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The F-117 Nighthawk The F-117 is the world’s first operational stealth aircraft. The Nighthawk is a single-seat, twin-engine stealth attack aircraft. Only 64 were ever built and first flew in 1981. The US Air Force (USAF) “Retired” the aircraft in 2008. Although officially retired, many F-117s remain airworthy and are used to support limited research and training missions based on overall cost effectiveness and their ability to offer unique capabilities. Moreover, as we have already reported, the remaining F-117s conduct dissimilar air combat training (DACT) missions with other USAF air assets.

Around 2150 hours Comcast went completely down in south central Pennsylvania. No cable, dial tone, or internet. After restoration a number of conservative news sites have become dns blocked, including: World Net Daily Townhall.com The Federatlist The National Herald Surprisingly, DU is also down. Maybe the hacker's attempt at being "fair and balanced"

TOKYO (AP) — Japan has picked Mitsubishi Heavy Industries as a main contractor to develop the country’s own next generation stealth fighter for launch in the 2030s, the defense minister said Friday. Separately, Mitsubishi announced that it was suspending its civilian aircraft project given uncertainties for the travel industry due to the coronavirus pandemic. The next generation fighters, currently known as F-X, are part of Japan’s upgrading of its aging fighter jet fleet as the country builds up its military capability to counter growing threats from China and North Korea. The next generation stealth jet will replace F-2s that Japan...

Here's What You Need To Remember: It remains to be seen if this particular armament configuration makes it into the regular production process, but the juxtaposition of the PL-15 and PL-10 inside the J-20’s frame can become a stark concern for the United States and some of its regional allies who continue to rely on aging AMRAAM technology. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force made waves at the 2018 Zhuhai Airshow with the latest showing of their flagship fifth-generation stealth fighter, the J-20. As is common with airshow coverage, large swaths of the ensuing commentary focused on the J-20’s...

Here’s something the public didn’t know until today: If one of the U.S. military’s new F-35 stealth fighters has to climb at a steep angle in order to dodge an enemy attack, design flaws mean the plane might suddenly tumble out of control and crash. Also, some versions of the F-35 can’t accelerate to supersonic speed without melting their own tails or shedding the expensive coating that helps to give the planes their radar-evading qualities. The Pentagon’s $400-billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, one of the biggest and most expensive weapons programs in history, has come under fire, so to...

“If they get a chance to really look at the F35, they would want it," Laird said. "The Indians have requested 3 times to talk to people about the F-35B, which is the true revolutionary aircraft -- and the administration never answered the mail, they've blown them off, it's typical of the Obama administration. We love our allies except if you want anything."

Despite initial high expectations, the Indian Air Force appears to be souring on a joint development deal with Russia for a new fifth-generation fighter jet, according to the Business Standard, a major Indian business publication. The Russian prototype is "unreliable, its radar inadequate, its stealth features badly engineered,” said Indian Air Force Deputy Air Marshall S Sukumar at a Jan. 15 meeting,

Russia’s new T-50 stealth fighter is fast, maneuverable, heavily-armed and hard to detect on radar. In theory. But according to Indian air force officials, in practice the Sukhoi-made stealth jet is also too expensive, poorly engineered and powered by old and unreliable engines. The Indians’ complaints illustrate the yawning gulf between stealth warplane design and the actual production of radar-evading jets. In other words, it’s one thing to sketch an advanced warplane on paper. It’s quite another to build one and get it to work.

On CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday night, national security correspondent David Martin chronicled the seemingly never-ending list of problems with the Pentagon’s next-generation F-35 fight jet, from cost overruns of $160 billion to technical problems that have plagued the plane’s development. When asked if the F-35 program, which is expected to cost some $1.5 trillion over the four-decade life of the program, is now under control, the Pentagon’s acquisition chief, Frank Kendall, said, "Yes, it is." But that commitment came with a warning. “Long gone is the time when we're going to pay for mistake after mistake after mistake," said...

A cyber espionage operation by China seven years ago produced sensitive technology and aircraft secrets that were incorporated into the latest version of China’s new J-20 stealth fighter jet, according to U.S. officials and private defense analysts. The Chinese cyber spying against the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II took place in 2007 under what U.S. intelligence agencies codenamed Operation Byzantine Hades, a large-scale, multi-year cyber program that targeted governments and industry. Defense officials said the stolen data was obtained by a Chinese military unit called a Technical Reconnaissance Bureau in the Chengdu province. The data was then passed to the...

Wikipedia:Sukhoi SU-35-Flanker-E The Sukhoi Su-35 (Russian: Сухой Су-35; NATO reporting name: Flanker-E) is designation of two different heavily-upgraded derivatives of the Su-27 'Flanker'. Both are single-seat, twin-engine supermaneuverable multirole fighters, designed by Sukhoi and built by Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association (KnAAPO). The first variant was designed during the 1980s, when Sukhoi was looking to upgrade its high-performance Su-27, and was initially known as the Su-27M. Later re-designated Su-35, this derivative incorporates aerodynamic refinements to increase manoeuvrability, enhanced avionics, longer range, and a more powerful engine. The first Su-35 prototype, converted from a Su-27, made its maiden flight in June 1988....

On Feb. 1, 2013, Iran unveiled its indigenous fighter jet named "Qaher 313″. The prototype of the Q-313 (or F-313 according to the stencils applied to the aircraft), was presented to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and publicly displayed as part of the Ten-Day Dawn ceremonies held in Iran to celebrate the 1979′s victory of the Islamic Revolution. In the previous days, the Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi had said, "The aircraft will be different from the other fighter jets Iran has already made." Iran's new fighter jet doesn't look like any we've ever seen before. Turns out, as The...

For more Thanksgiving week entertainment, check out this video of Russia’s third stealth fighter making one of its very first flights. The video below shows the third Sukhoi T-50 PAK FA flying recently, nearly two years after the very first T-50 made its first flight. Remember, Russia is hoping to get the jet, designed to be a less stealthy but more maneuverable competitor to the F-22 Raptor, into service by the middle of the decade. India has already signed off to build about 200 of the jets under license. South Korea and even Venezuela are reportedly interested in the...

The next generation stealth fighter under development by the Chinese military could rival America's best fighters in speed, stealth and lethality, according to a new private report. Details on the Chinese J-20 fighter are scant as the project has been developed under extreme secrecy, but an analysis conducted by the conservative Washington D.C.-based defense policy think tank The Jamestown Foundation based on the little publicly available information concluded that the fighter "will be a high performance stealth aircraft, arguably capable of competing in most cardinal performance parameters... with the United States F-22A Raptor, and superior in most if not all...

Japan stealth jet prototype set to fly in 2014 By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Tue Mar 8, 2:21 am ET TOKYO – Japan is looking to join the United States, China and Russia with a stealth fighter that senior Japanese air force officials say can be ready for a prototype test flight in just three years, significantly upping the ante in the intensifying battle for air superiority in the Pacific. The prototype will likely be able to fly in 2014, Lt. Gen. Hideyuki Yoshioka, director of air systems development at Japan's Ministry of Defense, said in an interview with The...

China is reveling in the attention its new stealth aircraft is getting, even though it's not clear whether the J-20 is as technologically advanced as the country's leaders would like the world to believe. Chinese officials are adamant that the aircraft was developed by engineers at home using their own designs, but analysts and aerospace experts presume the J-20 owes at least some credit to others. Here are the leading theories on where China may have copied -- or perhaps even stolen -- designs for its new aircraft.

The maiden flight of China's new stealth jet fighter humbled those officials and observers who initially dismissed the possibility that the country could come up with such a sophisticated weapon any time soon. It was strikingly demonstrated that neither the intelligence apparatus of the United States nor that of Taiwan had a clue about the speed of Chinese advances. Unnoticed by Beijing's adversaries, the J-20's engineers have mastered advanced stealth-shaping techniques, and even if mass production still lies a few years ahead, it is understood that the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) in the foreseeable future will have...

American intelligence believes that the tech behind the new Chinese J-20 stealth aircraft came from Russia. So far, not a lot of protests from Russia. This might indicate that MiG sold some tech to the Chinese, and didn't issue a press release. Of the four stealth fighters than have been built and flown so far (U.S. F-22 and F-35, Russian T-50 and I.42), it was noted that the J-20 looks most like the I.42, a MiG project that was cancelled in 1997. The rear portion of the J-20 is particularly similar to the MiG I.42. MiG has been having financial...

The world may be in turmoil, but in the defense business there are signs of a return to normalcy. After dreary decades in which the U.S. military had to live without a presentable threat with which to justify its spending on high-technology weapons, the Chinese stepped up to the plate. With ominous talk gaining currency in Washington of actual cuts in the U.S. defense budget, our Asian friends have suddenly offered a titillating peek from an airfield in Chengdu at their newest warplane, described as a radar-evading "stealth" fighter like our own F-22.

On January 11, the new Chinese J-20 stealth fighter made its first flight, two weeks after it was seen doing taxi tests at a factory airstrip in central China. There are two J-20 prototypes, one with Russian AL-31 engines, and one with Chinese WS-10As (a copy of the AL-31). Of the four stealth fighters than have been built and flown so far (U.S. F-22 and F-35, Russian T-50 and I.42), the J-20 looks most like the I.42, a MiG project that was cancelled in 1997. China is releasing very little information, and apparently accepted the fact that flight tests could...