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South Korea’s KF-21 Boramae fighter jet has received final combat suitability approval from the Ministry of National Defense, clearing the indigenous aircraft for operational deployment after more than a decade of development and over 1,600 test flights covering roughly 13,000 flight test conditions. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration announced Thursday that the KF-21 Block-I, the […]View the full article

Türkiye has signed a definitive procurement contract for its KAAN fifth-generation fighter jet, committing to the delivery of 20 aircraft to the Türkiye Air Force between 2028 and the end of 2030. The contract covers 20 KAAN aircraft in the Block-10 configuration, with the first delivery planned for 2028 and the full batch scheduled for […]View the full article

San Diego drone startup Firestorm Labs has secured a $30 million contract under the Pentagon’s Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies program to deploy its 3D-printed Tempest Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and the containerized microfactories that produce them into the Indo-Pacific, the company announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic. The APFIT award, […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded a $9 million contract to Ohio-based ARCTOS Technology Solutions to develop next-generation aerothermoelastic structures technologies for high-speed airbreathing vehicles, a research program that addresses one of the most demanding unsolved engineering problems in hypersonic flight. The contract, awarded competitively after two offers were received, runs through June […]View the full article

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has awarded Lockheed Martin a $407 million contract modification to continue engineering and development work on the Aegis Guam System, pushing the total value of the underlying Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Weapon Systems contract past $1.9 billion. The modification covers work running through December 2029. Lockheed Martin’s Moorestown, New Jersey […]View the full article

Poland’s twelfth F-35 has completed ground and flight testing and is ready for delivery, Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz announced on X, adding that production of the next four aircraft is nearing completion at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth, Texas factory. The announcement, posted directly by Kosiniak-Kamysz on his official […]View the full article

Redwire has delivered more than 200 Penguin uncrewed aerial systems to the Ukrainian Armed Forces since 2022, the company announced in its latest social media post. The disclosure, posted by Redwire on its official social media account, marks one of the more concrete public tallies of a Western UAS platform’s operational footprint in Ukraine. More […]View the full article

Will The F-14 Fly Again? Maverick Act Passes U.S. Senate 😃🫣

Russia claims it has doubled combat aircraft production since the start of the war in Ukraine, defense heavyweight Rostec chief Sergei Chemezov told President Vladimir Putin at a meeting, according to the Kremlin’s official website. Chemezov made the claim directly to President Vladimir Putin at a formal meeting, according to the Kremlin’s official website. The doubling […]View the full article

Turkish defense company STM has unveiled ALPAGU-B, a larger fixed-wing loitering munition with a 40-kilometer line-of-sight range and artificial intelligence-powered target tracking, making its global debut at SAHA 2026. STM, formally known as STM Savunma Teknolojileri Mühendislik ve Ticaret A.Ş., describes ALPAGU-B as the newest member of its fixed-wing loitering munition family and a direct […]View the full article

Turkey unveiled its first domestically built mini-submarine at SAHA Expo 2026, a milestone that Istanbul Technical University-based defense company Datum Submarine Technologies announced after completing the vessel’s first dive tests off the coast of Karamürsel on April 14, 2026. The Multi-Purpose Mini Submarine, developed with support from Turkey’s Presidency of Defense Industries, completed assembly at […]View the full article

The U.S. government threw open its classified UFO files on Friday, releasing never-before-seen documents, videos, and photos through a new interagency program and making them freely accessible to any American with an internet connection — no security clearance required. The Department of War announced the initial release as part of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting […]View the full article

The U.S. Army is sending high-altitude balloons over northern Europe this month, launching a Micro High-Altitude Balloon training exercise from Sweden that will conclude with recovery operations in Latvia after roughly 24 to 30 hours of flight. Soldiers assigned to Multi-Domain Command Europe are conducting the event in early May 2026 in coordination with NATO […]View the full article

Thing about Lou is that just a few years before, he was just another dude trying to figure it all out. Instead, he became something even a fiction writer would have trouble making up; 1 of only 3 US Aces to claim kills agains all 3 Axis powers, (3 main powers: Germany, Japan & Italy). The ONLY one to shoot down a USAAF plane as well, and definitely the only one to shoot down his girl friend He was a POW for awhile to boot. There are a lot of stories out there about Lou, but this one from AcesOfWWII catches it about right; Lt. Curdes was circling low over one of his P-51 pilots who was bobbing in his dinghy just off Jap field Batan Island. Another pilot whose plane had the lowest gas in his tanks headed for home. A fourth plane was circling at 20,000 feet sending out a distress signal. It had been a fairly good day, as fighter Mission days over Formosa go. Curdes’ flight had knocked down two planes over the target, Curdes getting his first Nip since he came to the Pacific from the MTO last December. They had blasted three more on the ground at Batan before flak caught one of his flight. Curdes looked down to the tossing dinghy and figured the chances of a Catalina coming in for a rescue before dark. It was getting along towards mid- afternoon, and the nights come fairly early off northern Luzon in the middle of February. Suddenly, Curdes noticed a black speck coming from the southwest toward a Jap landing strip at Batan. Then the speck became a dead ringer for a C-47. And, as the wheels came down on the transport, Curdes saw the American markings. “Those damned Japs have patched up one of our buggies and didn’t even have the grace to take the markings off” Curdes figured as he wheeled about to give the visitor a closer look. Then he read a familiar number on the tail. It was the number of one of the “Jungle Skippers.” At this point, the Jap ack-ack, opened up at Curdes’ P-51 but not at the transport. A quick run of thinking convinced Curdes there was only one thing to do since the plane would be Jap property as soon as it landed, if it was not already. The P-51 banked steeply, head on into the flak, and opened up with its fifties on the C-47’s right engine. As the transport headed out to sea, with one engine gone, Curdes made a 180 degree turn and cut loose on the other engine. The C-47 settled into the water within yards of the downed fighter pilot’s dinghy. Curdes dived in to do a little strafing after all occupants of the transport climbed aboard life rafts, but he observed in time that the survivors were white. So he went back to his low level circling. His water bound charges had grown from one to thirteen. When darkness fell and still no help had arrived, Curdes figured all would be safe until dawn and returned to his base. The next morning before daylight, he and his wingman took off. And they were circling over the survivors when a rescue Catalina arrived to pick them up. Back at base, Curdes learned that the C-47 had been American manned with 12 occupants including two Army nurses. The pilot had become lost during a flight from Art island in the southern Philippines and had been forced to head for the nearest visible strip because of a fuel shortage. Curdes gave a start and a shout when he glanced at the names of the survivors. One of the nurses was the “date” he had been with the night before at Lingayen. “Jeepers,” He exclaimed, “seven 109’s and one Macci in North Africa, one Jap, and one Yank in the Pacific -- and to top it, I have to go out and shoot down the girl friend.” A few weeks’ later, Captain Louis E. Curdes of the 4th Fighter Squadron. Third Air Commando Group was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for shooting down a C-47. Captain Louis E. Curdes was assigned to the 95th Fighter Squadron, 82nd Fighter Group. He was reassigned to the 4th Fighter Squadron, 3rd Air Commando Group (1945) where he flew the P-51), “BAD ANGEL”. A Jap flag and U.S. flag were added to the seven German and one Italian markings on the fuselage of his Mustang. Curdes made wheels up forced landing on a beach South of Naples, Italy in August 1943 when he ran low on fuel trying to return to N. Africa. He was interned as a Prisoner of War until October 1943. He escaped twice and evaded capture for about eight months before returning through enemy lines on May 27, 1944. Some say he got a DFC for downing that C-47, but that is bad gouge. He has two, but not for that. Retired in 1963 as a LtCol. Good work, good career - GREAT PIC. first posted SEP2016.Leave a comment Share This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. View the full article

Huntington Ingalls Industries has secured nearly $37 million to keep its Lionfish underwater drone rolling off the production line, with the U.S. Navy exercising a contract option that locks in delivery through May 2027. The Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington awarded the $36,9 million modification to HII’s Unmanned Systems division on the existing contract […]View the full article

Slovenia’s Valhalla Turrets unveiled the MANGART 25 AD short-range air defense turret in its most operationally significant configuration yet, presenting the system integrated on a Patria 8×8 wheeled armored vehicle during a ceremony marking the Slovenian Armed Forces Air Defence Regiment’s 35th anniversary. The company announced the milestone on Friday, describing it as the first […]View the full article

Pakistan publicly unveiled the Fatah-3 supersonic cruise missile, a road-mobile precision strike weapon that pushes the country’s Fatah missile family into a new performance tier and positions Islamabad with a direct regional counter to India’s BrahMos, according to reporting by Clash Report. The Fatah-3 has been identified as a localized derivative of China’s HD-1 missile […]View the full article

Yuma Test Center has installed and fired a Proof Gun System for the first time, giving the U.S. Army a dedicated artillery testing platform that can swap gun tubes in and out without ever needing a complete howitzer on the range. The Proof Gun System was developed by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command […]View the full article

Helsing, a German AI defense company, has conducted the first launch of its HX-2 strike drone from a coastal vessel in the waters off Plymouth, UK, the company announced, marking a new operational environment for a system it has been developing and deploying on the battlefield in Ukraine. The trial took place off a fast […]View the full article

Saab UK has completed its 100th Giraffe 1X radar at its Fareham facility and opened a new Integration and Verification testing facility at the same site, the company announced. The Fareham site in Hampshire serves as Saab’s UK centre of excellence for radar engineering, supporting production of the Giraffe 1X alongside the Giraffe AMB and […]View the full article

GM Defense took to social media to show off its Infantry Squad Vehicle’s sling load capability, posting footage of two ISVs being transported simultaneously by a CH-47 Chinook helicopter during training at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in March 29, as part of preparations for Operation Pathways 2026. The exercise involved soldiers from Alpha Company, 2nd […]View the full article

Aerostats, the tethered observation balloons that most people associate with World War II convoy protection, are getting a serious second look from the U.S. Army as a platform for counter-drone defense. One company’s second-generation tactical aerostat is now being evaluated as the foundation for a complete anti-drone architecture that could eventually carry and launch drone […]View the full article

Iranian forces attacked three U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers transiting the Strait of Hormuz on May 7 with missiles, drones, and small boats, and U.S. forces struck back, hitting Iranian missile and drone launch sites, command and control locations, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance nodes. U.S. Central Command announced that USS Truxtun (DDG 103), USS Rafael […]View the full article

The U.S. Army is evaluating a low-cost counter-drone system developed by SAIC in collaboration with Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace, installed on a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle chassis during Project Flytrap in Lithuania. The system, known as the Reconfigurable Air Defense system or RAD, is being tested as part of Project Flytrap, a counter-UAS exercise running […]View the full article

Northrop Grumman announced on May 7 that the B-21 Raider Combined Test Force cut its 180-day test plan to 73 days and secured $11.8 billion, with half the missions completed. “The B-21 Raider Combined Test Force, a partnership with the U.S. Air Force, cut a 180-day test plan to 73 days, securing $11.8B with half […]View the full article