Screenshot from a Baykar video showing the Turkish LHD   Anadolu  with its intended Bayraktar TB3 and Bayraktar Kızılelma unmanned aircraft wing.  (Baykar)    Turkey has showcased the mainly unmanned air wing that will operate from its newly inducted TCG   Anadolu  (L 400), displaying the two unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) types it intends to fly from the ‘aircraft carrier'.   The commissioning ceremony for the landing helicopter dock (LHD) held on 10 April at Sedef Shipyard in Tuzla, I...

Soldiers from the 1st Battalion Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment receiving training from a DefendTex instructor on the Drone40 system in February. The training took place at the Linton Military Camp in the North Island of New Zealand. (New Zealand Defence Force)  The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) is conducting its first experimentation with loitering munitions to keep pace with the changing nature of warfare.  Speaking to Janes in April, Hayden Robinson, the joint experimentation manager for the New Zealand Army, said the NZDF will use...

Indonesia has resumed cost-sharing payments for its involvement in the KAI KF-21 fighter aircraft programme. (DAPA)  The South Korean government has confirmed that it will transfer a Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) KF-21 Boramae fighter aircraft prototype to Indonesia, provided Jakarta fulfils its financial obligations to the project.  Speaking to Janes, South Korea's Defense Acquisition Programme Administration (DAPA) said that the single-seat “KF-21 prototype no 5 will be transferred to Indonesia” as part of the joint engineering and manuf...

The PLA's three days of wargaming around Taiwan were intended to display China's ability to encircle Taiwan with major military units. The exercise also allowed the PLA to test its ability to rapidly array land, sea, and air units from multiple theatres against Taiwan. (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense/Japan Ministry of Defense/Janes)  China has concluded three days of wargames around Taiwan by flying a large number of aircraft over the median line and using carrier-borne fighters to practice strikes from the Pacific Ocean.  Organised by t...

The Meraj-532 one-way-attack UAV shown on a launch vehicle. (Tasnim News Agency)  Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) has developed a new type of one-way-attack unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) called the Meraj-532, the Tasnim News Agency reported on 9 April.  It cited General Ali Kouhestani, the head of the IRGC Ground Force's Research and Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organisation, as saying the Meraj-532 ‘suicide drone' had been successfully tested. He said the UAV has been designed so it can be rapidly set up for launch from a vehicle and...

The test launch of an InfraRed Imaging System-Tail control missile from a KF-21 fighter aircraft on 4 April suggests that South Korea is moving to acquire quantities of this advanced short-range missile. (Diehl Defence GmbH & Co KG)  Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) has successfully test-fired an AIM-2000 InfraRed Imaging System-Tail control (IRIS-T) missile from its KF-21 fighter aircraft for the first time.  The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) announced this maiden launch of the IRIS-T missile from the KF-21 in a video on...

An artist's rendering of a B-52 carrying Lockheed Martin's AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon. (Lockheed Martin)  The US Air Force (USAF) will likely end its efforts to operationalise the Lockheed Martin AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) following a 13 March test failure. Although the test failure marks the first of the all-up round, three component flight test failures in 2021 led to speculation about the programme's future.  The USAF said on 24 March that the test launch “met several objectives,” but provided no fu...

An F-35C Lightning II test aircraft conducts the first separation of an AGM-154C variant Joint Standoff Weapon from an F-35. (US Navy)  The F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) in conjunction with prime contractor Lockheed Martin is exploring methods to accelerate the process of certifying and integrating new weapons and systems into the advanced jet fighter.  JPO officials are weighing alternatives, from modernising current weapon test plans to issuing rapidly integrated clearances or interim clearances for weapon systems, to dramatically ramp up...

A Taiwanese Mirage 2000 fighter jet lands at an air force base in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on 9 April 2023 as China was conducting a second day of military drills near the country. (Jameson Wu/AFP via Getty Images)  The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has deployed several aircraft and vessels either near or across the median line in the Taiwan Strait in the wake of a meeting between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.  The deployments are part of military drills and “combat readiness patrols” known as Ex...

A computer-generated image of Sikorsky-Boeing's Defiant X. (Sikorsky-Boeing)  The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has denied a Sikorsky-Boeing team's protest to overturn the US Army's Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) decision, which awarded to Bell Helicopter a USD7.1 billion contract to replace the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk as the service's mainstay helicopter.  Sikorsky and Boeing submitted the team's Defiant X for the contract, featuring co-axial rotor blades and a pusher propeller, but the army in 2022 announced its pr...

An AARGM-ER is fired from a US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet during a test. (US Navy)  The US Navy (USN) and Northrop Grumman are negotiating the third low-rate initial production (LRIP) contract for the air-launched AGM-88G Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile-Extended Range (AARGM-ER), according to a service official.  The USN awarded contracts to Northrop Grumman for the first two LRIP lots in September 2021 and December 2021, respectively. A total of four LRIP lots are planned. The USN expects to award the first full-rate production contract...

An EA-18G Growler from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23, located at NAS Patuxent River, conducts a flight test over southern Maryland. (US Navy)  The US Navy (USN) is moving ahead with the development of a new electronic attack (EA) capability to address shortfalls in fleet-wide requirements for airborne signal jamming operations across specific radio frequency (RF) bands.  Navy officials have selected CAES, a Northern Virginia-based company specialising in advanced RF technologies, to carry out the development work for the initial, pre-p...

The US Navy's TH-73A Thrasher training helicopter. (US Navy)  Leonardo has delivered almost a third of the TH-73A Thrasher training helicopters that the US Navy plans to buy, according to an official at the Italy-based defence and aerospace company.  Leonardo is building three or four TH-73As a month in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the US, and delivered the 41st on 4 April, said Jeffrey Ketcham, director of navy programmes for Leonardo Helicopters. The navy intends to buy 130 Thrashers, with deliveries expected to end in 2025.  According to...

The JGSDF operated a relatively small force of 40 UH-60JA helicopters. The crash of a UH-60JA off Miyakojima on 6 April is the first recorded by the army. (Japan Ground Self-Defense Force)  A Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) helicopter has crashed north of Miyako Island while conducting a patrol.  In a press conference in Tokyo on 6 April, General Yasunori Morishita, chief of staff of the JGSDF, said that the Sikorsky (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries) UH-60JA Black Hawk vanished from radar screens on Thursday afternoon. Gen Morishita said...

Initial production units of China's fifth-generation fighter aircraft, the CAC J-20, are powered by the Russian-origin Saturn AL-31FN engines. However, from 2022, reports indicated that the Shenyang WS-10 Taihang turbofan engine is also being installed in the J-20s as an interim powerplant. The WS-15 is intended to replace both of these engines in the J-20. (Janes)  An official of China's Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC) has said that the country's Shenyang WS-15 engine for fighter aircraft is ready for mass production.  Speaking durin...

Japan's new OSA scheme will provide funding for allied countries to procure defence equipment such as radars, transport aircraft, and surveillance ships. Pictured above is Japan's third Hibiki-class ocean surveillance ship on its commissioning in March 2021. (Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force)  Japan has said it will launch a new credit facility to support defence exports. The Official Security Assistance (OSA) scheme – the first of its kind in Japan – will be aligned with the country's national security interests, the Ministry of Foreign...

Textron Aviation will provide a modified version of its Beechcraft King Air 260 for the US Navy's T-54A Multi-Engine Training System aircraft. (Textron Aviation)  US-based Textron is on track to begin delivering the new T-54A Multi-Engine Training System (METS) aircraft to the US Navy in early 2024, according to company programme manager Chad Hines.    Textron hosted a post-contract award conference with the navy in early March and is in the “final stages of production planning”, Hines told   Janes   on 5 April at the Navy Leag...

Four F-35Cs (F-35C / F-35) performed a flyby as they arrived at NAS Lemoore marking their historic arrival to join VFA-125 at the US Navy base. (Lockheed Martin)  BAE Systems has been awarded a USD491 million production deal to build the newest electronic warfare (EW) system variant for the F-35 Lighting II fighter, according to a company statement.  The Block 4 variant of the AN/ASQ-239 EW system for the F-35 “will include significantly upgraded hardware and software that improve sensing and signal-processing capabilities”, company officials...

The second KAI KF-21 fighter aircraft prototype launches a mid-range Meteor air-to-air missile during the aircraft's armament testing flight on 28 March 2023. (DAPA)  In a span of six weeks, the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) KF-21 aircraft programme has progressed from adding a new twin-seat prototype for flight-testing to initiating weapons launching trials using earlier prototypes.  Since the KF-21's first flight in July 2022, four prototypes have conducted more than 150 flight tests, South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administrat...

The RNLAF F-35s will be equipped with JASSM systems to enhance their long-range strike capabilities, pending US government approval. (Janes/Patrick Allen)  The Netherlands Ministry of Defence (MoD) has requested to purchase the Lockheed Martin Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range (JASSM-ER) system for its F-35 fleet, the authority announced on 3 April.  The procurement is intended to bolster the Netherlands' long-range strike capabilities, and if approved by the US government, would meet a requirement detailed in the 2022 Defe...