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The United Kingdom has taken an important step toward its Tempest next-generation fighter, with the start of a trials campaign for the Flight Test Aircraft (FTA), nicknamed Excalibur, which will serve as a flying laboratory for the new combat aircraft. Based on a Boeing 757 airliner, the FTA joins a growing band of dedicated trials aircraft that are being used to prove out technologies for current and future-generation fighter programs, also in the United States and China.

UK’s 757-Based ‘Excalibur’ Avionics Testbed For Tempest Future Fighter Emerges

By Thomas Newdick
Posted on Dec 9, 2024
An AH-64 helicopter hovers during a military drill July 28, 2003 in Yeounchun, South Korea. About 37,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea under a security alliance forged after the 1950-53 Korean War.

AH-64 Apache To Be Tested With Wing-Mounted AESA Radar

By Thomas Newdick
Posted on Nov 25, 2024
The U.S. Army has received the first of its new High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES) aircraft, based on the Bombardier Global 6500 bizjet. Set to supersede a varied fleet of turboprop intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms, HADES will fly higher, faster, and farther, and for longer periods, while carrying a bigger sensor payload.

Army Gets Its First HADES Airborne Reconnaissance Jet

By Thomas Newdick
Posted on Nov 25, 2024
The U.S. Air Force is interested in adding an active electronically-scanned array (AESA) radar to its X-62A test jet. The radar is part of larger plans to acquire a new modular sensor suite for the uniquely modified F-16 specifically to help expand its ability to support advanced autonomy developments.

New Radar Sought To Help X-62A Test Jet Take Next Leap In Autonomy Testing

By Joseph Trevithick
Posted on Sep 24, 2024
Future offensive electronic warfare

How EA-18G Growler’s Next Generation Jammer Actually Works And The Future Of Offensive Electronic Warfare

By Howard Altman
Updated on Sep 20, 2024
Adversary air company Top Aces' F-16 Vips, the only ones currently in the hands of a private operator, are now flying with podded infrared search and track (IRST) systems.

World’s Only Privately Owned F-16 Aggressors Get Infrared Search And Track Pods

By Joseph Trevithick
Posted on Sep 5, 2024
Alternatively known as the Y-9LG, the Y-8GX-12 is another ECM version based on the Y-8 Category III Platform. It was first identified in satellite imagery in late 2017. Surprisingly, considering its assumed role, the Y-8GX-12 has a ‘balance beam’ radar antenna above its fuselage, as found on the KJ-200 airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft. It is believed, however, that the radar aboard the Y-8GX-12 is instead used for long-range jamming, using its powerful electronically scanned radar beams to suppress enemy radar signals.

Our Best Look Yet At China’s New Standoff Electronic Warfare Plane

By Thomas Newdick
Posted on Aug 30, 2024
Japan reports that a Chinese Y-9Z surveillance aircraft violated its airspace in what it says is the first time such an incident has taken place.

Chinese Electronic Intelligence Plane Makes Unprecedented Incursion Into Japanese Airspace

By Thomas Newdick
Posted on Aug 26, 2024
The U.S. Navy supercarrier USS Abraham Lincoln is heading toward the Middle East with an air wing that includes EA-18G Growlers equipped with new AN/ALQ-249(V)1 Next Generation Jammer-Mid Band (NGJ-MB) electronic warfare pods.

EA-18G Growlers With New Jamming Pods Onboard Carrier Heading To Middle East

By Joseph Trevithick
Posted on Aug 6, 2024
Lockheed Martin has unveiled a new version of its Sniper targeting pod with added networking capabilities primarily designed to enable new connectivity between fourth-generation fighters and stealthy F-35s, but which also offers the ability to create localized 'kill webs' with various assets in the air and on the ground.

Networked Sniper Pod Will Let 4th-Generation Fighters Create ‘Kill Webs’ With F-35s

By Joseph Trevithick, Tyler Rogoway
Posted on Jul 26, 2024
The US Army has put out a new request for information for compact sensors for use on high-altitude balloons underscoring its broader vision for using those capabilities in the future.

Army’s High-Flying Balloon Surveillance Vision Grows With Call For New Radars, Other Sensors

By Joseph Trevithick
Posted on Jul 2, 2024
Testing at the Upside-Down Air Force, RADC

The Fascinating Story Of The USAF’s “Upside-Down Air Force”

By Oliver Parken
Posted on May 31, 2024
In a major new development for the Ukrainian military, Sweden is to donate it Saab 340 airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft equipped with Erieye radar. The aircraft is being provided as part of Sweden’s biggest military aid package for Ukraine so far and they will bring an entirely new capability for the Ukrainian Air Force, providing much enhanced air and sea surveillance and working together with its forthcoming F-16 fighters.

Ukraine Getting Swedish Airborne Early Warning Radar Planes Is A Big Deal

By Thomas Newdick, Tyler Rogoway
Posted on May 29, 2024
U-2's new radar is going to the Army's HADES surveillance jet.

Radar Developed For U-2 To Go On Army Intel-Gathering BizJets

By Joseph Trevithick
Posted on May 22, 2024
Recently released pictures of a Bahraini Block 70 F-16D Viper undergoing testing in the United States show what one of these jets might look like one an actual combat mission.

Our First Look At An Armed-Up Block 70 F-16 Viper

By Joseph Trevithick
Posted on Apr 12, 2024
F-22 with stealthy wing tanks and pods.

F-22 Spotted With New Stealth Wing Tanks, Infrared Sensor Pods

By Tyler Rogoway, Joseph Trevithick
Posted on Mar 22, 2024