X-62 VISTA: AI Test Jet Draws 30 Proposals Where 3 Were Expected
Share this story The US Air Force asked for three ideas and got more than thirty. When the Air Force Test Pilot School invited researchers to propose flight tests for the X-62 VISTA in fiscal years 2027 and 2028, it hoped for three test concepts. It received more than...
Massed Modular Aircraft: USAF’s Reaper Successor to Fly by 2028
Share this story The US Air Force’s cheap, autonomous successor to the MQ-9 Reaper is supposed to be flying in operational form within two years. Speaking on a panel at the AUSA conference in Washington on 14 October 2026, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said...
Israel Signs for 12 AH-64E Apache Helicopters After a Budget Scare
Share this story Six days after it missed Washington’s final deadline, Israel has signed for new attack helicopters after all. On 14 October 2026 the Israeli Ministry of Defense said it had signed an agreement with the US Department of War to buy 12 Boeing...
F-35C Lands on a Ford-Class Carrier for the First Time: USS John F. Kennedy
Share this story Eleven years after the F-35C made its first arrested landing on a Nimitz-class carrier, the Navy’s stealth fighter has finally trapped aboard the ship class that is supposed to carry it into the 2070s. On 13 October 2026, an F-35C from the...
Houthis Claim a Missile Hit on a Saudi Eurofighter Typhoon Over Saada
Share this story Late on 14 October, the Houthi movement’s military spokesman, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, made a claim that will be pored over in air force headquarters from Riyadh to Rome. He said Houthi forces had fired a surface-to-air missile at a Royal...
SPECTRA and Praetorian: Europe’s Fighter Self-Protection Suites
Share this story Look at a F-16 rigged for a contested mission and you can count the self-protection on your fingers, because most of it is bolted on. A jamming pod on a station that could have carried a weapon. A dispenser modification. A decoy on a wire. Each box...
Anthropic Report: A Yemen Cell Used Claude Code to Write Missile Guidance Software
Share this story An artificial-intelligence model helping to build missiles sounds like science fiction. According to its own maker, it has already happened. In its threat intelligence report of 10 September 2026, the AI company Anthropic says a weapons cell in...
Why the Houthis Are So Hard to Defeat From the Air: Seven Reasons
Share this story In October 2026 Houthi missiles are again falling on Saudi Arabia. On 10 October a ballistic missile hit terminals 3 and 4 at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, killing at least 13 people. Saudi investigators say drones went in first to...
Top Aces, Draken and ATAC: The Contractors That Play the Enemy
Share this story On 22 September a grey-camouflaged Hawker Hunter lost engine thrust and went into the Pacific off Morro Bay, California. The pilot ejected and was rescued. The jet was not flying for any air force. It belonged to ATAC, a private company paid to play...
COMAO Explained: How Air Forces Fly Dozens of Jets as One Package
Share this story When the Royal Air Force released the figures for Exercise Cobra Warrior 26-2 on 13 October, the headline number was 942 sorties. The more interesting number was smaller: fourteen. That was how many “complex missions” the five nations flew...
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