News Story: Red Flag gives F-35A its toughest test yet

By: Valerie Insinna

NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. — What happens when the F-35A goes to its very first Red Flag, the Air Force’s premier air-to-air training exercise? 

The answer, according to U.S. military and international participants, is that the event itself becomes more challenging than ever, with a greater number of more capable aggressors outfitted with advanced weaponry. 

Although the Marine Corps operated its short takeoff, vertical landing variant in the event last year, Red Flag 17-1 marks the debut of the conventional F-35A operated by the Air Force. After almost two weeks, 13 joint strike fighters from Hill Air Force Base in Utah have flown 110 sorties, said Lt. Col. George Watkins, 34th Fighter Squadron commander.  

“It’s a much more difficult adversary that we are fighting against here as a team than we would have fought against a year and a half ago, when I was here last,” Watkins said, referencing his previous Red Flag event, which he flew in as an F-16 pilot. 

“They have stepped up the number of red air that we’re fighting — the number of aggressor aircraft that are fighting against us — the amount of jamming and stuff that they’re providing against us, the skill level of the adversary that they are trying to replicate, as well as the surface-to-air missile threat.” 

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Report: US Global Hawk Drone Shadowed Chinese Jets During Training Exercise Near Taiwan

While Chinese warplanes circled Taiwan airspace on a recent mission, an American RQ-4 Global Hawk drone tailed closely nearby.

China’s dispatch of fighter jets and heavy bombers en route to Taiwan drew the attention of the US, which sent EP-3 and RC-135 stealth aircraft to keep a watch on the Chinese training exercise, a Taiwan defense official told Taiwan News. 

The scenario unfolded on December 10, according to the official. The Chinese fleet of at least ten fighter jets crossed the Miyako Strait, alerting Japan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ). Two Japanese F-15s promptly took off to intercept the Chinese squadron. China’s jets then began heading back toward the mainland without ever officially entering Taiwan’s ADIZ, the official said.

In the wake of US President-elect Donald Trump’s break with a decades-old China-related diplomatic practice, in addition to negative rhetoric about Beijing during Trump’s campaign, Chinese news outlets have called for an increased defense budget to grow its nuclear arsenal. China has sent jets near Taiwan three times in the past month, including deployment of its nuclear-capable Xian H-6K, on at least one occasion.

Just last week, US satellite imaging revealed a buildup of anti-aircraft and other defense infrastructure on China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea. Most recently, China and the US again experienced controversy after China’s navy captured a US underwater drone, but since promised to return what is said to be an oceanographic survey device back to the US. 

This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.

News Story: Mixed Prospects for Boeing Military Aircraft

by Chris Pocock

The future sales prospects for Boeing’s military aircraft are mixed at present. The F-15 and F-18 production lines now seem more likely to extend into the next decade with more sales to the Middle East, now that political objections in Tel Aviv and Washington appear to be subsiding. A sale of fourKC-46 tankers to Japan has now been formally notified, but some U.S. Air Force (USAF) leadership has suggested that the service will buy no more than the 179 aircraft to which it is already committed. Meanwhile, Boeing faces stiff competition for the USAF JSTARS replacement, while arguing that the 737-800 airframe that it has proposed for that near-term requirement is also suitable as an AWACS and Rivet Joint SIGINT platform further in the next decade. All three missions are currently flown by Boeing 707 derivatives.

Kuwait is reportedly seeking 28 F-18s and Qatar 36 F-15s, with options for 36 more. The potential sales are yet to be formally approved and notified by the U.S. government. But the recent U..S 10-year, $38billion arms supply agreement with Israel might help clear the way. That agreement might even result in Boeing supplying more F-15I Strike Eagles to Israel, which received 25 of them in the mid-1990s. Boeing is still offering various avionics upgrades to the F-15, some of which are found on the 84 F-15SAs for Saudi Arabia that are now in production. But the company has dropped the full set of “Silent Eagle” stealth airframe modifications that it first proposed in 2009. As for the F/A-18, Boeing is still proposing the Advanced Super Hornet upgrades, some of which flew in mid-2013.

Read the full story at AINonline

News Story: Boeing Sees Promising Defense Outlook for 737 Airliner

Boeing 737 based (E-7) Wedgetail AEW&C of the Royal
Australian Air Force (RAAF)

By: Valerie Insinna

ST. LOUIS — The Air Force hasn’t yet announced its modernization plans for a slew of aging commercial derivative aircraft, but Boeing plans to use its 737 airliner as the basis for replacements to the E-3 AWACS, EC-130H Compass Call and all variations of the RC-135, a company official said Monday. 

The company is banking on a militarized version of the 737-700 to win the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System recapitalization program that will succeed the Air Force’s current ground surveillance aircraft. But Boeing also sees a bright future for the 737 in other upcoming competitions because of its sustainability, and its larger size lends itself well to future size, weight and power requirements, argued Fred Smith, its director of global sales and marketing for the defense sector’s commercial derivative airplanes, which also includes the KC-46 tanker and P-8 maritime aircraft. 

"We have looked at every single one of these recaps and we firmly believe that the 737 is the right platform,” he said during a briefing at Boeing’s facilities in St. Louis. Defense News accepted travel and hotel accommodations from the company. 

The Air Force is still in the process of deciding exactly how it will replace its current Airborne Warning and Control System, called AWACS, as well as the RC-135 family of systems, which includes the Rivet Joint aircraft that conducts signals intelligence. However, in its Air Superiority 2030 flight plan, the service stated that it may not necessarily move forward with a traditional aircraft competition for AWACS because of concerns that it may not be survivable enough to withstand operating in a denied environment. 

“Maybe it's something that's more survivable that's an airborne platform that moves forward, or maybe there's not a platform anymore,” Brig. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, who led the Air Superiority 2030 effort, said in a recent interview with Defense News. “Maybe it's just data-linked back to some ground location, or maybe it's data-linked to something like an AWACs that's just further away, but the sensors wouldn't be on that. Then it would just kind of be a gateway or a comms node with your battle managers there, so your battle management function could really be done anywhere.” 

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Story: China says US 'hyping' spy plane intercept

Beijing accused Washington of "hype" on Wednesday after the US said two Chinese jets conducted an unsafe intercept of one of its spy planes over the East China Sea.

The spat came soon after the world's two largest economies concluded an annual dialogue overshadowed by disagreements over maritime issues.

US Pacific Command spokesman Commander David Benham said two Chinese J-10 fighter jets flew close to an American RC-135 reconnaissance plane that was on a routine patrol.

The Pentagon downplayed the encounter and blamed it on shoddy piloting.

"One of the intercepting Chinese jets had an unsafe excessive rate of closure on the RC-135 aircraft," Benham said, without specifying exactly where the incident occurred.

"The US once again is deliberately hyping this issue," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular briefing on Wednesday.

"The relevant Chinese military personnel have always acted professionally and in accordance with law."

Read the full story at SpaceDaily

News Story: China urges U.S. to stop close surveillance over East China Sea

A Boeing RC-135 (Image: Wiki Commons)

BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- China on Wednesday demanded that the United States refrain from flying reconnaissance aircraft over Chinese waters.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei made the remarks at a daily press briefing in response to a U.S. claim on China's "unsafe" interception of an American aircraft over the East China Sea.

"The United States that is deliberately stirring up the issue," said Hong.

Read the full story at Xinhua

Think Tank: Sea, air and land updates (19-APR-2016)

Su-27 (Image: Wiki Commons)

Dione Hodgson, Ashleigh Sharp and Lachlan Wilson

Sea State

Navigating the dangerous iced-covered waters of the Antarctic just got easier for the British Royal Navy, with the entry into service of its new, low-cost 3D-printed drone. The SULSA unmanned aerial vehicle, which was launched from naval patrol vessel HMS Protector, is designed to utilise real-time imagery to scout a safe route for vessels. The £7,000 drone can cruise at speeds up to 97km per hour, and its four nylon-based parts can be snapped together by hand. Gizmodo has footage of the plane’s test flight off the coast of Dorset.

Adelaide will remain a hub for the shipbuilding industry, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Defence Minister Marise Payne announcing on Monday that 12 offshore patrol vessels will be built in the city from 2018. Minister Payne confirmed construction of the vessels will begin in Adelaide, before moving to Henderson in Western Australia, and coupled with plans to build up to 21 Pacific patrol boats in Henderson, will directly secure more than 2,500 jobs in coming decades.

It’s official. RRS Boaty McBoatface emerged as the overwhelming winner of a public poll for naming rights of Britain’s new £200 million polar research vessel. Voting closed on 16 April with the memorable winning name collecting more than 124,000 votes. Regrettably, Britain’s science minister told the Daily Telegraph that ministers were unlikely to endorse the result.

Editorial: The US-China South China Sea Showdown

By Jeff Smith

U.S. freedom of navigation operations could take the U.S.-China relationship past a point of no return.

The United States and China are hurtling toward a showdown over Freedom of Navigation in the the South China Sea. The U.S. Navy is poised to sail near seven artificial islands China constructed in the Spratly archipelago over the past two years as a means to challenge any excessive or illegitimate Chinese sovereignty claims there. In Beijing, meanwhile, opposition to U.S. Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) around the artificial islands is hardening, as evidenced by the threat China’s state-run Xinhua news agency issued last week:

[America’s] provocative attempts to infringe on China’s South China Sea sovereignty are sabotaging regional peace and stability and militarizing the waters…China will never tolerate any military provocation or infringement on sovereignty from the United States or any other country, just as the United States refused to 53 years ago [during the Cuban Missile Crisis].

The commentary is troubling for several reasons. First, it continues a trend of increasingly confrontational and escalatory language. In May, Beijing was describing U.S. FONOPS around the artificial islands as “dangerous and irresponsible”; now they are an intolerable provocation and infringement on sovereignty. Second, as it was written in a state-owned Party mouthpiece, the article carries greater weight than the occasional caustic threat from a retired PLA general. Third, the language serves to further box China’s leaders into more hardline positions, restricting their options for de-escalation and compromise. Finally, it represents how close the U.S. and China are to a crisis that could have and should have been avoided.

Read the full story at The Diplomat

Editorial: No More Dangerous Intercepts for US, China Miltary Aircraft?

Chinese J-11B that buzzed a US Navy P-8 in 2014

By Shannon Tiezzi

A few days after another “unsafe” intercept by a Chinese jet, the US and China finalized rules for aerial encounters.

The Pentagon announced this week that two Chinese fighter jets may have conducted an unsafe intercept of a U.S. surveillance place on September 15. The announcement came just as Chinese President Xi Jinping began his highly anticipated first state visit to the United States.

The U.S. Department of Defense was not nearly concerned by this incident as it was by another intercept in August 2014, which U.S. defense officials denounced at the time as “dangerous.” In the incident last year, the Pentagon accused a Chinese fighter jet of having come within 20 feet of a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft, then doing a barrel roll over the top of the U.S. plane.

The September 15 intercept saw two of China’s JH-7 fighters cross roughly 500 feet in front of a U.S. Air Force RC-135 surveillance aircraft, according to USNI News. Both planes were flying in international airspace over the Yellow Sea, roughly 80 miles off of China’s Shandong peninsula.

Pentagon spokesman Bill Urban told USNI News that the Pentagon was still gathering information on the incident, and that “no final characterization of the intercept has been determined at this time.” It was the crew of the RC-135 that described the intercept as “unsafe,” not the Pentagon itself. Urban also stressed that “at this point there is no indication that there was a ‘near collision’.”

Read the full story at The Diplomat

News Story: Pentagon reveals PLA intercept of US spy plane as Xi begins visit

Image: Wiki Commons

As Chinese president Xi Jinping kicks off his first state visit to the United States, the US military has chosen to reveal another confrontation between a Chinese interceptor jet and a US reconnaissance plane.

On Tuesday, as Xi spoke in Seattle of his desire to "build a new model of major-country relationship of no-conflict, no-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation," the Pentagon divulged that a Chinese aircraft had performed an unsafe maneuver during an air intercept of a US RC-135 electronic intelligence-gathering aircraft on Sept. 15.

However, Pentagon spokesperson Peter Cook denied that the incident was a "near collision," noting that the pilot simply reported that he felt as the Chinese aircraft "passed in front of his nose in an unsafe fashion."

Read the full story at Want China Times