European Defence Editor at Aviation Week, proud hubby to Dr Kubi, aircraft photographer (Canon user, obvs), RIAT volunteer, and
#antigrowthcoalition
member.
#Kaan
has finally taken to the skies in the hands of test pilot Barbaros Demirbas. The flight was a short hop, lasting 13 mins, with Kaan reaching 8,000ft and a speed of 230kt. A big historic day for
@TUSAS_TR
Hopefully more to follow in quick succession.
Байрактари в роботі. Наші оператори ювелірно криють колони ворожих військ. Знищено російський БУК в районі Малина Житомирської області.
Бійтеся, вороги! Не буде вам спокою на нашій землі!
Finally, the US Army has selected
@BellFlight
’s tiltrotor V-280
#Valor
as its
#FLRAA
platform to eventually replace the UH-60 Black Hawk. Game changing decision for the US rotorcraft industry and transformative for Bell itself…
Before everyone gets too excited about a first flight of
#Kaan
, remember this is just the beginning, it was a nine years between
#Typhoon
first flight and service entry, eight years for F-22A, and 15 if you consider first flight of YF-22. Plenty of work and test flying to come.
#Canada
has confirmed it is purchasing nine Airbus A330-200s for the
@RCAF
's strategic tanker need, of which eight will be converted to MRTT standard, thats a quadrupling of Canada's strategic tanking (STTC) capability, currently provided by two CC-150 Polaris (Airbus A310s) 1/2
Bayraktar TB2s got a rough ride in
#Ukraine
, lots of compelling footage collected in first days of the conflict, and this was drip fed over several months by
#Kyiv
, high loss rate in the first weeks of the conflict.
#InternationalFighter
One of the highlights of today's rather cloudy
#AnatolianEagle
media day at
#Konya
was the debut appearance of the fifth prototype (PT-5)
@BaykarTech
#Akinci
UCAV/SIHA. It has been performing ISR missions as part of the exercise along with THK
#Anka
UAV.
Some images of
#Portugal
's first
@embraer
C-390
#Millennium
have been released by the manufacturer. Portugal is the first of three European customers to order the new airlifter.
Defence secretary,
@BWallaceMP
reveals that a Russian AF Su-27 'Flanker' released a missile near a
@RoyalAirForce
RC-135 Rivet Joint on Sept. 29. A Russian AF investigation says it was a technical malfunction with the Su-27, he says.
The U.S. State Department has approved
#Poland
's huge
@BoeingDefense
#Apache
helicopter request, 96 helicopters, and no fewer than 1,800
#Hellfire
and 460
#JAGM
. Poland will be the biggest operator of the AH-64 outside the U.S.
KAAN,
#G
ökVatan'ı ile buluştu.🇹🇷
.
Cumhurbaşkanımız Sayın
@RTErdogan
’ın savunma sanayiinde ülkemize çizdiği yerlilik ve millilik vizyonunun kilometre taşlarından olacak bir gelişmeyi daha tarihimize kazıdık. Hamdolsun…
.
Milli Muharip Uçağımız KAAN’ın ilk uçuşu milletimize
Night operations on
@HMSQnlz
taken on September 29, four days after the first landing. Spectacular image, not sure who took it but from
@LockheedMartin
Flickr.
The
@ItalianAirForce
display team, the Freece Tricolori will no longer transition to the
@LDO_Aircraft
M345 to but to the twin-engine M-346/T-346A with the transition from the MB-339PAN expected in 2028. An aircraft painted up in lovely new colour scheme, was unveiled today.
#Norway
is to permanently halt operations with its
@NHIndustriesSAS
#NH90
fleet immediately, citing fleet availability problems. The type is flying just 700 hours of the expected 3,900 hours a year, the Norwegian MoD has announced this morning.
The wonderful
@northropgrumman
F-14
#Tomcat
is 50 today, what a machine and still going strong, so glad I made an effort to get some
@USNavy
examples in front of my camera lens before the end.
NEW: China has recruited dozens of former British military pilots to teach the Chinese armed forces how to defeat western warplanes & helicopters in a “threat to UK interests”, officials have revealed.
1/
U.S. State Dept has approved the sale to
#France
of Electromagnetic catapult (
#EMALS
) and advanced arrestor gear for use on its future aircraft carrier in a deal valued at $1.321 billion.
Just hours after confirming deal for
#Rafale
,
#Indonesia
has been approved to buy a variant of
@BoeingDefense
's Advanced Eagle, the F-15ID. A $13.9 billion package includes 36 aircraft, engines, pods, but no weapons.
Get in front my camera lens...the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) have done a fabulous job painting up this F-16 to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Photo: Peder Mathisen
Defence Secretary
@BWallaceMP
cites recent
#Turkish
use of
@Baykar
-made UAVs and EW systems and their use in Libya and Syria respectively, "Even if half the claims are true, the implications are game-changing," he says.
Saturday's
#DubaiAirshow
flypast rehearsal saw two
#UAEAF
Mirage 2000s carrying the
@LockheedMartin
#Sniper
pod, this might be one of the first sightings of the Mirage with this pod since it was selected by the service in 2020.
The first
@BoeingDefense
/
@Saab
T-7 Red Hawk for the
#USAF
has been rolled out in St Louis and is wearing its Air Education and Training Command colour scheme.
It seems the chaps at
@AntonovCompany
have been raiding their archives and found images of this odd An-14 derivative, An-14SH which was trialled with air-cushion landing gear, flew for the first time today in 1983.
Çakılmaktan son anda kurtulan Solotürk F-16'sı, üzerine geldiği kişi tarafından kaydedildi.
Uçuş kontrol bilgisayarında arıza oluşması ile ters kumanda veren F-16, incelemeler için hangara çekildi.
In the next 20-30 mins, the
@usairforce
will achieve UK aviation history with the first landing of a
@NGCNews
#GlobalHawk
at
#Fairford
. It will be the largest uncrewed aircraft to land in the UK and likely the start of more regular USAF UAS flights from the UK.
An image of
@Offutt_AFB
's first WC-135R has emerged on L3 Harris' LinkedIn page. Three WC-135R Constant Phoenix platforms are being readied for the Air Force's airborne sniffing program.
İstanbul’daki TEKNOFEST coşkusuna Ankara’dan müjdeli bir selam ile katılıyoruz 👋
Ağır Sınıf Taarruz Helikopterimiz ATAK-2 ilk kez havalandı.
@TUSAS_TR
ve katkıda bulunan tüm paydaşlarımızı tebrik ediyoruz. 👏 🚁
The expert speaking here says that the arrival of more systems allowed them to restart TB2 operations and they are continuing, but losses were high early on.
#internationalfighter
Fair to say if you are at
#DubaiAirshow
then you need to make sure you drop everything to see this, it is far and away the best display you will see at the show.
Arguably one of the best demonstrations by a Western combat aircraft I have seen in recent years.
Word on the street ahead of
#DubaiAirShow
is the Boeing F-15QA display this week is gonna rock your world. FBW, no pylons and no conformal FAST fuel tanks is gonna show what an Eagle can really do!
#avgeek
(pic
@Rotorfocus
)
The end of an era,
#Romania
's retirement of the MiG-21 leaves just one '
#Fishbed
' operator in Europe,
#Croatia
. Pity to say goodbye to such an iconic type.
A trio of
@ItalianAirForce
Eurofighters interecept a
#Danish
@Sikorsky
MH-60R near Iceland in this fabulous image published by the Danish Air Force. The low-speed AoA on the EF2000s is rather impressive.
This would explain why
@RoyalAirForce
#Typhoons
have been flying with the Rivet Joints in recent days. Wallace says he paused RC-135 flights temporarily after the incident but have since restarted.
#Italy
will retire the epic
@LDO_Aircraft
/
@Embraer
AMX tomorrow in a ceremony at Istrana AB after 35 years of operation. It is one of the last light combat aircraft in service anywhere in Europe. Its retirement means the
@ItalianAirForce
will be reliant on three fighter types.
The
#Eurodrone
is being displayed at
#ILAAirshow
#ILA24
with several maritime weapons and payloads including a sonobuoy launcher, air-dropped torpedo and the
@MBDAGroup
Marte-ER anti-ship missile, as the four partner nations explore additional roles for the twin-engine UAS.
Say goodbye to the
@RoyalAirForce
's Lockheed Martin C-130J
#Hercules
fleet. The UK operated around 85 C-130s through its 60-year career with the RAF in K and J-models. C-130J will be gone by the end of 2023.
I was glad to host my great friend Ben Wallace,
@BWallaceMP
, in Kyiv.
We had a very meaningful discussion focused on priorities for increasing Ukraine’s defense capabilities, particularly providing long-range weapons such as Storm Shadow.
We also discussed prospects for
The
@RoyalAirForce
has surged two of the reserve fleet of
@AirTanker
#Voyagers
into service in response to increased demand for aerial refuelling in Eastern Europe. The RAF now has 10 AAR-capable A330 MRTTs.
Massive Christmas boost for
@LDO_Helicopters
in
#Yeovil
, it has finally secured the upgrade of the
@RCAF_ARC
's CH-149
#Cormorant
SAR helicopters which will also lead to an increased fleet size from 13 to 16 helicopters. Contract worth CDN$1.168 billion.
Commander
@US_EUCOM
, Gen. Tod Wolters says the USAF F-35s based in Europe have been conducting "some elegant ISR activities," in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, during HASC hearings.
Seen arriving at
@RAFWaddington
this morning in wind and rain, Royal Saudi Air Force Boeing RE-3A TASS (Tactical Airborne Surveillance System) 1901, direct from Prince Sultan AB.
After 20 years of aviation photography, this goes straight to the top of my list, ultra-rare!
Another one of the
@USNavy
visitors to the
@DubaiAirshow
was this rather snazzy
@BoeingDefense
F/A-18F Super Hornet of VFA-103 Jolly Rogers off the
@CVN_72
kitted out in the five-wet configuration for aerial refuelling.
The head of Eurofighter GmbH, (
@eurofighter
) Giancarlo Mezzanatto, tells
#ParisAirShow
#LeBourget
journalists that he believes as many as 150-200
#Typhoons
could be ordered in the next two years, could be a significant boost for the program.
Certainly one of the stranger rotorcraft stories I have seen recently, Moldovan authorities shut down an illegal helicopter factory that was building
#Kamov
Ka-26 lookalikes. 10 were found in various stages of completion, several had been test flown, according to detainees.
Google Earth [
@googleearth
] has caught some interesting activities at
#Larissa
AB,
#Greece
with what appears to be a U.S. Global Hawk on the ground, and also new structures perhaps U.S. funded to support those activities?
#Fairford
-based
@AFGlobalStrike
B-52s have been flying several Baltic sorties since they arrived earlier this month, but this is one of the most impressive images released so far,
#Aero81
escorted by
#RNoAF
F-16s.
Later today, the
@RoyalAirForce
will more than doubled the size of its UK-based F-35 fleet, with five more aircraft due to arrive at Marham this evening, adding to the four already here.
#F35toUK
Airbus (
@AirbusDefence
) has painted the vertical stabiliser of the prototype
#C295
marking 500,000 flying hours of the type with the various operating nations.
#AirbusTMB
30 years after the U.S. Army retired the
@Sikorsky
CH-54 Tarhe,
@EricksonInc
is proposing a modernized version of the aircraft, the S-64F+ as an optionally-manned heavylift logistics platform to free up Chinooks and CH-53Ks for the front line. Story to come.
Been waiting for these, first images of
@flymcaa
and
@RoyalAirForce
/
@RoyalNavy
F-35B arrayed on the deck of
@HMSQNLZ
Not quite a full deck yet, still plenty of space for getting some more jets onboard.
#France
's new aircraft carrier will be nuclear-powered, President Macron has announced, and will likely come in at 75,000 tons, slightly larger than the QE-class ships and with out the constraints of STOVL. They will carry the Rafale and then a navalized version of
#FCAS
/
#SCAF
CORRECTION: A
@usairforce
C-17 Globemaster III safely transported 823 Afghan citizens from Hamid Karzai International Airport Aug. 15, 2021. This is a record for this aircraft.
The initial count of 640 inadvertently included only adults. 183 children were also aboard.
#Hurkus
turboprop trainers are on their way to
#Farnborough
to make their UK debut, would obviously have looked better at
#RIAT
. Due to arrive in the UK on Tuesday.
Nice to finally see the
#EuroMALE
, albeit in mock-up form here at
#ILA2018
Note the size, I’d say 1/3 larger than a Reaper and Mantis. Not sure on size of engine.
#Spain
will build the fuselage of the
#Eurodrone
and then transport it to a "plateau" or final assembly line in Manching,
#Germany
@AirbusDefence
's Jana Rosenmann, this is the first real bit of detail about how the platform will be developed. Contract signing expected Q1 2021
Had not seen this image before but it shows the third prototype (P2) of
@TUSAS_TR
/
@TUSAS_EN
#T625
being rolled out at the plant in
#Ankara
late last year, with first flight expected shortly. P1 continuing flight test campaign and with focus on low-speed flight envelope.
Glad to hear the pilot of the 617 Sqn F-35B is safe. This is understood to be the first non-US loss of an F-35B, the type is currently only operated by the UK, U.S. Marines and the Italian Navy.
Having written on the various steps in its development, its very cool to see
@AirbusHeli
's
#RACER
@clean_aviation
technology demonstrator finally getting air underneath its wheels in Marseille today. Another step in pursuing European high-speed rotorcraft flight. Pics: Airbus