The U.S. Air Force Should Buy a Lot More Bombers, Fewer F-35s
The U.S. Air Force has selected Northrop Grumman to build its new Long Range Strike Bomber, but the service is only planning to buy 100 of the stealthy new warplanes. With only 100 aircraft, the Air Force will not be able to replace its entire bomber fleet which consists... Read more
Russia Stumbles in Syrian Air War
Russia’s pace of air operations in Syria appears to have dropped off slightly from their peak in recent days. While the Russians had flown as many as 88 sorties per day about two weeks ago, more recently that number has dropped off as many U.S. defense officials had predicted. “In... Read more
Will Canada Dump the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter?
Earlier this week, Canada’s Conservative Party was swept out of office and replaced by a new Liberal government led by incoming Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The rise of a new government means that Ottawa’s defense and foreign policy posture will change. One immediate casualty could be the Lockheed Martin’s... Read more
One Last Chance to Buy Brand New F-16s
For decades the Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon — more popularly know as the “Viper” — has dominated the fighter market around the globe. But while the F-16 is still one of the best fourth-generation fighters money can buy, the production line is starting to slow as sales dry... Read more
Yes, America’s F-22 Raptor Can Be Defeated
The U.S. Air Force has as a tiny fleet of 186 Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor stealth fighters. That’s all that survived out of 187 production aircraft (195 jets if developmental airframes are included) that were built out of the 750 that were originally planned. Of those 186 remaining Raptors,... Read more
Does the U.S. Navy Need a 21st Century F-14 Tomcat?
While the requirement for a carrier-based long-range strike capability is a frequent subject of discussion around Washington, the U.S. Navy’s need for improved air superiority capabilities is often neglected. The service has not had a dedicated air-to-air combat aircraft since it retired the Grumman F-14 Tomcat in 2006. But even... Read more
China’s Shoddy, Noisy Nuclear Submarines
Over the past two decades, the People’s Republic of China has made great advances in its military capabilities. However, it still lags woefully behind in developing nuclear-powered submarines. The problem for the Chinese is that they lack the necessary quieting and propulsion technologies to build anything remotely comparable to... Read more
Russia Can Now Spy on the F-22 Over Syria
Russia may be using its air campaign in Syria as an opportunity to gather intelligence on U.S. forces and gain operational experience on their latest hardware. Gathering information on the U.S. Air Force’s stealthy fifth-generation F-22 Raptor air superiority fighter is of particular interest to the Russian military. Nonetheless,... Read more
China’s Master Plan to Destroy the F-22 and F-35 in Battle
China’s Shengyang J-11 unlicensed derivative of the Russian-developed Su-27 Flanker has become the mainstay of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). While the Chinese-built jets are not able to match U.S.-built fighters one-for-one, China is building a lot of them. Down the road, advanced derivatives of the J-11... Read more
There’s a Lot Riding on America’s Next Stealth Bomber
The U.S. Air Force is expected to award a contract for its secretive Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) program later this month. The LRS-B award could determine the fate of the U.S. defense-aerospace industry as Northrop Grumman and a combined Boeing/Lockheed Martin team vie to secure a program that could... Read more