All Entries in the "Military" Category
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. [...]
Boeing Building UAV Fighter?
Boeing announced last month that its first unmanned jet fighter-sized aircraft, is on track to have its first flight this year.
Because it looks somewhat like a manta ray, it’s called “Phantom Ray,” a spokesman said.
A fly-by-mouse-click design, the aircraft is “piloted” by an operator watching a computer screen in a fortified trailer that can be [...]
TOPGUN DAYS, Back When Miramar Was Fighter Heaven
Topgun Days
By Dave ‘Bio’ Baranek
$24.95, 320 pp, Skyhorse
Publishing
I told the publishers, who sent me an advanced copy of Dave’s book, that I would be compelled to tell the truth, if for no other reason than to see what it feels like.
And the truth is, while this is an engaging, interesting, if somewhat sanitized recounting of [...]
U.S. To Buy More Hornets
The Pentagon has announced it will buy 124 more Boeing F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets between now and 2013.
“This decision is a tremendous win for our men and women in uniform, taxpayers, and America’s defense industrial base,” said Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), who along with the rest of the Missouri delegation, has been one of the [...]
Navy Names Transport After King Of Pork
The Secretary of the Navy announced April 23 the selection of the USS John P. Murtha (LPD 26) as the name of the 10th San Antonio class Amphibious Transport Dock ship.
Secretary Ray Mabus made the announcement at John P. Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County airport in Johnstown, Pa. , an airport famous for having millions spent upon [...]
Joint Strike Fighter Getting Pricey
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Lightning II, may turn out to be the most expensive airplane ever built, each costing more than some modern warships.
The Pentagon's cost-analysis office, which must comply with a law that demands an assessment of any weapons program that exceeds its original projected cost by 50 percent, said the JSF [...]
Navy and Air Force Working On Jet Fuel Made of Plants
The Navy demonstrated the "Green Hornet," an F/A-18 Super Hornet powered by a 50/50 biofuel blend, on Earth Day, April 22, at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., as part of its Energy Strategy.
Meanwhile, the Air Force is flying an A-10 Warthog around using a blend of jet fuel and biofuel made out of [...]
