Alex Hollings

New and seemingly-real footage of a Russian fighter jet banking hard toward a U.S. Air Force F-15 during an intercept that was likely over the Baltic Sea has surfaced online. In the footage, a Russian Air Force Su-27 Flanker can be seen banking directly into the F-15, forcing the American pilot to match the maneuver […]

The United States military maintains a larger operational footprint than the armed forces of any other nation on earth. With troops stationed or deployed to literally hundreds of different locations around the globe, a naval presence in most heavily trafficked waterways, and ongoing combat or advisory operations going on in half a dozen countries at […]

As soon as word hit the media about the Pentagon applying pressure to the U.S. Air Force to look into procuring new F-15X aircraft, defense officials and even defense industry journalists have lamented the idea of purchasing new fourth-generation airframes in the era of stealth fighters like the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Critics argued there’s […]

Earlier this week, a Boeing 777 commercial aircraft landed in Caracas, Venezuela. The plane, which belongs to Russia’s Nordwind Airlines, had never made the journey before, and according to local reports, arrived in the troubled nation carrying only its crew. Initial speculation suggested the aircraft may have been carrying Russian mercenaries sent to bolster embattled […]

There are two surefire ways to gather a crowd and get them looking at the sky: one’s an air show and the other is fireworks. Unless you’re the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), that is–they’ve combined both into one hell of a light show. On January 26th, as the nation gathered to celebrate Australia Day, […]

Although the military threat posed by China’s growing and rapidly re-organizing armed forces remains a largely regional one, no facet of the People’s Liberation Army is developing as quickly or adding more combat capabilities than its navy. It’s difficult to say how many new vessels the Chinese navy has launched in recent years, particularly because […]

More than a year ago, Stephen Paddock, a retired postal worker who liked to do his gambling in increments of $10,000 or more, opened fire on an unsuspecting crowd from his vantage point high above in a suite Mandalay Bay had provided to him free of charge. “It wasn’t about MGM, Mandalay Bay or a […]

Strange and unusual stories out of Florida tend to hit the media with such frequency that many people are inclined to think the state’s citizens have gone mad. The truth is, wacky stories about unusual crimes and police interactions probably happen with the same frequency in plenty of other states. But, in accordance with Florida’s […]

America‘s only operational heavy icebreaker, the Polar Star, reached McMurdo Station in Antarctica earlier this week, breaking through ice as thick as 21 feet along the way to clear a path for a cargo vessel to resupply America‘s Antarctic operations. This marks the sixth such voyage in as many years for the Polar Star, but […]

Here in the U.S., we tend to only see large armored vehicles like tanks parked at local National Guard installations. They resemble large metal works of art, rather than the mighty war machines they truly are. Even if you happen to spot a tank scooting around the Motor T lot, the chances you’ll see one […]

Hypersonic platforms, or aircraft and weapons that can travel at speeds in excess of Mach 5, have become a significant concern for the American defense apparatus over the past year or so. With the recent revelation that both China and Russia are quickly moving toward deploying operational hypersonic missile platforms, the U.S. has been forced […]

The United States Marine Corps has now acknowledged that, in 2018, they suffered the most active-duty Marine suicides in 10 years, inviting some difficult questions about suicide prevention initiatives and once again shining a light on longstanding misconceptions about mental health for service members and veterans. According to the Marine Corps, as many as 57 […]