Free Republic

Lt. Col. James M. Inks (USAF) 1921-2004 Lt. Col. James M. Inks (USAF): American Military Forces treated as prisoners by Tito's Partisans / The Chetniks treated us like free men and allies."...I kept an accurate account of what happened to me and my comrades while we were in Yugoslavia. This has recently had its secret classification removed by the army and is now cleared for publication. I hope in the near future to have it before every citizen in the United States, in one of our popular magazines and you can rest assured that I will leave nothing out that...

Long before hitching a ride to the moon aboard Apollo 11, then US Air Force test pilot Neil Armstrong was zipping around in a rocket-powered North American X-15, which to this day remains the fastest manned, winged aircraft ever built. That flight record of Mach 6.72 or 7,274km/h was set by pilot William “Pete” Knight in 1967. Now, some 59 years later, America still hasn’t fully realised the promise that experimental flight vehicle held for military operations. Despite many breakthroughs in fields of hypersonic propulsion and high-temperature materials, the air force doesn’t imagine an affordable and operationally relevant surveillance and...

Federal Court Grants Judicial Watch Discovery on Clinton Email Issue History Comes Full Circle as Judicial Watch Releases New Document in Whitewater Criminal Corruption Case against Hillary Clinton Air Force Academy Celebrates Witchcraft and Voodoo While Demeaning Christianity Federal Court Grants Judicial Watch Discovery on Clinton Email Issue Your Judicial Watch has achieved another remarkable breakthrough in our tireless efforts to get to the bottom of the Clinton email scandal. Earlier this week, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan granted Judicial Watch’s motion for discovery into whether the State Department and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton deliberately...

The US Air Force has revealed its bomber for the 21st century, the Northrop Grumman B-21 long-range strike bomber. The official designation comes as the air force for the first time releases an artist's rendering of the still-classified bomber — a flying wing design similar to the Northrop B-2 and the company's concept for the previous Next-Generation Bomber (NGB) project. The air force hasn’t purchased a new bomber in this century and is still dependent on 54-year-old Boeing B-52H and 28-year-old B-1B. Its 21-year-old B-2 Spirit, the only in-service stealth bomber, will be in use through 2060, officials say. Revealed...

Raytheon threw its hat in the ring for the U.S. Air Force’s T-X jet trainer replacement program by announcing a partnership with Italy’s Finmeccanica group to offer a variant of the twin-engine Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master for the requirement. Finmeccanica had previously signed a letter of intent with General Dynamics to offer the variant, designated the T-100. At a February 22 press conference in Washington, D.C., Raytheon introduced a T-X industry team that includes Finmeccanica, engine manufacturer Honeywell and training system provider CAE. They will likely compete against three other teams. Earlier this month, Lockheed Martin confirmed that it will...

The public mostly remembers the North American P-51 Mustang as the fighter plane that protected Allied bombers over Germany and Japan during World War II. Overshadowed by newer jet fighters by the time war broke out in Korea in 1950, the re-designated F-51’s relative technological backwardness became a qualified blessing for close air support and battlefield interdiction sorties against the Korean People’s Army. Warren Thompson’s new book F-51 Mustang Units of the Korean War focuses on the veteran fighter’s role in Korea, and also exposes the plane’s little-known history with Australia, South Africa and the Republic of Korea. North Korea’s...

A US air force pilot was saved from ejecting into dangerous ISIS-held territory thanks to the quick-thinking crew of a nearby refueling plane, saving him from potential capture or death, the US Air Force has revealed. The unnamed pilot, whose F-16 fighter jet was passing over ISIS-held territory, had attempted to refuel with a KC-135 Stratotanker plane when he discovered that his craft had suffered a malfunction that rendered more than 80 percent of its fuel capability useless. Captain Nathanial Beer, 384th Air Refueling Squadron pilot, explained: 'The lead F-16 came up first and then had a pressure disconnect after...

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has been busy highlighting key pieces of the Pentagon’s upcoming budget that will be published on February 9th. One of the primary items identified in it is the development of an aerial arsenal ship. The arsenal ship concept is something we talk about regularly here on Foxtrot Alpha, both those that fly and float. Today, the closest thing to an arsenal ship of any kind are the Navy’s converted Ohio Class ballisitic missile submarines and the Navy’s Aegis-equipped destroyers and cruisers. The flying arsenal ship concept has been around for a very long time, and...

A-10 retirement delayed for six years There is good news for Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. The Air Force will not retire A-10s until the year 2022. Tuesday Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said the A-10 has been such a powerful tool in the fight against ISIS that plans to retire the warplane are on hold for another six years. That's what a lot of Southern Arizona was hoping to hear. The A-10 is a huge part of the local economy. More life for the A-10 is good news for the local economy but bad news for ISIS. The plane is...

A Russian fighter jet came within 15 feet of a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane over the Black Sea this week in what the Pentagon is calling an "unsafe" incident, U.S. officials say. "On January 25, 2016, a U.S. RC-135U flying a routine route in international airspace over the Black Sea was intercepted by a Russian Su-27 in an unsafe and unprofessional manner. We are looking into this particular incident," said a statement from Army Lt. Col. Michelle L. Baldanza, a Defense Department spokesperson. Another U.S. military official told CNN that the Russian jet flew along the right side the...

One of the earliest stealth weapons on record was a stone used by the young Israelite David to kill the Philistine giant Goliath. In the biblical account, David shunned the conventional armaments of his time: sword, helmet, armor. Instead, he went forth with a slingshot and a few stones, kept undetected in a pouch. As any schoolchild knows, one well-aimed fling was all it took to put Goliath down for good. The big guy never saw it coming. It is not clear to what extent David tested his weapon before doing battle, but he presumably had experimented. The first Book...

In 2005, The Air Force made it official. The F-22A Raptor was ready for combat. “If we go to war tomorrow, the Raptor will go with us,” said then head of Air Combat Command, General Robert Keys, at Virginia’s Langley Air Force Base. However, for the next nine years, what has been called the world’s most capable fighter stayed on the sidelines, sitting out, for example, U.S. strikes against Libyan air defenses in March 2011. On the night of September 22, 2014, tomorrow finally came: The 1st Fighter Wing, based at Langley, flew four F-22s to strike ISIS militants in...

One thing that has helped keep the F-35 program going is a perception that there is no ‘Plane B.’ As Margaret Thatcher famously said,“There is no alternative.” No matter how bad the F-35 is, it is going to be built because the U.S. Air Force needs something to replace its worn-out fighters. That appears to be the fallback position in Lockheed Martin’s marketing plan for the F-35. The Department of Defence though is fully aware of the extraordinary cost of the F-35 relative to its performance and is looking to scale back its procurement. That could result in a death...

Forty-two years ago on this day, General Dynamics test pilot Phil Oestricher undertook the YF-16 prototype’s first flight during what was supposed to be a high-speed taxi test at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Oestricher’s so-called “Flight Zero” was completely unplanned and unexpected, but provided extremely valuable data for the development of what eventually became the U.S. Air Force’s mainstay F-16 Fighting Falcon. Oestricher—who passed away on Dec. 18, 2015—said that the flight test plan was to go down the runway pushing the aircraft up to 135 knots, lifting the jet no more than about two feet above the ground....

Driving the increase was a mysterious surge in mishaps involving the Air Force's newest and most advanced "hunter-killer" drone, the Reaper, which has become the Pentagon's favored weapon for conducting surveillance and airstrikes against the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other militant groups. The Reaper has been bedeviled by a rash of sudden electrical failures that have caused the 21/2-ton drone to lose power and drop from the sky, according to accident-investigation documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Investigators have traced the problem to a faulty starter-generator, but have been unable to pinpoint why it goes haywire or devise...

Air Force apologizes for advertising a 'fun shoot' at range on Martin Luther King Day using image of murdered civil rights leader - The controversial poster advertised a skeet shoot at an Air Force base in Georgia - The flyer promised attendees would get 'two rounds and lunch' for $20 and featured a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. - Air Force officials issued a statement apologizing for the 'insensitive' flyer Officials at an Air Force base in Georgia drew criticism on Thursday after posting controversial flyers advertising a 'Martin Luther King, Jr. fun shoot' featuring a picture of the...

The Air Force said it will conduct a review to determine whether the use of "airman" is appropriate given the military's push towards full gender equality. [...] This confirms that a review of job titles, like the one initiated by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, is soon coming. Mabus' review resulted in an order to the Marine Corps to purge the word "man" from job titles, with the exception that compound words can remain the same. In other words, "infantryman" is acceptable, but "reconnaissance man" is not. That order came as part of the broader initiative to open all combat roles...

The huge swing-wing airplane is nothing if not flexible — canceled, revived, converted from nuclear strike plane to conventional bomber and then to flying arsenal for the GPS-guided bombs on which ground troops fighting for their lives in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Syria often rely. And if the U.S. Air Force’s supersonic B-1 bomber is one other thing, it’s misunderstood. It’s no secret that the B-1 bomber, officially called the Lancer but known to its four-man crews as the “Bone” (they proudly call themselves “Bone-drivers”), had a troubled early life. Canceled by President Jimmy Carter and revived by successor Ronald...

One of the most important programs that the U.S. Air Force is undertaking is far from glamorous and comes with a funny name: Talon HATE. But this podded system will be vital for eliminating communications barriers between the F-22 and F-15C/D fleets, as well as other weapon systems. It’s showing for the first time on the belly of an Operational Test F-15C flying out of Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. Here’s how it works. The F-15 is no stranger when it comes to evolving with the times, and Boeing is doing just that with this new communications and sensor...

A tribute by Tom Brokaw and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to Colonel Gail Halverson, "The Candy Bomber". Colonel Halverson acquired the name for his efforts during the Berlin airlift to provide the German children with candy. He called this candy parachute supply effort "Operation Little Vittles" and it was greatly appreciated by the children. To learn more about Colonel Halverson watch The Candy Bomber Interview. For some reason I cannot repost the url for this site. Just go to the link to watch the whole thing. You won't be sorry.