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Showing posts with the label 5'th Gen Aircraft

India resets it's engagement with China

Image credits- VOA As India resets it's relationship with China entering a face of pragmatic diplomacy where India seek to protect it's vital national interest and stand up to China, The Diplomat examines the issue in detail. You can read the entire article by clicking here

India And Israel Joint Working On 5th Generation Stealth Aircraft HAL AMCA

India's PAK-FA will be superior to the Russian T-50 and Chinese J-20

Revolutionary F-35 Fighter Reaches Its Most Important Milestone ( Source- The National Interest / Author- Loren B. Thompson)

USAF F-35 in flight ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / USAF) Source- The National Interest Author- Loren B. Thompson Fifteen years after development began and ten years after it first took flight, the F-35 fighter is operational with the U.S. Air Force.  This week's announcement of initial operational capability for the F-35A is arguably the most important milestone in the tri-service fighter's evolution, because the Air Force will buy over 70% of the plane's domestic production run (1,763 of 2,443 aircraft), and its variant is the version that the vast majority of overseas allies will acquire. (Editor's Note: The U.S. Air Force IOC announcement is anticipated for Aug. 2 - DM) So it is no exaggeration to say that the Air Force buy is the linchpin of the whole program.  Without it, the cost of Navy and Marine Corps variants would be prohibitive.  The economies of scale generated by purchasing three variants with high commonality to meet the future t

Russia's PAK FA Stealth Fighter: The US Air Force's Worst Nightmare? ( Source- The National Interest / Author- Robert Farley)

Sukhoi PAK FA ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Rulexip) Source- The National Interest Author- Robert Farley The PAK FA has played the bugbear for Western air forces for nearly a decade, the terrifying Russian jet that will eat F-35s for breakfast. American aviation analysts in search of something, anything that might threaten U.S. air dominance settled on the PAK FA, a frankly evil looking jet that bore a very mild resemblance to the MiG-31 “Firefox” that Clint Eastwood made famous. Say what you will about the F-35, but Lockheed Martin has actually built and delivered one hundred and seventy one aircraft thus far.  The Russian Air Force, meanwhile, has yet to receive its first PAK FA.  In lieu of the PAK FA, Russia has continued to acquire generation 4.5 fighters (mostly of the Flanker family) as well as upgrading generation 4 fighters (including various Flankers, the MiG-29 Fulcrum, and the MiG-31 Foxhound). Sukhoi will likely never build the number of fighters

The F-35 Stealth Fighter: Too Good For War Games? ( Source- The National Inerest / Author- David Axe)

F-35 A ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / USAF) Source- The National Interest Author- David Axe It’s no secret that we at War Is Boring are skeptics when it comes to the F-35 Lightning II. The new, radar-evading, “fifth-generation” warplane is years late, over-budget and — by virtue of its many, sometimes contradictory missions — represents a design compromise, meaning it’s okay at lots of tasks but excels at none of them. Still, the U.S. military plans to replace nearly all of its current tactical jets with as many as 2,400 F-35s at a total program cost, including maintenance, of around $1 trillion. The U.S. Air Force, one of the F-35’s main proponents, is understandably optimistic about the single-engine, supersonic fighter — at least in public. Perhaps the strongest recent endorsement came from William Redmond, the executive director of the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In an unclassified presentation, Redmo

Why India needs to fast track the PAK-FA ( Source- Russia & India Report / Author- Rakesh Krishnan Simha)

Sukhoi PAK-FA ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Alex Beltyukov) Source- Russia & India Report Author- Rakesh Krishnan Simha With China having completed flight tests of its twin stealth fighters and commencing series production, India needs to show urgency in acquiring the PAK-FA stealth fighter. China’s J-20 jet has advanced to the eighth prototype and, after flight tests, is ready for regular production. The other stealth fighter, the comparatively smaller J-31, designed for export to customers such as Pakistan, is also ready to roll out. In its latest report to the US Congress, the US Department of Defence says these fifth-generation aircraft “could enter service as early as 2018” and warns that the new stealth jets could allow the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) to dominate regional skies. The Pentagon report of May 2016, titled ‘Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China’, says: “China seeks to develop t

Revealed: Japan’s First Stealth Fighter( Source- The National Interest / Author- Rodrigo Ugarte)

Mitsubishi X-2 Stealth Fighter ( Credits- Wikimedia Commons / Hunini) Source- The National Interest Author-  Rodrigo Ugarte Mitsubishi’s X-2 stealth demonstrator jet took off on the morning of April 22, propelling Japan into the stealth age. Designed to test new technologies, chief among them low observability, the X-2 marks Japan’s entry into an exclusive club shared by only a handful of nations. Years from now, the aircraft could also evolve into a frontline stealth fighter as Tokyo aims for a technological leap past China — which can count on superior numbers of warplanes in any future conflict. Previously called the Advanced Technology Demonstrator-X (ATD-X), X-2 took off from Nagoya Airport and flew for 26 minutes to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force base in Gifu. Japan’s Ministry of Defense unveiled the X-2 on Jan. 28. Overseeing the project is the Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency, or ATLA, a branch of the Defense Ministry that incorporated

What Would China Do if America Sold Taiwan F-35s? ( Source- The National Interest / Authors- Nicholas Butts & Jared McKinney)

Lockheed Martin F-35 ( Image credits- VOA) Source- The National Interest Author-  Nicholas Butts , Jared McKinney A Taiwanese fighter jet on a routine patrol collides with a Chinese drone and crashes into the South China Sea; the pilot is killed. In response, the Republic of China Air Force, which for some time has been asking for upgraded planes, presses for a new arms package from America. Despite promising to maintain peace and stability in cross-Strait relations a little over a year ago in her victory speech, Tsai Ing-Wen, Taiwan’s president, is faced with growing pressure to respond strongly. A concerned Legislative Yuan authorizes major defense budget increases (overcoming budget difficulties) aimed at acquiring the F-35. Eager to signal that the rebalance she spearheaded in the Obama administration is returning in full force, newly elected president Hillary Clinton (following the advice of hawkish media commentators) directs the Defense Department to sell Taipei fi

Will Japan's Sixth-Gen Fighter Dominate Beijing's J-20? ( Source- The National Interest / Author- Dave Majumdar)

Model of Japanese ATD-X Fifth Gen Fighter Aircraft ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Author- Hunini) Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar Japan has opened talks with Western defense contractors—including Lockheed Martin and Boeing—to develop a next-generation air superiority fighter. Tokyo is locked in a regional dogfight with Beijing to maintain control over the skies over the Sea of Japan. The new Japanese aircraft could be based in part on the technologies being matured on Mitsubishi’s X-2 ATD-X stealth fighter concept demonstrator. The X-2 prototype is set to take to the skies for the first time in days, reports Reuters. “They have begun exploratory engagement to look at our capabilities,” a source with a Western defense contractor told the news agency. “There is no policy decision and no program of record for the next fighter. There is only some discussion that, logically, there will be a fighter at some point.” Japan needs to replace i

Japan Unveils New 5th Generation Stealth Fighter Jet ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Franz Stefan-Gady)

Japanese ATD-X ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Hunini) Source- The Diplomat Author- Franz Stefan-Gady This Thursday, Japan’s new Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency revealed the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Advanced Technology Demonstrator – Experimental (ATD-X) fifth-generation fighter technology demonstrator, now dubbed X-2 and unofficially named ‘ShinShin,’ to the media at a heavily guarded hangar at a regional airport near the city of Komaki, in Aichi Prefecture. It has previously been showcased once already in May 2014. The X-2 is the country’s first domestically produced full-scale test model—a technology demonstrator—of a new indigenous stealth fighter jet design, which has been under development at a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries plant in Toyoyama since 2009, with total program costs estimated at 39.4 billion yen (around $331 million). The aircraft—an “advanced technology demonstration unit,” according to the Defense Technical Research and Devel

India and Russia Fail to Resolve Dispute Over Fifth Generation Fighter Jet ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Franz Stefan-Gady)

Sukhoi PAK-FA ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Dmitry Pichugin) Source- The Diplomat Author- Franz Stefan-Gady During the annual India-Russia summit, which took place in late December 2015 in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi failed to resolve an ongoing disagreement between the two countries over the future of a joint fifth generation fighter program. India and Russia in early 2007 signed an intergovernmental agreement to co-develop a fifth generation fighter–the Sukhol/HAL Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) or as it known in India, the Perspective Multi-role Fighter (PMF). The aircraft will be a multi-role, single seat, twin-engine air superiority/deep air support fighter with stealth capabilities and is based on the Sukhoi PAK FA (Prospective Airborne Complex of Frontline Aviation) T-50 prototype, currently undergoing flight tests in Russia. Ever since 2007, however, the  weapons program has experienced v