The aircraft, along with the typical Soviet cross, sports a cool tiger rudder.

Noteworthy, along with the new Air Force’s aggressors paint jobs even the Snipers’ one was first reported in Fall 2011.

Noteworthy, the Franken-Tiger is a hybrid plane, made with the cockpit of an F-5F and the rest of the airframe coming from a former Swiss Air Force F-5E. It is used by the U.S. Navy aggressor’s squadron to provide “adversary services” during Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI) courses.

All images by Tony Lovelock

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After some 400 attacks and 100 hijackings in three years on international shipping, David Cameron would be drawing up plans to send one of two helicopter carriers loaded with Apache and Lynx attack helicopters, along with Royal Marines, to take out the Pirate camps once and for all.

Britain could also be working alongside other countries to rid Somalia of the pirate problem along with the radical group al-Shabab whom Cameron alleges has links to al-Qaida and is a direct threat to the UK and other  nations.

The plans may have been given the green light by the Somalians themselves at the international conference that has taken place in London on Feb. 23, as the country’s government would welcome the air strikes so long as civilians were protected. Indeed, one of the problem the international community has to face is that the terrorists are even stopping aid and other forms of assistance reaching Somalia.

The intelligence agencies know where the pirate camps are along with the al-Shabab camps (indeed it can seen marked on Google Earth);  the problem is the closeness to the civilian population and the need to keep casualties to the bare minimum.

According to speculations, French and U.S. forces would be involved in direct military action along with Britain and few other supporting nations. Even if it isn’t widely reported, looks like the US has already made a military strike deep in Somali territory and continues to hit al-Shabab with drone strikes (launched also from Mahe, in the Seychelles), every now and then.

Let’s see what kind of threat a coalition could find in the Horn of Africa. There are intelligence reports that 30 SA-7 anti-aircraft missiles have arrived into one of Somalia’s ports, thought to have been smuggled out of Libya and were once part of Colonel Gaddafi’s huge arsenal. This threat has also been backed up by the announcement of a find of a cache of some 43 anti-aircraft missiles composed of a mix of the older SA-7 and newer more potent SA-24s buried in Algeria, near the Libyan border. Most probably there are others in circulation that are currently unknown.

The operation is likely to be more surgical in nature and possibly amphibious as most of the camps are situated along the coastal region or not that far inland.  Indeed the U.S. Special Forces raid that rescued two western aid workers was only some 30 miles (50km) from the coast. The operation could be run from Camp Lemonnier, in Djibouti, were several special operation planes are based (among them the recently crashed U-28A) and, although it is unlikely, if fast air is required that could come in the form of Harriers from a U.S. “multipurpose amphibious assault ship.”

Officially no decision has been made but as and when further details become clear, The Aviationist will report them.

Richard Clements for TheAviationist.com

Image credit: Crown Copyright

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Wearing the roundel and flag of Free Libya, the two aircraft, that had performed engine runs  in the last weeks, followed by a high speed taxi on RWY 05/23 at Malta International Airport on Monday, departed from runway 31 and performed a flypast to bid farewell to the Maltese Islands before heading south toward Libya.

The pilots that brought the Mirages back home, were Col. Alial-Rabti and Col. Abdullah al-Salheen, the same that had defected from Gaddafi last year.

Interestingly, the radio callsign used by the Mirage flight was both “Eagle Formation” and “Libyan Air Force 217″ with the latter paying tribute to the day the revolution started: Feb. 17 (2-17).

Thanks again to Brendon Attard for the images in this post.

On Feb. 22, six days after the first F-35A CTOL (Conventional Take Off and Landing) had flown with external stores, even the STOVL (Short Take Off and Vertical Landing) variant of the Joint Strike Fighter, flew for the first time with external weapons.

Noteworthy, along with the AIM-9X carried by the CTOL, the F-35B carried a never seen before (at least in photo) white 25 mm gun pod on the centerline.

Its particular shape was probably designed to fit in the triangular space between the fuselage weapons doors.

Image credit: Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin has just released a media update that provides some interesting figures about the F-35 System Development and Demonstration (SDD) flight test plan. The press release traces the history of the JSF program since the beginning of 2012. However, I’ve modified it a little bit to add some interesting information about the program: either officially released news by partner countries authorities or details reported by media all around the world.

• On Jan. 9, AF-4, an F-35A Conventional Takeoff and Landing (CTOL) test aircraft, reached the highest altitude to date in an F-35; 43,000 feet Mean Sea Level (MSL).

• Lockheed Martin ferried the first two production model F-35B Short Takeoff and Vertical Landing (STOVL) aircraft to the U.S. Marine Corps on Jan. 11. The aircraft, known as BF-6 and BF-8, are now assigned to the 2^nd Marine Aircraft Wing’s Marine Fighter/Attack Training Squadron 501 residing with the host 33^rd Fighter Wing at Eglin Air Force Base (AFB), Fla.

• Demonstrating the ongoing maturation of the F-35 integrated sensor suite, AF-3, an F-35A CTOL test jet, completed the first low Distributed Aperture System (DAS) approach on Jan. 17.

• On Jan. 18, the first night flight in the history of the Lockheed Martin F-35 program was completed at Edwards AFB, Calif.  Piloted by Lockheed Martin test pilot Mark Ward, AF-6, an F-35A CTOL test jet, took off at 5:05 p.m. PST and landed after sunset at 6:22 p.m.

• With the ferry flight of BF-7, an F-35B STOVL, Eglin AFB, Fla., became home of the largest F-35 fleet in the DOD on Jan. 19. BF-7 was the 23^rd F-35 Lightning II delivered to the DOD.

• On Jan. 20, citing the progress the F-35B STOVL variant made in 2011, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta rescinded probation for the F-35B, almost a full year ahead of schedule.

• The F-35 SDD fleet including AA-1, the original test aircraft, crossed the 2,500 flight hour threshold on Jan. 25.

• During a Media Briefing in Rome, Italy, Tom Burbage, Executive VP of Lockheed Martin and General Manager of F-35 Program Integration, said that the F-35C (Carrier Variant) was fixed with a new tailhook system that will be tested beginning next April, making arrested landing on aircraft carriers possible after the series of failed tests. “We will solve all issues” he said.

• On Jan. 30 the Associated Press reported that Australia is reviewing its purchaase schedule for 12 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

• A BAC1-11 configured with the F-35′s AN/APG-81 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar and the AN/AAQ-37 infrared distributed aperture system (DAS) has taken part to the Bold Alligator 2012 exercise.

• On Feb. 7 a UK Ministry of Defence spokeswoman announced that Britain will not make final decisions on the overall number of F-35 before the next planned Strategic Defence Review (in 2015).

• On Feb. 15, Italian Minister of Defense announced Italy’s plan to purchase 90 F-35s. The aircraft will be delivered to four Italian Air Force squadrons at Amendola and Ghedi, and one Navy squadron at Grottaglie (equipped with F-35B that will also operate from Cavour aircraft carrier).

• On Feb. 16 at Edwards AFB, Calif., AF-1, an F-35A CTOL test jet, flew the first external weapons test mission in program history.

• On Feb. 17 the Government of the Netherlands announced that the first F-35 designated for the RNlAF had its jet engine installed. The Netherlands has ordered two JSFs as test aircraft.

• On Feb. 19 the Canadian Press reported that Canadian Defense experts are considering a further upgrade to the aging RCAF F-18s (CF-188s in the local designation) to fill the gap until the delivery of the first F-35s, expected in 2016.

• On Feb. 21 Royal Air Force test pilot Squadron Leader Jim Schofield flew CF-2, the Carrier Variant of the F-35 that will be known as Joint Combat Aircraft in UK.

• On Feb. 22, six days after the first F-35A CTOL (Conventional Take Off and Landing) had flown with external stores, even the STOVL (Short Take Off and Vertical Landing) variant of the Joint Strike Fighter, flew for the first time with external weapons.Noteworthy, along with the AIM-9X carried by the CTOL, the F-35B carried a never seen before white 25 mm gun pod on the centerline.

• On Feb. 23 Turkey confirmed its plan to buy 100 F-35s for 16 billion USD. “In the first stage, orders will be given for two F-35 planes. Turkey plans in total to buy 100 F-35 warplanes” the Minister of Defense said.

Cumulative flight test activity totals for 2012 through Feb. 20 are provided below:

• F-35A CTOL jets have flown 46 times.
• F-35B STOVL aircraft have completed 45 flights.
• F-35C Carrier Variant (CV) jets have flown 23 times.

From the start of flight testing in December 2006, F-35s have flown 1,704 times, including the production-model flights and AA-1, the original flight test aircraft.

Image credit: Locheed Martin

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The most recent one, worth 126 million USD for a further 5,000 JDAM kits to be delivered by 2014, is the third such order in a little over 12 months: in January 2011 the service ordered some 3,500 kits and then in March 2011 it ordered a further 4,000 units worth a combined value of $180 million.

Therefore, while studying new tactics to destroy Tehran’s underground bunkers with the Massive Ordnance Pentrators, the Air Force recharge its weapons for the hundreds other targets it would find in Iran (and elsewhere) with a whole bunch of modular kits used to transform 500, 1,000 and 2,000-lb dumb bombs into precision guided ones.

During the Libya Air War, some air forces suffered bomb shortage after dropping few hundred PGMs in the first three months of the war, that’s why the U.S. have started replenishing their own stock: it’s better to be prepared (to lend some bombs to the European allies too), should the need for an air campaign in Iran (or Syria) arise.

Written with The Aviationist’s Editor David Cenciotti

Image: U.S. Air Force

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With his vision obscured, the pilot from the 187^th Fighter Wing at Dannelly Field Alabama  tried to de-mist the canopy, most likely in a similar manner to a car’s windshield but was ultimately unsuccessful. So he managed to land the F-16 on the runway but veered off onto soft ground that snapped the front landing gear and the airframe then dug into the grass causing some $5 million worth of damage.

Being distracted by the fogging probelm the pilot failed to apply the air brake that would have effectively reduced the fast touch-down speed and stop the aircraft in the available remaining runway.

Investigators said in their report that the aircraft had been maintained correctly therefore the root cause was a random component failure.

The lack of casualties and the non fatal damage to the aircraft shows how much skill the pilot had: in spite of his inability to evaluate the remaining runway and his vision obscured by the fogged canopy, he decided to ride the stricken Falcon in rather than risk hundreds of casualties on the ground by ejecting.

Richard Clements for The Aviationist

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The light of the “F-18 bonfire” seems to radiate from a single point in the sky creating the same optical effect that rays of sunlight create when streaming through gaps in clouds: the so-called Light of God.

The Midnight Sun Airshow is a traditional  airshow held each year at the end of June. It starts at 7 PM and lasts close to midnight .

via Tgcom.it

It was published on One Big Photo, a website that makes high resolution photographs of various subjects available to everyone. Usually, aircraft pictures you can find on photo/wallpaper sites are only spectacular images already published on several aviation-related websites.

The F-15E with lightning strike in the background photo, published also on Gizmodo, is an expample of those very well known images that arrive on photo websites months after being released by the U.S. Air Force.

However, the image taken by Sergio j. Padrón from the backseat of a Venezuelan Air Force Su-30MkII flying the slot position of a four-ship formation is not only extremely beautiful and interesting, but also rarer, although it was taken (according to the author’s Flickr profile) in December 2009.

Image credit: Sergio j. Padrón via One Big Photo

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Quite silently, those SIGINT (SIGnal INTelligence) platforms flew in the Maltese airspace to eavesdrop into Libyan communications and signals and to collect the information needed to build up the so-called EOB (Electronic Order of Battle) of the Libyan forces, that would be used to have a better understanding of the situation in Libya, to know where forces were located and to build up a priority target list for the subsequent air campaign.

Presumed to remain (almost) secret, those flights were actually “advertised” by LiveATC.net, whose Maltese feeder  (shut down during the war) made the radio communications between Malta Area Control Center and the various EP-3s, RC-135 Rivet Joint, C-160G, British Nimrods R1s etc. transiting the local airspace before operating in “due regard”, public.

Although nowadays we can’t listen to the radio comms of the military traffic in that area as we did in February 2011 and we don’t have the same “evidences” we had one year ago, we can be quite confident that similar activities are being conducted in or around Syria from bases in Italy, Turkey or Cyprus (RAF Akrotiri airbase).

Along with the satellite image released by the US Embassy in Damascus some American defense officials told the NBC that “A good number of American drones are operating in the skies of Syria, monitoring the Syrian military’s attacks against opposition forces and innocent civilians alike”.

The Pentagon was quick to point out that these drones were providing surveillance not for a future military intervention but to gain evidence from both a visual and communications perspective to “make a case for a widespread international response”.

However, the confirmation that U.S. robots are flying inside the Syrian territory does pose the question: what type of drone are being used?

Most media outlets are using stock images of Predator or Reaper drones, but those unstealthy ‘bots would be vulnerable to the Syria SAM (Surface to Air Missile) network, believed to be among Middle East’s most robust ones. Both MQ-1 and 9 are Medium Altitude drones that could be operating in Syria only if flying outside the range of active SAM rings.

Hence, its conceivable that most ISR (Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance) missions in the area are being flown by High Altitude platforms, as Air Force’s Global Hawks or U-2s (or even stealthy RQ-170s, as the one captured in Iran).

Even if Sigonella in Sicily, hosts the U.S. RQ-4Bs belonging to the 9th Operations Group/Detachment 4th, Incirlik in southern Turkey, being next to the border, seems to be more suitable for spy missions in Syria. Missions that these days could be aimed at assessing the type of activities conducted by the destroyer Shahid Qandi and the supply vessel Kharg, the two Iranian warships that have docked at the Syrian port of Tartus after passing through the Suez canal.

In fact Egyptian sources as well as members of the Syrian opposition claimed that the two vessels have been jamming satellite telephone communications of the Syrian opposition forces.

According to the same Egyptian sources, Assad’s forces have been finding it more difficult to monitor the oppositors’ communication due to their encrypted nature and someone believes that the Iranian Navy is helping him disrupting these encrypted communications.

A bit far fetched, considered that a land based systems would be less visible than two closely watched warships, but not completely impossible.

Worth a mention: an Israeli drone was spotted overflying clashes in Homs.

Anyway, the scenario is similar to the Libya of the end of February 2011. With the only difference that one year ago, the spyplanes did not fly into the “enemy” airspace.

Richard Clements has contributed to this article.

Image credit: U.S. Air Force

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But, if Information Security professionals are quite familiar with the idea that military contractors are primary and preferred targets of the current Cyberwar as the following infographic shows, realizing that malware can be used to target a drone is still considered an isolated episode, and even worse, the idea of a malware targeting the multirole Joint Strike Fighter is still something hard to accept.

However, things are about change dramatically. And quickly.

The reason is simple: the latest military and civil airplanes are literally full of electronics, which play a primary role in managing avionics, onboard systems, flight surfaces, communcation equipment and armament.

For instance an F-22 Raptor owns about 1.7 millions od line of codes , an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter about 5.7 millions and a Boeing 787 Dreamliner about 6.5 millions. Everything with some built in code may be exploited, therefore, with plenty of code and much current and future vulnerabilities, one may not rule out a priori that these systems will be targeted with specific tailored or generic malware for Cyberwar, Cybercrime, or even hacktivism purposes.

Unfortunately it looks like the latter hypothesis is closer to reality since too often these systems are managed by standard Windows operating systems, and as a matter of fact a generic malware has proven to be capable to infect the most important U.S. robots flying in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, and Indian Ocean: Predator and Reaper Drones.

As a consequence, it should not be surprising, nor it is a coincidence, that McAfee, Sophos and Trend Micro, three leading players for Endpoint Security, consider the embedded systems as one of the main security concerns for 2012.

Making networks more secure (and personnel more educated) to prevent the leak of mission critical documents and costly project plans (as happened in at least a couple of circumstances) will not be aviation and aerospace industry’s information security challenge; the real challenge will be to embrace the security-by-design paradigm and make secure and malware-proof products ab initio.

While you wait to see if an endpoint security solution becomes available for an F-35, scroll down the image below and enjoy the list of aviation and aerospace related cyber attacks occurred since the very first hack targeting the F-35 Lightning II in 2009.

Of course aviation and aerospace industries are not the only targets for hackers and cybercriminals. So, if you want to have an idea of how fragile our data are inside the cyberspace, have a look at the timelines of the main Cyber Attacks in 2011 and 2012 (regularly updated) at hackmageddon.com. And follow @pausparrows on Twitter for the latest updates.

1. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124027491029837401.html
2. http://hackmageddon.com/2011/05/31/insecureid/
3. http://hackmageddon.com/2011/05/26/it-was-only-a-matter-of-time/
4. http://hackmageddon.com/2011/06/02/another-breach-in-the-wall/
5. http://hackmageddon.com/2011/07/15/the-mother-of-all-breaches/
6. http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/09/19/mitsubishi-defense-contractor-hack/
7. http://hackmageddon.com/2011/10/08/oops-my-drone-was-infected/
8. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ2011102415638
9. http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/09/19/mitsubishi-defense-contractor-hack/
10. http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/1215/Exclusive-Iran-hijacked-US-drone-says-Iranian-engineer-Video
11. http://theaviationist.com/2011/12/19/simple-solution/
12. http://news.discovery.com/space/jaxa-virus-data-htv-computer-120113.html

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Since the Italian plane will replace the aging Israeli Air Force A-4s, based on the camouflage color scheme used on the Skyhawk, Al Clark has drawn a digital mock-up of how the M346 in Heyl Ha’ Havir colors could look like.

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One of the last Italian tactical aircraft to wear a “camo” scheme is this Tornado IDS-HARM in a picture taken recently by Giovanni Maduli at Decimomannu airbase.

Although no weapons were delivered during the sortie, the payload of the Joint Strike Fighter’s Conventional Takeoff and Landing (CTOL) variant in this test mission included two AIM-9X air-to-air missiles on the outboard wing stations, two internal 2,000-pound GBU-31 GPS-guided bombs and two AIM-120 AMRAAMs (Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles) inside the two internal weapon bays.

The F-35 had also four external pylons that can carry 2,000-lb air-to-ground weapons.

The 5th Generation multirole fighter is designed to carry up to 18,000 pounds on 10 weapon stations featuring four weapon stations inside two weapon bays, for maximum stealth capability, and an additional three weapon stations on each wing.

Image credit: Lockheed Martin by Paul Weatherman

Along with the B STOVL (Short Take Off Vertical Landing) variant, the CTOL one was selected by Italy to replace the Air Force’s Tornado and AMX bombers.

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The accidednt occurred around 8.00 PM LT.

As usual in similar cases, a special investigation team has been dispatched to determine the cause of the crash.

Noteworthy, the doomed military plane was a U-28A, that is equipped with 21 such aircraft to perform intra-theater transport of small numbers of special operations troops.

The U-28A (where “U” prefix stands for “utilitarian”), purchased at a unit price of 3.5 million USD from the Swiss company Pilatus, is a militarized version of the PC-12. Although much similar in terms of basic design as the civilian plane, the U-28A is equipped with special navigation equipment, weather radar and other undisclosed equipment.

The plane has a crew of two (even if  can be flown by one pilot only) and it is able to operate from short and unimproved runway surfaces

According to the information released by the Air Force Special Operations Command, depending  on the internal configuration, the aircraft can carry up to nine passengers, or about 3,000 pounds of cargo.

Hard to say what the type of mission the aircraft was flying from Camp Lemonnier, a U.S. forward operating base involved in the recent Special Forces raid to free two Western worker in Somalia, but, according to the first rumors, it looks like the aircraft did not crash as a consequence of any hostile act.

Image credit: Flickr/Roberto Gonzalez

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