WASHINGTON [updated Friday 3:30 pm to add details from the Air Force statement and comment from Hawker Beechcraft CEO]: The Texan II is back in the saddle again. Next week, on Tuesday the 17th, the US Air Force will meet with both Hawker Beechcraft, which makes the AT-6 Texan II attack plane, and rival Sierra… Keep reading →

It’s Texan versus Tucano, take two, and the embarrassed Air Force has got to get it right this time. With all the claims, counter-claims, and rumors swirling about the controversial contract to buy the Embraer Super Tucano, which the Air Force cancelled unexpectedly on Tuesday and will likely re-compete, Breaking Defense went both to the… Keep reading →

PENTAGON: One of the longest-running debates between the Air Force and the Army centers on close air support. Historically, the Air Force hates supplying CAS and doesn’t like buying or maintaining the planes that do it. But the white scarf boys wouldn’t let the Army do the job either, since it involved fixed-wing aircraft and… Keep reading →

If you thought the Republican primaries had turned ugly, wait till you see what it takes to win an Air Force contract nowadays. The feud between Hawker Beechcraft and Sierra Nevada Corporation over the Light Air Support contract has escalated from the usual appeals to the GAO up to a lawsuit, a freeze on the… Keep reading →

UPDATED WASHINGTON: It’s been a good couple of weeks for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s international program. Turkish military officials this week approved a deal with JSF prime contractor Lockheed Martin to buy two new A-model F-35s, according to recent news reports.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed off on the deal late yesterday. Deliveries… Keep reading →

Japan, one of America’s staunchest allies, is expected to announce late next week that it will buy an initial squadron of Joint Strike Fighters, the beginning of what should be a purchase of perhaps 100 aircraft. The initial order’s price tag is pegged at something like $8 billion. Apparently, a senior Japanese defense official leaked… Keep reading →

President Obama’s visit to Darwin, a port city, in Australia’s Northern Territories, celebrates 60 years of the ANZUS Treaty, centerpiece of one of the closest defense relationships on the planet. Darwin is also the home of a forward Royal Australian Air Force base and other military facilities. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the president… Keep reading →

Washington: Norway is threatening to delay its buy of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters if DoD decides not to support a new missile system built by one of the country’s top defense firms. Norwegian defense giant Kongsberg is pressuring the Pentagon to integrate its Joint Strike Missile for use on the F-35, indicating that Norway is… Keep reading →

Washington: Sometimes events are, in and of themselves, news. So it was today when the Joint Strike Fighter program working with the Marines, flew the F-35B for the first time in front of a carefully selected portion of the defense press corps. For more news and information on the swiftly-changing defense industry, please sign up… Keep reading →

While it didn’t take off from a pitching and rolling carrier deck, the F-35C flown today by Navy test pilot Lt. Christopher Tabert did undergo most of the stresses and strains associated with a carrier launch when a steam catapult launched it into the sky today for the first time. For more news and information… Keep reading →