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American B-52s, the massive strategic bombers, arrived in the Middle East on Saturday. They are part of the Fifth Bomb Wing at Minot AFB in North Dakota. These veteran, giant aircraft were last deployed in the region in May 2019 and the US Central Command says they are here to “deter aggression and reassure US partners and allies.” The B-52s have been sent to the region as the US appears to be drawing down forces in Iraq. The Pentagon has said that hundreds of troops are leaving Iraq and Afghanistan. As the US seeks to end twenty years of involvement...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP/VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE and AMERICA: Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 JOHN 5:14 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

========================================================================== A photograph appears to show a plane flying over Edwards Air Force base that's unlike any aircraft publicly acknowledged by the U.S. Air Force. The aircraft appears similar to the RQ-180, a high-altitude spy drone. The RQ-180’s existence has never been confirmed by the U.S. Air Force. ======================================================================== The image (above) depicts a flying wing-shaped aircraft leaving a contrail in its wake. An observer reportedly took the photo while the aircraft was over the Military Operating Area at Edwards Air Force Base in California. According to Aviation Week & Space Technology, the aircraft “was flying in a racetrack pattern...

FOX broadcasters Joe Buck and Troy Aikman don’t appear to be big fans of military pregame flyovers at NFL games. In a video obtained by Defector media, Buck and Aikman, who apparently didn’t know they were being recorded, could be heard on a hot mic before the start of Sunday’s Packers-Bucs game mocking the pregame flyover as a waste of money by the government. TROY AIKMAN: That’s a lot of jet fuel just to do a little flyover. JOE BUCK: That’s your hard-earned money and your tax dollars at work! AIKMAN: That stuff ain’t happening with [a] Kamala-Biden ticket. I’ll...

An Air Force Global Strike Command official has given us an indication of how fast the Air Force’s new Air-launched Rapid-Response Weapon will fly. The U.S. Air Force says the hypersonic boost-glide vehicle warhead in its forthcoming AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid-Response Weapon hypersonic missile will fly at an average speed of between 5,000 and 6,000 miles per hour. This would be roughly between Mach 6.5 and Mach 8. At that speed, it will take only 10 to 12 minutes to strike targets 1,000 miles away. Air Force Major General Andrew Gebara, Air Force Global Strike Command’s (AFGSC) Director of Strategic Plans,...

Several senior military officials, including Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. and Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, are quarantining at home after a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff tested positive for the coronavirus on Oct. 5. Coast Guard Vice Commandant Adm. Charles Ray was tested “after feeling mild symptoms over the weekend,” the service said. He will quarantine at home as well. “The Coast Guard is following established policies for COVID, per [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] guidelines, to include quarantine and contact tracing,” according to an Oct. 6...

The Air Force Secretly Designed, Built, and Flew a Brand-New Fighter Jet And it all happened in just one year. Yes, that's mind-blowing. The U.S. Air Force revealed this week that it has secretly designed, built, and tested a new prototype fighter jet. The fighter, about which we know virtually nothing, has already flown and “broken records.” (The image above is Air Force concept art from 2018). The Air Force must now consider how it will buy the new fighter as it struggles to acquire everything from intercontinental ballistic missiles to bombers. The Air Force’s head of acquisition, Will Roper,...

Taiwan scrambled multiple fighter jets on Friday after China sent 18 planes over the Taiwan Strait in a show of force as a U.S. official held meetings in Taiwan. China flew demonstrations over the strait as U.S. Under Secretary of State Keith Krach held talks with Taiwan’s minister of economic affairs and the vice premier. He also met with business leaders and is set to dine with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday, according to The Associated Press. Krach is the most senior State Department official to visit Taiwan in four decades, according to Reuters. The self-governing island is claimed...

The U.S. Air Force announced it has already flown a new prototype fighter. We know virtually nothing about the new plane ... other than it exists. Most observers did not expect a new fighter for another decade. The U.S. Air Force revealed this week that it has secretly designed, built, and tested a new prototype fighter jet. The fighter, about which we know virtually nothing, has already flown and “broken records.” The Air Force must now consider how it will buy the new fighter as it struggles to acquire everything from intercontinental ballistic missiles to bombers. The Air Force’s head...

The Air Force on Tuesday revealed that it has secretly built and flown a prototype of its next-generation fighter jet, according to the service's top acquisition official. The jet, built as part of the Air Force's Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, was first disclosed to Defense News on Monday. Air Force acquisition head Will Roper told the outlet that the service could now move the jet into production "pretty fast."

An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launches during an operational test at 1:13 a.m. Pacific Time Oct. 2, 2019, at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a $13.3 billion contract to engineer and manufacture its next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile. (Air Force Photo by Staff Sgt. J.T. Armstrong) The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a $13.3 billion contract for the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase of the service's next-generation intercontinental ballistic missiles to replace the aging Minuteman III ICBMs. The service on Tuesday said the contract for the Ground Based...

WASHINGTON: In a 5 to 0 sweep, an AI ‘pilot’ developed by Heron Systems beat one of the Air Force’s top F-16 fighter pilots in DARPA’s simulated aerial dogfight contest today. “It’s a giant leap,” said DARPA’s Justin (call sign “Glock”) Mock, who served as a commentator on the trials. AI still has a long way to go before the Air Force pilots would be ready to hand over the stick to an artificial intelligence during combat, DARPA officials said during today’s live broadcast of the AlphaDogfight trials. But the three-day trials show that AI systems can credibly maneuver an...

An Air Force helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing at a Virginia airport Monday after someone shot at it, injuring a member of the crew, local and military officials told McClatchy. The UH-1N Huey helicopter is assigned to the 1st Helicopter Squadron at Joint Base Andrews and had been on a routine training flight, the base said in a statement. The injured crew member, who was not identified, was treated at a hospital and released. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the incident.

The FBI is investigating the incident, involving a helicopter assigned to President Donald Trump’s support detail. The UH-1N Huey helicopter, assigned to Joint Base Andrews just outside of Washington, D.C., was conducting a routine training flight roughly 1,000 feet above the ground before it was forced to make an emergency landing at an airport in nearby Manassas, Virginia, after being struck by a bullet, an Air Force spokesperson tells U.S. News. The helicopter is assigned to the 1st Helicopter Squadron, which supports the movement of the president and other senior government officials to and from Andrews, where Air Force One...

A former Air Force officer has been sentenced to two years behind bars for her role in a nationwide scheme to defraud the military's health program, Tricare, of billions of dollars. Maj. Romeatrius Moss, 40, pleaded guilty Oct. 15, 2019, to accepting kickbacks for referring patients at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma, to civilian pharmacies that specialized in compounded medications; she faced up to five years in prison. Moss admitted to giving service members and other patients at the base medical clinic pre-printed prescription pads and encouraging them to ask their doctors for specialty medications -- compounded personalized prescriptions for...

The Air Force, wary of losing its GPS satellites during a major war, is exploring alternatives. One alternative is using a magnetic field map of Earth. Maps of Earth’s magnetic field are very accurate, but we don't know how data is gained about possible enemy territory. =================================================================================== The U.S. Air Force, concerned that adversaries might target its fleet of GPS satellites in wartime, is looking into Earth’s magnetic field as an alternative, according to Defense One.Accurate and extremely difficult to jam, the magnetic field could be used as a means of navigation for ground troops, ships at sea, and...

Col. Steve dePyssler was a U.S. Air Force veteran who was the only known American to have served in four wars. 38 years of active duty Col. dePyssler began his military career serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. He later transferred to the U.S. Air Force and went on to serve in the Korean War, the French Indochina War, and the Vietnam War, as well as at the Bay of Pigs Invasion. He rose from private to colonel over 38 years of active duty. After his retirement, dePyssler worked in the Retirees Office at Louisiana’s Barksdale Air...

HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. (WMBB) — The shooter involved in an armed disturbance on Friday has been identified as civilian spouse Elliot Alexeichik. Elliot Alexeichik was declared dead on the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Airman First Class, and member of 1st SOW, Kimberly Alexeichik was reported injured due to a gunshot wound during the incident. She was transported to a local hospital and is currently in stable condition. The United States Air Force was notified of the armed disturbance at 4:28 p.m. prompting a base lockdown. The lockdown was lifted at 5:55 p.m. and the base was given the...

Please watch and share this non-partisan, non-political heartfelt message from the newly unanimously appointed Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force The right man for the job - for such a time as this.

A hurricane that struck Florida in late 2018 damaged and displaced so many of the U.S. Air Force’s F-22 Raptor stealth fighters that the flying branch resorted to desperate measures to ensure it could fly enough F-22 sorties. It underscores how few Raptors the Air Force possesses, and how fragile the fleet could be if it ever sustains major losses in wartime.