For the third time in almost a decade, the USAF has received bids for its much delayed KC-X tanker program for 179 new tankers to replace 45+ year old KC-135E/Rs. Bids from three companies were delivered to the USAF’s KC-X project office at Wright Patterson AFB in Ohio by the noon deadline on July 9.
Boeing’s F-15SE Silent Eagle demonstrator has made its first flight with a new conformal weapons bay (CWB). The aircraft, converted from Boeing’s F-15E1 development aircraft, flew for 80 minutes from St Louis and successfully opened and closed its left CWB, a design based on the F-15E’s conformal fuel tanks (CFT), and deployed a dummy AIM-120
The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) notified Congress on July 7 of a possible Foreign Military Sale (FMS) to Australia of 24 MH-60R ‘Romeo’ helicopters. The notification says the deal, estimated to cost US$2.1bn (A$2.4bn), includes “equipment, parts, training and logistical support”, as well as 60 GE T700-401C engines (including 12 spares), “communication equipment,
The ninth F-35 flight test aircraft and the second to be fitted with a mission system avionics package, F-35A AF-3 made its first flight on July 6. “AF-3 is very much like the first production F-35s we will deliver to the US Air Force later this year,” said Doug Pearson, Lockheed Martin vice president of
The RAAF has taken delivery of six more Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornets at RAAF Base Amberley on July 6 following the completion of a four day delivery flight from NAS Lemoore in California supported by two Omega 707 aerial refuelling tankers. “No. 1 Squadron’s transition from operating the venerable F-111 to the highly sophisticated Super
Minister for Defence Materiel and Science, Greg Combet, has announced that 11 former Army and RAAF UH-1H Iroquois helicopters will be taken out of storage and put on display as gate guards and museum exhibits at locations around Australia. The aircraft, which have been in storage in Brisbane since they were retired in 2007, will
