US, UK strike Houthi targets in Yemen in retaliation to Red Sea shipping attacks
The US and UK – with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands – carried out joint retaliatory strikes on more than 60 targets at 16 different Houthi facilities across Yemen on January 12, with the aim of degrading the Iran-backed militant group from continuing their illegal attacks on multinational shipping vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden
USAF to replace Kadena's outgoing legacy Eagles with F-15EXs?
The USAF is reportedly considering a plan to permanently replace the legacy F-15C/D Eagle fighters assigned to the 18th Wing at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, with a smaller number of new F-15EX Eagle IIs
US, Singapore plotting to base F-15SG Strike Eagles on Guam?
The USAF is assessing proposed infrastructure improvements at Andersen AFB, which would permit the basing of up to 12 Republic of Singapore Air Force-operated F-15SG Strike Eagle multi-role fighters and their relevant mission support infrastructure in Guam – a US island territory in the western Pacific Ocean
Croatia’s Cold War-era MiG-21 fighter fleet enters twilight months of service
As originally planned, the Croatian Air Force is set to begin retiring its aging fleet of Cold War-era MiG-21 Fishbed fighters in the coming months, with the type being replaced by a fleet of second-hand Dassault Rafale B/Cs
Checkered Flag brings Tyndall-based F-35As closer to combat readiness
The 325th Fighter Wing at Tyndall AFB, Florida, is well into its transition from an air dominance training and F-22A conversion mission towards being a fully combat-capable fighter wing equipped with more than 70 F-35A Lightning IIs and this was furthered during Exercise Checkered Flag 24-1
Belgian ‘Vipers’ intercept Russian Su-30s over the Baltic
Belgian F-16AM/BM (MLU) Fighting Falcons were launched from Šiauliai Air Base, Lithuania, to intercept Russian fighter aircraft over the Baltic Sea on December 6 – within one week of the Belgian Air Force taking over the lead of NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission
Iran agrees to buy Su-35SEs and Mi-28NMEs from Russia
In a dramatic announcement on November 28, the Iranian Defense Minister, Brig Gen Mohammad Reza Gharaei Ashtiani, said the agreement between Iran and Russia over the procurement of Su-35SE Flanker-E multi-role fighters for the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force was back on, but added that the nation will also be acquiring Mi-28NME Havoc attack helicopters for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Army Aviation
Lockheed Martin rolls out first F-35A for Belgium
Lockheed Martin formally presented the first F-35A Lightning II for Belgium to representatives from the Belgian government during a rollout ceremony at the company’s F-35 production facility in Fort Worth, Texas, on December 10
First F-35B for Royal Navy’s 809 NAS on show at RAF Marham
The first F-35B to be assigned to the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm’s 809 Naval Air Squadron – which is being formally stood up today (December 8) as the UK’s second operational frontline Lightning II squadron at RAF Marham in Norfolk – has received special markings to celebrate the occasion
NAS JRB Fort Worth bids farewell to final ‘Viper’
The last F-16C Fighting Falcon assigned to the 457th Fighter Squadron ‘Spads’ – a component of Air Force Reserve Command’s 301st Fighter Wing – departed Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base (NAS JRB) Fort Worth, Texas, on December 4
Fighter aircraft were not the first heavier-than-air military aircraft. During the First World War bi-planes with a pilot and a crew member would carry out. Guns were soon added to these aircraft and the fighters were born; the term dogfight became synonymous with the new form of aerial combat. These aircraft would also crudely drop bombs with a crew member simply throwing the bombs out of the aircraft. After the First World War, fighter development led to the single wing, enclosed cockpit, propeller powered aircraft such as the RAF Hawker Hurricane, Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the United States Army Airforce North American Aviation P-51 Mustang. After the war, the RAF Gloster Meteor was the RAF’s first operational jet fighter and it was rapidly joined by fast jets from France, Russia and the USA.
Today, the roles of military fast jets have hardly changed, from intercepting other fast jets fighters or bombers, to maintaining air superiority, they are bombing air defences and photographing bombed sites for battle damage assessment as well as escorting slower, more vulnerable aircraft.
Different Types of Fighter Planes
From the first aerial reconnaissance aircraft, the Wright brothers military flyer, or Model A, sold to the US military in 1909, it took 45 years until the United States Airforce’s North American F-100 Super Sabre became the world’s first operational supersonic fighter in 1954. There has been a huge amount of technological development between the Super Sabre and the world’s first operational fifth generation fighter, the United States Marine Corp’s Lockheed Martin F-35B/C Lightning II, which entered service in 2015. All fixed wing aircraft, since the advent of jet fighters in World War Two, have been a variety of designs to meet the military’s changing needs. Jet engines were in development before World War Two, but it was only near the end of that war that the first operational fast jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262, took to the skies.
Fighters steadily developed to fly higher and faster, carry more payloads, both missiles and bombs, and became supersonic. The need for greater speed saw the delta wing shape for supersonic flight, air-to-air missiles were used in the Korean War for the first time, and it was only later that fighters were equipped with radar, allowing for longer range interception. The 1960s saw the development of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capability with the Royal Navy’s Hawker Siddeley Harrier, which is still in service with the Indian military. Propeller powered fighter aircraft did not end with the flights of the Gloster Meteor and the 1950s saw experiments with VTOL propeller powered aircraft that sat on their tails in a vertical position.
Since the 1980s fast jets have become stealthy, first with the now retired Lockheed Martin F-117 Nighthawk which was primarily a bomber, to the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, an interceptor, and the multirole Lockheed Martin F-35, which are both said to have very small radar signatures.
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