Ukraine Hits Russia’s Deepest Refinery Yet

Ukraine Hits Russia’s Deepest Refinery Yet

Share this story Just after dawn on Monday, air-raid sirens and the buzz of engines reached a city most of the war had never touched. Nizhnekamsk sits roughly 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) from the nearest Ukrainian-held ground, deep in the Russian republic of...
Twenty-One Days to Rebuild the Arsenal

Twenty-One Days to Rebuild the Arsenal

Share this story Wars are not won only by the jets on the ramp. They are won by the factories behind them, and by whether those factories can build missiles faster than a shooting war can burn through them. This week the Pentagon admitted, in writing, that America is...
The Cessna That Found an F-16 on Its Wing

The Cessna That Found an F-16 on Its Wing

Share this story It is the kind of thing a weekend pilot never expects to see filling the windscreen: the grey nose of an F-16 Fighting Falcon sliding into formation a few wingspans away, wings heavy with missiles. On Sunday, at least one general-aviation pilot over...
An F-35, a MiG-17, and a Faked Pearl Harbor

An F-35, a MiG-17, and a Faked Pearl Harbor

Share this story For two days this weekend, the flattest stretch of Nebraska turns into the loudest. Offutt Air Force Base throws open its gates on 8 and 9 August for the 2026 Defenders of Freedom Air & Space Show, and the headline act is the one everyone came to...
A Robot Built the Part That Saved This C-17

A Robot Built the Part That Saved This C-17

Share this story A hailstorm, two runaway business jets, and a nose panel that nobody would build. That is the short version of how a U.S. Air Force C-17 ended up grounded for the better part of a year and a half. The long version ends with a robot, a research lab in...
Iran Puts a Downed Strike Eagle on Display

Iran Puts a Downed Strike Eagle on Display

Share this story Iran has turned a hole in the ground into a trophy case. This week the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threw open an underground “exhibition” of American and Israeli aircraft it says its air defences knocked out of the sky. The...
The Poseidon Learns to Fly Its Own Drone

The Poseidon Learns to Fly Its Own Drone

Share this story The U.S. Navy’s two great ocean-watchers already work as a pair. Now they are learning to talk directly to each other — and one of them is about to start taking orders straight from the other’s cockpit. On 5 August, Boeing and...