Combat_Aircraft_Monthly_2018-01.pdf

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EXCLUSIVE REPORT
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Volume
19
• Number
1
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STRIKE
HARD
Flying with the F-15Es
of Seymour
Johnson AFB
co
m
ba
ta
irc
ra
ft.
ne
t
VAQ-34’s EA-7Ls — gone but not forgotten
‘FLASHBACKS’
Russia
receives new
‘Havocs’
IN THE NEWS
‘WAKE ISLAND
AVENGERS’
EXCLUSIVE
AIR-TO-AIR IMAGES
OF YUMA’S VMFA-211
JANUARY 2018
UK £4.70
Raptors strike Afghanistan
Scorpion targets Middle East market
PLUS
Israel’s Exercise ‘Blue Flag’
•
Serbia’s ‘new’ MiGs
•
What next for Operation ‘Inherent Resolve’?
officially the world’s number one military aviation magazine
AirForces Monthly
provides the best military aviation news coverage from around
the globe and is essential reading for anyone seeking a well-informed view.
DECEMber issue FEATURes:
In October, F-22A Raptors from Joint Base Langley-
Eustis stopped off at RAF Lakenheath for a Fighter
Training Detachment en route home from combat
operations in the Middle East. Jamie Hunter
caught up with the 1st Fighter Wing team as they
completed their spell in the UK.
Raptors on the road
At the end of next year the last Belgian Air
Component jet pilot students will complete their
training with ETO 2/8 ‘Nice’ at Cazaux in southwest
France. Stefan Degraef appraises the bi-national
Advanced Jet Training School.
Belgian-French jet training connection
The Luftwaffe’s Fighter Weapons School is
becoming established at Laage air base in
northeast Germany. Stefan Petersen discovered
how the school provides demanding training for top
Eurofighter pilots and support personnel.
Fight to win
Three years on from the launch of Opération
Chammal, the French military campaign against
so-called Islamic State, Jean-Marc Tanguy
examines the Rafale mission and talks to the Chief
of Staff of the French Air Force André Lanata.
Rafale in Chammal
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Airforces monthly
1198/17
January 2018
• Vol 19 • No 1
are rmly established
40
VMFA-211II‘Avengers’Yuma, Arizona
Lightning at MCAS
ying the F-35B
IN THE NEWS
6 HEADLINE NEWS
Raptors make rst strike in Afghanistan and
Textron AirLand Scorpion targets the
Middle East
FEATURE ARTICLE
While the US Air Force was busy celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2017, the 4th Fighter Wing at
Seymour Johnson AFB in North Carolina was marking its 75th. James Deboer ies with the USAF’s
largest F-15E Strike Eagle wing, a unit that never stands still
30
FOURTH BUT FIRST
8 US NEWS
Northrop Grumman walks away from another
major program and IOMAX Archangel Block
2 is launched, plus all the latest unit and
deployment news
18 WORLD NEWS
News from Europe and around the globe
including Indian Air Force road operations, plus
all the latest military losses
24 THE BRIEFING
Combat Aircraft’s
regular column by
Robert Beckhusen, taking a look behind
the headlines — this month evaluating
the US Air Force pilot crisis
40 WAKE ISLAND
AVENGERS
Every squadron has a unique tale of its
history and heritage, and none more
so than VMFA-211. Steeped in battle
honors and now leading from the front
in the F-35B program, Jamie Hunter and
Richard Collens nd that the ‘Avengers’
have an incredible story to tell…
80
52 RISE OF THE
MIGHTY DRAGON
The Chengdu J-20A stealth ghter was
o cially commissioned into PLAAF
service on September 28 this year.
Andreas Rupprecht looks at the aircraft’s
history so far
There are very few places as hostile and
challenging to y as the Arctic. From
April to August each year, the New York
Air National Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing
heads to Greenland and does just that, as
Neil Dunridge reports
In September, ghters of the so-called
Islamic State mobilized a squadron of
‘drone bombers’ in a last-ditch bid to
hold o defeat in eastern Syria. Tim
Ripley reports on innovative uses of air
power in a 21st-century con ict
In this second part of our coverage of US Navy
pilot training, Rich Cooper reports from Training
Air Wing One at NAS Meridian, Mississippi, on the
process of training future naval aviators to land
aboard a carrier and earn their ‘Wings of Gold’
Gold rush
HEROES IN TRAINING
PART TWO
88 KNIGHTS OF THE
NEGEV
Stephan de Bruijn and Marco
Dijkshoorn venture into the Negev
desert for Exercise ‘Blue Flag 2017’ at
Ovda air base, an event that attracted
a wide range of participants including
a rst ever Luftwa e combat aircraft
deployment to Israel
Our monthly column reporting
from the front line of aerospace
technology, by David Axe
Combat Aircraft’s
new regular feature
looking at squadrons and types that
are gone but not forgotten — this
month it’s the EA-7Ls of VAQ-34, the
appropriately named ‘Flashbacks’
94 CUTTING EDGE
60 POLAR EXPRESS
96 FLASHBACK
70 END GAME?
PLUS
Special report on Serbia’s MiG-29s
76 TRAINING
‘HAVOCS’ FOR RUSSIA
4th Fighter Wing F-15Es from Seymour
Johnson AFB mark the wing’s 75th
anniversary in this issue.
James Deboer
ON THE COVER:
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Combat
Aircraft Monthly
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Babak Taghvaee details how the Russian
Aerospace Forces are preparing to receive
their rst examples of the new Mi-28UB
— a combat training helicopter based on
the now familiar Night Hunter gunship
COMBAT EDGE |
FIND US ON
04
An F-22A Raptor pilot
assigned to the 95th
Expeditionary Fighter
Squadron ‘Boneheads’
receives fuel from
a KC-10A during a
recent mission over
Iraq. Raptors are being
used by CENTCOM
commanders to strike
targets in pre-planned
attacks as opposed
to being reserved for
the high-end fifth-
generation air-to-air
fight.
USAF/TSgt
Anthony Nelson Jr
www.combataircraft.net
January 2018
JANUARY 2018
| COMBAT EDGE
A
WRONG TOOLS
FOR THE JOB?
NEW MILITARY
OFFENSIVE against
the Taliban in
Afghanistan saw
US Air Force B-52Hs
and F-22A Raptors
striking opium production facilities
on November 19. It was apparently
the rst time the USAF had employed
Raptors in Afghanistan and was part
of a new push to impede Taliban
funding streams.
US Central Command said that on
November 18, Afghan Air Force A-29
Super Tucanos struck two opium
production facilities in northern
Helmand Province, after which the B-52s
and F-22s performed similar strikes the
following day in Musa Qala.
US Forces — Afghanistan Commander
Gen John Nicholson said the move was
linked to new authorities that enable
US forces to hunt down Taliban activity
rather that just acting in self-defense of
US ground forces.
Signi cantly, this was the rst time
the US has publicly acknowledged F-22
missions over Afghanistan, with Gen
Nicholson saying they were selected
because of their ability to use the 250lb
GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bomb.
It also provides a classic illustration of
how current disquiet within the USAF
hierarchy is playing out. We know that
the USAF is deeply concerned over the
deployment cycles of its squadrons
and the age and wear of its aircraft.
Exhaustive, back-to-back deployments
are one of the main reasons the USAF is
nearly 2,000 pilots short and help explain
why experienced personnel are leaving
in droves.
So why are Raptors, which are currently
permanently deployed to CENTCOM,
racking up ight hours striking opium
production facilities? After all, the
Afghan Air Force successfully executed
similar missions with Super Tucanos.
It underscores how the USAF’s reliance
on high-end aircraft eets is simply
unsustainable. After 26 years, the
mission in the Middle East’s uncontested
airspace shows no sign of fading away.
The USAF desperately needs to pass the
torch to local forces or it needs to press
ahead with its own OA-X light attack
aircraft for this kind of mission.
To keep track of the latest breaking
news and analysis in the world of military
air power you can visit our social media
sites and our website:
www.combataircraft.net
You can also sign up for our free e-mail
newsletter by going to
www.combataircraft.net to register.
05
Jamie Hunter,
Editor
E-mail: jamie.hunter@keypublishing.com
JAMES DEBOER
CONTRIBUTOR OF THE MONTH
ames Deboer is a military
photojournalist based
in New York City and
has covered several
squadrons and exercises during
his 10-year career. Having
J
accumulated over 250 hours in
various military aircraft, James
strapped into an F-15E Strike
Eagle for the rst time recently
for the feature story in this issue
on the 4th Fighter Wing.
January 2018
www.combataircraft.net

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