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Don't stop hurricanes, guide them 03 May 2008 From New Scientist Print Edition. Would-be hurricane fighters hoping to stop a future Katrina before it makes landfall should aim to wound, not kill. The goal should be to re-route hurricanes and ease their fury, rather than try to stop them forming in the first place. This is the latest advice from weather modification experts. The field has a colourful history. In the 1960s and early 1970s, scientists on "Project Stormfury" tried in vain to disrupt the inner structure of hurricanes by seeding them with silver iodide crystals. Various other far-fetched ideas...

The cost of buying and operating a new fleet of jet fighters for the U.S. military is nearing $1 trillion, according to a congressional audit that found the program dogged by delays, manufacturing inefficiencies and price increases. Released Tuesday, the report from the Government Accountability Office offers a sobering assessment of the ambitious effort to deliver a modern series of aircraft known as the F-35 Lightning II to the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Tasked by Congress to conduct an annual assessment of the program, the GAO said costs have gone up by $23 billion since last year alone....

Two fighter jets crashed into the Gulf of Mexico during a training mission Wednesday, but the pilots ejected and were later rescued, the Air Force said. Eglin Air Force Base spokeswoman Shirley Pigott said the pilots were rescued after their single-seat F-15C Eagles disappeared Wednesday afternoon off the Florida Panhandle, about 35 miles south of Tyndall Air Force Base. The Air Force has not determined if the planes collided. Weather in the area was clear. Coast Guard Petty Officer James Harless said a Coast Guard rescue jet located one pilot and radioed the location to a fishing vessel, which picked...

2/13/2008 - MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AFPN) -- A retired general had been waiting on a call for some time; 55 years to be exact. Retired Lt. Gen. Charles G. Cleveland answered his home phone in January that turned out to be one of the most important calls of his life. "That's how I found out the Air Force was officially recognizing me as an ace," General Cleveland said. "Right there on the phone." But while the notification of his new-found status was brief and unceremonious, General Cleveland's journey to reach this point was a very long one. It started in South...

Last British Jaguar shows off and bows out By David Learmount On 20 December the only flying UK military-registered Sepecat Jaguar left in service bowed out, showing off to RAF personnel at several of its old bases to celebrate. The 32-year-old Qinetiq-owned Jaguar T.2A, (XX833), which has been operated in conjunction with the UK Ministry of Defence as part of the Aircraft Test and Evaluation Centre operation, was used for trials flights, at the end of which the airframe was out of certificated hours. The final flight was piloted by Sqn Ldr Andy Blythe, accompanied by Wg Cdr Paul Shakespeare,...

Fit for the fight: Competition in the fighter market By Craig Hoyle Competition in the fighter market is as keen as ever, with rivals vying to fill big-ticket programmes. But will US Congress clip the F-22's export wings? The high-profile fighter sector has grabbed many of the headlines during 2007. India at last launched a contest for 126 aircraft, while the subject of stealth - primarily in the form of the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, but also through the company's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter - has exercised nations including Japan and South Korea, and prompted the US Congress to address...

October 7, 2007 RAF cuts to axe quarter of key bombers Michael Smith The RAF is to lose a quarter of its frontline bomber force and two bases in new cuts to be pushed through by the Treasury, according to senior defence sources. Two squadrons of Tornado GR4 ground attack aircraft will be scrapped, cutting the RAF’s frontline squadrons from eight to six. One helicopter base and one training base will also be closed, with the land sold off to raise cash. The move comes as the Royal Navy is braced for big cuts to its surface fleet with all...

Pair accused of peddling pieces from F-4, F-14 aircraft over the Internet By Nate Carlisle The Salt Lake Tribune 10/05/2007 12:09:12 PM MDT Federal prosecutors on Friday announced charges against two Ogden men accused of illegally selling parts for fighter jets over the Internet. Abraham Trujillo, 61, and David Waye, 22, both are charged with three counts of illegal arms exporting in federal court in Salt Lake City. The U.S. attorney's office says federal immigration agents discovered a Web site with listings of F-14 parts offered by Trujillo and his Ogden business, NSN Specialists. Over the next several months in...

Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Army Ataollah Salehi said that for the first time, the Saeqeh, or Thunderbolt, fighter plane "carried out a mission to bomb virtual enemy targets in northwest of Iran." He added that the plane, which is similar to the US F-18 fighters, was designed, remodeled and improved by Iranian experts at the army's Sattari Air Base. Salehi noted that the technology needed for manufacturing Saeqeh fighters basically came from foreign countries such as the US, Russia, China and India and was only modified by Iranian experts...

Here is a video showcasing the capability of the US Air Force’s first F-22A flight demonstration routine, now wowing audiences at North American air shows and challenging perceptions of the Raptor. This fighter best known for stealth, speed and sensors, has been designed to evade radar, supercruise above Mach 1.5 and fly at 65,000ft. With its two Pratt & Whitney F119 engines vectoring their 35,000lb of afterburning thrust through +/-20º as an integral part of the flight-control system, the F-22 proves itself to be surprisingly agile, performing helicopter turns, tailsides and backflips.

F-15 Fighter Jet Crashes In Southwestern Indiana Officials: Pilot Ejected, Thought To Be Uninjured UPDATED: 2:24 pm EDT May 30, 2007 VINCENNES, Ind. -- A Missouri National Guard F-15 pilot ejected safely from the aircraft just before it crashed during a training mission in rural Knox County Wednesday morning. The plane went down at about just before 11 a.m. EDT south of Vincennes, near the Illinois border, as it conducted standard training maneuvers, according to a release from the National Guard. The plane was affiliated with the 131st Fighter Wing, which is headquartered at Lambert Field in St. Louis. Capt....

UK Royal Air Force to end Sepecat Jaguar use next week By Craig Hoyle UK operations of the Sepecat Jaguar are to end far sooner than expected, with the Royal Air Force revealing that training activities with the type are to stop on 30 April. The Jaguar will be formally retired from service on 25 May, several months earlier than previously expected, and all flying will cease by the end of next month. In an unusually public act, the boss of the RAF’s last frontline unit to fly the type announced the news yesterday on the pprune.org website frequented by...

4/20/2007 - GILA BEND, Ariz. (AFNEWS) -- Missouri fighter wing goes to wild, wild west From the ground, the Barry M. Goldwater Range looks like the set of a 1960's Clint Eastwood spaghetti western. The air is dry enough to taste, and the ground sprouts an occasional cactus. The mind can only envision what creepy kinds of scorpions scurry along these barren sands near Gila Bend Air Force Auxiliary Field. This is home for rattlesnakes, Gila monsters, road runners and endangered antelope. Earlier this year, it was a target for many of the 442nd Fighter Wing's bombs in an operation...

Fighter legend Neville Duke dies Aviation historians have paid tribute to one of Britain's most decorated World War II fighter pilots who died shortly after his last flight. Sqn Ldr Neville Duke, 85, flew 485 sorties achieving 28 air combat victories, including seven aircraft shot down in seven days. In 1953 he broke the then world air speed record achieving 727.63mph. Sqn Ldr Duke, from Lymington, Hants, was taken ill after flying his aircraft G-Zero with Gwen, his wife of 60 years. He died in hospital in Surrey on Sunday after suffering an aneurysm. A spokesman for Tangmere Military Aviation...

F404-GE-IN20 Engines Ordered for India Light Combat Aircraft (Source: GE Aviation; issued Feb. 7, 2007) BANGALORE, India --- Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has ordered an additional 24 F404-GE-IN20 afterburning engines to power the first operational squadron of Tejas fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force. Value of the order is in excess of $100 million and follows an initial 2004 purchase of 17 F404-GE-IN20 engines to power a limited series of operational production aircraft and naval prototypes. Earlier this year, the F404-GE-IN20 was trial-installed in Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) as part of final evaluations toward flight-testing, scheduled for mid-2007. The...

merica’s brand-new F-35 Lightning II is currently undergoing a series of tests over Fort Worth, Texas. The third flight on Wednesday tested the aircraft at 23,000 feet, the highest altitude the aircraft has ever been. And this week, Lockheed Martin’s chief test pilot Jon Beesley — the only man on the planet to have flown the F-35 — plans to take the jet even higher. The F-35 is not the first fighter ever tested by Beesley, a 56-year-old former Air Force officer and grandfather of six. He also is the second man in the world to fly the Air Force’s...

On a beautiful day at sea somewhere in the world, a United States Navy fighter jet (F-14 Tomcat? F-18 Hornet?) pilot teaches the finer points of low-level transonic flight and the sonic boom. Via "Supersonic Fly-By VI" at http://www.AlexisParkInn.com/military_videos.htm

FORT WORTH, Texas, Dec. 15, 2006 – The Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] F-35 Lightning II lifted into the skies today for the first time, completing a successful inaugural flight and initiating the most comprehensive flight test program in military aviation history. “The Lightning II performed beautifully,” said F-35 Chief Pilot Jon Beesley following the flight. “What a great start for the flight-test program, and a testimony to the people who have worked so hard to make this happen.” The most powerful engine ever placed in a fighter aircraft – the Pratt & Whitney F135 turbofan, with 40,000 pounds of thrust...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12, 2006 -- With the first flight of the Joint Strike Fighter set for this week, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia have “re-enlisted” for the program. Canada signed on for the project’s production, sustainment and follow-on development phase during a Pentagon ceremony here yesterday. Australia signed on today as part of the U.S.-Australia ministerial meetings at the State Department, and the United Kingdom signed at a Pentagon ceremony today. The Joint Strike Fighter is the Defense Department’s program for a “multi-role” stealth air-to-ground strike aircraft. The Navy, Air Force, Marines and allies are developing the system...

Britain should cancel a deal with the United States to purchase Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) jets if America does not share sensitive technology by the end of the year, a report by the parliamentary defense committee will say, the Financial Times reported on Dec.8. The yearly report on British weapons spending, which is due to be released Dec. 8, says “it is still uncertain whether the U.S. is prepared to provide the required information”, despite Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush agreeing in May that Britain would get the technology it needed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the costliest weapons procurement project ever, is set to make its maiden test flight next week, a U.S. general running the project said on Tuesday. "I am optimistic that we will see the airplane fly as early as Monday" at Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Fort Worth, Texas, test site, Marine Brig. Gen. David Heinz, the Pentagon program office's deputy director, told the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit in Washington, D.C. At a projected $276.5 billion, the planned family of radar-evading warplanes represents the Pentagon's priciest planned purchase -- more than 2,400 aircraft by...

10/6/2006 - EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska (AFPN) -- Eighteen children from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Fairbanks, Alaska, met Airmen from the 355th Fighter Squadron and received an up close and personal look at an A-10 Thunderbolt II when they visited here Sept. 30. "The 355th FS not only wanted to help (Big Brothers Big Sisters) in that regard, but they also wanted to honor the 'Bigs' for their dedication and time they give to these children, the community, and quite honestly, the nation," said Lt. Col. Quentin Rideout, 355th FS commander. Once at the squadron, the Big...

The first pieces of the last remaining Japanese Zero fighter to be shot down over Hawaii on December 7, 1941, have reached the new Pacific Aviation Museum, now in its final fund-raising campaign and set to open December 7, 2006. This aircraft had just finished strafing Bellows Field and Kaneohe Naval Air Station when ground fire punctured its belly fuel tank, preventing it from returning to the aircraft carrier Hiryu and forcing it to land on what Japanese planners thought was an abandoned island, Niihau. However, the island's owners, the Robinson family, had heeded the warnings of a possible Japanese...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16, 2006 – Two Massachusetts Air National Guard F-15 fighter jets scrambled today to escort a Washington-bound United Airlines flight to Boston’s Logan National Airport, a U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command spokesman confirmed. NORAD ordered the unit to scramble the aircraft, based at Otis Air National Guard Base, Mass., after receiving a “domestic event network call” on the aviation security hotline that links the command to the Department of Homeland Security and other U.S. aviation security organizations, Mike Kucherak said. The call followed an incident aboard United Airlines Flight 923, originally scheduled to fly from London Heathrow...

Latin America: Donald Rumsfeld once observed that Venezuelans had a way of fixing political problems on their own, with no need of U.S. intervention. The dramatic prison break of a union boss may be the first sign. Carlos Ortega's escape Sunday from a Venezuelan maximum security military prison must have sent a shiver through the tyrannical leftist regime of President Hugo Chavez. The tough union boss had crossed Chavez before and was serving a 16-year sentence for leading a vast oil-worker strike in 2002-03. Like Lech Walesa of Poland, Ortega called for independent union leadership at Venezuela's state oil company...

WASHINGTON, August 3, 2006 – Coalition forces captured a wanted terrorist along with two others during a raid near Bayji, Iraq, yesterday, U.S. military officials reported. The raid is one of a series of successful operations targeting a terrorist cell involved in aiding foreign terrorists throughout central Iraq. The raid occurred without incident. Coalition forces have been effectively dismantling this group, which has reportedly orchestrated attacks, kidnappings and bombings of civilians, officials said. In addition, Iraqi and coalition forces announced that a recently captured foreign terrorist would be turned over to the Iraqi government for prosecution under the Iraqi justice...

MiG 27 Fighter Bomber Will Have New Engines General director of the Salyut Moscow Machine Building Production Plant Yury Eliseev has announced at the Farnborough Airshow in Great Britain that a new engine will be used in modernized MiG 27 fighter bombers, the main aircraft of the Indian Air Force. The new engine, the AL-31F, will be 200 kg. lighter than the R-29B-300 used previously, and have one metric ton more propulsion (12,300 kg./sec.) than its predecessor. It will also use 15 percent less fuel. The Indian Air Force has 150 Mi G27 Bahadur models and will modernize 60 of...

ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --- The final mission flies today at Northern Edge 2006, but the majority of the results are already in, and success is the buzzword from Alaska. During the two-week joint service exercise, several scenarios have proven that the interoperability and integration between American assets are stronger than ever. “Alaska’s aerial ranges and airspace provide unique capabilities to train to this scope,” said Col. Steve Hatter, Northern Edge exercise director. “We are extremely pleased with what we’ve been able to see thus far.” One major goal of the exercise was to test and train with the...

Washington, July 5 (IANS) The US House of Representatives has recommended lifting a nine-year ban on international sales of the F-22 Raptor, its most advanced fighter made by the same firm that manufactures F-16s proposed to be sold to Pakistan. But instead of putting the plane in the general shopping window, Lockheed Martin is eyeing US allies like Australia, Britain and Japan as potential buyers for the expensive plane. The House voted to lift the ban after an 11-minute debate on June 20, Washington Post reported. Prospects of passage in the Senate are unclear, but it has been generally more...

7/7/2006 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- The Air Force chief of staff announced Lightning II as the F-35 name during a Joint Strike Fighter Inauguration Ceremony today at the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. at Fort Worth, Texas. Gen. T. Michael Moseley made the final decision after an extensive nomination and review process, coordinated with the other services and partner nations. In naming the F-35, General Moseley said, "Today, the enemies of peace and freedom have been put on notice. They have feared this day because the F-35 provides the coalition warfighter the perfect blend of speed, precision and stealth. "In my...

Wednesday, June 14, 2006 India may buy advanced Israeli aircraft By Khalid Hasan WASHINGTON: India may be buying Israeli-made advanced fighter aircraft, according to Defence News, an online military and defence news portal. In a Tel Aviv-datelined dispatch, it said, “Fighter jets vying for India’s $8 billion Medium-range Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) programme may have to make room for a late entry: the Israel Air Force F-16I Sufa, or Storm. In an unprecedented move aimed at sharpening its edge over fellow US and international competitors, Lockheed Martin is eyeing the F-16I as a low-cost, high-performance alternative to the French Rafale,...

To make a point to fellow fighter pilots in World War II, Col. Fred J. Christensen always flew with Sinbad, a stray black cat he had found. Seeing him return safe from combat missions — black cat and all — helped motivate the other pilots, his daughter Diane Haagensen said Sunday. And counter to traditional superstitions, Sinbad was very good luck for her father, who shot down 22 Nazi planes during the war, including six in a two-minute span of one air battle. Christensen, who the Massachusetts Air National Guard said was believed to be the last living U.S. ace...

Stripped fighter jet seized Hong Kong customs authorities have seized an aircraft believed to be a Soviet-made Mig-29 Fulcrum fighter jet at the Kwai Chung Container Terminal after a routine check revealed the shipment was missing an import license. Leslie Kwoh Wednesday, April 05, 2006 Hong Kong customs authorities have seized an aircraft believed to be a Soviet-made Mig-29 Fulcrum fighter jet at the Kwai Chung Container Terminal after a routine check revealed the shipment was missing an import license. The aircraft did not carry any weapons and had been stripped of its engine and other parts when it was...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, March 31, 2006 – Afghan and coalition forces engaged an insurgent group this morning, killing one and seizing munitions in Afghanistan's Uruzgan province, military officials reported. A combined Afghan National Army and coalition patrol saw and engaged a small group of insurgents carrying rocket-propelled grenade launchers in the province's Chora district, officials said. A subsequent search uncovered assault rifles, pistols and ammunition, mortar sights, a homemade bomb and materials for making more, and rocket-propelled grenades. "This operation is another fine example of how the ANA and coalition are working together to rid Afghanistan of the perpetrators...

SOUTHWEST ASIA, March 24, 2006 – The convoy travels down the dusty desert road. Soldiers keep watchful eyes, surveying the barren landscape surrounding them. Today, their minds are slightly at ease. Overhead, an armed F-16 in direct contact with their team is watching the road ahead. No one will be lost today. An F-15E Strike Eagle flies over the coast in Southwest Asia. Aircraft like this and others are capable of monitoring the battlespace with their targeting pods. This concept is known as nontraditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Photo by Master Sgt. Lance Cheung, USAF  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution...

3/21/2006 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- Air Force fighter aircraft pilots helped apprehend three suspected insurgents accused of mortaring Balad Air Base, Iraq, March 16. The pilots, who flew two F-15E Strike Eagles with the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing, were on a close-air-support mission near Balad when mortars were detected by the base’s Joint Defense Operation Center. The JDOC is charged with overseeing the integrated defense of Balad Air Base and Logistical Support Area Anaconda. It is staffed by Airmen and Soldiers, and it uses a variety of sensors and tactical surveillance to monitor inside the installation perimeter and surrounding...

The Supermarine Spitfire, a plane that became an emblem for the British and Canadian air forces in the Second World War, marked its 70th anniversary Sunday. Five Spitfires flew in a V formation above Southampton in southern Britain, 70 years to the minute after the first flight. Decades after he was the chief test pilot for the plane, 93-year-old Alex Henshaw called the Spitfire a thoroughbred. "Very, very accurate assessment because with a thoroughbred racehorse as you know, if it's got a tender mouth it'll respond or it will reject it or resent it. And a Spitfire was exactly like...

LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. (AFPN) -- He wears a battle dress uniform and looks just like any other maintainer working on a F-22 Raptor, but this Airman is very different from most others in the 27th Aircraft Maintenance Unit here. He is paid by the hour, reports to a different supervisor and has a 70-mile commute to and from Richmond to come to work every day. His name is Tech. Sgt. Scott Browning. He, and 60 other members of the 192nd Fighter Wing, Virginia Air National Guard, work here as pilots, maintainers, fire rescuers, services and command post personnel. “The 1st...

The Indian Air Force’s (IAF) medium multirole combat aircraft (M-MRCA) tender is beginning to resemble a free-for-all that shows no signs of abating and will continue for several years. What makes this tender an unusual one, however, is that the type of radar and onboard systems which will be included in the deal, the co-production arrangements to provide work for local Indian industry and geopolitical considerations are going to carry far more weight in the decision process than the actual choice of the aircraft itself. When it is finally released, one the most important technical requirements that is expected to...

The newest bird in the Air Force fleet — and one of the noisiest — will make its Tucson debut next weekend. The F-22 Raptor, a sleek and supersonic stealth jet that's more advanced than any other in Air Force history, will be among dozens of new and vintage warplanes in town to train for the 2006 air- show season. Two or three of the futuristic fighters will touch down during the annual Heritage Flight Conference at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, a three-day event that allows pilots to practice formation flying for eight to nine hours a day. It's part...

ort Worth TX (SPX) Feb 20, 2006 The Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter team has completed assembly of the first F-35 aircraft and moved it out of the factory in preparation for an intensive period of ground testing. First flight of the F-35, a conventional takeoff and landing version, remains on schedule for this fall. The first F-35 Joint Strike Fighter moves from the factory to a fueling facility at Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas, on Feb.19 achieving another major milestone toward first flight planned later this year. Workers completed assembly of the aircraft on Feb. 17.

<p>New Delhi: The dogfight for bagging the Indian order for 126 fighter aircraft has taken a sensational twist. The front-runner, the French Mirage 2000, has pulled out, complaining that India is taking too much time to make up its mind.</p>

By Henry Ivanov JDW Correspondent Moscow China is developing an advanced version of the Chengdu Aircraft Industrial Corporation (CAC) J-10 multirole fighter aircraft, referred to as the Super-10, with a more powerful engine, thrust-vector control, stronger airframe and passive phased-array radar, according to Russian sources. Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG (RSK-MiG) specialists, contracted to provide technical assistance to Chinese design houses, said the enhancement to the J-10 airframe is a logical step, since the fighter was initially intended to have the compact Pratt&Whitney PW1120 engine that powered the Israeli Lavi aircraft, which served as a basis for the J-10 ......

The decision of the Left parties to publicly demonstrate and try to disrupt the India-USA air exercises being held in West Bengal raises many doubts, not only about the understanding of national security issues by major national parties currently supporting the government, but also their sense of responsibility. One wonders how much understanding those demonstrating against the joint exercises have of the issues involved. Let us look at some facts first. The air force base at Kalaikunda was originally built by the Americans (including the two satellite airfields at Kharagpur and Dudhkudi), as part of a vast network of bases...

11/3/2005 - HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFPN) -- Sixty years after serving in the Army Air Corps, a 7th Fighter Squadron pilot received a Distinguished Flying Cross and an Air Medal. First Lieutenant James Costley, a P-38 pilot in World Word II, received the last of his military decorations in front of three generations of his family, friends and fellow military veterans at the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in Two Harbors, Minn., on Oct. 25. Lt . Gen. Donald Hoffman, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisitions deputy director, and Brig. Gen. Kurt Cichowski,...

he Sukhoi Su-30 is a military aircraft that was produced by the Russian company Sukhoi in 1996. It is a dual-role fighter and costs 38 million dollars. The K variant costs 33 million dollars while the MKI variant Sukhoi Su-30MKI built for Indian Air Force costs 45 million dollars. It is a derivative of the Sukhoi Su-27. More than 140 of these planes will be constructed by Hindustan Aeronautics for the Indian Air Force. The Su-30 is an excellent multi-role fighter, the Russian equivalent to the American F-15E Strike Eagle. It can carry an array of TV, IR, and radar...

The innovative potential of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program for the Dutch knowledge economy is immense. In addition, the JSF project generates 23,000 years of employment in the development and production phases of the program: high-quality employment with little chance of leakage to other countries, since the Netherlands are a partner country in the JSF program. These conclusions are part of an interim report on spin-off and spillover effects in the JSF program by CentER Applied Research, institute of applied research at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at Tilburg University. The research was an initiative of Tilburg...

Report: Russian Fighter Down in Lithuania Thu Sep 15, 9:57 AM ET MOSCOW - A Russian Su-27 fighter bomber crashed Thursday in Lithuania during a flight across the former Soviet republic to the Russian Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, and the pilot ejected safely, the Defense Ministry said. The plane crashed 34 miles north of the southern Lithuanian city of Kaunas after experiencing navigation problems, and the pilot parachuted from the plane after it ran out of fuel, the ministry said. The pilot is being interviewed by local police, the Interfax news agency quoted an official from the Lithuanian Defense Ministry...

A top-of-the-line interceptor: the supersonic 22 Su-33 Flanker crashed during a carrier landing when the arresting cable failed. The pilot managed to get the plane clear of the superstructure and eject,but the plane was depth-charged to prevent its design, electronics, and weapons systems from falling into other-than-Russian hands.

CF-18 fighter jet crashes in northern Quebec, pilot believed to have ejected SAGUENAY, Que. (CP) - A CF-18 fighter plane crashed Tuesday but the pilot is believed to have ejected, the all-news channel LCN reported. A search was underway to find the pilot from CFB Bagotville in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region, about 250 kilometres north of Quebec City. The pilot was reported to be safe, LCN said. The cause of the crash isn't yet known and weather conditions were believed to be good at the time, LCN said. The pilot was flying about 120 kilometres north of the base.