Latest news with #F18
Wall Street Journal
06-06-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Pentagon Probe Focuses on Whether Hegseth Texts Shared Classified Information
WASHINGTON—A Pentagon inspector general investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's use of the Signal messaging service is focusing on whether details of a military operation were classified and if anyone ordered texts to be deleted, people familiar with the probe said. Pentagon officials have said that messages Hegseth sent in March about a U.S. attack in Yemen didn't contain classified information. He shared specific times that F-18 jet fighters, MQ-9 Reaper drones and Tomahawk cruise missiles would be used in the attack as well as other normally-closely held details of the airstrikes, according to a transcript of the chat released by the Atlantic.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Landing on an aircraft carrier at night
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Being an F-18 pilot takes hours of training and practice. After pilots have made a specific score on landing and taking off during the day, the lights turn off, and the stakes are higher. Each pilot has to land in the middle of the ocean, on an aircraft carrier, in the middle of the night. Lieutenant Andrew Mueller, F-18 Instructor Pilot, explained that this is important for all operations. Missions usually happen at night. 'The night is where we operate. The opportunity to go out there and do our country's good deeds. There are bad people around the globe that need to be taken care of, and at night is the best way to do it,' said Mueller. What it takes to be a Navy pilot While this is hard for an onlooker's brain to comprehend, it's even more mentally tough for the pilots trying to land in complete darkness. 'It's pretty tough for the human mind to literally be staring at death in the face and a guy's on the radio being like 'hey, you look good dude, keep it coming.'' Mueller doesn't mean to discredit pilots who are nervous; he's been there before and knows it's tough each time things don't look right. 'You see a ship, you know, pitching up and down into the blackness and the propellers coming out, and you're like 'oh, I'm supposed to land there, very cool. And at one point, the LA can go so far down the ship comes out of the water that it just completely disappears and you're basically staring at death in the face.' The best advice he gives to pilots he's training, 'When you walk out onto an aircraft carrier deck at night, take a deep breath, and go like okay well no, I'm actually, I'm the boogie man tonight, I'm the darkness, and then we go do some good work for the US Navy.' To see more from Shelby's naval journey, check out the News 2 special report . Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
What it takes to be a Navy pilot
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The USS George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier has been an airport at sea since 2009. Over 5,000 sailors are on board when the ship is at capacity, and the F-18 and F-35 pilots are one of the main jobs. Being a part of naval aviation takes years of training, and when News 2's Shelby Mac came aboard the CVN-77 pilots were doing aircraft carrier qualifications. This is when pilots must take off and land on the aircraft carrier during the day and night a certain number of times, and get a certain score to be ready for upcoming missions. Lieutenant Andrew Mueller, F-18 Instructor Pilot, has been training new naval pilots on the U.S.S. George H. W. Bush this season. 'We teach them to fly the Super Hornet, and this is final, their graduation here in which we're teaching them to land on the ship both day and night,' said Mueller, call sign Doug. Tour the Captain's Import Cabin aboard the USS George H. W. Bush This is no small task since the runway is 300 feet with the assistance of a catapult versus more than 5,000 feet on dry land for an F-18 take-off. 'As you launch off a catapult your brain is experiencing this feeling of rolling back in your head and it's giving the sensation that you're being shot up into the ether, so you really don't want to manipulate the controls until after you've come off then end, and the jets auto-trimmed to fly you away. So, you don't want to hastily grab the stick and push it either direction. So nice, disciplined shot, sweet, good shot, safely fly away, and then go into your procedures from there.' Mueller is a second-generation Navy pilot, and the Hollywood movies helped others understand what exactly his dad's job was. 'My old man was actually a Navy Aviator back in the day, and prior to the original Top Gun movie coming out, people had no idea what Naval Aviators did, what an aircraft carrier was. It was almost an unknown group of fighter pilots going out and doing things, but once you make a couple of movies about it, then I think it puts it into the public's imagination, and it increases recruiting and retention as well.' Mueller said he's proud of the work naval aviation does for our country, but the team wouldn't be successful without the entire crew. 'There are thirteen pilots and maybe ten jet aircraft, but honestly, there are 300 hard-working Navy sailors who are making sure that the engines are operational, the flight controls are there, and the software, everything that makes the whole team work.' Once pilots have made a specific score on taking off and landing during the day, night comes and it's time to land on a moving runway in complete darkness. To see more from Shelby's naval journey, check out the News 2 special report . Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Arab News
07-05-2025
- General
- Arab News
F/A-18 fighter jet goes overboard from US carrier in the Red Sea
DUBAI: An F/A-18 fighter jet landing on the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea went overboard, forcing its two pilots to eject, a defense official said on Wednesday. The incident Tuesday marks the latest mishap to mar the deployment of the Truman, which has been essential in the airstrike campaign by the US against Yemen's Houthi rebels. The F/A-18 Super Hornet landed on the Truman after a flight, but 'the arrestment failed,' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity about the incident now under investigation. 'Arrestment' refers to the hook system used by aircraft landing on carriers, which catches steel wire ropes on the flight deck. It remains unclear what part of the system failed. The two pilots on board were later rescued by a helicopter and suffered minor injuries in the incident, the official added. No one on the flight deck was hurt. Tuesday's incident was the latest to see the Navy lose an F/A-18, which cost about $60 million. In April, another F/A-18 fighter jet slipped off the hangar deck of the Truman and fell into the Red Sea. The crew members who were in the pilot seat of the Super Hornet and on the small towing tractor both jumped away. In December, the guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg mistakenly shot down an F/A-18 after ships earlier shot down multiple Houthi drones and an anti-ship cruise missile launched by the rebels. Both aviators in that incident also survived. And in February, the Truman collided with a merchant vessel near Port Said, Egypt. The Truman, based out of Norfolk, Virginia, has seen its deployment extended multiple times amid the Houthi airstrike campaign. It had been joined recently by the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier operating out of the Arabian Sea.
Asharq Al-Awsat
07-05-2025
- General
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Fighter Jet Goes Overboard from USS Harry S. Truman
An F/A-18 fighter jet landing on the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea went overboard, forcing its two pilots to eject, a defense official told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The incident Tuesday marks the latest mishap to mar the deployment of the Truman, which has been essential in the airstrike campaign by the United States against Yemen's Houthi militias. On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump and Oman's foreign minister both said that a ceasefire had been reached with the Houthis, who would no longer target ships in the Red Sea corridor. The F/A-18 Super Hornet landed on the Truman after a flight, but "the arrestment failed," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the incident now under investigation. "Arrestment" refers to the hook system used by aircraft landing on carriers, which catches steel wire ropes on the flight deck. It remains unclear what part of the system failed. The two pilots on board were later rescued by a helicopter and suffered minor injuries in the incident, the official added. No one on the flight deck was hurt. CNN first reported on the incident. Tuesday's incident was the latest to see the Navy lose an F/A-18, which cost about $60 million. In April, another F/A-18 fighter jet slipped off the hangar deck of the Truman and fell into the Red Sea. The crew members who were in the pilot seat of the Super Hornet and on the small towing tractor both jumped away. In December, the guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg mistakenly shot down an F/A-18 after ships earlier shot down multiple Houthi drones and an anti-ship cruise missile launched by the militants. Both aviators in that incident also survived. And in February, the Truman collided with a merchant vessel near Port Said, Egypt. The Truman, based out of Norfolk, Virginia, has seen its deployment extended multiple times amid the Houthi airstrike campaign. It had been joined recently by the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier operating out of the Arabian Sea. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell wrote on the social platform X that an investigation was underway and that "this aircraft was not struck by the Houthis." "The Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group remains fully mission-capable," he added.
