air force

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Thursday paid tribute to the Greek air force pilot who was killed when his Mirage 2000-5 crashed into the central Aegean shortly before landing on the island of Skyros earlier in the day.

The fast-tracking of procedures to implement a 1-billion-euro defense program was agreed on Monday during a meeting of the Parliament's Arms Committee. The decision was taken after a confidential briefing of the committee regarding the immediate needs of the country's land, naval and air forces, Ekathimerini reported.

The Bulgarian Defense Ministry chose the Russian MiG Aircraft Corporation to provide the Air Force with the integrated logistics service for its 15 MiG-29 fighters for the next 48 months, Jane's 360 reports.

Bulgarian Defense Minister Krassimir Karakachanov signed the agreement on March 6 after talks with the Russian company ended on February 16th.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he wants the US military to create a new "space force," adding to the Pentagon's current ground, navy and air forces.

Trump told troops at the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station near San Diego that the new group would be able to encapsulate the "tremendous amount" of work the military and government are doing in space-related defense.

Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Ononera welcomed the deployment of US F-35A fighters at the Japanese Air Force Base in Misawa, said local Asahi Shimbun newspaper quoted by Focus News Agency.

A decision on whether Greece will go ahead with updating its air force fleet of 85 F-16s is expected next week after a weekend visit by a team of nine representatives of the American government and eight representatives of US aerospace firm Lockheed Martin aimed at exploring whether a deal can be reached.

The Croatian website index.hr reported this on Friday, citing Israeli outlets the Jerusalem Post and the Times of Israel.

Netanyahu met with Plenkovic in Davos, Switzerland, and according to a statement from his cabinet, they "agreed to move forward on the sale of Israeli F-16s to Croatia according to the terms of the tender."

Authorities in Qatar have denied that Qatari fighter jets intercepted two Emirati aircraft after the United Arab Emirates said that its civilian jets were accompanied by warplanes./ Aljazeera

Qatar's foreign ministry released a statement on Monday saying the claim was false. 

The US is asking for 1.62 billion dollars to upgrade 85 F-16 fighter jets belonging to the Hellenic Air Force to F-16Vs or Block 70s, Kathimerini understands. 

The price tag is significantly higher than the 1.1 billion dollars announced by the government and the prime minister in Parliament.

The government approved additional funds up to BGN 19 970 000 to repair 15 MiG-29 fighter jets.

 This is the second tranche for this year. The first - amounting to BGN 9 630 000, was disbursed in January.