Third (project) 22800 Karakurt corvette Shkval (584) to be launched on May 05, 2018

Shkval (584) - RussianDefence.com

3rd Proekt (project) 22800 #Karakurt #corvette Shkval (584) is to be launched on 5.05.18.
2 images from yesterday(02.05) at the Pella shipyard.Via Azlok & Curious. Note Pantsir-M & much oufitting appears to have been done - unlike two previous corvettes 

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‘You’re only supposed to buy NATO-compatible weapons’ – State Dept to Turkey over Russian S-400 deal

© Igor Zarembo / Sputnik

RT

Being a NATO member apparently means you can only buy arms and military hardware that the US-led bloc approves. At least, that’s what the State Department said in its latest warning to Ankara over an S-400 air-defense system deal.

The new warning came on Thursday from US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, who said that Washington has “serious concerns about Turkey’s potential acquisition” of the S-400 anti-aircraft systems. 

“Under NATO and under the NATO agreement, which of course, Turkey is a NATO member, you’re only supposed to buy, they are only supposed to buy, weapons and other materiel that are interoperable with other NATO partners. We don’t see that as being interoperable,” the State Department spokeswoman said during a press briefing.

The hotly discussed Turkey-Russia deal may signal closer relations between both nations, as well as a growing rift between Ankara and its NATO allies, mainly the US. Washington has repeatedly relayed its “concerns” to Turkish officials regarding the S-400 potential purchase. On one occasion, US Defense Secretary James Mattis noted that S-400s are “not going to be interoperable with NATO systems.” 

Earlier in April, Assistant Secretary of State Wess Mitchell warned that Ankara’s decision to buy Russia’s advanced complexes exposes Turkey to possible US sanctions and may bar it from getting F-35 jets. “Ankara claims to have agreed to purchase the Russian S-400 missile system, which could potentially lead to sanctions” under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), he said. The document was signed back in August 2017 and is mostly aimed at hindering Russian arms exports. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov responded to Mitchell, describing the US threats as “a typical example of attempted blackmail” with the intention of giving American companies “an unfair advantage in market competition.” 

Supplies of the ambitious S-400 systems to Turkey are scheduled to start in 2020. However, after Lavrov’s talks with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in March this year, he revealed that Moscow was ready to speed up delivery of its sophisticated systems. 

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US Army to speed up UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopter conversions from Lima models to the new Victor model

UH-60 Black Hawk - Lockheed Martin's Sikorsky

Defense News 


US Army looks to speed up V-model Black Hawk conversions


NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Army is looking at ways to speed up UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopter conversions from Lima models to the new Victor model, which would replace the older variant’s analogue cockpit with a new digital one. This replacement better matches the capability of the UH-60 Mike model, the most up-to-date version of the helicopter, according to Col. Billy Jackson, the program manager for the service’s utility helicopters.

As of now, the plan is to partner with Corpus Christi Army Depot, Texas, (or CCAD) to convert L models into new V models at a rate of 48 aircraft per year. But “unfortunately, it’s going to take us about 15 years to do all 760 aircraft,” Col. Billy Jackson told an audience at the Army Aviation Association of America’s annual summit on April 26.

“We are looking at opportunities to speed up velocity there and funding opportunities. The goal would be to modernize the UH-60 fleet in a timely manner and give all [components] similar capability in terms of Black Hawk,” he said.

The Army needed to use innovative means to afford and develop a new cockpit for L models because buying more Mike models would have been too expensive.

While there are currently no funded options yet, as the recapitalization plan is in the concept phase, the Army has pushed out “quite a few” L-model recaps through CCAD over the last four or five years, Jackson noted,

Those newly recapitalized aircraft would enter the tail end of the UH-60V conversion, so Jackson said one idea would be to take those aircraft that will be in the best shape and allow for a competition for facilities outside of CCAD to perform the conversions.

“We would like to go ahead and leverage those aircraft as early as possible to do that,” Jackson said. “Like I said, this is an idea, I think it’s very important, it’s going to rely on finding available funding to do that.”

The Army is still in development for the Victor model, but it has logged 140 flight hours on two platforms at Redstone Arsenal Test Center, Alabama, that is “going extremely well,” Jackson said, adding that the program is “on track.”

That means the service will hold a limited user test this summer to inform low-rate initial production. It will then hold a follow-on test in the summer of 2019, which will inform full-rate production.

The Victor model first flew in January 2017. The version could be the springboard for the Army’s Future Vertical Lift “backbone” which will allow mission systems to plug seamlessly into the architecture of the aircraft.

The Victor cockpit design, which has an open architecture suitable for quick integration, will also allow the Army to test how effectively and quickly it can integrate systems onto the aircraft based on vendors designing to a specific standard.

Northrop Grumman won a U.S. Army contract to design and develop the upgrade in the spring of 2014.

Three prototype helicopters spent more than two years in the Prototype Integration Facility at Redstone undergoing integration.

Northrop has trademarked the name of its newly developed mission computer, the heart of the Victor-model cockpit, as the FlightPro Gen III, which could be used in any other airplane, rotary-wing or fixed-wing aircraft.

AMRDEC
Published on Jun 20, 2016
UH-60V Prototype

UH-60V Digital Cockpit

Lockheed Martin's Sikorsky

UH-60V Black Hawk: Details

UH-60M: Details

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China's Future Stealth Bomber Fleet

What a Chinese aerospace magazine cover tells about China’s future stealth bombers.

By Rick Joe

May 03, 2018

In the last few weeks, a magazine cover for prominent Chinese aerospace magazine Aviation Knowledge featured a pair of stealthy bomber aircraft concepts. A small number of English language articles have commented on this aircraft, speculating whether its presence on the cover of Aviation Knowledge may indicate some subtle official Chinese military backing for this concept, and what its relationship to the future Chinese stealth bomber – commonly referred to as H-20 – might be.

This piece will seek to explore the current body of understanding towards the H-20. The potential role of the aircraft concept shown in the magazine will also be discussed.

Stealth Bomber Background

The world’s first true stealth bomber is the U.S. Air Force’s B-2 Spirit, an aircraft that first entered service in the 1990s. To today, the B-2 remains the single lone stealth bomber type in service among any military in the world.

The United States is looking to develop a new stealth bomber dubbed the B-21 Raider to enter service in the mid 2020s, and Russia is also known to be pursuing a stealth bomber of its own, commonly dubbed the PAK DA. China is the third nation developing a stealth bomber.

Official Chinese interest in a stealth bomber like the B-2 cannot be ascertained, however it is likely the PLAAF would have been informed of the B-2 through military intelligence well before the B-2 first deployed on its public mission. The B-2 first demonstrated its capabilities in the 1999 NATO intervention in Kosovo, and it was a B-2 that bombed the Chinese embassy in the country — an event that China maintains was deliberate, and which the United States maintains as an accident. If the Chinese leadership were not aware of the capabilities of the B-2 before then, they would certainly have been conscious of it afterwards.

Official Chinese interest in a stealth bomber was also muted, and some cases of espionage acquiring B-2 related technologies only suggested China had interest for the applied technologies behind a stealth bomber. The extent of research and development, and political will, could not be ascertained.

Therefore, from the early 2000s up to 2010, it was generally assumed that research and development into a stealth bomber was being conducted, and China would one day develop and produce such an aircraft. But whether it would emerge in the immediate future or longer term future was unknown. No official designation for this bomber existed, but in popular circulation it was referred variously as H-8, H-9, H-10 and H-X.....

From my research the H-20 is a subsonic stealth bomber more like the B-2 the representing picture in some Chinese sources is called the H-18 stealth bomber and by its shape should be able to achieve supersonic speed would likely be come after the H-20.  See link below for H-20 stealth bomber.

H-20 Strategic Stealth Bomber: Details

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Su-30SM Flanker crashed into the Med Sea after take off

Su-30SM Flanker

Russian Su-30SM Crashes In Syria. Both Pilots Dead.

A Su-30SM Flanker has crashed into the Med Sea shortly after taking off from Hmeymim airfield.

On May 3, 2018, at 06:45 GMT, a Russian Su-30SM belonging to the contingent deployed to Latakia, in northwestern Syria, crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from Hmeymim airfield. Both aboard the Flanker-derivative 4++ Gen aircraft were killed in the accident.

The Russian MoD said “a bird strike may have caused the crash”. According to journalist Babak Taghvaee, local witnesses said the aircraft was one of 43rd OMShAP examples (hence belonging to the Russian Naval Aviation) recently deployed to Syria to protect Russia Navy assets in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

A Syrian journalist also snapped some shots of the aircraft impacting the sea:

Previously, on Mar. 6, 2018 a Russian Antonov An-26 (NATO reporting name “Curl”) crashed near Hmeymim Air Base in Syria; 33 people died in the accident.

Source: theaviationist.com

fall of a #Russian plane in the sea off the port city of #Jabla in #Syria MOHAMMED GHORAB

Su-30SM/Su-30SM1: Details

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Reports indicate Israeli F-15s carried out attack on Syrian Base Storing Iranian Anti-Aircraft Missiles

Ofer ZidonFlash90

Israeli F-15s Hit Syrian Base Storing Iranian Anti-Aircraft Missiles - Reports


Arms depots in the vicinity of the Syrian cities of Hama and Aleppo were attacked in the early hours of Monday with "hostile rockets," a Syrian military source told Sputnik. The Israeli military has declined to comment on the strikes.

Three US officials told NBC News on condition of anonymity that Israeli F-15 jets attacked the military facilities after Iran had transported its weapons there. According to them, Tehran had been delivering weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, small arms and anti-aircraft missiles for two weeks. 

Two officials alleged that the weapons were delivered to Syria for Iranian ground forces for a subsequent attack against Israel. 

The media outlet earlier reported that Syria's 47th Brigade base in Hama district, a military facility in northwestern Hama and a facility north of Aleppo International Airport were targeted in the strikes. Local media outlets reported that 26 Shiite fighters under the leadership of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had been killed in the airstrikes.

The Israeli Defense Force has refused to comment on the issue; the Syrian government has also fallen short of commenting on the attacks.

Israel has attacked military facilities in Syria dozens of times, explaining its actions by the need to prevent sophisticated weapons from falling into the hands of groups that Israel deems hostile, including the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.

Source: sputniknews.com

F-15E / Advanced F-15 (2040c): Details

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Tough bargain may halt Rs 2,000 crore IAF deal of 20 Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer planes

A defence deal expected to cost over Rs 2,000 crore to buy 20 Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer planes is likely to be called off by the Air Force as the negotiations for it have been stuck for almost three years now over steep price hike by the vendors.

The Air Force is also not interested in the upgrade of its fleet of over 120 Hawk planes that were inducted into service after a deal with Britain in 2004. The HAL is offering to upgrade the Hawk fleet of the Air Force to Hawk India jets by adding combat capabilities, government sources told Mail Today.

"The benchmark price of each aircraft was around Rs 90 crore but the initial price offered by the vendors including the public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was more than double," the sources said.

"In the contract negotiations, the vendors have cut down the price but even now, the price offered is more than 60 per cent of what the defence ministry is willing to pay for the planes," they said.

Another reason over which the deal may be called off is that due to government's directive for utilising the funds optimally, the priority of the ministry is to buy more of war fighting equipment rather than go in for systems that do not fit that bill, the sources said.

On the newly-developed Hawk India jet showcased by HAL recently, sources said there was not much logic in going in for upgrade of IAF fleet of Hawk planes which have been inducted not long back. "The last of the Hawks were inducted only around three years ago in the force and the upgrades are not required at this moment," the sources said.

The IAF had moved the proposal to buy these 20 planes from a British firm during the UPA regime as it wanted to replace the Kiran Mk 2 planes with the Hawk Advanced Jet Training jets to be equipped with smoking pots to fly with the Surya Kiran Aerobatic Team (SKAT).

The contract for the last batch of 57 planes was done between India and the British firm in 2010 to help in the training programmes of the Air Force and the Navy to add to the existing fleet of 66 planes bought in 2004.

The deal for the 20 airplanes has gone through many problems earlier also as the file related to the procurement case had mysteriously gone missing from a department under the defence ministry in 2014 leading to a delay of more than a year in completing the lapsed process.

Advanced Hawk: Details

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