Military Aviation

Two naval aviators whose EA-18G Growler crashed at about 6,000 feet near Mt. Rainier in Washington State last week have been declared dead by the Navy. An Army Special Forces team reached the wreckage of the electronics warfare aircraft in challenging terrain, and the Navy confirmed on Sunday that the operation changed from a rescue to […]

At press time, the crew of a U.S. Navy EA-18G Growler is still missing, though the wreckage had been located near Mount Rainier in Washington State. The jet crashed while on a training mission on Tuesday (Oct. 15) at around 3:23 p.m. local time. Aerial search crews located the wreckage on Wednesday around 12:30 in […]

Sikorsky, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, announced yesterday (Oct. 14) it has received a $6 million award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to advance its flight autonomy program. The government funding will go toward installing Sikorsky’s ALIAS/MATRIX (Aircrew Labor In-cockpit Automation System) in a U.S. Army experimental fly-by-wire Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk […]

For close to a half century, Luke Air Force Base near Phoenix, Arizona, was the main training center for U.S. Air Force F-16 pilots. But on Sept. 30, the last Fighting Falcon training mission closed out that history. The Air Force announced this week that the 56th Fighter Wing has now shifted exclusively to flying […]

A Russian Su-35 pilot unleashed his inner Maverick off the coast of Alaska last week and got a predictable reaction from NORAD. “On Sept. 23, 2024, NORAD aircraft flew a safe and disciplined intercept of Russian Military Aircraft in the Alaska ADIZ,” NORAD Commander Gen. Gregory Guillot said in a tweet. “The conduct of one Russian […]

According to a story on the Techno-Science website, a recent Chinese study shows that Starlink satellites could provide a means for detecting stealth aircraft. Stealth technology is devoted to developing aircraft shapes and surfaces that reduce the radar signature and deflect radar beams. But Chinese researchers have reportedly found that aircraft—including stealth aircraft—cause interference in […]

A Japanese F-15 fired a flare in its intercept of a Russian spy plane that Japan claims violated its airspace three times in a sortie off the north coast. The appearance of the IL-38, a Cold War-era long-range patrol aircraft, was part of an escalation of such confrontations on Russia’s frontier in recent weeks. For […]

According to the U.S. Air Force Air Education and Training Command, maintenance-related mishaps have cost taxpayers more than $50 million since 2018. A big reason for the service’s maintenance woes could be antiquated management procedures. Col. Nathan Stuckey is the military deputy program executive officer of the USAF Rapid Sustainment Office. He said that the […]

The overall shortage of U.S. Air Force pilots could mean that recent T-38 pilot-training graduates could find themselves assigned to non-combat roles, such as instructor pilots or flying transports and air-to-air refuelers. Graduates of T-38 training usually go on to fighters or bombers, but the acute shortage means that there aren’t enough pilots available for […]

Canadian Aviator Magazine is reporting that Canadian military search and rescue aircraft are being equipped with devices that can track cellphones carried by pilots and passengers. The equipment used by the Canadian Airborne Sensor for Search and Rescue system detects the cell tower interrogation signals emitted by cellphones. The system has been installed in CC-130H […]