A rescue plane has discovered the wreckage of an U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor fighter jet that went missing Tuesday night, the Elmendorf-Richardson airbase in Alaska said in a statement on Wednesday.
The fighter jet lost contact with air traffic control at 7:40 p.m. Alaska time Tuesday (04:40 GMT on Wednesday) while on a night-time training mission.
The crash site has been located at about 160 kilometers north of Anchorage. A rescue team is searching for a missing pilot, the airbase said in a statement.
F-22 is a single-seat, twin-engine fifth-generation fighter aircraft that uses stealth technology.
The $150-mln plane entered service with the USAF in 2005. Over 160 F-22s have been built by Lockheed Martin with projected goal of 187 aircraft. The export sale of the F-22 is prohibited by U.S. federal law.
The USAF already lost two F-22s – during takeoff at Nellis Air Force Base in December 2004 and during a test flight near Edwards Air Force Base in March 2009.
MOSCOW: A Russian MiG-31 Foxhound interceptor/fighter crashed on Friday in the Perm region of the Urals, but the pilots ejected safely.
The Defense Ministry has grounded all MiG-31s following the crash.
A preliminary cause of the crash was that the plane went into a tailspin, a spokesman for the Investigative Committee's military department said.
The crash site has been located and investigators have arrived at the scene, he added.
Officials said the plane was not carrying any weapons and posed no danger to residential areas.
Defense Ministry spokesman Vladimir Drik said the pilots were "in a satisfactory condition."
STOCKHOLM, Sweden: Defence and security company Saab has received an order from FMV, the Swedish Defence Material Administration, for the delivery of 3-dimensional (3D) models to the Swedish Gripen simulators. The 3D-models will give the simulators a highly realistic visualisation model.
The 3D-models will be generated by the system Rapid 3D Mapping based on aerial images, developed by Saab.
“This is an important milestone that proves that 3D-models generated by our new product Rapid 3D Mapping can be used with excellent results for visualisation in simulators”, says Ulf Hellberg, Head of Business Development within Saab’s business area Dynamics.
“The 3D-models provides the customer with a more realistic solution compared to traditional ways of building visualisation models”, says Magnus Brege, Marketing Director Rapid 3D Mapping.
The world-leading technology behind Rapid 3D Mapping is a result of Saab’s unique competence in image processing, navigation and systems integration resulting from the long experience in developing advanced systems for missiles.
Saab serves the global market with world-leading products, services and solutions ranging from military defence to civil security. Saab has operations and employees on all continents and constantly develops, adopts and improves new technology to meet customers’ changing need.
Beijing: Pakistan has confirmed it will buy Chinese missiles and flight systems to equip its 250 JF-17 Thunder jet fighters as it seeks to deepen military cooperation with Beijing, state media said Thursday.
Rao Qamar Suleman, air chief marshal of the Pakistan Air Force, told the Global Times newspaper Chinese radar systems and SD-10 mid-range homing missiles would be used on the fighters co-developed by the two nations.
"PAF has no plans to install Western devices and weapons on the aircraft for the time being," the newspaper quoted Suleman as saying.
Pakistan may also buy up to four Chinese surface-to-air missiles, as it seeks stronger cooperation with China to help upgrade its armed forces, Suleman told the China Daily in a separate interview.
He made the remarks on the sidelines of the annual Zhuhai Air Show now under way in southern China.
Chinese defence experts played down the comments, saying any cooperation did not target any country and did not compare with deals adopted during a visit to India this month by US President Barack Obama, the China Daily said.
Among the deals struck during Obama's trip was a preliminary accord worth 4.1 billion dollars for India's air force to buy 10 C-17 transport aircraft from US aviation giant Boeing.
Pakistan had initially planned on arming its JF-17 fighters with missiles made by French firm Thales SA in a deal reportedly worth 1.2 billion euros (1.6 billion dollars).
But French officials confirmed to AFP in April the deal had been put on hold without explanation. The French daily Le Monde reported that it was cancelled to avoid damaging relations with Pakistan's nuclear rival India.
China is a strong ally of Pakistan and Islamabad draws heavily on Beijing for its defence and infrastructure needs.
Pakistan's air force has a fleet of Chinese aircraft, including F-7PGs and A-5s, but also US-built F-16s and French Mirages. The medium-tech JF-17 or Thunder jets, manufactured jointly with China, are a recent addition.
Tejas, India’s Light Combat Aircraft, achieved an important milestone today when the fifth Limited Series Production (LSP-5) aircraft made first flight. LSP5 aircraft is the first LCA in the Operational Configuration for the Indian Air Force.
The LSP-5 was piloted by test pilot Lt Cdr Ankur Jain, from the Indian Navy. The aircraft took off at 1054 hours and achieved a max speed of 0.8 mach, 4G turns, and an altitude of 11 km during the 40 min flight.
LCA Tejas LSP-5The flight was uneventful and all systems functioned normally, clearing all the test points.
This is the culmination of the efforts of all the stakeholders viz., HAL, IAF, DRDO Labs, Defence PSUs, CEMILAC, DGAQA and Aeronautical Development Agency. This has been a great team effort to get the final standard aircraft in the flight line.
The LSP-5 first flight was directed by Wg Cdr Sreedharan Toffeen, Test Director. Gp Capt G Thomas, Chief Test Pilot of the National Flight Test Centre (NFTC) piloted the chase aircraft.
NEW DELHI -- Lockheed Martin said it improved its version of the F16IN Super Viper on offer to India under the country's largest ever combat aircraft tender.
The corporation's tailor-made advanced F-16IN aircraft for the Indian air force has improved electronic scanned array radar, enhanced high-thrust engine and larger weapons inventory.
"The F-16 has a long history of operations around the world," Michael R. Griswold, director of advance development program at Lockheed Martin, told reporters. "The F-16 that we are offering here to India is by no means the end of the line of F-16s. In fact, it represents the beginning of what we think is great future for F-16 in India."
The F-16 Fighting Falcon, originally made by General Dynamics, first flew in 1974 and was inducted into the U.S. Air Force in 1978. In 1993, General Dynamics sold its aircraft manufacturing business to the Lockheed Corp., which became part of Lockheed Martin after a 1995 merger with Martin Marietta.
More than 4,400 of the F-16 aircraft have been built since production was approved in 1976. No units are sold in the United States any more but upgraded versions are available to export customers, such as India and Pakistan.
Air trials in India have finished for the most part and Lockheed also has shown additional features to the Indian air force during laboratory testing. "We had to provide new capability beyond what the F-16 block has," said Griswold.
Lockheed is one of six aircraft manufacturers chasing the $9.5 billion contract for 126 aircraft under the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft Competition, known as the MRCA. Up to 20 of the first units will be purchased from overseas manufacturing bases. The rest of the planes must be produced in India through stringent technology transfer agreements.
Delivery will start within 36 months of contract signing and be completed 48 months later.
Also in the running for the MRCA are the Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault-Rafale, Saab JAS 39 Gripen, Mikoyan MiG-35 and the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
The acquisition is strategically important for India because of its aging jet-fighter fleet.
The air force attained 44 squadrons during the 1980s after acquiring Mirage 2000, MiG-29 and Jaguar aircraft. But many of the air force's older aircraft -- mostly MiG planes including MiG-21 units -- are obsolete with some not airworthy and others lost to accidents. As a result, the country has 32 squadrons, a worry for Indian defense officials as they believe the country's air superiority over Pakistan could be threatened.
The Indian air force phased out the MiG-23MF air-defense interceptor in 2007 and retirements of MiG-23BN ground-attack aircraft began in March 2009. The MiG-23s will be replaced by MRCA winner.
The F-16IN is based on the F-16E/F Block 60 version supplied to the United Arab Emirates and conformal fuel tanks, AN/APG-80 active electronically scanned array radar, GE F110-132A engine with 32,000 pounds of thrust and an electronic warfare suite with infra-red searching and helmet-mounted cueing system.
In April, during an interview in Dallas, Orville Prins, Lockheed's vice president of business development in India, praised the F-16IN version of the F-16 "I can assure you, the Super Viper is much more advanced in all aspects than the F-16s being given to Pakistan," he said.
