CombatAircraftMarch2015.pdf

(28125 KB) Pobierz
USAFE
SCORPION MARKS
SHAKE - UP
Volume
16
• Number
3
A YEAR
OF TESTING
NORTH AMERICA’S BEST SELLING MILITARY AVIATION MAGAZINE
LETHAL
LANCER
USAF B-1B
s
train for combat
IN THE
NEWS:
RAF RE-FORMS FAMOUS
SQUADRONS
F-35 FOR LAKENHEATH
BOEING KC-46 FIRST FLIGHT
co
m
ba
ta
irc
ra
ft.
ne
t
F-5 TIGERS
AVIANO VIPERS
FLYING THE F-16 IN ITALY...
KINGS OF SWING
RAF TYPHOONS TURN SWING-ROLE
NATO FLYING TRAINING
IN CANADA
MARCH 2015
UK £4.40
TAIWAN’S
March 2015
• Vol 16 • No 3
06
The F-35A is coming to RAF Lakenheath to join the
48th Fighter Wing.
Lockheed Martin
IN THE NEWS
06 Headline News
08 US News
RAF Mildenhall to close and
Boeing makes KC-46 maiden ight
V-22 Osprey to become new carrier
on-board delivery platform, Weapons
School receives F-35, and all the latest
unit news from around the US military
First Australian F-35A arrives at Luke
AFB, Iraqi F-16s arrive in Tucson to begin
training, and Korean KF-X shapes up
Dutch F-35As arrive at Edwards for
operational test, and SDB testing starts
for EPAF ‘Vipers’
The RAF’s No 1 Squadron is living up to its name in being the rst
to take the swing-role Typhoon into service,
as Jamie Hunter
discovers
KINGS OF SWING
26
14 World News
20 Europe News
34
INDUSTRY REPORT:
SCORPION TESTING
CONTINUES
Frank Crébas/Bluelife
Aviation braves the
cold and reports from
CFB Moose Jaw in
Saskatchewan, home
of 15 Wing and
Canada’s NATO ight
training program
The F-5 Tiger II’s glory days in Taiwanese service
are now long behind it and nal retirement is
on the horizon. Gert Kromhout and Stephan
de Bruijn gain a rare glimpse of the RoCAF’s
charismatic Tiger II eet
MOOSE JAW
BEST IN THE
WEST
38
88
Having enjoyed a successful 2014, Textron
AirLand is eyeing a busy 2015 schedule.
Jamie Hunter discusses plans for its Scorpion
intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
aircraft
TAIWAN TIGERS
48
UNIT REPORT:
AVIANO ‘VIPERS’
As the US attempts to extricate itself from
the Middle East and to shift its emphasis
away from terrorism to ‘big-war’ scenarios,
Robert F. Dorr nds the 31st Fighter Wing at
Aviano AB in Italy a turning point. Exclusive
images from Jim Haseltine
In April 2008, the last Denel Cheetah ghters
were retired from South African service. At
the time, few could have imagined that these
charismatic ghters would enjoy a second
lease of life in South America. Dr Michal Stolar
and Alexander Golz journey to Ecuador to see
the re-birth of the Cheetah
In Greek service, Mirage 2000s operate
exclusively from the coast of the Aegean.
Flying the rst-generation version, the
aviators of 332 Mira at Tanagra are masters
of exploiting the ghter’s maneuvering
performance, as Ioannis Lekkas details
78
COMBAT REPORT: ALL FOR
ONE, ONE FOR ALL!
Luftwa e Euro ghters recently spent four
months at the Estonian air base at Ämari,
launcheing to identify Russian warplanes
ying in international airspace over the Baltic
Sea. Stefan Büttner and Alexander Golz
report on the deployment
58
BIG CATS AT TAURA
96
CUTTING EDGE
82
EXERCISE REPORT:
KEEPING IT REAL
Combat Aircraft’s
monthly column reporting from the
front line of aerospace technology, by David Axe
64
AEGEAN MIRAGES
With so many commitments around the
world, exercise ‘Green Flag — West’ at
Nellis AFB, Nevada, is designed to
provide the most realistic pre-deployment
training available for US Air Force assets.
Neil Dunridge went to see B-1s in action
PLUS
Robert F. Dorr’s Front Line column and all
the latest military Losses
SAVE
Subscribe to
Combat
Aircraft Monthly
and
make great savings on
cover price.
See pages
46
and
47
for details.
3
SUBSCRIBE AND
72
INDUSTRY REPORT:
UNMANNED AND
DANGEROUS
Rick Lavere details how the next generation
of unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs) is
gradually coming into public view not only in
the US, but also in Europe, China and Russia
The mighty Rockwell B-1B Lancer is
always an impressive performer. In this
issue we detail pre-deployment training
at Nellis AFB, Nevada, for the 34th Bomb
Squadron as the unit tackles ‘Green Flag
— West’.
Neil Dunridge
ON THE COVER:
www.combataircraft.net
March 2015
COMBAT
EDGE
AT FULL THROTTLE
he military aviation year has
started in full afterburner.
Boeing made the first flight of
the KC-46 Pegasus tanker, the
US Navy has selected the V-22
Osprey as the next-generation
carrier on-board delivery aircraft, and the 48th
Fighter Wing has been announced as a future
F-35 operator. Meanwhile, the Royal Air
Force established its fifth Eurofighter Typhoon
squadron and re-formed No 12 (Bomber)
Squadron with the Tornado GR4, and the
Royal Netherlands Air Force is preparing to
commence operational testing of the F-35A.
Alongside this positive news comes bad.
For many, the announcement that RAF
Mildenhall, UK, is to close will be a bitter
pill to swallow. Mildenhall has become
synonymous with USAF air power in Europe,
and a symbol of international American
military might as a vital base in support of the
global US military footprint.
Of course, for many air arms, combat
operations continue. An interesting report
has outlined how the A-10 Thunderbolt II
is accounting for some 11 per cent of the
US Air Force sorties being flown against the
Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq and Syria.
The statistic was mentioned by Air Force
T
Secretary Deborah Lee James in January and
was related to the total number of manned
sorties launched by the USAF since Operation
‘Inherent Resolve’ began in August. The
report also stated that the USAF has carried
out roughly 60 per cent of the 16,000 total
strikes against IS forces, the remaining 40 per
cent being conducted by the US Navy and
allied nations.
The A-10 ‘stat’ is likely to buoy ‘Warthog’
supporters, seeing as the type didn’t join the
operations until mid-November, giving other
aircraft something of a head start. However,
one has to factor in numbers of assets in
theater, and the F-16 has notched up four
times as many missions. Really interesting
would be to find out which type is engaging
forces more readily. Is the A-10 flying down
low and able to better identify targets, or are
the F-16s up at 30,000ft and equally able to
engage?
Jamie Hunter,
Editor
E-mail: jamie.hunter@keypublishing.com
The Royal Air Force Euro ghter
Typhoon force is on a mission.
Swing-role is the latest
phrase that dominates any
conversation regarding this
ghter, and now it has become
a credible reality.
Jamie Hunter
4
March 2015
www.combataircraft.net
CONTRIBUTOR
PROFILE NEIL DUNRIDGE
overing USAF B-1Bs
and getting a particular
shot has long been an
ambition for Neil Dunridge.
‘Looking back on images that
have inspired me,’ says Neil, ‘a
photographer from Montana
had a head-on taxi shot of a
B-1’. While reporting on the
C
‘Green Flag’ exercise for
this issue he had exactly the
same image in mind, making the
most of the lovely Nevada
lighting conditions. ‘It’s
surprising for many, I would
imagine’, he says, ‘but that shot
was just as satisfying as the
air-to-air photographs I also took.’
TYPHOON
www.combataircraft.net
March 2015
ON A MISSION
5

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika:

Zgłoś jeśli naruszono regulamin