Eagle CountryOn July 27th, 1972: McDonnell Douglas Chief Experimental Test Pilot Irving L. Burrows made the first flight of the prototype YF-15A-1-MC Eagle, 71-0280, at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
With over 104 air to air kills the Eagle is still undefeated and dominant in the Air to Air role, with the F-15EX Eagle II on the way, the Eagle will remain dominant for many more years to come. A couple of the first flight photos released by McDonnell Douglas and the DoD
More than 35 aircraft and approximately 800 Airmen from Pacific Air Forces and Air Combat Command will deploy to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s area of responsibility in July to participate in Operation Pacific Iron 2021.
Pacific Iron 2021 is a PACAF dynamic force employment operation to project forces into the USINDOPACOM’s area of responsibility in support of the 2018 National Defense Strategy (NDS) which called on the military to be a more lethal, adaptive, and resilient force.
Approximately ten F-15E Strike Eagles from the 389th Fighter Squadron, 366th Fighter Wing at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho; approximately 25 F-22 Raptors from the 525th Fighter Squadron, 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, and the 199th Fighter Squadron, 154th Wing, Hawaii Air National Guard at Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam, Hawaii; and two C-130J Hercules from the 374th Airlift Wing from Yokota Air Base, Japan will conduct combat dispersal operations in Guam and Tinian.
By 1st Lt. Karissa Rodriguez
The third Emerald Flag large force test event in eight months wrapped up at Eglin here last week.
With each iteration of Emerald Flag, test professionals analyze the connectivity between air, land, ground, sea, space and cyberspace. The test aims to connect those different systems to improve the speed and accessibility of information shared in a live and virtual battlefield.
In first, EF was a cross-service live, virtual event with Orange Flag, a similar activity, at Edwards AFB, California. The OF players participated utilizing the 96th Cyberspace Test Group’s Joint All Domain Command and Control lab and Datalinks Test Facility.
By Staff Sgt. Matthew Bruch, 944th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
