Recently in Military Category

Pictured on 29 October is this Bell Boeing MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor conducting night operations onboard amphibious assault ship USS Boxer off the coast of California.

US Navy

The US Air Force titled this picture "A long way home" and for once, that's no exageration. The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II - usually based in Arkansas - was on its way home from Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, accompanied on this "coronet mission" by a Boeing KC-135 tanker from RAF Mildenhall in the UK.

US Air Force

Now this is nice. Posted on our AirSpace forum is this little gem from Croatian snapper Boran Pivčić. He writes: "By far the most impressive visitor to our little airfield - Lucko (LDZL), Zagreb, Croatia - is seen hover taxiing to the helicopter start gates for a night mission behind callsign Crazy 21. An impressive piece of kit - this extremely rare special operations machine and its sister ship 08-03775 - both part of the US Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment - are in town to participate in the annual Jackal Stone 12 NATO exercise."

Boran Pivčić on flightglobal/AirSpace

Boeing is saying a big happy birthday to the youngest member of  the US Air Force's B-52 Stratofortress fleet which was delivered from its Wichita facilty a half-century ago. The H-model bomber - 61-040 - was assigned to Minot AFB, North Dakota, and remains in active service. Here it is earlier in its life:

Boeing

I love this shot. I stumbled across it on the Canadian Department of National Defence website - absolutely gorgeous colours. And the Boeing F/A-18s (CF-18s if you want to be picky) are pretty awesome too.

Department of National Defence

Ahhh, tis a truly lovely thing. Taken from the winners of the RAF's annual photo competion, this image shows Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft from RAF Coningsby practicing for the Royal Jubilee celebrations by performing a diamond-nine formation over Lincolnshire.

SAC Graham Taylor/Crown Copyright

Taken from the US Air Force site is this cracking picture of too many aircraft all trying to occupy the same space. It was shot at the 2012 Kaneohe Bay Air Show on Marine Corps Air Station, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii last month and shows a US Air Force Lockheed Martin C-130, a pair of Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallions, a Bell AH-1 Cobra and a Bell UH-1. Phew, did I forget anything?

US Air Force

AirSpace user Duncan Monk captured this stunning image of a two-seat Eurofighter Typhoon operated by the RAF's 6 Sqn from RAF Leuchars in Fife, Scotland.

Duncan Monk/Flightglobal AirSpace

A couple of images from this year's UK Army photographic competition caught our eye. The overall winner, taken by Sgt Mark Nesbit, shows British soldiers climbing on board a Boeing CH-47 Chinook at the end of a joint mission with the Afghan army.

Sgt Mark Nesbit/MoD/Rex Features

A runner-up, shot by Cpl Wes Calder, also features an aviation element, showing soldiers from a reconnaissance force protecting themselves from the rotorwash of a US Marine Corps Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion in Afghanistan.

Cpl Wes Calder/MoD/Rex Features

Alright, I'm stretching the description a bit, but there is some UK content on Lockheed Martin's F-35 you just have to squint abit to see it and it's stood next to the greatest fighter of World War II made by those fine folks at Supermarine in Eastleigh. And yes, I'm aware this blog is starting to turn into an F-35 love-in, but it's a lovely shot. It's even got a sunset - what more could you want?

Lockheed Martin