Taiwan’s Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) signed a deal with American defense contractor Lockheed Martin on Tuesday to build a maintenance facility for F-16 jet fighters, which Taiwan purchases from the U.S. for defense.
A Belgian F-16 fighter jet crashed Thursday in western France, damaging a house, setting a field ablaze and leaving a pilot suspended for two hours from a high-voltage electricity line after his parachute got caught, according to French authorities.
A Chinese military official warned that Beijing will not sit “idly by” if the United States proceeds to sell F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan, suggesting China may consider action beyond sanctioning firms associated with the deal.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday threatened to impose sanctions against American companies involved in a proposed $8 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan, instructing the United States to “immediately back away” from the sale.
TEL AVIV – The downing of an Israeli F-16 by Syrian air defenses two weeks ago was due to pilot error, an investigation carried out by the Israel Air Force published Sunday found.
An initial Israeli Air Force investigation indicated that Saturday’s F-16 fighter jet crash was caused by explosion of an anti-aircraft missile next to the plane, but not necessarily from a direct hit, the army said.
Israeli security assessment on Sunday following the major aerial clashes in Syria a day earlier indicated that the current round of clashes has ended, but the next altercation is only a matter of time.
The condition of a seriously wounded Israeli pilot began to improve Saturday, after he underwent surgery for injuries he sustained while ejecting from his plane over northern Israel, in the midst of a severe confrontation between Israel, Syria, and Iran.
The Russian military, backed up by reporters from several of Russia’s state-controlled media services, claims that a Polish NATO jet attempted to intercept or “buzz” a plane transporting Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu over the Baltic Sea on Wednesday.
The witness posted on his Facebook page: “I was an F-16 crewchief stationed [in Europe] when the attack happened. I was called into work, and we scrambled jets, armed and prepared them for an alert launch and then, we did nothing. … [W]e never got the order and did nothing.”
A U.S. pilot safely ejected before the U.S. F-16 warplane he was flying crashed during an evening takeoff near Bagram Air Field, the largest American military base located north of the Afghan capital Kabul, according to the Pentagon.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) wants the Senate to vote on the State Department’s decision to send F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended Turkey’s defense of its airspace Tuesday evening after Ankara fighter jets shot down a Russian SU-24 warplane earlier in the day, with the Turkish leader claiming that the military was unable to identify the jet that was violating the country’s sovereignty.
The Free Syrian Army, a conglomerate of several rebel groups fighting against Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syria, has uploaded a video to YouTube showcasing its apparent success striking a direct hit on a Russian helicopter that had recently landed.
On Tuesday morning, two Turkish F-16 fighters engaged a Russian Sukhoi-24 warplane and shot it down with an air-to-air missile, somewhere north of the Syrian port city of Latakia.
China gave Russia’s defense industry a huge boost on November 19 by ordering 24 Su-35s, at a cost of $83 million each, to face-off against Lockheed’s $400 million F-35.
The Pentagon confirmed that a U.S. F-16 aircraft was struck by small arms fire from enemy forces while flying over Afghanistan last Tuesday.
Six American F-16 jets have arrived at Incirlik air base in Turkey, following the Turkish government’s agreement to allow U.S. planes to fly bombing runs against ISIS from their air fields. Last week saw the first strike missions carried out by drones, which were flying unarmed reconnaissance from Incirlik prior to Turkey’s change in policy.
