All Entries in the "Military" Category

Snowbirds Chose First Female CO

The Canadian Snowbirds have announced a first for a national jet demonstration team, a female commanding officer - Lt. Colonel Maryse Carmichael.

She's not only the first female to lead a North American jet team, she's also the first woman to fly with the Snowbirds, and the second.
In November 2000, Lt. Col. Carmichael was selected [...]

US Buying Russian Helos

The Russian Mi-17 helicopter is a workhorse transport aircraft seen as versatile and easy to maintain.
Maybe that’s why the U.S. has spent more than $800 million over the past several years to buy them; a single Mi-17 costs around $12 million, according to the State Department. The helicopters are mostly used for airlifting troops and [...]

Carl Vinson Sets Trap Record

USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) reached a historic milestone with the success of its 200,000th trap on its flight deck July 13.
Lt. Ben Hartman and Lt. Ian Hudson, attached to Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 129, said they were honored and surprised to learn they got the 200,000th trap.
Cakes were presented in Wardroom III to the [...]

US Unveils F-15 Stealth Fighter

Both South Korea and Israel are showing interest in a new stealth version of Boeing’s classic F-15 fighter called the F-15SE1 “Silent Eagle.”
Both nations already have conventional versions of the F-15 in their air force inventories. The Silent Eagle, which is a stealth version of the F-15, was designed to supplement American tactics until the [...]

Canadians Cancel CF-18 Demos

The remainder of performances this season by the Canadian Forces CF-18 demonstration team has been cancelled in the wake of a jet crash in Lethbridge last month that left its pilot injured.
The military said there is not enough time to add a substitute pilot for the rest of the eight air shows across the country [...]

Tuskegee Airman Passes

Retired Lt. Col. William H. Holloman III, 85, one of the famed “Tuskegee Airmen” who broke the military’s color barrier by becoming a World War II fighter pilot, died June 11 in Kent, Wash.
Col. Holloman continued to serve during the Korean War and became the Air Force’s first black helicopter pilot. He went to war [...]

B-52 Sent To Guam, Uh Oh

Six  B-52H Stratofortresses and nearly 350 Airmen left Minot AFB, N.D. June 1 for Andersen Air Force Base, Guam to start a six-month deployment.
The 5th Bomb Wing’s role in U.S. Pacific Command’s continuous bomber presence mission “is vital to national security,” said Col. Charles Patnaude, the 5th Operations Group commander. Col. Patnaude said Minot’s Airmen [...]

Boeing To Try Helo Bid

Boeing says it will buy the rights to build a midsize helicopter from AgustaWestland, a European company.
AgustaWestland had previously teamed with Lockheed Martin for the project, called the VH-71, which the Pentagon canceled in June 2009, citing cost overruns.
Government auditors have said that most of the overruns on the earlier contract came not from the [...]

F-35C Makes First Flight

Only five years late, an F-35C Navy version of the Joint Strike Fighter made its inaugural flight last month.
In Fort Worth, where it was built, a Lockheed Martin and U.S. Navy team achieved a milestone for the Lightning II aircraft carrier variant jet fighter/bomber. The Lightning II, a larger winged F-35 aircraft variant developed to [...]

Newest T-Birds Named

The U.S. Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron, commonly known as the Thunderbirds, recently announced incoming officer selections for the 2011 demonstration season and, once again, they’re all men.
Capt. Ryan Riley, an F-16 pilot stationed at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, will join the team as the left wing for the squadron as Thunderbird No. 2.
Capt. [...]