The Grumman F6F Hellcat: 5,223 Kills in Three Years
On the afternoon of 19 June 1944, Commander David McCampbell sat in the cockpit of his Hellcat somewhere above the Philippine Sea, watching the sky fill with Japanese aircraft. What followed became known as the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot” — and before it...
How Fly-by-Wire Replaced Cables and Changed Fighter Design
On 20 January 1974, General Dynamics test pilot Phil Oestricher taxied a prototype YF-16 down the runway at Edwards Air Force Base for what was supposed to be a high-speed taxi test. At 135 knots, the aircraft began to oscillate violently in roll. Oestricher had two...
The Tu-95 Bear: The Propeller-Driven Bomber Still Buzzing NATO
Somewhere over the Norwegian Sea, at this precise moment, there is a reasonable chance that a Tupolev Tu-95 is airborne. It has been flying for twelve hours. It will fly for twelve more. Its four Kuznetsov NK-12 turboprop engines are turning eight contra-rotating...
The Panavia Tornado: How Three Rivals Built One Fighter
On the night of 17 January 1991, RAF Tornado GR1s crossed the Iraqi border at sixty metres above the desert floor, wings swept back to 67 degrees, delivering JP233 runway-denial munitions onto airfields that Saddam Hussein believed were untouchable. Six Tornados were...
Ramstein Flag 2026: NATO Launches Its Biggest Air Exercise Ever
From the fjords of northern Norway to the sun-baked runways of southern Spain, NATO is conducting the largest air exercise in Alliance history. Ramstein Flag 2026, which began on 8 June and runs through 19 June, has assembled more than 200 aircraft from 18 nations...
US Pulls Back From NATO Faster Than Expected: Fighters, Tankers, Troops All Cut
The numbers arrived in Brussels like a cold shower. US fighter jets allocated to NATO: cut from 150 to 100. KC-46 aerial refuelling tankers: all eight withdrawn. Maritime patrol aircraft: slashed from 26 to 15. One carrier strike group, one cruise-missile submarine,...
Skunk Works Just 3D-Printed a Combat Drone in Under a Year
Forget everything you think you know about how military drones get made. Lockheed Martin’s legendary Skunk Works division — the outfit that gave us the U-2, the SR-71 Blackbird, and the F-117 Nighthawk — just showed off an unmanned aircraft that was designed,...
Ukraine Strikes Moscow Refinery in 137-Drone Barrage as Russia’s Fuel Crisis Hits 21-Year Low
At four in the morning on June 18, the sky above Moscow began to hum. Over the next three hours, 137 Ukrainian drones descended on the Russian capital and its surroundings in what officials are calling one of the largest single aerial attacks of the war. The primary...
Saab Rolls Out the World’s First Gripen F Two-Seat Fighter
On the second of June, under the pale Swedish summer sky of Linköping, Saab pulled back the curtain on something the fighter aviation world has been watching for years: the Gripen F, the world’s first two-seat variant of the Gripen E-series. The ceremony, hosted...
F-15E Strike Eagles Get Dedicated EW Upgrade Line at Warner Robins
The United States Air Force has opened a dedicated depot installation line for the Eagle Passive/Active Warning Survivability System at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex in Georgia. Designated the EPAWSS Speedline, the facility decouples the electronic warfare...
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