UK in Eurofighter talks with Indonesia: report

Britain is in talks with Indonesia on the possible sale of Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft despite concerns over Jakarta's human rights record, The Times newspaper reported Thursday.

Indonesia informally approached Britain over the potential acquisition of up to 24 jets. The previous Labour government banned defence exports to the country in 1999 amid claims it had used British-made planes to bomb civilians.

The sale would be worth around 5 billion pounds ($8.1 billion dollars, 5.8 billion euros) in total, the paper said, but would be hugely controversial in light of current concern over the source of weapons being used against Arab rebels.

British military company BAE Systems has separately offered to upgrade Indonesia's fleet of Hawk jets, it said.

Gerald Howarth, a British defence minister, will discuss the potential sale when he attends a defence summit in Jakarta later this month, the Times said.

"I fully expect that to be the case," Howarth told the paper. "Typhoon is on their agenda. Their interest shows the extent of interest by countries around the world in what is one of the most sophisticated aircraft anywhere."

Boeing Begins Flight Testing UK Chinook Mk4

The Boeing UK Rotorcraft Support team began flight testing the first Chinook Mk4 helicopter for the Royal Air Force (RAF). First flight took place on 9 December 2010 in Gosport, Hampshire.

“First flight marks an exciting and important event for Project JULIUS. This is a great testament to the industry and MOD team who have worked so hard to achieve this milestone,” said Chris White-Horne, Future Heavy Lift Project Leader for the Ministry of Defence. “JULIUS delivers important new capabilities which will be quickly used on operations in Afghanistan and beyond.”