How Jets Trick Missiles Into Missing
Share this story On the night of 24 July 1943, 791 British bombers crossed the German coast toward Hamburg. In each aircraft, a crewman knelt by the flare chute with a stopwatch, shoving out one paper bundle every minute. Each bundle held 2,200 strips of...
A Spy, a Pilot, and a Stolen MiG-21
Share this story On the morning of 16 August 1966, an Iraqi Air Force captain named Munir Redfa strapped into his MiG-21F-13 for what his squadron believed was a routine long-range training sortie. He had full fuel tanks — a privilege he had rarely been granted...
The Strike Eagles Came Home as Monsters
Share this story The first eight came in before sunset on 1 July, dropping onto RAF Lakenheath’s runway one after another. The last three arrived in the dark, their names unreadable. Eleven F-15E Strike Eagles of the 48th Fighter Wing, home from the Iran air war...
Poland Freezes Its MiGs for Ukraine
Share this story In the spring of 2023, Poland became the first NATO country to send fighter jets to Ukraine — fourteen MiG-29s, handed over while other capitals were still debating. Three years later, the last fourteen Fulcrums in Polish service were supposed...
Iron Dome Just Got a Laser Sidekick
Share this story For fifteen years, Iron Dome has answered incoming rockets with a $50,000 interceptor. Now it has a second option on the trigger: light. Israel’s Ministry of Defense announced on 30 June that a comprehensive Iron Dome test series has, for the...
An Eagle and a Ghost Fly Together
Share this story One photo, two aircraft, and a very large hint about the future of air combat. On 1 July, Pacific Air Forces posted imagery of a US Air Force F-15EX Eagle II flying over the Philippine Sea in close formation with something no American fighter had been...
Seahawk Down in the Arabian Sea
Share this story At 3:30 in the morning Eastern time on 1 July, an MH-60S Sea Hawk from the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush went into the water of the Arabian Sea. Three of the four crew members were pulled out and are in stable condition aboard the carrier. As...
The Pentagon Gets a Drone Czar
Share this story The Pentagon just did something it almost never does: it took power away from the Army, Navy and Air Force all at once. In a memo dated 29 June and made public this week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth created a single office with authority over...
The B-2 Just Became a Ship-Killer
Share this story Somewhere over the Philippine Sea on 27 June, a B-2 Spirit opened its weapons bay and released something the world had never officially seen it carry: an AGM-158C LRASM, the US military’s stealthiest anti-ship missile. The target, more than 200...
NATO’s Next Radar Jet Is Swedish
Share this story For 44 years, the deep rumble of Boeing E-3A Sentries out of Geilenkirchen has been the sound of NATO watching its own skies. Now, according to a Reuters report published on 2 July, the alliance is preparing to hand that job to a jet from a country...
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