Military: April 2010 Archives

Romania's air force has accepted its first two Alenia Aeronautica C-27J Spartan tactical transports for training use (below), and expects the type to begin supporting international operations from early next year.

Delivered to the service's 90th Air Transport Base at Bucharest Otopeni airport on 12 April, the aircraft had first undergone a two-week period of pre-acceptance testing conducted by Romanian personnel in Italy. Continue reading...

(Photo: Luca Peruzzi)

This week's Image of the Week (featured on page 3 of Flight International), is taken by AirSpace user raulherse (Raul Hernandez Sevilla, who also has a Flickr account). His photo depicts a formation of Spanish Air Force C-101 Aviojets over France.

He writes of his photo:

Formation Poker of the Patrulla Águila of the Air Force of Spain during one of their international exhibitions in Orange Ba-115 (France).This team is composed by 7 reactors of training CASA C-101. The 4th of June will be its 25 anniversary and it has a followers own club.

The US Air Force will take delivery of its first HC-130J combat rescue tanker later this year, with the aircraft having emerged at Lockheed Martin's Marietta production plant in Georgia on 3 April.

The USAF's Air Combat Command has ordered its first two of a planned 18 HC-130Js, and will also acquire 26 MC-130J tankers, as listed in Flightglobal's MiliCAS database. Continue reading...

This week's Image of the Week (featured on page 5 of Flight International), is taken by AirSpace user akoolsbergen (Annette Koolsbergen). Her photo depicts a CF-104 Starfighter.

She writes of her photo:

The two-seat version of the CF-104 Starfighter is placed at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum (Mount Hope, Ontario) exterior's entrance as a guard monument.  The Canadair CF-104 was a modified version of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter supersonic fighter aircraft built in Canada by Canadair under licence. It served with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and later the Canadian Forces until it was replaced by the CF-18 Hornet.

The UK has agreed to buy three Boeing RC-135 Rivet Joint electronic intelligence aircraft and related ground equipment from the USA, defence secretary Bob Ainsworth has announced.

Confirming the development on 22 March, Ainsworth said the aircraft will deliver a "vital capability for the Royal Air Force to replace the [British Aerospace] Nimrod R1 that will be retired from service in March 2011". An agreement was finalised on 19 March, he adds. Continue reading...