Jets & Planes but no UAV's here.

[WilliamB]

It appears that the U.S. Air Force has put some of their F-117 stealth fighters back into service, although just what they are being used for is not clear. According to an article in the May issue of Combat Aircraft magazine, two F-117s were seen and photographed flying in the R-2508 range complex near Death Valley California on February 26th and 27th. There were two F-16s flying with them. The article also mentions an unconfirmed report from a Dutch magazine called "Scramble" that F-117s were used in Syria in 2017. I have attached a 7zip file containing some of the February photographs from the article. I hope this will prove to be of interest.

[FASTBOAT TOUGH]

Haven't seen anything yet on the F-117, however, the following is what a true "Fighter-Bomber" really looks like. Besides I wonder how happy Japan is at the moment with the F-35 after one crashed in the Pacific. Unfortunately the pilot after calling to break off from a training exercise due to a problem was unable to control his aircraft and apparently couldn't eject. I don't believe they recovered his body.

Anyway...
https://www.boeing.com/defense/f-15/
https://www.popularmechanics.com/mil...r-eagle-f-15x/
https://www.military.com/daily-news/...cial-says.html
https://news.yahoo.com/boeings-f-15e...180000315.html

These jets will provide/serve the Air Force as it's Hyper-Sonic Missile platform. With the upgrades to the airframe, addition of the AESA Radar not only will they be able to fight their way in, complete the mission and fight it's way back out, it'll do it a little more stealthy. The F-15 starting with the "SE" has graduated to a 4th GEN ++ platform.

I need to get back to some "peace and quiet" have a good week!

Regards,
Pat


Changed the search a little on the F-117 also a note "SCRAMBLE" it is a very respected source concerning aircraft as well.
https://theaviationist.com/2019/02/2...-social-media/
https://theaviationist.com/2019/03/0...magazine-says/
https://sputniknews.com/military/201...st-syria-iraq/

[FASTBOAT TOUGH]

This should act as a follow-up to my last post, from DID apparently there were 7 incidents prior to the fatal crash of Japans 13 F-35A fighters. One of the incidents did involve a U.S. built F-35A as well. It is also reported the jet involved in the crash also had an issue prior to it. Japan has grounded all their F-35A fighters UFN. It has been identified that 3 separate systems failures are involved with the 7 prior crash incidents.

This taken from this past Friday the 19th.

"Asia-Pacific
Japan’s first F-35A stealth fighter reportedly made seven emergency landings in the months prior to crashing in the Pacific Ocean last week. The Japanese Air Force started using its fleet of 13 F35As in January. On April 9, the first plane of Mitsubishi assembly crashed. Of the 13 planes provided by the United States to Japan, five have been forced to make emergency landings in seven incidents. The plane that crashed made two of the emergency landings. Final assembly of four of the error reporting planes, including the fighter that went missing, was carried out in Japan by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. The other aircraft was built and assembled in the US. The crashed fighter reportedly had issues with its cooling and navigation systems twice. Japan grounded its fleet of 13 F-35As in the wake of the crash."

The next ref. was linked from DID were in bold above.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles...0m/0na/006000c

Also note NAVAIR has not even declared FOC or for that matter IOC for these jets for either the USN F-35C or the USMC F-35B. The following two refs will show the "contrast" in how they list their jets starting with the F-35 entry.

Never mind, apparently the site is still down since I was on it just before the crash. As they say "Timing is everything."

For those that do Happy Easter!!

Regards,
Pat