Wed, Apr 14, 2021
With the B-1B finally looking like it will be replaced by the B-21 Raider, Boeing has proposed extending the life of the Lancer by accentuating it's close support capability with belly guns comparable to the AC-130 gunship.
Mon, May 17, 2021
Northup Grumman had completed its first B-21 Raider prototype and is working on its second (2021). Expectations are that this stealth bomber will replace the B-1B Lancer and B-1 Spirit in the second half of the 2020's. Here's a look at it's anticipate capabilities.
Thu, Jul 15, 2021
How do you choose between two totally revolutionary fighter planes when one has an advantage here but the other has an advantage there. If you're the United States Air Force that has to pitch a program costing billions and billions of dollars to Congress, you go with the company you trust more.
Fri, Aug 27, 2021
The F-35 Lightning II was planned to replace five aging aircraft incorporating supersonic speed, vertical take off and landing, stealth and aircraft carrier operations. The F-35 proved all this is indeed possible but not within the programs primary objective, to be cheap. Still, the pilots love it.
Fri, Oct 15, 2021
Lockheed's F-117 Nighthawk was really an attack aircraft. It had the 'F' rather than 'A' designation to attract hot shot pilots. The only air to air weapon it was capable of deploying was the AIM 9 Sparrow intended ostensibly to attack Soviet AWACS. It had no gun, no radar and poor visibility to engage an enemy fighter. And once it's weapons bay was opened it lost its radar invisibility.
Fri, Oct 22, 2021
The United States Navy is now (2021) testing its new extended range anti-radiation missile, AARGM-EX, designed to destroy enemy antiaircraft radar. The specification indicates a range of twice the current AAGRM which is 60 to 80 miles making it capable of handling missions normally requiring stealth aircraft.
Fri, Oct 29, 2021
Until the B1B Lancer entered service the United States was a little low on bombers. So Boeing pitched a plan to arm 747s with 72 air launched cruise missiles, 52 more than Boeing's B-52 can carry. And the price of such a plane would be far less than any existing or planned bomber.
Fri, Nov 19, 2021
During the cold war the United States and Soviet Union fielded faster and faster aircraft and the general expectation was that would continue especially since the Untied States was well on its way to developing hypersonic aircraft in the 1960s. But aircraft speed topped out with the F-15 Eagle and MiG-25 Foxbat. Here's why.
Fri, Nov 26, 2021
In 1974 the Soviet Union had gained numerical superiority in in nuclear missiles over the United States. As the SALT talks were schedule to begin in three months, Henry Kisinger felt he needed better leverage. That lead to a crash program to launch an ICBM from a giant cargo plane.
Fri, Dec 3, 2021
As the United States Navy was considering retiring the F-14 Tomcat, Grumman proposed three enhanced versions of the plane that would have addressed it's ongoing problems and enhanced it in almost every way imaginable, even the basics like thrust, lift, range and capacity.
Fri, Dec 17, 2021
Sealth is a collection of technologies that give an aircraft low observability to radar, infrared, electromagnetismand sound coupled with air frame design, materials, manufacturing tolerances, electronic warfare devices and mission planning to maximize survivability. All together, its difficult, expensive and requires considerable skill.
Fri, Dec 24, 2021
AGM-136 Tacit Rainbow was a canceled 1980s loitering anitradiation missile concept. It was intended to support or replace Wild Weasel aircraft that endured heavy loses destroying antiaircraft systems during the Vietnam War. A loitering missile can disable antiaircraft radar either by destroying it or by making it to dangerous to turn it on.
Fri, Jan 14, 2022
After the US Navy retired the Phoenix missile, NASA had some interesting plans for the left over inventory. They wanted to bump the speed of the mach 4.3 missile up to mach 5.0+ and use if for hypersonic testing.
Fri, Jan 28, 2022
The Supersonoic Low Altitute Missile, SLAM. was a unfinished doomsday weapon developed under project Pluto. It was conceived as an ultra long range, ramjet, hypersonic, nuclear powered, multiple warhead cruise missile. in addition to delivering nuclear bombs it would, being low altitude, leave a trail of deadly radiation and sonic destruction along it's path.
Fri, Feb 11, 2022
Russia's and China's new hypersonic missiles have received a lot of publicity and that may be what they are intended to get because, being nuclear and relatively inaccurate, it can easily be argued they don't bring much to the battlefield. China's DF-17 is another matter since it is intended to be and anti-ship weapon but it is questionable if it can score a hit at long range on such a difficult target. However, this is what America's hypersonic program is intended to do with five weapons planned for production by 2030.
Fri, Mar 11, 2022
Two weeks into Putin's 2022 invasion of the Ukraine, Russia has still failed to establish air dominance. Alex reviews reports from various sources that show it can't. Alex's analysis is that Russia has been investing in development of advanced military technology to maintain its prestige at the expense of maintenance, modernization and training.
Fri, Jun 3, 2022
Apparently work on America's Next Generation Air Dominance Fighter is going well enough that Air Force Defense Secretary Frank Kendall III wants to begin fielding it by 2030. That prompted Alex to do a bit of brainstorming about what will it be like given that support drones will probably be a major feature.
Fri, Aug 19, 2022
The biggest threat to the US Navy's aircraft carriers are Chinese missiles. A new longer range attack aircraft is needed to keep aircraft carriers out of harms way during combat.
Fri, Nov 4, 2022
In March 2022 the first encounter between stealth fighters form hostile nations occurred. Here's a discussion of the tactile situation based on what was learned from this encounter.
Fri, Dec 2, 2022
The United States Air Force rolled out the new B-21 Spirit stealth bomber with a dramatic unveiling.
Wed, Feb 1, 2023
If an enemy is fortunate enough to lock on to an F-35 Lightning II despite its stealth features, it still has to contend with the F-35's four electronic warfare pods that each proved three additional layers of defense.
Fri, Mar 10, 2023
When you're flying nearly 1000 of the most advanced fighter planes in the world what should you do? Give them a massive upgrade. And that's exactly what's in store for the F-35 Lighning II's.
Fri, Oct 13, 2023
The features of the internally carried Stand-in Attack Weapon and the threats it's intended to deal with.
Mon, Oct 30, 2023
One mission in a space battle would likely be to capture and disable an enemy's satellite causing it to fall back to Earth. Alex perceives a recent painting by Rick Herter of the US Space Force as depicting such a mission.
Fri, Nov 17, 2023
The United States hasn't fielded a new nuclear delivery vehicle in decades. Now that China and Russia are releasing innovative new weapons the United States is preparing to do the same.
Tue, Dec 12, 2023
Since the StarFish Prime nuclear test the US Air Force has been 'hardening' its aircraft against the electromagnetic pulse produced by a nuclear explosions. After all, these aircraft deliver nuclear weapons.
Fri, Dec 29, 2023
Alex shares the interviews of three pilots telling their stories of flying missions in an AH-64 Apache helicopter, SR-71 Blackbird and F-16 Fighting Falcon.
Wed, Jan 10, 2024
The early problems of the F-35 Lightning II still dog its reputation. And its Tech Refresh 3 is a year behind schedule. Which raises the question; with 1,000 f-35s now in service with 14 countries, why is it so popular?
Fri, Jan 12, 2024
An overview of what is currently (2024) publicly known about the corruption scandals and leadership purges in the Chinese Rocket Force. This story is presented amidst the back drop of corruption as part of China's standard business practices.
Wed, Jan 17, 2024
The F-16 Fighting Falcon was design according to Energy Maneuverability Theory making it an incredibly maneuverable. versatile and prolific multirole fighter that is still (2024) in production fifty years after its first flight.
Tue, Jan 23, 2024
The proliferation for aerial drones and missiles has generated renewed interest in laser air defenses. The effectiveness of these weapons against missiles remains in question but they look promising against drone swarms.
Fri, Feb 2, 2024
With full deployment of the Sixth Generation Air Dominance Fight still (2024) a decade away the Air Force has an upgrade program underway with new tracking technology for the latest antiaircraft missiles that will make the F-22 Raptor effective against new stealth fighters now in production.
Wed, Mar 13, 2024
Submerged submarines can't receive radio transmissions at depth they rely on very low frequency communications to receive their attack codes. However, since the US Navy's five VLF transmission stations aren't likely to survive much beyond the first hour of a nuclear war the Navy operates specialized aircraft as backup.
Fri, Mar 29, 2024
The United States Air Forces seems to be developing their new AIM-260 air to air missile with a focus on a larger no escape zone.
Wed, Apr 10, 2024
Does Alex sound considerably more excited than usual as he pays homage to Kelly Johnson, Ben Rich and Lockheed's Skunkworks and compares them to Hermeus' progress toward building the world's first hypersonic airplane?
Fri, Apr 26, 2024
A history of stealth aircraft beginning with project Gusto, that generated the SR-71 Blackbird, and Boeing's Queit Bird examining the incredible challenge of stealth that China has quite a ways to go to master.
Thu, May 9, 2024
Now that aerial drones have become prolific the Unitied States military has become interested in aquatic drones, particularly submersibles. But with longer mission times in a more hostile environment aquatic drones face challenges with power consumption, reliability and communications.