This Is What It Looks Like When a C-5 Galaxy Nearly Crash-Lands
The top image was reportedly taken on May 22, 2017 at Rota air base in Spain. Sent to us by a Twitter user — thank you, @asetanton — it shows a U.S. Air Force C-5M Galaxy cargo aircraft, registration 86-0020, after performing a gear-up landing at the Spanish base.... Read more
Looks Like the Russians Tried to Lure U.S. Stealth Fighters Into an Intel Trap
On the night of May 3, 2017, two Russian Tu-95MS Bear bombers, escorted by two Su-35S Flanker-E fighters, flew into Alaska’s Air Defense Identification Zone. Two U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors intercepted the formation some 50 miles south of Chariot, Alaska. The Su-35 is a “4++ generation” aircraft characterized... Read more
F-22s Will Soon Be Able to Kill Enemy Fighters From 50-Percent Farther
Developmental testers at Edwards Air Force Base in California have completed testing on the F-22 Raptor’s Increment 3.2B upgrade. The new configuration will significantly boost the stealthy fifth-generation air superiority fighter’s already fearsome air-to-air capabilities. As part of the final hurdle, F-22 Raptors assigned to the 411th Flight Test... Read more
I Went to War Against Stealth Fighters—And Lost Badly
On April 26, 2017, I had the opportunity to fly on a training sortie during the U.S. Air Force’s Atlantic Trident 17 exercise at Joint Base Langley Eustis in Virginia. The war game brings together the three premier NATO air forces and the best operational fighters in the alliance’s... Read more
The West’s Best Fighter Jets, Together in Virginia
The Atlantic Trident ’17 exercise, held from April 12 to 28, 2017 at Joint Base Langley-Eustice in Virginia, included a “Blue Air” force of U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors of the 1st Fighter Wing and F-35 Lightning IIs from Eglin Air Force Base, Typhoons of the Royal Air Force... Read more
Four F-22s and four F-15s ‘Killed’ 41 Enemy Fighters During Mock Combat
In January 2017, around 250 airmen and nine F-15 Eagles from the U.S. Air Force’s 104th Fighter Wing — part of the Massachusetts Air National Guard based at Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport — deployed to Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida for the Weapons Systems Evaluation Program. As part of... Read more
Is the U.S. Air Force Ready for a New Light Attack Aircraft?
The U.S. Air Force is expected to hold demonstrations this summer to show off the capabilities of a new light attack aircraft the service might eventually purchase under a new OA-X program. The Air Force had attempted to buy a light attack aircraft in 2008 under a previous iteration... Read more
Babes, Booze and Nukes
Originally published on Dec. 20, 2013. For five days in mid-July 2013, a delegation of the Pentagon’s top nuclear officials led by Air Force Maj. Gen. Michael Carey traveled to Moscow to meet their counterparts in the Russian nuke force. It was a make-nice involving the world’s biggest atomic... Read more
Russian Jamming Got You Down? Try Talking Underwater
DARPA art DARPA is about to test a buoy-based comms network for warplanes by DAVID AXE Russia and China have been rapidly improving their ability to disrupt U.S. military communications during wartime. Now the U.S. Defense Department is waking up to the problem — and exploring new, harder-to-jam comms systems. The latest might... Read more
Teams of F-22 Stealth Fighters Troll Russia
In 2013, the U.S. Air Force’s Alaska-based 3rd Wing devised a new way to deploy its F-22 Raptor stealth fighters in order to make them more survivable in a war with China. Now the “Rapid Raptor” concept has a new goal — to deter Russian aggression. The 3rd Wing’s scheme... Read more