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A MiG-21 Bison fighter aircraft crashed Wednesday in Luni region of Rajasthan but the pilot ejected out safely, an air force official said here.

‘The aircraft took off from the Jodhpur air base at 12 noon and crashed in the Luni region sometime later. The pilot, Squadron Leader S.P Deb, ejected in time,’ an Indian Air Force spokesperson said.
This is the third aircraft that has crashed in Rajasthan in the past one month. Earlier, the air force lost one of its frontline combat jets Sukhoi-30 MKi and a MiG-29.
From IANS

Future Of Military Aviation Lies With Drones – US Admiral

WASHINGTON –Unmanned aircraft likely represent the future for U.S. military aviation, with next-generation bombers

and fighter planes operating without pilots onboard, the top U.S. military officer said Thursday.

“We’re at a real time of transition here in terms of the future of aviation, and the whole issue of what’s going to

be manned and what’s going to be unmanned,” Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a

Senate hearing.

“I think we’re at the beginning of this change,” Mullen said when asked about plans for developing a new bomber

aircraft.

The use of drones has dramatically expanded just in the past few years, he said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the same hearing that military planners need to answer the question whether a

new bomber would have a pilot in the cockpit or operate as unmanned aircraft. Read more…

T has probably happened only once before – a US President trying hard to cut defence procurement waste by redefining, from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the way the military views the real world. That was just over 48 years ago when the outgoing White House incumbent Dwight D Eisenhower spoke of the dangers inherent in a ‘military-industrial complex’. Now Barack Obama is redefining the way the Pentagon will defend the US, prepare for future wars, structure its armed forces and work with Europe. Announced on April 6, the day some refer to as ‘Black Monday’, defence secretary Robert Gates began to build a list of changes that most agree are long overdue. And that is no bad thing, plus, it may work out well for transatlantic co-operation and the European aerospace industry. The net result may be gain rather than loss but in the clearout to effect major changes, a lot of sacred cows will be sacrificed.
With a 4% increase in the fiscal 2010 defence budget (the US financial year beginning October 1, 2009) and spending up $10bn on the draft budget from the outgoing Bush administration, President Obama is determined to redefine the defence structure of the United States. Read more…