Hill Air Force Base's 388th Fighter Wing celebrated the 25th anniversary of the F-16 "Fighting Falcon" today. In fact, the 388th was the first to fly the aircraft operationally, back in 1979.

Greek officials said that 35 of the 60 F-16 Block 52 fighters that were ordered have arrived. They are forming a squadron for deployment in the Aegean Sea and many of the aircraft will be based on the Island of Crete.

The 149th Fighter Wing received 10 Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night, or LANTIRN, targeting pods that will literally put its current class of F-16 fighter pilots right on target with their training. The unit will be the first in the Air Force to graduate pilots from the F-16 basic course with targeting pod training.

Gen. Hal Hornburg, head of the Air Force's Air Combat Command, spent on Tuesday an hour in an F-15 over Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada using the Sniper XR Advance Targeting Pod in a variety of tactical situations.

After the news, in October and December of last year, that the Belgian military would again see some major drawbacks, the Belgian government has decided on January 9th on the investment plan for the next 4 years.

A group of Air National Guard F-16 fighters, recently re-engined with new Pratt & Whitney (P&W) F100- PW-229 engines, has achieved a year of flying in which the engines have performed flawlessly - a condition known as "Code One."

Lockheed Martin Aerospace sends more employees to Holloman Air Force Base who will stay there over the next two years for testing F-16 Block 60 in collaboration with the 46th Test Group.

Egypt has received approval from the Bush administration to support U.S.-origin advanced navigation air pods for Cairo's F-16 fleet. The U.S. Defense Department has awarded Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control a $9.5 million contract to upgrade equipment for the LANTIRN system.

US vice-minister of defense, Douglas Feith, arrived in Poland on December 8th. His visit started unofficial negotiations concerning opening a US military base in Kshesin, nearby Poznañ (West Poland).

F-16 fighter planes, assault helicopters, and tanks are all available at knock-down prices in an end-of-year sale being staged by the Israeli army, an Israeli newspaper reported today.

Yesterday, the first of 102 F-16I's ordered by Israel flew for the first time at Forth-Worth, Texas. The flight took 55 minutes, during which the basic operations of the plane were checked, including the flight control system and the rest of the avionics.

Widespread engine problems with F-15 and F-16 fighters are forcing maintainers to perform frequent inspections while the Air Force starts an engine redesign. The engines are Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-100, -200 and -220 power plants that went through modifications as part of the "reliability enhancement" program that started in the late 1990s.

The Czech government has decided to begin negotiations over the lease of 14 Anglo-Swedish Gripen fighter planes to replace their old Soviet-built MiG-21s, in preference to F-16 Fighting Falcons.

Exactly one hundred year ago, on December 17, 1903, the Wright Brothers made the first successful flight with a heavier-than-air flying machine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The first flight, with Orville Wright at the controls, covered 120 feet in 12 seconds, from wich an average speed of nearly Mach 0.01 (at sea level) can be deduced.

NATO member the Czech Republic is set to decide on a replacement for its fleet of ageing, Soviet-built MiG-21 fighters amid intense diplomatic lobbying and mud slinging.