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US pressures IAI to drop bid on fighter jets to India By YAAKOV KATZ Under pressure from the Pentagon, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has been forced to back out of a joint partnership with a Swedish aerospace company to compete in a multi-billion dollar tender to sell new multi-role fighter jets to the Indian Air Force. The deal, estimated at a whopping $12 billion for over 120 new aircraft, is being fought over by Lockheed Martin's F-16, Boeing's F-18/Hornet, Russia's MiG-35 and BAE's Eurofighter. IAI was asked by Saab, manufacturer of the Gripen fighter jet, to jointly develop an advanced...

WASHINGTON, July 2, 2009 – A giant, unmanned airship capable of hovering at about 70,000 feet promises to give future warfighters an unprecedented eye on the battlefield. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Integrated Sensor is Structure program, ISIS for short, will provide a detailed, real-time picture of all movement on or above the battlefield. Defense DoD graphic courtesy of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Integrated Sensor is Structure program, ISIS for short, will provide a detailed, real-time picture of all movement on or above the battlefield, explained...

Airbus is expected to face calls to ground its worldwide fleet of long-range airliners tomorrow when French accident investigators issue their first account of what caused Air France Flight 447 to crash off Brazil on June 1. It is believed that the accident bureau will report that stormy weather was a factor but faulty speed data and electronics were the main problem in the disaster that killed 228 people. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is likely to be asked why it had never taken action to remedy trouble that was well known with the Airbus 330 and 340...

Meet the "wonder weapon" that could have won the war for Hitler. Called the Horten 229, the radical "flying wing" fighter-bomber looked and acted a lot like the U.S. Air Force's current B-2 — right down to the "stealth" radar-evading characteristics. Fortunately for the world, the Ho 229 wasn't put into mass production before Nazi Germany surrendered in May 1945. But American researchers boxed up and shipped home the prototypes and partially-built planes that existed — and now the same company that builds the B-2 has rebuilt one.

Pakistan begins domestic final assembly of JF-17 By Siva Govindasamy Pakistan has begun the final assembly of the first Chengdu Aircraft/Pakistan Aeronautical Complex JF-17 fighter to be produced in the country, and aims to have the first flight by end-2009. Islamabad collaborated with China in the design and development, and received its first two JF-17s in March 2007. It has since taken delivery of around a dozen JF-17s, which China has designated as the FC-1, says the Pakistani air force. While PAC had work-share in the earlier examples and tried some limited assembly at its facilities in Kamra, Chengdu Aircraft...

The breaking of the sound barrier is not just an audible phenomenon. As a new picture from the U.S. military shows, Mach 1 can be quite visual. This widely circulated new photo shows a Air Force F-22 Raptor aircraft participating in an exercise in the Gulf of Alaska June 22, 2009 as it executes a supersonic flyby over the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis. The visual phenomenon, which sometimes but not always accompanies the breaking of the sound barrier, has also been seen with nuclear blasts and just after space shuttles launches, too. A vapor...

Ex-F-22 engineer to sue Lockheed for stealth design By Stephen Trimble A stealth expert on the F-117 and B-2 programmes intends to file suit against Lockheed Martin later this week for concealing alleged deficiencies with the stealth coatings for the F-22. The pending lawsuit accuses Lockheed of knowingly providing defective coatings used to reduce the aircraft's radar and visual signatures, and covering up the problem by adding 272kg (600lbs) worth of extra layers. The lawsuit comes after the Department of Justice declined an opportunity under the Fair Claims Act to take up the case under seal. Now, Darrol Olsen, who...

Pakistan Updates F-16s, Builds JF-17s Posted by Graham Warwick 6/29/2009 9:52 AM CDT Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI, aka Tusas) says it has finally signed the deal to upgrade Pakistan's F-16A/Bs. The contract, worth around $75 million, is to install Mid Life Update kits and structural modifications in 42 F-16s over 46 months beginning in October 2010 - about two years later than originally planned. Pakistan is also to receive 18 new F-16C/Ds beginning in 2010. JF-17s (Photo via Wikipedia) The chief of Pakistan's air force, meanwhile, says production of the JF-17 lightweight fighter codeveloped with China will begin at the...

ON TV Hitler's Stealth Fighter airs Sunday, June 28, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel. Preview Hitler's Stealth Fighter >> July 25, 2009--At a Northrop Grumman facility in California, top stealth-plane experts admire their handiwork in late 2008—a full-size, though flightless, replica of a Horten 2-29, aka Hitler's stealth fighter, created for a documentary airing June 28 on the National Geographic Channel. (Read the full story.) The team tested the re-created Nazi jet against World War II-style radar. With its radar-resistant design and 600-mile-an-hour (970-kilometer-an-hour) speed, the team concluded, the Ho 2-29 would have allowed British antiaircraft...

ON TV Hitler's Stealth Fighter airs Sunday, June 28, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel. About the show >> Top stealth-plane experts have re-created a radical, nearly forgotten Nazi aircraft: the Horten 2-29, a retro-futuristic fighter that arrived too late in World War II to make it into mass production. (See Hitler's stealth fighter in pictures.) The engineers' goal was to determine whether the so-called stealth fighter was truly radar resistant. In the process, they've uncovered new clues to just how close Nazi engineers were to unleashing a jet that some say could have changed the course...

Surprising to most, the U.S. military's space-age B-2 Spirit was not the world's first stealth bomber. That honor belongs to the Horton 2-29, an experimental jet created by Nazi Germany at the tail end of World War II. However, because it was never in wide use during the conflict, the 2-29's stealth capabilities were never given much of a test. That is, until now.Researchers hired by National Geographic studied the last remaining 2-29 in existence -- locked away in a U.S. government hangar -- and built a replica. They then tested the plane's resistance to the kinds of radar active...

letter from Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, to Japan's ambassador in Washington lists an estimated average unit cost of $290 million per aircraft for a theoretical export sale of 40 F-22 Raptors. Both Inouye and Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, and other lawmakers in both chambers are pushing both in public and behind the scenes to allow export of the stealthy, fifth-generation fighter. But a White House veto threat and persistent opposition from Pentagon leadership - as well as tenuous congressional support - are ratcheting up budget-making tension in...

India - Last Chance for Super Viper Posted by Graham Warwick at 6/23/2009 3:17 PM CDT I'll be delighted to be proved wrong, but I can't see Lockheed Martin's F-16IN as the front runner in India's 126-aircraft fighter competition, even if it has been rechristened the "Super Viper" (farewell, belatedly, to the unloved Fighting Falcon moniker). Artwork: Lockheed Martin Maybe I am being ageist. I became an aviation journalist in August 1978, the same month and year that the F-16 entered service. And that seems a long time ago to me. But I'm still writing and Lockheed is still building...

Congressional computers have been penetrated, probably by the Chinese. The avionics system of the F-22 fighter may be compromised. Computers of our presidential candidates were hacked into -- and probably not by teenagers...Last year's advance of Russian tanks into Georgia was accompanied by the disruption of Georgian government computer systems. ...Attacks on computer systems will be an integral element of future conflict, and the United States is more dependent on computer networks than any other nation. ...policymakers and the military are in the early stages of coming to grips with this. We need to take some important first steps to...

The F-22 Raptor, the most advanced fighter jet in the world, is in a dogfight with a tough adversary: Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). Frank, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, said Tuesday he is “vigorously” opposed to Lockheed Martin’s F-22 fighter jet. Frank has called recent congressional efforts to add more money for the production of the F-22 a “major assault” on President Obama’s efforts to control military spending. Frank is intent on striking $369 million authorized for the procurement of advance materials and items necessary to build 12 additional F-22s. House defense authorizers, in a surprising move, last...

Before the markets opened Tuesday morning, Boeing issued a shock announcement that the first flight of the 787 Dreamliner has been postponed again. The company cited a structural defect prompting "a need to reinforce an area within the side-of-body section of the aircraft." Though Boeing chief executive Scott Carson is quoted in the statement saying that "structural modifications like these are not uncommon in the development of new airplanes," the issue appears serious. Adding to the impact of the delay is uncertainty: Boeing said it will be "several weeks" before it will even come up with a new schedule.

The first Chinese-assembled A320 is set for delivery, symbolizing the importance of future demand in Asia. PARIS -- Will emerging markets make or break the aerospace industry? Though the airline industry is suffering across the world, executives from Boeing and Airbus talked up the prospect of future demand from China as one bright spot at this month’s Paris Air Show. And on Tuesday, Airbus will deliver its first China-assembled A320, part of a joint venture that could help the plane-maker take more market share from its American arch-rival. The Airbus A320, which was assembled at a plant in Tianjin that...

Defense: By a narrow margin, a House subcommittee has voted to keep open the F-22 Raptor production line. The future of American air dominance and the fate of the world's most capable fighter hang in the balance.On May 30, with North Korea huffing and puffing about nuclear war, the first of 12 high-tech U.S. F-22 Raptor fighter jets landed at Kadena Air Base on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. It was just days after North Korea unnerved the region by detonating a nuclear device. There were reasons the F-22 was deployed to Japan. The stealthy, radar-evading fighter jet is...

PICTURE: IAI delivers Colombia's first upgraded Kfir fighter By Arie Egozi Israel Aerospace Industries has delivered the first upgraded Kfir fighters to the Colombian air force. The company was contracted in late 2007 to modernise 12 Kfirs from Colombia's air force inventory, and to provide several additional examples that had been stored at Israeli bases since the locally built type was phased out of service. Upgrade activities include equipping the aircraft with new avionics, an EL/M-2032 fire control radar from IAI subsidiary Elta Systems, and a new electronic warfare suite. The modified aircraft will be designated as Kfir C-10s or...

First Rafale Export Sale Advances as UAE Detail Specifications (Updated) (Source: defense-aerospace.com; published June 19, updated June 20, 2009) PARIS --- Negotiations for the sale to the United Arab Emirates of 60 Dassault Aviation Rafale combat aircraft passed a major milestone today, as the U.A.E. government submitted its specifications to France. This will allow detailed contract negotiations to begin on prices and delivery dates, possibly leading to contract signature by year-end. This government-to-government deal is valued at 6 to 8 billion euros, depending on the exact content of the weapons, support and spares package included in the contract. Long-running talks...

Shenyang, China (AHN) - The world's first plane powered solely by sunlight will fly around the world in 2011 as part of a project to promote the use of sustainable and clean energy, according to a sponsor of the aircraft. The Solar Impulse will fly for 30 days and land once on each continent, Jean Cai, vice president of Deutsche Bank (China) Co., Ltd., told Xinhuanet.com. The bank is one of the sponsors of a project to develop the plane. "The solar plane project is aimed at promoting sustainable energy in the world and the potential and future of clean...

Panel to suggest powerful engine for Jaguar Ravi Sharma Honeywell offers F125N, a 43.8-kilo Newton thrust engine Rolls Royce proposes its Adour Mk821 turbofan -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BANGALORE: The Indian Air Force has set up a committee to indicate which new engine will be suited to power India’s frontline but overweight and underpowered Jaguar tactical light strike fighter. The new, lighter, high performance engine will allow the IAF to improve the Jaguar’s mission performance, especially in medium and high level sortie profiles, undertake missions which are not possible with the existing engine, reduce pilot workload and cut maintenance cost. Headed by K.V.L....

Air France Airbus jets experienced at least nine incidents in which airspeed probes iced over in the past year, according to an internal company report obtained by AFP Friday. A probe into the June 1 crash of AF 447, in which an A330 jet flying from Rio to Paris plunged into the Atlantic with the loss of all 228 people on board, has focused on contradictory readings from its "pitot" speed probes. The probes, made by aerospace company Thales, were found to be faulty on flight AF 447. But French aviation investigators have played down the significance of the discovery...

June 21, 2009 Eurofighter guns for £10bn Indian deal BAE Systems is preparing for a dogfight that could result in it landing an order for 130 modern fighter jets for India Dominic O'Connell The fortunes of Eurofighter, the much-criticised European combat aircraft, could improve sharply next month when it stakes a claim for a multi-billion-pound contract in India. India wants to buy more than 130 modern fighters, making the contract one of the largest international arms deals in recent years. Analysts say that with ongoing support deals, it could be worth more than £10 billion. If Eurofighter wins, it would...

Taiwan to build 3rd-generation warplane with Russia's help Europe News Jun 19, 2009, 1:44 GMT Taipei - Taiwan plans to build its third-generation warplane with Russian technology as the United States has refused to sell Taiwan F-16C/Ds, a newspaper reported Friday. The Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC), which sent personnel to Russia for instruction from Russian experts, has finished designing the third-generation warplane, the China Times quoted an unnamed military official as saying. The as-yet-unnamed third-generation warplane will have twin engines and be able to take off and land with a short airstrip, the official said. During the design process,...

"A House committee threw a wrench in the Obama administration's plans to end Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-22 Raptor fighter program, voting instead to add $369 million in extra funding to keep production of the Air Force's most advanced jet alive." "Mr. Gates thinks the Air Force only needs 187 of the F-22 fighters. The White House didn't budget for additional planes beyond that level in its proposed 2010 Defense Department budget, which is currently being reviewed by Congress. "Everybody knows where the Secretary and the President stand on the F-22," said Geoff Morrell, a spokesman for Mr. Gates. But in...

Saudi weighs Eurofighter, F-15 for new jet deal Reuters, Thursday June 18 2009 * Saudi Arabia steps up efforts to renew combat jet fleet * Saudi Arabia may double Eurofighter purchase - sources * Talks held with Boeing over more F-15s - sources By Tim Hepher and Andrea Shalal-Esa PARIS, June 18 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia is stepping up efforts to acquire advanced fighter jets to renew its combat fleet amid growing security concerns in the Gulf region over Iran, two sources following the matter said on Thursday. Riyadh is in talks with Britain over possibly doubling a recent purchase...

Autopsies have revealed fractures in the legs, hips and arms of Air France disaster victims, injuries that — coupled with the large pieces of wreckage pulled from the Atlantic — strongly suggest the plane broke up in the air, experts said Wednesday. With more than 400 bits of debris recovered from the ocean's surface, the top French investigator expressed optimism about discovering what brought down Flight 447, but he also called the conditions — far from land in very deep waters — "one of the worst situations ever known in an accident investigation." French investigators are beginning to form "an...

Some details of a US carrier running one of the crash cause scenarios through its Airbus A330 flight simulators are being circulated on several private airline forums and on the public Pprune or Professional Pilots Rumour network. It has been a long standing habit of airlines with a serious interest in flight standards to do flight simulations based on probable causes or using factual data as it comes to hand. This is what happening in what is believed to have been a US flight simulator. Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, The scenario was conducted several times and the results at the...

The House Armed Services Air and Land Forces Sub-committee has delivered a blow to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) business plan. The committee has also saved the Navy from itself by pushing for a multi-year Super Hornet buy. The House proposes that 28 and not 30 F-35s be acquired for the 2010 budget. The Marines and Air Force will each lose one. That is only 9 now for the USAF if the House has their way. Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), the chairman of the panel stated, “Overall, 28 aircraft is still twice the number of aircraft approved last year”....

June 12, 2009: After three years of effort, the U.S. Air Force has developed a new bomb rack for the B-2 bomber, so it can drop the new, 13.6 (30,000 pound) Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP). Six years ago, MOP replaced the proposed nuclear bomb penetrator.

BRIDGETON — For decades, they roared across the St. Louis sky, inspiring awe and, on occasion, rattling windows. But come Sunday, the last Air National Guard fighter jets stationed at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport are scheduled to make their final departure, the result of a 2005 plan that called for the twin-tailed F-15 Eagles to be redeployed to guard units in Hawaii and Montana. The flights mark the end of an era for St. Louis and the 131st Fighter Wing, a highly-decorated unit that can trace its roots in the city back 86 years and whose members included Charles Lindbergh....

Vietnam fighter jet crashes, pilot killed International AP News 2009-06-10 10:42 HANOI, Vietnam (AP): An official says a Vietnamese fighter jet crashed during a training mission, killing the lone pilot. A district military official who identified himself only as Thanh said the Soviet-made SU-22 crashed into a corn field Tuesday morning in Cam Thuy District in northern Thanh Hoa province after taking off from a nearby military air base. Wednesday's Youth newspaper quotes villager Truong Van Dinh as saying he heard a big explosion before the plane crashed and engulfed in a ball of fire. Several military plane crashes involving...

Britain unlikely to meet Eurofighter commitment - MoD LONDON, June 11 (Reuters) - Britain is unlikely to buy all of the remaining 48 Eurofighter Typhoon jets it has signed up for, a source at the Ministry of Defence confirmed on Thursday. The contract was originally conceived 25 years ago and involves Germany, Spain, Italy and Britain building more than 600 of the high-performance combat jets. Last month, Britain recommitted to the contract, despite cost concerns, but said the final number of aircraft it would buy in the third tranche was still under negotiation [ID:nLE901359]. On Wednesday Germany's Defence Ministry said...

PARIS AIR SHOW: Gripping Gripen By Craig Hoyle Saab is reporting an unprecedented level of interest in its flagship Gripen combat aircraft, despite a high-profile and ongoing spat with the Norwegian defence ministry, which last November rejected its next-generation offering in favour of Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. "We're saturated with opportunities at the moment," says Bob Kemp, senior vice-president sales and marketing for Gripen International. The company fielded five requests for proposals in 2008, plus four requests for information, he says. "As an organisation we're established to handle one RFP and one RFI a year. People were pretty...

United States advanced technology aeroplanes such as spy planes and stealth aircraft have often been mistaken for UFOs, a recent CIA report has suggested. > The report listed six spy aircraft most likely to have been confused as UFOs. These are listed as: the RQ-3 Darkstar; U-2 spy plane; SR-71 Blackbird; P-791; F-117A Nighthawk and the B-2 Spirit. >

BERLIN, June 8 - The US aircraft leasing company ILFC may cancel its orders for 10 Airbus A380 superjumbo jets because clients' interest in the huge plane has waned, its boss said in comments published on Monday. "We are asking ourselves if we are really going to take delivery of the 10 planes" on order, Steven Udvar-Hazy told the the business weekly Wirtschaftswoche in comments published in its online edition. A cancellation would be the first for the A380, the world's largest passenger jet. "We can cancel our order without penalty between January and June 2009, but we might...

Rafale: Combat Veteran Set For Upgrades Jun 8, 2009 Robert Wall/Paris wall@aviationweek.com Michael A. Taverna/Paris mike_taverna@aviationweek.com It has taken France some time to get the Rafale fighter's multi-role capabilities into the field, but with that task now winding up, attention is starting to shift to introduce a far-reaching round of upgrades. Developers are targeting the so-called F3 Plus standard for fielding around 2012. The emphasis is not so much on doing anything new, but on doing everything better. Upgrades are planned for the radar, targeting pod, optical sight system, and electronic warfare suite. The engine, also, is due for improvement,...

Airline Heads Dismiss Pilot Fears Over Airbus A330 Safety; Controversy Hinges On Speed Sensors. Several airline chiefs dismissed safety fears over the Airbus A330 on Tuesday, saying they were confident of the plane's reliability despite last week's Air France jet crash. Emirates airlines President Tim Clark said the Dubai-based company has a fleet of 29 A330-200 planes that have been flying since 1998. Investigators are considering the possibility that the plane's external speed monitors - called Pitot tubes - may have iced over and given dangerously false readings to cockpit computers in a thunderstorm. But some Air France pilots aren't...

As attention shifts to the pitot tubes that provide air-speed data, Airbus designers must be doing a lot of soul searching right now Engineering design decisions are viewed by the unknowing as precise, no-compromise conclusions. If that were so all of us would feel better about our design choices. But in the real world, decisions are always made under the watchful eye of the accountants. So compromises are made and we live with the consequences. Except when people die. Then the binary nature of designing complex devices hits home: good decision, good result. Bad decision, bad result. Maybe really bad....

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: NAS Oceana, Virginia Naval Air Station Oceana or NAS Oceana (IATA: NTU, ICAO: KNTU, FAA LID: NTU) is a military airport located in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and is a United States Navy Master Jet Base. It is also known as Apollo Soucek Field, named after Lieutenant (later Admiral) Apollo Soucek, who was a Navy Test Pilot and world record altitude holder in 1930, having flown a Curtiss "Hawk" biplane to an altitude of 43,166 feet. Home to eighteen strike fighter squadrons of F/A-18 Hornets and F/A-18 Super Hornets, the base is...

RAF chief predicts controversial takeover of Royal Naval air power The head of the RAF, Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy, has sparked a major turf war within the armed forces after questioning the future of the Royal Navy's jet aircraft. By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent Published: 8:30AM BST 07 Jun 2009 The Chief of the Air Staff told The Sunday Telegraph that rationalisation in the armed forces would lead to the RAF running all combat jet operations. The move would effectively neuter the Royal Navy's maritime air force, the Fleet Air Arm, leaving the service with just a small...

PHOTOS: New gunship flies to Paris Air Show debut By Stephen Trimble on June 6, 2009 The Air Tractor AT-802U is now en route from Olney, Texas, to Le Bourget, France, to be unveiled at the Paris Air Show, said Lee Jackson, design engineer. Featuring an armoured fuselage, a 10hr loiter time and the ability to haul more than 8,000lb of payload, unarmed AT-802Us have been operated by the US State Department in South America since 2002 eradicating drug crops, Jackson said. Air Tractor is now offering the weaponized AT-802U Air Truck to the US Air Force and other militaries...

China revives production of JH-7 strike aircraft Monday, June 08, 2009 By Kaleem Omar China is now spending upwards of $ 60 billion a year to modernise its military, with the eventual aim of giving it power-projection capability far beyond its borders. In typical fashion, however, Beijing is not rushing pell mell into this endeavour, but is proceeding with due deliberation one step at a time, so as not to alarm its neighbours. Unlike the United States, China is also not given to throwing its weight about in its dealings with other countries and tends to err, if anything, on...

Cast members promote the upcoming film "Jian Shi Chu Ji" ("J-10's Sortie") in air force uniform at a press conference in Beijing on June 1, 2009. Picture 5: China's homemade J-10 fighter. [sina.com.cn] One year after its world-stunning public debut, China's homemade J-10 fighter jet will make head onto a new battlefield - the silver screen. "Jian Shi Chu Ji" (literally "J-10's Sortie"), a star-studded film depicting the lives of J-10 pilots, began filming on Monday in Beijing. It is scheduled for release this November, exactly one year after the J-10 aircraft wowed international audiences at the 2008 Zhuhai Air...

Gripen revives war of words over Norwegian fighter assessment By Craig Hoyle Saab-led Gripen International has revived its war of words linked to the Norwegian defence ministry's selection of Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and rejection of its Gripen NG offering last November. The move comes as the next-generation version of the Swedish fighter is in the final phase of competitions in Brazil and Switzerland, and as Saab attempts to revive stalled procurement efforts in three eastern European states. Oslo prompted a furious response from Saab chief executive Åke Svensson last year after eliminating the Gripen from its fighter...

Malaysia to phase out troublesome MiG-29 fighters By Siva Govindasamy Malaysia has announced plans to phase out its RSK MiG-29N fighters over the next few years, with the fleet having been plagued by problems since it bought the type in the early 1990s. "I have decided that from next month, the aircraft will be phased out and we should find a way to sell them to certain companies or countries approved by the United Nations," Malaysia's new defence minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told the official Bernama news agency. The minister did not say what would replace the MiG-29s, which are...

F-35 chief endorses competition for engines and radars By Stephen Trimble New F-35 programme chief Brig Gen David Heinz strongly defended the case for funding two separate engines and raised the possibility of qualifying Raytheon or Thales as an alterative radar supplier. Speaking to reporters on 2 June, Heinz spoke out in favour of continuing production of the General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136 alternate engine despite its added costs. "I believe that part of the debate that has to occur -- and is occurring - is, is there an operational risk that we are accepting by having just a single engine manufacturer?"...

... One theory being investigated is that signals from a nearby military communication station interfered with the air data computer. ...

Kuwait says Rafale worth "serious consideration" Tue Jun 2, 2009 1:18pm EDT KUWAIT, June 2 (Reuters) - Kuwait's defence minister said on Tuesday that buying Rafale fighter aircraft was worth "serious consideration", the official Kuwait News Agency reported. "On a Rafale French military aircraft deal, Sheikh Jaber al-Hamad al-Sabah said the issue will be looked at, noting that the French aircraft's high quality and advanced technology demands serious consideration with regard to buying them," the agency said. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in February that Paris and Kuwait were in talks on a possible sale of warships and 14-28 Rafale...