Three USAF C-130 Aircraft Have Been Transferred to Royal Jordanian Air Force.

The Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF), U.S. Air Force (USAF), and the U.S. Embassy in Jordan celebrated the transfer of three C-130 transport aircraft from USAF to RJAF.  

RJAF has received two of the C-130 aircraft since September, with the third scheduled for delivery in January. The C-130 Ramp-to-Ramp (R2R) transfer program is the first USAF program to transfer fully active and functional assets to key security partners.

The three aircraft have received recent equipment updates and upgraded interoperable avionics and are being integrated now into the RJAF fleet. 

RJAF has been flying C-130s for over 50 years. The C-130 fleet supports the Jordanian Armed Forces through airdropping equipment, paratroopers, and cargo, non-military roles including support for disaster relief, humanitarian missions, and medical evacuation missions.  Last year, within days of the tragic explosion in Beirut, Jordanian C-130s were in the air delivering essential supplies to assist the Lebanese people. The RJAF Airlift Wing often deploy C-130s and Jordanian troops in support of UN and coalition operations in Africa and other regions. In follow up to the C-130 transfer, the USAF Mobile Training Team will provide basic and advanced training of Jordanian aircrew and maintenance crews, in line with the U.S. vision to provide a total package approach to capacity building for key security partners. 

usembassy

Two Air Force F-35s Make Rapid Deployment To Jordan To Get Closer To Syria Action

The U.S. Air Force sent two F-35A Joint Strike Fighters to an "undisclosed location" in the Middle East earlier this year, which appears to be Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, demonstrating its ability to rapidly shift assets within the region to respond to emerging contingencies. Just days ago the U.S. military also publicized the flight of an F-35A over an isolated and strategic outpost in southern Syria, which has repeatedly come under attack from Iranian-backed militias and Russian forces in the past.
The two F-35s from 34th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron began flying sorties from their temporary deployment location on Feb. 16, but the Air Force's 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing's public affairs office only posted images of Joint Strike Fighter flight operations from the "undisclosed location" on the official Defense Visual Information Distribution Service website on Apr 20. The 332nd is based at Ahmad Al Jaber Air Base in Kuwait, but also oversees the 407th Air Expeditionary Group, which manages operations at Muwaffaq Salti. Elements of the 34th arrived at Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, home of the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing, in November 2019, marking the start of the second F-35A deployment to the Middle East that year.
thedrive

Germany withdraws Tornados from Jordan, deploys radar system in Iraq

In its capacity as a member of the international coalition against Daesh, Germany will withdraw its Tornado reconnaissance aircraft in Jordan and instead install a radar system for air defense in western Iraq.
The jets have until recently been used against Daesh across Syria and Iraq; however, the German Council of Ministers has since adopted amendments that envision changes in the mandate of 700 soldiers serving within the framework of the international coalition.
The country's Tornado reconnaissance jets in Jordan are scheduled to be withdrawn at the end of the month. However, in order for the Tornado jets to retreat, another country must be able to take over reconnaissance flights, according to the plan adopted by the Council of Ministers.
dailysabah

Jordan receives second Mi-26 heavy-lift helo

The Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) has received into service the second of four Mil Mi-26 'Halo' heavy-lift helicopters from Russia, the service announced on 26 December.
An image of the Mi-26T was posted on the RJAF's official website some 11 months after the first was delivered to Amman in January.
Jordan ordered four of the current production-standard Mi-26T helicopters in September 2016, with two more under option. Deliveries are to run from 2018 through to the end of 2019, with the platforms to be operated jointly between the military and civil services.
While the first helicopter was shown at the SOFEX 2018 defence exhibition finished in the RJAF's current multi-tonal camouflage colour scheme, this second aircraft has been delivered in a low-visibility grey and is devoid of national markings. It is unclear if the different schemes denote the different military or civil roles.
Gareth Jennings-janes

Philippines to receive Cobra helicopter from Jordan

The Philippines has confirmed it is to receive used U.S.-built Cobra helicopter gunships donated by Jordan, marking the first time the country will operate dedicated attack helicopters.
The helicopters were offered to the Philippines sometime in 2017.
Jordan had initially offered to donate four helicopters to the southeast Asian country, although this was later reduced to two. Jordan had earlier donated at least three Cobra helicopter gunships to Kenya from its fleet of almost 50 Cobras, which include ex-U.S. Army helicopters acquired in 2001 and 15 more from neighboring Israel in 2015.
The AH-1F Cobras being donated to the Philippines are capable of utilizing guided anti-tank missiles. The country has already taken delivery of the Israeli Rafael Spike Extended Range missile for its Navy’s fast-attack craft and selected the Spike Non Line Of Sight for its Leonardo AW159 Wildcat naval helicopters,
As such, integrating the Spike, which is already being used on Israel’s Cobra helicopters, would appear to be the likely route for the Philippines when funding is available.
The Philippines has been battling insurgencies on several fronts, including a five-month-long battle with Islamic State-linked militants who seized control of the city of Marawi in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao in May 2017.
The military took back the city after a protracted urban battle with the help of manned and unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft from the U.S. and Australia.
During the battle, the Philippine Air Force conducted airstrikes using fixed-wing aircraft along with Leonardo A109E utility and Hughes MD-520MG light-attack helicopters, although the use of unguided bombs, rockets and gunfire resulted in several instances of friendly fire casualties when troops were accidentally hit by airstrikes while in close contact with the militants.
Mike Yeo - defensenews

Jordan completes Black Hawk deliveries

The Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) has received into service its final batch of new Sikorsky S-70 Black Hawk helicopters.
Delivery of the final UH-60M-standard platforms aboard a US Air Force (USAF) Boeing C-17 Globemaster III strategic airlifter took place in December 2017, and was part of a wider handover that included 12 such helicopters supplied to the kingdom over the nine months.
The build-up of the RJAF’s Black Hawk inventory is geared at reinforcing the defence of border security against Islamic State forces in neighbouring Syria and Iraq, and to enable the Royal Jordanian Army’s Quick Reaction Forces to immediately deploy anywhere in the country. The US Congress appropriated USD470 million in 2017 to the Jordanian armed forces, including training for pilots, crew chiefs, and maintenance technicians, as well as spare parts, ground equipment, weapons, ammunition and shelters for the Black Hawks.
janes

In Spain, Jordan's King Shows Interest in A400M, C295

King Abdullah II of Jordan showed interest in the A400M airlifter and the multirole C-295 aircraft during his visit to the Airbus Defence and Space factory in Getafe near Madrid.
King Abdullah visited the facilities of Airbus with King Felipe VI of Spain. Both monarchs took a photo inside the cockpit of an A400M already prepared to be delivered to the British Royal Air Force.
In July 2014, Jordan announced an agreement with US company ATK to convert a Royal Jordanian Air Force C-295 into a gunship to provide “additional capabilities, more firepower and flexibility for the defense of the Kingdom.” That new C-295 will join two smaller AC-235s made by Airbus in Spain and also modified for ground attack by ATK.
evillarejo@defensenews.com defensenews

Israel to supply Jordan with UAVs to combat the Islamic State

Jordan has finalised a deal with Israel for the procurement of strategic and tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to help combat the Islamic State.
The deal encompasses Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Heron TP strategic and Elbit Systems Skylark tactical UAVs. While separate system numbers are not given, the report by the Israeli DEBKAfile website says that a total of 12 UAVs of both types are to be delivered.
According to the report, the systems are needed to support Jordanian special forces that are currently engaged in ground operations in Iraq, although there has been no independent corroboration of this claim.
Having first entered service with the Israeli Air Force in 2010, the Heron TP is the service's largest and most sophisticated UAV with a wingspan of 26 m and an all-up weight of 4,650 kg. With a stated operating altitude of 45,000ft (although it is believed it can fly higher), the Heron TP is reported to have a 40-hour endurance. Although the Heron TP's range ISRfigures have not been disclosed, the platform's satellite communications (SATCOM) enable over-the-horizon operations.
janes

Jordan orders PC-9 trainers

The Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) has ordered nine Pilatus PC-9M turboprop training aircraft, a simulator, training equipment, and a comprehensive logistics package.
Deliveries will begin in January 2017.
The RJAF currently has Slingsby T67 Firefly basic trainers and CASA C-101 Aviojet advanced trainers.
janes

French Carrier Charles de Gaulle Bound for India After Two Months of Strikes Against ISIS

French carrier Charles de Gaulle has left the Persian Gulf after about two months of strike operations against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL).
The nuclear carrier is now bound for India for exercises with the Indian military.
In its time in the region, the carrier launched an average of 10 to 15 sorties a day with its compliment of about 20 strike aircraft — a mix of Dassault Rafale M aircraft and Dassault Super Etendard Modernisé (SEM).
The strike missions were in support of the U.S. led Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) missions against ISIS.
The departure of the carrier “brings France’s contribution to the anti-Isis air effort down to six Rafales based in the UAE and six Dassault Mirage 2000 in Jordan.
usni

Royal Jordanian air force to get more Sniper pods

The Royal Jordanian Air Force is set to get 10 more Lockheed Martin AN/AAQ-33 Sniper Advanced Targeting Pods.
The Sniper pods were the ones fitted to UK Royal Air Force (RAF) Harrier GR.9 ground-attack aircraft under an urgent operational requirement to give them the capability to designate targets for their Paveway IV laser-guided bombs to support operations in Afghanistan.
The pods became surplus to the RAF's requirements after it retired its Harriers in 2010 as it uses the Rafael Litening III pod on its Tornado and Typhoon jets.
janes

US Lawmakers Push White House to Sell MQ-1 Predator Drones to Jordan

Members of Congress are pushing the Obama administration to embrace a plan to lend older-model, surplus drones to Jordan for the fight against the Islamic State.
In a Republican-led letter to the White House, 23 House members said Monday that Jordan should be allowed to borrow U.S. Air Force-owned MQ-1 Predator drones.
The Air Force is currently replacing its MQ-1 fleet with the more advanced MQ-9 Reapers, which are more heavily armed. As a result, a portion of the fleet of older Predators is currently not in use, and those drones aren’t considered critical to U.S. missions.
Predators typically carry two Hellfire missiles. A congressional official said that under the plan, the U.S. would loan three or four Predators to Jordan. That would be enough drones to keep at least one aloft around the clock.
Jordan is an active member of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and has intensified its involvement after a Jordanian pilot captured by the extremist group was burned to death while locked in a cage.
In meetings with members of Congress, Jordan has requested clearance to purchase armed and unarmed drones from General Atomics.
The U.S. Air Force has a shortage of drone pilots, making it difficult for the U.S. to fly the surplus predators themselves. Jordanian pilots, trained to fly F-16 fighters, could be relatively easily retrained to fly the drones.
Jordanian fighter planes have mostly struck fixed targets in Syria, rather than moving vehicles or other so-called dynamic targets. Acquiring their own drones could expand the range of targets Jordanian forces could strike.
wsj

French Charles de Gaulle Aircraft Carrier Launches first attacks in Gulf against ISIS

French aircraft carrier launched operations in the Gulf on Monday.
Four Rafale fighter jets took off in the morning from the carrier as it sailed about 200 kilometers (120 miles) off the coast north of Bahrain in the direction of Iraq.
The Charles de Gaulle left its base in Toulon on Jan. 13 for a five-month mission that will include eight weeks in the Gulf working alongside the USS Carl Vinson as part of the coalition launched after IS seized swathes of Syria and Iraq last year.
The French carrier is then to travel to India, where it is due to take part in exercises in mid-April.
Carrying 12 Rafale and nine Super Etendard fighters, the carrier will significantly increase French air capabilities in the region.
France has nine Rafales in the United Arab Emirates and six Mirage fighters in Jordan operating in Iraq, along with a maritime patrol and a refueling aircraft.
The warship's deployment will cut in half the time it takes for planes to reach Iraq for strikes against IS from the base in the UAE.
The Charles de Gaulle strike group also includes an attack submarine, a French anti-aircraft frigate and the HMS Kent, a British anti-submarine frigate.
It arrived in the Gulf on Feb. 15 after a month of operations in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
defensenews

Bahrain sent F-16 fighters to Jordan

Bahrain announced Sunday that it will support Jordan with tropos, as a commitment to the efforts of international coalition to combat terrorism.
The decision comes within the framework of bilateral cooperation between Bahrain and Jordan and is based upon the Joint Arab Defence Agreement.
petra.gov

USAF F-22s escorted Jordanian fighters for airstrikes in Syria

U.S. Air Force F-22s and F-16CJs escorted Jordanian fighters for recent airstrikes in Syria.
The American stealth jets are now part of the "standard strike package" used by U.S. and coalition aircraft in the fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
Jordan's airstrike on targets included dozens of weapons releases targeting multiple storage and staging facilities. U.S. officials in the U.S. Central Command combined air operations center tasked the F-22s and F-16s for escort of the Jordanian aircraft.
airforcetimes

UAE sends F-16s to Jordan to fight Islamic State

The United Arab Emirates said Saturday it ordered a squadron of F-16 fighters to Jordan, which an official said would participate in airstrikes on the Islamic State group after the UAE earlier suspended its involvement.

The UAE fighter jets will participate in airstrikes on Islamic State targets, said a Jordanian official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the issue to journalists.

The UAE announcement, carried by the state news agency WAM, did not say what role the Emirati warplanes would play. An Emirati official declined to elaborate.

 usatoday

Jordan Stops Bombing ISIS After Jet Goes Down In Syria

The Islamic State has released what it claims is an interview with the Jordanian pilot whose F-16 went down near Roqqa, Syria last week. Jordan is part of the U.S.-led coalition that is staging airstrikes against that group. It's also known as ISIS and ISIL.
First Lieutenant Moaz al-Kasasbeh was taken prisoner. And, in its English-language magazine, the Islamic State quotes him as describing the operation that he was part of. One question posed by the capture of the Jordanian airmen, is what impact this may have on Jordan's role in the coalition. And joining us from Amman is Rula Al Hroob. She's a member of Jordan's parliament. Welcome to the program.
RULA AL HROOB: Welcome. Thank you for having me.
SIEGEL: Lieutenant Kasasbeh happens to be the first pilot who has been captured by ISIS. He happens to be Jordanian. To the best of your knowledge, as a member of Jordan's parliament, are Jordanian pilots in the air these days still flying missions, or has there been some suspension?
HROOB: Yes. We have temporarily frozen our involvement in bombing the site of ISIS right now, after Kasasbeh has been captured. This should not be a permanent decision, as I believe, but, perhaps, a kind of step back to think and reflect and get the deal done with.
SIEGEL: How would you describe the reaction of Jordanians to Lieutenant Kasasbeh falling into ISIS's hands?
HROOB: Well, actually, we have the people who were strongly against our involvement in this war, get more stronger now, because they're talking about a thousand Kasasbeh to come if we continue participating in this war. We have the strong supporters of ISIS. They're still in their place, but, for the undecided. Now they're shifting a little bit towards being more enthusiastic of at least getting revenge from ISIS in case they kill Lieutenant Kasasbeh.
SIEGEL: Do you think it is even remotely possible that the Jordanian government would negotiate some kind of swap? A person who was arrested in an al-Qaida-backed terror plot, for example, in exchange for their pilot who is - whom Jordan would see, I assume, as a prisoner of war.
HROOB: Personally, I have spoken to some very high-ranking officials in the government, and I have heard their assurances to me that Jordan will do whatever is necessary to get Lieutenant Kasasbeh out of there. And we have no red lines whatsoever. Jordan is willing to get Kasasbeh out, no matter what the price was.
SIEGEL: Does that include, possibly, staging a rescue mission - taking military action to get him out?
HROOB: Of course. This might be one of the actions that is already, perhaps, they're being done on the ground right now. We have some military intelligence over there in Iraq and Syria. And we have lots of intelligence informers, you might say, there. And we're in a good position to run a negotiation with them in case we wanted to get Lieutenant Kasasbeh out. We are also talking with the Turks and with other allies to get this matter solved.
SIEGEL: Ms. Hroob, thank you very much for talking with us about it today.
HROOB: Thank you.
SIEGEL: That's Rula Al Hroob, who's a member of the Jordanian parliament. She spoke to us from Jordan's capital, Amman. We should note that a U.S. military official told NPR that the Jordanians are still flying bombing runs over Syria, and that there is no indication that they have paused since the downing of their pilot.
npr.org

Pentagon denies attempted Special Operations raid in Syria to Rescue Jordanian F-16 Pilot

U.S. military officials on Friday denied reports that the U.S.-led military coalition overseeing operations in Iraq and Syria launched a Special Operations raid in the Islamic State’s stronghold, following a burst of claims from activists in the region.
Media reports raising the possibility of an attempted raid in Raqqa surfaced after a group known as “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently” detailed what it described as two failed approaches by coalition aircraft. The organization said in an English-language report that the city “witnessed an unusually intense aerial campaign” by coalition fighter jets on Thursday, and that helicopters “attempted to make an airborne-landing operation to free and rescue western hostages captured by ISIS in the eastern Raqqa countryside,” using one of the acronyms for the Islamic State militant group.
“The mission failed when the helicopters were met by ISIS fighters who directly opened fire at them forcing them to take off,” the activist group said.
One of the activists, said in an interview from Turkey that eyewitnesses about 15 miles east of Raqqa heard intense aerial drone activity Thursday night. The sky was lit up brightly with gunfire and illuminated with flares, and two helicopters attempted to land around 11:30 p.m., the activist said.
washingtonpost

France To Send 6 Mirage Jets To Jordan Against Islamic State

The French government said that six Mirage fighter jets would be deployed to Jordan on Thursday to assist in the fight against the Islamic State group.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls had already on Sunday announced the deployment of the fighters to Jordan, to join forces against the extremist group in Iraq but the arrival of the warplanes was expected at the end of the month.
France already has nine Rafale fighter jets in the United Arab Emirates as it participates in US-led airstrikes in Iraq.
Paris has however declined to take part in operations in Syria, where IS has also overrun large swathes of territory.
defensenews

Pakistan receives surplus Jordanian F-16s

The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has received into service 'a squadron' of F-16 fighter aircraft from the Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF).
The F-16A/B fighters have just recently arrived in Pakistan, and will be used to augment the PAF's existing F-16 fleet, which is heavily involved in counterinsurgency operations along the country's border area with Afghanistan.
The purchase of surplus RJAF F-16s was first mooted in February, with deliveries commencing in April. 12 F-16A and 1 F-16B Block 15 aircraft will be received to increase the size of its jet fleet. All of these aircraft have undergone mid-life upgrades.
Former Jordanian aircraft have been assigned to 19 Squadron at PAF base Mushaf (Sarghoda).
When the deal for the surplus Jordanian aircraft was disclosed earlier in the year, the PAF stated that it had also approached at least two other countries for additional F-16s. The status of these discussions is unclear.
Prior to the Jordanian deal, the PAF fielded 12 F-16C and 6 F-16D Block 50/52 jets, and between 45 and 50 F-16A/B aircraft. These earlier aircraft have now all been upgraded to Block 52 standard by Turkish Aerospace Industries.
janes