Stuka and Sturmovik—The  Aircraft That Inspired the A-10
It’s a good thing that the Air Force generals who want to retire the beloved A-10 Warthog were not around 70 years ago. If they were, Josef Stalin might have had them shot. The Soviet dictator loved the A-10 of his day, otherwise known as the Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik.... Read more
Can the F-35 Win a Dogfight?
In order to maintain its fighter squadrons, the U.S. Air Force needs the entire planned buy of 1,763 Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. That’s in part because the flying branch was allowed to buy fewer than planned F-22 Raptors from Lockheed. The F-35 will have to complement the... Read more
China’s Trying to Shove the U.S. Navy Right Out of the South China Sea
On Dec. 5, a Chinese warship deliberately sailed into the path of the U.S. Navy cruiser USS Cowpens as the American ship tailed China’s sole aircraft carrier in the South China Sea. The resulting near-collision is only the latest provocative move by Chinese forces as Beijing attempts to control... Read more
Air Force’s Screwed-Up Satellite Causing Headaches All Around
One of the Air Force’s most secretive spy satellites isn’t working as designed. And that could heighten tension between the Air Force—which is growing tired of the office that developed the partially broken spacecraft—and the program’s supporters in Congress. To be clear, we don’t know exactly which of America’s... Read more
Just a Little Reminder That This Russian Bomber Was Made to Kill American Flattops
There aren’t that many images showing the KH-22, a large, long-range cruise missile developed by the Soviet Union to target U.S. Navy aircraft carriers with a conventional or nuclear warhead. The pics you can find using Google are mainly old ones. So a recent air-to-air image depicting a Russian... Read more
With or Without the A-10, Air Force Insists It’s Not Abandoning the Ground Troops
Even if the U.S. Air Force decides to retire its entire fleet of 343 A-10 Warthog close air support aircraft, the service is not backing away from the vital mission of supporting ground troops. At least that’s what the service’s top uniformed official insists. For months the Air Force... Read more
Five Ships of the Chinese Navy You Really Ought to Know About
The Chinese navy has undergone an unprecedented buildup over the last decade. It has deployed an aircraft carrier, launched and recovered airplanes from a carrier flight deck, sent new nuclear submarines to sea and even changed its name from the unwieldy “People’s Liberation Army Navy” to simply, well, the... Read more
Here’s How the Military Wasted Your Money in 2013
Broken ships. Millions spent replacing a rifle that doesn’t need to be replaced. More tanks than it would take to beat Godzilla. Billions of dollars worth of wasted … stuff. Any large organization can have trouble managing its accounts. But few organizations are as humongous as the U.S. military, so... Read more
America’s Newest Jet Fighter Takes Flight
Textron AirLand’s Scorpion lightweight attack jet made its maiden flight on Dec. 12 at 10:30 in the morning at McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas. Test pilots Dan Hinson and David Sitz flew a 1.4-hour test sortie, testing the Scorpion’s handling characteristics. “It showed impressive stability and responsiveness closely matching... Read more
Does the Air Force Really Need the A-10?
The Air Force is apparently planning to retire all 343 of its A-10 Warthog close air support jets starting in 2015—a move the House of Representatives, some key senators and a legion of A-10 boosters oppose. Proponents of the low- and slow-flying Warthog argue that the flying branch needs... Read more