Alert 5

Chinese ballon had intended to fly over Guam and Hawaii before being blown off course

Posted on February 16, 2023 by alert5

In early February 2023, the United States military shot down a Chinese balloon that had reportedly drifted across Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, Canada, and the central United States. U.S. officials have since stated that they believe the balloon was blown off course by prevailing winds, preventing it from passing over Guam and Hawaii as originally intended.

U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Tyler Thompson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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Malaysia likely to pick KAI FA-50, HAL concedes defeat in fighter tender

Posted on February 15, 2023February 15, 2023 by alert5

HAL Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) CB Ananthakrishnan has acknowledged that Malaysia has not chosen his company’s Tejas fighter for its Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) program despite being among the two shortlisted out of eight companies that participated. Malaysia is now expected to select the South Korean supersonic fighter KAI FA-50 for the contract, dealing a blow to HAL’s hopes.

Venkat Mangudi [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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Asylum-seeking Russian engineer offers access to Tu-160 program

Posted on February 15, 2023February 15, 2023 by alert5

A Russian aerospace engineer approached the U.S. authorities in late December seeking asylum and offering to share information on Russia’s Tu-160 bomber program. The offer, if genuine, could provide an insight into Russia’s most advanced strategic bomber, a plane that has been used in the Ukrainian conflict, Yahoo News reports.

Dmitriy Pichugin (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2), via Wikimedia Commons
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X-62A flown by an artificial intelligence agent for more than 17 hours

Posted on February 15, 2023February 14, 2023 by alert5

The X-62A has been flown by artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms developed under DARPA’s Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program for 17 hours during test flights at the Air Force Test Pilot School (TPS) at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

Roger Tanner and Bill Gray pilot the Variable Stability In-Flight Simulator Test Aircraft (VISTA) from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, to Edwards AFB on Jan. 30, 2019 after receiving modifications and a new paint scheme. The aircraft was resdesignated from NF-16D to the X-62A, June 14, 2021 (U.S. Air Force photo by Christian Turner)

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Japan to make bulk purchase of Tomahawk cruise missiles

Posted on February 14, 2023 by alert5

The Japanese government has decided to make a bulk purchase of American-made Tomahawk cruise missiles for the next five years as part of its defense strategy against China’s anti-access/area denial capabilities. The Defense Ministry plans to deploy the missiles as part of its counterstrike capabilities starting from fiscal 2026. The ministry intends to buy the Tomahawk missiles under the Foreign Military Sales program. The goal is to achieve reliable and early deployment while also reducing the unit cost by concluding a large contract.