Ukraine’s air space has been contested for more than five months, replete with advanced Russian fighter jets and near-universal Russian surface-to-air missile coverage that make penetration by aging Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29s and Su-25s both risky and dangerous. For the duration of that time, Ukrainian ...
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III held his fourth Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting virtually from the Pentagon amid practically a standstill on the Ukraine front lines in the eastern Donbas region. Austin announced a new presidential drawdown transfer of sophisticated rockets but no aircraft ...
Russia’s cruise missile attack on the Yavoriv military training facility near the Polish border in western Ukraine on March 13 highlights Ukraine’s need for more air defenses, and the United States and the West can do more to help Ukraine, a Ukrainian defense official told ...
President Joe Biden said he is convinced that Russian President Vladimir Putin will invade Ukraine in a matter of days unleashing what he called “a catastrophic and needless war of choice,” but Biden promised U.S. troops will not be sent into Ukraine and the U.S. ...
Sixteen U.S. Air Force fighter jets have deployed to Poland and Romania to support Baltic enhanced air policing and to reassure NATO eastern flank allies in the face of heightened Russian activity, U.S. Air Forces in Europe told Air Force Magazine. Eight F-16s from the ...
U.S. F-16s from Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, deployed to Poland on Jan. 4 to train with Eastern European allies on air policing, according to a NATO press release. While deployed, the American F-16s will fly with Polish F-16s in Lithuania as part of their Baltic ...
Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov said Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III promised “unwavering” support to deter Russian aggression as border tension builds. Reznikov also confirmed Nov. 19 that Ukraine requested additional U.S. foreign military sales for its air and naval defenses. The new ...
F-15s from the 493rd Fighter Squadron at RAF Lakenheath, England, have deployed to Iceland to take up the NATO Air Policing mission there for the second time in less than a year. The three F-15C/Ds, plus an F-15E from the 493rd’s sister unit, the 494th ...
USAF F-15s, F-16s, and C-130s are training in Poland in an agile combat employment exercise that comes as Russia has executed a massive buildup on the border with neighboring Ukraine, though U.S. officials say the exercise was long-planned. F-15Es from the 492nd Fighter Squadron at ...
The Indo-Pacific region needs a large influx of spending to bolster missile defense, both at the strategic location of Guam and at other locations across the vast area of operations, the nominee to lead the region’s combatant command argued March 23. Adm. John C. Aquilino, ...
Air Force MQ-9s have a new permanent home in Romania. U.S. Air Forces in Europe announced Jan. 4 that Reapers and about 90 Airmen are now based at Romanian Air Force Base 71 at Campia Turzii. The surveillance and attack drones are assigned to the ...
Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper on Oct. 20 said that the Pentagon's proposed posture shift in Europe, which is slated to pull nearly 12,000 troops out of Germany, end Spangdahlem Air Base's fighter mission, and relocate U.S. Africa Command's headquarters, looks to more effectively deter ...