Tag: Aircraft Carrier

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter can do a lot of things, but one thing it can’t do is double its combat range: That’s the challenge Navy aviation is facing as it shifts its sights away from ground support operations in uncontested airspace and toward near-peer level conflicts against technologically advanced opponents like China. Thanks to […]

Earlier this week, China’s People’s Liberation Army-Navy received its second aircraft carrier — and the first that China built on its own. The announcement that China now has two operational aircraft carriers was seen by some as a dramatic uptick in China’s maritime capabilities. But as we’ve discussed on SOFREP before, the nation’s quickly growing […]

China’s People’s Liberation Army–Navy just reached a significant milestone in its efforts to develop a globally-capable “blue water” navy, as the nation’s second aircraft carrier entered service on Tuesday. China’s new carrier, dubbed the Shandong, is not only China’s first home-built vessel of its type, it also earns the nation a place in the elite […]

Russia’s only aircraft carrier, the long-troubled Admiral Kuznetsov, last saw action in 2016 in support of Pro-Assad forces in Syria. That deployment proved embarrassing for the Russian military: it lost two aircraft as they attempted to land onto the ship’s flight deck. When its rotation was over, the Admiral skulked back to Russian waters spewing […]

America has long relied on its fleet of Nimitz (and soon Ford) class super carriers to offer the nation’s defense apparatus its most potent form of force projection. With more than 60 aircraft and as many as 6,000 sailors on board, each carrier in the U.S. Navy’s stable is a force unto itself — but […]

The Pentagon announced plans to deploy 1,500 more troops to Saudi Arabia on Friday, including two fighter squadrons, one air expeditionary wing, two Patriot missile batteries, and a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. This decision comes shortly after President Trump announced the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Northern Syria, a move that has […]

Over the past few weeks, images of China’s new supersonic-capable, unarmed reconnaissance drone have begun making their way online, and SOFREP was among the first to notice that the design bears a striking resemblance to a similar platform employed over China by the United States in the 1960s. However, China’s propensity for stealing aircraft designs […]

Question: I really enjoy the cruise videos from the Navy guys. There’s just something about the teamwork and precision required by everyone on deck that I find both fascinating and thrilling. I have noticed that different pilots use different hand signals to the deck crew right on takeoff. Sometimes it’s a simple salute and thumbs […]

Boeing raised eyebrows last year when it filed patents on the tech it would require to turn America’s only supersonic heavy payload bomber, the B-1B Lancer, into the world’s fastest gunship. While that pitch may not have been a home run with the Department of Defense, it does appear the legendary Lancer may have more […]

Russia’s sole aircraft carrier, the long-troubled Admiral Kuznetsov, has long been seen as a bit of an embarrassment for the Kremlin, which fancies itself the world’s alternative to America’s brand of Western geopolitical leadership. Now, however, the Russian government is faced with a far more embarrassing possibility than a simple breakdown: having to tow the […]

The United States employs the largest and most powerful fleet of aircraft carriers in the world, composed largely of the 100,000-plus-ton Nimitz-class and soon adding advanced Ford-class vessels to the operational mix. These ships provide the nation with its most potent force projection capabilities, and along with their accompanying strike groups, each represent more firepower […]

The United States employs the largest and most powerful fleet of aircraft carriers in the world, composed largely of the 100,000-plus-ton Nimitz-class and soon adding advanced Ford-class vessels to the operational mix. These ships provide the nation with its most potent force projection capabilities, and along with their accompanying strike groups, each represent more firepower […]