War Is Boring

Dave Dietsch from the U.S. Air Force Association advocacy group is worried about the future. Specifically, he’s worried that the U.S. military will lose its traditional air-defense prowess, rendering vulnerable thousands of American drones, attack planes, spy planes, transports and helicopters. “Without enough modern fighters to control the skies over future battlefields, American soldiers and Marines will lose the vital information and support these systems provide,” he wrote in a newspaper editorial. “Losing the air power edge — ever — would be inconceivably costly in the lives of American ground troops.”

The resemblance between a new, in-development Japanese drone to a certain U.S. Air Force cruise missile is uncanny.

What comes next for the U.S. Air Force’s air-superiority fighter force? According to the Pentagon’s first 30-year aviation plan, published this month, the next dogfighter could be a robot. “In the far term, the Air Force will retire its fourth-generation fighter/attack fleet,” the report reads. “In evaluating replacement options, it will consider both manned and unmanned options.”

Major General Ido Nehushtan officially welcomed the Israeli air force’s newest drone aircraft, the Eitan, to Squadron 210 by plastering a large Star of David decal onto its side. Speaking to the assembled crowd of Israel Aircraft Industries personnel and their families, General Nehushtan praised their “years of hard work and dedication” and for “protecting the state of Israel” from its most serious threats.

Since 2007 there had been rumors of a secretive flying-wing airplane operating from the NATO airfield at Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan. Grainy photos circulated. Journalist Bill Sweetman dubbed it the “Beast of Kandahar.”

After nine years of development, last month Israeli firm Urban Aeronautics flew the first prototype of its AirMule robot, a flying ambulance propelled by fans buried vertically in the fuselage. These so-called “ducted fans” are an increasingly popular form in the world of military robots, but AirMule is bigger and its mission more ambitious than any existing fan designs.

by DAVID AXE It sure doesn’t look like much, but looks can be deceiving. The fugly robot pictured above is Israeli firm Urban Aeronautics’ “AirMule,” a hovering transport propelled by ducted, vertical fans. AirMule has just completed the first phase of flight testing. “This phase has consisted of autonomous hovers with the vehicle’s fly-by-wire control [...]