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The Japanese government made a formal decision on Tuesday to choose the F-35 stealth jet, which is being developed by the United States and eight other countries, as the country's next-generation fighter jets… Japanese Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa said Japan adopted F-35 mainly for its high performance and 42 F-35 fighters will be acquired. The government said Japanese companies would participate in building the new aircraft. Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter, which had been reviewed along with Boeing's FA-18 Super Hornet and the Eurofighter Typhoon, will replace the country's 40-year-old fleet of F-4's.

Report: Germany offers Croatia 20 aging F-4 Phantom fighter jets By: The Associated Press ZAGREB, Croatia - Croatian state TV is reporting that Germany has offered Croatia 20 aging F-4 Phantom fighter planes to replace its even older MIG-21 jets. Croatia's HRT television says the twin-engine American-made fighters can fly for another couple of years before they are retired. But the six Soviet-made MIGs in the Croatian air force fleet have an even shorter flight span left. HRT says the Croatian government has not yet answered to the German free-of-charge offer for the McDonnell Douglas Phantoms, which entered service with...

Two Air Force pilots were killed when an RF-4C reconnaissance plane crashed into a mountain in North Jeolla Province on Friday during a low-altitude training mission. The Air Force is investigating whether the crash was due to mechanical problems or pilot error. The crash was the third one so far this year for the Air Force after F5 fighter jets crashed in March and June. The three crashes this year involved different aircraft, but all are more than 30 years old. The RF-4C was produced in the U.S. in 1966, and the Air Force bought and recycled them in 1990s...

There is a resurgence in interest in South Korea's fighter aircraft requirements, with the east Asian country deciding on a variety of aircraft as part of an ongoing modernisation of its air force's capabilities. The choices represent a mix of imported and indigenous solutions, with the country trying to find a way to match its operational requirements with a desire to promote the local industry, mainly state-owned Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI). South Korea has maintained three levels of fighters - low, medium and high - as part of its operational capability. At the low level are Northrop F-5s, at the...

After 41 years, South Korea is retiring the last of its 222 F-4D Phantom fighter-bombers. They (and F-5 fighters) have been replaced, over the last 15 years, by 40 F-15K fighter-bombers and 180 F-16s. The F-4 was a 28 ton, two seat, fighter bomber designed in the 1950s, and about 5,200 were built, mostly in the 1960s and 70s. About ten percent of them are still in service. Replacing the F-4 as a fighter-bomber is the F-15K, which is a customized version of the 36 ton U.S. F-15E (a two seat fighter bomber version of the single seat, 31 ton...

Korean Air Force decommissions F-4D jets By Jung Sung-ki Staff reporter A squadron of F-4D Phantom fighter jets conducted its last flight Wednesday, ending its 41 years of service with the ROK Air Force. A ceremony for the decommissioning of the aircraft was held at the 11th Fighter Wing in Daegu, about 300 kilometers south of Seoul. Boeing-built F-15K Slam Eagle fighters will replace the older aircraft. “Though the F-4D aircraft is fading into the mist of history, their spirit will be succeeded by the F-15K, which will further bolster our air defense,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Lee...

Iran was said to have encountered difficulties in modernizing its Air Force. The U.S. intelligence community has determined that the Iranian Air Force was hampered in several areas of modernization of its 1970s-era U.S.-origin platforms. The Defense Intelligence Agency assessed that the Air Force was blocked in such areas as airborne early-warning and control as well as precision-guided munitions. "The IRIAF [Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force] remains largely dependent on 1970's-era U.S. aircraft like the F-4 Phantom II, the F-14A Tomcat, and the F-5E Tiger II," DIA said in a report titled "Iran's Military Power." The report, released to...

Budgetary complaints, political bickering and financial scandals kept Japan's competition for a new combat aircraft delayed for nearly three years. But now, after seemingly endless delays, the government in Japan is poised to forge ahead with its competition for the F-X multirole fighter, Defense News reports. The competition calls for the purchase of an estimated 40 to 50 aircraft in a bid to replenish Japan's ageing fleet of F-4EJ Kai Phantoms. Many of Japan's F-4 Phantom fighters have been barred from flying and discontinued from production. A request for proposals could be announced by as early as next month, Defense...

The Turkish air force has received its first of 16 McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantoms to be upgraded under a $24 million deal with local supplier Aselsan. Dubbed Simsek (Lightning), the project will equip the strike aircraft with new avionics, navigation and secure digital communications equipment, plus replacement flight software and improved mission planning equipment. Related structural renovation work is being conducted by the air force's 1st air supply and maintenance centre in Eskisehir. The effort follows an earlier project to modernise some of the air force's reconnaissance-configured RF-4Es, which delivered its first aircraft last year. "The F-4E has been operated...

The F-4 Phantom II lives. But the life it leads today is an odd one. It still flies in other countries; in northern Iraq, for example, the Turks use it in combat with the Kurds. But in the United States, it leads a twilight existence. It’s a warplane, but it no longer fights. Its mission is weapons testing, but no pilot flies it. Mostly, you’ll find these F-4s either sitting in the desert or lying at the bottom of the sea. The F-4 entered service in 1960, flying for the U.S. Navy. After studying its potential for close air support,...

Finally Uncensored: IAF Plane "Downed" Iraqi Jet in 1982 by Hillel Fendel (IsraelNN.com) An Israeli surveillance airplane on duty over Baghdad 27 years ago led to the downing of an Iraqi MiG that pursued it. The story was published in a recent issue of Air Forces Monthly, and its translation into Hebrew was permitted by the Israeli military censor. The translator was Avinoam Misnikov, editor of the Hebrew-language Merhav Aviri (Air Space) website. The star of the story is a U.S.-made Phantom F-4E, nicknamed "Kurnass Shablul" (Sledgehammer Snail). The plane was fitted with what was then state-of-the-art photography equipment. Shortly...

Defense Spending: The TARP bailout may hit $24 trillion, but the Senate says the F-22 is too expensive to build and maintain. So why are the Japanese so desperate to buy this "unnecessary" Cold War weapon?By a vote of 58-40, the Senate on Tuesday voted to remove $1.75 billion set aside in a defense bill to build seven more F-22 Raptors, adding to the 187 stealth technology fighters already in the pipeline. After some hope the production lines would be kept open, the Senate succumbed to arguments by the administration and others that the fighter was too expensive, too hard...

PALMDALE - Many students spend spring break partying at the beach or on the slopes. However, a handful of Antelope Valley College airframe and powerplant students spent two days of their spring break restoring airplanes for display at Palmdale Plant 42 Heritage Airpark on Avenue P between 20th and 25th streets west. Jerry Shatzer, 46, and Betsy Luahiwa, 45, kept busy manufacturing a panel to cover an access panel near the tail end of a 1960s-era Navy A-4 Skyhawk, while Stephen Lopez, 39, Tim Gaines and James Dillard, 21, worked on the top of plane. "We're covering access panels no...

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — Twenty years ago a North Dakota National Guard fighter jet scrambled with a cooler containing an infant heart for a 5-month-old boy in California. The heart still beats inside Andrew De La Pena, who's now a student at Loyola University in New Orleans. He will be in Fargo this week with his parents. They'll meet the anonymous family whose decision to donate their infant's organs helped De La Pena live. "I have often wondered what happened and if he's OK," said Col. Bob Becklund, who flew the F-4. "And to hear now that he's survived all...

MOJAVE - Marking the continuation of a long-standing Mojave program, employees of BAE Systems Flight Systems celebrated the Thursday delivery of their 200th QF-4 drone aircraft to the Air Force. These unmanned aircraft are converted F-4 fighters taken from the boneyard to be used as realistic targets for weapons development. Based at the Mojave Airport, BAE Systems is the exclusive provider of these aircraft for the Air Force. "This family we call Flight Systems has been doing this for a long time. What you do for the warfighter and our country is so important," said Paul Nafziger, vice president and...

See for example this thread first. The sentence of Duke Cunningham (he flew F-4's in Viet Nam): A hundred-month term! And what makes me squirm: (While Bill Clinton walks?) That's a scam!

CNN live on the air..reports just coming in...tornado hit at night...many homes also damaged..7 dead in trailer park

Tuesday July 5, 7:27 PM ASDF to have 1st airstrike drill with live bomb on island off Guam (Kyodo) _ The Japanese Air Self-Defense Force is set to perform its first ever airstrike drill with live ammunition, scheduled to take place on an uninhabited island off Guam, ASDF officials said Tuesday. The drill, in which an ASDF combat aircraft will drop a 500-pound bomb on a ground target on the island some 350 kilometers north-northeast of Guam, will be conducted on the sidelines of a joint exercise between the ASDF and the U.S. Air Force in Guam to begin Monday....

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. .................................................................. .................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. .................................................................. .................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should...