Special Purpose

Military Aviation News Archive

New Air National Guard Exercise Tests Agility in Michigan

06/09/2022

ir National Guard Airmen and aircraft from around the country are conducting the first Air National Guard Readiness Exercise Program event, Agile Rage 22. This exercise is hosted by the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, part of the National All-Domain Warfighting Center in Northern Michigan, June 4-18.

Lockheed expects to begin deliveries of F-16 combat jets in 2024

06/09/2022

Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) expects to produce its new-build F-16 fighter jets next year and commence deliveries in 2024, its chief financial officer Jesus Malave said on Wednesday. The company has a list of key U.S. allies including Bahrain, Taiwan, Slovakia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia eager to purchase the jet.

U.S. Marine Osprey aircraft with 5 aboard crashes in Southern California just north of Mexico border

06/09/2022

An Osprey aircraft carrying five Marines crashed Wednesday in southeastern California just north of the Mexican border, military officials said. There was no immediate information about casualties or damage to property on the ground due to the crash in Imperial County near Glamis, east of Brawley.

The Ukrainian Air Force Is Sending An Old Aerobatic Jet Into Combat

06/09/2022

More than a hundred days into Russia’s wider war on Russia, the tiny, aging Ukrainian air force still is in the fight. It’s a remarkable feat, considering that the Russian air force has 10 times as many fighters—and most of them are much more modern than Ukraine’s 30-year-old planes are. An old aerobatic fighter jet, apparently returned to service with foreign parts, is a symbol of Kyiv’s continuing aerial defiance.

General Staff: Ukrainian aircraft launch airstrikes on Russian forces in Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts

06/08/2022

On the 104th day of the full-scale war in Ukraine, the Russian army is continuing to storm the city of Sievierodonetsk. Ukrainian helicopters carried out airstrikes on Russian forces in Kherson Oblast and Ukrainian planes attacked Russian ammunition depots in Mykolaiv Oblast.

Vietnam Modernizes Its Military With a Wary Eye on China

06/08/2022

Ukraine’s successes in resisting and even turning back an invasion by a numerically superior Russian force has raised expectations in East Asia that smaller nations in the region could conceivably fend off an attack from a large military like China’s. Taiwan, of course, has long struggled with executing such a defense strategy, but since its strategic considerations are in many ways unique, other countries nominally threatened by China may not be able to draw as many lessons from Taipei’s experi

What will Sweden and Finland contribute to NATO air power?

06/08/2022

As an unintended result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden will abandon their historical stance of neutrality and want to join NATO. But what combat power will their Air Forces bring to the table? First, it should be noted that both the Swedish and Finnish armed forces have, over the years, developed great interoperability with their neighboring NATO partners, honed through multiple bilateral and multilateral exercises.

U.S., South Korea show off air power in message to North Korea after missile launches

06/08/2022

The United States and South Korea conducted a joint air power demonstration on Tuesday, Seoul said, flying 20 fighter planes in the allies' latest response to North Korea's ballistic missile launches last weekend. The exercise consisted of four U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jets and 16 South Korean combat aircraft, including F-15Ks, KF-16s and F-35A stealth fighters, flown in attack formation over the sea west of Korea.

Chinese Fighters Intercept, ‘Flip Off’ RCAF Combat Aircraft

06/08/2022

Canadian government sources told a news agency that Chinese fighters have repeatedly intercepted Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) aircraft participating in a U.N.-sanctioned operation in international airspace. The Global News report, quoted in a Newsweek article, said, “Those jets are frequently flying as close as 20 to 100 feet from the Canadian plane,” adding that Canadian pilots “sometimes see them raising their middle fingers.”

Situation in eastern Ukraine: Enemy shelling entire line of defense, Ukrainian army repels ten attacks

06/07/2022

Ukrainian defenders repelled ten enemy attacks in eastern Ukraine on Monday, June 6, with fighting going on at two locations. The press service of the Joint Forces Task Force said this in a Facebook post, Ukrinform reports. "Ukrainian defenders of the Joint Forces Task Force repelled ten enemy attacks today. Fighting is still ongoing at two locations," the statement said.

Egypt close to completing $3bn arms deal with Italy

06/07/2022

Egypt is close to finalising a $3bn deal with Italy to acquire combat aircraft, following three years of negotiations, according to an Italian newspaper. Il Fatto Quotidiano quoted an Italian government official as saying that the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is awaiting confirmation from Italian Prime Minister Mario Dargi to finalise the deal, which includes the purchase of 24 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft.

Details surface on China's 'dangerous' interception of RAAF P-8A

06/06/2022

Australia has accused China of conducting a dangerous intercept of a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) P-8A Poseidon multi-mission aircraft in late May, with Australia’s Defence Minister subsequently saying that the Chinese jet released decoys that were ingested by the P-8A’s engine.

Four Russian tanks and attack helicopter destroyed in JFO area

06/06/2022

Ukrainian defenders have destroyed four Russian tanks, one attack helicopter and three artillery systems in the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) area over the past day. The relevant statement was made by the Joint Forces Task Force on Facebook, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. The JFO fighters continue to keep the defense within the designated control area in the Donetsk and Luhansk directions.

Zelenskyy says Russia has lost 200 aircraft in Ukraine, showing Putin's failure to dominate the skies

06/06/2022

Despite having a significantly larger air force than Ukraine (15 times larger by some accounts), the Russian military has failed to gain air superiority, and arguably maintains aerial parity. At best Russia has achieved local air superiority in the Donbas region. Gaining control of the skies has been seen as a crucial part of military doctrine since the Second World War, and it is something the United States and its allies had accomplished in the 1991 and 2003 invasions of Iraq.

Russia hits Kyiv with missiles; Putin warns West on arms

06/06/2022

Russia took aim Sunday at Western military supplies for Ukraine, launching airstrikes on Kyiv that it claimed destroyed tanks donated from abroad, as Vladimir Putin warned that any Western deliveries of longer-range rocket systems would prompt Moscow to hit “objects that we haven’t yet struck.”

'Last flight' of doomed Russian general caught on video before he died in Ukraine when his SU-25 ground attack aircraft was shot down by anti-aircraft missile

06/05/2022

Video of the final moments of a 63-year-old Russian general shot down and killed by Ukrainian forces has emerged today. Major General Kanamat Botashev was part of a two-ship formation flying low over the Donbass region when his £9million aircraft was struck by a surface-to-air missile, according to a report of his funeral in Russian outlet Kommersant.

Ukraine’s defense chief at GLOBSEC: “We need simplified, accelerated procedures for arms supplies”

06/05/2022

Ukraine needs simplified and accelerated arms supply procedures, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov told a panel on military assistance within the GLOBSEC-2022 International Security Forum in Bratislava. That’s according to the Ministry of Defense press service, Ukrinform reports.

Navy pilot dies after his F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter jet crashes in the Mojave Desert

06/05/2022

A Navy pilot is dead after a fighter jet crashed Friday in the Southern California desert. Navy officials confirmed that on Friday F/A-18E Super Hornet that was based at Naval Air Station Lemoore went down at about 2:30 pm in the area of Trona, an unincorporated Mojave Desert community in San Bernardino County about 236 miles southeast of the air station.

Congress is right: Accelerate the E-7 Wedgetail buy

06/05/2022

After months of speculation, in April the Air Force officially chose the Boeing E-7 Wedgetail to replace its decades-old AWACS planes. But there’s a lag between making the choice and flying the planes — during which Mitchell Institute Executive Director Douglas Birkey says Congress and the Air Force must work together in a hurry to minimize the American military’s vulnerability in the skies.

U.S. intelligence agencies review what they got wrong on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

06/05/2022

The question was posed in a private briefing to U.S. intelligence officials weeks before Russia launched its invasion in late February: Was Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, made in the mold of Britain’s Winston Churchill or Afghanistan’s Ashraf Ghani? In other words, would Zelenskyy lead a historic resistance or flee while his government collapsed?

Putin's fresh purge: Russian leader fires FIVE generals and a police colonel from military top brass as Kremlin says it will not stop war 'until all goals are achieved'

06/04/2022

Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin has fired five generals and a police colonel as his military continued to suffer massive losses, it has been reported. Tens of thousands of Russian troops have been killed and Moscow has failed in its bid to capture Kyiv, instead now focusing on the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine.

Satellite images suggest new Chinese carrier close to launch

06/04/2022

China’s most advanced aircraft carrier to date appears to be nearing completion, satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press showed Friday, as experts suggested the vessel could be launched soon. The newly developed Type 003 carrier has been under construction at the Jiangnan Shipyard northeast of Shanghai since 2018. Satellite images taken by Planet Labs PBC on May 31 suggest work on the vessel is close to done.

10 military aircraft to land on U.P. highway this month

06/03/2022

Ten military airplanes will land on an Upper Peninsula highway later this month to practice operating in austere environments, the Michigan National Guard announced. A 9,000-foot section of the four-lane M-28 highway east of Munising in Alger County will be closed from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday, June 28, to accommodate the training exercise known as Northern Agility 22-1. Detours will be posted. Civilian access will not be permitted during the exercise.

U.S. Plans To Sell Armed MQ-1C Gray Eagle Drones To Ukraine ‘In The Coming Days’

06/03/2022

The Biden administration plans to sell Ukraine four MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones that can be armed with AGM-114 Hellfire missiles for battlefield use against Russia, three people familiar with the situation said according to an exclusive Reuters report posted on June 1, 2022.

Su-35 & MiG-29 Are Now One! Russia Merges Sukhoi and MiG Into One Company Under UAC

06/03/2022

Following years of discussion, Sukhoi and MiG, two of Russia’s most powerful aircraft manufacturers, have finally merged with the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), a part of the Rostec state corporation, state media Tass reported. he merger was approved by the UAC Board of Directors in November 2021. The shareholders of all three companies backed this decision in January of this year. “Relevant records were made on June 1 in the United State Register of Legal Entities,” the report said.