Cold War

Effective against a wide target set, both sea and land Increased platform survivability against defended targets due to stand-off range and two-way data link Selectable target aim point for tactical flexibility Suitable for a wide range of helicopter platforms including Wildcat, Panther and NH90 Minimised through-life costs for existing Sea Skua and AS15TT users MBDA is developing Sea Venom/ANL, an helicopter-launched, over-the-horizon anti-ship weapon system, jointly funded by the UK and French Governments. It is the next generation multi-role surface attack weapon. Capable of defeating the most challenging target set presented by today’s open water and littoral maritime operations, the new weapon features significant advances on both Sea Skua and AS15TT. The new design will maintain some of the characteristics of Sea Skua and AS15TT and retain compatibility with existing logistic footprints, thereby allowing current users of these systems to upgrade ea...

Gathering more than 100 aircraft from 8 countries,  Exercise Blue Flag 2017 , underway at Ovda, in Israel, is the biggest exercise ever organized by the Israeli Air Force. Combat planes from the United States, Greece, Poland, France, Germany, India, Italy and Israel are taking part in the drills. The main focus of the exercise has been placed on reconnaissance, air-strikes and SEAD operations. As the Polska Zbrojna outlet reports, Poland has sent six F-16 jets and 120 soldiers to participate in the operation. Starting from Nov. 2. the Polish pilots were involved in briefings, with the first missions scheduled for the subsequent weekend. The exercise involves large multinational flight-groups with a variety of aircraft types in a classic COMAO scenario. The Polish pilots are stating that the experiences gathered during the operation would be invaluable, with the flights taking place over the whole territory of Israel, over the deserts, the sea, at night and during the day. ...

Russia's advanced multirole Su-35 fighter aircraft is equipped with an 'artificial intelligence' unit that helps the aircraft to lock the specific target for destruction by a certain kind of weapon system. The general director of Rostech state corporation, Sergei Chemezov was quoted as saying by  RIA Novosti  on the sidelines of Dubai airshow that one of the Su-35 fighters exhibited in Dubai is outfitted with an artificial intelligence unit that may simultaneously capture and analyse six targets at once. "The Su-35, which is taking part in dubai airshow for the first time, is fitted with an intelligence unit that analyzes six goals simultaneously to capture and immediately determines what kind of weapons should be hit," said Chemezov. “It's not even a pilot doing, but artificial intelligence that does all this,” he clarified. Sukhoi-35 is a 4 ++ generation fighter aircraft with controlled thrust vector engines. The aircraft uses fifth generation tec...

Final preparations for test firing of the Brahmos Cruise Missile from the belly of a Sukhoi-30MKI aircraft are being made for possible launch in late November. "Some 20-30 hours of flying with the 2.5 ton missile strapped to the aircraft's underbelly besides a number of drop tests in varying conditions have been accomplished," Brahmos joint managing director, Alexander Maksichev told defenseworld.net at the Dubai Airshow today. The designated target will be a ship somewhere in the Bay of Bengal and the missile would be fired from a height of some 7000 meters-9000 meters, he said adding that preparations are in full swing for the first-ever firing of the cruise missile from the aircraft. Two aircraft are being prepared of which one will fire the missile and the other will be on stand-by. While the missile will be supplied by Brahmos Aerospace, an Indo-Russian joint-venture, the Su-30MKI aircraft are being provided by the Indian Air Force. Hindustan Aeronautics L...

India should co-develop the fifth generation stealth fighter with Russia, says a panel that was appointed by the country’s defence ministry to examine a fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) project based on the PAK-FA. The committee, headed by Air Marshal Simhakutty Varthaman (retd), has recommended India should go ahead with it in the face of reservations by the Indian Air Force,  The Hindustan Times  reported Thursday. The government had constituted a committee under the Air Marshal to assess viability of building the stealth fighter with Russia. “We were given a task and we have submitted our report to the government. That’s all I can tell you,” Varthaman told the Dehi-based newspaper. The committee also has pointed out that India would significantly gain from partnering with Russia through the transfer of technology, officials said. The four-member panel looked into various aspects of the project for around five months. India and Russia are yet to sign a $4-...

Russian Helicopters has delivered the first batch of eight Mi-28UB tandem combat training helicopters to the defense ministry on Friday. "The first batch of eight helicopters has been received by the Defense Ministry’s officials. The company will continue to supply state-of-the-art rotorcraft to the Defense Ministry’s air fleet," Russian Helicopters sales director, Vladislav Savelyev, was quoted as saying by TASS. According to the company, some of the rotorcraft will be deployed to the Army Aviation Centre of aircrews combat training and transition in the Tver Region, the rest will go to the army units. The Mi-28UB is a new combat training helicopter designed by the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant. The helicopter is based on the Mi-28NE Night Hunter combat helicopter and is designed to train military pilots that require flight practice on Night Hunter helicopters. Along with the main attack function the helicopter can be engaged in flight training of the personnel. Mi-...

French Minister for Defense, Jean-Yves Le Drian, authorized the start of development of the new Dassault Rafale F4 standard on March 20. As early as 2023, a first version of the F4 standard will follow the F3-R standard, which is scheduled for qualification in 2018. The F4 standard is intended to introduce improvements based on combat experience. New developments will include improvements networking and sensors. According to the French MoD, the F4 standard will also take into account ‘the expected evolutions of missiles, of the powerplant and the integration of new capabilities.’ The first fully equipped F4 Rafale should be introduced to service by 2025, but certain elements will be available as early as 2023. A future decision will be made on the production of a fifth tranche of Rafale aircraft beyond the fourth tranche currently in production. In the forthcoming May issue of Combat Aircraft, we review the latest combat use of the French Rafales under Operation ‘Chammal’:...