NATO alliance is responding to the tensions in the Black Sea region caused by Ukrainian crisis (war in Donbas and occupation and militarization of the Crimea by Russia).

The USAF has deployed two F-35 Lightning II aircraft to Bulgaria for the first time, enhancing the region’s ability to host the aircraft for future deployments and operations. The planes are supported by 20 airmen and maintenance equipment. 

According to the official statement of the USAF, the F-35A pilots and supporting personnel will be able to participate in familiarisation training within the European theatre while reassuring allies and partners of US dedication to the enduring peace and stability in the region.

Every military pilot knows, that the greatest threat to his aircraft is the enemy anti air defense net. This usually includes various kinds of radars and SAM platforms. This threat is even greater then enemy air force. That's why electronic warfare – measures undertaken to “blind” enemy radar systems – is so important, and that is why enemy air defenses, alongside with enemy air force, are obvious first targets in modern air warfare.

The US is leading in EW area and continuously is trying to maintain that advantage. A part of it is the newest BAE Systems project called the Adaptive Radar Countermeasures (ARC).

The ARC programme is aimed at enabling airborne electronic warfare (EW) systems to counter new, unknown, and adaptive radars in real-time. This undertaking is developed in cooperation with US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) and BAE BAE Systems has secured a contract modification for it, worth 13.3 million USD.

Airshow China, in the southern city of Zhuhai, offers an opportunity to demonstrate its ambitions in civil aerospace. This is the reason why the J-20 was presented to the public officially.

Importance and advantages of stealth technology on the modern battlefield is obvious. Military watchers say J-20 is ‘clearly a big step forward in Chinese combat capability’ after its flypast at airshow in Zhuhai. Experts say China has been refining designs in the hope of narrowing a military gap with USA.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has pushed to toughen the armed forces as China takes a more assertive stance in the region, particularly in the South China and East China seas. Also China is set to overtake the US as the world’s top aviation market in the next decade. Of course US won’t let it happen, so in the coming decade we will be witnesses of the quite hard rivalry between those two countries – leader and aspiring one.

Turkey has conducted test firings of domestically manufactured weapons from its Anka (the drone is named after a phoenix-like mythological creature called Zümrüd-ü Anka, alternatively called Anka kuşu (Anka bird) in Turkish language) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

This UAV is equipped among others with a digital flight control system, electro-mechanical actuators, and flight control sensor systems such as GPS, pitot-static, air data computer, navigation sensor, transducers, temperature, pressure, displacement sensors, etc. UAV operations are supported by highly sophisticated ground control system with complete redundancy.