Military Aviation

Among his first targets as co-leader of incoming President Donald Trump’s (advisory) Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk took to his social media platform X with scathing statements concerning the Lockheed Martin 5th Generation F-35 stealth fighter—and manned combat aircraft, in general. Musk wrote: “Some idiots are still building manned fighter jets […]

The Royal Canadian Air Force says it’s standing down its CF-18 demonstration team for the 2025 season while it gets ready for its new fleet of CF-35A fighters. The first aircraft won’t start replacing the 40-year-old CF-18 Hornets until 2029 but there is apparently much to do in the interim. “To commit more resources to […]

Aviation tech firm Skyryse has partnered with Black Hawk reseller Ace Aeronautics to integrate SkyOS—a universal flight control system that simplifies aircraft handling—into hundreds of the military helicopters. According to Skyryse, the partnership, announced in a Nov. 21 press release, aims to transform the iconic military helicopters into the “world’s safest and simplest aircraft to […]

The U.S. Air Force has signed off on a plan to put AI in the left seat of its Boeing KC-135 tanker fleet. Autonomous flight developer Merlin announced it will begin flying the KC-135s – an airframe designed in the 1950s alongside the Boeing 707 airliner from the original 367-80 prototype – with Merlin Pilot, […]

Japan’s Self Defense Force (JSDF) has cleared its V-22 Osprey fleet to return to flight after determining pilot error was the cause of an October accident on Yonaguni Island. The incident occurred during a joint exercise with U.S. military where the V-22 Osprey tilted and hit the ground as it was taking off, though no […]

The U.S. Air Force announced yesterday it will phase out A-10 Thunderbolt II (aka “Warthog”) attack aircraft in Korea in favor of fourth- and fifth-generation fighters such as the F-15, F-16 and F-35. “The modernization effort seeks to ensure peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region,” the USAF said, “including the Korean peninsula, through state-of-the-art […]

Reuters reported that China’s advanced Z-20 helicopter appeared at the Zhuhai Airshow today (Nov. 12). According to analysts who spoke with the news agency, the most significant element of the new version of the military rotorcraft is its potential to shore up China’s naval capability to protect itself from submarine attacks. Chinese state media recently […]

A woman who went through testing as an astronaut candidate in 1961 and finally went to space 60 years later was among those honored at the American Valor event in Washington on Saturday. Wally Funk was among soldiers, female special forces operatives and the famed Black 24th Infantry Regiment known as the “Buffalo Soldiers” to […]

The online military information source The War Zone published a detailed report this week focused on  U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall addressing financial “uncertainty” involving current modernization efforts. In his keynote address at the Airlift/Tanker Association’s annual symposium last Friday (Nov. 1), Kendall discussed the affordability of new stealth fighters, advanced aerial refueling tankers […]

South Korean media is reporting that North Korean frontline fighter pilots are among the thousands of troops sent to Russia, possibly to join the war in Ukraine. Korea has some of the same old Soviet-era aircraft that Russia is using against Ukraine, and their pilots are as good as the Russian fighter jocks according to […]