Recently in Military Category

With the 70th anniversary of the Dambusters raid - Operation Chastise - here's a couple of pictures to commemorate the event. First up is this shot of an Avro Lancaster from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight taken by AirSpace user Sunshine Band. More details on the history of this particular bomber is here. The second image comes from the UK Ministry of Defence showing the same Lancaster performing a fly-past over Derwent reservoir in the Peak District, a key training location for the raid.

This from regular AirSpace contributor Martin Needham: "On 12 May 2013, Andre Tempest's Handley-Page Victor, XL231 "Lusty Lindy" roared into life and performed her first taxi run in almost three years. She is seen here kicking up the spray left by a downpour on what was a grim Yorkshire day."

British and French combat helicopters recently got together for a Joint Warrior exercise in the UK, which coincidentally also provided an excellent photo opportunity. Staged at West Freugh airfield in Scotland, the manoeuvres included using British Army Apaches and French army Gazelles to escort Royal Air Force Chinook transport helicopters carrying troops into a simulated combat zone, with the services taking turns in leading the offensive. Other participants shown in this 16 Air Assault Brigade-provided image are Lynx and Puma aircraft from the respective services.

Lifted from the US Air Force's image gallery is this shot of a Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle - based at RAF Lakenheath in England but deployed for Operation Enduring Freedom - topping up its fuel tank from a Boeing KC-10 Extender over Southwest Asia. And the title? Again from the USAF site.

To celebrate its 100th birthday, Alenia Aermacchi has sent through this cracking pic of its four key products all crowding into the same small piece of sky. So we have a Eurofighter, a C-27J, a M-346 and an SF-260. Molto bellisimo.

Top shot from Rex, via the US Navy, of this gaggle of aircraft from the John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group flying in formation during an air power demo over the Pacific Ocean.

I've no idea why this picture has just appeared on EADS' Flickr stream as it was taken in August last year, but it is rather nice. It shows an Airbus Military A400M and the Patrouille de France display team in their Dassault-Dornier Alpha Jets soaring over the mountains.

Lovely picture on our AirSpace gallery from user sunshine band of this US Army Boeing MH-47 Chinook in Afghanistan. Thank him also for the title above. According to Flightglobal's World Air Forces directory, the US Army has a fleet of 72 of the attack helicopters.