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President Donald Trump says he plans to sign an executive order that would compel the U.S. Navy to use steam-powered catapults and hydraulic elevators on new aircraft carriers. Trump has railed against the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) catapults and Advanced Weapons Elevators (AWE) on the USS Gerald R. Ford, the Navy’s newest supercarrier, for years now. Ford‘s catapults and elevators have faced reliability and maintenance issues, but swapping out these features, even just for future ships in the class, would involve an extremely costly and time-consuming redesign that would further delay new carriers entering service.

Trump announced his intention to issue an executive order regarding carrier catapults and weapons elevators during often free-wheeling remarks to servicemembers aboard the Nimitz class carrier USS George Washington earlier today. The George Washington is currently in port in Yokosuka, Japan, where it is forward deployed. The President is in Japan as part of a larger tour of Asia.

The Navy currently has 10 Nimitz class carriers, which have steam-powered catapults and hydraulic weapons elevators. In addition to the in-service USS Gerald R. Ford, there are three more Ford class carriers now in various stages of construction. The Navy’s stated plan has been to eventually acquire at least 10 Ford class flattops to replace the Nimitz class.

“I’m putting out an order, I’m going to sign an executive order, when we build aircraft carriers, it’s steam for the catapults and it’s hydraulic for the elevators,” Trump said after suggesting, without elaborating, that water could disable Ford‘s electromagnetic systems. “We’ll never have a problem.”

“I’m gonna put in an order, seriously,” the President also said. “They’re spending billions of dollars to build stupid electric. And the problem, when it breaks, you have to send up to MIT, get the most brilliant people in the world, fly them out. The steam, they said they can fix it with a hammer and blowtorch. And it works just as well, if not better.”

“They had steam, which worked so beautifully, and it has for 50 years, right? So we’re gonna go back. Seriously, fellas, I want to make that change. I’m gonna do an executive order,” he added. “I’m not going to let them continue to do this thing. They’re trying to make it work, they’re trying so hard, and they have something that’s perfect. So we’re going to go back on that and the magnets.”

As noted, this is hardly the first time Trump has criticized the Ford class design’s electromagnetic catapults and elevators, stretching back all the way to his first term. In 2017, he also indicated that he would order the Navy to abandon those features, but never followed through. If an executive order on this matter is now indeed coming, what it will actually direct the service to do remains to be seen.

TWZ has reached out to the White House, the Pentagon, and the Navy in regards to Trump’s remarks. The Pentagon redirected us to the Navy.

There is real truth behind the President’s criticisms about the catapults and weapons elevators on Ford, which is also known by its hull number CVN-78. TWZ has covered the issues with both of these systems, as well as other long-troubled aspects of the ship’s design, in detail for years now. The Navy has been working to mitigate these problems, but has continued to face challenges at least as recently as last year.

During Ford‘s first full-length deployment between May 2023 to January 2024, “the ship and its embarked air wing completed 8,725 catapult launches using the EMALS,” according to the most recent annual report from the Pentagon’s Office of the Director of Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), which was published earlier this year. “However, DOT&E has not received sufficient data to update the reliability statistics reported in the FY23 [Fiscal Year 2023] Annual Report. Despite engineering upgrades to hardware and software, reliability has not appreciably changed from prior years and reliance on off-ship technical support remains a challenge. NAVAIR [Naval Air Systems Command] is continuing development on improvements.”

“The Navy reported that, during CVN 78’s deployment, the ship’s weapons department conducted 11,369 AWE runs, moving 1,829,580 pounds of ordnance to the flight deck. However, the Navy has yet to build and transfer ordnance to the flight deck at rates reflective of the Design Reference Mission,” DOT&E’s report also said. “Of note, the crew is reliant on off-ship technical support for correction of
hardware and software failures. DOT&E expects the SGR [sortie generation rate] tests [planned for Fiscal Year 2025] to be the first operationally representative demonstration of high ordnance throughput.”

In principle, EMALS, together with the Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG), is supposed to give Ford class carriers a significant boost in capability over their predecessors when it comes to the speed at which they can launch and recover aircraft. The software-controlled EMALS and AAG, the latter of which has also faced issues over the years, have lower reset times than the steam-powered systems found on Nimitz class carriers.

The EMALS and AAG can also be more fine-tuned in terms of the forces they exert on aircraft during launch and recovery, expanding the range of types they can accommodate and adding additional margins of safety. This notably helps open the door for embarking smaller and more fragile types on Ford class carriers in the future. This flexibility could be particularly critical for supporting carrier-based drone operations down the line. Wear and tear on individual aircraft can also be reduced.

The electromagnetic AWEs are intended to further help improve the overall efficiency of flight operations on Ford by reducing the time it takes to get ordnance and other stores to where they need to go.

As DOT&E has made clear, however, the EMALS and AWEs, as well as the AAG, have yet to live up to their full potential, despite Ford now being regularly deployed, including in support of combat operations.

There is something of a precedent for significant changes to the Ford class design. The USS Gerald R. Ford is now set to be the only ship in the class with another long-troubled feature, a Dual Band Radar (DBR) system, which you can read more about here. All future ships in the class are now set to have a variant of the Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR) in place of the DBR.

That being said, replacing the EMALS (and likely the AAG as a result) and the AWEs on the Ford, or any of the other ships in the class currently under construction, would be an immensely more complicated, costly, and time-consuming proposition. The catapults and elevators are far more deeply integrated into the core structure of the ship than the DBR. Even just changing the design for future carriers in the class would be extremely complex. A hybrid arrangement involving a mix of steam and EMALS capabilities might be an option, but would then create two systems that need to be integrated together, as well as sustained once operational.

Delivery of additional Ford class carriers has already been significantly delayed. The prospective delivery date for the second ship in the class, the future USS John F. Kennedy, has already slipped to March 2027, nearly three years later than originally expected. The Navy told USNI News earlier this year that it is looking for ways to shift that timetable back to the left.

Any massive changes to the underlying Ford class design of the ships could easily have cascading effects in that regard, on top of cost growth and other issues. This, in turn, could upend Navy plans for replacing retiring Nimitz class carriers at a time when the service’s carrier fleet overall has been under particular strain due to high operational demands in recent years. Just last week, the Pentagon ordered Ford to cut its scheduled cruise in Europe short and set sail for the Caribbean to support expanded counter-drug operations in that part of the world.

Beyond just his vocal opposition to Ford‘s electromagnetic catapults and weapons elevators, Trump has a long history of being particularly outspoken when it comes to U.S. naval ship design and force planning, as well as the aesthetics of those vessels.

Last Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the White House and the Navy are in the early stages of hashing out a larger naval force restructuring plan for what has been termed a future “Golden Fleet.”

“Specifically, the White House and the Pentagon are in early talks about building a heavily armored, next-generation ship that could weigh as much as 15,000-20,000 tons and carry more powerful weapons, even potentially hypersonic missiles, in larger numbers than current destroyers and cruisers, the current and former officials said,” according to that report.

This lends some credence to off-hand comments from Trump back in September, where he claimed to be talking with Navy Secretary John Phelan about adding “battleships” with gun-centric armament and heavily armored hulls back into America’s combat fleets. In TWZ‘s deep analysis of Trump’s remarks at the time, we highlighted that battleship-like arsenal ships primarily packed with Vertical Launch System (VLS) cells have been proposed as part of the Navy’s future force structure on various occasions in the past.

The Golden Fleet plans, at least as they exist now, also reportedly put heavy emphasis on uncrewed vessels as part of a “barbell-shaped” overall force structure, “with large ships at one end and small ships at the other,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

It is also worth noting here that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has skipped steam-powered catapults entirely in its carrier force plans. The PLAN has moved straight from short take-off, but arrested recovery (STOBAR) carriers with ski jump bows, and no catapults at all, to the new EMALS-equipped Fujian. China’s new supersized Type 076 amphibious assault ship also has a single catapult, which is understood to be an EMALS type.

Pretoria Drever and Rhonan Kelly said they were “absolutely gutted” to miss their trip to Amsterdam but felt they “probably would’ve died” had they stayed on the KLM plane

A British couple claim they had no choice but to leave their aircraft and miss their holiday despite boarding — as staff “ignored” their nut allergies.

Pretoria Drever and Rhonan Kelly say KLM flight attendants continued to hand out free almond-topped cakes, even though they had told employees of their airborne allergies. Despite again raising their concerns after boarding, the couple decided they had no option but to disembark and miss their holiday to Amsterdam booked for Rhonan’s 25th birthday.

KLM says it “cannot control or prohibit other passengers” from eating products that contain — or may contain — nuts during flights. It did, though, state staff do request tourists refrain from doing so by delivering onboard announcements upon boarding.

But the situation at the gate at Edinburgh Airport on Saturday October 25 became so concerning for the couple, they felt “backed into a corner” and left the aircraft.

READ MORE: NHS ‘you must avoid’ warning to anyone experiencing common Covid symptomREAD MORE: Virgin Atlantic passenger with severe allergy was horrified to see dessert on flight

Rhonan, who recently got engaged to Pretoria, said: “I’ve never felt so discriminated against in all my life. I honestly believe if we took off on that flight and they served the nuts they’d have taken an emergency landing in London or we’d have probably died on the flight.

“When we book a holiday, we always double check with the airline [about our allergies]. We asked if they’d put an announcement out to ask passengers not to open anything if they do have nuts in them and if they could not sell nuts on the plane.

“Even the menu for that day was meant to be a cookie but when we got on the plane it was a banana loaf with almonds and nuts on it. The manager on the plane was saying ‘we’re not going to stop selling [nut products]. We spoke to KLM Amsterdam and they’ve told us to go ahead with selling the nut products and they can’t put an announcement out’. They said if we don’t like it, we have to basically not fly.

“I was angry but it was very embarrassing. I felt as if I was backed into a corner because no matter what we said or did, we knew we weren’t going to win.

“The pilot said that basically they need to carry out a service for what everybody’s paid for but I paid for it as well. I feel quite disgusted that an airline would do something like that.”

Although staff allegedly told Pretoria and Rhonan EpiPens were onboard, the couple felt this was not sufficient because it is only a short-term measure and typically effective until paramedics help.

Now, having missed the two-day trip, Pretoria and Rhonan, from Bellshill, Lanarkshire, hope to get a refund from KLM, the flag carrier of the Netherlands. They say they declared their allergy to nuts and peanuts on an online form, and arrived two hours early to Edinburgh Airport so they could alert staff on Saturday.

“I was absolutely gutted [to miss out on the trip] It’s put me off using that airline again and it’s actually putting the fear in me flying. I have to build myself up to be able to go on a plane. I know the air is circulated and I know that’s the chance I take,” Rhonan added.

Pretoria, who works in car insurance, admitted she could go into anaphylactic shock within just two minutes of nut exposure because of her airborne allergy and the experience has put her off flying.

Pretoria said: “Before we got on the flight, I had such bad anxiety about flying but I thought ‘it’s only an hour and a half’. But it was the worst experience ever.

“It made me feel I was different to everyone else. It was humiliating getting off the plane and as if we were less than everyone else, as if we’ve paid less so we should be leaving.

“But we obviously paid the same as every other passenger. It made me feel rubbish and unwanted. No-one even stuck us for us or said ‘I won’t eat that so they can fly’.

“They were putting our safety at risk. There’s two of us but 190 passengers so that’s the whole air with nuts in it, it was horrible. I’ll never fly with them again and it’s put me off flying ever again.”

A KLM spokesman said: “We are sorry to hear about the experience Mr. Kelly and Ms. Drever had prior to their flight from Edinburgh to Amsterdam.

“We understand how serious nut allergies can be and how distressing this situation must have been for them. When a passenger informs our crew about a nut allergy, we can make an onboard announcement kindly requesting fellow passengers to keep nut-containing products sealed for the duration of the flight.

“However, we cannot control or prohibit other passengers from consuming products that may contain nuts during the flight. While we do our utmost to support passengers with allergies, we unfortunately cannot guarantee a nut-free environment on board.

“More information can be found on our website: https://www.klm.nl/en/information/travel-class-extra-options/dietary-meals We regret that Mr. Kelly and Ms. Drever felt they had no choice but to leave the aircraft, and we understand their disappointment.”

U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested that contaminated fuel may have been a factor in the U.S. Navy’s loss of an MH-60R Seahawk helicopter and an F/A-18F Super Hornet in the South China Sea on Sunday. In a very strange chain of events, the two aircraft, both assigned to the supercarrier USS Nimitz, went down within 30 minutes of each other while on separate missions. The crews of the Seahawk and the Super Hornet were both safely retrieved.

“They’re gonna let me know pretty soon,” Trump told reporters while flying aboard Air Force One on Monday. “I think they should be able to find out. It could be bad fuel. I mean, it’s possible it’s bad fuel. Very unusual that that would happen.”

Asked whether he thought “foul play” led to the crashes, Trump said “I don’t think so,” and reiterated his contaminated fuel theory. 

“We don’t believe it was anything nefarious,” a U.S. Navy official told The War Zone.

U.S. Pacific Fleet (PACFLEET), which oversees naval operations in the South China Sea region, declined to comment on Trump’s statements about the crashes and referred us to the White House. We have yet to receive a response and will update this story with any pertinent information provided.

The first of the two mishaps occurred about 2:45 PM local time, according to PACFLEET.

That’s when the Seahawk, assigned to the “Battle Cats” of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 73 (HSM-73), “went down in the waters of the South China Sea while conducting routine operations from” the Nimitz, a PACFLEET release stated. “Search and rescue assets assigned to Carrier Strike Group 11 safely recovered all three crew members.”

A half hour later, an F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter assigned to the “Fighting Redcocks” of Strike Fighter Squadron 22 (VFA-22) “also went down in the waters of the South China Sea while conducting routine operations from Nimitz,” PACFLEET announced. “Both crew members successfully ejected and were also safely recovered by search and rescue assets assigned to Carrier Strike Group 11. All personnel involved are safe and in stable condition. The cause of both incidents is currently under investigation.”

While the particular circumstances of the recent mishaps in the South China Sea remain under investigation, fuel contaminated with water and/or other foreign substances, or that otherwise falls below specifications, can present serious problems for aircraft, including causing engines to fail in flight. Checking fuel quality is a common part of an investigation following any aviation mishap, military or civilian.

In addition, carrier-based aviation operations present unique conditions when it comes to the transfer of fuel, both into storage tanks on the ship to begin with, which can occur while the carrier is underway at sea, as well as in port, and then into aircraft. Personnel aboard all Navy carriers perform regular fuel quality checks at multiple steps in the fuel distribution process.

Trump’s comments about the mishaps came as the President is traveling throughout Asia. He is scheduled to have a meeting on Thursday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to discuss trade issues.

Nimitz, the Navy’s oldest carrier, is on its final cruise before its planned decommissioning next year. The flattop is currently in the process of returning to its home port in Naval Base Kitsap in Washington State after having been deployed to the Middle East for most of the summer, primarily as part of the U.S. response to attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on commercial shipping.

Also known by its hull number CVN-68, the Nimitz, which was first commissioned into service in 1975, is the lead ship in its class. The vessel’s design built on the Navy’s prior experience with its pioneering nuclear-powered supercarrier, the one-of-a-kind USS Enterprise (CVN-65), which served from 1961 to 2012.

The Navy began preparing for the Nimitz’s demise in 2023, which you can read more about here. The Newport News Shipbuilding division of Huntington Ingalls Industries has received multiple contracts already to begin laying the groundwork for removing the nuclear fuel from the carrier’s reactors and other aspects of the disposal process.

Whether contaminated fuel turns out to be a factor in, or even the root cause of the Seahawk and Super Hornet going down in the South China Sea, remains to be seen. U.S. military aviation accidents typically take weeks if not months to complete.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Details remain scant about an unspecified U.S. Air Force aircraft, widely believed to be a drone of some kind, which came down in southern Nevada not far from Area 51 nearly two weeks ago. Whether the aircraft was ever actually inside Area 51’s highly restricted airspace, also known as “The Box,” is unknown. The mishap prompted authorities to temporarily close the airspace above the crash site, with some exemptions, while the wreckage was cleared. In a bizarre twist of events, the Air Force has publicly disclosed that it and the FBI are now investigating apparent strange tampering at the crash site afterward.

“On September 23, 2025, an aircraft assigned to the 432nd Wing was involved in an incident with no fatalities or injuries,” the Wing’s public affairs said in a release regarding the incident on October 4. ” The site was secured and guarded until recovery and cleanup operations were completed on September 27th.”

The 432nd Wing is headquartered at Creech Air Force Base. The flying squadrons assigned to the 432nd are primarily equipped with MQ-9 Reaper drones, but this is not the only type of aircraft the wing operates, as we will come back to later on.

“During a follow-on site survey on October 3rd, investigators discovered signs of tampering at the mishap location, including the presence of an inert training bomb body and an aircraft panel of unknown origin that were placed on the site post-incident,” the release put out this past weekend added. “The matter is under investigation by Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) and the FBI. No further details are available at this time.”

Officials at Creech had previously confirmed a connection to the incident, and that there had been no fatalities, injuries, or property damage as a result of the crash, in statements to various local news outlets. They also said that an investigation into the mishap was underway. TWZ reached out to Creech today for any updates, and authorities there said they had no further comment at this time.

The Air Force has not confirmed the exact location of the crash site. However, it appears to have been around 12 miles to the east of the security boundary around the top-secret flight test center at Groom Lake in Nevada, better known as Area 51, and some 24 and a half miles from the facility itself. This is based on the coordinates at center of airspace restrictions that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed between September 23 and October 1. The TFR, the center of which was also roughly 57 miles to the northeast of Creech, extended five nautical miles in all directions and covered all airspace up to 15,000 mean sea level (MSL).

The only reason the FAA gave for imposing the TFR was “national security.” The Radar Approach Control at Nellis Air Force Base, further to the southeast of Creech, was listed as a point of contact for pilots. TWZ has reached out to FAA for more information.

The TFR had quickly caught the attention of plane spotters and others due to the curious circumstances and its proximity to Area 51. As mentioned, no connection between the incident and Area 51 has so far been confirmed. The coordinates at the center of the TFR were also on the edge of part of the sprawling ranges managed by authorities at Nellis Air Force Base, further to the south.

In a live stream on September 23, Joerg Arnu, a long-time Area 51 researcher, webmaster of the site Dreamland Resort, and local resident, said he believed the aircraft that went down had come from Creech and had been associated with an especially large exercise in the area, but also that he did not know for sure. Arnu subsequently visited the apparent crash site after recovery efforts ended on September 27, as seen in the video below.

The Air Force has confirmed the Creech connection, but little else.

As noted, most of the units at Creech fly MQ-9s, but Reaper crashes are hardly uncommon, and the drone is very much a known quantity after nearly two decades of Air Force service. While a Reaper’s particular configuration, or the stores it may have been carrying, could be very sensitive, one of these drones going down seems unlikely to have prompted this level of secrecy. This is underscored by what the service has disclosed about MQ-9 crashes at home and abroad over the years, even when there are certain operational sensitivities.

Creech is also home to the secretive 30th and 44th Reconnaissance Squadrons, which are the only units confirmed to date as operators of RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drones. Whether or not those squadrons, or any others based at Creech, fly other types of drones, including ones that may not yet have come out into the light, is unknown. RQ-170s do participate in exercises, especially in the ranges around Nellis.

Transient aircraft, crewed and uncrewed, also regularly fly in and out of Creech, but the Air Force has said explicitly that whatever went down belonged with the 432nd Wing.

What the Air Force has shared about possible tampering at the crash site after the fact, as is the basic disclosure that the service is investigating that in cooperation with the FBI. The statement from the 432nd Wing makes clear that the site was only secured and under guard until recovery and cleanup operations were finished, raising questions about what concerns there might be around any tampering afterward, in general. Things do fall off of aircraft, especially in the USAF’s premier range complex, although the timing would seem odd in this case for these objects to appear so soon after the mishap. Still, coincidences happen, but what may have been unique or peculiar about these objects, such as their age, origin, and placement, is unclear.

It remains to be seen what additional details may emerge as the investigations into the mishap and possible tampering of the crash site after the fact proceed.

Howard Altman contributed to this story.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Right above the shores of Huntington Beach, a retired American subsonic T-33 fighter jet darted across the blue canvas of a clear afternoon sky, leaving a spiraling plume of smoke in its wake.

The aeronautical scene is a familiar sight in the coastal city this time of year. The Pacific Airshow, an annual three-day civilian and military aerobatic display that touts advanced maneuvers and aerial military might, has drawn thousands of aviation enthusiasts to Huntington Beach and the Australian Gold Coast since its inception in 2016.

Janet Cardena, who has attended every Pacific Airshow, said experiencing the raw physical power of the planes keeps her coming back.

“I’m down by the water and I feel the jets while they do their flyover, and the rumble — your body shakes like a building when there’s an earthquake,” Cardena said. “Then the smell of the gas. …It’s amazing for me.”

However, this year, there was a notable force of nature and technology missing from the spectacle.

Due to the congressional deadlock over the budget and subsequent federal shutdown, the U.S. military — perhaps the most prominent Pacific Airshow draw — would not be in attendance over the October 3-5 weekend.

“We have been advised that U.S. military assets will not be able to participate in this year’s event,” Airshow Director Kevin Elliott said in a statement. “While this is certainly disappointing news, we are excited to share that Pacific Airshow Huntington Beach will continue as scheduled.”

People line the beach to watch the Grumman Albatross Water Landing aircraft during the Pacific Airshow.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

To some, the sky might as well have fallen.

“When we’re trying to bring our kids out here to have fun, and I’m like, ‘well, sorry, no Marine Corps planes,’ it’s pretty disappointing,” said Ryan, a former Marine who chose not to share his last name out of privacy concerns. “I was in the invasion of Iraq, and so we had a lot of fixed wings coming over, dropping bombs, so I tend to get kind of emotional.”

The Pacific Airshow has had its fair share of hitches before — many outside of organizer’s control. Last year, viewers were subject to a thick marine layer that clouded the skies and nearly obstructed the view of the few planes that still went up. In 2021, an oil spill off the coast of Huntington Beach forced a cancellation of the last day of the weekend.

This year, the show went on, though without what many believe is the main attraction. There was still a beachful of attendees, staring at the sky in anxious anticipation of the intestine-rattling blast of plane engines from not-so-far above.

The Canadian Forces Snowbirds fly in formation over the Huntington Beach Pier on Friday.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

The British Royal Air Force and Canadian Armed Forces acted as substitutes for the U.S. Air Force, some members of which strolled around the event uniformed and at booths hosting pull-up challenges and recruitment efforts near the food vendors.

“That’s one thing I do miss, is the scene where the F-35s and the Thunderbirds play,” said Janet Kondos, an Air Force veteran. “It is what it is, they got to do what they have to do.”

Royal Air Force paratroopers drew a grand applause after a coordinated display of parachute work that saw them float down to the shores. After a Red Bull aerobatic helicopter improbably flipped over its rotor and pulled itself out of a dive at the last second, a group of children near the shore started imitating the maneuver in somersaults.

Emma McDonald, an Australian pilot who flew a petite Extra 300L aerobatics plane, darted directly into the sky at a near-90-degree angle about midway through the program, which caused the audience to hold their collective breath as the aircraft plateaued. McDonald yanked the plane from an upright position and tumbled over into a glide, drawing gasps that transformed into cheers.

“That’s it!” one attendee shouted. “Keep it up!”

A crowd formed on the beach to watch the Pacific Airshow on the first day Friday.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

Although there was little American military spirit in the sky, the patriotic spirit on the ground was indelible, reminiscent of a Fourth of July celebration. Children ran and played in the water, couples with full beach setups caught a slight buzz in the sweltering heat and American flags decorated the sands like a planet conquered.

“We did the Miramar Air Show before and they had a whole Marine Corps infantry display where they get off the helicopters and then they do the whole attack,” Ryan said. “It would be pretty cool with our equipment here, as opposed to the Royal Air Force.”

Despite not having the most current U.S. fleets, crowds were still privy to a history lesson in American aviationthroughout the program. A World War II B-29 Superfortress, a B-25 Mitchell bomber and Vietnam-era Grumman Albatross all made impressionable appearances.

A helicopter flown by Aaron Fitzgerald flips during the Pacific Airshow on Friday. .

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

To some, the opportunity to be so close to some of the crowning achievements in aeronautics was personal.

“Out of all the dreams that I had as a kid, that’s the one thing I wanted to do, like I want to fly an Apache, I wanted to fly a jet,” said Cardena. “But growing up, there weren’t women that were pilots and so this is as good as it gets for me — this is as close as I can get to them.”

Cardena still found herself slightly disappointed with the consequences of a federal shutdown. She had looked forward to seeing the planes and helicopters she grew up wishing she could fly, but unfortunately, it was not her year.

As Cardena reflected, a Royal Air Force C-17 temporarily blotted out the sun and covered the beachgoers with a gargantuan shadow as it passed over Huntington.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has demonstrated its ability to launch and recover aircraft from its first catapult-equipped aircraft carrier, the Fujian. Official imagery released by the PLAN today confirms that the new J-35 naval stealth fighters and KJ-600 airborne early warning and control aircraft are carrying out carrier trials, something that had not been seen until now. Meanwhile, we’ve also got a much better view of the J-15T single-seat carrier-based fighter launching and recovering aboard Fujian, having previously seen it in position for a catapult launch with its afterburners engaged. The sudden appearance of video of all three aircraft operating from the ship for the first time is something of a stunning revelation, one of many that has come this year from China’s air power portfolio.

The undated videos and photos showing flight operations aboard Fujian reveal examples of all three aircraft being prepared for catapult launch, taking off, and then making arrested recoveries. The aircraft are also shown in flight, including in formation with a J-15D series electronic warfare aircraft, and Fujian is shown from above, with the J-35, KJ-600, and J-15T arranged on its deck.

Fujian has been conducting sea trials since May 2024, and there have been growing signs that fixed-wing flight operations were underway. In August of this year, official imagery showed J-15s on the deck of the carrier and flying at low level above it. At that stage, however, there were no clear indications that the J-15 had actually taken off from and/or landed on Fujian.

An earlier video is shown below of J-15 activity aboard Fujian, but without presenting any carrier takeoffs or recoveries:

First-ever official footage of flight operations aboard China’s newest, soon-to-be commissioned aircraft carrier, CNS Fujian (18)

On the eve of the PLA’s 98th anniversary, PRC media released video showcasing another major milestone: integration tests between the electromagnetic… pic.twitter.com/wIrU4hxFi6

— Ian Ellis (@ianellisjones) July 31, 2025

While we don’t know how long these fixed-wing aircraft types have now been conducting flight operations aboard the carrier, revealing all three in action at once is something of a coup.

Of the three types, the J-15 family is a Chinese development of the Soviet-era Sukhoi Su-33 Flanker, with the T version being specifically developed for catapult launch. Earlier variants of the J-15, as well as the Su-33, were designed for use on short takeoff but assisted recovery (STOBAR) carriers with ‘ski jumps’ rather than catapults, like the PLAN’s first two flattops. The J-15T had previously been seen operating from these two earlier vessels, in which case it relies on the STOBAR mode. However, the addition of a catapult launch bar (and less visible additional structural modifications) means the T-model is very much optimized for Fujian, from which it will be able to launch at higher operating weights than in STOBAR mode.

The J-35 is the PLAN’s next-generation carrier fighter, a stealthy design that was intended to conduct catapult takeoff but assisted recovery (CATOBAR) operations from the outset. Developed from the land-based FC-31, there are also signs that the J-35, like the J-15T, might also eventually embark on the Liaoning and Shandong. Until now, however, it hadn’t been seen taking part in any kind of carrier operations, other than in the form of mock-ups.

As for the KJ-600, the size and performance of this aircraft mean that it’s only suitable for CATOBAR operations, restricting its use to Fujian and any follow-on carriers. At least three examples are seen on the deck of Fujian. This aircraft will fulfill the same role as the U.S. Navy’s E-2 Hawkeye, and, although not a direct copy, it is extremely similar both in size and overall design.

Also seen in the new imagery is the Z-9 helicopter, a license-produced variant of the Eurocopter (now Airbus Helicopters) AS365 Dauphin. Z-9s are also part of the air wings found on China’s STOBAR carriers, including for use as plane guards while fixed-wing aircraft are launching and recovering, and the type has been seen on the deck of Fujian, too, in the past.

Overall, testing Fujian’s abilities to launch and recover fixed-wing aircraft is a critical part of the path to operational service. However, it has added resonance since not only is the carrier fully homegrown, but so are the J-35 and KJ-600, the most important elements of its air wing, and they have not previously been to sea, at least in an operational capacity. The PLAN is therefore introducing to service a new carrier design and at least two new naval aircraft designs simultaneously, which is impressive by any measure.

Just as significant is the fact that Fujian is equipped with electromagnetically powered catapults, the testing of which first began in 2023 while the ship was still being fitted out.

In contrast to the U.S. Navy, which gathered decades of experience with steam-powered catapults, China opted for electromagnetic ones for its first CATOBAR carrier. It’s worth noting that the U.S. Navy’s USS Gerald R. Ford was the first carrier ever to get an aircraft into the air using what is also referred to as an electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS). However, it has not launched an F-35C so far, making the J-35 the first stealth jet to achieve this feat. Based on earlier predictions, the F-35C may not do the same for some years.

As we have discussed in the past, electromagnetic catapults offer several advantages, not least the fact that they can be more finely tuned to very different aircraft types, including ones that are larger and slower (like the KJ-600), or which are smaller and lighter, such as smaller drones. EMALS are also less mechanically complex than their predecessors, providing lower reset times that can help boost sortie-generation rate. On the other hand, the technology behind the electromagnetic catapults on USS Gerald R. Ford proved to be hard to master, causing issues for years before the U.S. Navy said it was able to mitigate them.

While the latest imagery from Fujian’s trials focuses on traditionally crewed fixed-wing airpower, it’s very likely that this carrier, and other aviation-capable PLAN ships, will eventually operate advanced uncrewed platforms. In this case, the capabilities offered by EMALS are particularly relevant. The PLAN is known to be working on advanced uncrewed combat air vehicles (UCAVs) and other types of drones that can be launched from carriers and big-deck amphibious warfare ships. Fujian will surely be no exception in this regard.

Videos provide a comparison of a STOBAR J-15 carrier launch and a CATOBAR J-15T launch from Fujian:

Whatever trials and tribulations the PLAN might have faced with its new homegrown carrier, its advanced electromagnetic catapults, and its new-look air wing, the Fujian project is indicative of a broader modernization drive within the service.

As well as increasingly advanced and powerful surface combatants and submarines, China is understood to be already working on its next CATOBAR carrier. Generally referred to as the Type 004, this may also be nuclear-powered.

The expanding PLAN carrier force also reflects growing strategic ambitions for the PLAN, as it pivots toward being able to take part in higher-end regional missions, such as intervention against Taiwan, as well as longer-range blue water operations in the Pacific and beyond.

For China, therefore, Fujian is much more than just a point of national and naval pride. With the carrier now expected to enter operational service by the end of this year, we will surely learn more about this landmark design for the PLAN, and the various aircraft that will serve aboard it.

Contact the author: [email protected]

The U.S. Air Force is currently looking toward a single next-generation airlifter to supplant both the C-17A Globemaster III and the C-5M Galaxy, starting in the mid-2040s. The service is still in the early stages of formulating its requirements for a Next Generation Airlift (NGAL) platform, but has already put emphasis on greater speed and operational flexibility, as well as the ability to better defend against growing threats when on the ground and in the air.

Air Force Gen. John Lamontagne, head of Air Mobility Command (AMC), discussed the current state of NGAL with TWZ and others at a roundtable on the sidelines of the Air & Space Forces Association’s 2025 Air, Space, and Cyber Conference yesterday. As of the start of Fiscal Year 2025, the Air Force had 222 C-17As and 52 C-5Ms in its inventory.

The C-17A, which first entered service in 1995, has a top speed of around 520 miles per hour and a maximum payload capacity of some 82 tons, according to the official Air Force fact sheet. The much larger C-5Ms, which started their careers in the 1980s as C-5Bs and Cs, can carry up to 135 tons of cargo and/or personnel at up to around the same speed. Both types do typically cruise a slower speeds. They can also be refueled in flight to extend their range. Neither the C-17 nor the C-5 are currently in production.

As it stands now, NGAL is “basically a two-for-one to replace both the C-17 and the C-5,” Lamontagne said. “Driving that towards the mid-2040 timeline.”

“When I say two-for-one, we’re probably going to procure one aircraft,” he further clarified later on in the roundtable. “We won’t get a C-5 replacement and a C-17 replacement. There’ll be one airplane that does strategic airlift.”

When it comes to what the Air Force wants in that aircraft, the service has been working through what it calls a capabilities-based assessment (CBA) for NGAL.

“That capabilities-based assessment takes a look at what kind of defense systems do we need? What kind of tactical agility do we need? What kind of servicing do we need?” Lamontagne explained. “So we’ll see what that looks like.”

“As far as what we want in the next[-generation airlift] platform, we want agility, we want speed, we want to be able to operate in a higher threat environment,” he added. This includes “countermeasures that are effective against those threats that are coming from increasingly longer ranges.”

The Air Force has previously warned of the likelihood of a threat environment that includes anti-air missiles with ranges up to 1,000 miles by 2050. China, America’s current chief global competitor, has been particularly active in developing and fielding new air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles with ever greater reach. Russia has also been pursuing new capabilities in this regard.

Lamontagne also highlighted the growing threats American airlifters face on the ground, which are magnified by the time it can take to load and unload payloads, as well as refuel. Last year, AMC notably put out a call for options for future defensive systems that could be integrated directly into its cargo planes, along with its aerial refueling tanker fleets, to help shield them from ever-expanding drone threats, as you can read more about here.

“We’re obviously at a lot of risk on the ground, sitting on the ground somewhere,” the head of AMC explained. “So, [we] don’t want to sit on the ground for three hours. If we could refuel in a lot faster timeline than that, not that it takes three hours to refuel a C-17, but, you know, three minutes would be better than 30 minutes.”

“Right now, we know what we need to do and where we need to go,” he added, referring to the development of new defensive capabilities for aircraft across the command more generally. “We’ve got to develop the defensive systems, continue to develop them, and we’re doing a lot of tests and experimentation on that now, so that we can spiral it [out].”

Lamontagne also noted that the kinds of capabilities, in general terms, the Air Force wants for NGAL don’t necessarily “mix really, really well, and, so, what you prioritize and what you cherish will help define where we go” in terms of a future design.

The potential for NGAL to be a ‘system of systems’ rather than a single platform has been raised in the past. There are immediate questions about how a single aircraft would be able to supplant both the C-17 and the C-5, which are very different aircraft in form and function.

For instance, the C-17, despite its size, offers significant short and rough field performance, allowing it to deliver heavy payloads even in the absence of improved runways. The aircraft was designed to be able to bring in combat-ready forces, including tanks and other heavy armor, to landing zones at or at least near the front lines, as well as drop paratroopers into those same areas.

The C-5 can load cargo and personnel from the nose and tail ends, and do so simultaneously. In addition to just being able to carry larger payload volumes overall compared to the C-17, the Galaxy also offers a unique capability within the U.S. military for moving outsized and unusual payloads by air, including satellites and other space-related items.

Lamontagne acknowledged that NGAL could still potentially include multiple different designs, but also highlighted concerns about whether the Air Force “can afford, grandkids, kids, all of them.” The ability of the Air Force to pay for multiple new fleets of next-generation aircraft amid a slew of other modernization priorities, especially in the nuclear deterrence realm, has been repeatedly called into question in recent years, including by the service’s own top leadership.

NGAL is also currently limited to meeting next-generation strategic airlift requirements. Lamontagne said yesterday that the Air Force has at least two other lines of effort, NGAL-Little and Next Generation Intra-theater Airlift (NGIA), geared toward fulfilling future tactical airlift needs. C-130 variants are the service’s current tactical airlift platforms. Strategic airlift is generally described as being intertheater in nature, while tactical airlift is primarily focused on intratheater missions.

Above all else, Lamontagne stressed the importance of the Air Force being able to eventually retire the C-17 and the C-5 on its terms.

“The C-17 and C-5 … served us well for decades, but they’re not going to fly forever, and so we’d like to recapitalize those on our timeline,” he said. “If we look at what happened with the [C-]141 [Starlifter] after the Gulf War, it basically told us when it was done. We’d like to have a plan in place so when the service life starts to erode on the C-17, whether it’s wings, engines, or more, we’ve got a competition already going.”

It is important to remember that NGAL is hardly the first time the Air Force has explored concepts for advanced cargo aircraft, including stealthy designs and ones with vertical takeoff and landing capability. Much of this work over the years has been tied in with plans for next-generation tankers, something the Air Force is again pursuing now through its separate Next Generation Air Refueling System (NGAS) effort. TWZ has been calling attention to the U.S. military’s ever-growing need for more survivable tankers and airlifters for years now.

During yesterday’s roundtable, Lamontagne cited AMC’s role in the deployment of air and ground-based air defense assets to locations across the Middle East on several occasions last year and earlier this year as examples of the critical importance of strategic airlift and the need to modernize those capabilities. Those movements helped bolster the ability of U.S. forces to defend American interests in the region, as well as Israel. They were key to setting the stage for the Operation Midnight Hammer strikes on nuclear facilities in Iran in June. The C-17 fleet has already been under particular strain for some years now due to heavy demand as a result of a succession of major crises.

“Strategic lift is very critical, as you know, and that is the way that we at TRANSCOM usually initiate our most responsive force. We rely heavily on both the C-5 and the C-17, both of which are aging, both are very capable,” Air Force Gen. Randall Reed, head of that command, also told TWZ and others at a separate roundtable yesterday at the Air, Space, and Cyber Conference. “I am grateful to the Air Force for looking at any and all possible ways to invest in weapon system sustainment to make sure that we can continue to fly those for the near and the midterm.”

“It is also important that we start looking at what comes next. The environment is changing. We will need aircraft that have capabilities that we don’t have today, specifically to make sure that we’re connected,” Reed added. “And the Air Force is working real hard to provide that for us.”

Until NGAL is ready, in whatever form it ultimately takes, the C-17, in particular, will continue to be the Air Force’s strategic airlift workhorse. AMC is already in the process of adding new beyond-line-of-sight communications capabilities to those aircraft. As noted, the command has already been exploring new defensive capabilities for all of its fleets, including protecting them with drone wingmen, as well.

“Right now, I don’t think we’ll need to before the 2040s, but we might need to after that,” Gen. Lamontagne said in response to a question about potentially re-engining the C-17 fleet. “If we do a service life extension or something along those lines, we will certainly need to do something along those lines.”

“Right now, I think the C-17s we have, you know, working with the manufacturer, they’re working on improving, you know, both the efficiency and the performance, so getting a little more fuel efficient with the ones that we have, and a little more time on the wing with the ones that we have,” he added. “Right now, I think we’re in a pretty good place.”

Earlier this year, Boeing said it was in the very early stage of talks with at least one potential customer about restarting production of the C-17, or starting to produce a new derivative of that design. The C-17 line was shuttered in 2015.

“There are no current plans to restart the C-17,” Lamontagne said, but acknowledged it is something that has been discussed. “I think one step at a time, capabilities-based assessment, analysis of alternatives, competition.”

“[I’m] hoping, in the near term, next couple of years, few years, I’d say, [to] have another analysis of alternatives, this time on the next generation airlifter, instead of the next generation air refueling system,” he also said during the roundtable.

Overall, the Air Force is still in the early stages of the NGAL effort, but a path forward to a successor to the C-17 and the C-5 is now starting to take greater shape.

Contact the author: [email protected]

German air force says its ‘quick reaction alert force’ was ordered by NATO to investigate Russian plane in neutral airspace.

Germany’s air force says it has scrambled two Eurofighter jets to track a Russian reconnaissance aircraft after it had entered neutral airspace over the Baltic Sea.

In a statement, the air force said its “quick reaction alert force” was ordered on Sunday by NATO to investigate an unidentified aircraft flying without a plan or radio contact.

“It was a Russian IL-20M reconnaissance aircraft. After visual identification, we handed over escort duties for the aircraft to our Swedish NATO partners and returned to Rostock-Laage,” it added.

The operation was conducted as NATO prepares to convene its North Atlantic Council on Tuesday to discuss a separate incident involving Russian jets over Estonia.

According to the Reuters news agency, that meeting is to address what Tallinn called an “unprecedented and brazen” violation of its airspace on Friday when three Russian MiG-31 fighters entered without permission and remained for 12 minutes before leaving.

The claim sparked condemnation from NATO and European governments, who called the incursion a “reckless” and “dangerous provocation”.

Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal requested urgent “NATO Article 4 consultations” on the “totally unacceptable” incursion. Article 4 allows NATO members to hold consultations with the alliance when any state believes its territorial integrity, political independence or security is under threat.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence denied the allegation while Estonia summoned Moscow’s charge d’affaires in protest.

Tensions have been heightened in recent weeks by a series of airspace violations along NATO’s eastern flank.

Romania said last week that its radar detected a Russian drone, prompting it to scramble fighter jets. Earlier this month, Poland reported that it had shot down several drones during a Russian aerial attack on Ukraine, marking the first time NATO forces have directly engaged in that conflict.

Ukraine has said the incidents show Moscow is testing the West’s resolve as the war is in its fourth year. Military analysts note that such incursions serve as intelligence-gathering operations, tests of NATO’s responses and pressure tactics designed to unsettle NATO members bordering Russia.

The state-of-the-art Fujian is in the final stages of testing before it officially begins active service in China’s navy.

China’s newest aircraft carrier transited through the Taiwan Strait as part of a research and training exercise before its entry into service, according to the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).

PLAN spokesperson Senior Captain Leng Guowei said on Friday that the Fujian was bound for the South China Sea, where it will undergo testing.

“The cross-regional tests and training are a routine mission of the carrier’s construction process and do not target any specific objects,” Leng said, according to Chinese state media.

The 80,000-tonne Fujian has not been officially commissioned for service, but it will soon join the Liaoning and Shandong vessels as China’s third and most advanced aircraft carrier.

Fu Qianshao, a Chinese military affairs expert, told China’s State-run news outlet Global Times that the Fujian’s research trip to the South China Sea is a sign the aircraft carrier is nearly complete. It earlier underwent tests in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea.

The Fujian’s route was not unexpected, as Chinese state media shared photos and videos of the aircraft carrier leaving Shanghai’s shipyard on Wednesday.

A step forward for China’s blue water navy.

🇨🇳China’s third aircraft carrier, the Fujian passes through Taiwan Straits to hold tests, training in #SouthChinaSea.

By the way, the Taiwan Strait is not ‘international waters’.

The Fujian is China’s first fully domestically… pic.twitter.com/3ffANYEbMH

— Shen Shiwei 沈诗伟 (@shen_shiwei) September 12, 2025

Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force on Thursday spotted the Fujian sailing near the disputed but uninhabited Senkaku Islands, in the direction of the Taiwan Strait, accompanied by two PLAN destroyers.

The Senkaku Islands are known as the Diaoyu Islands in China and the Diaoyutai Islands in Taiwan.

The Fujian is just the second aircraft carrier in the world, after the USS Gerald Ford, to host an electromagnetic catapult system that makes it easier for aircraft to take off and land.

Developing such a launch system is a sign that the technology gap between China and the US is closing, according to maritime expert and former United States Air Force Colonel Ray Powell, but there are still some limitations.

The Fujian is 20 percent smaller than US super aircraft carriers and conventionally powered rather than nuclear-powered, Powell said.

The real challenge for China, Powell told Al Jazeera, will be crewing its aircraft carriers as the PLAN will need to divide veteran crew members between the three carriers: Fujian, Liaoning and Shandong.

“China is closing the hardware gap, but developing the operational expertise for effective blue-water carrier ops is what the US has spent nearly a century perfecting,” he said.

While no date has been announced yet for the Fujian’s official commission into active service, the US Naval Institute (USNI) said it is expected to “coincide with a date that holds historical significance to China”.

Possible dates include September 18, the anniversary of Japan’s 1931 invasion of Manchuria, or China’s October 1 national holiday, the USNI said.

General Atomics’ YFQ-42A ‘fighter drone’ prototype is now flying. The YFQ-42A is one of two designs currently in development under the first phase, or Increment 1, of the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program, the other being Anduril’s YFQ-44A.

The Air Force and General Atomics’ Aeronautical Systems Inc. division (GA-ASI) announced the milestone today, but it is not immediately clear when exactly the maiden flight occurred. The Air Force announced that the YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A had both begun ground testing ahead of their first flights back in May.

“This milestone showcases what’s possible when innovative acquisition meets motivated industry,” Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink said in a statement. “In record time, CCA went from concept to flight — proving we can deliver combat capability at speed when we clear barriers and align around the warfighter.”

“The CCA went from concept to flight in just 16 months after the contract was awarded – proving that we can deliver combat capability at speed!” according to a post from Meink’s official account on X.

“What a great moment for the U.S. Air Force and for GA-ASI,” GA-ASI’s President David R. Alexander said in a separate statement. “It’s been our collaboration that enabled us to build and fly the YFQ-42A in just over a year. It’s an incredible achievement and I salute the Air Force for its vision and I salute our development team for delivering yet another historic first for our company.”

The Air Force announced that it had picked General Atomics and Anduril to build actual prototypes of their Increment 1 CCA designs in April 2024. General Atomics subsequently confirmed that its YFQ-42A was derived from the experimental XQ-67A drone originally developed for the Air Force’s once-secretive Off-Board Sensing Station (OBSS) program. The Air Force has also previously described the OBSS effort as a major ‘feeder’ into the CCA program, as you can read more about here.

In its own statement today, Anduril said that flight testing of the YFQ-44A is set to begin soon.

“Flight test is one of those milestones that you just can’t help but get excited about, no matter where you sit. Congratulations to General Atomics and the U.S. Air Force for kicking off flight testing for YFQ-42A – a major milestone on the path to fielding Increment 1 CCAs by the end of the decade,” Dr. Jason Levin, Senior Vice President of Engineering, Air Dominance, and Strike at Anduril, also said.

The Air Force says the plan remains to make a “competitive Increment 1 production decision” sometime in Fiscal Year 2026, which begins on October 1 of this year. It remains to be seen whether the service will decide to acquire production versions of the YFQ-42A, the YFQ-44A, or a mixture of both.

Air Force officials have also previously said that between 100 and 150 drones will be ordered under Increment 1. The service is still looking to acquire 1,000 CCAs, or more, across multiple iterative development cycles that could lead to very different designs. Air Force officials regularly describe the CCA program, overall, as a critical and transformative element of its future force structure plans that will be essential to succeed in future conflicts, especially a high-end fight, such as one in the Pacific against China.

“This is More Air Force in action,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said in a statement around today’s announcement about the YFQ-42A’s first flight. “We’re not just moving fast – we’re learning fast. CCA will help us rethink the battlespace, extend reach, flexibility, and lethality in combat operations, and optimize warfighter performance through human-machine teaming.”

Still, there are many hurdles to overcome before seeing the CCA vision become the game-changer the USAF hopes it do be, but with the YFQ-42A now flying, the Air Force is one step closer to making it a reality.

Contact the author: [email protected]

A recently emerged image shows a very large, low-observable, flying-wing aircraft in the air in China. While the identity of the aircraft cannot be definitively established, it matches, in many respects, the appearance of the huge drone that TWZ was first to identify in satellite imagery dating from earlier this summer, and which you can read more about here.

The new image of the aircraft in flight shows its rear aspect, with the landing gear down, large main undercarriage doors, and with B-2-style split rudders deployed on the outer wing, consistent with takeoff or landing. From this angle, we can see that its blended wing-body includes a broad center section, with a distinctly flattened top. No cockpit is visible, but that is a possibility that cannot be ruled out entirely. The shape of the center section also suggests this is a twin-engine design, with slot-like exhaust nozzles, but once again, the low resolution limits the degree to which these details can be made out.

At this point, it’s worth remembering that the emergence of this image was very possibly approved, tacitly or otherwise, by the Chinese government, and it may also have been manipulated at some point, potentially also for information warfare purposes.

While we can’t be sure, the aircraft seen in flight may well also be the same drone that was noted in satellite imagery parked at China’s secretive test base near Malan in Xinjiang province earlier this year. The image of the drone seen at this location, which is known to play a leading role in the country’s uncrewed aircraft development efforts, was provided to TWZ by Planet Labs archive and was taken on May 14, 2025. Based on the satellite image, the aircraft has a span of about 170 feet, which compares to 172 feet for the B-2 Spirit. Since its appearance, the drone has been dubbed WZ-X by some observers, pending any more details about its true designation or its manufacturer.

Both the aircraft in the new image and that seen in satellite imagery at Malan feature a very long tapering wing, longer than that found on China’s CH-7 stealthy flying-wing drone, which also features a notably deeper, curved center section than seen in the new image. The CH-7 is significantly smaller than the WZ-X, as well. At the same time, the design of the CH-7 has already been altered in the past, and the aircraft seen here might conceivably be a further development of this platform.

There are two possible features of the WZ-X that cannot be made out in the new image. The first of these is an apparent domed section on top of the center barrel. In contrast, the aircraft in the new image is noticeably flat on its upper surfaces.

There is also the suggestion that the Malan drone could possibly have a small set of angled vertical tails, which would help with stability, as you can read about here. While the presence of retractable fins cannot be ruled out in the new image, it’s also worth pointing out that the presence of shadows and possible distortion on the satellite image means that we can’t make definitive conclusions about its physical details.

Both the aircraft in the new image and the WZ-X also have a general similarity to the flying-wing aircraft that was spotted passing over the Philippines in 2021.

Regardless of the connection between these generally mysterious aircraft, the aircraft in the new image would appear to fall into a similar category as the WZ-X in terms of overall physical characteristics and size, although the second point is harder to determine. At the very least, a comparison of the size of the landing gear and the rest of the aircraft suggests a very large aircraft. China is currently working on a range of flying-wing type drone designs of various sizes, including large HALE drones. At least until now, the WZ-X was the largest Chinese design we have seen in this category.

Judging by what we can see of it, the aircraft appears likely to be a very large, high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) stealth drone. This may well put it in a category similar to the supposed U.S. RQ-180. The long wing would also seem to point to a design that’s been optimized for endurance at altitude.

As stated previously, the center section of the aircraft may not be noticeably deep, but it is broad, pointing to significant internal volume for sensors. Most likely, its mission would be very long endurance penetrating wide-area reconnaissance, with strike being far less likely for an aircraft in this class. Bearing in mind the probable long-range missions expected of it, the center section likely also accommodates beyond-line-of-sight communications systems.

It is also intriguing that the image has appeared at this point. In recent weeks, there has been a flurry of imagery leaked from China showing new crewed aircraft and drones, land systems, missiles, and naval weapons. Much of this is related to the huge upcoming military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of China’s victory over Japan in World War II, scheduled to take place in Beijing on Sept. 3.

Whether the flying-wing aircraft is expected to take part in the parade in some form is unclear, but it’s certain that the emergence of the image is unlikely to be an accident. In the past, imagery of this kind has often been taken of new aircraft operating from a factory airfield. That might be more likely than it being photographed overhead Malan, which is a remote and secretive test facility. However, until more imagery emerges, we won’t know for sure.

Once again, it will be some time before we can conclusively determine the relationship between this aircraft and the WZ-X, although there are certainly strong similarities between them.

Meanwhile, it’s now increasingly clear that China is looking to field large, stealthy flying-wing aircraft designs as part of its future air combat ecosystem. As well as drones of this class in various sizes, other key projects include the tri-engined J-36, the J-XDS fighter, and possibly other crewed tactical jets. Then there is a host of smaller drones, including a growing fleet of ‘loyal wingman’-type collaborative drones. Perhaps most enigmatic of all is the H-20 stealth bomber, which is yet to break cover, and that is also expected to use a flying-wing design.

As regards the H-20, the size of the center fuselage and other features suggest this aircraft is something different. While the size and form of the H-20 remain elusive, any large flying-wing HALE drone could also influence the development of the bomber, if it’s not flying already.

Once again, the appearance of the new image of the aircraft underscores China’s rapidly accelerating next-generation air combat programs, which now include potentially several designs for very large, low-observable, flying-wing, long-endurance aircraft.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Aug. 12 (UPI) — A small plane landing at a Montana airport crashed into a second aircraft on the runaway, according to officials who said there were only minor injuries.

The incident occurred at 2:08 p.m. MDT Monday at Kalispell City Airport, located in northwestern Montana, about 200 miles northwest of Helena.

The Federal Aviation Administration explained in a statement that a Socata TBM 700 struck an unoccupied Swearingen SX-300 after landing.

According to a statement from the Kalispell Police Department, the preliminary investigation indicates that the pilot lost control of the aircraft while attempting to land at the airport, resulting in the runway crash.

“All four occupants of the aircraft, who were from out of state, reported only minor injuries and were treated at the scene,” KPD said. “No additional injuries have been reported.”

The Kalispell Fire Department had been among the agencies that responded to the scene, as the plane crash seemingly resulted in a fire, which authorities said has since been contained.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.

Air force chief Amar Preet Singh says India’s S-400 air defence systems took down most of the Pakistani planes.

India shot down five Pakistani fighter jets and one other military aircraft during fighting in May, India’s air force chief says, the first such statement from the country since the deadly conflict with its neighbour.

Air force chief Amar Preet Singh made the announcement on Saturday, weeks after India’s military acknowledged that an unspecified number of its own jets were also shot down by Pakistan during their heaviest fighting in decades. It involved fighter planes and cruise missiles and killed dozens of people.

The conflict was triggered after armed men killed 26 tourists in India-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam town on April 22.

Speaking at a military lecture in the southern city of Bengaluru on Saturday, Singh said India’s S-400 air defence systems took down most of the Pakistani aircraft.

“We have at least five fighters confirmed killed and one large aircraft,” he said, adding that the large aircraft, which could have been a surveillance plane, was shot down at a distance of 300km (186 miles).

“This is actually the largest ever recorded surface-to-air kill that we can talk about. Our air defence systems have done a wonderful job,” he was quoted as saying by several Indian media outlets.

Air Chief Marshal Staff Singh did not mention the type of fighter jets that were downed but said air strikes also hit an additional surveillance plane and “a few F-16” fighters that were parked in hangars at two airbases in southeastern Pakistan.

Half of the F-16 hangar at the Shahbaz Jacobabad airbase in Sindh province was destroyed, he said.

Islamabad, whose air force primarily operates Chinese-made jets and US F-16s, has previously denied that India downed any Pakistani aircraft during the May 7-10 fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

There was no immediate reaction to Singh’s statements from Pakistan.

During their conflict, Pakistan said it downed six Indian military jets, including at least three Rafale fighters – a claim one Indian military official described as “absolutely incorrect”.

Both India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in full but administer only parts of the Muslim-majority Himalayan territory, which has been a continuing source of tension between them.

Armed groups in the India-administered portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989.

India accuses Pakistan of backing some armed groups, but Islamabad says it provides only diplomatic support to the Kashmiris’ struggle for self-determination.

Since India and Pakistan declared a ceasefire in May, intermittent fighting has continued in the area between Indian troops and fighters.

On Saturday, Indian officials said two Indian soldiers and a suspected fighter were reported killed late on Friday in the India-administered Kashmir district of Kulgam.

According to Indian military officials, two soldiers were also injured.

July 14 (UPI) — France on Monday celebrated Bastille Day with the nation’s biggest holiday in the air and on the ground.

The parade in Paris included 7,000 people on horseback and tanks, axe-carrying French Legion troops, 102 warplanes and helicopters.

French President Emmanual Macron reviewed the French Army, Navy and Air Force along the cobblestones of the Champs-Elysses and re-lit the eternal flame beneath the Arc de Triomphe. For the first time, there was included a prison dog, a Belgian Malinois shepherd, Gun, who specializes in weapons and ammunition detection.

At night, fireworks were lit at the Eiffel Tower at an expense of $817,000.

On July 14, 1789, nationals stormed the Bastille fortress and prison, which ignited the French Revolution and the overthrow of the monarchy.

This year’s event returned to Champs-Elsees from Avenue Foch because of the Summer Olympics.

Gisele Pelicot, 72, was given France’s highest award of Bastille Day celebrations. Pelicot, who has fought against sexual violence, was named a Knight of the Legion of Honor. She was drugged and raped for nearly a decade by her husband, who was sentenced to prison in 2024 along with 50 other defendants.

Also, nearly 600 people were given a civic award, including musician Pharrell Williams.

The guest of honor was Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subitanto, who represents the world’s biggest Muslim country with more than 240 million, or 87% of the total population. Indonesia had 451 soldiers march in the parade, including a drum band of 189 musicians.

It marked 85 years of diplomatic relations between the two nations.

Also, Finnish troops serving in the United Nations force in Lebanon, as well as those from Belgium and Luxembourg serving in the NATO force in Roman, participated.

Another special guest was Fousseynou Samba Cisse, who rescued six people, including two babies, from a burning apartment on the sixth floor earlier this month.

One day before Bastille Day, Macron announced $7.6 billion in additional military spending over two years amid new threats, including from Russia.

“Since 1945, our freedom has never been so threatened, and never so seriously,” Macron said. “We are experiencing a return to the fact of a nuclear threat, and a proliferation of major conflicts.”

President Donald Trump was so impressed with Bastille Day in 2017 that he decided to conduct his own military celebration in Washington, D.C., this year on June 14.

WASHINGTON — President Trump, with his decision to order U.S. military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, is gambling that direct U.S. involvement can deliver a decisive blow to a weakened Tehran while managing to avoid bringing the U.S. into an expansive regional conflict.

Trump announced the strikes on three Iranian enrichment facilities — Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan — and said that a “full payload of BOMBS was dropped” on Fordo.

“All planes are safely on their way home,” Trump added in his post. “Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!”

It remained to be seen whether the attacks mark the totality of direct American involvement in strikes against Iran or the opening salvo of a larger campaign.

Trump, who said he would address the nation about the strikes at 10 p.m. Eastern time, called it a “very successful military operation.” The president also celebrated the strikes in a call with the news site Axios in which he said, “We had great success tonight” and that “Israel is much safer now.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday had said that Trump would decide whether to move forward with U.S. strikes on Iran within two weeks.

But on Saturday afternoon, commercial flight trackers identified multiple U.S. aerial refueling tankers on a path suggesting that they were accompanying aircraft from the Midwest to the Pacific, raising speculation that something could be afoot.

Still, the flight pattern left many in Washington speculating that an attack might happen soon but would not happen immediately because of the time it would take for the aircraft to make it to the region. But that aircraft may have been a decoy — it was not part of the mission that was carried out early Sunday morning in Iran.

Trump returned from his New Jersey golf club just after 6 p.m. and was to head to a previously scheduled meeting with his national security team. Less than two hours later, the president announced the strikes had been completed.

The decision to directly involve the U.S. comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that have moved to systematically eradicate the country’s air defenses and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities.

The strikes are a perilous decision for the U.S., as Iran has pledged to retaliate if it joined the Israeli assault. The stakes are also high for Trump personally — he won the White House on the promise of keeping America out of costly foreign conflicts and scoffed at the value of American interventionism.

U.S. and Israeli officials have said that American stealth bombers and 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs offered the best chance of destroying heavily fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear program buried deep underground, including at Fordo.

It was not immediately clear whether the U.S. bombers did in fact drop the bunker busters on the Iranian facilities.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the United States in advance that strikes targeting the Islamic Republic would “result in irreparable damage for them.” And Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei declared “any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the damage inflicted by the bombings.

Trump has vowed that he would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon and said he had initially hoped that the threat of force would motivate the country’s leaders to give up their nuclear program peacefully.

But Trump appears to have made the calculation — at the prodding of Israeli officials and many Republican lawmakers — that Israel’s operation had softened the ground and presented a perhaps unparalleled opportunity to set back Iran’s nuclear program, perhaps permanently.

The Israelis have said their offensive has already crippled Iran’s air defenses, allowing them to already significantly degrade multiple Iranian nuclear sites.

But to destroy the Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment plant, Israel had appealed to Trump for the U.S. bunker-busting bombs, the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which uses its immense weight and sheer kinetic force to reach deeply buried targets and then explode. The penetrator is currently delivered only by the B-2 stealth bomber, which is found only in the American arsenal.

The bomb carries a conventional warhead and is believed to be able to penetrate about 200 feet below the surface before exploding, and the bombs can be dropped one after another, effectively drilling deeper and deeper with each successive blast.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that Iran is producing highly enriched uranium at Fordo, raising the possibility that nuclear material could be released into the area if the GBU-57 A/B were used to hit the facility.

Trump’s decision for direct U.S. military intervention comes after his administration made an unsuccessful two-month push — including with high-level, direct negotiations with the Iranians — aimed at persuading Tehran to curb its nuclear program.

For months, Trump said he was dedicated to a diplomatic push to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions. And he twice — in April and again in late May — persuaded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on military action against Iran and give diplomacy more time.

The U.S. in recent days has been shifting military aircraft and warships into and around the Middle East to protect Israel and U.S. bases from Iranian attacks.

All the while, Trump has gone from publicly expressing hope that the moment could be a “second chance” for Iran to make a deal to delivering explicit threats on Khamenei and making calls for Tehran’s unconditional surrender.

“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” Trump said in a social media posting. “He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.”

The military showdown with Iran comes seven years after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Obama administration-brokered agreement in 2018, calling it the “worst deal ever.”

The 2015 deal, signed by Iran, the U.S. and other world powers, created a long-term, comprehensive nuclear agreement that limited Tehran’s enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Trump decried the Obama-era deal for giving Iran too much in return for too little, because the agreement did not cover Iran’s non-nuclear malign behavior.

Trump has bristled at criticism from some of his MAGA faithful, including conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, who have suggested that further U.S. involvement would be a betrayal to supporters who were drawn to his promise to end U.S. involvement in expensive and endless wars.

The action by Trump immediately raised some concerns among U.S. lawmakers that the president had exceeded his authority.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) quickly posted on the social media site X: “This is not Constitutional.” California Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) said on social media that Trump hit Iran without congressional authorization and that lawmakers should pass a resolution he’s sponsoring with Massie “to prevent America from being dragged into another endless Middle East war.”

Vice President JD Vance in a lengthy posting on X earlier this week defended his boss, while acknowledging that “people are right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy.”

“But I believe the president has earned some trust on this issue,” Vance wrote. He added, “I can assure you that he is only interested in using the American military to accomplish the American people’s goals.”

Madhani and Boak write for the Associated Press. Madhani reported from Morristown, N.J.

Taipei says an estimated 15 Chinese aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Friday.

Taiwan‘s defence ministry says that it has detected more than 70 Chinese military aircraft around the island in the last 24 hours, just days after a British naval vessel sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait.

The latest sightings reported on Friday come as Beijing continues to ramp up the deployment of fighter jets and naval vessels around Taiwan in recent months to press its claim of sovereignty of the island, which Taipei rejects.

Along with 50 aircraft, six Chinese naval vessels were detected in the 24 hours to 6am on Friday (22:00 GMT on Thursday), the defence ministry said.

An additional 24 Chinese aircraft, including fighters and drones, were spotted since 08:50am (00:50 GMT) on Friday, the ministry said in a separate statement.

Among the second batch of aircraft, 15 crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait in conducting air-sea joint training with Chinese naval vessels, the ministry said, adding it “monitored the situation and responded accordingly”.

China insists that democratic, self-ruled Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan has allied itself with the United States, angering Beijing.

The latest incursions came after the British Royal Navy patrol vessel HMS Spey sailed through the Taiwan Strait on June 18, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said on Thursday.

China strongly condemned Britain’s latest move as a deliberate attempt to “cause trouble”.

Britain’s Royal Navy said the patrol vessel conducted a routine navigation through the narrow waterway that was part of a long-planned deployment and took place in full compliance with international law.

The Eastern Theatre Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army said the Wednesday sailing of the ship was “public hyping” and that its forces followed and monitored the Spey.

The UK, United States and other countries view the 180km (112-mile) Taiwan Strait as international waters that should be open to all vessels.

In February, a Canadian warship also passed through the Strait, days after a US destroyer and a US ocean survey ship made the passage.

The last time a British Navy ship transited the Taiwan Strait was in 2021, when the HMS Richmond, a frigate deployed with Britain’s aircraft carrier strike group, sailed through from Japan to Vietnam.

In April, Taiwan detected 76 Chinese aircraft and 15 naval vessels around the island, when Beijing conducted live-fire exercises that included simulated strikes aimed at the island’s key ports and energy sites.

The highest number of Chinese aircraft recorded was 153 on October 15, 2024, after China staged large-scale military drills in response to a speech by Taiwan’s President William Lai Ching-te on National Day, days earlier.

Published on
20/06/2025 – 8:00 GMT+2

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The German Aerospace Industries Association (BDLI) wants only completed products aircraft and helicopters to be targeted by the EU for retaliatory tariffs – leaving the market for the supply of parts unscathed – if trade negotiations between the EU and the US founder, the group has told Euronews. It’s position aligns it with the French sector’s stance.

“If the EU must respond, counter-tariffs should focus strictly on fully finished aerospace end products – such as complete aircraft and helicopters – and explicitly exclude spare parts or critical products,” BDLI said in an email to Euronews. “This is essential to avoid unintended harm to European and global production networks.”

US aircraft are included in the European Commission’s draft listof €95 billion worth of US products that could face duties if ongoing negotiations fail. The list was open for industry consultation until 10 June and now awaits approval by EU member states.

Trade tensions between the EU and the US risk reignitingthe long-standing rivalry between aerospace giants Boeing and Airbus. However, the two economies’ production systems are tightly intertwined. For instance, the LEAP engine, used in both Airbus and Boeing jets, is co-produced by US-based General Electric and France’s Safran.

Tokyo says it has conveyed an ‘appropriate message’ to Beijing over vessels’ movements.

Two Chinese aircraft carriers have been seen operating in the Pacific at once for the first time, Japan’s Ministry of Defence has said.

China’s Shandong and four other vessels on Monday sailed within Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.

The aircraft carrier conducted landing and takeoff drills involving its fighter jets and helicopters in waters north of the Pacific atoll of Okinotori, the ministry said.

Tokyo’s announcement came a day after Japanese officials said the Liaoning, the older of China’s two operating aircraft carriers, had entered waters near the remote island of Minamitorishima.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Tokyo would step up surveillance and had conveyed “an appropriate message” to China, without elaborating.

On Monday, Hayashi, who is Tokyo’s top spokesman, said China’s growing maritime activity appeared to be aimed at bolstering its capability to carry out missions farther from its shores.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian on Monday defended the aircraft carriers’ movements, describing them as “fully consistent with international law and international practices”.

“Our national defence policy is defensive in nature. We hope Japan will view those activities objectively and rationally,” Lin told a regular news conference.