2016-06-30 By Robbin Laird During the Trade Media Brief 2016 meetings in Munich, Germany held on June 20 and 21, 2016, Miguel Ángel Morell, head of operations at Airbus Military. Formerly, he was head of Engineering and Technology at Airbus Military. His brief highlighted innovations rooted in upgrades and the evolution…
2016-05-02 Recently, Australia announced a decision to acquire a new submarine to replace the Collins class. The submarine is to be based on a French design and involve the stand up of production from the outset in Australia. The French naval shipbuilder DCNS will be a key player in the…
2016-03-26 Eurofighter is expanding its weapons portfolio, in part to subsume key strike functions of the Tornado as it gets retired. A key missile in this effort is the addition of the Brimstone missile to the Eurofighter missile repertoire. Progress is being made in adding Brimstone to the strike package, and…
2016-03-10 By Robbin Laird When the first F-35 crossed the Atlantic from Cameri, Italy, to NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, the plane had been assembled in Italy and had only 15 flight hours illustrating the confidence of Lockheed Martin and the Italian Government (and Italian pilot) in the maturity of the…
2016-03-03 By Robbin Laird A key argument for buying newer platforms compared to older ones is the savings built into a new platform over the operational and logistics costs of the older platform. In the commercial airplane business, both Boeing and Airbus design and build their newest platforms with significant…
2016-02-29 The venerable CH-53 has been a staple for Marines in providing heavy lift since the Vietnam War. The origins of the heavy lift helo is described by Wikipedia as follows: In 1960, the United States Marine Corps began to seek a replacement for their HR2S piston-powered helicopters. On 27 January 1961, the Marine Corps…
2016-02-12 By Scott Truver In the early morning of Feb. 18, 1991, the U.S. amphibious warship USS Tripoli (LPH-10) struck an Iraqi contact mine in the northern Persian Gulf, ripping a 25-foot by 23-foot hole in her starboard side below the waterline. The quick reaction of her commanding officer and his crew managed…
01/30/2016: The video shows the arrival of the first three Rafale fighter jets for the Egyptian Air Force in July 21, 2015. The first three jets arrived in Egypt in July 2015 as part of the deal, which consists of 24 Rafale jets and a FREMM (Frégate Européenne Multi-Missions) multipurpose frigate. The…
