Military Aviation

Turkey’s Baykar company flew a new uncrewed fighter drone on Wednesday for the first time and says it could change air power. The Kizilelma drone is as big as an F-16 (more than 48 feet long) but is 6,000 pounds lighter. It’s capable of carrying out air-to-ground and air-to-air missions. It’s also capable of carrier […]

A Washington court has unsealed charges against an ex-Marine pilot for his alleged activities with Peoples Liberation Army in China. According to CNN, the charges against Daniel Duggan date back to 2010 and include conspiracy to defraud the United States by conspiracy to unlawfully export defense services to China, conspiracy to launder money, and two […]

The Air Force has successfully completed an end-to-end test of its new hypersonic missile system. The test of the Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) took place off the coast of Southern California on Dec.9. “This test was the first launch of a full prototype operational missile. Previous test events focused on proving the booster performance,” […]

Aurora Flights Sciences has received an award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to take its experimental X-plane through the next phases of the agency’s Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE) program. Aurora’s uncrewed X-plane concept uses an active flow control (AFC) system designed to supply “pressurized air to AFC effectors […]

The Air Force has confirmed that a B-2 nuclear bomber caught fire after an emergency landing at the stealth aircraft’s home base of Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri on Saturday. “A U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit experienced an in-flight malfunction during routine operations today and was damaged on the runway at Whiteman Air Force […]

World War II triple ace Clarence E. “Bud” Anderson received an honorary promotion to the rank of brigadier general during a ceremony at the Aerospace Museum of California last Friday. Anderson flew 116 combat missions during WWII and is credited with shooting down 16 ¼ enemy aircraft. He joined the U.S. Army in 1942 and […]

Bell Textron has been awarded a contract to develop its V-280 Valor tiltrotor for the U.S. Army’s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program. According to Bell, the initial contract will cover refining the weapon system design, sustainment, digital enterprise, manufacturing, systems integration, flight testing and airworthiness qualification. The Army launched FLRAA in 2019 to “replace […]

An Air Force accident investigation says a Tulsa Air National Guard F-16 was destroyed after an off-the-books intercept of a private light aircraft near a Louisiana airport last March. Investigators found the pilot of the $26 million fighter mistakenly thought he’d lost control of the fighter as he closed in on the unidentified light aircraft […]

The world’s first “sixth generation” military aircraft was unveiled to friend and foe when Northrop Grumman and the Air Force rolled out the first B-21 Raider on Friday. The flying wing was also vaulted to the pointiest end of the stick at the ceremony, which took place at the company’s Palmdale, California, facility. “The B-21 […]

The 2,000th target drone produced by Airbus Defence and Space’s Target Systems & Services has rolled off the production line in Friedrichshafen, Germany, the company announced on Monday. Target drone number 2,000 is a Do-DT45 model intended for use in a military training exercise with Airbus partner Andøya Space Defence. Launched by ramp, the Do-DT45 […]