior to engine ignition, the
