Far-right populism is on the rise all over the globe. Traditional diplomacy is out. Machismo is in. Cyber warfare isn’t just theory, or a joke anymore. Wars are supranational. Nuclear arsenals are expanding, unless they aren’t. All of it needs to be covered, and it needs to be covered better.
The idea of a Coast Guard is one that has blurred in recent decades, with US Coast Guard vessels serving as far away from home as the Persian Gulf on a regular basis. Still, the Chinese Coast Guard's upcoming 10,000 plus ton super high-endurance cutters are clearly another sign of the country's extra-territorial…
Yesterday we were the first to show you the USAF's new KC-46 Pegasus tanker demonstrator doing high speed taxi runs at Paine Field in Everett Washington. Now the highly modified Boeing 767 in military uniform has leaped into the air for the first time.
The Osprey has always lacked firepower in its forward hemisphere. Beyond its ramp-mounted gun, various concepts have been tested and fielded in an attempt to provide fire towards where the aircraft is headed, not just where it has been. This issue is compounded by the fact that the Osprey outruns traditional…
This is quite possibly the best F-15E Strike Eagle video of all time. F-15E cockpit videos are rare to begin with, but one that shows the 'Mud Hen' in its natural, low-level environment in brilliant HD is even rarer. Amazing.
Currently, the largest and most powerful helicopter to have ever entered production is the gargantuan Mi-26 'Halo' of Russian origin, of which many still serve in governmental and commercial roles around the globe. After decades of the 'Halo' being on top, a new record holder is now said to be on the way, with Russia…
Wildlife is not the only thing that enjoys the vast empty expanses of America's northern-most state. There is so much room to train over Alaska's fully outfitted air combat ranges that there is really no other place in the world quite like it for military aircrews and weapons and tactics testers to push their hardware…
Tom Cruise's Maverick in Top Gun was a fictional character, but the school he described and the people he represented were anything but. Celebrate part of this Veteran's Day by reading Topgun instructor Dave "Bio" Barenek's telling of what it was like to be the real deal.
So Special Operations Command needs a new compact off road fighting vehicle that can transform into different configurations depending on the mission, oh and it has to be transportable by V-22 Ospreys, H-47 Chinooks and H-53 Super Stallions. No problem, the General Dynamics Flyer is ready for flight and for a fight.
From Foxtrot Alpha: The Global Hawk has been flying for close to 15 years, and its development has been a twisting road filled with dead ends and wandering requirements. After over $10B spent and almost 50 airframes produced I ventured to Edwards AFB to get a rare close up look at what we actually paid for.
From Foxtrot Alpha: How do you pack two patients that are infected with one of the world's deadliest viruses into a pressurized aluminum tube that is filled with healthy care takers and pilots for 12 hours and not get almost everyone infected in the process? You use this old ex-Royal Danish Air Force Gulfstream III…
From Foxtrot Alpha: A few months back Mike Ballaban posted one of the coolest combat aircraft videos of the year, called 'Fulcrum Drivers,' that put us right into the cockpit of the mighty MiG-29 during some jaw dropping maneuvers. Well now the Fulcrum and its master are back for 'Fulcrum Drivers II.'
From Foxtrot Alpha: The Royal International Air Tattoo is bigger than any air show you've ever been to, with its guy in a biplane doing loops. Seriously, it's the biggest air show on Earth. And this is what it looks like.
From Foxtrot Alpha: The aircraft carrier inventory question has always been up for debate, but it has largely centered on the number of hulls and not the physical size of each carrier. In an age of shrinking defense budgets, smaller wars, and the Pacific Pivot, the U.S. should ditch its supercarrier-only policy and…
From Foxtrot Alpha: The DoD painted the F-35's alternative jet engine as a huge unneeded expense, one that was more about congressional pork than necessity or logic. Now with the fleet grounded due a mystery engine fire, we are reminded of how stupid it was to cancel the jet's other engine.
From FoxtrotAlpha: At 11pm on September 6th, 1776, Sargent Ezra Lee began cranking away on a lever that propelled the tiny submersible that he sat inside of. His goal was to make his way to the British Flagship HMS Eagle and attach a crude explosive charge to it, then make haste (at 2mph) safely out of the area.
From Foxtrot Alpha: The ultimate pit crew? Maybe, as the Slot Check is the last chance deck handlers and an aircraft's crew have to catch something wrong before the plane is hurtled off the deck by a steam powered piston at 200 mph. Check out what it looks like in first person in the amazing video below:
From Foxtrot Alpha: The A-7 Corsair II, known also as the SLUF, as in "Short Little Ugly Fucker," was a conservative balance of economy, persistence, payload, and technology, and its final design evolution, the A-7F, could have been the right fighter for the wars to come in the new millennium.
From Foxtrot Alpha: The US Navy's submarine bases are some of the most high-security installations in the world, but one of their most important and shadowy submarine outposts is not in the middle of an ocean, but rather in a lake in landlocked Idaho.
Everyone loves big planes. The bigger they are the more interesting they become. Famed mammoths like the Hughes HK-1 "Hercules," otherwise known as the "Spruce Goose," and Antonov's gigantic An-225 "Dream" conjure up feelings that man has somehow cheated physics by creating such flying hulks.
