Rear Adm. Kenneth W. “Pete” Pettigrew, a Top Gun instructor, served as a consultant on the 1986 film "Top Gun," a scene from which is shown here. (U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command) Randall H.

A powerful Chinese-made missile known as the PL-15 has likely been used in a real combat situation for the very first time. According to reports, the Pakistan Air Force fired the missile amid recent ...

When the Korean War began in 1950, the United States entered a new era of air combat it barely understood. Pilots trained for the piston-engine battles of World War II suddenly faced jet fighters that ...

Pilots aboard an F-16C Fighting Falcon and an F-15E Strike Eagle each controlled two XQ-58A Valkyrie unmanned aircraft in an air combat training scenario. In a groundbreaking test which has been ...

Although designed and designated as a bomber, the B-21 Raider can more usefully be thought of as a stealthy, networked, long-range aircraft capable of employing a considerable payload of large weapons ...

At Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, a test bed for a new kind of air force, Major Trent McMullen is a fighter pilot learning to fly alongside the XQ-58, a drone piloted by artificial intelligence.

Randall H. Cunningham, the sole U.S. Navy ace pilot of the Vietnam War, called him "the greatest guy I trained under," and subsequently flew practically alongside him during Operation Linebacker. In ...