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The F-117 Nighthawk The F-117 is the world’s first operational stealth aircraft. The Nighthawk is a single-seat, twin-engine stealth attack aircraft. Only 64 were ever built and first flew in 1981. The US Air Force (USAF) “Retired” the aircraft in 2008. Although officially retired, many F-117s remain airworthy and are used to support limited research and training missions based on overall cost effectiveness and their ability to offer unique capabilities. Moreover, as we have already reported, the remaining F-117s conduct dissimilar air combat training (DACT) missions with other USAF air assets.

Quoting the Twitter acct.: WW1-style duel. Ukrainan Mavic-drone, which we have delivered to one of the airborne units in Donetsk region, destroys Russian opponent.

A dog and eight people in Nashville were wounded in a Sunday morning shooting that erupted during an argument over the animal, a report said. The pooch was shot in the hip and taken to an emergency vet after two men fired at each other just after 1 a.m. at an intersection in the city’s downtown area, authorities told the Nashville Tennessean. The dog’s condition was not immediately known. The eight adults appeared to sustain non-life-threatening injuries, the newspaper reported.

Kobe Bryant died in a helicoper crash in Calabasas Sunday morning ... TMZ Sports has confirmed. Kobe was traveling with at least 3 other people in his private helicopter when it went down. A fire broke out. Emergency personnel responded, but nobody on board survived. 5 people are confirmed dead. We're told Vanessa Bryant was not among those on board. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Greek and Turkish fighter jets engaged in two dogfights over the Aegean on Thursday, after the Turkish jets violated Greek airspace 16 times in the northeast, central and southeastern Aegean, the Hellenic National Defense General Staff (HNDGS) said. Six Turkish F-16 jets, one pair of F-4s and one CN-235 transport aircraft entered Athens's FIR without submitting a flight plan, and violated air traffic regulations seven times. In all cases, the Turkish aircraft were identified and intercepted by Greek fighter planes in line with international rules of engagement. Six of the eight Turkish aircraft were armed.

WASHINGTON — According to some reports, America's fifth-generation stealth aircraft doesn't excel at dogfighting. But fortunately, the F-35 Lightning II is not built for dogfighting. While some analysts have argued that the air-to-air-combat capabilities of the F-35A won't match some of its peer aircraft, pilots who spoke to Business Insider pointed out that the US's fifth-generation fighter is designed in such a way that dogfighting may be an afterthought. "If you were to engage an F-35 in say, a visual dogfight capability," US Air Force Brig. Gen. Scott Pleus began, "the capabilities of the F-35 are absolutely eye-watering compared to...

Maj. Yohannes Woldemariam proudly posing in front of the first Northrop F-5A delivered to Ethiopia, in 1966. Photo via S.N. Which is better? The Northrop F-5E Tiger II or the Mikoyan i Gurevich MiG-21? There have been countless discussions of this question and, probably, at least as many answers. Over 15,000 of these two cheap, lightweight, simple-to-maintain and -operate fighters were produced and, over the time, they’ve served in more than 60 different air forces — some of which operated both of them. The usual story is that they never met in combat and thus the ultimate question about their mutual superiority...

“0 losses in 8 dogfights against F-15E Red Air” The U.S. Air Force F-35A fleet continues to work to declare the Lightning II IOC (initial operational capability) scheduled in the August – December timeframe. Among the activities carried out in the past weeks, a simulated deployment provided important feedbacks about the goal of demonstrating the F-35’s ability to “penetrate areas with developed air defenses, provide close air support to ground troops and be readily deployable to conflict theaters.” Seven F-35s deployed from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, to Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, to carry out a series of operational tests...

Lt. Col. Fred "Spanky" Clifton is one of the most experienced aggressor pilots ever, having flown the F-15, F-5, F-16 and the notorious MiG-29. He's been in dogfights with pretty much every fighter out there and he's an instructor at the prestigious Fighter Weapons School. Now he's here to share his expertise with you. How in the hell did you end up becoming the first USAF fighter pilot to fly the Russian-built MiG-29 Fulcrum as an exchange pilot? First – a little (actually, a lot of) background. I earned a degree in aerospace engineering in 1979 and worked for Boeing...

Automatic budget sequestration cut deeply into the U.S. Air Force’s training in 2012. Air Combat Command got just $3,1 billion—three-quarters of what it needed to fully train the thousands of pilots flying the command’s 1,600 F-15, F-16 and F-22 fighters, A-10 attack jets and B-1 bombers. So the command did something radical—and with far-reaching consequences as American air power retools for fighting high-tech foes following more than decade bombing insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Air Combat Command stripped certain airplanes of many of their missions, thus cutting back on the number of flight hours a particular pilot needed to be...

Roanoke lost one of its most decorated World War II veterans last weekend. Former fighter pilot William Overstreet Jr., famous for flying beneath the arches of the Eiffel Tower while chasing a German aircraft during the war, died Sunday afternoon. He was 92. Overstreet was awarded hundreds of medals for his service in the 357th squadron of the U.S. Army Air Forces, according to his obituary for Oakey’s Funeral Home. One of his greatest honors was receiving France’s Legion of Honor by the French ambassador to the U.S. in 2009 at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford. At the ceremony,...

The MiG-21 FL was the force multiplier that allowed other IAF aircraft to go in for the kill without having to watch their back during the 1971 War, thereby hastening the fall of the Pakistani military The MiG-21 may be the only aircraft in aviation history to have forced a nation to surrender. The devastating attack on the Governor’s House in Dhaka in East Pakistan by MiG-21s proved to be a turning point in the 1971 India-Pakistan war. India’s blitzkrieg strategy against the Pakistani military had brought the Indian Army to the outskirts of Dhaka within just nine days. Holed...

The United States has spent nearly $80 billion to develop the most advanced stealth fighter jet in history, the F-22 Raptor, but the Air Force recently found out firsthand that while the planes own the skies at modern long-range air combat, it is "evenly matched" with cheaper, foreign jets when it comes to old-school dogfighting. The F-22 made its debut at the international Red Flag Alaska training exercise this June where the planes "cleared the skies of simulated enemy forces and provided security for Australian, German, Japanese, Polish and [NATO] aircraft," according to an after-action public report by the Air...

Here's the scenario: Mom and Dad come to visit. Dad is not doing so well. Dementia has set in very rapidly over the last year and he's barely functional now. You can still get meaningful dialog with him if you are patient, slow, and interrupt him when he goes off on strange tangents. But its easy to confuse him by talking fast or being even a tiny bit confrontational. Also you have to leave certain topics alone for awhile and come back later after he's had time to let it sink in. If he answers a question too soon his...

Turkey-Greece engage in mock dogfights over Cyprus as Israeli PM arrives GREEK AND Turkish jets tangled in mock dogfights in Cypriot airspace yesterday just as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was arriving on the island, reports said. According to Sigma, around 11am three Greek Mirage-2000 fighters began shadowing two Turkish F-16 jets after the latter flew between Rhodes and Crete on their way from the eastern Mediterranean where Turkish ships were conducting wargames with live ammunition. The Turkish military exercise, the Foreign Minister said earlier, took place within Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone, in waters south of the island and close...

Former Vice President Dick Cheney recounts an amusing tale in his soon-to-be released autobiography about how his dog, Dave, was banned from the main lodge at Camp David for attacking the president’s dog, Barney. A source provided The Daily Caller with a copy of the passage in Cheney’s book, “In My Time.” In the text, Cheney writes that Dave, his one-hundred-pound yellow Labrador, often joined him on trips to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland. But Dave got himself into some trouble one particular morning when Cheney brought him along to breakfast at Laurel, the lodge where most official...

The Last Gunslinger The F-15C is the only dedicated dogfighter left in the U.S. military fleet. Why isn't the Air Force replacing it? By Michael Behar Air & Space Magazine, July 01, 2010 While driving through downtown Mountain Home, Idaho, on a gray February morning, I notice something troubling: Mountain Home has no mountains. Later I learn why. In the 1880s, the town was relocated. Its original site was an Overton trail stagecoach stop called Rattlesnake Station. A post office, a farmhouse, and a few clapboard structures were nestled in the foothills of the Sawtooth Range, where snowy peaks soar...

I was on the far north side of a formation of eight F-15s. From my vantage point I could look south and see seven other Eagles, perfectly abreast, streaking supersonically heavenward, leaving white contrails in our wake. It’s called the “Eagle Claw”—from the ground it looks like an invisible bird of prey tearing the sky open with its talons. I was a young F-15 wingman in the opening moments of my first Red Flag exercise at Nevada’s Nellis Air Force Base. The air-to-air mission is simple in theory but extremely difficult in execution. Our job was to clear the skies...

Dubai 09: UAE hosts first mock dogfights for F-22, Typhoon, Rafale By Stephen Trimble The United Arab Emirates not only attracted the Lockheed Martin F-22 to the Dubai air show, but also staged perhaps the first mock dogfights between F-22s, Dassault Rafales and Eurofighter Typhoons. In parallel with the air show, the advanced tactical leadership course at Al Dhafra air base near Abu Dhabi hosted a five-nation fighter exercise, says the UK Royal Air Force. France, the UK and the USA each sent six of their top-line fighters to the exercise, and those were joined by jets from the UAE...

Court Hears Free-Speech Case on Dogfight Videos ADAM LIPTAK Published: October 6, 2009 WASHINGTON — Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wanted to know if Congress could ban a “Human Sacrifice Channel” on cable television. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg asked about videos of cockfighting. “What about hunting with a bow and arrow out of season?” Justice John Paul Stevens asked. “What if I am an aficionado of bullfights,” Justice Antonin Scalia wondered, “and I think, contrary to the animal cruelty people, they ennoble both beast and man?” And Justice Stephen G. Breyer asked about “stuffing geese for pâté de foie gras.”...