Military Aviation

According to an Aljazeera report, NATO has launched the largest-ever Western deployment exercise. Led by the German Luftwaffe, “Air Defender 23” began yesterday (June 12) and involves some 250 aircraft and 10,000 service members from 25 NATO nations, including Japan and Sweden. The Scandinavian country is currently an applicant for NATO membership. The exercise is […]

The U.S. Navy has chosen 28 high school students from across the country to attend its eight-week 2023 Summer Flight Academy aviation program. The program includes approximately 40 hours of flight training in either a Vulcanair V.10 or Piper Warrior as well as aviation-oriented classroom work. Students selected for the academy, which was established in […]

A Cessna Citation with four people onboard crashed in the mountains of Virginia after it overflew Washington, D.C., restricted airspace on Sunday and its pilot did not respond to numerous attempts at contact. The incident prompted the scrambling of fighters that went supersonic and caused a sonic boom that rattled windows and nerves in the […]

Germany officials say they will investigate published reports that former military pilots are training Chinese pilots and may even be involved in training for an attack on Taiwan. Der Spiegel and German public broadcaster ZDF ran a story this week saying the ex-German officers have been teaching Chinese pilots for years and one worked for […]

A Navy MH-60S Knight Hawk successfully rescued the pilot of an F-5N Tiger II about 25 miles off the coast of Key West Naval Air Station on Wednesday morning. The pilot ejected from the Cold War-era fighter about 9:20 a.m. The helicopter was dispatched and located the pilot, who was taken to a hospital in […]

Construction is underway for a new facility to be operated by Boeing Defense, Space & Security’s proprietary research, development and prototyping division Phantom Works. Designed to house post-assembly phases of future military aircraft production, the 47,500-square-foot Advanced Coatings Center is scheduled to be operational in 2025. The site is located in St. Louis, Missouri. “As […]

A 3,000-hour career Air Force pilot has been tapped to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Gen. Charles Quinton Brown Jr., the current head of the Air Force, will assume the post next fall when the current chairman, Army Gen. Mark Milley, will leave the post, assuming he’s confirmed by the […]

The U.S. government has changed its stance and will support the training of Ukrainian pilots on the F-16. That could lead to the U.S. giving European countries permission to transfer their surplus Vipers to Ukraine. According to Politico, this could be the first of such arrangements and other Western aircraft might be considered for transfer […]

According to a report in the Washington Times, jet fighters assigned to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) intercepted six Russian military aircraft off the coast of Alaska last week. The joint U.S.-Canadian defenses detected and tracked the Russian aircraft, which were breaching the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). NORAD reported that, while […]

The Russian air force had one of its worst days of the war with Ukraine and lost four aircraft but it’s not clear who shot them down. An Su-35, Su-34 and two Mi-8 helicopters were destroyed within minutes of one another in the same general area of Russian territory bordering northeastern Ukraine. They were apparently […]