The Weapon That Fires Nothing

The Weapon That Fires Nothing

Share this story There is an aircraft in most modern strike packages that carries no bombs, has no air-to-air kills, and will never appear on a recruiting poster. It is usually converted from something else, it is frequently ugly, and if it fails, everyone else dies....
Why Brand-New Aircraft Fly Around Half-Naked

Why Brand-New Aircraft Fly Around Half-Naked

Share this story Last week the Royal Air Force’s second E-7 Wedgetail flew out of Birmingham looking like somebody had forgotten to finish it. No roundels, no squadron markings, no grey. Just an unlovely metallic green from nose to tail. Almost every aircraft...
The Bomb Designed to Miss

The Bomb Designed to Miss

Share this story Every bomb ever built before 1944 was designed to hit the thing it was aimed at. Barnes Wallis built two that were designed to land next to it. This was not a compromise or an admission that bombing was inaccurate. It was the entire principle. Wallis...
The Last Old-Fashioned Air War

The Last Old-Fashioned Air War

Share this story Militarily, Suez worked. In six days, Anglo-French air power destroyed the Egyptian Air Force largely on the ground, paratroops took an airfield, Royal Marines made the first helicopter assault in the history of warfare, and the invasion force held...
The Air War Fought at 18,000 Feet

The Air War Fought at 18,000 Feet

Share this story Everything a combat pilot knows about dropping a bomb assumes air. Thick air, at sensible altitudes, where wings generate predictable lift, engines produce rated thrust, and a weapon released at a known speed follows a known arc to the ground. In May...
The Drones Are Coming to Red Flag

The Drones Are Coming to Red Flag

Share this story Every argument about autonomous combat aircraft eventually arrives at the same question, and it is not a technical one. It is whether the person in the cockpit will trust the thing flying off their wing. Frank Kendall, who ran the US Air Force as its...
What Happened at Muwaffaq Salti

What Happened at Muwaffaq Salti

Share this story The air base is named after a man who died in an aeroplane. Lieutenant Muwaffaq Salti was a Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot, killed in combat with Israeli fighters on 13 November 1966 during the Battle of Samu. Jordan gave his name to the base at...
The RAF’s Newest Jet Is Bright Green

The RAF’s Newest Jet Is Bright Green

Share this story If you happened to be at Birmingham Airport on the afternoon of 15 July, you would have seen something that looked like a mistake: a Boeing 737 with a large rectangular fin bolted to its spine, painted an unlovely metallic green, climbing out over the...