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Volume 11 Number 8

World News
First Lockheed Martin F-35C flies • RAF braces for more cutbacks • Australian Super Hornet action • Boeing joins AgustaWestland for Presidential Helicopter competition • Indian Flanker upgrades

PLUS! A special report on the ILA Airshow in Berlin and farewell to Finland’s Mi-8 ‘Hips’

Front Line
Our hard-hitting regular column by Robert F. Dorr

Bagram Superbase
Bagram Airfield is the major center for US air operations in Afghanistan. Earlier this year Neil Dunridge visited the 455th AEW — one of two USAF Air Expeditionary Wings in Afghanistan — to talk to crews from the units deployed there

 ‘STAREX’ 2010
Decimomannu air base was host to ‘Starex’ 2010, the main Italian AF training exercise for 2010, as Giovanni Colla reports from the Mediterranean island of Sardinia

 ‘LOAD DIFFUSER’
Combat Aircraft heads to Hungary as the Ohio Air National Guard’s 178th Fighter Wing deploys its F-16s abroad one last time. Zord Gábor László reports from Kecskemét
Bad Company
The Hellenic Army recently accepted AH-64DHA Longbow Apaches into its inventory. Ioannis Lekkas enjoys unprecedented access to capture spectacular photographs of the Greek Apaches in action
Israeli Air and Space Force 2010
Ofer Zidon lifts the lid on one of the world’s most advanced yet secretive air arms, with a comprehensive review of Israel’s military airpower

NATO’s Flying Saucers
The NATO Airborne Early Warning & Control Force operates the E-3A AWACS in a diversity of roles. To meet its commitments, it has introduced a number of upgrades, as Frank Crébas discovers

Trainer with Teeth
As it makes its high-profile public debut at Farnborough airshow, Robert F. Dorr details the latest developments for the Hawker Beechcraft AT-6B Texan II

 ‘Deuce’ in Vietnam
The F-102 Delta Dagger’s participation in the Vietnam War is sometimes forgotten, but the 509th Fighter Interceptor Squadron deployed its ‘Deuces’ to South-east Asia in the early 1960s. The unit became the first USAF fighter squadron to send aircraft to participate in the fledgling Vietnam War, as Warren E. Thompson explains

Crewroom
Our regular interactive feature with product reviews and competitions

Long live the Huey
Ted Carlson flies with the USAF’s TH-1H Huey IIs and gains an insight into the training operations of these upgraded workhorses

PLUS FREE SUPPLEMENT
USAF 2010
Your exclusive Combat Aircraft Monthly guide to the USAF today
Order of Battle • Comprehensive force rundown • Procurement plans