6 HEADLINE NEWS
F-22 Raptors intercept Russian ghters, Boeing
reveals MQ-25 drone and air strikes on the rise
in Afghanistan8 US NEWS
US Air Force aggressor latest, B-2s deploy to
Guam, plus all the latest unit news
18 WORLD NEWS
News from Europe and around the globe
including Australian Super Hornets being
withdrawn from Operation ‘Okra’, plus all the
latest military losses14 THE BRIEFING
Combat Aircraft’s regular column by Robert
Beckhusen, taking a look behind the headlines —
this month analyzing the latest A-10 Thunderbolt II
combat deployment
24 NAS LEMOORE — MASTER JET BASE
Naval Air Station Lemoore in the at agricultural
Californian farmlands is home plate for a staggering
18 squadrons — and more are coming, as Ted
Carlson discovers
44 RED STAR BOMBERS OVER SYRIA
For two years Russia’s Long-Range Aviation
supported Moscow’s military campaign in Syria. Tim
Ripley looks at how Tupolev Tu-22M3, Tu-95 and
Tu-160 strategic bombers have hit targets across
the war-torn country
52 MOUNTAIN FLYING... IN A HERCULES
When C-130 Hercules pilots started getting into
trouble in challenging terrain, the 192nd Airlift
Squadron ‘High Rollers’ of the Nevada Air National
Guard reacted by establishing a specialist ying
class
58 BRAZILIAN F-5s:
DEFENDERS OF THE CAPITAL
For 40 years, the strategically important Brazilian Air
Force base at Anápolis housed Dassault deltas in
the form of Mirage IIID/Es and then Mirage 2000C/
Bs. However, in 2014 these made way for upgraded
F-5EM Tigers, as Santiago Rivas and João Paulo
Moralez report
64 WILDCAT: A DIFFERENT BEAST
The Royal Navy retired its last Lynx HMA8 in 2017
and now the Army Air Corps has said farewell to
the Lynx AH9A. Richard Scott nds out how the
improved capabilities of the new Wildcat HMA
is enabling the Royal Navy’s small-ship aviators to
change the way they think and operate
80 TURKISH ARMY AVIATION:
POLICING THE BADLANDS
Turkey’s role in the Caucasus and Middle East is
regarded as being of crucial importance, both
for its contribution to stability and for its rapid
transformation as an industrial partner. Mauro Finati
and Paolo Rollino cover Turkish attack helicopters,
while Carlo Kuit and Paul Kievit examine the training
that underpins these communitiesIN THE NEWS
70
Subscribe to Combat
Aircraft Monthly and
make great savings on
cover price.
See pages
42 and 43 for details.30
ON THE COVER...
PAGE 44
In this issue we look into the activities of
Russia’s strategic bombers over Syria,
including the campaign waged by the
Tu-22M3 ‘Backfi re’. Dmitriy PichuginPLUS
S AV E
SUBSCRIBE AND
S AV E
SUBSCRIBE AND
S AV E
SUBSCRIBE AND
INSIDEMarch 2018 • Vol 19 • No 3
NATO TRAINING AT SHEPPARD
Søren Nielsen gets rst-hand experience of how
NATO countries have joined forces to help realize
one of the world’s leading ghter pilot training
programs — Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training
(ENJJPT) at Sheppard AFB, TexasRUSSIAN FIGHTER EVALUATION: PART 1
In the rst of a two-part review of ghter aircraft in Russian
service, Piotr Butowski looks at the MiGs, from the ‘classic’
MiG-29 ‘Fulcrum’, the naval MiG-29K and the mighty MiG-
‘Foxhound’ to the new MiG-88 USAF TEST PILOT SCHOOL
For more than 70 years, some of the
most skilled aviators have passed
through the doors of the famous
USAF Test Pilot School. Frank Visser
meets its current commanding
o cer, Col Charles Webb
94 CUTTING EDGE
Our monthly column reporting
from the front line of aerospace
technology, by David Axe
96 FLASHBACK
Combat Aircraft’s new regular feature
looking at squadrons and types that
are gone but not forgotten — this
month it’s the RF-4Bs of VMFP-
‘Eyes of the Corps’FEATURE ARTICLE
FORCE REPORT
3 Contents C.indd 3 19/01/2018 16: