China :: Defence :: Space

Patuxent River MD (SPX) Jan 27, 2011 -The U.S. Navy announced the award of a $1.6 billion contract to Boeing for P-8A Poseidon aircraft Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP) of six aircraft. This first LRIP contract also includes spares, logistics and training devices. Production of the first LRIP aircraft will begin this summer at Boeing's Renton, Wash. facility. "In 2004, the U.S. Navy and the Boeing Company made a commitment to deliver the next generation maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft to support a 2013 Initial Operational Capability (IOC)," said Capt. Mike Moran, PMA 290 Program Manager. "This contract and these aircraft keep that commitment on track." Three of the six flight test aircraft, built as part of the System Development and Demonstration contract awarded to Boeing in 2004, are in various stages of testing at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. The Integrated Test Team has conducted sonobuoy releases and counter measures deployments. Rec...

Washington: Pakistan has doubled its nuclear arms stockpile to 110 warheads, developing new weapons to deliver them and significantly accelerating production of uranium and plutonium for bombs to edge ahead of India. Islamabad's nuclear weapons stockpile now totals more than 110 deployed weapons in a sharp jump from an estimated 30-80 weapons fours years ago, 'Washington Post' reported. "Pakistan has expanded its nuclear weapons production capability rapidly", the Post quoted David Albright, President of the Institute for Science and International Security as saying. Pak doubles its nuclear stockpile: US report Albright said that based on accelerated production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium, Pakistan may now have an arsenal up to 110 weapons. The non-government US analyst said that while continuing to produce weapons-grade uranium at two sites, Islamabad has sharply increased its production of plutonium, enabling it to make lighter warheads for more mob...

F-22A Raptor @ Tyndall AFB Airshow The manager of a US electronics firm was sentenced Friday to 36 months in prison for conspiring to export military components and sensitive electronics to China, officials said. Yufeng Wei, 46, of Massachusetts, was sentenced for illegally exporting technology used for " military radar, electronic warfare and missile systems" to China over a period of 10 years, the Justice Department said. The company, Chitron Electronics (Chitron-US), has been fined $15.5 million and Zhen Zhou Wu, Wei's ex-husband and the Chinese national who owned the firm, was sentenced to 97 months in prison for his role in the exports. The two were convicted last May of conspiring to illegally export restricted technology to China from 1997 to 2007. F22 flying F-22 during it's flying display at RIAT 2010, Fairford Air Base The Justice Department said Chitron-US "sought to market electronics to Chinese military factories and military research institutes, ...

was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' first operational jet. Designed by George Carter, it first flew in 1943 and commenced operations on 27 July 1944 with 616 Squadron of the Royal Air Force (RAF). The Gloster Meteor was not an aerodynamically advanced aircraft but the Gloster design team succeeded in producing an effective jet fighter that served the RAF and other air forces for decades. Meteors saw action with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in the Korean War, and remained in service with numerous air forces until the 1970s. Two Meteors, WL419 and WA638, remain in service with the Martin-Baker company as ejection seat testbeds.The first 20 aircraft were delivered to the Royal Air Force on 1 June 1944; one was also sent to the U.S. in exchange for a Bell YP-59A Airacomet for comparative evaluation. No. 616 Squadron RAF was the first to receive operational Meteors, 14 of them. The squadron was based at RAF Culmhead, Somerset and had been previously equipped with ...

China sends 2 planes to evacuate its citizens stranded in Egypt http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5guVb3lULbjw93S2aMLGZXp248fQA?docId=5809586 By The Associated Press (CP) 3 hours ago BEIJING, China China says it sent two passenger planes on Monday to pick up its citizens stranded in Cairo as anti-government protests in Egypt show no sign of easing. The website of the official People's Daily newspaper says Air China and Hainan Airlines have each sent an Airbus A330 plane to Cairo to evacuate Chinese citizens. Each plane can carry about 250 passengers. The report says there are more than 500 Chinese at the airport. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that China hopes normalcy and stability will be restored in Egypt soon. A notice on the website of the Chinese Embassy in Cairo says that China has issued a travel warning and requested its citizens not to travel to Egypt. It said embassy staff have been giving food and water to Chinese at the airport. Co...

China refutes the J-20 uses F-117 copies disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only A Chinese test pilot refuted allegations that the country's new J-20 stealth fighter aircraft used copied parts from a Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk downed in 1999. Controversy, as well as excitement, has swirled around China's J-20 since it was unofficially revealed to the public earlier this month in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. Several videos of the test flight appeared on Internet sites. Chinese President Hu Jintao told U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates about the flight of the prototype J-20 shortly before Gates left Beijing after a three-day visit to China intended to improve military communications between the two countries. Few details are available about the J-20, a joint design and development project by the Chengdu Aircraft and Shenyang Aircraft companies. However, it has been compared in the aviation and security industry media to the Lockheed Martin's F-117 Nighthawk, a ste...

The recent test flight of China's J-20 stealth fighter has occasioned certain uproar in international security circles, as well as paroxysms of joy among China's more nationalistic netizens. Despite no hard information on its stealthiness or its capabilities beyond the fact that it was able to take off, fly for 15 minutes, and land, the J-20 is already serving as justification for heightened concern and its inevitable adjunct, higher military spending, in the United States, South Korea and Japan. From a psychological standpoint, an interesting sidebar to the J-20 furor has been the reporting on allegations that China used industrial and military espionage to develop its stealth capabilities, perhaps with the implication that China's reactive and decadent communist system would be incapable of such innovations on its own. On January 24, an Indian-American engineer who had worked on the B-2 stealth program, Noshir Gowadia, was sentenced to 32 years in prison for selling secre...