Aircraft & Propulsion

The Pentagon has many ideas about running the F-35’s upgrade program. It needs to pick one and stick with it.

The U.S. Air Force wants to keep its bomber program under wraps. There are at least six reasons why that’s a bad idea.

Two Western fighter houses are in the best position to challenge the F-35 in the 2020s. Can their rivals hang in there too?

As the wheels come off India’s plans to build Rafales, Brazil’s Gripen program moves carefully forward.

Star Wars lasers were intended to hit things that missiles could not touch. The new generation exploits different characteristics.

The U.S. likes to talk about international defense partnerships, but the reality is that the home industry’s interests always come first.

Marine leaders believe that their JSF will be a war-winner. They should be given a chance to show how their plans will work.

The story of the Navy’s stealth unmanned air vehicle has taken some new turns. Is a secret project behind the changes?

Don’t look at what new Pentagon projects look like this year. Worry about how to pay for them in the 2020s.

The Navy wants to fix the Littoral Combat Ship, but the changes are so extensive that it might make more sense to start over.

It looks as if the F-35 could meet its key performance parameter requirements, but that is a narrow definition of success.

Selling military airplanes is not just about hardware. It is the start of a decades-long relationship.

USAF is taking a serious look at reengining the Boeing B-52. The question is not whether it makes sense, but why it hasn’t been done.

This expanded issue of Aviation Week’s Defense Technology International edition is the first of a series planned to coincide with major defense shows worldwide. This week, the Association of the U.S. Army convention and show opens in Washington—an event that grew rapidly during the 2000s as the U.S. committed soldiers and weapons to the longest land conflict in its history.

The current security policy all but guarantees that the Air Force won’t get its new, Long Range Strike Bomber.

The nuclear establishment is returning from a long procurement holiday

Only mushrooms thrive in the dark

The ghost behind the airpower debate

Subs, missile defense and Scotland

F-35 reliability is about more than Farnborough

B oeing briefed reporters on the U.S. Army-led Joint Multi-Role rotorcraft project (photo) in Mesa, Arizona, late last month.

Ground force technology aims at mobility

Does the U.S. need a new rocket engine?

Air show plans highlight F-35B runway issues

Not talking won’t make subs go away