August 11, 2014 Military Aviation News
08/11/2014
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, on Saturday that "Russia should not intervene in Ukraine under the guise of humanitarian convoys or any other pretext of 'peacekeeping,'" according to a senior State Department official. Kerry urged "all parties to work through international organizations" to provide humanitarian assistance in eastern Ukraine, the official said.
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08/11/2014
Russia and the West are at war – over fruits, veggies, meat and bank loans. The cause is Ukraine, a vast emptiness formerly unknown to the western world, but now deemed a vital national security interest worthy of risking a very scary war. Economic embargoes such as those launched by the US against Russia may seem relatively harmless. They are not. Trade sanctions are a form of strategic warfare that is sometimes followed by bullets and shells.
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08/11/2014
The U.S. military launched four airstrikes Saturday in northern Iraq designed to defend members of the Yazidi religious minority who were coming under attack from Islamic extremists, U.S. officials said. American aircraft also conducted a third airdrop of food and water for thousands of Yazidis stranded on Mount Sinjar, officials said. One C-17 and two C-130 aircraft dropped 3,800 gallons of drinking water and 16,128 meals, and were supported by U.S. fighter aircraft.
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08/11/2014
Australia will not rule out providing military “back-up assistance” to the US in Iraq, the defence minister, David Johnston, has confirmed. The Australian government’s initial focus is on humanitarian airlifts to provide food and water drops to people stranded on Mount Sinjar, but Johnston left the door open to a future role, saying right-minded countries could not “just sit back and watch atrocities unfold on their nightly television without taking some action”.
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08/11/2014
As fifth-generation fighters outgrow the Air Force’s premiere combat training exercise, the service should look to virtual training for pilots to test the limits of the F-22 and F-35, the outgoing head of Air Combat Command said. Red Flag exercises, held four times a year at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, train more than 27,000 people who fly or support air operations of 1,200 aircraft and 20,000 sorties each year, according to the base.
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08/11/2014
Admiral Harry Harris, the Commander of the United States Pacific Fleet, has a reputation as a plain-spoken American military leader. In a long discussion with The Weekend Australian in his Hawaiian office this week, Harris amply fulfilled this high accolade. To render some of the take-outs in their starkest form: Harris thinks China is engaging in destabilising and provocative conduct at sea. He is worried that this could lead to an incident which escalates dangerously.
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08/11/2014
U.S. warplanes made a second wave of airstrikes Friday in northern Iraq against the militants who have besieged a religious group and threatened the city of Irbil, a Pentagon official said.
Rear Adm. John Kirby, spokesman for Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, said the second wave of strikes used a drone to attack a mortar position while four FA-18 fighter-attack planes hit a seven-vehicle convoy outside Irbil.
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08/11/2014
Kurdish forces have regained control of two towns in northern Iraq seized by Islamic State militants, Agence France-Presse reported on Sunday. "The Peshmerga (Kurdish fighters) have liberated Makhmur and Gwer," Peshmerga spokesman Halgord Hekmat told AFP. Hekmat said "US aerial support helped” to liberate the towns. Representatives of the regional authorities also confirmed that the Kurdish troops had recaptured the towns following fierce battles.
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08/11/2014
The United States conducted four additional airstrikes on positions of Islamic State (IS) militants, who took control of several provinces in Iraq, Associated Press reported Sunday, citing the US military. According to the agency, the operation involved manned and unmanned aircrafts of US Air Force. One truck and several armored vehicles, which reportedly were used by the militants to fight civilians, were destroyed as a result of the airstrikes.
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