How are Air Force pilots training for a war with Russia or China?

WASHINGTON: The UK is ready to start deploying the first batch of its new F-35 fighter overseas, the country’s top defense official said Thursday, while introducing a slew of new cruise and attack missiles for its Typhoon jets.   The announcement of Initial Operational Capability (IOC) for nine F-35Bs comes weeks after the Royal Navy… Keep reading →

There’s been a great deal of dismissive skepticism among the cognoscenti gathered here.

The future of the RAF is on display at the Farnborough Air Show. With the F-35, the RAF is part of the multi-domain airpower transformation and will work closely with European allies, notably in reshaping Northern Tier Defense. With the Typhoon, the RAF is seeking a modernized aircraft reworked to compliment the F-35 but with a yet undetermined relationship with its European partners. And the A330MRTT and A400M aircraft, as well as MBDA missiles, are part of a broader context of resolving Brexit.

Barring the collapse of the British government, London plans to unveil its Combat Air Strategy during the Farnborough Air Show. Unlike its Brexit strategy to leave the European Union, there is general consensus here around the broad thrust of the document: position the UK to remain a key player in the design, development and manufacture… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: No Russians. Few Chinese. The F-35. And the man who has led the charge in America’s trade wars, Peter Navarro, at the head the American delegation, with lots of other senior American officials along eager to boost bilateral sales of US weapons and civilian aircraft. Those are the early outlines of what we’ll see at this… Keep reading →

“I grew up flying fighters,” says Gen. David Goldfein, the Air Force Chief of Staff, “and I will tell you, when I see the F-35, I don’t see a fighter. I see a computer that happens to fly.”

As pretty much everyone reported at the Farnborough Air Show, Britain — which had waffled considerably over last few months — finally made a firm commitment to buy Boeing’s P-8 Poseidon to keep an eye on Russian submarines. We don’t usually run videos such as these, but this one is pretty interesting. Britain first made the commitment… Keep reading →

LONDON: Sen. John McCain would be howling if 49 percent of Pentagon contracts were not competed — especially if that had been true for more than nine years. How would McCain and his colleagues react if a company awarded a sole source deal charged the government $34,000 for a charitable donation or for “staff welfare?” One can only… Keep reading →

As former Air Force Chief of Staff “Buzz” Moseley once declared, “there is not a place on the face of the earth that the USAF will not fight their way into.” But this aspiration has been complicated by 15 years of fighting low-end opponents like the Taliban even as peer adversaries like China and Russia… Keep reading →