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US Air Force is prepping nuclear-armed bombers to be on 24-hour alert Armed B-52s will be parked at Barksdale Air Force for the first time since 1991Weapons will be ready to take off at a moment's notice if they get the command  The United States Air Force will put its ageing fleet of nuclear-capable B-52 bombers on 24-hour alert for the first time since the end of the Cold War, according to its chief of staff.  Amid rising tensions with North Korea and a resurgent Putin-led Russia, General David Goldfein told Defense One that the strategic bomber force will be...

The North Korean foreign minister says Pyongyang has every right to take countermeasures against US aggression, including shooting down warplanes, even if they are not in North Korean airspace. Speaking to reporters in New York on Monday, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said that US President Donald Trump has effectively declared war on Pyongyang, meaning all options were on the table for his country’s leadership. “The whole world should clearly remember it was the US who first declared war on our country,” Reuters quoted him as saying. “Since the United States declared war on our country, we will...

TWO American supersonic bombers conducted live-fire drills in South Korea today in a show of force after North Korea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. The pair of B-1B Lancer strategic bombers flew from a US base on Guam and were joined by US and South Korean jet fighters for the operation. They then carried out the simulated destruction of an enemy ballistic missile launcher and underground nuclear bunker facilities, the South’s air force said. North Korea announced on Tuesday it successfully test-launched an ICBM, saying the missile was capable of carrying a large and heavy nuclear warhead. Some experts...

MOSUL, Iraq — Two women suicide bombers, hiding among a group of fleeing civilians, targeted Iraqi troops in Mosul on Monday morning, killing one soldier and wounding several others, an Iraqi officer said. Using women as suicide bombers was apparently the latest tactic by the militants, Sgt. Ali Abdullah Hussein told The Associated Press.

The United States flew two bombers over the Korean Peninsula on Tuesday, the Air Force said, the day after the death of University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier, who was detained in North Korea for more than a year. The move was a demonstration of force, and one that has occurred several times this year after the country conducted ballistic missile tests. The two B-1B Lancers conducted two joint drills with the Japanese and South Korean air forces, which were meant to show solidarity among the three countries to "defend against provocative and destabilizing actions in the Pacific theater," the...

For the fourth time in as many days, Russian military planes have flown too close to the U.S. for comfort. Each night this week starting Monday, the Russian military has sent planes flying towards Alaska. The planes have remained in international airspace for the length of their journeys, but have gotten as close as 36 nautical miles off the Alaskan mainland.

Washington (CNN): The US is seeing evidence that the Chinese military is preparing for a potential North Korea contingency, a US defense official told CNN Thursday. Chinese air force land-attack, cruise-missile-capable bombers were put "on high alert" on Wednesday, the official said, adding that the US has also seen an extraordinary number of Chinese military aircraft being brought up to full readiness through intensified maintenance. The official said that these recent steps by the Chinese are assessed as part of an effort to "reduce the time to react to a North Korea contingency." Such a contingency could include the risk...

AMERICAN military chiefs are sending nuclear bombers to the Korean peninsula as tensions in the region reach breaking point. North Korea and the US have been teetering on the brink of war for months after Kim Jong-un carried out a series of controversial missile launches. Earlier this week, trigger-happy Kim pushed his luck once more when he fired off four ballistic missiles into the seas near Japan. Now President Donald Trump is reportedly flying in B-1 and B-52 bombers – built to carry nuclear bombs – to show he’s had enough. South Korea and the US have also started their...

The benefits the P-51 Mustang brought to aerial battles in World War II, particularly over Germany, are reasonably well known. The iconic fighter plane could fly higher, faster, farther and generate more kills per sortie than the U.S. Army Air Force’s aviation bureaucracy’s preferred P-47s or P-38s. However, the real P-51 Mustang story is just as much about the difficult gestation of a great new fighter as it is about the quashing of the drop tanks urgently needed to extend the range of existing fighters. Then there’s the guerilla tactics some officials unleashed in the corridors of power to overcome...

Of the 31 states that have declared their opposition to taking in Syrian refugees, one state, Kentucky, has a specific reason to be wary of the background check process: previously two Iraqi refugees who settled in Bowling Green turned out to be al Qaeda-linked terrorists with the blood of American soldiers on their hands, an ABC News investigation found. In the wake of the Kentucky case, the U.S. halted the refugee program for Iraqis for six months, a fact the Obama administration did not disclose to Congress at the time, officials told ABC News in the 2013 investigation.

Russian bombers flying from an Iranian airbase have struck targets in Syria, in the first time the Islamic republic has allowed a foreign power to conduct military operations from its territory since the 1979 revolution. Tu-22 long range bombers and SU-34 strike fighters flying from Hamadan airbase in Western Iran struck targets near Aleppo, Deir Ezzor and Idlib on Tuesday morning, the Russian ministry of defence said in a statement. “Flying with full bomb loads from Iran’s Hamadan airbase, the aircraft carried out group attacks on Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra positions,” the ministry said. Jabhat al-Nusra is the former...

In an era of fantastic aircraft, the B-58 Hustler was one of the most visually striking warplanes ever to fly. Its delta wing, giant engines, and remarkable performance gave rise to the myth that pilots could literally tear the wings off the bomber if they flew it too fast.

Secrecy is the linchpin of a stealth aircraft's ability to carry out strikes deep within enemy territory, but when it comes to the tax dollars that are going to be spent on the U.S. Air Force's new B-21 bomber, some members of Congress say it is time pull the curtain back. The Air Force said it has no plans to publicly disclose the cost estimate for the aircraft touted as the "backbone" of the U.S.'s future strike and deterrence capabilities, arguing it would reveal too much information to potential adversaries and compromise a classified program. That's infuriated some lawmakers, including...

A British Special Air Service (SAS) sniper took out two Islamic State bombers with a single shot, saving hundreds of lives in the process. The SAS sniper took his shot from just over half a mile away, killing the terrorist driver in a split second. But the story doesn’t end there. The bullet passed through the driver’s head and also hit his accomplice in the neck — an incredible feat, given these two targets were moving.

The recently announced Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B or B-21) is moving forward with one hidden feature that doesn’t make a lot of sense—its actual price tag. Despite requests by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ), the Air Force has decided against releasing the final contract value to taxpayers and it stands by its decision only to release estimates. Unfortunately, with a cost plus contract, the widely varied estimates that have already been publically released, and the Department of Defense’s long history of drastically underestimating final program costs, Chairman McCain is right to ask the Air Force to...

Why Isn’t China Building a New Bomber? AVIATIONCHINA April 1, 2016 Dave Majumdar 0 The National Interest32 China is developing two new stealth fighters, stealthy unmanned aircraft, new cruise and ballistic missiles; however, Beijing thus far has not attempted to develop a new bomber. Instead, the People’s Liberation Army Air Force relies on the upgraded Xian H-6K — a derivative of the antiquated Soviet Tu-16 Badger — which is armed with a host of cruise missiles. But given the size of the Pacific and the ranges both American and Chinese aircraft would have to fly over in the event of...

The Islamic State is developing sophisticated weapons capabilities. And it should send a chill down anyone's spine. Sky News reports, via exclusive video footage, on weapons development at a "jihadi university" that exceeds anything the West thought possible. (So much for our imagination.) Major Chris Hunter, a former special forces bomb technician, writes that the Islamic State is moving closer to being able to attack commercial aviation and that it possesses weapons expertise that eclipses anything any terror group has ever achieved.

Prosecutors: Gun used to kill Officer Sean Collier . A man who loaned a gun used by the Boston Marathon bombers to kill a police officer was sentenced Tuesday to the 17 months he has already served and apologized, saying his actions were "dumb." I was young, dumb, and thought I could outsmart everyone," 22-year-old Stephen Silva told a judge in U.S. District Court. He pleaded guilty to gun and heroin distribution charges last year.

You mean we don't already have a database tracking subversive enemy infiltrators and radical terrorists, sleeper cells, suspicious mosques and muslims, etc? If not, why not? Islam is the enemy. They are at war against us and against all western nations. Someone had better wake the hell up!

Ted Cruz on Friday put a bit of distance between himself and arguably his closest ally in the presidential race: Donald Trump. Kicking off a two-day swing through Iowa, the U.S. senator from Texas was asked about Trump's apparent openness Thursday to a national registry of American Muslims in the wake of the recent Paris terrorist attacks. "I'm a big fan of Donald Trump's, but not a fan of government registries of American citizens," Cruz told reporters before a town hall at Briar Cliff University. The "First Amendment protects religious liberty." Asked Thursday by NBC News if he wanted to...