On August 27 the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force gave its first public demonstration of the subsonic manoeuvrability of its J-20, with two of the fighters deployed to PLA Air Force open day in Changchun, in Northeast China’s Jilin province. Its performance contrasted to the basic
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force has begun to equip the latest of eight air brigades, the 8th Air Brigade at Changxing, Northeast China, with J-20 fifth generation fighters. The brigade is the second under the Northern Theatre Command to deploy the aircraft, after the 1st Air
On August 26 Belarusian Alexander Lukashenko announced that his country’s combat aircraft had been modified to deploy nuclear weapons, with local media reporting and then retracting a claim that this referred to Soviet-built Su-24 strike fighters. “Some time ago in St. Petersburg, we together with
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced on August 26 that his country’s combat jets had been modified to deploy nuclear weapons, with accompanying reports from Reuters and other Western sources indicating that the country’s Su-24M strike fighters may have been recommissioned for this
Amid ongoing revelations regarding the troubled state of the joint Franco-German-Spanish Future Combat Air System (FCAS) sixth generation fighter program, a growing number of European air forces are expected to look to the United States to supply F-35 fifth generation fighters to modernise their
The first test launch of the AGM-158B JASSM-ER cruise missile from the U.S. Air Force’s sole class of stealth bomber the B-2 Spirit was confirmed by manufacturer Northrop Grumman on August 25, marking an important step towards finally providing the aircraft with a standoff strike capability. “The
The U.S. Air Force has relied on the F-15 Eagle as a prime air superiority fighter since 1975, with the aircraft being the first from the fourth generation to enter service in any air force worldwide and developed with ambitious specifications to counter the formidable Soviet MiG-25 Foxbat interceptor. By the end of the conflict in 1989 over 900 of the costly Eagles
New facilities at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Plant in Russia’s Far East have been opened in preparation for an expansion of the production of Su-57 next generation fighters, which have been in low rate serial production since 2018 and of which 70 are currently on order. An avionics test
The Russian Air Force has inducted a new class of strike fighter into operational service, with the MiG-31I representing the latest variant of the MiG-31 Foxhound interceptor and the second to be designed for strike roles. The newly announced aircraft is a successor to the MiG-31K which first
The disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 and subsequent near collapse of the Russian economy spelt the end of many ambitious weapons and space programs, several of which were scheduled to enter service imminently and had already reached prototype stages. Examples include the Su-27M air
