May 21, 2025 Military Aviation News

Air Force Secretary Affirms Plan to Send F-15EX Aircraft to Michigan Base, and on Time

05/21/2025

The secretary of the U.S. Air Force on Tuesday said future Pentagon spending will support President Donald Trump's decision last month to send F-15EX fighters to Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County, and that they would arrive on time in 2028 as Trump announced.

The F-35 Fighter Jet Now Has DAGGR-2 Data Sharing

05/21/2025

On Monday, aerospace giant Lockheed Martin announced that its Advanced Development Programs division, more commonly known as the “Skunk Works,” has achieved another significant milestone with the F-35 Lightning II. The company, working with the Danish Ministry of Defense (MOD), “completed a successful live F-35 interoperability demonstration,” the latest “success in a series of Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) demonstrations” involving the fifth-generation stealth fighter.

Air Force Chief Responds To Possibility Of Buying New ‘Block 80’ F-16s

05/21/2025

Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. David Allvin today responded to questioning regarding the potential of a new version of the prolific F-16, a so-called Block 80, as a way of increasing the combat mass of the service in the future. While the Air Force doesn’t at this point have a plan to start buying Vipers again, it’s certainly interesting that the topic is up for discussion, especially with the service looking hard at how it will balance its next-generation fighter requirements.

General Atomics begins ground testing of YFQ-42A for U.S. Collaborative Combat Aircraft programme

05/21/2025

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) has entered the ground testing phase of its YFQ-42A production-representative test vehicle as part of the U.S. Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) programme. Ground testing commenced on 7 May in preparation for the aircraft’s planned first flight later this summer.

Anduril Offers Rare Glimpse of Its Next-Gen Fighter Drone ‘Fury’

05/21/2025

Anduril just gave the world a closer look at “Fury,” its next-generation uncrewed fighter jet built to team up with human pilots in the skies. An episode of CBS’s 60 Minutes aired Sunday featured Anduril founder Palmer Luckey walking viewers through the aircraft’s development, offering a rare look inside the hangar where the drone is being pieced together.

Aero L-159: The World’s Cheapest Fighter Jet?

05/21/2025

First flown in 1997, the L-159 features many of the L-39/59’s aerodynamic configurations, but multiple changes were made to improve upon the L-159’s combat performance. The Aero Vodochody L-159 ALCA is a light combat aircraft and advanced trainer, developed as a replacement to Aero’s L-39 and L-59 Albatros aircraft. Built in the Czech Republic, the L-159 began development in 1993 for the purpose of replacing aircraft from the recently-collapsed Soviet Union.

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