Read the latest articles from The War Zone (Page 14)

Leidos has raised the possibility of eventually integrating its Black Arrow, also known as the Small Cruise Missile, in the MQ-9 Reaper drone and the OA-1K Skyraider II light attack aircraft. The roughly 200-pound munition has, so far, been tested from C-130 variants but offers the kinds of capabilities that U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is increasingly looking at harnessing.
Q-9

Tiny Black Arrow Cruise Missile Demonstrates A Whopping 400-Mile Range

Currently being tested on the C-130, the Black Arrow, also known as the Small Cruise Missile, could find its way onto other U.S. Special Operations Command platforms and more.

The crew of a U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle attempted to take down a long-range kamikaze drone with a Laser Joint Direct Attack Munition (LJDAM) precision-guided bomb after running out of missiles in the frantic midst of an all-out Iranian barrage aimed at Israel.
F-15

F-15Es Tried To Shoot Down Iranian Kamikaze Drones With Laser Guided Bombs

"And then just out of this massive [explosion], like in Star Wars, just here comes the drone, just right out of the cloud."

The U.S. Air Force is currently looking toward a single next-generation airlifter to supplant both the C-17A Globemaster III and the C-5M Galaxy, starting in the mid-2040s.
C-130

C-17 and C-5 Cargo Planes Will Be Replaced With One Aircraft: USAF

Plans for a Next Generation Airlift platform, or NGAL, targeted for entry into service in the 2040s, are starting to coalesce.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Matthew Olde, the F-15 director of programs and operations at Defense Contract Management Agency Boeing St. Louis, exits an F-15EX Eagle II aircraft at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Michigan, June 11, 2025. Olde brought the aircraft to the base as part of a site activation task force visit, one of the initial steps to ensure that when both the F-15EX and KC-46 Pegasus missions arrive at Selfridge ANGB, the 127th Wing will be fully prepared with the right infrastructure, personnel, and support to stand them up and operate them effectively.
Air

New APG-82(V)X Radar For F-15EX Announced By Raytheon

Using advanced gallium nitride technology means the latest iteration of the APG-82 has longer range while ensuring the F-15EX is harder to detect.

KC-390 USAF
Tankers

Despite Setbacks, Embraer Still Pitching KC-390 As Air Force ACE Tanker Of Choice

Embraer still has hopes that the USAF will adopt the KC-390 to fit its future combat plans that focus on tactical operations out of remote airfields.

The Danish police are seen at Copenhagen Airport, in Kastrup near Copenhagen, on September 22, 2025. Danish police said on September 23, 2025 they did not know who was responsible for flying drones over Copenhagen airport the previous evening, but that they appeared to have been knowledgeable. "The number, size, flight patterns, time over the airport. All this together ... indicates that it is a capable actor. Which capable actor, I do not know," police inspector Jens Jespersen told reporters. The airport was closed for several hours before reopening early Tuesday, causing numerous delays and travel disruptions to 20,000 passengers, airport officials said.
Fighters

Denmark Says Drone Incursions Were A Deliberate “Attack”

The Danish prime minister has described the incident as the most serious attack on the country’s critical infrastructure to date.

The Navy’s SM-6 missile has become an all-star of multi-role capability and a shining example of how repackaging existing systems with some new tech can garner grand results. The missile can shoot down air-breathing threats like aircraft and cruise missiles, it can swat incoming ballistic missiles in the terminal phases of flight, it can attack sea targets, and it even has a latent land attack potential. It is also network enabled and can engage targets well beyond the sensor reach of its launch platform using telemetry data-linked from a third-party platform, like a jet fighter. It does all this over long ranges, reaching out over 150 miles from its vertical launch cell aboard American destroyers and cruisers.
Air

Germany To Build Uncrewed Missile-Toting Arsenal Ships For Its Frigates

The missile-packed uncrewed ‘wingmen’ are intended to support Germany's conventional surface combatants by adding a big boost in firepower.

When Anduril's YFQ-44A drone flies for the first time, it will do so in a semi-autonomous fashion as part of a broader plan to get the design to an actual operational state as fast as possible.
U.S. Air Force

Anduril’s Fury Will Take Off For The First Time At The Touch Of A Button

A semi-autonomous YFQ-44A Collaborative Combat Drone's maiden flight is part of Anduril's strategy to get to an operational capability faster.

In what it claims is the first such attack in history, Ukraine has used drones to strike a pair of Russian Navy Be-12 twin-turboprop amphibians. The raid appears to have destroyed two of the extremely scarce amphibians, potentially halving the number of airworthy airframes available to Russia and leaving a question mark over its future service.
Air

Ukrainian Drones Strike Russia’s Rare Be-12 Flying Boats

Only a handful of Be-12s were still active, being used by the Russian Navy to patrol Crimea’s hazardous waters.

A U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor assigned to the 433rd Weapons Squadron, U.S. Air Force Weapons School, takes off for a training mission at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, Aug. 21, 2025. The USAFWS provides academic and advisory support to numerous units, enhancing air combat training for Airmen from the Air Force, Department of Defense and U.S. allied services each year.
F-22

Lockheed Eyes Upgrades For Oldest F-22 Raptors

Extending Raptor upgrades to older Block 20 jets that are sidelined for training could bolster the small combat-capable Raptor force into the 2040s.

Boeing has started production of the first F-47 sixth-generation stealth fighter for the U.S. Air Force, ahead of an expected first flight in 2028.
F-47

First F-47 6th Generation Fighter Now Being Built

The USAF hopes to see the F-47 take to the skies for the first time in 2028.

J-35 launches aboard carrier.
Air

China’s Aircraft Carrier Capability Just Made A Stunning Leap Forward

China has simultaneously debuted its J-35 stealth fighter, J-15T fighter and KJ-600 radar plane operating from its first catapult-equipped carrier.

Skunk Works Unveils Vectis Air Combat Drone That Puts A Premium On Stealth
Stealth

Skunk Works Unveils Vectis Air Combat Drone That Puts A Premium On Stealth

Lockheed's new Collaborative Combat Aircraft, targeted to fly in two years, reflects a higher-end approach compared to types the USAF has selected so far.

Among the highlights of the recent Defense and Security Equipment International (DSEI) 2025 exhibition held in London was a new tank destroyer from Lockheed Martin and Germany’s Rheinmetall. The Fuchs JAGM, based on a well-established 6×6 armored vehicle, and armed with no fewer than 24 missiles, reflects a growing interest in anti-tank warfare, spurred in part by lessons of the war in Ukraine.
Anti-Tank Missiles

Fuchs JAGM Tank Destroyer Packs 24 Missiles Into A Single Vehicle

Armed with JAGM or Hellfire missiles, the new version of the Fuchs armored personnel carrier reflects renewed interest in anti-armor platforms.

A view inside the bunker in the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant during a press tour of the locations depicted in The Chernobyl Series (HBO), in Chernobyl, Ukraine, on 7 June 2019. The Chernobyl Series (HBO) , which depicts the Chernobyl nuclear power disaster's aftermath, including the clean-up operation and subsequent inquiry, drives boom in tourists travelling to see the site of nuclear disaster. Tour agencies have reported up to a 40 per cent increase in bookings since the miniseries aired May 2019. On 2019 Ukraine marked the 33rd anniversary of Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The Chernobyl accident occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Pripyat, and regarded the biggest nuclear accident in the history. (Photo by STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Bunker Talk

Bunker Talk: Let’s Talk About All The Things We Did And Didn’t Cover This Week

If someone knocks, DON'T answer!

Three Russian MiG-31 Foxhounds intruded into Estonian airspace.
Russian Air Force

Russian MiG-31s Busting Estonian Airspace Has Eastern Europe On Edge

Italy, Sweden and Finland scrambled fighters after the Foxhounds flew into Estonian airspace for about 12 minutes.

Spectacular imagery showing military aircraft punching out flares is, by now, fairly familiar, but no less worth looking at. Much rarer, however, is to see a civilian airliner design doing the same thing. In this case, the Boeing 737 jetliner is in Polish Air Force service, but the captures are certainly highly unusual and bring attention to a lesser-known aspect of this aircraft, and other governmental and privately owned jets that are similarly outfitted with self-protection systems.
Polish Air Force

Boeing 737 Countermeasure Flare Release Captured In Stunning Photos

It’s not every day that you see a Boeing 737 airliner spitting out infrared countermeasures in a dramatic display of pyrotechnics.

Cracks seem to be appearing in the pan-European Future Combat Air System (FCAS) program, at the heart of which will be crewed New Generation Fighter (NGF). Reports now suggest that Germany, one of the two major partners in FCAS, is looking at how it might kick France out of the program, amid long-running misgivings over workshare arrangements.
Fighters

Germany Considers Split From France On Next Generation Fighter

Disagreements over Future Combat Air System workshare mean Germany is also looking at teaming up with the UK or Sweden on its future crewed fighter.

A new Quick Reaction Force has been created to help counter drone incursions at U.S. military bases
Unmanned

New Quick Reaction Force Will Counter Military Base Drone Incursions

Soon, teams of counter-drone experts and sensors, electronic warfare systems, and drone interceptors will rush to bases being swarmed by drones.

What looks to be a previously unseen low-observable flying-wing drone variant with a ‘cranked kite’ planform has emerged in a satellite image from China’s secretive test base near Malan in the country's far western Xinjiang province.
Unmanned

Large Stealth Flying Wing Appears At Chinese Test Base

It's the second largest Chinese flying wing drone we have seen and follows a broader trend in the country's stealthy uncrewed aircraft developments.