Free Republic

Ukraine’s top general has blamed the slow progress of the country’s counteroffensive against Russia on a supposed lack of Western-supplied weaponry and fighter jets. Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s military commander-in-chief, aired his frustrations with the growing concern in Western capitals and media that his forces are not making the expected gains against the heavily entrenched Russian forces.

The skies over Washington DC were chaotic Sunday as a small plane flew overhead. Some reports indicate it even made it over the White House with Joe Biden inside. Sonic booms were being reported as explosions in the nation’s capital. F-16s were scrambled and the plane later crashed in rural Virginia. There is no confirmation that the plane was shot down by the military. According to The Gateway Pundit: "The plane that flew over Washington, D.C. Sunday afternoon and crashed in rural Virginia was allowed to fly almost right over the White House, according to flight tracking. The Capitol was...

Advanced fighter jets from the United States and China came face to face recently, according to the commander of the United States’ air presence in the Indo-Pacific.“We recently had, I wouldn’t call it an engagement, but we got relatively close to the J-20s with our F-35s in the East China Sea, and were relatively impressed with the command and control that was associated with the J-20s,” said Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, Commander of the Pacific Air Forces during a March 14 interview with the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.The F-35 and J-20 are the most advanced fighters in the American and...

My friend and noted aerospace industry expert Richard Aboulafia recently commented on the inability of the Chinese to sell their fighter jets overseas:“This feeble sales record has nothing to do with the aircraft themselves. China has made great strides in improving its state-owned aerospace technology base, particularly in the military realm. China makes quality products, or at least products that are on par with the planes that the old Soviet Union succeeded in exporting in great quantities to various countries.”Moreover, Chinese weapons are relatively cheap, reliable, and sold with few questions asked.The reason, rather, according to Aboulafia, is that China’s...

Designed to replace the variants of the Saab 35 Viggen and Saab 37 Draken combat aircraft, Sweden’s JAS 39 Gripen was first flown in December 1988 and entered operational service with the Swedish Air Force in 1997. Developed as part of a joint effort by an industrial consortium that consisted of Saab, Saab Microwave Systems (formerly Ericsson), Volvo Aero Corporation, Saab Avitronics and FFV Aerotech, the Gripen was the first Swedish multirole combat aircraft – capable of conducting interception, ground-attack, and reconnaissance.

U.S. fighter jets intercepted eight Russian warplanes near Alaska in two separate incidents, according to military officials on Wednesday.“NORAD F-22 Raptors, supported by KC-135 Stratotankers and an E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System, successfully completed two intercepts of Russian bomber aircraft formations entering the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone last night,” the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) wrote on Wednesday morning. NORAD F-22 Raptors, supported by KC-135 Stratotankers and an E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System, successfully completed two intercepts of Russian bomber aircraft formations entering the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone last night. pic.twitter.com/9iSZK0Vu2F— North American Aerospace Defense...

TAIPEI—Taiwan’s air force warned off several Chinese fighter jets that briefly entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone to its southwest on June 9, the defense ministry stated. The Su-30 fighters, some of China’s most advanced jets, were given verbal warnings to leave and Taiwanese air force jets “drove away” the intruders, the ministry added. Taiwan has complained that China, which claims the democratic island as its own, has stepped up military activities in recent months, menacing Taiwan even as the world deals with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic. China says such exercises are nothing unusual. China has never...

The US Navy and Boeing announced Monday they had flown two fighter jets in exercises under the control of a third jet nearby, proving that multiple pilotless combat missions can be run from a separate aircraft.

Key point: Russian aircraft are closing the gap with the West, making the need for investments in next-generation fighters more important than ever. Russia’s Su-35 fighter certainly has western defense outlets buzzing--and for good reason. Moscow, despite heavy sanctions and an economy that has certainly seen better days, keeps pumping out new combat systems one after another--items like new tanks, submarines, nuclear weapons platforms and more. While many were indeed designed and planned for ahead of the imposition of sanctions, Russia is clearly making a big effort to modernize its armed forces, especially its air force, and moving past older...

On Wednesday, Barack Obama made a weak plea for support to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement with Iran. He even went so far as to castigate opponents of this foreign policy faux pas as equal to Iran’s maniacal Islamists. Obama states the only alternative to accepting his deal is war. Well, we already reported Russia’s looking to sell Iran a fleet of aerial refueling tankers. Now, there’s another report about an Iranian weapons purchase — and the report is not coming from our media. As reported by the Jerusalem Post: Iran is beginning to reap the fruits...

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights revealed on Friday that the brutal Islamic State (ISIS) terror group has begun training pilots on three captured fighter jets, relying on the knowledge of Iraqi pilots who have joined the group. Rami Abdul Rahman, director of the monitoring group, said witnesses in northern Syria have seen the group flying the three MiG 21 or MiG 23 model jets above the al-Jarrah airbase east of Aleppo, in the first instance of ISIS going airborne, reports Reuters. […] ISIS has captured several fighter jets during its conquest of Syria and Iraq. In August it...

What do fruit flies and fighter jets have in common? More than you would probably think. Researchers at the University of Washington have found that fruit flies are able to react like little aircraft when they are under attack from predators. Biology professor Michael Dickinson says slow-motion cameras were used to capture the flies' movements as part of the study. "The animals do these very very rapid banked turns, where they're flying and then they roll very quickly over, so they can move quickly away from the direction of the looming threat," he said. Professor Dickinson says while it is...

Nov 29 (Reuters) - The Czech Republic is close to selling up to 28 subsonic fighter jets to a private company in the United States after years of failed attempts to offload the surplus planes, the Defence Ministry said on Friday. The U.S. company, Draken International, has placed a binding bid to buy 14 L-159 planes with an option for 14 more for a total price of up to 516 million crowns ($25.7 million). The government should decide about the contract by the end of the year. It could be completed in January 2014, the defence ministry said. "The Czech...

Turkish state TV: Turkish fighter jets have forced a Syrian passenger plane coming from Moscow to land at the Ankara airport. 2 hours ago

never seen them here before

A pilot who accidentally locked himself in the bathroom of his LaGuardia-bound plane caused a terror scare last night when a helpful passenger with an accent tried to come to his rescue by banging on the cockpit door. The embarrassing comedy of errors began when the captain of a Chatauqua Airlines flight from Asheville, N.Car., decided to take a bathroom break before landing. But when he tried to get out of the men’s room, the door jammed, trapping him in the tight quarters.

Two Kenyan jet fighters have crashed after colliding over southern Somalia, Press TV reports. The two fighter planes crashed between the towns of Kismayu and Qooqani, a Somali military officer told the Press TV correspondent in Mogadishu on Tuesday. The jets were heading to the southern port city of Kismayu after targeting the positions of al-Shabab fighters in southern Somalia, the officer added. On Monday, a Kenyan jet bombed an al-Shabab base near the port in Kismayu, an al-Shabab stronghold. Kenyan troops began an air and ground offensive against al-Shabab in southern Somalia last week after Nairobi accused the militants...

TAIPEI (Reuters) - The United States has refused Taiwan's request for 66 new F-16C/D fighter jets that China warned Washington would risk inflaming tensions between the two big powers, Defense News reported, citing a Taiwan defence official. Taiwan has repeatedly asked Washington to agree to sell the advanced F-16 fighter jets, citing the need to counter the growing military strength of China, which deems the island an breakaway province that must eventually accept reunification, by force if necessary. Neither Washington nor Taipei has made any formal announcement about the latest call for the fighters, but Defesce News (http://www.defensenews.com) said on...

A commercial flight from Phoenix to Sacramento this afternoon had to be diverted to an airport in Yuma due to rapid cabin decompression that may have been caused by a hole in the jet’s fuselage. The Southwest flight landed safely at 4:07 p.m. at the Yuma Marine Corps Air Station/International Airport. One of the passengers told CBS13 about the frightening emergency. “They had just taken drink orders when I heard a huge sound and oxygen masks came down and we started making a rapid decent. They said we’d be making an emergency landing,” said Cindy. “There was a hold in...

India's contract process to buy 126 fighter jets valued at about $11 billion is "going smoothly" and is expected to be completed in the fiscal year ending March 2012, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said on Wednedsay. Saab's JAS-39 Gripen is competing with Boeing's Super Hornet, Dassault's Rafale, Lockheed Martin Corp's F-16 and Russia's MiG-35 to win a contract from India for the fighter jets. Cassidian, the recently renamed defence arm of EADS and a partner in the Eurofighter Typhoon, is also vying for the Indian fighter award. Eurofighter is a four-nation consortium of EADS, representing Germany and Spain, Britain's BAE...