Western powers increasingly characterize Iran as a potential cause for instability in the Middle East. The U.S. and its allies charge Tehran with funding and supporting the insurgency in Iraq, maintaining a well-developed ballistic missile program and seeking its own nuclear arsenal.
Defense
News and issues relating to the defense aerospace business, with emphasis on current/in-use, in-development and prospective programs for manned military aircraft, unmanned combat aircraft vehicles (UCAVs), military aircraft engines, avionics, missiles, bombs, guidance systems and ground-based air-defense systems.
December 6, 2006 - 1:59pm
Iranian companies have accumulated considerable experience in the development and production of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) since the country imported its first one in 1979.
Having since placed an indigenous design into service in 1986 and supplied a number of units to the Iranian military, the country’s industry now looks ready to start exporting them.
December 6, 2006 - 1:57pm
Planners at the U.S. Central Air Forces Command have begun conducting an assessment of equipment requirements to boost the Iraqi air force’s counterinsurgency and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance capability. One option under consideration could involve light attack aircraft such as the Raytheon T-6A/B Texan II turboprop single.
December 6, 2006 - 1:40pm
Recently retired U.S. Air Force chief of staff Gen. John Jumper has just lived through a tumultuous tour of duty. Little did he know where the job might take him on his first day in office, which was more than a little disrupted by the events that morning. The date was Sept. 11, 2001.
December 6, 2006 - 1:38pm
A complex chain of illegal sales, technology proliferation and cooperation between countries the Bush Administration regards as rogue states has produced what some fear may have increased the threat to naval vessels operating in the Arabian Gulf.
December 6, 2006 - 1:30pm
Seabird Aviation Jordan (SAJ) plans to place the two-seat, Lycoming O-360-B2L-powered Seeker SB7L-360A aerial surveillance platform into serial production next year. Designed in Australia and assembled in Amman, Jordan, the Seeker on exhibit here at the Dubai drew a purchase order from the Iraqi Coalition Provisional Authority last year. It also recently has undergone an assessment by the U.S. military and government.
December 6, 2006 - 12:56pm
This past March the White House authorized the sale of F-16s to Pakistan, a move that ends a 1990-imposed embargo on sales of military aircraft and spares to Islamabad. Pakistan reportedly wants initially to buy 24 aircraft, but the Bush Administration has not placed any limits on the total number of aircraft that the Pakistanis could purchase over the next several years.
December 6, 2006 - 12:55pm
Almost four years ago the Indian parliament’s defense standing committee leveled a number of major criticisms at the nation’s defense procurement process.
December 6, 2006 - 12:48pm
The combat potential of Sukhoi fighters will get a boost with the addition of new Russian precision-guided munitions (PGMs) such as the Region company’s LGB-250 (250-kg caliber lightweight guided bomb) and UPAB-1500 (1,500-kg caliber guided glide aviation bomb) and the Kh-59MK from the Tactical Missile Corp. (TMC).
December 6, 2006 - 12:46pm
In past decades better and more accurate weapons served as the generally accepted solution to increasing the effectiveness of an attack aircraft. More recently electro-optical (EO) targeting systems have made those weapons all the more lethal.
