UK Premiere showings!

The Battle Stations schedule on The History Channel for fighter-machine fans:

The F15 Eagle

The ultimate air-superiority fighter — the F15 Eagle has the power to climb to the height of Mt Everest in just 60 seconds, and the ability to dogfight with the worlds' toughest planes. One pilot flew safely back to base after losing an entire wing and not one has been shot down in air-to-air combat in over 30 years service. Invaluable in both Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom, it has completed thousands of successful missions against Saddam Hussein's forces.

The F18 Hornet

There is one aircraft in the US arsenal that typifies the will to win. By using the latest, and most sophisticated computerised technology, it has now become one of the foremost fighters of the 21st Century. Today it is the principle fighter attacker of the US Navy and Marines, capable of speeds in excess 1200 mph and able to deliver over 17,000lbs of weapons. With a flick of a switch, this fighter is able to transform itself from bomber to attack fighter - and has the distinction of being the first multi-role aircraft in the US armed forces.

F117A Nighthawk

All but undetectable to radar the F-117 is the ace card in modern aerial warfare. Tasked with destroying high value, heavily defended targets the black jets are at the tip of the fighting spear. Able to penetrate undetected the most heavily defended airspace on earth The F-117 is capable of delivering lethal deep penetrating ‘bunker busters’ with pin point accuracy. Thought of as an impossible dream, dismissed as an unworkable concept the F117A would challenge aeronautical theory and become the most feared jet of the new millennium.

Destroyer

Throughout the bloody battle for the Pacific, one class of fighting ship was always in the thick of the action. Its creed, 'to go in harms way'; its motto, ‘kill or be killed.’ These Fletcher class Destroyers were designed and built by the United States after the destruction of the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. At over 370 feet long, and armed with five 5-inch guns and a speed of 36 knots, they were among the largest and most powerful Destroyers in the world. From protecting the capital ships and bombarding enemy troops, to sinking submarines and bringing down the dreaded kamikazes, it took on the full ferocity of the Japanese - and won.

B17 Flying Fortress

In 1937 the Boeing Aircraft Company built America's first all-metal four-engined Bomber, the B-17 Flying Fortress. Taking-on the worst that the Luftwaffe had to offer, the flying 'Forts' of the Eighth Air Force flew daylight bombing missions over the most heavily defended cities in all of occupied Europe, dealing a deathblow to Nazi wartime industrial production and razing Hitler's capital to the ground, thus dramatically turning the tide of the war in Europe.

A10

A-10 Tankbuster was the first aircraft in US aviation history designed specifically for Close Air Support. Its ability to work in close support with ground troops, to take out enemy positions and tanks and to act as a spotter plane have made it one of the most successful jets of recent times. It carries enough weaponry into battle to disable sixteen main battle tanks, and with its amazing 30 mm seven-barrelled cannon — the ‘flying gun’ dominates the skies. For the soldiers on the ground, it provides life-saving support.

HMS Belfast

The story of HMS Belfast is one of the most dramatic naval stories of World War Two. When commissioned in 1938, it was the most modern warship in Britain’s Royal Navy. With rapid-firing 6-inch calibre guns and high-speed capability, she was designed to patrol the seaways of Britain’s vast empire. She played a key role in the epic day-long battle of North Cape in December 1943 and also fired the first shells on the beaches of Normandy in the assault that began the D-Day invasion. Today, HMS Belfast is preserved on the River Thames in the heart of London, one of the greatest armoured warships that once ruled the waves.