A newly circulated thermal image purporting to show an unidentified aircraft flying at night over the Groom Lake test range—better known as Area 51—has triggered renewed speculation about the United States’ most closely guarded aviation programs, including the Next Generation...
In what would rank among the most unusual combat aviation narratives in modern military history, a U.S. Air Force (USAF) F-15E Strike Eagle pilot is reportedly believed to have survived being shot down twice within a span of less than...
The U.S. Air Force is taking early but concrete steps toward fielding a successor to its most powerful conventional bunker-busting weapon, the GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), as it lays the groundwork for what is now officially designated the GBU-76/B...
The United States is moving closer to a potentially transformative shift in aerial warfare as the Pentagon’s cutting-edge LongShot drone program advances toward its long-awaited first flight. Developed under the leadership of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the air-launched...
Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota marked a milestone in its transformation into the Air Force’s first B-21 Raider hub, as B-1B Lancer bombers from the 37th Bomb Squadron returned home on December 3, 2025, after a ten-month relocation...
The U.S. Air Force has received its 127th—and currently final—QF-16 full-scale aerial target (FSAT), closing a major chapter in one of the service’s most unusual but essential test and evaluation programs. Boeing Defense marked the milestone with a commemorative video...
The U.S. Air Force reached a decisive moment in its decades-long modernization push this month with the delivery of its 500th F-35A Lightning II, a stealth fighter that has become the backbone of America’s fifth-generation combat fleet. The milestone aircraft...
United States Air Force RC-135V Rivet Joint aircraft and its team of 55 personnel from the 82nd Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron operated from Royal Australian Air Force Base Darwin between May 19 and 23, 2025. Though officially assigned to the 55th...
In a move signaling a significant shift in the future of unmanned aerial systems, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has awarded General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) a $99.3 million contract to develop a cutting-edge hybrid-electric propulsion ducted...
A striking image has emerged of a U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle equipped with an unusual and formidable loadout: at least three seven-shot 70mm rocket pods under its left wing. Assuming a mirrored configuration on the right, the aircraft...