The Air Force will send off its final A-10 Thunderbolt II from depot maintenance this month and deactivate the unit that performs overhauls, upgrades, and rebuilds on the venerable close air support jet.
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The Defense Innovation Unit is gearing up for the first flight of its commercially developed hypersonic testbed as soon as the end of February—part of a larger project to quickly increase the cadence of the Pentagon’s hypersonic flight testing and field advanced, high-speed systems and ...
The Air Force has a new X-plane: The X-68A LongShot from General Atomics is an air-launched drone intended to carry additional air-to-air munitions. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has been developing LongShot since 2021, and announced on Feb. 17 that flight testing could begin “as early as the end of 2026.”
Contractors Northrop Grumman and Embraer are teaming up to offer the Air Force and U.S. allies a tactical mobility aircraft—designed for aerial refueling and cargo transport—to support Airmen operating from remote airfields with soft-soil airstrips, company officials said Feb. 19.
The Air Force kicked off one of its biggest exercises this week with the latest edition of Bamboo Eagle, featuring combined virtual and live training scenarios focused on test the command-and-control “nervous system” leaders need to operate on a complex joint battlefield spread over vast ...
The next “Air Force One” presidential aircraft and other planes in the Air Force’s VIP transport fleet will soon have a new paint scheme—one preferred by President Trump and similar to the one painted on the president’s personal 757 aircraft.
The Air Force has delayed delivery of permanently stationed F-15EX Eagle II fighters to Kadena Air Base in Japan. A spokesperson said the Air Force expects to provide an updated schedule in the spring. The previous plan had been for the 18th Wing at Kadena ...
The U.S. continued to move a significant amount of airpower toward the Middle East in recent days as talks to forge a nuclear deal with Iran hung in the balance. Flight tracking data indicate there was unusually heavy movement of dozens of fighter jets and ...
The use of a military counter-drone laser on the southwest border this week—which prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas—will be a “case study” on the complex web of authorities needed to employ such weapons near civilian areas ...

