France Caught a Rare Russian Spy Jet

France Caught a Rare Russian Spy Jet

Share this story Somewhere over the Baltic this summer, a French Rafale slid into formation beside a Russian jet that almost never lets itself be seen. The aircraft was a Tupolev Tu-214PU — a rare, specially-equipped command aircraft that open-source analysts link to...
Switzerland’s First F-35 Takes Shape in Italy

Switzerland’s First F-35 Takes Shape in Italy

Share this story Switzerland’s first F-35A Lightning II is no longer a set of drawings and contracts. It is now metal. In a hall at Cameri, in the Italian region of Piedmont, the first fuselage section of a Swiss jet has been mated to its first wing — the...
Two Close Calls in Two Days at Munich

Two Close Calls in Two Days at Munich

Share this story Munich Airport has had a nervous week. On the evening of 17 August 2026, a Lufthansa Airbus A380 arriving from San Francisco touched down short of its runway and ploughed through the approach lighting at the threshold. All 351 people on board were...
An Old Mirage Learns a New Emirati Trick

An Old Mirage Learns a New Emirati Trick

Share this story The Mirage 2000 first flew in 1978. The precision bomb now hanging under the United Arab Emirates’ version of it was designed in Abu Dhabi in the 2020s. That gap — a Cold War delta wing carrying a home-grown 21st-century weapon — is the whole...
Finland’s Hornets Begin Their Final Countdown

Finland’s Hornets Begin Their Final Countdown

Share this story For thirty years, the sound of Finland’s air defence has been the twin-engine howl of the F/A-18 Hornet. Now the clock on that sound has started ticking down. As Finland’s first F-35A Lightning II stealth fighters move through training in...
Germany’s First F-35 Enters the Paint Shop

Germany’s First F-35 Enters the Paint Shop

Share this story In a high-bay hall in Fort Worth, Texas, a matte-grey shape is about to disappear. Germany’s first F-35A Lightning II, the airframe stamped MG-01, has rolled out of final assembly and into the stage Lockheed Martin calls Aircraft Final Finishes:...
India’s Rafale Deal Hits a Firewall

India’s Rafale Deal Hits a Firewall

Share this story India’s largest fighter purchase in a generation is not stuck on money. It is not stuck on delivery dates, offsets, or how many aircraft get built in Nashik rather than Bordeaux. It is stuck on lines of code.New Delhi wants access to the...
Spain’s First Kill Over Romania

Spain’s First Kill Over Romania

Share this story At 04:44 on Sunday morning, a Romanian radar operator watched a small, slow-moving return cross the Prut and slide into national airspace from Moldova, roughly 24 kilometres north of Galați. Seventeen minutes later it no longer existed.The...