September 13, 2025 Military Aviation News
09/13/2025
U.S.–Iran antagonism did not begin with this June’s B-2 strikes. In 2013, after Iranian jets harassed U.S. MQ-1 flights in international airspace, the Pentagon began escorting drones with fighters. During one mission, two Iranian F-4 Phantoms closed on a Predator—until an F-22 Raptor flown by Lt. Col. Kevin “Showtime” Sutterfield slid unseen beneath them, verified their loads, then pulled alongside with a radio warning: “You really ought to go home.”
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09/13/2025
China’s two-seat J-20S debuted prominently, highlighting a shift toward manned-unmanned teaming and airborne command roles. Beijing touts the back-seater as a “mission commander,” potentially controlling loyal-wingman drones.
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09/13/2025
As anyone who has glanced inside the cockpit of an older aircraft can tell you: the cockpit used to be a clutter of gauges and switches, a schematic overload that could leave the layman disoriented. This effect was hardly isolated to the layman; the confusing gauge-filled cockpit was also a source of friction for the pilot, albeit one that could be somewhat mitigated through training and repetition.
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09/13/2025
Decades of force cuts and deferred modernization have left the U.S. Air Force unable to simultaneously deter nuclear attacks, defend the U.S. homeland, and defeat Chinese aggression at acceptable levels of risk. Years of insufficient resources have also eroded the Air Force’s ability to conduct long-range, penetrating attacks against China’s centers of gravity and deny the operational sanctuaries the People’s Liberation Army.
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