Category: Aerospace

HELSINKI (Sputnik) – US Air Force F-22 Raptor fighter jets have begun training flights in Estonia, a local broadcaster reported on Wednesday. According to the report, 12 fighter jets were transferred from the United States to a Polish airbase for military drills in early April. Three of the fighters arrived at Estonia’s Amari airbase near Tallinn this week. The drills…

ANKARA, Turkey — The price tag for Turkey’s TF-X fighter jet could be more than previously expected, according to the head of its manufacturer. Temel Kotil, who serves as CEO for Turkish Aerospace Industries, said in March 2021 during a TV interview that a single TF-X would be $100 million per unit. But this week, Kotil said that unit price…

Low-cost carrier Go First has filed for bankruptcy at the National Company Law Tribunal. The airline has also suspended its flight operations for three days – May 3, 4 and 5. It has cited mounting losses for its decision to file for bankruptcy. The airline has attributed the losses to delays in the delivery of Pratt and Whitney engines. It said that delay in delivery of the said engines has resulted in grounding of half its fleet of aircrafts.

Meanwhile, the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) has served a show cause notice to the airline for the sudden cancellation of flights without sharing prior information with it. The DGCA has also asked Go First to submit its plan of action for the resumption of flights. In a statement, the airline said that once the NCLT admitted its plea, the court would appoint an Insolvency resolution professional who would take over Go First’s operations.

Air Moldova has submitted to court a request to enter a pre-insolvency accelerated restructuring procedure. The airline says the move will help it avoid bankruptcy and absorb some $50mn from unnamed investors, according to a company press release.

The company blames its difficult financial situation on the debts inherited on privatisation, the loss of revenues during the COVID-19 crisis and the ban on flights after the invasion of Ukraine. It highlights that the state did not extend any financial support, while foreign airlines were supported during the COVID-19 crisis.

The company suspended all flights and ticket sales starting May 2. The resumption of activity will be possible within three days from a positive court decision, the company said.

“Investors are ready to invest around $50mn in Air Moldova. These investments would settle the company’s financial problems and would allow the company to renew its own fleet. Investments cannot be made outside the accelerated restructuring procedure due to the increased risk of an attack from existing creditors,” says Air Moldova.

The airline said that the accelerated restructuring will allow the company to use the capital injection strictly for the development of the company, so that later, in time, the existing debts will be paid.

Air Moldova was privatised in 2018 but the identity of the investors was never made public.

Japan’s defense ministry said on Tuesday it scrambled a jet fighter after spotting a suspected Chinese drone between the Japanese island of Yonaguni and Taiwan.

The drone flew towards Bashi Channel that separates Taiwan from the Philippines, the ministry said in a statement.

The Air Force is forging ahead with its plan to retire the storied U-2 Dragon Lady spy aircraft in fiscal 2026, as part of a yearslong effort to reshape how the service surveils American adversaries from above.

Air Force leaders have considered retiring the U-2 fleet for nearly two decades, asking Congress in some years to ditch the Cold War-era workhorse or, in others, to retire the RQ-4 Global Hawk drones that were meant to replace it. Now both are on the chopping block.

If Congress approves the divestment and lets the Air Force retire its remaining RQ-4s one year later, the service would finish out the decade without the high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft that peer across borders and track enemy movements.

A retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general was sentenced last week to 12 months and one day in prison for wire fraud and filing a false tax return, the Justice Department announced.

Scott Bethel, 59, worked as a government contractor and advisor to the service following his retirement in 2012, according to the statement. During that time, Bethel launched a business that worked with both the government and his employer, both of which he would reportedly submit invoices to, according to court documents.

U.S. conservation groups on Monday announced they are suing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for not doing enough to protect the environment from SpaceX’s Starship program.

The move came after the world’s most powerful rocket exploded on its first integrated test flight, just four minutes after launching from Boca Chica, Texas on April 20.

SpaceX video showed a hail of debris being blasted as far as the Gulf of Mexico, over 1,400 feet (425 meters) away, while a cloud of dust floated over a small town several miles (kilometers) away.

The launch site also sits next to a vital habitat for protected species, including Kemp’s ridley sea turtle and the piping plover bird, according to the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), which was among the groups that filed the lawsuit.

The Air Force is dangling a new carrot for early career airmen who might be tempted to leave: almost any job they want. Starting June 1, all qualified first-term airmen — those serving under the initial contract they signed to join the military, which lasts four to six years — can apply for a new job in any Air Force…

Officials from Army Human Resources Command recently alerted hundreds of active duty aviation officers that their service commitments are about three years longer than previously thought, Army Times has learned.

The move, which shocked impacted pilots interviewed by Army Times, came due to a previously incorrect interpretation of “branch of choice active duty service obligation” contracts the officers signed during their pre-commissioning training at West Point or ROTC.

“We acknowledge that there were errors in the application of aviation officers’ active duty service obligation[s],” said Lt. Gen. Douglas Stitt, chief of the service’s personnel directorate. “We are fixing those errors.”

The chaos comes from the soldiers’ overlapping service obligations — agreements controlling when an officer can leave the Army — some of which are contract-based and some of which are set by federal law. Aviation officers have different requirements than those in other roles, adding to the confusion.

Dozens of impacted officers signed a letter to members of Congress claiming that officials fed them inaccurate information about their contract lengths. Among its enclosures, which Army Times obtained from multiple sources, were briefing materials and messages from branch managers, the Army’s official career advisors, that affirmed a shorter-length interpretation of their obligations.

Some of Turkey’s largest airport ground handler firms stopped providing services to western-made aircraft owned by Russian airlines earlier this month, multiple sources told Middle East Eye.  The sources, who are within the aviation industry and are familiar with the issue, said Havas, Turkey’s largest ground service provider, as well as Turkish Ground Services (TGS), stopped serving the US-made Boeing and European Airbus aircraft…

The US on Wednesday slapped sanctions on several entities based in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates which it said had violated US export controls and helped Russia’s war effort in Ukraine. The firms were included in a new list of sanctions rolled out by the US Treasury Department against more than 120 targets across over 20 countries and jurisdictions….

Russian airline Aeroflot [Russian Airlines] has sent its aircraft to Iran for repairs for the first time in its history amid Western sanctions.

Source: Kremlin-aligned news outlet RBC, citing two sources close to the airline

“An Airbus A330-300 wide-body airliner with registration number RA-73700 flew to Tehran on 5 April, where the aircraft will be serviced by technicians from Mahan Air, i.e., Iran’s largest airline,” the statement said.

Russian tactical nuclear weapons will be deployed close to Belarus’ borders with NATO neighbors. Putin has said that construction of storage facilities for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus will be complete by July 1 and added that Russia has helped modernize Belarusian warplanes to make them capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The two neighbors have an agreement envisioning close economic, political and military ties. Russia used Belarusian territory as a staging ground for invading Ukraine and has maintained a contingent of troops and weapons there.

The Russian nuclear weapons will be “moved up close to the Western border of our union state” but did not give any precise location. “It will expand our defense capability, and it will be done regardless of all the noise in Europe and the United States,” he said in a reference to Western criticism of Putin’s decision. Belarus shares a 1,250-kilometer (778-mile) border with NATO members Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

Tactical nuclear weapons are intended to destroy enemy troops and weapons on the battlefield and have a relatively short range — a much lower yield compared with nuclear warheads fitted to long-range strategic missiles that are capable of obliterating whole cities. The deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus would put them closer to potential targets in Ukraine and NATO members in Eastern and Central Europe.

Ten Chinese aircraft crossed the Ten Chinese aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, normally an unofficial barrier between the two sides, Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Saturday, as Beijing continues its military activities near the island.

Nine Chinese fighter jets and one military drone crossed the median line in the 24 hours to 6 a.m. on Saturday, the ministry said in its daily report on Chinese military activities.

Taiwan sent aircraft to warn away the Chinese aircraft, while missile systems monitored them, the ministry said, using standard wording for its response.median line of the Taiwan Strait, normally an unofficial barrier between the two sides, Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Saturday, as Beijing continues its military activities near the island.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was “deeply concerned” about the development, adding that “in the strongest possible terms, we condemn the Kremlin’s continued attempts to intimidate, repress, and punish journalists and civil society voices.” “We reiterate our strong warnings about the danger posed to US citizens inside the Russian Federation. US citizens residing or traveling in Russia should depart immediately,” the top diplomat said in a statement. A similar message was conveyed by the White House, with Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stating that the “targeting of American citizens by the Russian government is unacceptable.”

“We also condemn the Russian government’s continued targeting and repression of journalists and freedom of the press,” she added, urging Americans to “heed the US government’s warning to not travel to Russia” or leave should they happen to already be in the country. The call was somewhat watered down by US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby, who explained Washington was not actually calling upon all Americans to literally leave Russia and was not encouraging news outlets to withdraw their correspondents from the country. Gershkovich, a WSJ correspondent who covers news from Russia, Ukraine, and the former USSR, was detained in the city of Ekaterinburg on suspicion of espionage, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced earlier in the day. According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the journalist was caught “red-handed” while trying to obtain Russian state secrets.