Free Republic

A star ace of the Israeli Air Force is finally being put out to pasture. F-16A 'Netz' (Hawk) tail number 107, one of the first delivered to the IAF, has no less than 6.5 confirmed air-to-air victories, as well as a partial kill on one Iraqi nuclear reactor as part of the daring and historic Operation Opera. Its air-to-air record remains unmatched by any F-16 ever built. Israel's love affair with the F-16 started upon the type's initial deliveries in 1980. Israel's Block 5 and Block 10 F-16A/Bs were originally destined for Iran, but after the Shah fell and in...

The US military has deployed aircraft and troops to northern Iraq to boost its ability to rescue downed coalition pilots, after a Jordanian airman was captured and killed by jihadists in Syria, a defense official said Thursday. "We are repositioning some assets into northern Iraq," a US defense official told AFP. The move is designed to shorten the response time needed to reach pilots who end up in territory held by the Islamic State group, officials said. Search-and-rescue crews had been based in Kuwait, but officials said Wednesday the military was reviewing where its hardware and specialists were located following...

Jordan has released a slickly-edited video that shows its war planes being prepared for bombing strikes against Islamic State jihadists in Syria. The footage, understood to have been broadcast on state TV, shows troops messages on plane-mounted missiles before the fleet of fighter jets are launched from the base. The mission - dubbed Operation Martyr Moaz in memory of the pilot brutally killed by ISIS - is the latest show of force from the nation, which has promised a 'harsh' war against the terror group. It comes just hours after Jordanian fighter pilots made a diversion over the hometown of...

The F-16 jet "lost power" as it took off from the base near the southeastern city of Albacete and crashed into an area where other planes were parked, damaging at least five other aircraft, the defence ministry said in a statement. At least 19 other people were injured in the accident... The Spanish ministry said the jet that crashed was taking part in a NATO training exercise called the Tactical Leadership Programme (TLP) which seeks to improve multi-national cooperation in air operations.

A prisoner exchange may be in the cards for a Jordanian pilot captured by Islamic State fighters after his plane crashed in Syria, according to a report in the Arab press. Jordanian political activists told the London-based daily Al-Quds al-Arabi on Thursday that a prisoner exchange could be possible if the Jordanian government released people affiliated with the group al-Qaida in Iraq, the precursor to Islamic State. Tareq al-Fayed, a Jordanian political activist close to the Salafist movement mentioned Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman who was caught trying to blow herself up in a failed suicide bombing during a wedding...

The Jordanian plane that crashed in Syria was not shot down by Islamic State (IS) militants, the US says. The plane was lost in IS territory on Wednesday morning, and the pilot has been captured. IS militants said that they shot down the plane with a heat-seeking missile. However, the US says "evidence clearly indicates" that this is not true. Jordan is one of four Arab states in a US-led coalition that has launched air strikes on IS targets in Syria. The plane is the first coalition aircraft to be lost on IS territory since air strikes began in September....

One of the anti-ISIS air coalition's biggest fears have come true: A pilot being captured by ISIS militants. The Jordanian F-16AM was flying over the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, Syria this morning when some say it was engaged by a shoulder-fired heat seeking missile.

The Islamic State group captured a Jordanian pilot after shooting down his warplane over Syria, Jordan said Wednesday, in the extremists' first successful downing of an aircraft from the international coalition waging an air campaign against the extremists. The show of the extremists' capabilities underscored the risks for the United States and the multiple Arab and European countries whose warplanes are participating in bombing campaign aimed at pushing back the jihadis' control across much of Syria and Iraq. It also posed Jordan with a nightmare scenario ? its pilot was the first foreign soldier to fall into the extremists' hands....

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...

The U.S. government on Wednesday said it had canceled, at the request of South Korea, a preliminary contract with the U.S. unit of Britain's BAE Systems (BAES.L) to upgrade 134 F-16 fighter jets, ending a major arms deal initially valued at $1.7 billion. The unusual move, announced by the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency, paves the way for South Korea to pursue a similar upgrade deal with Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), the warplanes' original manufacturer. The decision raises questions about the ability of non-original equipment makers like BAE to compete in the market to upgrade thousands of F-16s in use...

Eurofighter Typhoon is large, expensive, relatively unmaneuverable, and hard to maintain to get many sorties per week, Pierre Sprey, designer of the F-16, F-15, and defense analyst, told RT. The German Air Force has uncovered serious manufacturing defects in the fuselage of the Eurofighter Typhoon multirole fighter jet. The jet is not ready for armed conflict, according to the German Defense Ministry which ordered to reduce annual flying hours for each aircraft due to the fuselage possibly becoming unstable. RT: Defense contractors are reportedly eyeing lucrative contracts now that the military campaign in Iraq and Syria has been launched. Do...

UAE fighter pilot Mariam al-Mansouri shot to fame last week for her role in a US-led bombing campaign in Syria. While Americans hailed her pluck, for Arabs it's more complicated. JERUSALEM — Last week Mariam al-Mansouri, a F-16 pilot from the United Arab Emirates, was introduced to the world. Smiling out from under her helmet and hijab after launching air strikes in Syria, part of a US-led campaign against Islamic State, her image went viral. For some Americans, she was a sort of Katharine Hepburn meets Amelia Earhart who had shattered prevalent stereotypes of Arab women. A popular Internet meme...

Poland kicks off major military exercises involving eight NATO partners on Wednesday amid the West's worst standoff with Russia since the end of the Cold War sparked by differences over the Ukraine crisis. Organised every two years since 2006, this year's Anaconda manoeuvres involve 12,500 soldiers, with 750 from NATO members the US and Britain among others, the Polish defence ministry said, adding the event "has become a permanent training element of the North Atlantic alliance". The exercises are designed to coordinate cooperation with NATO's rapid reaction forces, created at the alliance's Cardiff summit earlier this month. They also come...

In August last year we analyzed the reasons for the possible Polish purchase of the Lockheed Martin AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-off Missiles (JASSM). Now, in the light of the Ukrainian crisis, a contextual change has occurred and the deal seems to be closed-up soon.Nevertheless, there are still some unaswered questions. The latest development about the Polish air-launched cruise missiles deal started with the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DCSA) and the US State Department giving consent for the Polish procurement of the JASSMs in their AGM-158A variant, along with a modernization bundle for the Polish Air ForceÂ’s F-16C/D Block 52+ jet...

The Pentagon is asking Congress to approve a $500 million foreign military sale to deliver Lockheed Martin Corp. missiles for Poland’s fleet of F-16 fighters. Poland is asking for 40 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles, which are designed to cruise autonomously using an infrared seeker and anti-jam GPS to find and destroy targets, keeping aircrews well out of danger from air defense systems. Also part of the contract would be upgrades to the F-16 aircraft for JASSM integration and support. Poland continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in Central Europe, and the sale would improve...

Although they are two different airframes, the F-15 and the F-18 have similar avionics, as you can read in the following interesting story released by an experienced Eagle driver. Disclaimer: the story is based on an interview to an F-15, published on a magazine profiling the F/A-18 Hornet. Developed as a multirole naval fighter, the McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F/A-18 Hornet has become the backbone of the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Marine Corps and several air arms around the world. Among them there is also the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), formerly known as Canadian Forces Air Command, that began...

The Israeli air force is developing a short field operating capability for its Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters, based on the use of a rocket-assisted take-off. A first test is scheduled for next year, with the air force having decided to develop such a system for its F-16A/B, C/D and I-model variants. Rocket assistance can be used by some military transports to provide additional thrust when an aircraft is heavy or a runway is short. As part of the new plan, rockets will be placed under the wing of the F-16 and released after they have burned out. Close attention will...

COLORADO – Two F-16 fighter jets under the direction of North American Aerospace Defense Command assisted the FAA today with an unresponsive general aviation aircraft. The aircraft took off from Waukesha Airport in Wisconsin and was on its way to Manassas Airport in Virginia when it crashed into the Atlantic ocean, approximately 140 NM SW of Washington, DC. (snip)

A question for the aviation buffs on this forum. I was told at one time, that the F-16 was an inherently unstable aircraft, and that without assistance from it computers, no human pilot would be able to fly the aircraft. Then I saw this video, (see link below), of a quarter scale, radio controlled F-16, in the colors of the Royal Dutch Air Force demonstration team. I would think that there is not enough room in the model or money in the owner’s bank account to include flight control computers. So my question is; “How is the unstable F-16 model...

Lockheed Martin (LM) and BAE Systems reported progress this month on their rival upgrades for F-16 Fighting Falcons. Two aircraft from each company’s launch customer (Taiwan for LM, South Korea for BAE) are now in rework, ironically just a few miles from each other in Fort Worth, Texas. Meanwhile, the ferry of Iraq’s first two new Block 52 aircraft in September is looking unlikely. Bill McHenry, LM’s F-16 program director, said that the F-16V upgrade design review is complete, Elbit has delivered some of the new cockpit displays, and Northrop Grumman is slated to deliver the first scaleable agile beam...