Four of the F-16 Block 30 aircraft slated to form the Air Force’s new aggressor training unit for Red Flag–Alaska exercises arrived on Jan. 20 at Eielson AFB, Alaska. They are part of the 21 Block 30 Vipers that Eielson is getting from the 8th Fighter Wing at Kunsan AB, South Korea as part of the swaps that USAF is making under its Common Configuration Implementation Program, an F-16 modernization effort. In exchange Eielson is sending its 22 F-16 Block 40 airplanes to Kunsan. The Block 30s will be part of Eielson’s 18th Aggressor Squadron that activated in August 2007. They feature the “Artic Flanker” white-gray-black paint scheme to differentiate them as aggressor aircraft for air-to-air training exercises. (USAF report by A1C Nora Anton)
A new Navy missile could fill a long-range air-to-air need for the U.S. Air Force’s fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-generation fighters. The Navy’s portfolio acquisition executive for munitions posted information on the AIM-424 Long Range Air-to-Air Missile online on Aug. 22, the same day it unveiled the project at the service’s…