Next Generation Interceptor Passes Stage-2 Motor Vacuum Test
America’s defence against an intercontinental ballistic missile aimed at its homeland currently rests on 44 interceptors: 40 buried in silos at Fort Greely, Alaska, and four at Vandenberg in California. The design dates to the early 2000s. The replacement is...
Su-57D: Russia’s Two-Seat Felon Will Test Combat AI
On 14 August 2026 the Russian state news agency TASS reported that the two-seat Su-57D will be used to test combat artificial intelligence under development at the Sukhoi Design Bureau. The source was Mikhail Strelets, the bureau’s director, speaking on the...
Dutch MQ-9A Reaper Flies Armed for the First Time
The Netherlands bought the MQ-9 Reaper in 2011 as a pair of eyes. No weapons, no requirement for them, no intention of adding any. For fifteen years that held. On Thursday 20 August 2026, a Royal Netherlands Air Force MQ-9A took off from Leeuwarden carrying weapons...
Paraguay Eyes Taiwan’s Retired F-5 Tigers for Its Air Force
Paraguay has not flown a jet combat aircraft since 2003, when the last Aermacchi-derived AT-26 Xavantes were retired. It has never flown a supersonic one. Now it is looking at a country 18,000 kilometres away that has just retired the largest fleet of Northrop F-5s...
Norway Swaps Rescue Helicopters for 21 UH-60M Black Hawks
In July 2025 the United States approved the sale of nine HH-60W Jolly Green II combat rescue helicopters to Norway. It was a specialised, expensive, superbly capable machine built for one demanding job: going into hostile territory to bring downed aircrew home. Norway...
AIM-424 Malice: The US Navy Reveals a 250-Mile Air-to-Air Missile
For years the U.S. Navy has had a problem it could not shoot its way out of. Its best long-range air-to-air missile, the AIM-174B Gunslinger, is a magnificent weapon that only the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet can carry, and only hanging off a wing where every radar in the...
Why Air Forces Retire Fighters Before They Wear Out
Here is a puzzle. A modern fighter jet is designed to fly something like 8,000 hours before its airframe is worn out. And yet, across NATO, air forces routinely retire their fighters long before they reach that limit — parking perfectly flyable jets in the...
Ukraine Wants Its Gripens and Rafales Built at Home
Ukraine is not only buying Western fighters — it wants to build them. The contracts Kyiv has signed for Gripen and Rafale jets include provisions to localise their production and maintenance inside Ukraine, the country’s Air Force aviation commander has...
Taiwan’s First F-16V Block 70s Arrive as Beijing Plays Them Down
The first of Taiwan’s brand-new F-16V fighters are on their way home, and China’s state media wants everyone to know it is not impressed. Two single-seat F-16V Block 70s left the United States on 17 August 2026, routing through Fort Worth, Hawaii and Guam...
Ukraine Says Drones Hit a Su-33 and MiG-29 at Vityazevo Airfield
Correction — 24 August 2026This report followed Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces in identifying one of the aircraft struck at Vityazevo as a Su-33. Analysts examining the released footage have since assessed, from the raised fairing behind the cockpit,...
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