Defence has grounded the Australian Army’s Tiger armed reconnaissance helicopter fleet, following a fatal crash involving a German Tiger in Mali. As of August 14, Defence decided to cease flying operations “until further information becomes available”, a spokesperson for Defence told Australian Aviation. The brief statement from Defence did not give a reason for the
Australia has been assigned regional warehousing capability for the F-35 Lightning II in the Pacific by the US Department of Defense. Meanwhile, the European warehousing capability has been assigned to the Netherlands. The warehouse and distribution centres will enable the program to optimise and manage aviation inventory, the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) stated. The
The first six Pilatus PC-21 advanced trainers for the Royal Australian Air Force were formally welcomed into service during a ceremony at RAAF Base East Sale, Victoria on Friday. Forty-nine PC-21s as well as simulators and training devices are being acquired under the AIR 5428 Pilot Training System. The first two RAAF PC-21s were displayed
The Royal Australian Air Force is facing a three-year gap in operating an unmanned aircraft (or remotely-piloted aircraft systems – RPAS – to use the RAAF’s preferred nomenclature) following the retirement of the IAI Heron in June. Three Herons were leased in late 2009 to meet an urgent operational requirement to provide surveillance support to
The third Australian F-35A Lightning II has received vertical tails made by Australian company Marand as production of the aircraft nears completion. The aircraft, AU-3, is currently on the production line at Fort Worth, Texas and becomes the first F-35A for the RAAF to receive Australian-made vertical tails. “Examples like this prove that Australian industry
A RAAF C-17 Globemaster and KC-30A MRTT and a RNZAF C-130H Hercules are three of more than 40 aircraft currently participating in Exercise Mobility Guardian 17, the largest scale exercise yet undertaken by the US Air Force’s Air Mobility Command. Aircraft from the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK including C-17s, C-130 Hercules, an RAF A400M Altas and KC-135,
