Military aviation news

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has awarded a three-year contract to Spirit Aerosystems to build an unmanned fighter code named “Loyal Wingman” worth £30m. The contract will see a prototype for the unmanned aircraft designed and built at the former Bombardier site in Belfast, Northern Ireland and will support 100 [read more]

Christmas has come early for a World War II Spitfire pilot whose stolen heirloom – a photograph of him flying a Spitfire – has been replaced by the RAF. Dr Edmund James, the last surviving pilot of his Squadron, had a photograph of him flying a Spitfire stolen earlier this [read more]

RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland has been announced by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) as the UK’s home for the E-7 Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning & Control Aircraft (AEW&C) aircraft. The MOD placed an order for five of the Boeing 737-700NG based surveillance aircraft in 2019 will replace the Boeing E-3D [read more]

A US Navy contingent, including Poseidon and F-35 aircraft, have this week been training with the Royal Air Force in Scotland. RAF Lossiemouth, where the RAF’s recently acquired P-8A Poseidon aircraft are based, has been hosting the US detachment as part of “training and maritime security tasks”. The RAF declined [read more]

Boeing has successfully completed the first test of its MQ-25 T1 Automated Aerial Refuelling Store. The 2 1/2 hour test flight was conducted in partnership with the US Navy and was designed to test the aerodynamics of the vehicle using the underwing mounted Cobham Aerial Refuelling System (ARS). The Cobham [read more]

Several Typhoons and more than 130 RAF personnel have arrived for what will be the first joint exercise for No.12 RAF Squadron in Qatar. The two-week Epic Skies exercise will see pilots from the Royal Air Force and the Qatar Emiri Air Force (QEAF) fly and maintain the Typhoon, while [read more]

On Saturday (28th November) RAF Typhoons were launched from RAF Lossiemouth to intercept two Russian Tu-142 Bear F aircraft. The Typhoons, which were scrambled to intercept the Russian reconnaissance aircraft, were joined by a Voyager air-to-air refuelling aircraft from RAF Brize Norton. The Tupolev Tu-142, NATO reporting name Bear F, [read more]

A Chinese H-6N Bomber coming into land was recently filmed by aviation spotter, nothing exciting in itself but it was what was underneath that has sparked interest, and fear in the western world. The images show a large missile attached to the underside of the aircraft which has the tell-tale [read more]