06/06/2017: U.S. Air Force Airmen partner with the Royal Air Force and the French Air Force for a second trilateral exercise at Joint Base Langley-Eustis. Atlantic Trident 2017, hosted by the 1st Fighter Wing, focuses on air operations in a highly contested operational environment through a variety of complex, simulated adversary…
2017-05-31 In a recent article in The Manufacturer, there is a look at F-35 manufacturing in the United Kingdom. It is the Typhoon and F-35, very much live MOD acquisitions, that offer the greatest opportunity – and imperative – for replacing parts that combine the daunting mix of intensive man-hour…
05/21/2017: The Marine Corps Made history by shooting the F-35B's gun pod in flight for the first time on May 15th, 2017. As Tom Demerly wrote in The Aviationist about the gun pod: The U.S. Marine Corps Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter has completed the test firing of…
2017-05-17 By Robbin Laird A key dynamic with the shift from the land wars to shaping a 21st century combat fore is the crucial opportunity the US and its closest allies have to learn from each other thanks to the number of core weapons systems being bought at the same…
2017-05-13 By Robbin Laird The RAF is positioning itself for a triple transition. The first transition is from the Tornado to Typhoon. The second is the transition is to a fifth generation enabled air combat force. The third transition is the deployment of F-35s aboard the new Queen Elizabeth class carriers…
2017-05-07 By Robbin Laird In a 2015 piece, I highlighted three historic firsts for Italy in the F-35 program delivered in 2015. LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. -- At the beginning of the 20th Century, Italy was a pioneer in combat aviation. Although different at the beginning of the 21st century,…
2017-05-05 By Todd Miller I had a chance to fly with Red Air during Atlantic Trident 2017. The key Red Air platform was the F-15, and the strike eagle has a long and distinguished combat history. As Kyle Mizokami has noted about the Strike Eagle: For nearly three decades, the…
2017-05-04 The first trilateral exercise involving fifth generation aircraft with Typhoons and Rafales was held in December 2015. In a piece published on the French Air Force website on December 16, 2015, a brief overview of the exercise was provided. According to General Creux: “the key challenge was to get our…
