Searchers recovered the body of Capt. Lucas Gruenther, an F-16 pilot from Aviano AB, Italy, in the Adriatic Sea on Thursday, announced the Gruenther family in a statement posted at the base’s website. Gruenther, chief of flight safety for Aviano’s 31st Fighter Wing, went missing on Monday after contact was lost with his F-16 over the water during a nighttime training mission. “We will never fully recover from our loss, but take heart in the knowledge that during his all-too-short time in this world, he made a significant difference in the lives of all whom he met,” reads the family’s statement.
The United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force has unveiled a new electronic warfare drone designed to fly with fighter jets into contested airspace, including alongside its fleet of F-35s. RAF says it plans to develop models that draw on the U.S. Air Force’s approach of mating unmanned systems with crewed platforms.