F-22

A Hellenic Air Force (HAF) pilot has been named NATO’s Best Warrior for 2018. Captain Kosmas Xalaris was voted by his NATO colleagues as the best overall pilot in the Tactical Leadership Programme (TLP). The competition happened between September 10 and October 4, during the 3rd Air Training Series for 2018. The Greek pilots participated […]

An F-22 Raptor is refueled by a KC-135 Stratotanker over the Nevada Test and Training Range during the U.S. Air Force Weapons School’s Deliberate Strike Night, June 16, 2016. The exercise is part of the final seven-day advanced integration portion of the school’s curriculum, testing stealth and conventional airframes’ abilities to conduct attacks during the […]

No one would contend that the long dated A-4 Skyhawk is a reasonable match for America’s best air superiority fighter, the F-22 Raptor, but U.S. pilots need experience contending with a wide variety of opponent aircraft — including dated platforms like those employed by many national militaries. That sort of training is why the U.S. […]

A C-130J Super Hercules from the 37th Airlift Squadron fires flares as it performs anti-aircraft fire tests during exercise Carpathian May 9, 2016, in Romania. The 37th AS, from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, began participating in off-station training deployments with Romania as early as 1996, allowing the Air Force to work with NATO allies to […]

In national security and defense analysis circles, we tend to give China and Russia’s fifth-generation fighter programs a fair amount of real estate when it comes to headlines and think-pieces. So much so, that many could be forgiven for assuming that these two nations, both considered “near peers” to the United States in terms of […]

In the era of F-35s, F-22s and B-21s, stealth technology has continued to advance and envelope an even greater portion of America’s airborne war fighting apparatus — but not too long ago, America’s stealth aircraft (and their capabilities) remains a closely guarded secret. The Nighthawk’s angular design is actually a product of the limited computational […]

A HH-60 Pave Hawk returns from an exercise mission July 12, 2016, at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., as part of Red Flag 16-3. The exercise is one of four Red Flags at Nellis AFB, with this iteration focusing on air, space and cyberspace operations.   U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. David Salanitri

No one would contend that the long dated A-4 Skyhawk is a reasonable match for America’s best air superiority fighter, the F-22 Raptor, but U.S. pilots need experience contending with a wide variety of opponent aircraft — including dated platforms like those employed by many national militaries. That sort of training is why the U.S. […]

An F-16 Fighting Falcon from Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., receives fuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker July 18, 2016, while taking part in exercise Red Flag 16-3 at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. Red Flag 16-3 is one of four Red Flag exercises at Nellis AFB, with this iteration focusing on multi-domain operations in air, space […]

The world was a different place in 1986. Mike Tyson won his first title that year, making him the youngest man ever to do so. A brand new Ford Mustang cost less than $7,500, and Tom Cruise was the face of what may have been the most successful military recruitment campaign in U.S. history. Here […]

Colombian air force Capt. Juan Monsalve prepares for take-off during Exercise Green Flag East at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., Aug. 17, 2016. The Super Tucano is the Colombian air force’s most effective aircraft currently in operation, providing air support to its military forces on day-to-day operations.   U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Mozer O. […]

A few days ago, Fighter Sweep reported on an image that first surfaced on The Aviationist of an aircraft that certainly looked an awful lot like China’s most advanced fighter, the Chengdu J-20. The person who took the image claimed it was shot at the Savannah-Hilton Head Airport in Savannah, Georgia, and The Aviationist confirmed […]