With Hiroshima, Obama Goes Where Predecessors Stayed Away

With Hiroshima, Obama Goes Where Predecessors Stayed Away

When President Barack Obama tours Hiroshima’s haunting relics of nuclear warfare, he will be making a trip that past administrations weighed and avoided. For good reason: The hollowed core of the city’s A-Bomb Dome and old photos of charred children are sure to rekindle questions of guilt and penitence for World War II‘s gruesome brutality. Obama’s […]

As regional tensions grow, Japan will house new U.S. special operations aircraft

As regional tensions grow, Japan will house new U.S. special operations aircraft

The Air Force is preparing to move a special operations squadron of 10 CV-22 Ospreys to a base in Japan, where they will be on the frontlines of the United States’ mounting standoff with China and North Korea. The first three tilt-rotor aircraft are expected to arrive at Yokota Air Base, just west of Tokyo, in the second half of 2017, with another […]

Indian RAW Intelligence Officers Defect to the West, Following U.S. SecDef Visit

Indian RAW Intelligence Officers Defect to the West, Following U.S. SecDef Visit

India and the United States have been militarily courting for the past two years, following a prolonged freeze in defense diplomacy and U.S. sanctions after India’s nuclear-weapons testing in 1998 . U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has recently returned from a three-day visit to India, his second trip this year. Mr. Carter discussed logistical requirements for […]

New Radar Facility: Japan Expands Military Presence in East China Sea

New Radar Facility: Japan Expands Military Presence in East China Sea

This Monday, the Ground Japan Self-Defense Force (GSDF) switched on a permanent new radar station in Yonaguni Island, part of Okinawa Prefecture in the East China Sea. Yonaguni is located 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands and 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of Taiwan, The Japan Times reports. “Establishing a stable defense setup […]

Japan: Open To Western Fighter Designs

Editor’s Note: Since its unveiling, Japan’s ATD-X aircraft has undertaken an ambitious test program. As you can see in the video, they’re at the point of doing high-speed texts–with both afterburners lit for a short period of time. It won’t be long before this aircraft conducts its first flight, probably within the coming days. That […]

Qatar Places Order For Rafale, Thanks To Japan

Qatar Places Order For Rafale, Thanks To Japan

Editor’s Note: Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Here’s an indication of a partner nation who’s grown weary of being put on hold and has taken matters into its own hands to procure the hardware it needs to secure itself in a part of the world which grows more and more hostile as days […]

Black Knights Fly Against Japanese F-15s

Black Knights Fly Against Japanese F-15s

Editor’s Note: It’s not just the Air Force and Navy who get the good deals in the fighter world! VMFA-314, the Black Knights, had the opportunity to fly dissimilar air combat training, or DACT, against F-15C Eagles from the Japanese Air Self Defense Force. While we’ve talked about Hornets fighting Vipers, etcetera, the Eaglejet is […]

PACAF F-16 Demo Prepares For Season!

Editor’s Note: In all the years I’ve been attending airshows, I’ve only seen the PACAF F-16 Demonstration one time–and that was in Alaska of all places. A lot of folks don’t realize there’s another Viper demo out there, but it is every bit as high-powered and high-energy as its stateside counterpart. The team draws its […]

Rare video footage of Australian WW2 Commandos

Rare video footage of Australian WW2 Commandos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElEMTTxzYtA The Australian Story episode Into the Lion’s Den showcases some rare, colour footage of Special Operations Australia commandos training in secret during World War II. Shot in the remote bush of Fraser Island in Queensland, well away from the public gaze, it is a glimpse into the world of espionage and the art of […]

Okinawa Marine Corps base move on hold until 2025

Okinawa Marine Corps base move on hold until 2025

TOKYO — A controversial plan to move a U.S. Marine Corps base within Okinawa in southern Japan has been pushed back by two years, America’s top military official in the Pacific said. Adm. Harry Harris, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, said Tuesday that the shift of the Futenma air station to a less congested part of Okinawa island would not happen until 2025 because work on a […]