A total of 168 KC-46A tankers are on contract around the world with the latest order for the aircraft worth $2.38 billion. The order for the P-8A worth $1.6 billion brings the number of aircraft on contract to 207, of which 135 have been ordered by eight other countries.
F-35C fighters from the U.S. Marine Corps’ VMFA 314 squadron aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln conducted multiple strikes on Houthi weapons storage facilities in Yemen. The F-35C stealth fighter model has longer, folding wings and, like the F/A-18, is designed to be launched from the catapults of aircraft carriers, allowing it to carry heavier payloads than the F-35B.
Australia announced a $4.7 billion purchase of Raytheon SM-2 and SM-6 missiles and Taiwan is likely to buy three Raytheon NASAMS medium-range air defence systems in a $2 billion sale.
Swarm drones across domains hosted by motherships will be the future of naval operations according to a top official of Russia’s Rubin Design Bureau, which unveiled new uncrewed submersible concepts at the Army 2024 defence exhibition in Moscow in August.
Boeing issued a ‘global No Technical Objection (NTO)’ confirming there are no technical issues to any Boeing-built defence aircraft and derivatives operating on synthetic aviation turbine fuels at the maximum allowable limit of a 50-50 blend with conventional fossil fuels.
With the selection of the Rafale Marine by the Indian Navy, here’s a look at how it happened, and the challenges and consequences ahead.
Between the navy’s own maintenance facilities at INS Rajali and MRO contractors, Air Works and AIES, India’s P-8I aircraft can now be fully sustained with complete maintenance cycles without having to leave the country.
Boeing has announced the end of production for the U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters in 2025. With no scope for early Rafale M deliveries, here’s how this could become an opportunity for the Indian Navy to get all 26 of its new Multi-Role Carrier-Borne Fighters by the end of 2026.
The acquisition of the S-400, differing points of view on the war in Ukraine, eye-watering costs, a domestic 5th gen fighter program and never having operated any U.S. fighter aircraft are some of the reasons why India can’t and shouldn’t consider the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.
Boeing confirmed last week that it would offer Conformal Fuel Tanks (CFTs) on the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter to international customers even though the U.S. Navy has declined the option for their order of the aircraft.
Admiral Gilday will also embark the U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Group led by USS Carl Vinson in the Bay of Bengal as the second phase of the four-navy Exercise Malabar takes place this week.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is on a visit to Ladakh a day after India’s foreign ministry categorically said no territory had been ceded in the region. The fire onboard the U.S. Navy’s amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard at San Diego Naval Base has finally been put out, Japan has inducted it’s first Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft and Saudi Arabia has announced a new defence exhibition.
Indian armed forces personnel with less than the qualifying 10 years of service are now eligible for invalid pension, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has delegated powers for urgent purchases of upto INR 300 crore or USD 40 million to the armed forces to meet their emergent operational requirements, U.S. Navy continued firefighting efforts onboard the USS Bonhomme Richard light aircraft carrier for the fourth day, Japan has announced it will operate the Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing F-35B from the helicopter destroyer JS Izumo and former Afghan vice president and ethnic Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum has been promoted to the highest military rank of marshal by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
Japan has asked for 63 conventional F-35A & 42 F-35B Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing aircraft, and also plans to build its own stealth fighter by 2031.
Troop withdrawals have been reported in the Ladakh region that might be the beginning of a reduction in tensions between India and China and two US aircraft carrier battle groups decided to go exercise their freedom of navigation in the South China Sea over the weekend.
