Sunday, January 24, 2016

Stealth Saga #24

TFX:

Turkish Aerospace Industries expects the TFX contract to be signed within the first half of 2016.

KF-X:

The program has been officially kicked off and is planning on 2/3s local content.

PAK-FA:

The PAK-FA performed at the Bahrain air show and the final prototype is being assembled.   Note: prototype, not first production example.

PAK-DA:

The Russians are claiming they will be building the first prototype of the PAK-DA stealth bomber before 2021.  However, I'd caution that the Russians have an economy that is melting down and they have already significantly postponed the purchase of the PAK-FA, the MiG-31 replacement and several other aerospace projects.  The PAK-DA may only get built, if ever, in the far future, not in 5 years.  The link is to a Russian website, but the text is in spanish.  (wuh?)  

LRS-B/B-3:



Rumor has it the image here is not far off for what the two LRS-B prototypes actually looked like.

The second rumor is the Northrop prototype nearly crashed during testing.

F-22:

A little more about the F-22s now deployed to Japan.

F-35:

The F-35 has fired the AIM-9X Sidewinder for the first time.

Denmark is facing a significant budget issue over replacing its F-16s: the F-35 is one of the contenders.

The top Pentagon weapons tester is concerned about the F-35 avionics software.

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