Two U.S. Army pilots died Sunday in a helicopter accident in Iraq, the military said.

The pilots’ aircraft “made a hard landing” near an airfield on a U.S. base in northern Iraq, a military statement said. “There were no enemy forces present, and no hostile fire was reported.”

The soldiers were assigned to Task Force Marne, which is responsible for U.S. operations in northern Iraq. The location of the base and the soldiers’ identities were withheld pending family notification.

Meanwhile, at least 10 Sunni worshippers were wounded Sunday when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives outside a Sunni mosque outside Tikrit, police said.

The attack occurred about 6:15 p.m. at the Abi Manar al-Alami mosque in the town of al-Alam, east of Tikrit, police officials said.

Its imam, who has the same name as the mosque, has urged people to respect the Iraqi security forces and the law, and had issued a fatwa to forbid attacking Iraqi police and army, police officials said.

Iraq security forces believe al Qaeda in Iraq was behind the attack, officials said.

Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, is located in Salaheddin province, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

MMRCA (Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft) testing begins this month for Eurofighter Typhoon in India as speculation rises as to who may win the new fighter jet deal to supply the Indian Air Force with 126 aircraft.

The Hot and High trials which kicked off last year with Boeings F/A-18 are taking place in Bangalore, over Jaisalmer in the Rajasthan desert under hot weather conditions and in the Leh area of Ladakh – Ladakh meaning “land of high passes” – for high altitude testings.

After having to wait patiently for our turn, finally February sees Eurofighter Typhoon in the hot seat, with the opportunity to put our highly advanced and robust capabilities to the test.

The trials will be heavily supported by the German Air Force, who will provide both the aircraft and appropriate air and ground crews. Two aircraft set off from Rostock/Laage on Monday destined for Bangalore. Eurofighter is excited to be participating in the trials and with a proven hot weather customer, Saudi Arabia, already in service, now is as good a time as any to shine under the Indian sun.

We will make sure to keep you updated with the Typhoon’s progress in India!

BAE Systems has completed the initial flight test of a new real-time persistent surveillance capability for U.S. combat forces to detect, locate, track and monitor events on battlefields and in urban areas — providing significantly greater video coverage over current airborne capabilities.

The first flight tests of the Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System, or ARGUS-IS, occurred aboard a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter. The tests demonstrated the system’s multiple video windows for persistent area surveillance and tracking capabilities for vehicles and dismounted soldiers.

The airborne processing system can simultaneously and continuously detect and track the presence and motion of thousands of small or large targets over an area covering tens of square miles. BAE Systems designed and produced the system’s sensor and processor.

“ARGUS-IS will significantly advance the Army’s capability to protect its troops through improved search and surveillance capabilities,” said Dr. John Antoniades, ARGUS program manager and director of remote sensing technology for BAE Systems.

BAE Systems equipment aboard ARGUS-IS consists of a high-resolution, extreme wide-area, real-time video sensor; an on-board processing system; and ground processing for interactive multi-target designation, tracking, and exploitation.

“The ARGUS-IS system overcomes the fundamental limitations of current airborne surveillance systems,” said Dr. Steven Wein, director of optical sensor systems at BAE Systems. “Very high-resolution imaging systems required for vehicle and dismount tracking typically have a ‘soda-straw’ view that is too small for persistent coverage. Existing wide-area systems have either inadequate resolution or require multiple passes or revisits to get updates.”

Three of the five people who died when a small plane broke apart and tore through a snowy field next to a runway were members of a family visiting from Poland, police said Tuesday.

The victims included 38-year-old Andrzej Zajaczkowski of Warsaw, his 14-year-old son, Patryk, and his 6-year-old nephew, Filip Zajaczkowski, Wall Township police said.

The three were family friends of the plane’s owner, 45-year-old Jacek Mazurek, of Kearny. He was killed in the crash along with the pilot, 46-year-old Wojciech G. Nykaza, of Lodi.

The 6-year-old’s parents were at the Monmouth Executive Airport when the plane went down just before 4 p.m. Monday, but they did not see the crash, police Capt. Timothy Clayton said.

A National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday that it could be more than a year before the cause of the crash is determined.

The twin-engine Cessna 337 had taken off and then circled Monmouth Executive Airport when a piece of the plane fell on the runway, investigator Jose Obregon said. Debris scattered more than 200 feet.

On Tuesday, investigators were measuring where debris fell and inspecting the mangled fuselage as snow fell on the airport. Obregon said pieces would later be taken to an indoor facility where the plane could be taken apart.

While the aircraft did not have a black box data recorder, Obregon said it’s possible that some equipment may have retained data that would offer clues as to why the crash happened.

Obregon said the plane was likely in the air no more than 7 or 8 minutes and would not have reached an altitude of much more than 1,000 feet.

Officials aren’t sure whether the pilot was trying to land or the crash occurred as the plane passed near the runway.