An Iranian fighter jet tried to intercept a US Predator drone over the Gulf but backed off after encountering two American military aircraft, the Pentagon said Thursday.

Chinese-made missiles have been used to shoot down two Syrian army helicopters, state media reported Thursday, adding their performance could boost the international sales appeal of Chinese weapons.

Singapore is in the final stages of evaluating the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as a possible replacement for its older fighters, the defence ministry said Tuesday.

Two Israeli reservists were killed early Tuesday when their attack helicopter crashed during a training mission in the south of the country, the military said in a statement.

Taiwan has received its final two upgraded early warning aircraft from the United States, a move expected to bolster the island's air defence against rival China, the air force said on on Sunday.

Malaysian fighter jets launched air strikes on a defiant group of Filipino intruders Tuesday as security forces sought to end a three-week incursion that has already killed 27 people.

Japan scrambled fighter jets on Thursday to head off a Chinese government plane flying towards disputed islands in the East China Sea, the defence ministry said.

The Pentagon's director of the F-35 programme said Monday the next-generation US fighter jet could be back in the air within a fortnight after an engine crack forced the grounding of test flights.

The US military suspended all test flights Friday for the new F-35 fighter jet over potential engine problems, officials said, the latest setback for a program dogged by cost overruns and technical glitches.

British arms maker BAE Systems said Thursday that stretched defence budgets weighed on the group's profits in 2012 and warned that fresh cutbacks could force it to axe 3,500 jobs at US shipyard operations.

BAE Systems said on Thursday that crimped US defence budgets weighed on the group's profits in 2012 when it was hit also by the collapse of a mega-merger plan.

British arms manufacturer BAE Systems on Thursday said the company's net profits dropped to £1.07 billion ($1.63 billion, 1.23 billion euros) last year, a 14-percent drop on 2011.

British Prime Minister David Cameron promised full cooperation on Tuesday with an Indian investigation into alleged corruption in a helicopter deal, an issue that has clouded his trip to New Delhi.

British Prime Minister David Cameron heads to India next week with an extensive trade delegation for a visit clouded by a corruption scandal over British-built helicopters.

The leaders of France and India reported good progress on talks to seal a $12-billion fighter jet contract as defence deals dominated the first day of French President Francois Hollande's visit.

The leaders of France and India said negotiations on a $12 billion fighter jet contract, the world's biggest defence deal, were making good progress after talks Thursday in New Delhi.

Two Russian fighter jets violated Japanese airspace on Thursday as Tokyo scrambled its own planes in response, the defence ministry said, reportedly the first such incident in five years.

French fighter jets pounded Islamist supply bases in northern Mali to flush the radicals out of hiding, as Paris pushed on Monday for African troops to quickly take over the offensive.

Thirty French warplanes on Sunday blasted Islamic extremist training and logistics centres in northeast Mali, just hours after President Francois Hollande visited the country, the military said.

Russia warned on Thursday that any Israeli air strike against Syria would be "unacceptable" after the Damascus regime said a military research centre had come under Israeli fighter jet attack.