The U.S. Air Force search for a new military leader broadened to more retirees and lieutenant generals after a leading contender faced new criticism on social media report @beverstine.bsky.social and @thedewline.bsky.social aviationweek.com/defense/budg...

Did you know the word Leiden, which is also the name of a city in The Netherlands, means “to lead” in Dutch and “suffer” in German? Just thought I’d share.

At some point this summer, a courier from a UAE-based freight forwarder will attempt to serve a court summons to Iran's Foreign Minister, informing the diplomat that his government is being sued in a Fort Worth courtroom by Bell Textron. aviationweek.com/defense/supp... @thedewline.bsky.social

A Block 4 type vision effectivity development capability costs $33,355,000, in case you were wondering.

Russia has cancelled Army 2025, this year's version of the country's largest, annual defense exhibition, says Izvestia. No reason given. s iz.ru/1921520/2025...

The blogfather @armscontrolwonk.bsky.social and I finally sat down to discuss the "12 day war" and Iran's pathway back to the Bomb :: www.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/1220...

But I want carrot cake.

To give the conspiracy crowd something new to play with, I propose we all call the circular, white building in the middle of the future @anduriltech.bsky.social Arsenal 1 campus in Columbus, Ohio, the "Tic Tac."

Bell will get a chance to build an X-plane demonstrator for high-speed vertical-takeoff-and-landing technology based on a stop/fold tiltrotor. aviationweek.com/defense/airc... via @thedewline.bsky.social

Does this mean Eric Schmidt is a closet Swiftie?

German defense suppliers go on the attack to press case for airborne electronic attack aviationweek.com/defense/sens...

About one-third of the overall funding from the U.S. Air Force for JetZero’s Z4 blended wing body demonstrator is at risk of being cut in the fiscal 2026 budget request. aviationweek.com/defense/budg... via @thedewline.bsky.social

The Marine Corps needs an Italian-made violin and a century-old violin bow immediately. And it somehow must be manufactured in the USA. #forcedesign #lethality sam.gov/opp/1a25df9f...

'To reach even [Natanz] all the weapons available to the Israeli Air Force, and all except the 30,000 lbs GBU-57/B and the 5,000 lbs GBU 72/B available to the United States, would likely require several impacts into the same crater to ‘burrow’ down...' www.rusi.org/explore-our-...

Newswire editors: This is your periodic reminder to avoid placing random images of fighters that don't belong to any of the subjects of the story. There's plenty of pictures of Chinese fighters available.

Really hope this is for a next-generation lava lamp. sam.gov/opp/670f02db...

Note the steel toe booties. It's important to avoid injuries from stubbing your toe while posing in front of a 360-kiloton nuclear bomb.

New episode just posted (featuring @thedewline.bsky.social):

Here's the full transcript of President Trump's remarks today in Doha, revealing a proposed twin-engine F-55 variant of the F-35 and his thoughts on single-engine aircraft and stealth aircraft design, in general. Trump, Ortberg & Culp are there due to blockbuster Boeing/GE order by Qatar Airways.

President Donald Trump proposed new “super upgrade” programs for the Lockheed Martin F-35 and F-22 fighters during a May 15 press conference in Doha, Qatar. aviationweek.com/defense/airc... via @thedewline.bsky.social

Here's the transcript, for those interested.

A U.S. Navy flight test announcement revealed work is underway to revive a decades-old concept to miniaturize missiles by combining an air-breathing ramjet with a solid fuel rocket. aviationweek.com/defense/miss... via @thedewline.bsky.social

Northrop says higher cost reflects "a manufacturing process change to enable accelerated production ramp, and increased general procurement costs" aviationweek.com/defense/airc... via @thedewline.bsky.social

Ukraine’s long-suffering aerospace giants look to Europe to break free from Russian orbit kyivindependent.com/ukraines-lon...

They’re talking about mining manganese modules off the Pacific floor again. Maybe it’s time for the CIA to dust off Project Azorian plans? Elon Musk could reprise the role of the crazy investor played by Howard Hughes. Any Russian or Chinese subs sink recently? www.ft.com/content/2205...

I love an aircraft model with a tail number inspired by an ‘80s pop song. Behold the UH-72 model on the Airbus booth at SeaAirSpace this week.

The U.S. Air Force starts looking what comes after LAIRCM as it seeks a new countermeasure system to defeat a range of IR-guided missiles and air vehicles targeting fleets of large fixed-wing transports, special mission aircraft etc aviationweek.com/defense/miss... via @thedewline.bsky.social

MLB.tv will never be forgiven for today.

The Swiss population doesn’t want to buy the F35 anymore, given everything that’s going on in Trump’s US. In 2020, a 50,1% majority had voted for the acquisition in a referendum. www.watson.ch/schweiz/wirt...

Interior gives me EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle vibes.

An >80% Pk of older RF and IR missiles versus Shahed drones and Russian cruise missiles is a helpful data point.

RAAF to put Boeing's MQ-28 Ghost Bat through its paces this year to define its path forward on CCAs aviationweek.com/defense/airc...

Podcast: NGAD Win Puts Boeing Back in the Game With The F-47 aviationweek.com/podcasts/che... via @thedewline.bsky.social and Matt Jouppi

The last clean-sheet fighter design that entered service under the Boeing brand was this baby. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_...

New episode just posted (featuring @thedewline.bsky.social):

Waited about 13 years to write this story. aviationweek.com/defense/airc...

An update on the war following a recent trip. The situation has improved compared with Fall 2024. Russian offensive momentum slowed significantly over the winter, though it is premature to claim that the front has stabilized, especially following AFU withdrawal in Kursk. /1

NGAD decision comes later today … stay tuned.

A reminder for people who can’t keep all the acronyms straight

Can the ALQ-167 be a roar-ing success on larger platforms? aviationweek.com/defense/sens... via @thedewline.bsky.social

It’s a weird year when I’m genuinely interested in the results of a parliamentary election in Greenland.

On F-35 fears, I get it - there is real dependency. But if all your targeting capacity, BLOS comms, penetrating/orbital ISR and the munitions you assume you’d fight with in a war are US-provided; then dependency on the US for MDFs and ALIS/ODIN for F-35 isn’t your main problem.

Ça devient un classique ce combo Rafale Ariane 6

Don't laugh. I hear the Chinese air force is working on a five-seater. sam.gov/opp/318f202a...

"In a heavily contested EW environment, at the front-end of power projection efforts over great distances where each available airframe and weapon counts for a huge amount, there is likely to be outsized value in having even a relatively small number of NGAD or J-36-style crewed combat aircraft..."

This is bad

The Mach Industries concept envisions a transformation in the striking power of the Army’s company or battalion-sized maneuver units. aviationweek.com/defense/miss... via @thedewline.bsky.social

Von der Leyen has just announced the Commission's "Rearm Europe" plan. The most important parts target national fiscal space: The Commission will activate the national escape clauses in the fiscal rules and put a new loans-based instrument on the table. Here is what it means:

The lady behind me in the boarding line brought a bag of Cinnabon rolls on board and gave them to the airline crew just to be nice. She was already in first class. I’m recording it here to slightly offset all the videos of misbehaving passengers and callous crew.

EPAWS 2.0 breaks cover (sort of) aviationweek.com/defense/sens... via @thedewline.bsky.social