Have been a bit sparing of late on posting here and at USNI, in large part because the day job(s) have been demanding their pound (more like tens of pounds) of flesh. And developments appear to promise a major surge on one front in the next few weeks, so we’ll take advantage of the relative…
Come join us this Sunday, 13 Jun 2010 @ 1700 EDT as we talk about a variety of topics under that subject line via ‘Phib’s and Eagle1’s invitation to discuss the same on this week’s edition of blog talk radio. What will we discuss? It’s a pretty wide-open field, covering such topics as the threat…
You may recall that when the PAK-FA first took flight earlier this year a quick analysis was run on these pages and those over at USNI with a note that more granular analyses would surely be forthcoming. One of the first out of the box was over at the Air Power Australia site, and was…
The average age of aircraft in the Russian Air Force is about 25 years, so the defense ministry is working up an ambitious plan to replace a major portion while eliminating some inventory by retirement, all by 2020. Fifteen hundred aircraft of which 350 are to be new production combat aircraft over the next ten…
ПерÑпективный Ðвиационный ÐšÐ¾Ð¼Ð¿Ð»ÐµÐºÑ Ð¤Ñ€Ð¾Ð½Ñ‚Ð¾Ð²Ð¾Ð¹ Ðвиации, Perspektivnyi Aviatsionnyi Kompleks Frontovoi Aviatsy, literally “Future Front-line Aircraft System” As more video and still footage becomes available, some thoughts are emerging. First observation is that clearly this is just a flying prototype that focuses on the airframe and not much else for a 5th gen fighter: Alexander Golts, an…
UPDATE: Lots of comparisons to the F-22 based on the front end shots and planform, but I’m also thinking that Sukhoi took some cues from this bad boy: based on a comparison from the tailfeather POV: for comparison, here is an in-flight of the YF-22 and YF-23: Things that make you go hmmm…. In this…
Overnight: 25-26 October During the night, crews on the Hornet positioned aircraft on the flightdeck if the prospects of a night strike by moonlight made themselves present. In the meantime, PBY Catalina’s, using the first crude airborne radar sets, continued to try to locate the Japanese fleet in the darkness. Shortly after midnight, one PBY…
A program update on the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye was provided today at the AEW and Battle Management conference in Amsterdam. Providing the update was Northrop-Grumman’s VP for AEW &BM C2 programs, Jim Culmo and Hawkeye/Greyhound Program Manager, CAPT Shane Gahagan, USN. Culmo noted that the company is on-track to deliver three pilot production E-2Ds to…
DoDBuzz is reporting new cost estimates for the JSF program are going to jump by over $17.1B. Apparently the concurrent nature of the program lies at the heart of the massive revision upwards of program costs. So much so that Nunn-McCurdy is starting to be invoked: “Unfortunately, DoD has put all its eggs in the…
Northrop Grumman announced Friday that the first E-2D Advanced Hawkeye test aircraft (Delta ONE) successfully completed its first shore-based catapult launch. This was conducted at NAS Pax River and is in preparation for Initial Operational Test & Evaluation and delivery to the Navy next year (2010). Pax River is where the Navy conducts its shore…
