Air Commodore Mike Yardley will be the new Chief of Air Force, when Air Vice-Marshal Peter Stockwell leaves the Defence Force next month after a distinguished 41-year career.

A Kiwi soldier wounded by friendly fire in Afghanistan has paid tribute to a US Air Force search and rescue crew after they received one of the US military's highest honours.

Two brothers seriously injured in botched Defence Force exercises believe New Zealand's service personnel are being hung out to dry by the country's law makers.

A coroner has recommended that authorities consider strengthening drug testing regimes after an Air Force member died during a training exercise after consuming steroids.

NZ will send an air force Hercules to help in the storm-hit Philippines, but Prime Minister John Key's official visit to Manila next week has been postponed.

Farmers, shopkeepers, police officers and a mayor have volunteered to play "bad guys" in a large-scale realistic war game.

The sole survivor of the Anzac Day helicopter crash has been allowed to lay health and safety charges against the Defence Force.

The Defence Force has paid out half a million dollars to other claimants during the 16 years that two badly injured brothers have been fighting for compensation.

The sole survivor of the Anzac Day 2010 military helicopter crash today launched his court bid to seek criminal prosecutions for his air force superiors.

The families of three airmen killed in an Anzac Day 2010 helicopter crash have been offered $70,000 for each death.

Auckland-born student Diana Drysdale has only ever wanted to be in the airforce. But the 15-year-old will not be able to fulfil that dream in Australia.

Two brothers who suffered horrific injuries in army training accidents could be nearing the end of their long battle for compensation. (WARNING: Graphic image)

Images of a wrecked engine brought memories flooding back to pilot Aubrey Bills, 60 years after he survived the crash that killed his mate.

The last surviving pilot of the Dambusters raid in World War II, Tauranga resident Les Munro, will be a guest of honour at England's 70th anniversary of the raid on May 16.

With bullets kicking up dust in front of him and insurgent rounds pinging off his helicopter cockpit, every fibre in Flight Lieutenant Ben Pryor's body told him to flee

A military tribunal has been told an Air Force helicopter squadron treated standard orders like guidelines that gave good "generic guidance" rather than absolute orders to obey before a fatal crash three years ago.

A co-pilot in a formation involved in the fatal crash of an Iroquois helicopter three years ago has a case to answer, a military tribunal has decided.

A co-pilot in a formation involved in the Anzac Day crash says a "good proportion" of 3 Squadron pilots were outside standard orders when flying into rough weather.

An Air Force squadron was warned before a fatal helicopter crash on Anzac Day three years ago that the practice of flying under low cloud contravened Air Force rules, a tribunal was told today.

A pilot leading a formation of Air Force helicopters during the Anzac Day tragedy was following his training in flying below low hanging cloud, a tribunal has been told.

The pilot in charge of a formation of Iroquois helicopters when one of the choppers crashed on Anzac Day has pleaded not guilty to a charge of negligence.

Senior air force commanders are under investigation over the Anzac Day tragedy which left three staff dead and another seriously injured - but there is only a month left to lay charges.

The military inquiry into the firefight in Afghanistan that left two soldiers dead is unlikely to be made public, the New Zealand Defence Force says.

The lead pilot of the air force's fatal Anzac Day formation is being made a scapegoat for failures right up the command chain, says the father of one of the men who died in the 2010 crash.

An RNZAF officer has been charged over the fatal Iroquois crash at Pukerua Bay on Anzac Day 2010.