A U.S. Army AH-64 Apache lands on the amphibious ship USS ‘New York’ in the Persian Gulf in 2012. Navy photo Apache crews train for missions in the Persian Gulf by JOSEPH TREVITHICK For two days in August, Iranian patrol boats challenged American warships in the Persian Gulf. Though the two... Read more
Antonov Airlines’ An-225. Karlis Dambrans photo via Flickr The An-225 could assist Beijing’s space program, or something else by ROBERT BECKHUSEN The Ukrainian aircraft builder Antonov, one of the most legendary Soviet-era companies, nearly went extinct following the Russian invasion of Crimea. The Kremlin, the firm’s main customer, suddenly became... Read more
The Sentinel-1A solar array before — left — and after impact, showing damage of around 40 centimeters in diameter. ESA image Tiny particle causes big damage to pricey spacecraft by VICTORIA TURK A tiny particle has smashed into a European satellite, causing visible damage on its solar array. Engineers at the European Space Agency — the ESA — realized something... Read more
A U.S. F-16 Fighting Falcon flies in formation with a Romanian MiG-21 Lancer in 2015. U.S. Air Force photo Fish beds in service today bear little resemblance to their Soviet forebears by ROBERT FARLEY Military aircraft can have notoriously short lifespans, especially during periods of technological ferment. The most elite aircraft... Read more
A Russian air force Su-35. Vitaly V. Kuzmin photo The Kremlin possesses air-to-air missiles which match American ones, just not very many by DAVE MAJUMDAR While Russia has deployed advanced warplanes to Syria including the Sukhoi Su-30SM, Su-34 and Su-35S, those jets are seldom seen carrying Moscow’s latest air-to-air weapons. More often... Read more
The MiG-21F-13 — serial number 534 — as it was shown to the international press a few weeks after Redfa flew it to Israel on Aug. 16, 1966. Tom Cooper Collection photo Operation Diamond was a deadly honey trap by TOM COOPER It’s been 50 years since one of biggest — and most hyped — operational achievements by Mossad,... Read more
MiG-21bis serial number 404 loaded with one RBK-250–270 PTAB 2.5M cluster bomb under its left wing at Benina air base on Aug. 15, 2016. LNA photo The weapons endanger civilians by ARNAUD DELALANDE Official photos from the Libyan National Army, published on Aug. 15, 2016, indicate that the LNA is... Read more
Publication tells soldiers to be on the lookout for new threats by JOSEPH TREVITHICK With easy access via online storefronts and similar sources, terrorists and rebels and even government forces from Iraq and Syria to Ukraine’s breakaway Donbass region have been increasingly using small drones. With little training, insurgents can... Read more
Tu-22M-3. Wikimedia Commons photo Tehran violates its own constitution to admit Russian forces by TOM COOPER On Aug. 15, 2016, six graceful Tupolev Tu-22M-3 bombers from the 6950 Air Base of the Russian Airspace Force — the VKS — landed at the Nojeh Air Base, a.k.a. Tactical Fighter Base 3 or TFB.3, outside Hamadan in west-central... Read more
An Israeli Avia S-199 on May 31, 1948 A variant of the German Bf.109 helped the Jewish state defeat invaders — but at a terrible cost by SEBASTIEN ROBLIN When Israel declared independence from British colonial rule in May 1948, it immediately went to war with the neighboring Arab states. One of the... Read more