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Chinese President Hu Jintao had an embarrassing moment in mid-January when his military flight-tested a new tactical aircraft during a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Several features of the plane looked remarkably similar to America’s top-of-the-line F-22 fighter, and yet somehow leaders of the People’s Liberation Army air force managed to not mention to Hu that the test was happening. So the Chinese leader ended up learning about it from Gates. The episode suggested that although Hu is formally in charge of the Chinese military, he doesn’t know what it is doing much of the time

Not a fair fight. Key point: It would be much smarter for Iran to use asymmetric means to take on the United States instead of challenging America in the air. With the United States withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal with Iran, a war with Tehran seems to be a distinct possibility. In the event of a military conflict between Washington and Tehran, there is also the ever growing possibility that the White House might seek regime change in Iran. A full-scale military campaign against Iran would require the United States to destroy the Iranian air...

Key point: Russian aircraft are closing the gap with the West, making the need for investments in next-generation fighters more important than ever. Russia’s Su-35 fighter certainly has western defense outlets buzzing--and for good reason. Moscow, despite heavy sanctions and an economy that has certainly seen better days, keeps pumping out new combat systems one after another--items like new tanks, submarines, nuclear weapons platforms and more. While many were indeed designed and planned for ahead of the imposition of sanctions, Russia is clearly making a big effort to modernize its armed forces, especially its air force, and moving past older...

Boeing Is Pitching the US a New F-15, Using Its Super Hornet Game Plan The company convinced the Trump administration to buy advanced F/A-18 jets. Can it do the same with the the F-15? FARNBOROUGH, UK — Boeing is quietly pitching the U.S. Air Force a new F-15 fighter jet using the same business strategy that convinced the Trump administration to buy more Super Hornet warplanes for the Navy. Dubbed the F-15X, the new variant of the venerable jet offers more modern flight controls, cockpit displays, and radar, according to military and industry sources with knowledge of the plan. The...

I am no military vet, so this is perhaps a naive question - A number of planes at Tindall were left on base and suffered partial or full damage. Some were F22's, no small loss. Why were not all planes flown out the day before when it was obvious this was going to be ground zero for Hurricane Michael or near it? Were they hanger queens and not flight ready? Or were there not the crews ready to fly them out? It seems strange to me so many flying assets were left back.

The U.S. Air Force is assessing what damage more than a dozen F-22 Raptor fighters suffered when Tyndall Air Force Base sustained a direct hit from Hurricane Michael. Up to $2 billion in fighter jets were trapped on the ground because of maintenance issues and forced to ride out the Category 4 hurricane. Photographs show the hangars where F-22s were parked suffered severe damage. First, the good news: Although Tyndall Air Force Base took a hard hit from the hurricane, all 3,600 military personnel and their families living on the base were successfully evacuated beforehand. The 93 Air Force personnel...

We finally see the study that was oddly classified on arrival and it has new relevance based on Japan's desire for a new stealth fighter. Finally, in early 2016, the debate surrounding the need for more F-22s came to a head and study was mandated by Congress for the USAF to research what putting the super-fighter back into production would take. That study was finished in late 2016 with some of its findings openly discussed, but the document itself remained classified, until now. Snip The total procurement cost would be between $40 and $42 billion, with the entire program costing...

The decision on whether to release parts of the highly classified aircraft designs and software to help Japan stay ahead of Chinese advances will test President Donald Trump’s promise to overhaul his country’s arms export policy. The proposed aircraft “would combine the F-22 and F-35 and could be superior to both of them,” said one of the sources. Japan, which is already buying the radar-evading F-35 to modernize its inventory, also wants to introduce a separate air superiority fighter in the decade starting 2030 to deter intrusions into its airspace by Chinese and Russian jets. The country’s air force currently...

Reuters has published a report that came as little surprise to us at The War Zone regarding Tokyo's interest in having Japanese industry work with Lockheed Martin to develop a semi-indigenous fighter that combines the best attributes of the F-35 Lightning and F-22 Raptor. The Reuters report states in part: "Lockheed has discussed the idea with Japanese defense ministry officials and will make a formal proposal in response to a Japanese request for information (RFI) after it receives permission from the U.S. government to offer the sensitive military technology, said the sources, who have direct knowledge of the proposal. The...

The Air Force plans to start fixing the problem by 2021, according to Bloomberg. It will probably cost a fortune, so if you have the means, it may be good to check out some Lockheed stock. The F-35 Lightning II jet can’t communicate all that well with its little brother the F-22 Raptor. Because of course it can’t. Just like a government-built round peg that’s supposed to go into a square hole, the F-22’s communications systems can’t send its “most sensitive data” to other planes besides other F-22s since they are different from everything else, including the F-35, according to...

Russian air defenses may appear formidable as part of Moscow’s increasingly sophisticated anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capability, but areas protected by these systems are far from impenetrable bubbles or 'Iron Domes’ as some analysts have called them. While it is true that a layered and integrated air defense may effectively render large swaths of airspace too costly—in terms of men and materiel—to attack using conventional fourth generation warplanes such as the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet or Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon, these systems have an Achilles’ Heel. Russian air defenses will still struggle to effectively engage fifth-generation stealth aircraft such as...

Last night the world was close to a military confrontation between two nuclear powers, Russia and the U.S. In an incredibly dangerous incident in the skies over Syria, an American F-22, which is called a stealth fighter, fired what we now know to be warning flares at our attack aircraft Su-25 at close range.

A pair of U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth fighters fired flares to chase two Russian Su-25 fighter jets out of restricted airspace over Syria on Wednesday, a Pentagon official confirmed Thursday. The aerial encounter occurred when the Russian jets strayed into airspace east of the Euphrates River, putting them on the wrong side of a "deconfliction zone" established between Moscow and Washington to avoid confrontation in the skies over Syria. The Russian jets immediately left the area after the intercept and warning flares from the F-22s, an official confirmed to the Washington Examiner. The Pentagon could not provide an...

Double sonic booms heard over secretive military base Area 51 has sparked claims the CIA is hiding alien technology at the top secret site.Footage has surfaced of two loud thumping sounds as a pair of F-22 fighter jets fly over the secretive base.Conspiracy theorists claim the sonic booms show the CIA is secretly testing alien technology or hypersonic aircraft.A clip posted to YouTube by UFO Seekers, taken in the Nevada desert near where Area 51 is based, shows the F-22 craft cut across the sky at speeds of up to 1,500 mph (2,400 kph).

Full Title: Russia unveils new fleet of 'invisible' supersonic fighter jets - and boasts that they will be the envy of air forces around the world Russia has unveiled its new fleet of 'invisible' supersonic fighter jets, boasting that they are already the envy of air forces around the world. The £120million Sukhoi-57, which will have a top speed of 1,615 mph, is said to rival America's F-22 and China's Chengdu J-20, Kremlin officials say the fifth-generation stealth jet has been 'christened like a baby after its birth' as Su-57 and will undergo another year of testing before it enters...

The USAF is quick to tout that the F-22 Raptor fleet has been finally upgraded to use the AIM-9X Sidewinder—a long awaited move that will allow the most advanced air superiority fighter in the world to ditch the relatively ancient AIM-9M version of the iconic short-range air-to-air missile. But even with this new capability, F-22 pilots still lack a helmet mounted display (HMD) to take advantage of the missile's high-off boresight (HOBS) abilities, and there doesn't seem to be much talk about fixing this long standing deficiency in the near term. You can read all about the F-22's short-range missile...

This startling news came during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the current state of the U.S. Air Force. Chairman Joe Wilson asked right out of the gate about a previously unknown USAF plan to retire the F-15C/D Eagle fleet and replace them with F-16s. The subject of the question itself seemed to be big news to the committee with Congresswoman Vikki Hartzler later asking about what upgrades the F-15C/D was going to get so it could meet modern threats. Obviously the answer is not many if the Air Force is going to retire the jets in the relatively...

Did you know F-22 Raptor stealth jets can be refueled by a Special Operations MC-130J tanker on the ground?

(CNN) A $12 billion makeover is underway for the US Air Force's 1980's-era F-15 fighter, a step towards upgrading an air fleet that one military official recently called the "smallest, oldest and least ready" in history. The F-15 has long been hailed as the most successful dog-fighting aircraft in US history, boasting an undefeated air-to-air combat record with more than 100 aerial combat victories, according to Boeing, the plane's primary contractor and developer. The Air Force initially planned to replace the entire F-15 fleet with the fifth-generation F-22 Raptor, but production of the stealthy aircraft was halted in 2009 and...

Two Syrian Su-24 Fencer attempting to fly over a Kurdish-held area in northeastern Syria where U.S. SOF (Special Operations Forces) are operating, get intercepted by U.S. F-22 and encouraged to depart the airspace. Twice in the last few days, Syrian jets performing air strikes close to where U.S. SOF are operating in northeastern Syria caused coalition aircraft to scramble. On Aug. 18, U.S. jets were dispatched to intercept the Syrian attack planes that were attacking targets near Hasakah supporting regime forces fighting the Syrian Kurdish forces. About 300 U.S. military operate in the same area, training Kurdish forces who are...