The GBU-31 JDAM looks almost boring. It has no dramatic rocket motor. No exotic seeker sits in its nose. At its core, it is a large gravity bomb fitted with a guidance kit. That simple idea changed ...

Landing a fighter on an aircraft carrier is one of the hardest jobs in military aviation. Now add stealth. The F-35C Lightning II was built to handle both. Its larger wings, reinforced landing gear, ...

A missile designed in the Soviet era still shapes how pilots fight at close range today. That sounds strange until you look at what the R-73 missile actually changed. When it entered Soviet service in ...

A bomb can be built to hit hard. The BLU-109 Bomb was built to get inside. That difference explains why this weapon has lasted for decades. The BLU-109 bomb is a 2,000-pound-class hard-target ...

Anduril’s FQ-44 Fury is one of two Increment 1 CCA designs selected for production. The other is General Atomics’ FQ-42 Vengeance. In June 2026, the Air Force awarded both companies engineering, ...

The AIM-7 Sparrow didn’t become famous because it worked perfectly. It became famous because the missile kept getting better. That distinction matters. The Sparrow began as an ambitious attempt to ...

The F-15C Eagle was built around one goal: air superiority. Its formula was straightforward. Two powerful engines, a large wing, a strong radar and enough weapons to engage targets at different ranges ...

Imagine having a nuclear weapon system that is expected to be ready every minute of every day, but whose most important feature is that you almost never see it. That is the logic behind the ...

What do you do when the cargo is so big, so heavy, or so awkward that almost every cargo aircraft on Earth simply isn’t an option? You bring out the Antonov An-124 Ruslan. This enormous aircraft was ...

Imagine having to move a main battle tank, a helicopter, dozens of troops, and tons of supplies from one continent to another, without putting any of it on a ship. That is where the world’s largest ...

A missile does not need to be launched to change the strategic balance. Sometimes, simply knowing that it can travel thousands of kilometers is enough. That is the peculiar power of long-range ...

A howitzer can throw a shell farther than its rival and still be the less useful weapon. That sounds backward, but artillery isn’t a drag race. A crew needs to receive a target, get into position, ...