About 150 personnel and aggressor F-16s from Eielson AFB, Alaska, touched down in Australia this week for a large-scale exercise Down Under. The airmen and aircraft from the 18th Aggressor Squadron will work with Royal Australian Air Force Air Warfare Centre instructors to help train RAAF pilots in Exercise Diamond Shield 2017. During the exercise, the F-16s will flying alongside RAAF C-17s, C-130s, and AP-3C, according to a Pacific Air Forces release. The aircraft, along with members of the Australian Army and Navy, will conduct a high-readiness deployment exercise in response to a simulated security threat.
The U.S. military is carrying out intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions along the southern border and off the coast of Mexico using U.S. Air Force RC-135 Rivet Joint and U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft as part of the Pentagon’s effort to secure the southern border at the direction of President…