Free Republic

Two Ukrainian pilots proved they can master the American-made F-16 fighter jets in just four months — more than four times faster than the Pentagon previously predicted — in a performance that is likely to ratchet up the growing pressure on the Biden Administration to send the lightweight warplanes to Ukraine. Yahoo News on Thursday obtained and published an internal US Air Force assessment that detailed the F-16 training two Ukrainian pilots underwent at Morris Air National Guard Base in Tucson, Arizona, in late February and early March. Over the course of eleven and a half total hours in nine...

"Too long a sacrifice / Can make a stone of the heart," the Irish poet W.B. Yeats wrote, having witnessed the violence of the 1916 Easter Rising and its aftermath. In an America more divided than ever, and with the left more radicalized than ever, there are all too many hearts of stone. The Washington shooting of Steve Scalise and other Republican lawmakers back in June; the attack on Sen. Rand Paul last week; and now the massacre in Southerland Springs, Texas – all of them appear to have been carried out by persons motivated at least in part by...

A Rhode Island-size ice field in the mountains behind Alaska’s capital could disappear by 2200 if climate-warming trends continue, according to a University of Alaska Fairbanks study. The study published this week by the Journal of Glaciology predicts 60 percent of the ice in the Juneau Ice Field could be gone by 2099. The Juneau Ice Field is the source for a major Alaska tourist attraction, the Mendenhall Glacier, visited last year by 450,000 people at a U.S. Forest Service center. By 2099, the study authors said, the glacier’s ice will be harder to find. …

FOUR arrests were made at a rowdy Far Right demonstration in Leeds in which pigs’ heads were thrown at police. A huge police operation involving over 100 officers swung into action on Saturday (May 4) as the English Defence league marched through Leeds’ Lingfield estate - at the invitation of residents angered after the go ahead was given to plans to turn a derelict pub into a Muslim-run community centre.

On a day which saw commemorations of 9/11, members of the EDL clashed with supporters of Muslims Against Crusades (MAC). Later in the evening two EDL members were stabbed by Muslim youths (according to police reports) outside the JD Wetherspoon pub.

Just how dumb is Unite Against Fascism? Having lobbied the government many times in recent months to ban marches by the English Defence League, it is now outraged that the Government has not only taken up this offer to squish the EDL but has pushed it further, by banning all public protests in five London boroughs for the next 30 days.

A high-ranking Al Qaeda figure reportedly was killed Thursday in a U.S. drone aircraft attack in north Pakistan. The attack, first reported by NBC News, was officially denied by Pakistani officials, though sources told Fox News that neither Usama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri were among those killed. Pakistani media report six militants were killed in the attack, including four foreign fighters, a classification in the tribal areas that typically refers to Al Qaeda. The attack was part of the expanded use of Predator drones recently authorized by the White House, sources told Fox News, though the drone attacks, which...

Details of today's EDL rally in Nottingham are beginning to filter in. Once again media reports go out of their way to portray the EDL as drunken, masked hooligans and the UAF group as dear little angels. Funny. They don't show the UAF taunting the EDL marchers or throwing sticks at the police. And MSM photos of the UAF are thin on the ground - don't you wonder why.

A US missile strike killed five people in the tribal area of South Waziristan here Sunday, report said. The attack hit in the Laddha region of South Waziristan, where Washington alleges Al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels who fled Afghanistan after the 2001 US-led invasion are holed up, plotting attacks on Western targets.

CFB/ASU Wainwright, Alberta – The CU170 Heron Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) tactical system will soon be replacing the French-made CU161 Sperwer currently being used in Afghanistan by the Canadian military. “The Heron offers far greater endurance, altitude and speed than the Sperwer,” said Major Andrew McCorquodale of the Directorate of Air Requirements at National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa. The advanced UAV capability will help protect Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan by “delivering the intelligence data to commanders in the field that they need. It empowers commanders. UAVs allow us to know where the ‘bad guys’ are. Often, we know that better...

The Air Force is preparing to test an unmanned spacecraft in orbit, with a launch scheduled for December. The X-37B is designed to perform long-duration testing in low-Earth orbit of new technologies. The unmanned vehicle will carry experiments into space, then return with them to Earth. The vehicle... operates autonomously in orbit and for re-entry and landing. This first orbital flight test of the vehicle will be used to determine the capabilities of the craft, said an Air Force spokesman, Lt. Col. Mark Brown. It is part of a former NASA program that was cut as the space agency focused...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 2007 – The coalition air component in Iraq “remains strong,” airlifting supplies and troops, providing surveillance and assisting ground forces with kinetic support, a senior air force officer in Iraq said today. During a news conference with reporters in Baghdad, Air Force Maj. Gen. David M. Edgington, director of Multinational Force Iraq’s Air Component Coordination Element, referred to air lift forces as “the backbone of the air component.” “The number of pallets that we bring into this country keep at least 100 vehicles off the roads every day that would otherwise be delivered via convoys,” he said....

Steady. Breathe out. Relax. Pull. Ping. Riflery is not a visually compelling sport. That's clear by the number of seats available to spectators at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Patty Center rifle range. And many times even those 12 chairs aren't filled. It's also a tough sport to capture on film. Pulling the trigger is such a smooth and slow motion you barely notice it even when you're zoomed in pretty tight. Also, the shooters lie, stand or kneel in basically one position for extended periods of time. And you obviously can't stand in front of the shooters to catch...

<p>Fairbanks, Alaska -- Matt Emmons slowly lifted a bullet from the box and inserted it into the chamber of his .22-caliber rifle.</p> <p>He let out a deep sigh, and his torso settled into his hip joints, visibly shrinking him. His eyelids sank over dark blue eyes as if he was about to fall asleep. His eyes widened, he peered at the target 50 feet away, blinked fast three times, and squeezed the trigger.</p>