According to an article published by the UK Ministry of Defence on July 9, 2019, the UK is focusing on developing new laser and radio frequency weapons. The state-of-the-art weapons systems, known as Directed Energy Weapons (DEW), are powered solely by electricity and operate without ammunition. The systems could be…
By Damien Hare The popular perception of bombing in World War II is of inaccuracy and indiscriminate destruction. Despite early intentions to conduct precision raids in Europe, both the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Forces found that limitations of technology, training and the elements severely…
by Master Sgt. Austin May ORLAND AIR BASE, Norway – For the first time outside the U. S., Norwegian and American F-35 Lightning II maintainers worked together on their aircraft June 17, 2019. A team of five maintainers and four pilots from the 421st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron deployed to Norway…
F-35 test pilot Dan Levin, F-35 Pax River Integrated Test Force, flies an Auto Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto-GCAS) test flight in an F-35C on a low level through West Virginia, June 17, 2019. Flying the low level helps stress the Auto-GCAS software to confirm there are no false collision…
On 5 July 2019, RAAF Base Williamtown hosted an F-35A Community Day for invited community members, leaders, organisational representatives and Defence community partners of the Hunter region. Guests were treated to a windscreen familiarisation tour with Air Force personnel providing commentary and a unique insight into the Base, its infrastructure…
The Royal Australian Air Force’s Number 77 Squadron conducted a flypast over RAAF Base Williamtown on July 5, 2019 in a ‘double seven’ formation to mark the unit’s 77 years of operations. The flypast took the 16 F/A-18A Hornets over RAAF Williamtown and well as the Lower Hunter and Port…
By George Galdorisi Occurring less than six months after the publication of the U.S. Navy’s latest strategic document, Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority Version 2.0 (Design 2.0), the recent Navy League SeaAirSpace Symposium and Global Maritime Exposition had a strong focus on the document’s three Lines of Efforts (LOE) (Blue: Strengthen…
By Andrew McLaughlin The Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) has conducted a 9,000km rapid reaction deployment training mission from Edwards AFB in California to a range in the Netherlands. The June 13 strike mission was conducted RNLAF pilots and two F-35As based with the joint 323rd Test and Evaluation Squadron (323rdTES)…
