6 HEADLINE NEWS

USAF unveils massive expansion plan

and F-35B latest

8 US NEWS

F-35 operational test and evaluation

delayed, Boeing wins MQ-25 Stingray

deal, plus all the latest unit and

deployment news

18 WORLD NEWS

News from Europe and around the globe

including NATO Air Policing changes, plus

all the latest military losses

14 THE BRIEFING:
RIGHT FIGHTER — WRONG MISSION
In his regular column, Robert Beckhusen details
the current state of the F-22 Raptor community
and talk of a hybrid version

22 THE OPS DESK: ‘BADGER AIR MILITIA’
Scott Wol ’s new column for Combat
Aircraft looks at 70 years of the Wisconsin
Air National Guard

24 BRONCO II — BUCKING THE TREND?
The Bronco II is an obscure entrant into the US
military light attack conundrum, but one that
o ers diverse capabilities in a bespoke airframe
at lower cost than most other o erings, as
Jamie Hunter reveals

28 POWERING AHEAD
Tom Kaminski looks at the US Army’s Improved
Turbine Engine Program — a new powerplant
to improve the operational  exibility of its Black
Hawk and Apache helicopters

32 DRAKEN’S DEN
Frank Visser meets Draken International, one of
the leading contractor air service providers in
the US and recent winners of a competition to
furnish ongoing support at Nellis AFB

38 BOMBING AT DECI
As the Tornado GR4 completes its  nal year of
service with the Royal Air Force, which is set
to become the  rst operator to retire the type,
David Cenciotti looks at the wider Tornado
community — starting with the Italian Air Force

46 F-15X — EAGLE VISION
OR FAR-SIGHTED?
Jamie Hunter assesses the chances of the US Air
Force buying a batch of advanced F-15s to plug
its air defense gaps

58 GLORY DAYS:
VERTICAL CHALLENGES
In the  rst of a two-part series, Joe Copalman
looks back at the AV-8A Harrier, the US Marine
Corps’  rst step towards a V/STOL tactical
air force

IN THE NEWS

50

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86

A spectacular break by

fi ghters of the 422nd Test and

Evaluation Squadron at Nellis

AFB — a unit that features all

USAF fast jets under one roof.

Jake Melampy

ON THE COVER | PAGE 50

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INSIDENovember 2018 • Vol 19 • No 11

66 EXERCISE REPORT: PEACE PARTNERS

Russia has hosted yet another live  re exercise,

this time bringing together a variety of Chinese

and domestic air assets for ‘Peace Mission 2018’.

Dmitriy Pichugin reports

68 ‘RIMPAC’ —

LAST CALL FOR THE ‘BLUE BLASTERS’

Søren Nielsen joins the ‘Rim of the Paci c’

(RIMPAC) 2018 exercise, the world’s largest for

maritime warfare, which was held over

the summer

76 TALES OF THE TROUBLESOME TOMCAT —

PART TWO

LT Neil ‘Waylon’ Jennings and Tony Holmes

describe one of the more spectacular F-

Tomcat accidents during the type’s long US Navy

career, detailing the incident in the second part of

this feature

94 CUTTING EDGE

Our monthly column reporting from the front line

of aerospace technology, by David Axe

96 FLASHBACK

Combat Aircraft’s regular feature looking at

highlights of the recent past — this month it’s a

119th FIS F-106A Delta Dart

SUPER SQUADRON —

‘GREEN BATS’ AT 75

Nellis AFB, Nevada, is arguably one of the

most important installations when it comes

to the US Air Force  ghter community. Jake

Melampy  ies with the 422nd Test and

Evaluation Squadron, which boasts a

mightily impressive inventory

that arguably eclipses many

complete air forces

DAESH DESTROYERS

The Royal Air Force is four years into a campaign as part of the coalition to

defeat the so-called Islamic State. Jamie Hunter discovers a mission that’s

evolved considerably and that now sees the Typhoon gearing up to assume sole

responsibility for the UK fast jet element as the Tornado bows out of service