Latest F-35 pic...

Enjoy these pics of the Ark Royal...they will soon be historic.

Via Brian Aitkenhead at Warships...

Seems as if Turkey didn't get the message on European arms cuts...

Via AviationNews.EU

AgustaWestland  that it has been awarded a contract for nine T129 combat helicopters. The contract is valued at €150 million also including a spare parts package. The nine T129 helicopters will be assembled by Turkish Aerospace Industries, Inc. (TAI) and delivered by mid 2012 in a basic configuration, one year earlier of the 51 T129s already on order. This contract increases the total ordered by the Turkish Land Forces Command to 60. TAI is the Prime Contractor for the overall ATAK Programme, with ASELSAN as the supplier of avionics and mission equipments while AgustaWestland is acting as subcontractor to TAI. As the Prime Contractor of the ATAK Program, TAI is responsible for ensuring the T129 ATAK helicopter meets all the operational requirements of the Turkish Land Forces Command.

Ironic that while the rest of Europe disarms, Turkey is going full speed ahead.  They have an original order for 100 F-35's and increased it by another 20.  They have a huge ship building program going on (definitely under the radar but real) and the armed forces in general are sharpening their teeth on insurgents in Northern Iraq.

Turkey might be the real future military power on the European continent...not the traditional powers. 

Between Turkey's rise, former Soviet Block Countries like Romania innovating to get better....what is the UK's answer to the challenge????

Cut its Army....Trim its Navy....and depend on a 4th Generation F-15 sized fighter with no performance benefits that the latest model (F-15SG) bring to the table.

We do live in interesting times.

F-35 to PaxRiver vid.

Japan inches toward the F-35! Good News!

From the Japan Times.

The Defense Ministry is setting its sights on making the F-35 joint strike fighter the Air Self-Defense Force's next mainstay combat jet after giving up a plan to buy more F-2s, sources said Sunday.The ministry plans to list the procurement costs for the next-generation jet in its budget request for fiscal 2012.The ministry, which is trying to update its fighter jet fleet, was planning to retool its F-15 Eagles and buy more F-2s as a stopgap measure, given the delay in the development of the F-35, a fifth-generation stealth jet capable of flying at supersonic speeds, and its climbing price tag.But the ministry has determined that procuring the less-functional F-2 would be unwise in terms of deterrent capability and cost.Since China has been mass-producing its own fighter planes, which are comparable to the F-15, and is also seeking to develop a next-generation aircraft of its own, the ministry is looking to purchase about 40 F-35s or other fifth-generation fighters, they said.

Terminal Lance...

I know you remember a LT like this...If you don't already subscribe to Terminal Lance then check out his site here...

"We can't be there yet"...why the MV-22 is a war winner!

This from SLDInfo.com...

SLD: You had an anecdote, which underscores the impact of speed in the battlespace?

Major Lee York: We took some soldiers out to the West of Iraq. The crew chief comes up to us and tells us that the guys won’t get out of the plane.  We’re like, what are you talking about?  They said we’re not there yet. And we said, “What are you talking about?”  He then said, “The last time we did this flight it took an hour and a half.  We’ve only been in the plane for 40 minutes so we can’t be there yet.”

“The last time we did this flight it took an hour and a half.  We’ve only been in the plane for 40 minutes so we can’t be there yet.”

We told him to tell the Marines that “we were cruising at 230 rather than at 120 so we were there. I swear we’re here, you know, we’re not going to send him somewhere where he is not supposed to be.”

So you think high performance UAVs are new???

If you're a UAV fanatic and believe that they'll replace manned aircraft, then look at this and weep softly in the corner...

Under a classified CIA-sponsored project known as Tagboard, Lockheed developed the unmanned D-21 high-speed, high altitude reconnaissance drone. A modified, two-seat A-12 (redesignated M-21 for "mother" and carrying a reverse of the normal -12 designation) aircraft carried the D-21 (D for "daughter") aloft where the drone's ramjet engine would be ignited as it separated from the mothership at high Mach speeds. The first flight of the D-21/M-21 combination took place on 22 December 1964, but the first D-21 release from an M-21 did not occur until 5 March 1966. Two more launches were successful, but on 30 July 1966, a D-21 collided with the M-21 after release, destroying both aircraft and resulting in the death of one of the M-12's crew members. No further piggyback launches were attempted. A new launch system was then developed using a modified B-52H aircraft as the carrier. The D-21 program was cancelled in 1971 and declassifed seveal years later. The nose and tail cones on the D-21 in this image were only used during early flight tests.

F-35C to PaxRiver.

Lockheed Martin test pilot David Nelson is at the controls as the first F-35C  takes off from NAS JRB Fort Worth on its ferry flight to NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, on 6 November 2010.

If this can happen on "new" legacy jets then the F-35 is ahead of the curve...

Via Alert 5 from The Korea Times...

Alleged poor inspections by DAPA inspectors of the F-15K program were also blamed for frequent damage to the F-15K aircraft, the main component of South Korea’s air defenses.

“When one of the engines was damaged by ingesting some foreign object (FOD), DAPA inspectors did not have the experience to thoroughly inspect the engine, so just the visible damage was repaired and the aircraft flew all the way to Korea from St. Louis,” an informed source told The Korea Times.

“When the aircraft arrived, the ROKAF technicians immediately discovered more damage inside the engine — damage that was so severe that it was outside the technical limits for repair and so the engine had to be replaced,” he said.

“The low quality of inspection could have resulted in a lost aircraft. If that had happened over the sea, no one would have found out the truth.”

The source expressed deep concern that one third of the F-15Ks already in Daegu also have broken avionics systems.

These series of problems raise questions about whether DAPA inspectors are properly inspecting the F-15K manufacturing process.

These problems will be resolved but in light of the flak being received by the F-35 by its critics then issues like this must be examined and it should be noted that anything involving the hand of man will not be perfect.

Again!  Real issues with any program should be exposed and solved...but the FALSE accusations being tossed at the F-35 program are beyond annoying...they're becoming criminal.