"We are proud of the MicroFalcon mini UAV system. It has demonstrated its long endurance, wide-area surveillance capability to detect targets in all operational environments - in any type of weather, day and night," says Michael Armon, Innocon's CEO.

The MicroFalcon is Innocon's lightest UAV. It provides high quality intelligence and surveillance information required for both the civil and HLS markets, as well as for military over the hill missions.

This UAV has an Innovative structure of boxed type wings with belly mounted payload, which contributes to its high survivability and fast redeployment time cycle.

Moreover, the system is able to give around the clock coverage of the targeted area with its multi UAV control capability. The multi UAV function allows the operator to fly continuously over the target. Both UAVs are controlled and monitored during the whole time from a single ground control station.

Wolfenbarger currently serves as the military deputy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition here and she is one of four female lieutenant generals in the Air Force.

"I am humbled and honored to have been nominated by the President to the rank of general and to serve as commander of Air Force Materiel Command. I look forward to participating in the Senate confirmation process when the time comes. At present, I remain focused on the important Air Force acquisition work I've been charged with," Wolfenbarger said.

A Beavercreek, Ohio, native, Wolfenbarger was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1980 after graduating in the first class with female cadets at the Air Force Academy.

She also holds a graduate degree in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.

The general has held several positions in the F-22 System Program Office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio; served as the F-22 lead program element monitor at the Pentagon, and was the B-2 system program director for the Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB.

She commanded ASC's C-17 Systems Group, Mobility Systems Wing and was the service's director of the Air Force Acquisition Center of Excellence at the Pentagon, then served as director of the headquarters AFMC Intelligence and Requirements Directorate, Wright-Patterson AFB.

Prior to her current assignment, Wolfenbarger was the vice commander of AFMC, Wright-Patterson AFB.

She has been awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Force Commendation Medal, the Air Force Achievement Medal, the National Defense Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Medal.

Wolfenbarger received her third star in December 2009 and became the Air Force's highest-ranking woman in January 2010.

(Courtesy of Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs)

According to official data, Russia has at least 16 Tu-160 aircraft in service. There are plans to increase their number to 30.

“The Tu-160 in service with the Air Force are already undergoing modernization,” Air Force spokesman Col. Vladimir Drik said. “We are planning to receive more than 10 aircraft of this type.”

The Tu-160 is a supersonic, variable-geometry heavy bomber, designed to strike strategic targets with nuclear and conventional weapons deep in continental theaters of operation.

The modernized version, Tu-160M, features new weaponry, improved electronics and avionics, which double its combat effectiveness.

The upgraded aircraft will remain in service until a fifth-generation strategic bomber is developed, the Air Force officials earlier said.

Russia will also modernize about 30 Tu-22M3 Backfire-C strategic bombers to a Tu-22M3M variant by 2020.

The arrival of last F-16 D Block 52 aircraft marked the completion of delivery of 18 aircraft of this category.

The other two F-16 Block 15 aircraft, which arrived today, were earlier sent to USA for Mid Life Upgrade and have been delivered to PAF on time.

To commemorate the ceremony, a simple ceremony was held at PAF Base Shahbaz, which was attended by large number of PAF officials.

The F-16 C/D Block 52 aircraft is a high tech fighter aircraft equipped with state-of-the-art avionics suite and latest weapons with Night Precision Attack capability.

Check out latest pictures of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) F-16 fighter aircraft in our Pictures Gallery below.

UK's Minister for International Security Strategy Gerald Howarth took up the issue of India's decision to select the French Rafale aircraft during delegation-level meeting with Minister of State for Defence MM Pallam Raju, sources said.

The British delegation insisted that the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter offered by the EADS was the best available aircraft and better than Rafale, which has been selected by India, the sources said.

The Rafale beat the Eurofighter in terms of pricing to emerge as he lowest bidder in the multi-billion dollar contract whose actual amount is yet not known.

The development comes six days after "disappointed" British Prime Minister David Cameron said he would do "everything he can" to "encourage" India to reconsider its decision on the biggest-ever military contract announced on January 31.

Noting that the contract had not yet been awarded to the French firm, he told Parliament on February one, "Of course, I will do everything I can, as I have already, to encourage the Indians to look at Typhoon."

"The decision is obviously disappointing," Cameron had said, adding that Eurofighter Typhoon was "a superb aircraft, with further capability than Rafale and we will try to encourage the Indians to take that view".

The British delegation comprising over 20 defence firms is on a five-day visit to India to meet key decision-makers and potential partners in the crucial sector.

The mission is organised by the UK's Trade and Investment Defence and Security Organisation (UKTI DSO) in cooperation with UK trade association Aerospace Defence Security (ADS).

India conveyed its willingness to share some of its documentation on the MMRCA contract during a meeting between defence minister AK Antony and his Brazilian counterpart Celso Amorim.

"Brazil is in the process of buying a fighter jet. You have already reached the final stages of the fighter selection for the air force. They have promised to give us some documents on the selection process, such as basic rules on the tender process that we could compare to ours," Amorim told TOI.

Amorim met Antony and national security advisor Shiv Shankar Menon on Monday in New Delhi, and the two sides held bilateral defence consultations at various levels.

Amorim said Brazil was eager to learn from India's process of finalizing Rafale, the French fighter, for the over $10 billion MMRCA contract. It is one of the world's biggest defence tenders right now.

Brazil is looking to buy 36 new fighters for its air force. The tender had left it open to the possibility of the number of fighters going up to 120. The tender could run into several billion dollars, though the initial estimate was just $2.2 billion. Brazil has already made a pre-selection of three fighters - Rafale, F-18 and Gripen-NG and one will finally be selected.

"Wherever there is a possibility we should always look for sharing of experience, of course while respecting confidentiality," Amorim said. "Sharing of experience doesn't mean we follow your decision," he added. The minister also said they would be looking at discussing Indian experience of building a fifth generation fighter with Russia.

Brazil is also providing India an exclusively developed catalogue of NATO military equipment, in which India was interested, he said.

According to Secretary of the Air Force, Michael Donley, the Air Force is shaping itself for future challenges by realigning Air Force assets with the Defense Department's new strategic guidance.

"We've had to adjust our force structure based on our strategic objectives and to balance capability and capacity with constrained budgets," Donley said. "We must have the right tools and enough of them to credibly deter potential adversaries and to deliver on our objectives."

The new strategic guidance requires the joint force to be capable of fighting one large scale, combined arms campaign with sufficient combat power to also deny a second adversary, and de-emphasized large-scale, prolonged stability operations. The Air Force's approach to this new strategy is to retire fighter, mobility, and ISR that are beyond those needed to meet the capacity requirements of the new defense strategic guidance.

"Where possible, we attempted to retire all aircraft of a specific type, allowing us to also divest the unique training and logistic support structure for that aircraft," Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz explained. "When that was not possible, we worked to retire the oldest aircraft first, and redistributed aircraft into effective and economical units, eliminating other units when that was most efficient. Where we retained older aircraft, we are taking steps to ensure they will remain viable into the future."

Although the U.S. has removed all combat forces from Iraq and the new strategic guidance reduces the steady state requirement for ground forces, the Air Force expects steady state rotational requirements to remain constant, or perhaps increase.

According to Schwartz this continuing combatant commander requirement for Air Force aircraft and Airmen to deploy forward was a key factor in determining the required mix between Active and Reserve component forces due to differences in sustainable deployment rates and operations tempo.

Schwartz also explained the need for reductions in the Reserve Component.

"Two decades of military end strength and force structure reductions in our active duty component has changed the mix of active duty to Reserve Component forces," Schwartz said. "We've carefully considered the mix and what the appropriate balance should be between the active and reserve components. The Reserve Component is a critical and essential part of our Total Force, but must be balanced and matched appropriately within a constrained fiscal environment."

"We're going to do this intelligently in a way that balances tempo, that keeps the right mix of assets, modern and less modern, in each of the components, and we're doing this in an inclusive fashion with Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve leadership," said Schwartz.

The Air Force is going to get smaller, and all of the components--active, guard and reserve-- are going to get smaller together, he said.

Schwartz also emphasized that we will avoid a hollow force by protecting readiness at any force level, and strengthen our integration of the Total Force team of Active Duty, Guard, and Reserve Airmen.

"To ensure an agile and ready force, we made a conscious choice not to maintain more force structure than we could afford to properly train and equip," Schwartz said. "We've taken this approach to preserve the capabilities the Nation requires of its Air Force."

The announcement specifies the force structure changes experienced by the Total Force: Air Force Active Duty, Air National Guard, and Air Force Reserve and will save the Air Force $8.7 Billion over the next five years.

For fiscal years 2014-2017 the Air Force plans to reduce 50-plus aircraft from its inventory, continue to reshape the missions between the Total Force, and increase Reserve Component participation in the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance as well as cyber missions.

Implementation of these actions will occur only after completion of appropriate environmental analyses. The Air Force is scheduled to announce related force structure manpower changes in March.

For more details about the Fiscal 2013 Force Structure changes click here.

(Mitch Gettle, Air Force Public Affairs Agency contributed to this article)

He pointed out that the Korean military has clearly outlined the two key features as compulsory requirements in its request for proposal (RFP) released Jan. 30.

“The maximum speed of the F-35 Lightning II, which is still under development, is Mach 1.6, the bare minimum the Air Force has stated as a mandatory requirement,” the insider familiar with the RFP said.

“The question is whether Lockheed Martin’s F-35 can prove itself to fly at such an ideal speed as advertised when a team of Air Force pilots test fly the aircraft later this year.”

The Air Force is scheduled to carry out testing and evaluations on the F-35 and its two rivals, Boeing’s F-15 Silent Eagle and EADS’s Typhoon, from June through September before announcing its selection in October.

The winner of the FX-III project, the third and final phase of Korea’s advanced fighter jet procurement project, will deliver 60 high-end aircraft from 2016 for around 8.29 trillion won ($7.26 billion).

The industry source said the F-35, the only fifth generation stealth aircraft offered on the market, will most likely perform worse than Lockheed Martin has assured when the Air Force checks the U.S. defense giant’s latest multirole, single-engine aircraft.

“What is certain to happen is that the U.S. government will provide assurances to the Air Force that the F-35 will be able to fly at Mach 1.6 by overcoming all of the technical glitches and development problems by the time it is delivered to Korea,” the source said.

“Eventually, this will pave the way for Lockheed Martin, the favorite choice for the U.S. government, to get away with the compulsory requirement and win the FX-III bid. All the broken promises will only cost millions of dollars in penalties.”

Another industry insider pointed out that Lockheed Martin will be unlikely to complete its envisioned development of external pods and pylons for its latest stealth aircraft in time.

“Lockheed Martin has boasted that its aircraft is capable of carrying weapons not only internally, but also externally on its six external missile pylons,” he said. “But it will be physically impossible to complete the development of the external pylons by the time the F-35 is delivered to Korea.”

Randy Howard, Lockheed Martin’s director of the Korea F-35 Campaign, also acknowledged that the external carriage may come as an option for Korea.

“Lockheed Martin did not cancel it, the U.S. government prioritized it,” Howard said, explaining why doubts have been raised over the development of the F-35’s external hard points.

“The F-35 is designed to carry weapons internally. That’s what it does, and that’s why it is stealthy.”

He argued that the F-35’s primary attribute, the ability to penetrate into the enemy’s territory without being detected, will be significantly compromised if Korea chooses to mount weapons externally.

“If you carry weapons externally, you are not stealthy. That’s not normally how you are going to operate F-35s,” he said.

He did note that if Korea insists on the F-35 to have an external carriage, his company is willing to customize it.

“It is only a question of prioritization of weapon certification,” he argued.

“If there are requirements for the external carriage of different weapons, it is not a hard thing because all of the capabilities are there.”

Other industry officials, however, refuted Howard’s claim, saying the development of external pylons not only reduces the aircraft stealth capabilities, but also requires a fundamental change in the aircraft design, which the USAF is not willing to pay for.

The Government of Poland has requested a possible sale of 93 AIM-9X-2 SIDEWINDER Block II Tactical Missiles, 4 CATM-9X-2 Captive Air Training Missiles, 65 AIM-120C-7 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, 42 GBU-49 Enhanced PAVEWAY II 500 lb Bombs, 200 GBU-54 (2000 lb) Laser Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) Bombs, 642 BLU-111 (500 lb) General Purpose Bombs, 127 MK-82 (500 lb) General Purpose Bombs, 80 BLU-117 (2000 lb) General Purpose Bombs, 4 MK-84 (2000 lb) Inert General Purpose Bombs, 9 F-100-PW-229 Engine Core Modules, 28 Night Vision Devices plus 6 spare intensifier tubes, 12 Autonomous Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation P5 pods, a Joint Mission Planning System, and five years of follow-on support and sustainment services for Poland’s F-16 fleet, spare and repair parts, support and test equipment, publications and technical documentation, system overhauls and upgrades, personnel training and training equipment, U.S. Government and contractor technical support, and other related elements of program support. The estimated cost is $447 million.

Poland is an important ally in Northern Europe, contributing to NATO activities and ongoing U.S. interests in the pursuit of peace and stability. Poland’s efforts in peacekeeping operations in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to serve U.S. national security interests. It is vital to the U.S. national interest to assist Poland to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability.

The proposed sale will improve Poland’s capability to meet current and future operational needs. The upgrade will allow Poland to continue to bolster its regional leadership while increasing NATO interoperability. Poland already has these missiles and munitions in its inventory and will have no difficulty absorbing the additional systems into its armed forces.

The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region.

The prime contractors will be Raytheon Corporation in Tucson, Arizona, Raytheon Corporation in Waltham, Massachusetts, The Boeing Company in St. Charles, Missouri, McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in McAlester, Oklahoma, and United Technologies Corporation in Hartford, Connecticut. There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale.

Implementation of this proposed sale will not require the assignment of any additional U.S. Government or contractor representatives to Poland. However, periodic travel to Poland will be required on a temporary basis in conjunction with program, technical, and management oversight and support requirements.

There will be no adverse impact on the U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale.

This notice of a potential sale is required by law and does not mean the sale has been concluded.

With the production schedule of the F-35 jet repeatedly postponed due to technical problems, the Pentagon will upgrade 350 aging F-16 fighters to fill the gap in the fleet, Air Force leaders told reporters.

"The issue with respect to F-35 is that obviously the planes are not delivering as quickly as originally anticipated," said General Norton Schwartz, the Air Force chief of staff.

As a result, the Air Force needed "to posture the legacy force to make sure that we retain the capabilities we need until the F-35 delivers in numbers," he said.

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, is touted as the backbone of America's future air fleet but an ambitious production timeline has unraveled due to technical headaches that emerged in initial flight tests.

Officials discussed extending the service life of the F-16s as they unveiled details of the Air Force's proposed budget for fiscal year 2013.

Despite production delays for the F-35, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley insisted the government remained fully committed to the program and to purchasing a total of 2,443 of the aircraft as planned.

"This is a must-do for our armed forces. It's the future of the fighter force, not only for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, but also about 12 other international partners as well," he said.

At an estimated $385 billion, the F-35 is the Pentagon's most expensive weapons program. The military had hoped to have 423 of the F-35 fighters built between 2013 and 2017 but has had to slash the number down to 244.