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They are the last remaining heroes of the glorious Few, whose daring and bravery saved Britain from Nazi tyranny. Of the dwindling band of men, who were part of the near 3,000-strong aircrew who served with the RAF Fighter Command between July 10 and October 31 1940, just eight surviving members of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association remain. Many of the men were still teenagers or in their early 20s when they repelled Hitler's Luftwaffe in what may be the most important battle this country has ever fought.

One of the last survivors of the Dambuster missions has lashed out at revisionist historians who criticise Britain's tactics of razing German cities to the ground. Johnny Johnson MBE, 95, hit out at historians who were not there at the time, telling them to 'keep your bloody mouth shut,' as he demands bomber crews are finally recognised with a medal. The former bomb aimer for a Lancaster bomber was a part of the top-secret Operation Chastise, that sought to breach dams and flood munitions factories in the Ruhr valley.

A Polish war veteran is leading a British poll for the greatest Second World War Spitfire pilot by hundreds of thousands of votes. Franciszek Kornicki, 100, the last surviving Second World War Polish squadron commander, leads the online survey by a whopping 300,000 votes following a viral social media campaign by the UK's Polish community. A member of the high-scoring 303 Squadron during World War II, the war hero famously escorted a group of British bombers over northern France, where he led a daring attack on Nazi warplanes.

Civilian pilots could soon be training up the RAF’s “top gun” fliers as the military budget comes under increasing strain. Private defence companies are jostling for position ahead of an expected deal to help develop the skills of pilots flying Britain’s frontline Typhoon fighters. Civilian pilots are understood to be working with the RAF at Coningsby airbase as weapons instructors on the Typhoon, with negotiations taking place about authorisation so they can fly the supersonic military aircraft. Although no contracts have yet been put in place, such an arrangement would help pave the way for an Air Defence and Operational...

Nearly three years ago to the day I wrote about the Royal Air Force's retired fleet of Lockheed L1011 derived Tristar tankers being put up for sale. With nine aircraft available, some of them already outfitted for the tanker role, and for a very attractive price, the Tristars seemed like a perfect opportunity for a new private aerial refueling contractor to emerge. Now, this is exactly what has happened, with Tempus Applied Solutions of Texas buying six of the Tristars with the intention of entering the contracted aerial refueling market. Tempus Applied Solutions provides a wide range of aerospace products,...

Argentina has grounded all the fighter jets in its air force - meaning it is being defended by just a few dozen propeller fighters first built in the 1970s. Thirty-five years after the country's military invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands, the economically beleaguered South American republic now has a worse air force than it did under dictator Leopoldo Galtieri in 1982. It was confirmed that all of its Lockheed Martin A-4AR Skyhawk jets - which are adaptations of the 1956 fighters it used in the Falklands War - had been grounded as the air force's working hours are cut...

The Royal Air Force is being forced to give up one of its most powerful surveillance assets—its fleet of five Sentinel R1 ground targeting radar planes—due to competing budgetary priorities and yet another round of governmental cost saving measures. The R1 fleet has "been on borrowed time" fiscally for most its relatively short service life, but the final decision to axe the planes once and for all seems to have finally occurred, and they will be phased by the end of the decade. Although this is a major blow to UK Ministry of Defense's portfolio of capabilities, it is an...

The process behind combat testing an RAF plane has been revealed in a new book written by former pilots. Incredible images taken at RAF Waddington, RAF Donna Nook and RAF Coningsby, all in Lincolnshire, show the test flights of various jets and weapons over the past 30 years. They include the first firing of the laser-guided Brimstone anti-armour missile in 1999 and the evaluation crew of the F3 Tornado fighter in the mid 1980s. The book, called Operational Test: Honing the Edge, is written by David Gledhill, a former RAF tactics expert, and ex-RAF navigator and weapons tester David Lewis....

Government watchdog Judicial Watch has found a number of new emails belonging to former Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton containing classified information and showing favors being done for a Russia connected organization through the Clinton Foundation while she was Secretary of State. The emails were obtained through a lawsuit against the Department and a recent court order. "The new Abedin emails also reveal additional instances in which Clinton’s then- scheduler Lona Valmoro forwarded the former secretary of state’s detailed daily schedule to top Clinton Foundation officials. The new emails also reveal a number of favors that were requested and carried out," Judicial...

Four RAF Typhoon pilots using the world's most advanced fighter helmet set off for Eastern Europe today as tensions with Russia mounted. Theresa May sanctioned the sending of British RAF resources to patrol the skies over the Black Sea alongside local jets to reassure Eastern European countries in the face of increased aggression from Vladimir Putin. The four Typhoons, from 3 (Fighter) Squadron will lead the deployment, which is part of the Nato southern air policing mission. Pilots are using the new £250,000 Striker II helmet, which boasts in-built digital night vision that identifies enemy targets by red and yellow...

The RAF has banned servicewomen from wearing skirts on parade so that transgender personnel don't feel excluded. The MoD has taken the stance on uniform after an increase in trans recruits and it hopes that the move will show it is a 'modern' and 'inclusive' force. However, the decision has been slammed by servicewomen as political correctness gone 'mad'.

RAF jets escort Pakistan International Airlines plane to Stansted Airport This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

As the US officially enters the Yemen military campaign, the UK appears ready and willing to precipiate a catalytic event from which there is no going back. With relations between Russia and the West at post-Cold War lows and deteriorating fast, Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots have been given the go-ahead to shoot down Russian military jets when flying missions over Syria and Iraq, if they are endangered by them. The development comes with warnings that the UK and Russia are now "one step closer" to being at war, according to the Sunday Times. While the RAF's Tornado pilots have...

When the siren sounded, the RAF pilots dashed for the cockpits of their Typhoons. Within minutes, two jet fighters were streaking across a summer sky, their wings laden with air-to-air missiles, searching for unidentified intruders they know as “bandits”. Over the next half hour, Wing Commander Roger Elliott and his wingman would make three separate interceptions of Russian military aircraft. “You do have adrenalin pumping and when you launch, you don’t know what’s out there,” said Wg Cdr Elliott. “But it also makes you feel very satisfied because that is what we’re here to do.” These pilots from II Squadron...

An Imam has told his congregation in Wales that war is approaching and Islam allows them to take women as slaves and rape them. Ali Hammuda is an Imam at Cardiff’s Al-Manar Mosque, where three Islamic State (IS) fighters worshipped before travelling to Syria. They were known as the “Cardiff jihadis” before one was killed in an RAF drone strike as he was thought to be plotting attacks in the UK. Before the strike, Reyaad Khan and Nasser Muthana, then both 20, appeared in an IS recruiting video in 2014 where they bragged about executing prisoners. Muthana’s younger brother Aseel,...

Development of the Eurofighter Typhoon into a multi-role combat jet has taken a long time. But the aircraft displayed here by BAE Systems test pilot Nat Makepeace shows that this capability is finally nearing. It is carrying six MBDA Brimstone air-to-ground missiles on two three-rail under-wing launchers, plus two Raytheon Paveway IV laser and GPS-guided bombs. In addition, four MBDA Meteor BVRAAMs nestle on under-fuselage stations, and two MBDA ASRAAM shorter-range AAMs occupy the outer pylons. The Paveways are already operational on UK Royal Air Force Typhoons, having been integrated as a ‘Phase 1 Enhancement’ (P1E). The Meteors form part...

Britain has big plans for its F-35s, but whether they are affordable remains a big question. Minister for defense procurement Philip Dunne claimed last week that, apart from the U.S., the UK “will be the only other nation that can project power.” But to meet that ambition, the defense budget must by the early 2020s cover the cost of buying and operating two new 70,000-ton aircraft carriers, and at least two squadrons of F-35Bs—the most expensive version of the stealth jet to buy and fly. Moreover, those F-35s are priced in dollars, against which the British pound has just sunk...

The RAF's state-of-the art new fighter jet touched down in the UK for the first time tonight. The world’s most advanced stealth aircraft landed at RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire, after flying from the US with a Briton at the controls. Its arrival came two years after it pulled out of air shows because of an engine fire. As if the sky had been choreographed, a spectacular rainbow broke out on the arrrival of the new jets The £100million British F-35B Lightning II jet - joined by two more owned by the US Marine Corps - will take part in a series...

RAF jets will battle American stealth fighters in mock dogfights over Britain for the first time in the coming days. British Typhoon fighters will take part in air-to-air combat drills against United States Air Force F-22 Raptor jets. The contests will be the first time the aircraft have gone head-to-head in UK skies, RAF sources said. A dozen F-22s arrived at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk earlier this week and are due to stay for practice missions with the RAF until the start of next month. An RAF source said the allies were likely to fight scenarios at both close visual...

The U.S. government has approved sale of up to nine P-8 maritime patrol and strike aircraft to the United Kingdom, a new export sale for the popular Boeing (NYSE: BA) military jet. The British deal will be worth up to $3.2 billion, according to Reuters. Boeing also exports the so-called "sub killers" to Australia and India. There's a market for the jets in countries with large coastlines. The approval, while not unexpected, is a boost to the Puget Sound region. Boeing assembles the 737-based aircraft at its Renton site on a production line separate from the commercial 737s. Boeing then...