UAS VISION
an independent online news service for the Unmanned Aircraft Systems world
A up-close look at L3Harris’ Sky Warden variant of the famed AT-802 Air Tractor that is serving as the test aircraft for Air Force Special Operation Command’s OA-1K Skyraider II program. The War Zone met up with L3Harris at this year’s Special Operations Forces Week conference in Tampa, Florida. Continue reading
June 4, 1942. It’s the height of the Pacific War, and Admiral Chuichi Nagumo stands on Akagi’s bridge. Below him stretches the pride of Japan’s navy, four aircraft carriers that struck Pearl Harbor just months earlier, now slicing through open water toward Midway Atoll. The plan is simple: crush the island’s defenses, then lure out and destroy what’s left of America’s carriers. So far, everything is going according to plan. Continue reading
April 15, 1986. US Air Force Major Brian Shul streaks through the stratosphere fifteen miles over Colonel Gaddafi’s Libya in his Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. Flying too high for enemy fighters to reach, too fast for missiles to catch, virtually invisible to radar, not a single one has been shot down in over two decades of operation. Continue reading
June 1990. The Soviets were about to do it again. Not since Sputnik had they so dramatically outpaced the West. They were about to deploy the most advanced vertical takeoff and landing combat aircraft the world had ever seen. The Yak-141, NATO reporting name Freestyle, didn’t just outperform the legendary British Harrier—it made it look ancient. Continue reading
In 1963, as Soviet Tu-95 bombers pushed NATO response times to mere minutes, Britain faced a critical defense gap. Budget constraints left the Royal Navy without a modern fighter capable of intercepting threats at supersonic speeds. Facing being outdone by the Soviets, a desperate Britain did the unthinkable: they turned to a foreign warplane for a solution. Continue reading
An aggressor squadron screams across the Baltic sky, closing in on the Swedish Saab 35 Draken at Mach 1.7. By all conventional wisdom, the brand new Swedish fighter should have been trapped—outgunned, outmaneuvered, and seconds away from being another Cold War casualty. But this is no ordinary aircraft. Continue reading
The Miles M.20 was an all-wood lightweight fighter and interceptor from Britain during World War II. This video looks at the idea of an emergency fighter, and the more technologically advanced examples from Germany in WW2, and some more simplistic examples from America. It then moves over to Britain’s example in the M.20, intended to supplant the Supermarine Spitfire and the Hawker Hurricane in an emergency. Continue reading
In early 1969, the dense jungles of Vietnam trembled under the dominion of the AC-47 gunship, affectionately known as Puff, the Magic Dragon. Its aged engines roared like a living beast of the air while its trio of miniguns promised swift justice from above, while its flares made an artificial day out of even the darkest of nights. Continue reading