August 13, 1940

Aug. 13, 1940
Against overwhelming odds, Royal Air Force pilots fend off the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain and ward off German invasion of the British Isles. The Luftwaffe loses 1,733 aircraft and crews.

Related

What the Air Force Transport Fleet Needs to Meet Surging Demand

Dec. 2, 2025
The Air Force’s airlift fleet is in desperate need of modern connectivity, spare parts, and other innovations to keep going amid growing demand and modernization plans still in their infancy, according to a former senior leader and a new research paper from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. 

Space Force Plans Surveillance Sats to Complement RG-XX Reconnaissance Fleet

Dec. 1, 2025
The Space Force’s strategy to replace its fleet of neighborhood watch satellites in geosynchronous orbit includes plans to field multiple satellite constellations, one focused on reconnaissance and one focused on surveillance that will autonomously track objects in GEO, the service said in a Nov. 26 notice.

Pentagon Awards $1.6B Contract to Sustain F-35 Engines for Next Year

Dec. 1, 2025
The Pentagon awarded RTX’s Pratt & Whitney a $1.6 billion contract for sustainment work on the F-35's engine on Nov. 28. The deal includes everything from software maintenance to spare parts for the F135 engine and runs through November 2026, spanning a dozen locations around the globe.

Boeing Gets $2.47 Billion Contract for 15 More KC-46s

Nov. 26, 2025
Boeing received a $2.47 billion Air Force contract Nov. 25 for 15 more KC-46s, bringing to 183 the number of Pegasus tankers on contract to all customers, foreign and domestic. The new contract—for Lot 12 of the initially planned KC-46 buy—is to be completed by 2029.

Space Force Seeks Innovative New Battle Management, C2 Tools

Nov. 26, 2025
For the last few years, through a little-known program called Kronos, the Space Force has been consolidating and modernizing its suite of legacy systems that provide operators with intelligence tools and command-and-control capabilities in an increasingly contested space environment. Now, USSF is reaching out to commercial firms to prototype and…

Drug Boat Strikes Spark Debate Over Legal Justification

Nov. 26, 2025
The sinking of 21 boats and killing of dozens of accused “narco-terrorists” by the Trump administration over the past two months has sparked an intense debate among legal experts and lawmakers.