The past year in military aviation was seemingly dominated by three letters: KC-X, the troubled and contentious US Air Force program to procure a new aerial tanker. Also making headlines was the ongoing battle over continued funding for the advanced, but costly, F-22 Raptor fighter... continued tensions between the US and a newly-resurgent Russia... and sadly, the December downing of an F/A-18 in a San Diego neighborhood.

January

• Boeing submits its final KC-767 Advanced Tanker (AT) proposal for the US Air Force's KC-135 Tanker Replacement Program, the latest development in a saga that spans over five years, and one prior awarding of the contract to the planemaker.

• Aero-TV flies with the 920th Rescue Wing
• Russia announces the second successful test-firing of its new RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile, the latest display of that country's resurgent military strength, fueled by oil revenues
• In one of the most intense air strikes to date in the nearly five-year Iraq war, US aircraft unleashed a massive barrage of firepower against suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq safe areas south of Baghdad.
• An investigation into what led to the in-flight breakup of an F-15C Eagle fighter in November 2007 uncovers structural beams in several aircraft that weren't up to spec.
• The US Navy's final report on the April 2007 loss of an F/A-18 pilot during a performance of the Blue Angels aerial demonstration team concludes the pilot failed to properly tense his muscles to counter the g-forces from a high-speed turn.
• Three members of a US Navy crew were killed, and one critically injured, after their MH-53 Sea Dragon hits the ground and explodes near Corpus Christi, TX.
• USMC officials say the MV-22 Osprey has performed admirably in the three months since Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 arrived at Al Asad, Iraq.

• Acting on pressure from Congress to take more drastic action to keep leftover F-14 Tomcat parts from falling into enemy hands, President Bush signs legislation prohibiting the Pentagon from auctioning off those parts

February

• Federal authorities reveal a woman suspected of selling sensitive military technology to Iran and China was apprehended in December 2007 at San Francisco International Airport.
• In his FY 2009 budget plan, President Bush opts to leave several defense decisions -- including whether the Air Force will receive more F-22 Raptors -- to the next administration

• A cracked turbine blade in the Pratt & Whitney F135 turbofan destined for installation in the second F-35 joint strike fighter test aircraft raises new concerns about the JSF program, though the manufacturer maintains a fix is in the works.
• A Russian bomber buzzes the Nimitz battle group in the Pacific, raising concerns about Russia's intent and the message it was meant to send
• Boeing announces the long-delayed Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification of Japan's first KC-767 Tanker, earning the agency's stamp of approval in the form of a Supplemental Type Certificate
• A missile fired from a US Navy ship strikes a malfunctioning reconnaissance satellite in low orbit, in an attempt to prevent the hazardous -- and militarily sensitive -- materials onboard from falling to Earth.
• Two US Air Force pilots eject from their B-2 Spirit bomber shortly after takeoff in Guam

• Washington Governor Chris Gregoire threatens possible legal protest if Boeing is denied the KC-X contract win
• Surprising many pundits and US lawmakers, Pentagon officials announce the team comprised of Northrop Grumman and EADS was selected to provide the US Air Force with 179 new tankers

March

• Boeing proponents in the US House and Senate react strongly to the news Boeing lost the KC-X tanker contract bid to rival EADS

• Workers at the Lockheed Martin plant in Marietta, GA vote overwhelmingly in favor of a new three-year contract
• Australia cancels a contract signed with Kaman Corporation in 1997 for 11 Seasprite helicopters, saying only nine helicopters have been delivered in 11 years and flight testing of those delivered turned up safety concerns
• The commander of Air Force Materiel Command, responsible for delivering war-winning capabilities to the rest of the Air Force, says Air Force officials must develop and buy new aircraft or risk the service becoming irrelevant.
• As expected, Boeing files a formal protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) over the KC-X decision
• Speaking of the GAO, Pentagon officials dispute the agency's claiming the Joint Strike Fighter program is at risk of overrunning its originally projected costs by as much as 45 percent
• The mid-American city of Tulsa, OK, comes under surprise attack, after a 22-pound dummy bomb dropped from an Air National Guard aircraft falls on an apartment building
• The Washington Post reports Lockheed Martin and AgustaWestland are in jeopardy of losing the US101 helicopter contract, which calls for delivery of 28 highly advanced VH-71 helicopters, to replace the current fleet of Sikorsky VH-3D and VH-60N helicopters.
• The Missouri Air National Guard pilot who suffered severe injuries when his F-15C broke apart inflight during a November 2007 training mission sues Boeing, claiming the company "should have known" the aging aircraft was "defective and unreasonably dangerous."
• Critics say the Pentagon is playing the Army and Air Force against one another, in its quest to deploy more combat-proven Predator unmanned aerial vehicles to Iraq.
• In the second embarrassment in a year for America's nuclear weapons managers, what was supposed to have been a shipment of helicopter batteries to Taiwan instead turned out to be four electrical fuses for Minuteman nuclear missile warheads

April

• Northrop Grumman puts its best spin on the fact the GAO denied its motion, and one filed by the US Air Force, asking for a partial dismissal of a protest filed by Boeing regarding the KC-X decision process... noting Boeing was forced to remove much of what both parties had objected to from its original bid
• A B-1B Lancer bomber catches fire after landing at an airbase in Southwest Asia. The crew was able to evacuate the plane safely 
• AOPA says the Air Force and the FAA have promised full investigations into two March 21 incidents that occurred in a military operations area (MOA) near Luke AFB, in which general aviation planes were "buzzed" by USAF F-16s
• EADS says its oft-delayed Airbus A400M military turboprop is closer to its first flight. They'd be proven incorrect later in the year
• A US Army investigation into the November 2007 downing of a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter in Italy determines a mechanical problem, and not pilot error, led to the crash
• Washington Congressman Norm Dicks threatens to pull funding from the KC-X program unless the contract goes to rebid, triggering a harsh rebuke from the Pentagon
• With his rotorcraft license still warm, Britain's Prince Harry shows off his newly-acquired skills by landing his RAF Chinook in his girlfriend's backyard
• Workers at the Lockheed Martin plant in Palmdale, CA host four of the last F-117A Nighthawk "stealth" fighters still flying
• A defector from North Korea's military claims he has evidence of what appears to be a North Korean military base being built under a mountain

May

• Two pilots are killed when their T-38C Talon training jet crashes at Sheppard Air Force Base, just north of Wichita Falls, TX. It's the second fatal crash involving the type in eight days

• Pacific Air Forces officials at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii determine rudder failure led to the February 1 loss of an F-15D Eagle approximately 60 miles off of Oahu.
• Ahead of a formal inquest into the September 2, 2006 explosion of a Royal Air Force Nimrod MR2 reconnaissance plane over Afghanistan, the families of the 14 lost servicemen examined an identical aircraft, to learn more about what likely led to the accident.
• Investigators try to figure out how three jet fighter cockpits got diverted from their normal demilitarization process, and wound up in a New Jersey scrap yard
• NATO is accused by the chief of Russia's air force for violation of safety rules while escorting Russian bombers on patrol flights over neutral waters
• Vandalism. That is the assessment by officials with the Department of Defense of damage found on two H-47 Chinook helicopters on the production line at Boeing's plant in Ridley Park, PA

• Defense Secretary Robert Gates gives lawmakers strict instructions regarding the hotly-contested KC-X US Air Force tanker contract: don't listen to statements from either side noting how many US jobs might be created
• Twenty-three sailors are treated for heat stress following a fire onboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington

June

• DoD Secretary Gates asks for the immediate resignations of Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne, citing ongoing problems with oversight of the US nuclear weapons program

• Boeing announces the $1 billion "Wedgetail" surveillance aircraft program won't see its first planes delivered to Australia until 2010, due to continued "systems integration" issues
• Athena Technologies completes a successful flight test of a significantly damaged unmanned F/A-18 subscale model air vehicle, with some 60 percent of the airplane's right wing ejected to simulate battle damage
• Defense Department officials call an air strike in US-allied Pakistan "legitimate" and "self-defense"
• The pilot of an F/A-18C Hornet is killed when his jet collides with an F-5 Tiger near NAS Fallon
• The GAO sustains the Boeing Company’s protest of the Department of the Air Force’s award of a contract to Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation for KC-X aerial refueling tankers
• In its unedited report, the GAO states the Air Force took its level of bungling to new heights in awarding an initial $40 billion contract to a partnership comprised of EADS and Northrop Grumman
• Two men, Hassan Saied Keshari and Traian Bujduveanu, are arrested on charges of conspiring to export military aircraft parts to Iran

July

• Alabama Aircraft Industries files a lawsuit against the US Air Force, stating the service Force improperly awarded Boeing a $1.1 billion maintenance contract on the aging fleet of KC-135 tankers

• Defense Secretary Robert Gates announces the US Air Force will once again reopen bidding on a stalled multibillion-dollar contract to replace its aging fleet of KC-135 aerial tankers with modern aircraft.
• In response to a second straight day of missile tests by its belligerent Islamic neighbor, the state of Israel publicly displays the advanced reconnaissance plane it says can keep a close watch over goings-on in Iran.
• A civilian pilot bravely leaves the controls of his Britten-Norman Islander jump aircraft to free a British military parachute team skydiver who had become entangled in the landing gear after exiting the aircraft.
• A US Air Force B-52H bomber slated to perform a flyover during Guam's Liberation Day parade crashes off the island territory's coast, claiming all six crewmembers onboard
• Michael B. Donley, acting secretary of the Air Force, tells the Senate Armed Services Committee he'll work to re-establish national confidence in the Air Force, in the wake of missteps in the handling of nuclear materials that led to the resignations of the service's top military and civilian leaders
• "The Swoose" -- the oldest surviving B-17 Flying Fortress known to historians, and the  last remaining "D" model --is moved from its former home at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, to the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, OH
• Senior USAF acquisitions official Kenneth Miller resigns in the fallout of the nuclear weapons fiasco, less than two months after his civilian boss was forced out of the service

August

• Hoping to build momentum for the proposal ahead of a new presidential administration, President Bush's nominee for Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, General Norton Schwartz, surprises lawmakers with the announcement he had been given approval to plan for more purchases of the F-35 Lightning II fighter jet between 2010 and 2015

• In its 98-page briefing on amendments and clarifications to the original KC-X request for proposals, the Pentagon says it will place greater emphasis on aerial refueling duties, and capabilities above and beyond the Air Force's original plan. That bodes well for Northrop Grumman and EADS, whose KC-30 offers greater fuel capacity than the smaller Boeing KC-767
• Newly sworn-in Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz pledges to "reinvigorate" his service's acquisition woes and mishandling of nuclear weapons
• A Russian general says Poland's agreement to allow US missile defense batteries to be placed in the formerly communist country may expose Poland to just such an attack
• A report suggests growth in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles to launch deadly attacks is producing a new form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, due to the paradoxical nature of airmen flying the aircraft over battle zones thousands of miles away
• Citing the length of time needed for the company to develop a competitive entrant for the Pentagon's revised KC-X contract bid for a new US Air Force tanker, Boeing says it will likely opt-out rebidding for the $40 billion deal -- ceding the competition to rival Northrop Grumman, and that company's partners at EADS

• Sikorsky completes the first flight of its UH-60M Upgrade Black Hawk helicopter, currently the only fly-by-wire rotary wing aircraft in flight test development within the Department of the Army

September

• Hurricane Hunters from the Air Force Reserve's 403rd Wing at Keesler AFB in Mississippi spend the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina flying into yet another tempest, Hurricane Gustav
• Two of the United Kingdom families who lost sons when a Royal Air Force Nimrod MR2 burst into flames over Afghanistan in September 2006 launch a landmark lawsuit against the Ministry of Defence in Britain's High Court
• A US Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin helicopter goes down during a routine nighttime training exercise south of Honolulu, HI, claiming the four crewmembers onboard
• A 'Hail Mary' proposal from Boeing in hopes of gaining new orders for its C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft may not be needed, according to the four-star general in charge of procuring new cargo planes for the US Air Force

• The Department of Defense notifies Congress and the two competing contractors, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, that it is terminating the current competition for a US Air Force airborne tanker replacement
• The Pentagon dedicates its 9/11 memorial on the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks against America
• Air Force leaders develop a two-pronged approach to address the increasing need for pilots of unmanned aircraft systems in Afghanistan and Iraq
• The Pentagon's top procurement officer says Boeing's bid to supply 68 KC-767s under the initial stages of KC-X came to $15.4 billion... almost $3 billion more than a consortium led by EADS and Northrop Grumman estimated for their larger, newer KC-30A
• Lockheed Martin disputes claims made by industry watchers, claiming "the F-35 is a dog" when compared against Saab's Gripen, the Dassault Rafale, MiG-35 and Sukhoi Su-35, and the Eurofighter Typhoon
• The United States and the Czech Republic sign agreements allowing the US to build a limited ballistic missile defense system to protect Europe from missiles fired from Iran or other rogue nations
• A total of 17 US Air Force and Army officers receive reprimands of varying severity in the case of four electrical fuses for ballistic missile nuclear warheads that were shipped to Taiwan by mistake in 2006

October

• Alabama Aircraft Industries, Inc. announces its AAI-Birmingham subsidiary has won its case before the US Court of Federal Claims against the US Air Force and Boeing, which challenged the Air Force's selection of Boeing for a $1.1 billion contract to perform maintenance services on KC-135 aircraft
• The USAF announces immediate inspections for 127 A-10 Thunderbolt II ground-support aircraft, after fatigue cracking was discovered on the wings of some aircraft
• Officials confirm the plane forced down in late September by Iranian jets was a Hungarian civilian business jet, carrying officials from a military delegation... and was not a US aircraft, as Iran had claimed earlier
• Canadian Forces officials confirm two people were killed in the downing of a CT-114 Tutor jet northwest of 15 Wing Moose Jaw
• EADS North America delivers its first final assembly line (FAL) UH-72A Lakota from the Eurocopter production facility at Columbus, MS
• The Defense Department notifies Congress and the contractor, Bell Helicopter, it will not certify the US Army Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) program for continuation.
• Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates swears in acting Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley as the 22nd Secretary of the Air Force 
• The Air Force announces it will stand up a new major command specifically to manage its nuclear assets
• Inspections are ordered for all US Navy and Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornets after finding stress cracks in aileron hinges on at least 15 planes

November

• Two squadron members of the US Navy Blue Angels are removed from duty for having an 'inappropriate relationship'

• President Dmitri Medvedev outlines specific measures Russia would take if the US proceeds with plans to establish a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic
• Congress and the Pentagon are still at odds over both the scope, and the very continuation of, production of the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor
• Iran test-fires a new short-range missile near that country's border with Iraq... a clear signal to the United States against any violation of Iranian airspace
• A draft Pentagon audit indicates the US Air Force acted appropriately in changing four key bidding requirements in the combat search-and-rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter procurement bid
• Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter flies supersonic for the first time
• Undersecretary of Defense John Young stands his ground before a House subcommittee that grilled him for nearly three hours over funding allocated for the F-22 Raptor
• The Boeing helicopter assembly facility in Ridley Park, PA shuts down its production lines after a misplaced plastic cap was found in a fuel line in a V-22 Osprey fuselage... the second suspicious incident at the plant this year
• The NATO Airlift Management Agency (NAMA) general manager, on behalf of the Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC) nations, signs a Letter of Offer and Acceptance with the US government for the acquisition of two Boeing C-17 Globemaster III long-range cargo jets
• A defense trade publication reports an independent team of Pentagon cost analysts said that previous estimates of time and money required for development and testing of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II are too conservative

December

• Bloomberg reports that if less than 20 F-22 Raptors are ordered in the current fiscal year, Lockheed Martin will invoke a penalty clause in the current procurement contract which obligates the Air Force to pay $147 million to terminate production.

• The VH-71 presidential helicopter replacement program marks another milestone with the maiden flight of the second VH-71 production aircraft
• Three people on the ground are killed when an F/A-18D Hornet impacts a neighborhood two miles northwest of MCAS Miramar
• US Air Force officials release Amendment 7 to the Request for Proposals for the oft-delayed Combat Search and Rescue helicopter program contract... which may finally be awarded sometime in 2009, for the second time.
• The first fully modernized C-5M Super Galaxy is delivered to the US Air Force at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Robins AFB, GA
• Airbus Military finally conducts the first test flight of the TP400-D5 turboprop engine slated to power the A400M airlifter.

FMI: www.aero-news.net