Combat aircraft

6 HEADLINE NEWS

Raptors make  rst strike in Afghanistan and

Textron AirLand Scorpion targets the

Middle East

8 US NEWS

Northrop Grumman walks away from another

major program and IOMAX Archangel Block

2 is launched, plus all the latest unit and

deployment news

18 WORLD NEWS

News from Europe and around the globe

including Indian Air Force road operations, plus

all the latest military losses

24 THE BRIEFING

Combat Aircraft’s regular column by

Robert Beckhusen, taking a look behind

the headlines — this month evaluating

the US Air Force pilot crisis

40 WAKE ISLAND

AVENGERS

Every squadron has a unique tale of its

history and heritage, and none more

so than VMFA-211. Steeped in battle

honors and now leading from the front

in the F-35B program, Jamie Hunter and

Richard Collens  nd that the ‘Avengers’

have an incredible story to tell...

52 RISE OF THE

MIGHTY DRAGON

The Chengdu J-20A stealth  ghter was

o cially commissioned into PLAAF

service on September 28 this year.

Andreas Rupprecht looks at the aircraft’s

history so far

60 POLAR EXPRESS

There are very few places as hostile and

challenging to  y as the Arctic. From

April to August each year, the New York

Air National Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing

heads to Greenland and does just that, as

Neil Dunridge reports

70 END GAME?

In September,  ghters of the so-called

Islamic State mobilized a squadron of

‘drone bombers’ in a last-ditch bid to

hold o defeat in eastern Syria. Tim

Ripley reports on innovative uses of air

power in a 21st-century con ict

76 TRAINING

‘HAVOCS’ FOR RUSSIA

Babak Taghvaee details how the Russian

Aerospace Forces are preparing to receive

their  rst examples of the new Mi-28UB

— a combat training helicopter based on

the now familiar Night Hunter gunship

IN THE NEWS

80

30

Special report on Serbia’s MiG-29s

ON THE COVER:

4th Fighter Wing F-15Es from Seymour

Johnson AFB mark the wing’s 75th

anniversary in this issue. James Deboer

PLUS

VMFA-211 ‘Avengers’ are  rmly established  ying the F-35B

(^40) Lightning II at MCAS Yuma, Arizona
January 2018 • Vol 19 • No 1
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FOURTH BUT FIRST
While the US Air Force was busy celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2017, the 4th Fighter Wing at
Seymour Johnson AFB in North Carolina was marking its 75th. James Deboer  ies with the USAF’s
largest F-15E Strike Eagle wing, a unit that never stands still
88 KNIGHTS OF THE
NEGEV
Stephan de Bruijn and Marco
Dijkshoorn venture into the Negev
desert for Exercise ‘Blue Flag 2017’ at
Ovda air base, an event that attracted
a wide range of participants including
a  rst ever Luftwa e combat aircraft
deployment to Israel
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 EA-7Ls of VAQ-34, the
appropriately named ‘Flashbacks’
HEROES IN TRAINING
PART T WO^
Gold rush
In this second part of our coverage of US Navy
pilot training, Rich Cooper reports from Training
Air Wing One at NAS Meridian, Mississippi, on the
process of training future naval aviators to land
aboard a carrier and earn their ‘Wings of Gold’
FEATURE ARTICLE
3 Contents C.indd 3 23/11/2017 16: