Poland Upgrades Its F-16 Weapons

Poland Upgrades Its F-16 Weapons

February 14, 2012: Poland is upgrading the armament of its 48 F-16 fighters by purchasing $447 million worth of American missiles and smart bombs. The deal includes 93 AIM-9X-2 Sidewinder Block II heat seeking air-to-air missiles, Sidewinder Air Training Missiles (with no warhead or rocket motor), 65 AIM-120C-7 radar guided air-to-air AMRAAM missiles, 42 GBU-49 227 kg (500 pound) Paveway II bombs (dual GPS/laser guidance), 200 JDAM dual GPS/laser guidance bomb kits, 127 MK-82 227 kg bombs, 642 BLU-111 bunker buster 227 kg bombs, 80 BLU-117 bunker buster 909 kg (2,000 pound) bombs and four MK-84 Inert 909 kg training bombs (each with a smoke spotting charge inert weights instead of explosives.) Several other items of bombing training equipment are included in the deal, as well as five years of support.

From:
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htairw/articles/20120214.aspx

BBC News - Russian missile test launch fails

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/mobile/europe/8405481.stm

BBC News - Russian jailed for selling missile secrets to CIA

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-europe-16982995?

Brown Out Beaten

Brown Out Beaten

February 1, 2012: The U.S. Army is equipping ten of its UH-60 helicopters in Afghanistan with a new 3-D radar. The HALS (Helicopter Autonomous Landing System) weighs 45 kg (99 pounds) and gives the pilots a 3-D picture of what's in front of the helicopter, no matter what actual visibility is. Snow, dust, sand, fog, and night can all hide small obstacles (especially wires or poles) that can cause a crash as a helicopter is taking off or landing. In the last decade about 20 percent of army helicopter crashes have been caused by storms because the pilots could not see obstacles. In Iraq, the most common danger was "brown out" (sand storm). Fog and, in Afghanistan, snow only add to the problem.

HALS has been in development for nearly a decade and has been undergoing testing for the last four years. The ten helicopters being equipped with HALS in Afghanistan are carrying out the first sustained test of the system under combat conditions.

The manufacturer is also developing a version of HALS for use in UAVs.

From:

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htecm/articles/20120201.aspx

FBI probes Anonymous intercept of US-UK hacking call

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-us-canada-16881582?

AWACSki Enters The 21st Century

AWACSki Enters The 21st Century

January 28, 2012: Russia has upgraded its A-50 AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) and the first of these A-50Us recently entered service. The A-50 AWACS entered service in 1984 and 40 were built by the time the Cold War ended. In the 1990s most of the A-50s didn't fly much at all. The A-50 is based on the Il-76 transport. After over a decade of development the A-50 became a growing presence in Russian air operations during the 1980s.

The inspiration for the A-50 was the U.S. Air Force E-3 AWACS, which entered service in 1977. This was a continuation of AWACS development that began in 1944. The first AWACS appeared in 1945, when the U.S. Navy deployed radar equipped aircraft to control large numbers of airborne warplanes in combat. The Navy continued developing airborne early warning and control aircraft in the 1950s (the E-1) and replaced it with the E-2 in the early 1970s. This one is still in service.

The A-50 used less capable technology than the U.S. AWACS. The A-50 radar only had a range 200 kilometers, compared to 400 for the E-3. The A-50 upgrade uses modern (digital, rather than analog) systems and has a max range of 600 kilometers. The new computers allow far more (150) aircraft to be tracked and this is done more quickly and with fewer equipment breakdowns. The A-50U can control ten warplanes at a time, while these aircraft perform air-to-air or ground attack missions. The upgrade was actually underway when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and has been dormant until money became available to revive it four years ago.

China bought some of the older A-50s and was so dissatisfied that they switched to a new AWACS design based on the Boeing 737-800 airliner. The 157 ton Il-76 jet is considered less reliable and more expensive to maintain than the twin engine, 79 ton, Boeing 737-800. Chinese airlines (some of them controlled by the Chinese Air Force) have been using the 737-800 since 1999 (a year after this model entered service). So no matter how much Russia upgrades the A-50 they are still stuck with an expensive aircraft to carry everything around.

Article From:

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htecm/articles/20120128.aspx