Thursday, January 21, 2016

Stealth Saga #23

KF-X:

South Korea's KF-X project for a indigenous stealth fighter has kicked into gear.

PAK-FA:

Russia has learned stealth aircraft are hard and expensive, as witnessed by the buy of new Su-35s and cutting back the planned buy of the Sukhoi Pak-FA.

MiG-31 Replacement:

The replacement program has been delayed until at least 2020.

Budget:

The US Air Force is facing a budget problem with the F-35, Long Range Strike Bomber and new tanker.

Sixth Generation Fighter:

Boeing's defense unit is under enormous pressure to win a contract, one of which is the 6th gen fighter.

Long Range Strike Bomber:

The acquisition of the long range strike bomber gets profiled and the method of acquisition discussed.  We're likely to see this methodology repeated, including on the 6th generation fighter.  What is not generally acknowledged is there were two prototypes built and tested for the LRSB program.

The Economist talks about Obama's plan to replace the American nuclear arsenal, of which the LRSB is part.

F-22:

The US Air Force is squelching the idea of restarting F-22 production.

Here's more on the first combat seen by an F-22.

Eight F-22s have been deployed to Japan.

F-35:

The US DOD has stated the fix will come later this year for the ejection seat problem despite media reports.

The Pentagon and P&W announced an agreement for the next engine buy for the F-35.

The first combat coded F-35A has to start dropping bombs in tests. 

 The Storm Shadow missile will not be integrated with Britain's F-35Bs.

Chinese soldiers have been linked to the hack going after F-35 technical information.

Norway is facing a dual crunch of a weak currency and low oil prices when it comes to buying the F-35.

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