6 HEADLINE NEWS
US defense budget sets bomber force on
new vector, and USAF moves ahead with
light attack experiment
8 US NEWS
A-10s back in Afghanistan, General Atomics
and Boeing team up on MQ-25, plus all the
latest unit news18 WORLD NEWS
News from Europe and around the globe
including the rst Italian-built F-35B arriving
in the US, plus all the latest military losses14 THE BRIEFING
Combat Aircraft’s regular column by Robert
Beckhusen, taking a look behind the headlines
— this month examining possible secret USAF
‘black’ programs24 EYE ON THE EAST
Air warfare brie ngs from the Asia-Paci c by
Andreas Rupprecht
26 KOREA’S SUPER ‘SPOOKS’
A rare glance at the surviving F-4Es of the
Republic of Korea Air Force
28 COMBAT REPORT: SYRIA,
THE SUFA AND THE SAEGHE
For the rst time since 2006, the Israeli Air Force
has lost a manned aircraft in combat, as Babak
Taghvaee describes
30 RAF 100: A FORMIDABLE FORCE
As the Royal Air Force turns 100, the Combat
Aircraft team evaluates the United Kingdom air
arm’s ability to face current and future threats
38 CHARLESTON’S GLOBAL LIFTERS
Rich Cooper hikes the vast ramps of Joint
Base Charleston, the US Air Force’s largest and
busiest C-17A Globemaster III base
72 WOLF PACK
In recent months, tensions have been running
high in the Paci c theater of operations. Stefan
Goossens visits the 8th Fighter Wing and
meets the ‘Wolf ’...
76 RARE ‘WOLVES’
If ever there were a rare breed analogy for
aircraft, Harriers in Europe would come near the
top of the list. Dr Andreas Zeitler and Andrea
Avian nd out how the Italian Navy may have
signed up for the F-35B, but that its AV-8Bs are
still going strong
84 COMBAT REPORT: AL UDEID
Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar is one of the most
important operating locations in the Middle
East, supporting missions over Iraq and Syria
with a renewed focus on AfghanistanIN THE NEWS
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36 and 37 for details.SR-71 BOOK COMPETITION
See page 83 for detailsON THE COVER:
Marking 75 years of Lockheed’s Skunk
Works and 50 years since the type’s fi rst
operational mission, Combat Aircraft looks
back at the magnifi cent SR-71 ‘Blackbird’.
Ted Carlson/FotodynamicsPLUS
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INSIDEApril 2018 • Vol 19 • No 4
94 NORDIC FIGHTER FRATERNITY
Søren Nielsen explains how the Nordic
countries of Sweden, Finland and Norway
have found a way to optimize their daily
training without any of them having to deploy
100 SR-71: LEGEND OF THE ‘HABU’
Lockheed’s incomparable SR-71 successfully
completed its rst operational sortie 50 years
ago this year. Paul Crickmore looks back on
some of its ‘milestone’ missions
110 CUTTING EDGE
Combat Aircraft’s monthly column reporting
from the front line of aerospace technology,
by David Axe
112 FLASHBACK
Our regular feature looking at squadrons and
types that are gone but not forgotten — this
month it’s the RF-4Cs of the ‘No Gun Shoguns’SUPPLEMENT
RUSSIAN FIGHTER EVALUATION:
PART 2
In the second of a three-part review of
ghter aircraft in Russian service, Piotr
Butowski turns to the Sukhois: the Su-27,
Su-30M2 and Su-30SMtypes that are gone but not forgotten — this
month it’s the RF-4Cs of the ‘No Gun Shoguns’SUPPLEMENT
FORCE REPORT
86
SUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE ANDSUBSCRIBE AND
EUROFIGHTER
TYPHOON
The Euro ghter Typhoon
program has proved to be a
huge success for the European
aerospace industry in terms of
capability development and
export success — is this set
to continue?PROGRAM
UPDATECOMBAT
OPERATIONSOPERATOR
REVIEWSFUTURE
PLANS3 Contents C.indd 3 16/02/2018 16: