Fighters And Tanks And Geopolitics, Oh My! Welcome To Foxtrot Alpha

What can I say, I dig military technology and geopolitics... maybe a little too much. That's why I'll be running Jalopnik's new military sub-site Foxtrot Alpha. And just like the name suggests, it's going to be awesome. Where did all of this start? I would have to say with a...

Apr 19, 2025

Watch A Time Lapse Of The Air Force's Most Intense Combat Simulation

I shot this in the desert a few miles north east of Nellis AFB during RED FLAG exercises, which the Air Force calls the "premier air-to-air combat training exercise," pitting pilots against one another in a massive simulation. After attending a number of RED FLAG exercises it still amazes me...

Apr 19, 2025

What America Can Learn From Russia's Cheap But Deadly T90 Tank

The Russian T-90, a hybrid evolution of the T-72 and T-80, weighs in at almost 48 tons, and would lead Russia into battle if a major land conflict erupted today — not a crazy idea anymore. Here's what the Pentagon should learn something from the thrifty, simple and dangerously effective...

Apr 19, 2025

Crimean Crisis Military Update #2: Wider Invasion Imminent?

Is Vladimir Putin, the world's most intriguing new super-villain, going to invade Ukraine proper? It sure looks like he is preparing to. At first, some thought it was just talk and rumor, but then from all along Russia's western border area with Ukraine describing an avalanche of military hardware is...

Apr 19, 2025

Why Is The 'Retired' F-117 Nighthawk Still Flying?

Why is the F-117 Nighthawk, America's first true "stealth" aircraft, still prowling the skies years after its retirement in 2008? Since the F-117 officially stopped flying, the famous triangular black jet has been spotted on . Even a video taken by a highly credible source emerged in 2010 of a...

Apr 19, 2025

Flat Out At Low-Level Flying In A HH-60G Pave Hawk!

The HH-60G Pave Hawk is one of a battle weary fleet of combat search and rescue choppers, but their pilots are amongst the best in the world. Check this video out of a HH-60 crew flying their mount balls out with just inches to spare: ...

Apr 19, 2025

The Navy Has The Ultimate MH370 Search Tool, It's Just Not Operational

While the world is tied up in the mystery of what happened to Malaysian Air Flight 370, testers at Edwards AFB in south central California and at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland are hard at work developing the ultimate tool for solving such a mystery, the Northrop Grumman...

Apr 19, 2025

The Triumphant Return Of The Blue Angels!

The US Navy Flight Demonstration Team, aka the Blue Angels, has returned triumphantly to America's air show scene. Here are some shots I took of their return show. Last year the Blues were grounded as a result of the Federal Government's chaotic sequestration law in an attempt to balance the...

Apr 19, 2025

A Very "Intimate" View Of The Navy's New Star, The P-8 Poseidon

Photographer David Cherkasov agreed to share with us this incredibly detailed view of the Navy's new multirole sub-hunter, sea control, attack and information, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, the P-8A Poseidon. This aircraft has become the star of the MH370 search that has been tattooed on our televisions for the last...

Apr 19, 2025

Meet DASH, A Navy Sub-Hunting Drone From The '60s

In the dawning era of unmanned air combat so many "new ideas" are actually far from fresh. It is stunning to examine unmanned technologies from decades ago, and realize just how far ahead of their time they truly were. One such weapon system that was less than famous but highly...

Apr 19, 2025

Iran Is Building A Gigantic Mock-Up Of A U.S. Aircraft Carrier

You have got to hand it to the Iranians, when it comes to arts and crafts they really do aim high. Last year we had the "unveiling" of the unquestionably questionable " and this year we get a truly gargantuan impressionistic interpretation of a Nimitz Class super carrier, complete with...

Apr 19, 2025

Why Turkey Shot A Syrian Air Force MiG-23 Out Of The Sky

Turkey has warned Syria many times about incursions by Syrian aircraft into their airspace. , they once again made good on those warnings via downing one of Syria's geriatric MiG-23s. What's going on here? Turkey says that they were tracking a pair of Syrian MiG-23s as far as 80 miles...

Apr 19, 2025

Why The U.S. Built A Giant Sound Stage In The California Desert

There are so many bases, test and evaluation units, ranges and state of the art facilities, the U.S. defense research and development apparatus but the Missile Engagement Simulation Arena (MESA) is one of the strangest. Essentially, the U.S. Government built a giant sound stage to shoot films only missiles are...

Apr 19, 2025

It's Up To You To Pick NASA's Next Spacesuit

Remember how pissed you were that NASA didn't even TRY to contact you before they retired the ? Well, they've learned their lesson, because now they're reaching out to you to help them with something tricky: spacesuit! NASA's new Z-2 suit is, as the name implies, the second development in...

Apr 19, 2025

The Massive Soviet Sub That Inspired 'Hunt For Red October'

Massive and oddly innovative, yet at the same time totally antiquated by western standards, the Soviet built ballistic missile nuclear submarine, code named "Typhoon" by NATO, was in many ways a perfect metaphor for the USSR's military capability during the 1980s and thus the perfect fodder for informed fiction. Built...

Apr 19, 2025