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The Malaysian Air Force has announced that they have modified their Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets to be able to drop GBU-12 laser-guided bombs, having successfully tested the new platform in late 2016. The Royal Malaysian Air Force put out a video showing their Su-30MKMs, supermaneuverable fighters specifically designed for use by Malaysian forces, dropping 500-pound GBU-12s made by Lockheed-Martin and Raytheon. The video's accompanying caption said that the test occurred in November 2016 at the Air Force's weapons testing range. However, the segment has since been deleted from the video. The GBU-12s are laser-guided, using a passive heat-seeking homing...

In recent weeks, the French Air Force has significantly expanded the scope of its strike opportunities within Operation Chammal, its air strikes against Daesh. On October 14, 2015, a Rafale for the first time dropped fired a BLU-126 bomb fitted with the Air-to-Ground Modular Weapon (AASM) with GPS / laser guidance. The introduction of this weapon into operational service was decided on October 1 by the air force command, in the wake of operational test and evaluation carried out by the program team at the air force’s Centre d’Expertise Aérienne Militaire (CEAM) trials unit at Mont-de-Marsan air base. On October...

WASHINGTON - Of the two bombs that flattened the safe house in which terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed, the first to strike was a type the Air Force has used for 30 years. The second was a new weapon whose first use in combat was in October 2004 against — coincidentally — a building in Iraq said by the U.S. military to be hosting a "confirmed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi terrorist meeting." This time they got it right. An F-16C Fighting Falcon jet dropped both bombs — first a 500-pounder known as a GBU-12, guided to its target by...

The American air strike that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi late yesterday was a long time in coming. The F-16 pilots who put two laser-guided 500-pound bombs into the house in which Zarqawi was hiding ended the life of a terrorist who had been not only an organizer and commander of terrorists in Iraq, but also a funding source that has helped Zarqawi’s theoretical leader—Osama bin Laden—continue to spread terrorist ideology and fear. While Zarqawi’s death won’t end the terrorist war in Iraq, it’s a very big step in that direction. Buy Now Save 37% The operation was a great example...