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Summary and Key Points: The U.S. Air Force originally planned to build 381 F-22 Raptors. Only 187 were built. Approximately 120 are combat-ready today. The aircraft was designed in the late 1980s and early 1990s around the Intel i960 processor architecture — a closed system where adding capabilities often requires millions of code changes rather than a simple patch.

-The F-35, by contrast, uses Open Mission Systems for modular upgrades. The Raptor is rated for 8,000 hours of certified airframe life, and the small fleet has burned through hours faster than expected.

A U.S.

The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center has officially launched a dedicated facility that will allow the service to more quickly integrate its F-15E Strike Eagles with modernized survivability equipment.
Located at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex in Georgia, the new Eagle Passive/Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS) “Speedline” will enable the Air Force to upgrade its Boeing-made F-15E fighter jets with critical electronic warning capabilities outside of routine maintenance, AFLCMC announced Tuesday.

In a phone call to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Russia’s Foreign Minister-for-life Sergei Lavrov warned that Russia would now be conducting an escalatory program of airstrikes on Ukraine in general and on the capital Kyiv in particular. Lavrov vowed that Moscow would carry out “systematic” attacks on the city to include [destruction of decision-making centers].

The latter is interpreted as meaning all the chief Ukrainian government buildings, including the presidential administration offices of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Neptune Missile.

The Oman defence market will surge in the coming years, as funds are directed to air defence needs, among others requirements.

A former Trump Administration economics adviser made a bold prediction when I spoke to him last week: “If the Strait of Hormuz isn’t opened by Labor Day, Trump will have a political problem worse than Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan combined.”

Well, that wasn’t the response I was planning on, that’s for sure. While clearly the former official was trying to make a dramatic point, the crisis is clear.

Iran habitually claims that it has shot down American aircraft. Whenever the United States does anything with its military during this tenuous ceasefire period, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) is sure to come back with a propaganda statement that it has successfully reacted against the United States.

This happened again over the Memorial Day holiday. The IRGC boasted that it shot down an MQ-9 Reaper drone on May 26 and that it fired on an F-35 and may have damaged it. The Iranians said that the Lightning II was forced to leave Iranian airspace as the pilot fled in fear.

Welcome to The Ukraine Compass, a weekly digest of Ukrainian commentary and analysis from across the political spectrum only for War on the Rocks members. Each Monday, we bring you a curated selection of articles from Ukrainian media offering insight into how Ukrainians themselves debate the issues shaping their country.American coverage often narrows the view to the battlefield — these pieces widen it, revealing the texture of daily life, politics, and public argument in a nation at war.

Ukraine’s Defence Procurement Agency DOT has finalised its largest procurement by value to date, for 155mm long-range artillery rounds.

“The GOP is in a silent state of panic.” That’s what a former 2016 and 2020 top Trump presidential campaign official told me this morning. And you don’t need a Princeton PhD in political science to understand why. The president’s political position as of late May 2026 is the worst of his career, and the people inside his own party who track these numbers professionally have stopped pretending otherwise. 

The most recent aggregate of Gallup, Reuters/Ipsos, YouGov, Quinnipiac, and Morning Consult places Trump’s approval at 38.6 percent against 58.

After Franklin D. Roosevelt returned from his meeting with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Casablanca in January 1943, Hap Arnold knew something had to change.
Arnold, the legendary general who led the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, didn’t like that FDR flew to Morocco on a civilian plane. Believing it was the military’s job to transport the commander in chief, he ordered that a transport version of the B-24 bomber be converted for the president’s use.