Israelis Blast Hamas Targets in Gaza After Latest Rocket Attacks

The Israeli Defense Forces launched a series of airstrikes in Gaza after the latest round of rocket attacks launched by militants in Gaza streamed toward Israel. Tensions are rising in the area as Israel called up some of their reserve Air Force, Intelligence and Special Forces units. Things began badly on Monday when Hamas launched […]

Why do the Pentagon’s reasons for buying new F-15s keep shifting?

Even among fans of Boeing’s F-15EX initiative, you won’t find anyone who will contend that the F-15 is a superior aircraft to Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter. On paper, a new F-15 does offer a number of advantages over the stealth F-35—higher top speed, lower operating costs, larger payload capacity, and greater operational range—but in […]

Acting defense secretary under investigation for alleged Boeing bias

Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive with no other government experience, is now the nation’s longest-serving acting secretary of defense in history, having taken on the role after James Mattis resigned in December. Some believed that Shanahan’s “acting” prefix would soon give way to a formal appointment to the job, but that effort has been […]

China says US media is lying about why Pacific nations want the F-35

China’s aggressive claims of sovereignty over the vast majority of the South China Sea have put the nation at odds with many of its Pacific neighbors, many of whom have conflicting claims over portions of the waterway. International law permits the navigation of waterways outside of about 12 nautical miles from a nation’s shore and […]

Rest Easy: Ranger assigned to secretive reconnaissance unit dies in free-fall accident

A Ranger serving with the secretive Ranger Reconnaissance Company (RRC) died in a free-fall parachute accident on March 15th. Sgt. 1st Class Ethan Carpenter was assigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment’s Special Troops Battalion (STB). “Sgt. Carpenter was an exemplary soldier and Ranger leader, and a dedicated husband and father. He did the toughest jobs […]

Russia’s 20-ton ‘Hunter’ is supposed to be their first stealth UCAV

Last July, a single grainy image of Russia’s long-anticipated Okhotnik (Hunter) unmanned combat aerial vehicle hit the web, prompting a flurry of headlines speculating about the 20-ton drone’s potential as a low-observability platform that could offer the Russian military greater deep-penetration capabilities with their legacy bombers. To give an arguably overly simplistic explanation of why […]

Watchdog report: Navy risking troops’ lives by pushing the F-35C into combat

Last month, the United States Navy declared that the carrier-based variant of Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter, known as the F-35C, was ready to commence combat operations. Now, a new report from the non-profit, bipartisan Project on Government Oversight (POGO) says that decision contradicts the Navy’s own data regarding the platform. According to POGO, “The […]

The Pic of the Day: A B-2 with a view

A B-2 Spirit bomber, deployed from Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., is prepared for a training mission at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Jan. 17, 2019. Three B-2 bombers and more than 200 Airmen deployed here in support of U.S. Strategic Command’s Bomber Task Force mission. Bomber aircraft regularly rotate through the Indo-Pacific region to […]

Civilian passenger unexpectedly ejects from French Rafale B fighter during takeoff

A 64-year-old man unexpectedly ejected from the rear seat of a Rafale B fighter during takeoff at Saint Dizier-Robinson Air Force Base in France. The unnamed man was reportedly a civilian that was invited to fly aboard the fighter during a routine training flight. While details remain sparse, the man suffered back injuries that some […]

Particle Ray Missile Defense? DOD Plans on Fielding Weapon by 2023

While a lot of the futuristic weapons talk seems like pie in the sky stuff from Marvel Comics, it seems that there is an increasing chance for many of these types of weapons to be actually fielded in the very near future. NEWSREP’s Alex Hollings penned in an intriguing piece on what the Defense Department […]