One of the two aggressor squadrons at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, has deactivated. The 65th Aggressor Squadron at Nellis, which flew F-15s, was deactivated Sept. 26, according to the Air Force. This means that Nellis will only have one squadron, the 64th Aggressor Squadron, to serve as adversaries during the large-scale Red Flag exercises at the base, along with Weapons School training. The squadron helped train pilots in F-22s, F-35s, F-15s, F-16s and F/A-18s. “It’s been a great asset for the U.S. Air Force Warfare Center to be able to have the F-15 Eagles here as an aggressor squadron…
Browsing: Air Force
The Air Force yesterday posted it’s new ad campaign, called “New Frontiers.” Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh narrates the commercial, which highlights Air Force history along with new missions and equipment, including the F-35 and CV-22 Osprey. The video was first posted on YouTube yesterday morning, and aired during ESPN’s Monday Night Football and on other networks.
Six F-16 fighter jets and 120 personnel from the 31st Fighter Wing, Aviano Air Base, Italy, will begin a joint training operation Thursday at Lask Air Base, Poland, through Oct. 8, Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren announced Sept. 3. In addition to Air Force units headed to the Baltics, members from the 31st FW will also participate in Ample Strike, a NATO-led exercise with 11 other nations in the Czech Republic. Farther east, Rapid Trident — the first exercise to include 200 U.S. ground troops since the Kiev government began fighting pro-Russian separatists — will take place Sept. 15 to Sept.…
Boeing this week posted this video showing the QF-16 targeting drone in action for the first time as an aerial target at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. The Air Force is in the process of converting older F-16s into optionally manned aircraft for target practice. Currently, the service mostly uses QF-4 Phantoms. The service plans to fly 210 of the aircraft, made up of the Block 15, 25 and 30 variants. This mission was the first time the aircraft was used as an aerial target for a test missile. The QF-4 made its first unmanned flight last fall in…
An Air Force unit is willing to pay more for iPhones than they cost in stores and online, but the story is more complicated than a simple case of the military buying the most expensive hammer in the world. The 48th Fighter Wing in Lakenheath, England, has asked vendors how much it would cost to order 120 iPhone 5s for the wing’s commanders and other essential personnel to replace their BlackBerrys as government-issued phones, said wing spokesman 1st Lt. Keenan Kunst. The wing estimates that the phones will cost $82,518.34 in total, or about $687 per phone. An unscientific online…
Colonel Bernard Fisher, awarded the Medal of Honor in 1967, died over the weekend in Idaho, KBOI 2News reports. He was 87. Fisher was first to receive the Air Force designed Medal of Honor, which was established on April 14, 1965 (The first Medal of Honor received by an airman was awarded to Capt. Edward V. Rickenbacker for aerial combat in 1918). President Lyndon B. Johnson presented the award to then-Maj. Fisher for risking his life to save a fellow pilot shot down during action in the A Shau Valley of Vietnam in 1966. Fisher, who volunteered to go to Vietnam, “landed his Douglas…
A staff sergeant at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, is traveling to France for an international competition of a different sort. Staff Sgt. Jonathan MacPherson, a fuels service center controller with the 673rd Logistics Readiness Squadron Fuels Management Flight, has qualified to compete the world championship of cycle polo. A combination of polo, hockey and cycling that dates back to the early 20th Century. “The best way to describe it is three-on-three hockey,” MacPherson said in an Air Force release. “You put the ball in the middle, somebody counts down, and one person from each team sprints [to the ball] in…
Two Wyoming Air National Guard C-130s are flying fire-suppression missions to help firefighters battle blazes in Idaho and Montana. The crews, assigned to the 153rd Airlift Wing based in Cheyenne, have flown two airdrops and discharged about 3,000 gallons of retardant at the Hard Creek fire in Idaho, four airdrops of about 9,000 gallons of retardant at the Thompson River fire in Montana and four airdrops of about 3,000 gallons of retardant at the Warland fire in Montana, according to the American Forces Press Service. Since July 20, Defense Department aircraft have flown 65 airdrops and dropped more than 114,300 gallons…
Last night, HBO host John Oliver delivered a harsh takedown of issues in the nuclear missile community on “Last Week Tonight.” The segment focused on the cheating scandal, former 20th Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Michael Carey and other problems, including outdated and broken launch control centers. The 15-minute clip included references to past mistakes and mishaps, including the 2007 incident in which a B-52 mistakenly flew with a nuclear payload. Oliver, however, did not mention changes in the Air Force since the cheating scandal broke, which includes overhauling the testing system for missileers, new money for launch control centers and other…
