An F-35B short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) fighter aircraft piloted by Marine Corps Maj. Richard Rusnok, successfully employed a Guided Bomb Unit-12 (GBU-12) Paveway II laser-guided weapon from the F-35′s internal weapons bay against a set ground tank test target yesterday. The GBU-12 is a 500-pound, Mk-82 general purpose bomb mated with a nose-mounted laser seeker and flight guidance fins for precision strike. The GBU-12 utilized in this test didn’t contain explosives. The F-35B released its weapon from 25,000 feet and the bomb fell for 35 seconds before hitting a stationary target (a tank) at the Edwards Air Force... Read More »

A major new development contract for you to pave the way in which for continuous capability enhancements of the Eurofighter Typhoon was signed by Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH and the NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency (NETMA). The package (often called Evolution Package 2) shall be delivered by the top of 2015. The Contract signing was announced on Wednesday 30th October in South Korea on the Seoul International Aerospace & Defence Exhibition 2013. Evolution Package 2 contains a lot of improvements including enhancements to the main avionics sensor comparable to the Radar and the Defensive Aids Sub Systems (DASS) of the... Read More »

As the budget shrinks and because the active Army draws all the way down to 490,000, elimination of excess infrastructure is required, say leaders from Army Installations, Housing & Partnerships. There are many of spaces and facilities at installations during the U.S. that aren’t being utilized or are only partially utilized, said Paul Cramer, deputy assistant secretary for Installations, Housing & Partnerships, or IHP. Yet by law, he said, the military is needed to take care of those facilities. So the Army’s recommendation to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, which is called OSD, and Congress is that a... Read More »

The temperatures could have been cold here last week, but Thompson Hill Complex was hot as about 70 Soldiers from B Battery, 5th Battalion, 5th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., performed live-fire Counter-Rocket, Artillery and Mortar training. The Soldiers, who’re a mixture of Air Defense Artillery, referred to as ADA, military occupational specialties, were transitioning from the Avenger surface-to-air missile system to Counter-Rocket, Artillery and Mortar, referred to as C-RAM. “It’s been excellent; we’ve been knocking them (incoming mortars, rockets) out of the park,” said Spc. Clifton Hawkins, B/5-5th ADA. “It’s amazing to return out here... Read More »

India’s share in research-and-development work for the joint Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) project with Russia is currently limited by India’s domestic industrial capabilities but will gradually increase with the project’s implementation, a Russian military expert said Friday. India’s The commercial Times newspaper reported on October 17 that Indian military officials were concerned over the country’s work share inside the FGFA project, that’s currently only 15 percent despite the fact that New Delhi is bearing 50 percent of the price. According to the paper, India’s defense minister is anticipated to elevate that issue during his visit to Russia beginning November... Read More »