Pixelsnipers recently had the opportunity to visit B flight of 22 Squadron SAR (Search & Rescue) at Wattisham Airfield in Suffolk, and spent an afternoon on base to find out more about them, their mission and the venerable Sea King platform they use on a daily basis.
Gando air base on the holiday island of Gran Canaria is the venue for the annual Dissimilar Air Combat Training undertaken by the Spanish Air Force ( Ejercito del Aire). Pixelsnipers travelled to Gando in February to witness the 2015 exercise and report on why the Spanish Air Force puts such importance on DACT and how the goals set out for the participating units are achieved.
Base Aerea de Gando hosted the 2017 Dissimilar Air Combat Training Exercise (DACT) for the Ejercito del Aire –EdA (Spanish Air Force) during January 2017. Pixelsnipers attended the media day on the 24th January to discover first-hand about the exercise and the participating units and air arms.
On February 9th 2015 the United States Air Force (USAF) deployed twelve Fairchild Republic A-10C Thunderbolt II aircraft to the 52nd Fighter Wing (FW) at Spangdahlem Air Force Base (AFB) in Germany in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve.
Pilatus Aircraft Limited was formed just after the start of the Second World War in December 1939, and even though the country was neutral for the duration of the war, the Swiss Government identified a need for training and maintenance of indigenous aircraft. The site chosen was an existing maintenance facility in the heart of Switzerland at Stans, in the region of Nidwalden close to its namesake Mount Pilatus.
Who and or what are RUAG? The name is derived from Rüstungs Unternhmen Aktiengesellschaft or in plain English, Joint Defence Stock Company.
RUAG was formed in 1998 and is currently Headquartered in Bern, Switzerland. Globally there is approximately 8,000 staff at production sites in Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, France, Austria, Hungary, Australia and the USA.
In the northern region of Friesland in the Netherlands lays the front line Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) base of Leeuwarden. This was home for multiple types of aircraft from other countries for two weeks as they took part in this year’s exercise Frisian Flag.
On Wednesday March 25th 2015 members of Pixelsnipers.com were amongst a number of invitees to board the United States Navy aircraft carrier CVN-71 USS Theodore Roosevelt, TR or The Big Stick as it is known to its crew members in the US Navy. TR was on a visit to Portsmouth, UK, as the first port of call on her round the world deployment.
October 7th 2018, Stokes Bay, near Portsmouth, United Kingdom, sits a behemoth of immense size and stature; this is ‘Lone Warrior’, more informally known as CVN-75, the Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman
Storm Chasing in Italy – Tornados in the Aeronautica Militare (AMI)
Since the three countries that formed Panavia launched the MRCA (Multi-role Combat Aircraft), the resulting Tornado has been at the forefront of the German, British and Italian Air Forces right up until the advent of the Eurofighter EF-2000 Typhoon.
