Free Republic

The U.S. Army is giving its soldiers a high-tech edge in the fight against drones, and it’s called SMASH. During a live-fire training exercise on June 6 in Germany, a soldier with the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment used the SMASH 2000L smart scope mounted on an M4A1 rifle to target drones in the sky. The SMASH 2000L, made by Israeli company Smart Shooter Ltd., is no ordinary sight. It uses cameras, sensors, and artificial intelligence to track targets and decides the perfect time to fire, according to reporting from Army Recognition. Once a drone is locked in, the system...

A small plane crashed off the San Diego coast shortly after takeoff, killing all six people on board, the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday. The twin-engine Cessna 414 crashed at around 12:30 p.m. Sunday, the FAA said. The plane was returning to Phoenix one day after flying out from Arizona, according to the flight tracking website Flightaware.com. The pilot told air traffic controllers that he was struggling to maintain his heading and climb as the plane twice turned towards shore before going back out to sea, according to audio posted by www.LiveATC.net and radar data posted by FlightAware. The controller...

Plane crash in Tennessee. Initial reports indicate 16–20 people on board. Injuries reported some airlifted to hospital , says Tennessee Highway Patrol

I think someone is in big trouble over at American. American Airlines made a slight mistake which turned into a big mistake as a flight from Philly was descending into Naples, Italy. The plane was too big. Yep. The plane went to and from the right place, with all the right passengers, on time as far as we know. But someone at American made the mistake of "upgrading" the plane to a size too big for the Naples airport. On June 2, 2025, the transatlantic flight, normally operated by a Boeing 787-8, had been upgraded to a larger 787-9 (registration...

President Donald Trump signed several executive orders on Friday, lifting regulations on aviation technology and working to boost American manufacturing of drones. The trio of orders lifts regulations that had made domestic production of drones costly, prioritizes the usage of American-made drones by federal agencies and provides for the creation of a grant program for U.S. authorities to buy drones, according to NOTUS. The American drone industry had in recent years been struggling to compete with that of China, The Wall Street Journal reported. “Red tape has hindered homegrown drone innovation, restricting commercial drone use and burdening their development,” Michael...

The audacious attacks on Russian airfields highlight the power of unconventional, asymmetric warfare — and the threat to U.S. strategic bases and ports, experts say.Ukraine’s surprise Sunday strike that used relatively inexpensive drones to knock out a significant portion of Russia’s long-range bomber capability was arguably the single largest blow to Moscow in its three-year war on its neighbor and a stunning display of asymmetric warfare. The out-of-the-blue drone blitz elicited glee among Ukraine’s backers in Washington, but also a chilling realization: The United States is increasingly vulnerable to just such a low-tech, low-cost strike. “The Pentagon should be very...

A look at the US Military C5 Galaxy. American ingenuity at work.

Just for the sake of discussion—what if Boeing wasn’t a bloated, risk-averse, demoralized shell of its former self? What if, instead of sitting on its legacy platforms, it unleashed its brightest minds in a modern Skunk Works to reimagine the greatest military cargo plane ever built—the C-17 Globemaster III—for the 21st century? Let’s call it the C-47X Dominator. This isn’t a leak. It’s not sourced. It’s just a thought experiment. But imagine: Re-engineering the C-17 with new-generation LEAP or GEnx engines Using advanced composites to lighten the frame Swapping out hardened battlefield tech that’s no longer needed in civilian ops...

A private jet crashed into a San Diego neighborhood during foggy weather early Thursday, setting about 15 homes on fire as well as vehicles, and forcing the evacuation of several blocks, authorities said. It was not immediately known how many people were aboard the aircraft, but officials confirmed multiple fatalities. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the Cessna 550 went down around 3:45 a.m. near Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport in Murphy Canyon, a community comprised of military housing. San Diego Police and other first responders rushed to the scene and battled the flames fueled by spilled jet fuel., KSWB-TV reported. “We...

Scientists had never detected these strange particles in plane exhaust before. (santi lumubol/Shutterstock) ============================================================================ In a nutshell * Scientists have discovered previously unknown “onion-like” nanoparticles in jet engine exhaust that could pose new health concerns, especially for people living near airports. * These tiny particles, measuring just 10-20 nanometers, appear downstream from aircraft engines and may originate from the breakdown of lubrication oil, not fuel combustion. * Unlike traditional soot, these particles remain even when using sustainable aviation fuels, posing a potential challenge for clean aviation initiatives. ============================================================================ TSUKUBA, Japan — Living near an airport might be more complicated than...

In the good ol’ US of frickin’ A we take pride in super-sizing just about everything. From cheeseburgers, to breast implants (nope, not going to link to that one), to deficit spending, to balls of twine, bigger is simply better to many Americans. But despite creating such gigantic aerial icons as the Boeing 747 and the C-5 Galaxy, the USA doesn’t have a monopoly on gigantic airplanes… far from it. This is the tragic story of the Ukrainian-built Antonov An-225 Mriya (meaning “dream” in Ukrainian), which held several records as the largest and heaviest cargo airplane in operation, until it...

The US military believes that this collaboration will inform future strategy decisions and operational planning. ============================================================== Artistic representation of fighter jets entering Radia Windrunner plane for transport. Radia =============================================================== Windrunner, the world’s largest plane that is currently being built in Colorado, is being eyed by the United States military for playing a very different role than what it is primarily meant for. Radia, a Colorado-based startup, is working on the Windrunner, which will be the world’s largest plane with 12 times the cargo volume of the huge Boeing 747. The company believes that it will cater to the wind energy...

US-based defense contractor AeroVironment has revealed a drone that can choose its own targets and cause a lot of damage upon hitting them. Called the Red Dragon, this "one-way attack" drone is intended to help the US maintain "air superiority." The Red Dragon can reach speeds of 160km/h and travel nearly 400km

Palmer Luckey's Anduril just gave the world an inside glimpse of its new project for the US Air Force — an uncrewed fighter jet that teams up with piloted aircraft. The military startup was featured on Sunday in a CBS 60 Minutes segment, during which a few clips showed Anduril's Fury drone being assembled in a hangar or warehouse. It's not the first time the drone was shown to the public — the Air Force unveiled a test representative model on May 1. But the TV segment reveals a few more details about the drone's make. In one clip, two...

France’s civil aviation authority asked airlines to reduce flights by 40% at Paris-Orly airport on Sunday evening after air traffic control systems suffered a breakdown.. The authority, known as DGAC, said in a statement that some “regulation” was needed involving a significant reduction in the number of flights. The statement didn´t provide details on the cause of the breakdown. Paris-Orly airport serves domestic and international flights, including to most European countries and the U.S. Flights to Spain, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Ireland and several French cities were canceled on Sunday while many others were delayed. More...

MALVERN, Pa.—Jonathan Stewart was into his fourth hour overseeing the planes flying near Newark, N.J., when he noticed two aircraft speeding nose-to-nose on his radar scope. A business jet that had departed the Morristown airport was heading toward another small plane that had taken off from nearby Teterboro, a hub for corporate flying. A midair collision was potentially seconds away with planes flying at the same altitude. The veteran air-traffic controller had been scribbling callsigns for the planes and flight information in a notebook, worried that radar and radio communication might fail as they had days earlier. After recognizing the...

Denver airport’s air traffic control was reportedly struck by a staggering six-minute outage earlier this week after several radio transmitters suddenly went dark. The frequency outage meant that as many as 20 pilots were unable to reach air traffic controllers as they descended into Denver International Airport on Monday afternoon, ABC7 reported, citing sources. A controller eventually made contact with one aircraft on a “guard line,” which is typically only used when a pilot is in distress. That pilot was then able to contact other nearby planes and tell them to switch radio frequencies, the sources said. At the time...

There’s more to Donald Trump’s Middle East trip than billion-dollar contracts, parades of camels and a storm back home over Qatar’s offer to give the president a new Air Force One. A tour narrowly billed by the White House as a chance for Trump to show he’s a master dealmaker is jumbling the region’s geopolitical jigsaw puzzle.Wherever he goes, Trump’s brings disruption that can forge possibilities. And he takes risks – for instance, his decision on this trip to lift sanctions on Syria to give a war-ravaged nation a second chance.But the move revives a perennial question about Trump’s entire...

A business jet that flew over Washington with no response from the pilot – prompting a chase by F-16s which caused a sonic boom – likely lost pressure, causing everyone onboard to pass out, according to the final report from the National Transportation Safety Board. The pilot and three passengers died in the crash. On June 4, 2023, the Cessna Citation was flying from Elizabethton, in eastern Tennessee, to Long Island, New York when the pilot stopped responding to air traffic control. The jet rose to 34,000 feet and flew over Long Island and then turned back to the southwest,...

The safety nightmare continues at Newark Liberty International Airport, where all air traffic control will be manned by just one fully qualified person during its busiest time tonight, The Post can exclusively reveal. One air traffic controller (ATC) and a trainee will operate every flight in and out of Newark between 6.30pm-9.30pm — despite 15 staffers being the standard requirement for a shift. A New York-based ATC, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described the situation as “pure insanity” and warned that the schedule shows the control tower for the airport will operate “at bare bones” while between 168...