Indian Air Force pilots will finally get a chance this weekend to cross swords with F-16 Fighting Falcons, the mainstay of its adversary Pakistan, during an exercise codenamed 'Ankush'.

Aviation Week And Space Technology has an excellent article about detailed SNIPER-XR pod use. The SNIPER being one of the latest generation laser designator and sensor pods available for the F-16.

Pakistan has sent six of its F-16 fighters to Konya Air Base, Turkey to participate in a joint military exercise codenamed "Anatolian Eagle" which is held from 27 September untill 08 October.

USAF F-16s are participating in a joint strategic air exercise codenamed "Salitre". The exercise is held in Chile and involves more thant eighty aircrafts from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and the USA and started last weekend.

The Republic of China Air Force (RoCAF) took delivery this month of 200 AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles.

The US is considering to sell Israel 500 BLU-109 "Bunker Buster" warheads, as part of a $319 million package of air-launched bombs. The weapons would be used on Israel's F-16 and F-15 fleet.

The chief of the Pakistan Air Force, Air Chief Marshal Kaleem Saadat, stated that the US Government will be looking into selling F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan after the US elections in November.

It takes less than 72 hours to convert a red, white and blue Thunderbird F-16 back to combat status. But what about taking a combat-ready aircraft and making it "Thunder-ready?"

Jane's Defense announced last Friday that the Republic of China (Taiwan) pulls out of the F-16 training program in a bid to cut costs. Taiwan is however unlikely to scrap its US-based training program for its F-16 pilots for the sake of cutting costs, the Air Force General Headquarters (AFGH) said yesterday.

As mentioned in earlier news: Dutch to send six F-16s to Afghanistan for elections, Radio Netherlands has reported that some 185 Dutch troops, six F-16 fighter jets and a KDC-10 tanker plane departed on Wednesday and Thursday.

The F-16 High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile, or HARM, Targeting System test team here recently completed an early contractor test and evaluation on a new pod that will potentially expand the Fighting Falcon's warfighting capabilities.

Turkey is currently hosting NATO's live-flying exercise NATO Air Meet 04. It is taking place from 04 untill 16 September 2004, with live flying between 06-10 and 13-16 September 2004.

The United Arab Emirates prepare to complete new facilities for its F-16E/F Desert Falcon. The first batch of the 80 F-16s on order is scheduled to arrive in the UAE by the end of 2004.

The first two operational F-16 Block 60's landed today at the Tucson ANG, where pilots of the United Arab Emirates will start training with the 162nd Fighter Wing after the initial acceptance inspection.

Several dozen military planes from Florida bases are being flown to Texas to avoid Hurricane Frances. The Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth will be the interim home for the planes until the hurricane passes.