US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has proposed cuts to the planned F-35 JSF production ramp up in order to free up additional funds for the struggling aircraft’s development program. The cuts, proposed in a document signed by Gates on December 23 and leaked to Bloomberg, would see as many as 122 F-35s cancelled from the
The United Arab Emirates has ordered six Boeing C-17 transports. The order, confirming an initial announcement made in 2009 for four , makes the UAE the second Middle Eastern country to acquire the aircraft after Qatar, which has two C-17s on strength. “The C-17 will give the UAE the ability to perform a variety of
The Dutch armed forces took delivery of the first customer NFH 90 helicopter shortly before Christmas. The aircraft, the first of 12 NFH 90s The Netherlands has on order, was handed over on December 23 at the AgustaWestland facility in Italy were it was built, and has been delivered in a ‘Meaningful Operational Capable (MOC)’
The Indian Finance ministry has instructed the Indian Air Force to cancel a contract for six Airbus A330 MRTT tankers after raising objections over the cost of the order. The concerns are reported to centre around increasing costs of the program and the higher acquisition costs of the MRTT compared to Russian Ilyushin Il-78 tankers
Lockheed Martin says it plans to merge its Maritime Systems & Sensors (MS2) and its Systems Integration business units this year, with the resultant loss of 1200 jobs. The new business unit will be called Mission Systems & Sensors and will retain facilities at the former MS2 sites in Washington and Virginia amongst others, and
EADS CEO Tomas Enders has threatened to abandon the troubled A400M military airlifter program unless partner nations contribute more funds towards the development of the aircraft, describing the program as a “constant drain on resources”. The Financial Times Deutschland has reported Enders as telling company directors in late December that he “no longer believes in
