News Archive

The Air Force and the Pentagon, citing testing problems, are delaying full production of The Boeing Co. 's top smart bomb by a year - a move that could slow orders to the tune of as much as $3 billion, according to Air Force officials and documents. The Pentagon delayed the full-rate production decision for the high-profile Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM, to April 1999 from this April after tests showed severe shock waves hammering and cracking the bomb's tail kit as it hangs from the wing of a Navy F-18 fighter. The bomb, guided by Global Positioning System satellite links, is designed to be dropped from many Air Force and Navy aircraft, including theB-2 bomber, and F-16, F-15 and F-18 fighter aircraft. The problem is confined to one bomb rack location on the F-18. ...

A tender to replace Hungary's outdated fighter aircraft fleet will probably be announced in the second half of 1999, Prime Minister Gyula Horn said on Tuesday. A consortium of British Aerospace and Sweden's SAAB, with its Grippen fighter, is one of four Western plane makers currently lobbying Hungary in anticipation of the tender for the purchase of some 30 new fighters worth a total of around $1 billion. The other prospective contenders are Lockheed-Martin with its F-16, France's Dassault with the Mirage 2000, and Boeing with the F/A-18 Hornet. An offset agreement - under which the prospective bidders invest in Hungarian industry or sign deals for Hungarian products equivalent to the cost of the planes - remained a basic condition. All prospective bidders have signed such an agreement with Hungary. U.S. engine maker General Electric, which supplies the Grippen, the F16and the F/A 18, has also signed an offset deal. ...

In Kuwait, there are six F-16 fighters; in Bahrain, the US Air Force has stationed 18 F-16s and in Turkey some F-16 fighters operate from Incirlik to patrol a no-fly zone over northern Iraq. US Defense Secretary William Cohen said Monday he was weighing a request for additional US forces to the Gulf as a third aircraft carrier arrived in that area of operations. Under consideration is the deployment of as many as 50 more combat aircraft, including F-117 stealth fighters. ...

U.S. pilots delivered to Jordan on Wednesday a first batch of F-16 fighter planes to modernize Jordanian air power. The four F-16s, which landed at Mufaq Salti desert base (near Azraq), are the first group of 16 fighter bombers, worth a total $220 million, to be delivered by February. ...

Hughes-Danish Aerotech Open Missile Center The U.S. Hughes group and Danish Aerotech A/S said Tuesday (Sept 16) they had together opened a missile maintenance and test center at the Danish air force's Karup air base. A joint statement said the center would be the only one in Europe allowed exclusive commercial use of the Hughes-designed Advanced Missile Test System for the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM). It added that Denmark had ordered AMRAAM for its F-16 aircraft and 10 other European countries had also selected the missile. ...

The Venezuelan Air Force (Fuerza Aeréa Venezolana) is trying to buy 2 F-16 to replace aircraft lost on accidents in 1995. The planes' sale became possible in August, when the Clinton administration lifted a 20-year ban on major weapons sales to South American nations. ...

Greek fighter jets and a transport plane have landed at an air base on the divided island of Cyprus in a move condemned by Turkey and the breakaway Turkish Cypriot government in the north....

A Shaw AFB F-16 pilot from the 55th Fighter Squadron safely ejected prior to the aircraft impacting the ground here Nov. 19 at 3 p.m....

An Indiana Air National Guard F-16 from the 181st Fighter Wing, crashed Nov. 17 at 2:40 p.m. in a remote area of the Jefferson Proving Ground near Madison, Indiana....

The pilot of an F-16 was killed when the aircraft crashed at the north portion of the Utah Test and Training Range at 3 p.m. Nov. 9....