Tag: Alex Hollings

When I was a kid, blessed with my ignorance of geopolitics and the looming rise of terrorism, I was aware of only a few legitimate threats to my safety and well-being. Rocky, I was aware, had already successfully defused the Cold War through the art of boxing, which left only looming concerns about clowns, quicksand […]

The latest Pentagon assessment of the F-35 program has reached the media, and with the long-delayed fighter finally entering combat operations with the Marine Corps late last year, one would think the report would offer some good news for the most advanced fighter on the planet. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. In fact, those first F-35s to […]

Radar-absorbent coating is an important element of any stealth aircraft’s ability to avoid detection. Air platforms that were purpose-built with stealth in mind already offer a limited radar return, thanks to meticulously-developed designs and production practices that allow for extremely tight tolerances, ensuring the aircraft has few hard angles prone to producing a radar return. […]

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, […]

Working as a defense journalist usually means making it your business to read, study, research, and then opine. As a reader, your job is to try your best to understand not only what’s going on, but the motives that led to it, the complicated diplomatic relationships that informed it, and the potential ramifications of not […]

When Russia first set to work on what would become the Sukhoi Su-57 (internally the T-50 at the time), it had a singular aim: utilizing 21st century stealth characteristics to produce a fighter capable of standing toe to toe with the best the United States had to offer, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and F-22 […]

The metrics by which we compare the military strengths of nations often serve as better representation of the countries’ fiscal priorities than their actual combat power. America, for instance, employs the largest, most capable military force on the planet, but because of its diverse obligations and responsibilities the world over, it would be difficult—if not […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Radar absorbant coating is an important element of any stealth aircraft’s ability to avoid detection. Air platforms that were purpose built with stealth in mind already offer a limited radar return thanks to meticulously developed designs and production practices that allow for extremely tight tolerances, ensuring the aircraft has as few hard angles prone to […]