fighter

The U.S. Department of Defense may finally be ready to choose which company will develop and build the U.S. Navy’s F/A-XX next-generation carrier-based fighter. A report from Reuters today states that U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth personally gave the green light for the selection last Friday. However, this is not the first time that there have been reports that this decision was imminent, as you can read about here, but these came to nothing.

The Reuters report publishes details provided by “a U.S. official and two people familiar with the decision.” Similar comments provided to Breaking Defense were attributed to “two sources.” The upshot is that the Pentagon could choose its preferred F/A-XX design this week. The program has long been even more secretive than the U.S. Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance jet, which emerged earlier this year as the Boeing F-47. What is clear, however, is that the F/A-XX decision is now months later than planned.

Also interesting is the timing of this apparent move, coming so soon after President Donald Trump’s visit to the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush over the weekend. He went aboard the carrier as the Navy celebrated its 250th anniversary and witnessed a firepower demonstration. While aboard the warship, Trump also met with senior Navy officials and saw the hardware of the current carrier air wing at close quarters — including the F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and E/A-18 Growlers that the F/A-XX will eventually replace.

At this point, the F/A-XX contest is understood to have narrowed to two companies.

Northrop Grumman is one of them. When it exited the USAF’s NGAD program around 2023, Northrop Grumman said it would focus on other priorities, including the F/A-XX, as well as the B-21 Raider stealth bomber. Earlier this summer, the company presented a conceptual rendering for its submission for F/A-XX.

The other F/A-XX contender is thought to be Boeing, the prime contractor for the F-47.

Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin was reportedly eliminated from the competition in March. It now seems they were about to get cut from the program prior to the choice to leave it on their own accord.

TWZ approached the Navy and the Office of the Secretary of Defense for comment on the apparent new development. Both declined to comment.

Notably, the Reuters story also includes the caveat, which it attributes to one or more of the sources, that “last-minute snags have delayed progress on the Navy jet in the past and could do so again.”

This points to the fact that, for many months now, the future of the F/A-XX program has been under scrutiny, with growing signs that it was at best in limbo. Boeing pushed back on that assertion back in June of this year.

Notably, like this report, it was Reuters that, in March of this year, published a story suggesting that the Navy was set to confirm the choice of F/A-XX that same week, something that never materialized.

In June, the Pentagon’s proposed budget for the 2026 Fiscal Year included enough funding to complete initial development work but didn’t include any further funds to actually start buying the aircraft. U.S. military officials said that this decision was made to avoid competition for resources with the Air Force’s F-47 and amid concerns about whether the U.S. industrial base would be able to handle work on both programs simultaneously.

At the same time, there have been questions, too, about whether Northrop Grumman would be able to support work on the F/A-XX while also grappling with the demands of the Air Force’s Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program, which is behind schedule and over-budget.

In July, however, the Senate Appropriations Committee advanced a draft defense spending bill that would reverse the Pentagon’s plan to freeze the F/A-XX program, as you can read about here. Approved by the committee in July, that version of the 2026 Fiscal Year Defense Appropriations Bill included $1.4 billion for F/A-XX.

The figure of $1.4 billion had also appeared in a call for additional F/A-XX funding that the Navy had reportedly included in its annual Unfunded Priority List (UPL) sent to Congress earlier in July.

While there has apparently been something of a dispute between the Navy and Pentagon leadership over the direction the program should take, the Navy has long spoken about its centrality to its future carrier aviation plans.

“The Navy has a validated requirement for carrier-based sixth-generation aircraft, and it is critical that we field that capability as quickly as possible to give our warfighters the capabilities they need to win against a myriad of emerging threats,” Adm. Daryl Caudle, the nominee to become the next Chief of Naval Operations, wrote in response to a question about F/A-XX ahead of his confirmation hearing in July.

Caudle was also present at the Navy’s 250th birthday in Norfolk, Virginia, wearing a flight suit alongside President Trump.

Not lost on Navy officials is the rapid pace of development that China is currently making in terms of carrier aviation.

The latest evidence suggests that China’s Shenyang J-35, its next-generation carrier-based fighter, may have entered limited series production and could even be in service with the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).

In a standout development last month, the PLAN demonstrated a new ability to launch and recover aircraft from a catapult-equipped aircraft carrier, its first of this kind, the Fujian. As well as the J-35, the J-15T single-seat carrier-based fighter and the KJ-600 airborne early warning and control aircraft have undertaken carrier trials on the new flattop.

With China rapidly developing even more advanced combat aircraft designs, and especially 6th generation stealth fighter-like aircraft, some variants of which will likely migrate to the carrier environment eventually, the pressure is on for the U.S. Navy to not fall behind. Calls have been growing to now move on F/A-XX in light of these developments.

China also has an expanding repertoire of advanced drones, broadly equivalent to the U.S. military’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), some of which would be suitable for adaptation for carrier operations. This could mirror U.S. Navy plans, in which the F/A-XX should eventually be a central part of a new-look carrier air wing that could feature as much as two-thirds uncrewed aircraft.

Once again, if we’ve learnt anything from the secretive F/A-XX program, it’s that it doesn’t always take the course that might be expected. But the appearance of Trump and Hegseth very much in the spotlight as the Navy marked its 250th anniversary, and China continuing to develop its carrier aviation capabilities at an impressive rate, might indicate that a decision on who will make the Navy’s next carrier-based fighter is finally due.

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Venezuelan government calls on US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to cease ‘thrill-seeking and warmongering posture’.

Venezuela’s government has blasted an “illegal incursion” near its borders by United States warplanes and accused the US of “military harassment” and threatening the “security of the nation”.

Venezuelan Defence Minister General Vladimir Padrino said on Thursday that at least five F-35 fighter jets had been detected, in what he describes as a threat that “US imperialism has dared to bring close to the Venezuelan coast”.

“We’re watching them, I want you to know. And I want you to know that this doesn’t intimidate us. It doesn’t intimidate the people of Venezuela,” Padrino said, speaking from an airbase, according to the Agencia Venezuela news outlet.

“The presence of these planes flying close to our Caribbean Sea is a vulgarity, a provocation, a threat to the security of the nation,” Padrino said.

“I denounce before the world the military harassment, the military threat by the US government against the people of Venezuela, who want peace, work and happiness,” he said.

The presence of the US combat planes was detected by the country’s air defences, air traffic control systems at Maiquetia international airport, which serves the capital Caracas, as well as a commercial airliner, Venezuelan authorities said.

In a joint statement, Venezuela’s foreign and defence ministries said the US combat planes were detected 75km (46.6 miles) “from our shores”. If the planes came no closer than the distance mentioned by Venezuelan authorities, then they would not have violated the country’s airspace, which extends about 12 nautical miles, or 22km, off the coast.

Still, the ministries accused the US of flouting international law and jeopardising civil aviation in the Caribbean Sea.

Venezuela “urges US Secretary of War Peter Hegseth to immediately cease his reckless, thrill-seeking and warmongering posture”, which is disturbing the peace of the Caribbean, the statement added.

Venezuela denuncia incursión ilegal de aviones de combate de EEUU en sus costas: «Provocación que amenaza la soberanía nacional» (+Comunicado)https://t.co/GnR4wLRDzz

— Agencia Venezuela News (@AgenciaVNews) October 2, 2025

The Pentagon has yet to respond to requests for comment from media organisations.

US media reported earlier on Thursday that President Donald Trump has notified Congress that the US is now engaged in “non-international armed conflict” against drug cartels, members of which would now be considered “unlawful combatants”.

Trump’s move to a more formal war footing follows on from the US administration’s rebranding of Latin American drug cartels as “narco-terrorists” who are seeking to destabilise the US by trafficking illegal drugs across US borders.

The move follows weeks of tension with Venezuela after Trump dispatched US F-35 stealth fighter jets to Puerto Rico, a US territory in the Caribbean, as part of the biggest military deployment in Latin America in decades and which has already seen air attacks on boats off the Venezuelan coast that the US president alleged were involved in drug trafficking.

So far, 14 people have been killed in the US attacks off Venezuela that officials in Caracas and several independent experts have described as extrajudicial killings.

Eight US warships and a nuclear submarine have also been deployed to the region as part of Trump’s so-called operation to combat drug trafficking, but which Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro says is a covert bid to bring about regime change in his country.

What could be a major leak out of China features by far the clearest pictures yet of Shenyang Aircraft Corporation’s (SAC) J-XDS, also referred to unofficially as the J-50. This aircraft is a heavy sixth-generation stealth fighter design that features no tails, thrust vectoring, and a very sleek profile. It also has unique features, in particular its swiveling wingtip control surfaces. You can read our past analysis on this aircraft here and here.

While these images could very well be a fabrication, they appear to match very closely with other, less detailed views we have seen of this aircraft. As it sits now, we have to take them as unconfirmed, but there are no indications outright that they are not authentic. The only discrepancy we could find between these new images and past ones is the lack of an air data boom on the jet’s nose. But after further review of other lower-quality imagery of this aircraft from very recently, the boom appears to have been removed. This could also be a second airframe that is now in flight test that is not equipped with one, which is not uncommon for the early development phase of air combat aircraft. It’s also worth noting that we still do not know if these are technology demonstrators or more production representative designs. Considering the speed at which China is moving in terms of air combat systems development, it wouldn’t be surprising if the latter were true.

Up until recently, we have gotten mostly underside and silhouette views of this aircraft. Meanwhile, its super-heavy counterpart, commonly referred to as the J-36, which broke cover on the same days as the J-XDS back in December 2024, has been seen in much higher detail. One shot in particular of that aircraft was similar to this one, taken directly into the airfield where it is produced and based for flight testing.

These fresh images, if authentic, provide a new, detailed look at the sides of this exotic aircraft. Details that are very visible include its F-22-like 2D thrust vectoring exhausts, which include fine serrated edges around the exhaust housing, a common detail on stealth fighter aircraft.

Its very long diamond-shaped nose that features a deeply blended canopy is also very apparent in the images. The aircraft’s intakes are also seen in greater detail here, which are trapezoidal and feature a diverterless supersonic inlet (DSI) arrangement.

Based on these photos, assuming they are not fabricated, the aircraft is conclusively operated by a single pilot — a detail that has remained unclear until now. The electro-optical target system (EOTS) enclosure is also visible under the nose, as are the aircraft’s side bay-like features that still remain something of a mystery due to their small size. Small bulges in the profile of the aircraft’s spine are seen behind the cockpit. It is not clear what this would be for, but they do look like small auxiliary inlet doors that are open. If they were fixed bumps, they would likely house apertures for a distributed aperture system (DAS) or other sensor/communications aperture.

And, of course, the aircraft’s trademark swiveling wingtips, which would help to keep the inherently very unstable tailless aircraft pointed in the right direction, especially during slow flight and hard maneuvering, are seen deflected downward.

Overall, the images are quite remarkable and give us a better idea of what this aircraft actually looks like from a side view in good light. We’ll have to see if the photos end up proving to show the real McCoy, but for now they are a welcome revelation.

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Boeing has started production of the first F-47 sixth-generation stealth fighter for the U.S. Air Force. The goal now is for that jet to make its first flight sometime in 2028.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin provided a brief update on the F-47 during his keynote address at the Air & Space Forces Association’s 2025 Air, Space, and Cyber Conference today, at which TWZ is in attendance. In March, President Donald Trump personally announced that Boeing had been selected as the winner of the competition for the crewed fighter component of the Air Force’s broader Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) initiative. The NGAD effort also includes the development of new Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones, as well as advanced jet engines, weapons, electronic warfare suites, sensors, networking ecosystems, battle management capabilities, and more.

“After years of work, hundreds of test hours, 1,000s of man-years in the lab, the President announced the F-47,” Allvin said. “It’s the platform that, along with all of the rest of the [NGAD] systems, is going to ensure dominance into the future.”

“We [have] got to go fast. I got to tell you, team, it’s almost 2026. The team is committed to get the first one flying in 2028,” he continued. “In the few short months since we made the announcement, they [Boeing] are already beginning to manufacture the first article. We’re ready to go fast. We have to go fast.”

The Air Force has only previously said that the F-47 was expected to make its maiden flight before the end of Trump’s current term, which will conclude on January 20, 2029. Multiple secretive flying demonstrators helped pave the way for the F-47, as well.

Details about the F-47 program and design of the aircraft itself remain highly classified. At the time of writing, there continue to be only two official renderings of the jet, which Air Force officials have said do not necessarily fully reflect what the plane looks like in real life, for operational security purposes.

“Just love looking at this picture,” Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink had said during his own keynote at the conference today, which came just ahead of Allvin’s speech, referring specifically to the F-47 rendering seen below. “I expect some of the Chinese Intel analysts are spending a lot of time looking at this picture. Good luck trying to dig something out of there. Pretty careful about that.”

The inclusion of prominent canard foreplanes in the two renderings has been a particular topic of discussion since March. Canards could give the design a boost in maneuverability, but are conducive to extreme degrees of low observability (stealth) to radar. TWZ has previously explored the matter of the canards, and what else can be seen in the renderings, in detail, while also noting that certain aspects could be deliberate misdirection.

The Air Force has said the F-47 is expected to have a combat radius in excess of 1,000 nautical miles and be able to reach speeds above Mach 2. With that range, the new sixth-generation jets will offer a roughly 25% boost in operational reach, at least, over existing U.S. fighters. How fast the aircraft will be able to cruise without its afterburners engaged (supercruise), and with what level of efficiency, remains unknown.

The F-47 has otherwise long been expected to feature next-generation all-aspect ‘broadband’ low-observability (stealthiness), including a significantly reduced infrared signature on top of a low radar cross-section. “Spectral warfare” and “spectral dominance” have been major focus areas for the entire NGAD initiative, as TWZ has previously detailed. Air Force officials have also talked generally about the fighters having next-generation capabilities that will leverage the rest of the NGAD ecosystem, including the ability to control future CCAs.

It’s also worth noting that Boeing has been in the running for the Navy’s F/A-XX next-generation carrier-based fighter competition. A rendering that the company recently released of its F/A-XX proposal has unsurprising similarities to what has been shown to date of the F-47, as you can read more about here. The firm also previously made major investments to expand its operations in St. Louis, Missouri, to prepare for sixth-generation fighter production.

The Air Force has said it plans to acquire at least 185 F-47s, which would be in line with the original vision of the aircraft as a successor to the F-22 Raptor. However, questions have been raised about whether that figure might change going forward, and there has been talk about the potential for multiple versions to be built in incremental developmental cycles. The F-47’s expected unit cost is also unclear, but past projections have put it in the realm of three times the average price of an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, or upwards of $300 million based on publicly available information.

Speaking today, Allvin did underscore that the F-47 was just one part of broader modernization efforts to ensure the Air Force maintains its edge against any potential opponent.

“The adversary is not taking a knee. They’re not stopping and saying, ‘well, maybe the U.S. slows down, we’ll slow down too.’ Maybe we can take a knee, and that’s not what they’re doing,” he said. “As we look into the future, when we develop all of the next-generation capabilities, we can’t get enamored with the platforms. It’s not just the weapons and the weapon systems. We’ve got to understand systems over platform. It’s the things that links them together that makes it work.”

That being said, the Air Force clearly sees the F-47 as a key part of its future force structure, especially with an eye toward a potential high-end fight against China in the Pacific.

The Air Force is now moving steadily closer to this next generation of tactical airpower with the first F-47 being built ahead of an expected first flight some three years from now.

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BRAZILIAN jiu-jitsu Amanda Mazza snapped her OWN arm while attempting a submission.

The American grappler faced Emily Hansen at CFFC BJJ 15 in Philadelphia.

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Mazza took Hansen’s back in the search for a rear-naked choke.

But as Mazza tightened her grip, she accidentally snapped her own arm, declaring Hansen the winner.

Fans were in shock by the astonishing incident as one said: “Wow. Never seen that.”

Another added: “Did not know that could happen.”

One commented: “New fear unlocked.”

Another said: “Talk about a plot twist.”

Mazza spoke out on Instagram after the freak injury to thank fans.

She posted: “Thank you everyone for the love & sweet messages. I’m still smiling & will be back & better.

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“That mat return though. Damn I felt good out there. So good I didn’t even feel my arm crack on her chin.”

Mazza posted a selfie from her hospital bed and posted a lengthy statement on social media.

She said: “Sometimes this sport gives you victories you can’t measure on the scoreboard.

“I controlled the match and pushed myself to get the finish, but in the battle my forearm broke with torque of the choke against her chin.

“It’s not the outcome I imagined. To say I’m heartbroken is an understatement.. but I’m so grateful ALL the love & support and sweet messages you guys.

“They’re truly lifting me higher. The fire this setback has lit inside me is unmatched.

“The journey definitely doesn’t stop here, this is just the beginning of a stronger, hungrier version of me. The comeback will be beautiful.”

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Cracks seem to be appearing in the pan-European Future Combat Air System (FCAS) program, at the heart of which will be the crewed New Generation Fighter (NGF). Reports now suggest that Germany, one of the two major partners in FCAS, is looking at how it might separate itself from France, amid long-running misgivings over workshare arrangements in this vital program.

According to Politico, the German Ministry of Defense discussed the future of FCAS last week with Airbus, which leads the German side of the program. The article cited two unnamed people familiar with those discussions. Reportedly, German defense officials are unhappy with French demands to have a disproportionate share of the program and are now examining other options.

The same article states that German Luftwaffe officials briefed Bundestag lawmakers on the issue earlier this week, quoting an official in the legislature.

According to reports in the German defense media, France is pushing for an 80 percent share of the work on the crewed NGF combat jet, something French officials have denied.

“At some point [the German] parliament will have to say: ‘Either we need this aircraft, or we don’t,’” Social Democratic lawmaker Andreas Schwarz told Politico.

Among the options the German government is said to be exploring is to continue with FCAS without France, although the feasibility of that is highly questionable.

The implication is that Germany would pursue FCAS alongside Spain, which joined the program later, followed by Belgium, as a junior partner. Both Germany and Spain have production lines for the Eurofighter Typhoon, but Germany has not designed and built a crewed combat jet, outside of a wider consortium, for many decades, while Spain has never embarked on such a program, other than as part of the pan-European Eurofighter program.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was in Madrid yesterday, where he discussed FCAS with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

“We share the assessment that the current situation is unsatisfactory. We are not advancing with this project,” Merz said. “We are both speaking with the French government, and we want a solution as soon as possible.”

On the other hand, whatever path Germany chooses, Spain and/or Belgium might still choose to stay with France, where Dassault Aviation leads that side of the program.

Other possibilities that the German government is said to be weighing up include Germany teaming up with the United Kingdom or Sweden.

Confusingly, the FCAS nomenclature is also used by British-led and Swedish future air combat initiatives, which also feature a crewed fighter at the center, as well as a range of supporting drones and other advanced technologies.

Like the pan-European equivalent, the U.K.-led FCAS is planned to include more than just a new crewed tactical jet, including uncrewed platforms, next-generation weapons, networks and data sharing, and more.

The Tempest fighter at the heart of the U.K. FCAS program also slots into an international collaborative program to field the aircraft, plus associated support and training, to the United Kingdom, Italy, and Japan. This effort is known as the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP).

Were Germany to join the U.K.-led FCAS/GCAP effort, it would therefore join Italy and Japan. The suggestion of the U.K.’s BAE Systems, which heads up the British FCAS program, joining Germany to develop a separate new-generation combat aircraft seems much less likely.

Interestingly, when he was chief of the German Luftwaffe, Lt. Gen. Ingo Gerhartz promoted efforts to bring the British and pan-European FCAS programs together by speaking with his Italian and British counterparts. “It can be that we go on different tracks,” Gerhartz told Defense News in 2021. “Hopefully, we will merge eventually.”

On the face of it, Sweden might seem like a more likely partner for Germany, although the country is at a much earlier stage in its FCAS thinking. So far, Saab has presented concepts for a potential new-generation crewed fighter and a series of drones intended to work alongside it.

At this point, it appears that Saab considers drones to be very much at the heart of its FCAS initiative, something that is perhaps not as immediately obvious with the rival British and pan-European programs, although that could change, especially if Germany plots a new course. Already, Airbus and Kratos are pitching the stealthy XQ-58A Valkyrie drone to the German Luftwaffe, and Airbus has also been working to fill an emerging niche for ‘loyal wingman’-type drones, including a stealthy CCA-like concept of its own, known as Wingman.

Saab was also previously involved with the British FCAS program before stepping aside from that.

For Germany, however, time is running out if it wants to reconfigure its position in FCAS and still achieve the goal of replacing its current Eurofighter combat aircraft with a new ‘system of systems,’ including a crewed fighter, around 2040. The U.K.-led FCAS also hopes to field a new fighter and supporting systems around the same time. With that in mind, it’s reported that German officials want guarantees about their country’s role in the program before the end of the year.

In the medium term, Germany’s need for an advanced crewed combat aircraft will be offset somewhat by the arrival of the F-35A, 35 of which are on order, initially to replace the Tornado swing-wing combat jet in the nuclear strike role. Interestingly, reports from earlier this summer suggested that Berlin might be interested in buying another 15 F-35As, for a total of 50, as a bridging solution before FCAS, although officials subsequently denied that was a plan — for the time being, at least.

Now, more than ever, there appears to be a real possibility of Germany and France going their separate ways in the pan-European FCAS, although whether that will lead to four separate FCAS efforts in Europe (including Sweden’s) seems much less likely. Already, there are serious questions about the ability of the continent to sustain a program as expensive and complex as this, especially without guarantees of significant export sales or foreign investment.

The pan-European FCAS may well be at something of a crossroads now, with the defense ministers from France, Germany, and Spain due to meet next month to hammer out the details of the program’s future.

The results of those talks will likely influence whether the program moves into Phase 2, in which the companies involved will produce a demonstrator aircraft. Such a decision is due before the end of this year.

Even then, however, it might not be too late for things to change.

It’s worth recalling that France was originally part of the European consortium that eventually developed and produced the Eurofighter, before leaving that program’s progenitor, and going it alone with the Dassault-developed Rafale.

As far as France’s position on FCAS is concerned, it appears that officials want to speed up the program, in particular wanting to have more control over decision-making, rather than having to discuss details with German and French partners, increasing the risk of delays. This appears to apply to the NGF combat jet, in particular.

While the pan-European FCAS has long been dogged by disputes over workshare arrangements, the timing of the current tensions could hardly be worse. The timeline to get the aircraft and other systems into service is already very tight, and the countries involved are seeking to build up their armed forces in the face of a growing Russian threat on NATO’s eastern flank. More immediately, the French political situation is also in some disarray.

It’s by no means clear that the current frictions will lead to a major reshaping of the pan-European FCAS, and perhaps even alter the paths of rival efforts in Europe. At the very least, however, such issues are likely to delay what is already a highly ambitious and technologically demanding effort.

Contact the author: [email protected]

With the current growing tensions between Venezuela and the United States, it’s worth recalling a little-known aerial mission that the U.S. military launched to interdict narcotics coming out of Central and South America back in the 1990s. Most notably, the announcement earlier this week that 10 F-35s will deploy to Puerto Rico startled some, but it is actually far from unprecedented. In fact, something similar was happening for years, decades ago. This was Coronet Nighthawk, which employed U.S. Air Force fighters to patrol against suspected drug traffickers.

Starting with the current situation, the deployment of F-35s has been taken by some as evidence that the United States is planning to go to war directly with Venezuela. However, as we have previously pointed out, these stealth jets could also be used for a range of other relevant tasks. In particular, their advanced sensors make them ideal intelligence-gathering platforms. You can read more about that here.

We are still waiting to hear more about the F-35 deployment. Currently, it remains unclear where they will come from, when they arrive, and what they will do once they get there.

However, the deployment does have some parallels with Coronet Nighthawk, a counterdrug operation that began in the early 1990s and employed fighter aircraft to patrol the skies of Central America and the Caribbean and detect suspected drug-running aircraft. This was at a time of huge concern around drug trafficking and smuggling into the United States, which had begun to peak during the era of the Reagan administration in the mid-1980s.

The main facility for Coronet Nighthawk was Howard Air Force Base in Panama, although assets would eventually also be rotated into other airfields in the Caribbean and Central America.

This mission was initially undertaken by Air Combat Command before transitioning from the active-duty component to the Air National Guard. Fighters were on 24/7 alert to intercept possible drug-trafficking aircraft and to provide overwatch to dissuade such flights. On receiving coordinates of a suspect flight, fighters were expected to scramble within 15 minutes and would then go and investigate them.

F-15s and F-16s were involved, with an example of the former pictured at the top of this story. Dated 1993, the original caption describes it as an F-15 sent to identify an aircraft that was possibly hauling drugs as detected by the Southern Regional Operations Center.

A Washington Post article from 2000, detailing the 113th Wing’s activities in Curaçao provides an idea of how the mission worked:

“The fast, agile F-16s would quickly intercept the suspect planes in international airspace as they flew over open water. The aircraft would be identified and tracked along their route and then followed again after making suspected deliveries. Information on the planes’ actions and location would be passed on to law enforcement agencies and local civil authorities for possible arrests and seizures.”

It appears the U.S. Air Force fighters flew their missions unarmed, serving as the ‘eyes in the sky’ to locate suspect aircraft as well as to dissuade them from being in the airspace in the first instance.

However, intercepting ‘slow-movers’ was and remains a challenge for a jet fighter.

“The drug runners aren’t running at high noon,” Col. Mike Redman, the 113th Wing vice commander, told the Washington Post. “They’re doing it very early in the morning, and they’re flying low over the water.” Typically, the drug-runners would try and fly at low speed, just below the clouds.

The Coronet Nighthawk mission was wound up in 2001, due to the implementation of the Panama Canal Treaty, which handed the canal back to the Panamanian government at the end of December 1999, together with U.S. military bases in the country. (In 2002, the Coronet Nighthawk name would be resurrected for the deployment to Europe of Air Force F-117 stealth fighters).

Clearly, however, the mission had been successful in terms of its original remit.

As of the early 1990s, 75 percent of the drugs in the region were assessed to be transported by air, according to an official history from the 142nd Wing, one of the units that provided fighter jets. By the time the mission ended, the percentage of drugs transported in the region by air had been reduced to 25 percent, as the drug traffickers changed their approach accordingly.

According to one publicly available account, between September 1994 and the end of the decade, Coronet Nighthawk fighters were credited with ensuring the disruption or seizure of over 33,000 metric tons of cocaine.

“We didn’t go over there expecting to completely stop the flow of cocaine coming into the country,” Maj. Conal J. Brady III, a 199th Fighter Squadron F-15 pilot, said in one contemporary account. “But we did make a dent in it and made it a lot harder for the drug runners.”

As far as the 142nd Wing and its F-15s were concerned, they made six deployments to Panama for Coronet Nighthawk, first in 1992, twice in 1993, again in 1994, over the New Year 1995–96, and lastly in 1999. A typical deployment involved five F-15s and around 50 airmen, with personnel rotating every two weeks.

“It’s a real-world mission, but at least the weather’s nice and you’re working under the palm trees near white sand beaches,” Redman explained to the Washington Post.

It should be recalled that, during the same timeframe, an overseas F-16 assignment might otherwise take airmen to a desert base in the Middle East, to fly long-duration ‘no-fly’ zone missions over Iraq.

The current F-35 deployment is a fairly clear indication that the situation in the region is currently heating up.

Back in the 1990s, most of the narcotics traffic was underway in the air. The pulse-Doppler lookdown radars on the F-15s and F-16s were key to finding aerial targets, which were mainly active at night.

Now, most of the drugs in the region are moved on the surface of the water. Modern fighters have even more powerful radars paired with electro-optical systems that can detect and investigate targets on the surface and do so very quickly. With the U.S. military now also engaging suspected drug traffickers at sea, fighters would also be able to attack those targets themselves. The air threat from Venezuela is also not nonexistent. While the token fleet of aging F-16s is not a huge concern, Venezuela does have 21 more potent Su-30MK2V Flanker multirole fighters.

For the time being, at least, it seems that the favored option for counter-narcotics missions involves the MQ-9 Reaper drone, at least two of which have recently been noted in Puerto Rico. Although these are among a number of different aircraft now involved, MQ-9s can carry a variety of missiles as well as sensors for surveillance and can loiter for more than 24 hours over a target, making them an ideal platform for these missions. What they cannot do is respond anywhere near as rapidly as a fighter.

Meanwhile, although Coronet Nighthawk was just one of many military efforts by the U.S. government to try to stop the flow of drugs into the country from Central and South America, it appears to have been one of the more successful ones.

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Sept. 10 (UPI) — Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Wednesday that Polish forces and their NATO partners downed a “huge” number of Russian drones overnight, the first time Russian assets have been intercepted in the military alliance’s airspace.

“Last night, the Polish airspace was violated by a huge number of Russian drones. Those drones that posed a direct threat were shot down. I am in constant communication with the Secretary General of NATO and our allies,” Tusk said in a post on X.

He said there were “multiple violations of Polish airspace,” each of which was met by Polish and NATO air defenses, including fighter jets.

Tusk said he was in continual contact with the commander of the operation, the defense minister and the country’s president.

Residents were sent emergency texts alerting them of the air defense operation and requesting them to report any drones they saw or locations where they fell, while people in three regions in the east of the country were told to stay indoors.

Supreme Allied Commander Europe Gen. Alexus Grynkewich said NATO’s swift and decisive response demonstrated both the alliance’s ability and determination “to defend Allied territory.”

Speaking after an emergency meeting of the National Security Bureau, Tusk said Poland was most likely “dealing with a large-scale provocation.” He called the situation “serious” but vowed that Poland was “ready to repel” attacks of this nature.

A number of the drones entered from Belarus airspace, Tusk told lawmakers later Wednesday, and that the last of the objects was shot down at 6:45 a.m. local time.

“I have no reason to claim we’re on the brink of war, but a line has been crossed, and it’s incomparably more dangerous than before. This situation brings us the closest we have been to open conflict since World War Two,” he said.

The incursion came amid a massive Russian airborne attack against neighboring Ukraine involving more than 400 drones and more than 40 cruise and ballistic missiles, with the Ukrainian Air Force saying that as many as 24 drones “crossed the Ukrainian state border flying in Poland’s direction.”

Poland shares borders of roughly equal length with both Ukraine and Belarus.

NATO Allied Command Operations confirmed the clashes were the first time NATO aircraft had engaged with potential threats in “Allied Airspace” with Poland and the Netherlands scrambling fighter jets, Italian early warning aircraft and a NATO air-refuelling tanker airborne and German-supplied Patriot missiles on alert.

“NATO, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, and all of Allied Command Operations is committed to defending every kilometer of NATO territory, including our airspace,” said Col. Martin L. O’Donnell, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe spokesman.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer issued a statement saying he had been in communication with Tusk over the incident, which he called a “barbaric attack on Ukraine and the egregious and unprecedented violation of Polish and NATO airspace by Russian drones”.

“This was an extremely reckless move by Russia and only serves to remind us of President Putin’s blatant disregard for peace and the constant bombardment innocent Ukrainians face every day.”

The incident came hours after Starmer hosted NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Downing Street where they discussed work to integrate U.S. support into plans for a so-called Coalition of the Willing of European countries putting together a reassurance force for Ukraine to uphold any future cease-fire.

Condemning the incursion in “the strongest possible terms,” French President Emmanuel Macron said it was completely unacceptable and that he would meet with Rutte — but did not say when.

Belarus claimed the incursion was accidental, caused by drones turned “rogue” after their systems were jammed, claimed its forces had shot some of them down, and that it communicated with Poland and Lithuania over a five-hour period during the night.

Moscow, however, sought to lay blame on Ukraine, with Russian state television quoting unnamed Polish lawmakers saying it appeared to be a false-flag operation perpetrated by Kyiv.

Maybe Mike Tyson should pick on someone his own size.

Maybe Floyd Mayweather Jr. should pick on someone his own age.

Maybe both men should stay retired.

Or maybe we should just kick back and enjoy an unexpected but extremely intriguing contest between two all-time great boxers from different eras (and weight classes).

Might as well take the last option because Tyson vs. Mayweather is happening in spring 2026.

CSI Sports / Fight Sports on Thursday announced the upcoming exhibition bout without providing too many other details, such as the date or location of the event or at what weight the fight will take place.

Another detail that hasn’t been revealed is how much money each fighter will earn. No doubt it will be quite a hefty amount, a notion Mayweather may have been referencing when he posted multiple videos Thursday on his Instagram Stories featuring himself sitting in what appears to be a private jet and handling large stacks of cash.

The hype machine has already started, though.

CSI Sports / Fight Sports co-founders Richard and Craig Miele predicted in a news release that the fight would be bigger than Tyson’s record-setting bout with Jake Paul last November. That fight was the most-streamed sporting event of all time and brought in the largest gate for a U.S. boxing or MMA event held outside of Las Vegas.

“Tyson vs. Mayweather will break every broadcast, streaming and economic record set by Mike Tyson in 2024,” the Miele brothers said. “We are planning a robust promotional campaign complete with weekly premium storytelling and worldwide marketing reach. The event itself will be in a world-class venue and be presented to a global audience with new in-ring technology elements that will reshape how boxing is presented, and scoring is achieved for years to come.”

Tyson (59-7, 44 KO) was the undisputed world heavyweight champion from 1987-1990. The then-57-year-old Tyson ended nearly two decades of retirement from professional fighting last year when he fought the then-27-year-old Paul in a sanctioned bout. Paul won that match by unanimous decision.

Mayweather (50-0, 27 KO) won 15 championship belts spanning five weight classes, from super featherweight to light middleweight. He is now 48 and hasn’t fought a professional bout since his 10th-round technical knockout of Conor McGregor in 2017.

The boxers are already in hype mode as well, as evidenced by their comments in the press release announcing the event.

“I still can’t believe Floyd wants to really do this,” Tyson said. “It’s going to be detrimental to his health, but he wants to do it, so it’s signed and it’s happening!”

Mayweather said: “There hasn’t been a single fighter that can tarnish my legacy. … I’m the best in the business of boxing.”

Individuals training to become U.S. Navy tactical jet pilots are no longer required to take off and land from aircraft carriers before being winged as Naval Aviators. This is a huge change in training requirements and has important ramifications for the service’s plans to replace its current carrier-capable T-45 Goshawk jet trainers.

Our colleagues at Task & Purpose first reported the elimination of carrier landing qualifications from the graduation requirements for the Tactical Air (Strike) aviator training pipeline earlier today. This pipeline currently produces new pilots to fly the Navy’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and F-35C fighters, as well as EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft.

“The final strike carrier landing qualification occurred in March of 2025,” a Navy official told Task & Purpose. “Students in the strike pipeline, those training to fly F/A-18s, F-35s, and EA-18Gs, are no longer required to qualify by landing on a carrier prior to graduation.”

Naval aviators who come out of the Tactical Air pipeline will now conduct their first carrier qualifications when they reach a Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS). These units provide initial training on the specific type of tactical jet that those individuals have been assigned to fly.

TWZ has reached out to the Navy to find to what degree Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP) landings and touch-and-goes on aircraft carriers are still part of the undergraduate Tactical Air training syllabus. FCLPs are conducted at bases on land, but are structured in a way that “simulates, as near as practicable, the conditions encountered during carrier landing operations,” according to the service.

As noted, just eliminating carrier qualifications from the undergraduate training requirements is a fundamental change in how the Navy produces new Naval Aviators to fly tactical jets. The procedures for taking off from and landing on an aircraft carrier bobbing up and down at sea are significantly different from those when operating from an airfield ashore.

“It’s what makes naval aviation unique,” Sterling Gilliam, a retired Navy captain who is now the director of the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida, told Task & Purpose when asked about the change. “Audacity has kind of defined Naval Aviation, and the uniqueness of carrier operations, specifically fixed wing launches and recoveries, requires a fair amount of skill and practice and professionalism.”

At the same time, the change does not come as a complete surprise. In 2020, the Navy announced that the requirements for a future Undergraduate Jet Training System (UJTS) jet trainer to replace the T-45 would no longer include the need to be able to land on or take off from an aircraft carrier. In the past year or so, service has also moved to cut demands for the forthcoming UJTS aircraft to have features needed to conduct FCLP landings.

All of this has come on the back of Navy investments in virtualized training and automated carrier landing capabilities, such as Magic Carpet, in recent years. Those developments have already proven to be controversial, prompting concerns and criticism about potential impacts down the line from cutting what have long been considered essential naval aviation training requirements.

“Carrier qualification is more than catching the wire. It is the exposure to the carrier environment and how an individual deals with it,” an experienced U.S. Navy strike fighter pilot told TWZ back in 2020. “The pattern, the communications, the nuance, the stress. The ability to master this is one of our competitive advantages.”

The UJTS requirements still have yet to be firmed up, at least publicly, ahead of the start of a formal competition, which is expected to kick off next year. The Navy has said in the past that the goal is for the first UJTS aircraft to enter service by 2035 and for the T-45 to be completely phased out by 2040.

The removal of carrier qualifications from the Tactical Air pipeline already shows the Navy is not waiting for the arrival of UJTS to make major changes to its naval aviation training requirements. This would seem to make it increasingly less likely that the service will reverse course on the related changes to the UJTS requirements, at least when it comes to what is needed from the aircraft landing-wise, which will have significant ramifications for the upcoming competition.

Just last week, the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) announced its intention to compete for UJTS with a proposal that puts heavy emphasis on still being able to perform FCLP landings and touch-and-goes, as you can read more about in detail here.

“You want … your – I call it your lizard brain – to be trained to do the things you are going to do when things go south on you, because the way a [former Air Force pilot] like me lands an airplane is 180 degrees different than a carrier guy,” Derek Hess, Vice President of Strategy at SNC, told TWZ‘s Jamie Hunter on the sidelines of the Tailhook Association’s main annual symposium last week. “I touch down, go to idle. He touches down, slams down, goes to MIL [maximum non-afterburner thrust], and is ready to take off again.”

“This is why FCLPs are so important,” Ray “Fitz” Fitzgerald, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Technology at SNC, also said while speaking alongside Hess. “On that dark, stormy night, and everything’s just going bad, you rely on muscle memory, right? So when you think about muscle memory, as a carrier aviator, you’re on speed, so you’re on the right AOA, so the hook and the gear are the right AOA to trap, and everything hits at the same time. If I’m at a slow AOA, it means my nose is up, which means the hook grabs first and slams you down. You can break a jet like that. If I’m at a fast AOA, the nose is lower, hook is up, you skip across, and you go flying again, which is not good either.”

“So that muscle memory, I mean, it’s what will save lives,” He added.

Boeing, Lockheed Martin (in partnership with Korea Aerospace Industries), and Textron (together with Italy’s Leonardo) are also set to join the competition, but with aircraft based on existing land-based jet trainer designs that were not built for carrier operations, real or simulated.

More clarity on the Navy’s future vision for training future naval aviators will come when the final UJTS requirements are released. In the meantime, a major watershed moment has already occurred with the end of carrier qualifications as a graduation requirement for future tactical jet pilots.

Update, 3:30 PM Eastern:

A U.S. Navy official has now provided TWZ with the following additional statement:

“Students in the strike pipeline, those training to fly F/A-18s, F-35s, and EA-18Gs, are no longer required to qualify by landing on a carrier prior to graduation. However, future E-2 [Hawkeye airborne early warning and control aircraft] pilots and international military students will complete carrier landing qualifications on a ship in the T-45 while in student training. Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP) landings ashore are still required for graduation. The strategic decision of moving carrier qualifications from the training syllabus to their fleet replacement squadrons was driven by increased technological capabilities in the fleet, as well as the need to reduce training pipeline times, enabling the fleet to receive qualified pilots faster. After earning their initial qualifications after graduation, naval aviators in the strike pipeline are required to complete touch-and-goes and carrier landings at sea during their assignment at the Fleet Replacement Squadrons (FRS).”

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Boeing has provided a new rendering for its F/A-XX proposal, and it’s remarkably similar to concept artwork that has already been released for its F-47, selected for the U.S. Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) ‘fighter’ initiative. While it’s important not to read too much into declassified conceptual renderings of either of those aircraft, based on the artwork, the new art does, at least, correspond with Boeing’s previous hints that the F/A-XX and F-47 would incorporate significant commonality.

The new rendering of the F/A-XX proposal from Boeing was first shown at the Tailhook Symposium last week. The rendering was subsequently published by Aviation Week and is also seen at the top of this story. An F-47 rendering, for comparison, is seen below.

As we reported only earlier this week, Navy Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever, commonly referred to as the service’s “Air Boss,” is still “eagerly awaiting” a decision on the F/A-XX down-select, despite the uncertainty now swirling around that program.

Like previous F-47 depictions, the new Boeing F/A-XX rendering obscures the aircraft in clouds but adds a Navy flattop below, befitting its role as a carrier-based tactical jet. The tail surfaces of the aircraft are fully concealed in clouds. Meanwhile, the aircraft’s ‘bubble’ canopy appears to be very similar to that presented in F-47 renderings. While the radome appears to be smaller and shorter than the notably wide one shown on the Air Force jet, this might be due to the viewing angle. Based on the angle of the wing leading-edge extension, it seems that the F/A-XX concept may well also include canard foreplanes.

As we discussed in an in-depth feature on the topic, canards were a surprising feature of the F-47 renderings that appeared once Boeing had been announced as the winner of the Air Force’s NGAD fighter program. In the F-47 renderings, the details of the canards are also deliberately obscured, but are clearly present.

Above all, canards are a feature that’s not immediately associated with an aircraft optimized for low observability (stealth), range, payload, and speed. Instead, this is a feature that’s normally included on tactical fighters on the basis of maneuverability.

First off, we should note that the new F/A-XX rendering might not include canards, and the degree to which the rendering may reflect the final Boeing design proposal remains open to question. There may also be some counter-intelligence work at play in the F/A-XX rendering, as well as those of the F-47, by pushing concept art that alludes to a prominent feature that the aircraft actually doesn’t have.

However, canards would be of particular benefit for a carrier-based aircraft like the F/A-XX. In this case, the foreplanes enhance low-speed maneuverability, which is especially important during carrier approaches and landings.

Since the tail is entirely hidden in the new F/A-XX rendering, we can’t comment with any degree of authority on this area. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that it’s widely assumed that the F-47 is a tailless design. Previous 6th generation naval fighter renderings from Boeing have also shown a tailless design. Such a configuration would help optimize stealth, although it would sacrifice some maneuverability. To mitigate this, Boeing may have opted to use thrust vectoring and/or canards for its F-47 and F/A-XX proposals.

Otherwise, based on what we already know about the F-47 and F/A-XX, the two aircraft are expected to offer somewhat different capabilities, over and above the carrier compatibility of the Navy jet. According to Aviation Week, the F-47 is presumed to use an all-new adaptive powerplant, the F/A-XX will use a derivative engine, Navy officials have said.

While the Navy previously said that the F/A-XX would be optimized for extended range and survivability, more recent comments suggest its range may only be 25 percent greater than existing tactical jets. This may also be dictated, in part, by the constraints of carrier operations.

There are meanwhile signs that the Air Force might have scaled back its range requirements for the F-47, with the original NGAD fighter having been pitched as a ‘cruiser’ type aircraft with very long endurance suited to Pacific operations. The Air Force now says that the aircraft will possess a combat radius of “1,000+” nautical miles, a significant advance over other fighters currently in the inventory, but not the kind of extended range that many had expected for the Air Force NGAD, especially considering the need to confront advanced enemy air defenses in the decades to come.

The new Boeing F/A-XX rendering appears soon after Northrop Grumman released a rendering for its own submission for the program, something that TWZ was first to report on.

Boeing and Northrop Grumman are understood to be the remaining contenders for F/A-XX.

The Northrop Grumman rendering notably doesn’t include canards, and its overall design appears to be heavily weighted toward stealth, including a flowing, almost organic design, with constantly changing radiused surfaces. Overall, the design has similarities to the passed-over YF-23. You can read more about it here.

Overall, however, Boeing’s new F/A-XX rendering seems to underscore previous affirmations from the company that it would not have a problem building both the Navy and Air Force next-generation fighters.

Earlier this summer, Steve Parker, Boeing Defense and Space CEO, said he didn’t see a problem with his company building both the F-47 and F/A-XX, stating that this had been part of the strategy all along.

Parker’s comments came in response to questions raised by Navy and Pentagon budget officials about the U.S. defense industry’s capacity to produce the two new highly-advanced tactical jets simultaneously.

In particular, Boeing has invested considerable sums in developing a new Advanced Combat Aircraft Assembly Facility in St. Louis, Missouri, which should have the potential to build both aircraft, if the company’s F/A-XX bid is successful. Building the two types in parallel would be made even easier if they were based, at least somewhat, on a core design, with a high degree of commonality.

As we noted earlier this week, the Navy was reportedly close to announcing the winner of the F/A-XX competition in March.

In June, however, the Pentagon announced as part of the rollout of its Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal that it was moving to complete initial development work related to F/A-XX, but then froze the program indefinitely. It reasoned that it wanted to avoid competition for resources that could affect the Air Force’s F-47.

“They [the Navy] haven’t made a decision yet. So that’s what the down-select is. We’re waiting for the decision, and I’m not the decision maker,” Vice Adm. Cheever told TWZ last week.

Overall, there remains uncertainty around the F/A-XX. In recent months, other senior Navy officials have voiced support publicly for pressing forward with the program. Members of Congress have also been making moves to keep F/A-XX moving ahead as planned in the upcoming Fiscal Year 2026 budget.

“The Navy has a validated requirement for carrier-based sixth-generation aircraft, and it is critical that we field that capability as quickly as possible to give our warfighters the capabilities they need to win against a myriad of emerging threats,” Adm. Daryl Caudle, Chief of Naval Operations, the Navy’s top officer, wrote in response to a question about F/A-XX ahead of his confirmation hearing in July.

Not surprisingly, the Navy considers the F/A-XX as critical to ensuring its carrier air wings can continue to project power in the face of ever-growing threats, especially in any future high-end fight, such as one against China in the Pacific.

Ultimately, if the FA-XX program remains in purgatory, and the F-47 program meets its potential and planned timeline, the Navy could end up buying a navalized F-47 derivative with much lower risk and lower development cost. This might parallel the wait-and-see approach the Navy is taking with its Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), compared to the Air Force (and, to a lesser degree, the Marine Corps). The Navy can capitalize on what is proven to work without investing major funds, but at the cost of waiting.

While we can’t say for sure how close Boeing’s new rendering will be to the company’s final F/A-XX submission, its appearance underlines the fact that the company is very much hoping to follow up its Air Force NGAD success with another sixth-generation fighter contract win, this time for the Navy.

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