Military Aviation

Ukrainian air force pilots and support personnel will begin training on the F-16 at bases in Denmark and Romania in August. A coalition of 11 countries was formed at the NATO summit in Lithuania to guide the training. The U.S. is not a member of that coalition and has not agreed to send aircraft to […]

Raytheon is pulling long-retired production workers out of their easy chairs and fishing boats to teach the current generation of factory employees how to make Stinger shoulder-launched missiles. Stingers have been out of production for 20 years and the stockpiles in the U.S. and other allies have been depleted by donations to Ukraine. They’re still […]

Northrop Grumman says it’s successfully flight tested a jam-proof navigation system to replace the current gear on military aircraft. Embedded Global Positioning System (GPS) / Inertial Navigation System (INS) Modernization, known as EGI-M, was installed on a Cessna Citation and put through its paces in May. The core of the system is something called an […]

Lockheed Martin’s Skunkworks celebrated 80 years on the cutting edge of aviation technology with what might be a glimpse of a new manned fighter planform. The company is among those vying for the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program and that will involve a manned fighter working with drones in theater. The new plane will […]

Much of that Chinese spy balloon that the Air Force took out off the coast of South Carolina last February was made in the good old U.S.A. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that its sources told them the gondola slung below the helium-filled envelope was “crammed” with off-the-shelf gear made in the U.S. […]

The U.S. Air Force took its first T-7A Red Hawk training jet for its initial flight on Wednesday, about a week after the model completed taxi testing. The flight lasted one hour and three minutes and officially kicked off the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase of the T-7A program. Boeing was awarded a $9.2 […]

Bell Textron announced on Wednesday that the combined fleet of AH-1Z Viper and UH-1Y Venom twin-engine attack and utility helicopters has logged more than 500,000 flight hours. Primarily operated by the U.S. Marine Corps, the models saw their first use in military operations in 2010. According to Bell, it has built nearly 400 AH-1Z and […]

What is sure to be a star attraction at next month’s AirVenture is now undergoing flight tests at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California. VC-121A Bataan, a military version of the Lockheed Constellation, has undergone a full restoration and flew for the first time in June 20. It’s now regularly waking up the […]

The U.S. Air Force plans to conduct flyovers across all 50 states on June 27 as a tribute to 100 years of air-to-air refueling efforts. Aircraft scheduled to take part in the event include KC-135 Stratotanker, KC-10 Extender and KC-46 Pegasus aircraft. More than 150 tankers from 26 installations are expected to participate. “Air refueling […]

Boeing announced on Tuesday that the T-7A Red Hawk military training jet has successfully completed taxi testing. While the model flew for the first time in 2016 as the T-X, further flight testing is expected to take place at Boeing’s facility in St. Louis later this summer then at Edwards Air Force Base this fall. […]