The AgustaWestland AW159 Future Lynx is the British Royal Navy’s new maritime surveillance and attack helicopter. he AgustaWestland AW159 Future Lynx is the British Royal Navy’s new maritime surveillance and attack helicopter. The UK Ministry of Defence Future Lynx programme replaced the Royal Navy Lynx HMA.8 and HAS.3, as well as the British Army Lynx…

During more than 34 years of fleet service, the F-14 Tomcat transformed from analog fighter to digital precision attack platform. Originally designed to keep Russian bombers away from the battle group by employing Phoenix missiles at very long range, by the time the Tomcat was retired in 2006 it was capable of missions as far ranging…

On April 15, 1986, an SR-71 Blackbird screamed over Libyan airspace at 2,125 mph. The world’s fastest spy plane had just crossed Muammar Gaddafi’s so-called “Line of Death,” a disputed boundary off the coast of Libya that the dictator threatened to enforce with military action. The SR-71 climbed to 80,000 feet as its two-man crew…

Nearly three decades later, the Apache’s status as the world’s premier attack helicopter remains largely unchallenged. Here’s What You Need to Remember: The latest AH-64E Guardian model boasts uprated engines, remote drone-control capabilities, and a sensors designed to highlight muzzle flashes on the battlefield below. The Army has also experimentally deployed Apaches on U.S. Navy ships and had them practice…

Here’s What You Need to Know: The MiG-17 was surprisingly nimble — especially in Vietnam, where despite being decades older, slower, and outgunned, it managed to shoot many Americans out of the sky. Although it never achieved parity with its American counterparts, the MiG-17 was surprisingly nimble — especially in Vietnam, where despite being decades older,…

Rafale M: The Omnivorous “Omnirole” Fighter – “Flexibility is the key to airpower,” quoth the 20th century Italian airpower strategic Gen. Giulio Douhet (1869 – 1930), and this is a tenet that’s hammered into the heads of young aspiring U.S. Air Force officers early on during their training phases as cadets in the Air Force Academy and Reserve…

In 1991, Boeing–Sikorsky won a contract, and the rest is helicopter history. Here’s What You Need to Remember: The RAH-66 Comanche stealth helicopter may have been a bit too forward reaching for its time, but the lessons learned throughout its development and testing have clearly found new life in other advanced programs. With defense officials increasingly touting…

How a slow, simple airplane became an icon. General Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle, chief of the Air Force’s Air Combat Command, said in November 2016 that he would deploy A-10s to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, where these bruisers would join the fight against Islamic State that was raging at the time. Able to fly for long periods…

“All the ascendancy of the Hurricanes and Spitfires would have been fruitless but for this system…and all was now fused together into a most elaborate instrument of war, the like of which existed nowherein the world.” The Supermarine Spitfire was a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many…

How a slow, simple airplane became an icon. General Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle, chief of the Air Force’s Air Combat Command, said in November 2016 that he would deploy A-10s to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, where these bruisers would join the fight against Islamic State that was raging at the time. Able to fly for long periods…