Free Republic

The good news is that the Pakistan Air Force has finally phased out its 36-year-old U.S.-supplied F-6 aircraft and inducted a fleet of 22 F-7PG jets, newly acquired from China over the past three months. The bad news is that China's F-7 (although much modernized, and beefed up with a MiG-29 engine) is basically a venerable Soviet-era MiG-21 Fishbed, which first flew in 1955. With more than 8,000 produced, the MiG-21 remains by far the most popular combat aircraft of the jet age. China has been producing the F-7 for even longer than the Pakistanis have had the old F-6...

DJIBOUTI, Sep 30, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Several dozen American soldiers raise a big green tent and shuffle it across the sand, making room for yet more equipment at a new U.S. military base that is growing larger by the day in this small but strategically located country in the Horn of Africa. While their colleagues rearrange their living quarters, other soldiers in sunglasses and floppy hats keep watch at the entrance to Camp Le Monier from a machine gun-mounted Humvee. The five-month-old U.S. base in this former French colony just miles across the Red Sea from...

Buckley AFB F-16s take up residence as runways improved By Dominic Weilminster, Rocky Mountain News June 11, 2003 Sleek, sharp curves make Buckley Air Force Base's F-16 squadron look like Ferraris parked in a lot of buslike jumbo jets. But their presence at Denver International Airport so far has caused little commotion. The 15 fighters are stationed away from home temporarily while their runway system is revamped. "Everything is really integrated well," said Maj. Jerome Dyck, acting public affairs spokesman for the squadron. According to Dyck, despite minor delays for F-16 practice flights to accommodate airliners, there have been almost...