Note! This page will not be updated any longer. The News Bits became a part of the latest news report -- Just In.

December 6-12, 1995

Aerospatiale and the Moscow Aviation Institute will co-develop an experimental scramjet engine for speeds between Mach 2 and 12, which will test flown on a 2 ton vehicle. It will be assembled in Russia. Aerospatiale says that a key is "the cooling of variable surfaces by liquid hydrogen" and new thermal coatings.

India is considering purchasing Mi-24 helicopters. They aren't interested in 15 year old second hand Bylorussian, but rather new ones.

November 22-28, 1995

The Admiral Kuznetzov will deploy to the Adriatic in late December with up to 16 Su-27Ks, eight Su-25UTGs and ten Ka-27/29s and will remain on station for about 100 days.

Production of R-77 will be delayed at least 18 months, as it will be moved from Ukraine to Russia.

Phazotron tries to get their Zhemchoug radar (a Zhuk development) onto the Chengdu F-10. Lyulka says their AL-31F will power it.

Russian has offered MiG-29 to Austria. This is to reduce their dept, and consists of 24 single and six two seaters.

August 30-September 5, 1995

Tupolev has shown another UAV, Tu-300, which is jet-powered, delta-winged, and under development.

NIIP and MiG-MAPO now says that the radar in MiG-31M, Zaslon-M, is now integrated with VympelÍs RVV-AE missile.

Venezuela plans on buying 18 Mi-8 and Mi-17 helicopters.

An engineering mockup of the two-seat, side-by-side, Ka-52 variant of the Ka-50 attack helicopter has been shown. Kamov says it will have a nose-mounted MMW radar.

Raduga is now offering the Kh-58E anti-radar missile for export, and says it and its associated acquisition pod will fit on Mirage IIIE, F-16, F-15E and probably other aircraft.

August 23-29, 1995

The Russian Air Force are testing sequential ejection from the Su-34 (Su-32FN).

An electronic combat version of Tu-22M has been sighted. It has some dielectric fairings and a semi-recessed pod in the bomb bay.

August 16-22, 1995

A photo of what may the front fuselage of a Mikoyan 1.42 used for ejection seat tests is shown. The nose is very pointed, the fuselage triangular in cross section with the stumps of large, mid mounted, canards just behind the cockpit.

July 5-18, 1995

Vympel has shown a R-77 missile with forward folding grid fins, presumably for internal carriage, and also has launched a ramjet-powered version from an Su-27.

The Russian government seems likely to finance the An-70 program, partly because one production line will be situated in Russia.

Sokol (the factory) are flight-testing MiG-31E, an export version based on MiG-31B. Likely customers mentioned are China, Iran, and India.

The Hungarian air force have grounded their MiG-29As, due to a FOD problem. The cause was a rivet from the auxiliary intake, and is now being rectified.

When the Su-32FN (previously Su-34 and Su-27IB) prototype returned to Russia, it was damaged in a landing incident in the Czech Republic.

May 4-30, 1995

The second Su-34 prototype has a slightly stretched nose.

The Vietnamese air force has ordered a small number of Su-27s.

April 26-May 2, 1995

The Czech Republic seems likely to actually upgrade its MiG-21s, old as they are. Presumably much of the upgrade will consist of items on the L-159, like radar, ECM.

April 19-25, 1995

The Czech air force has ordered 72 Aero L-159s to be used as light attack aircraft.

The Russian air force says their A-50 AWACS aircraft also has an optronic system with which it can detect the launch of ballistic missiles at ranges up to 1000 km.

April, 1995 (AFM)

Russian pilots from the State Flight Test Centre who took part of the combat testing of 12 Su-25s in Chechnya have gotten rewards in the form of foreign TV/video sets. For normal flight testing a watch is a more usual reward. Other pilots taking part in the combat have been rewarded with items ranging from blankets to refrigerators.

The Netherlands air force is negotiating for the lease of Su-27s for dissimilar combat training.

Anatoly Belovset of Mikoyan says that MiG-29M and MiG-31M will be the company's last new models to fly this century.

March 29-April 4, 1995

India will not purchase any Su-30s.

Vympel's RVV-AE missile will be exported to Malaysia, and their MiG-29s will be able to attack two targets at a time with them.

March 22-28, 1995

It was a laser-guided Kh-25ML missile launched from a Su-25 that strayed 10 km from the firing range in February and narrowly missed a nuclear power plant.

March 15-21, 1995

The Russian air force has lost one Su-25 in Chechnya and gotten another 14 aircraft damaged.

February 15-21, 1995

Exactly which MiG-29 variant Malaysia is purchasing is a unclear. The Russians say it is MiG-29SE, but an aircraft shown on TV lacks its dorsal hump.

January 25-7 February, 1995

Two Su-34s are now in production, and 12-13 are planned to be built by 1998.

Croatia has purchased an unknown number of Mi-24V helicopters, to be used for casualty evacuation. Therefore they, like their unarmed MiG-21s need not and have not been reported to OSCE. The reported number of MiG-21bis is six, but 12 have been seen in formation.

December 14-20, 1994

Mikoyan plans to fly their Project 1.42 during December.

November 30-December 6, 1994

According to Russian sources, the UAE are going to purchase Su-35s as well as participate in development of Su-37, a Su-35 version customised to use in the Gulf.

South Africa seems to favour a version of the Klimov RD-33, called SMR 95, for an upgrade of their Cheetahs. Or they may not be upgraded at all, but replaced in a decade or so.

Kentron and Vympel discusses air-to-air missile collaboration. Of interest is the use of Agile-Darter's imaging IR seeker on export variants of RVV-AE.