GBU-75: The Bomb That Grew a Jet Engine
A 500-pound bomb flew 200 nautical miles, hit within metres of its target, and cost a fraction of a cruise missile. Boeing’s GBU-75 Joint Direct Attack Munition — Long Range didn’t just extend the range of a dumb bomb. It turned one into a powered,...
Ford-Class Carriers on the Chopping Block
The most expensive warship ever built might not get any siblings. Navy Secretary John Phelan announced on April 21 that the service is conducting a comprehensive review of the Ford-class aircraft carrier design — and he pointedly refused to rule out canceling future...
Eagle II Bonanza: USAF Doubles F-15EX Fleet to 267
The Air Force just placed the biggest bet on a fourth-generation fighter in decades. In its fiscal 2027 budget request, the service revealed plans to buy a total of 267 F-15EX Eagle IIs — more than doubling the previous target of 129 jets and signaling that the...
Top Gun 3 Confirmed: Maverick Returns to the Danger Zone
Tom Cruise is going back to the danger zone. At CinemaCon in Las Vegas on April 17, 2026, Paramount Pictures confirmed what aviation fans and film audiences worldwide had been hoping for: Top Gun 3 is officially in development. Cruise will reprise his role as Captain...
BRRRRT Lives On: A-10 Warthog Extended to 2030
For more than a decade, the Air Force tried to kill the Warthog. Every budget cycle, every force structure review, every strategic pivot toward great-power competition included the same recommendation: retire the A-10 Thunderbolt II. Congress said no. The Warthog flew...
Marines Enter the Sixth-Gen Fighter Race
The Marines are in the sixth-generation fighter business. Quietly, without fanfare, the Marine Corps included a post-2041 sixth-generation combat aircraft in its 2026 Aviation Plan — the first time the service has formally acknowledged that it wants a successor to the...
Northrop Reveals F/A-XX Concept — and the YF-23 Lives Again
Northrop Grumman just showed the world what its next fighter jet might look like. On April 20, 2026, the company released a concept video of its F/A-XX proposal — the Navy’s next-generation carrier-based stealth fighter — and the internet immediately noticed...
150 Approaches, Zero Pilot Input: Chinook Lands Itself
A CH-47F Chinook helicopter touched down on a runway with all four wheels in exactly the right place. Nobody in the cockpit moved a finger. Boeing announced in April 2026 that its Approach-to-X (A2X) software successfully guided an Army Chinook through a complete...
X-BAT: The AI Fighter That Needs No Runway
They borrowed a thrust-vectoring nozzle from a 1990s experimental F-16 — retrieved, as one official put it, Indiana Jones style — bolted it onto a GE F110 turbofan, and pointed it straight down. That is how you make a fighter jet take off like a helicopter. Shield...
Patriot Goes Naval: Army’s Best Missile Heads to Sea
The Army’s best missile is going to sea. On April 21, 2026, Lockheed Martin announced a $200 million contract to integrate the PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement — the most advanced air defence interceptor in the U.S. arsenal — into the Navy’s Aegis Combat...
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