Recently in Defence Category

How about "an airshow"? Which makes you wonder how many people will turn up for the actual Victory Day parade in Moscow in four days time after getting rather more than a sneak preview of the aerial component yesterday. All the tank freaks I suppose.

Having set off down the road of chronicling the recent achievements of female pilots in the world's military aerobatic teams, I guess I'm now stuck with it. You'll recall how the Red Arrows and Patrouille de France both announced their first female pilots last year, and then the Patrouille confirmed the appointment of a female leader this year.

Well, now it turns out that Canada's Snowbirds have gone the same route. So congratulations to Lt Col Maryse Carmichael who is their new commander. (Just need some new aircraft now and all will be well.)

Canadian readers may point out that this was announced in January. OK, sort of. In a highly successful attempt to bury the good news, Canada's Department of National Defence announced the news thus: Canadian Forces Snowbirds to gain leadership depth. I guess it meant something to somebody.

...zey grurr urp in zee murst deelartful way...and once in a while they become leader of one of the world's premier jet aerobatic teams.

So chapeaux off to Commandant Virginie Guyot, first featured in this blog just about a year ago, and who is this year leading the Patrouille de France.

Courtesy of my former colleague David Kaminski-Morrow, here are pictures showing that Qatari C-17 that bounced through Sevilla and duly turned up in the nightmare that is Haiti. Countries like Qatar are very keen to be seen playing their role in third-world relief in the years ahead - a key market for military airlifters. Pix from Sky TV News I think.

So driving into work on this sunny Seville / Sevilla morning with not many cares in the world, I have one of those "what the heck is that doing there" moments.

In fact I first have a "what the heck is that" moment. But there´s no doubt about it - tucked in with the usual couple of 737s, TNT 146, bizjets and light-singles there is unquestionably a Boeing C-17. Which in the actual home of the mighty A400M is not wholly expected.

And not just any old C-17 either.

Apologies for the lousy pic, but I only had my Blackberry and was getting very funny looks from the airport police on whome I did not fancy trying out my Spanish. But here it is.

 In fact the aircraft in question is this one. And I haven´t been able to find out what it´s doing here. Does anyone out there know?

So, unexpectedly early in the market wars to come, the two contenders meet. Not for the last time you can be sure.

Here´s our own Sevillan candidate this week at the EADS media briefing. It´s MSN2 which will fly in March. MSN1 is airborne on its sixth flight right at this moment.

Addison Schonland over at IAG has created a nice podcast of Airbus Chief Test Pilot Military Ed Strongman discussing what it's like to fly the A400M.

When I was hired for this Airbus A400M communications contract, I was told early on "it'll be good if you can liaise closely with the test pilot - Ed Strongman (seen left discussing the flight with his British customers)  - very nice chap, you'll like him". What I quietly thought was "Oh Lord...". Here's the story.

Yesterday it turns out that Airbus completed its first aerial refuelling using its in-house designed boom - a wet contact, in the inimitable phraseology of the tanking trade. Pix below of a Portugese F-16 being the proud recipient. The A330MRTT in the exercise is destined for the Royal Australian Air Force in a few months time. Complete text of press release below the pix.

Here's the Mig-29KUB landing on aircraft carrier the Admiral Kuznetsov for the first time. Some very nice cockpit video footage. The dapper looking guy with the moustache talking on the deck is Mikhail Pogosyan who heads the new United Aircraft Corporation's military division including the old Sukhoi and MiG operations. These aircraft are destined for the Indian Navy. Fast forward to 25s into the movie if you're stuck for time!

I love seeing the pilot's eyeballs coming out on stalks as he takes the wire.

How's your Chinese aircraft-identification? Great chance to find out from this very nice gallery of pix in the Seattle P-I taken at a rehearsal for yesterday's National Day parade. Although as this image here shows, I think this proves that when it comes to formation team smoke, less is more. What a mess!