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As far as military aircraft go, which have this habit of staying on duty for decades, the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye is extremely young, having achieved initial operational capability (IOC) a little more than a decade ago, in 2014. The platform it is based on, however, the E-2 Hawkeye, dates back to the 1960s, and that explains why the aircraft is presently getting ready for the most significant…
It is becoming increasingly obvious that, at least until something better comes along, future wars will not be fought with expensive tanks and artillery, but cheap drone swarms and cruise missiles. And while attackers have a lot of options at their disposal, those at the receiving end of an attack usually spend a lot of time, money, and effort trying to mount an effective defense. The militaries…
After they've become the dominant force in the airspace over the battlefield and are rapidly doing the same on the ground, drones are beginning to expand their reach to the naval domain. And I'm not talking here about surface drones, of which plenty are already in use, but about submarine ones that are poised to redefine naval warfare. There are several designs in the works right now, but the one…
Years of effort into creating the systems and procedures required for automated manned-unmanned teaming between uncrewed and crewed aircraft are slowly beginning to pay off. The most recent sign of that is an unprecedented collaboration between the Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton and the Boeing P-8A Poseidon. In a first for the two platforms, an undisclosed kind of lab demonstration had them work…
The day when fighter jets will be able to fly themselves in an intercept position against an enemy aircraft are nearly upon us, after defense contractor Lockheed Martin Skunk Works announced the completion of a landmark test at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The star of this test was a former F-16D Fighting Falcon two-seater, originally known as the NF-16D, which back in 2021 was converted…
It's been a long time coming, but the U.S. Navy's most trusted, most used, and possibly most loved aircraft carrier-based transport airplane has finally reached the end of its natural life. And it marked the moment in style and with a bang, as part of a send-off that was attended by the Blue Angels and around 6,000 people, who gathered this week at the National Naval Aviation Museum (NNAM) at…
For several years now, a relatively young American defense company called Shield AI has been trying to integrate its artificial intelligence solution into as many military assets as possible. But it's only this week that we learned of it conducting its first-ever coordinated maritime mission. The company's AI is called ( continue reading... )
The American Department of War calls the recently announced Navy contract for 14 new nuclear submarines historic, and probably no one will argue. After all, a total of $76.6 billion will be spent on making the U.S. Navy the most formidable force on the face of the planet. Or, should I say, under the surface of the planet's oceans... The hard-to-grasp sum of $76.6 billion covers the submarines…
Ever since the 1980s, some of America's most daring military missions were conducted with the help of the V-22 Osprey, the tiltrotor made by defense contractors Bell and Boeing. Fielded in slightly modified versions by the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), U.S Air Force (USAF), and Navy, this aircraft will probably fly for several more decades. But that doesn't mean more new ones will still be made. Of…
It's been a couple of years since the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) announced that it is looking to significantly upgrade its still young fleet of AH-1Z Viper and UH-1Y Venom helicopters, and the program designed to do that, SPINE, has just entered the final stretch. SPINE is short for St... ( continue reading... )
