O Sicredi foi reconhecido como a Melhor Empresa para Trabalhar no Brasil pelo terceiro ano consecutivo, conquistando o 1º lugar no ranking do Great Place To Work® (GPTW) 2026, na categoria Gigantes. O resultado consolida uma trajetória de excelência em gestão de pessoas e reforça o compromisso da instituição com a construção de um ambiente de trabalho baseado na confiança, no desenvolvimento contínuo e no propósito cooperativista.

A cerimônia de premiação foi realizada na noite desta terça-feira (6), em São Paulo, reunindo algumas das principais organizações do país reconhecidas por suas práticas de gestão de pessoas e pela experiência oferecida aos colaboradores. A conquista mantém o Sicredi na liderança do ranking nacional pelo terceiro ano consecutivo, após alcançar o primeiro lugar também em 2024 e 2025.

O reconhecimento reflete uma estratégia que integra desenvolvimento humano, inovação, bem-estar, escuta ativa e oportunidades concretas de crescimento profissional para mais de 50 mil colaboradores distribuídos em todo o país. Com mais de 10,5 milhões de associados e presença em mais de 2 mil municípios brasileiros, o Sicredi busca reproduzir internamente os mesmos princípios que orientam seu modelo cooperativo de negócios.

A instituição reúne mais de 90 cooperativas de crédito, tendo as pessoas como elemento central tanto na relação com os associados quanto na gestão dos colaboradores. Para Daniele Schmidt, diretora executiva de Pessoas e Cultura do Sicredi, existe uma conexão direta entre a forma como a organização se relaciona com seus associados e com seus colaboradores.

“Existe uma coerência entre o que fazemos externamente e o que praticamos dentro da organização. Nosso propósito é levar a prosperidade para as pessoas, o que cria um ciclo virtuoso: o associado reconhece o trabalho realizado, e o funcionário do Sicredi percebe que contribui para o avanço do associado e o fortalecimento da cooperativa.”, afirma.

Segundo a diretora, o reconhecimento é resultado de uma construção coletiva sustentada pela participação das pessoas e pela evolução constante da cultura organizacional.

“Receber esse reconhecimento pelo terceiro ano consecutivo é motivo de muito orgulho para todos nós. Essa conquista reflete uma cultura construída coletivamente, sustentada pela confiança, pela escuta e pelo compromisso genuíno de colocar as pessoas no centro. Seguimos evoluindo para oferecer uma experiência cada vez mais positiva para as nossas pessoas colaboradoras porque acreditamos que são elas que tornam possível cumprir nosso propósito de construir juntos uma sociedade mais próspera.”

Seguindo esse propósito, em 2025, o Sicredi investiu R$ 409 milhões em projetos sociais, e distribuiu R$ 3,4 bilhões em resultados para os associados. Nos municípios onde a instituição está presente, o Sicredi contribui para um incremento de até 10% no PIB e de 15% na geração de empregos, segundo pesquisa FIPE/OCB de 2024.

Cultura construída com escuta ativa A escuta contínua das pessoas é um dos pilares da estratégia de gestão do Sicredi. Em 2026, a Pesquisa de Clima contou com a participação de 93% dos colaboradores, representando mais de 45 mil respondentes.

Os resultados servem como base para decisões relacionadas à experiência do colaborador, ao desenvolvimento das lideranças e ao fortalecimento da cultura organizacional. Entre as iniciativas implementadas a partir desse processo estão a ampliação da frequência das conversas de desenvolvimento entre lideranças e equipes e o fortalecimento de ações voltadas à construção de ambientes de trabalho cada vez mais colaborativos, inclusivos e orientados ao protagonismo das pessoas.

O desenvolvimento profissional é tratado como uma prioridade estratégica. Em 2025, o Sicredi destinou mais de R$ 68 milhões para iniciativas de educação corporativa, fortalecendo programas de formação técnica, comportamental, liderança e governança. A plataforma Sicredi Aprende é uma das principais ferramentas dessa estratégia. Somente no primeiro semestre de 2026, a plataforma disponibilizou 33 cursos regulatórios, 264 cursos e 124 trilhas de aprendizagem.

Ao todo, foram concluídas mais de 800 mil horas de aprendizagem pelos colaboradores. A valorização das pessoas também se traduz em indicadores de movimentação interna na instituição. Entre setembro de 2025 e agosto de 2026 foram investidos mais de R$ 12 milhões em reconhecimentos salariais. Tecnologia a serviço das pessoas a inovação também tem desempenhado papel importante na evolução da experiência dos colaboradores.

Atualmente, o Sicredi conta com mais de 300 modelos de Inteligência Artificial em produção e cerca de 26 mil colaboradores utilizam diariamente ferramentas de IA para apoiar suas atividades profissionais. As aplicações apoiam processos relacionados à análise de clima organizacional, gestão de talentos, aprendizagem, automação operacional e tomada de decisão.

Na área de Pessoas e Cultura, a tecnologia auxilia na leitura de grandes volumes de dados, acelerando a identificação de tendências e oportunidades de melhoria para a experiência dos colaboradores.

“Acreditamos que a tecnologia deve estar a serviço das pessoas. O maior valor da Inteligência Artificial está em ampliar capacidades, apoiar decisões e liberar tempo para aquilo que é essencialmente humano: o desenvolvimento, a escuta e o cuidado com as pessoas”, destaca Daniele Schmidt. Saúde integral e ambiente inclusivo.

O Sicredi também mantém uma estratégia estruturada de saúde e bem-estar, contemplando iniciativas voltadas à saúde física, emocional, social e financeira. Entre elas estão serviços de telemedicina, apoio psicológico, terapia continuada e programas especializados de suporte ao colaborador.

A construção de um ambiente mais inclusivo também integra a estratégia de gestão de pessoas da instituição. Atualmente, as mulheres representam 60% do quadro funcional e ocupam 47% das posições de liderança, demonstrando avanços consistentes na ampliação da representatividade em diferentes níveis da organização.

O Sicredi mantém iniciativas voltadas à diversidade, inclusão e equidade, incluindo programas de aceleração feminina, ações afirmativas e estruturas de governança dedicadas ao tema. Segundo a pesquisa certificada pelo GPTW, 92% dos colaboradores afirmam que as ações de diversidade e inclusão são evidentes e aplicadas na prática.

Entre as iniciativas de destaque está o Comitê Mulher, que atua no desenvolvimento de lideranças femininas e no fortalecimento do protagonismo das mulheres nas cooperativas e nas comunidades. Somente em 2025, o programa reuniu 5,3 mil participantes e contribuiu para a eleição de 85 integrantes dos conselhos de administração e fiscais das cooperativas.

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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday urged Western nations to return to what he called their civilisational roots and ensure the West "maintains its place at the head of the world" in a speech delivered against the backdrop of the Acropolis in Athens. The top US diplomat called on Europe to follow President Donald Trump's America in choosing the "unapologetic pursuit of national power" over the "global community".

O artista plástico Juarez Machado morreu nesta terça-feira (6), aos 85 anos, em Vassouras, no interior do Rio de Janeiro. Ele estava internado desde 29 de setembro para tratar uma pneumonia e sofreu uma parada cardíaca. A informação foi confirmada pelo Instituto Internacional Juarez Machado (IIJM), criado pelo artista em Joinville, sua cidade natal. Machado deixa três filhos.

A Prefeitura de Joinville decretou luto oficial de três dias pela morte do artista. O instituto que leva seu nome permanecerá fechado entre esta quarta-feira (7) e sexta-feira (9).

Nascido em 16 de março de 1941, em Joinville, Juarez Machado construiu uma trajetória que ultrapassou seis décadas e transitou por diferentes linguagens. Pintura, escultura, desenho, caricatura, fotografia e cenografia fizeram parte de sua produção. Ele também atuou como escritor e ator.

A formação artística começou ainda no Sul do país. Machado estudou na Faculdade de Belas Artes de Curitiba e, no início da carreira, trabalhou como cenógrafo na TV Paraná. Em 1962, recebeu o prêmio de melhor escultor do Estado. Dois anos depois, realizou sua primeira exposição individual, na Galeria Cocaco, em Curitiba.

Foi no Rio de Janeiro que sua carreira ganhou novas dimensões. O artista passou a colaborar com importantes veículos de imprensa, entre eles as revistas O Cruzeiro e O Pasquim e o Jornal do Brasil. Nesse período, aproximou-se de alguns dos principais nomes do humor e da imprensa brasileira, como Ziraldo, Jaguar e Millôr Fernandes.

A televisão também teve papel importante em sua trajetória. Em 1973, Juarez Machado passou a integrar a equipe de criação do Fantástico, da TV Globo. No ano seguinte, ganhou espaço no programa com uma apresentação baseada em mímica e interação com os próprios desenhos. Com o rosto pintado de branco, o artista criava uma espécie de diálogo silencioso entre seu corpo e as imagens.

Machado também se destacou na literatura visual. Em 1975, lançou “Ida e Volta”, obra construída exclusivamente com ilustrações e considerada pioneira no desenvolvimento do livro-imagem no Brasil. A publicação consolidou uma característica que acompanharia sua produção: a capacidade de contar histórias sem depender do texto.

Carreira internacional

Em 1986, Juarez Machado se mudou para Paris e instalou um ateliê em Montmartre, tradicional bairro associado à produção artística francesa. A mudança ampliou sua presença no circuito internacional e marcou uma nova fase de sua carreira.

Seu trabalho também chegou ao cinema. O cineasta francês Jean-Pierre Jeunet conheceu suas pinturas durante uma exposição em Paris e utilizou referências cromáticas do artista na concepção de “O Fabuloso Destino de Amélie Poulain”, lançado em 2001. Duas obras de Machado aparecem na decoração do quarto da personagem principal.

Mesmo com a projeção internacional, Joinville permaneceu como um dos principais pontos de ligação do artista com o Brasil. Entre suas obras na cidade está o mural cerâmico “O Grande Circo”, instalado na entrada do Centreventos Cau Hansen. A composição ocupa 90 metros quadrados e reúne 963 peças pintadas à mão. A obra foi inaugurada em 1998.

Anos depois, Machado criou um espaço dedicado à preservação e à divulgação da produção artística. Em 2014, instalou o Instituto Internacional Juarez Machado no terreno onde ficava a antiga casa de seus pais. O local passou a reunir obras e atividades voltadas à difusão da arte na região.

Com uma obra marcada pela mistura entre humor, desenho, movimento e narrativa visual, Juarez Machado construiu uma trajetória que atravessou fronteiras e diferentes campos da cultura brasileira. Sua produção deixou registros não apenas em museus e galerias, mas também na televisão, na imprensa, na literatura e no cinema.

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Cerca de la cima del monte Lanaro/Volnik, en el municipio de Sgonico/Zgonik, hay una cueva llamada Tina Jama. Estamos en el Carso triestino, la meseta caliza que se levanta detrás de Trieste, pegada a la frontera con Eslovenia. El monte está protegido como reserva natural de unas 285 hectáreas, incluida en la red Natura 2000. […]

The US Air Force’s next strategic bomber, the B-21 Raider, is moving from flight test to the flight line, and the industrial base is expanding to match that pace. As part of this effort, the Department of the Air Force and the manufacturer broke ground on a new bomber final assembly line at Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.

“It’s more than construction… we’re moving fast to build B-21s! The Department of the Air Force & @northropgrumman have broken ground in Palmdale, CA, on over 1M sq ft of new facilities that will be the final assembly line at Air Force Plant 42,” Secretary of the Air Force Dr. Troy E. Meink recently wrote in a post on  X.

The B-21 Raider is the USAF’s next-generation nuclear- and conventional-capable, long-range penetrating bomber optimized for highly contested environments.

The new assembly line likely supports an agreement signed in February 2026 to increase annual B-21 production capacity by 25% using $4.5 billion in funding from the fiscal year 2025 reconciliation legislation.

Separately, Northrop Grumman is investing approximately $2.5 billion of its own capital over several years in related facilities and capacity. In September 2026, the company also opened the East Gate 3 manufacturing campus in Layton, Utah, to produce key B-21 components.

The construction of an all-new assembly line shows that expansion at the B-21’s production facility has moved from planning and funding to active construction.

This expansion is meant to give the service extra manufacturing capacity as the B-21 advances through flight testing and into initial operational deliveries. 

The USAF plans to buy at least 100 B-21 bombers to replace the B-1B Lancer and B-2 Spirit and eventually complement the B-52 Stratofortress.

The B-21 Raider program remains in low-rate initial production, meaning Northrop Grumman is building a small number of aircraft to test and refine the production process before full-rate production begins.

At the same time, senior officials have said the Air Force may need more than the current minimum of 100.

In April, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he believed “a lot more” B-21s were needed. Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo had earlier said he would favor a fleet of 200 for nuclear deterrence and penetrating strike.

A Mitchell Institute report has likewise argued that 100 is a raid force, not a campaign force. None of those comments changes the program of record, and the Palmdale construction is tied to the February capacity agreement, not to an approved increase in the buy.

Furthermore, a report by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies said the USAF’s current plans to purchase “at least” 100 B-21s match one-time operations into hostile airspace but are insufficient to maintain pressure in a larger conflict because they are “a raid force, not a campaign force.”

Meanwhile, the USAF has said the sixth-generation bomber—which currently has no analogs in the world—is “close” to entering service. In fact, it is expected to reach Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota, one of the three bases selected to host the Raider, in 2027.  

This bomber project has moved at a breakneck pace, going from the official public unveiling in December 2022 to the maiden flight in November 2023. In fact, an operational test pilot flew alongside a developmental test pilot, sharing the B-21 cockpit for the first time in June this year, underscoring the urgency of fielding the bomber.

The B-21 Raider’s rapid path from first flight to operational ramp at Ellsworth AFB in 2027 marks a striking acceleration in how the US fields a complex new strategic bomber.

Observers have lauded the speed, remarking that it has been unusually compressed for a program of this scale and sensitivity. This speed, however, was made possible because of a more fundamental shift: the B-21 was built virtually before it was ever built in metal.

B-21 Raider Rewrote Pentagon Acquisition Rules

For decades, major US defense programs followed the process, but aspirational designs fell behind schedule and prototypes revealed problems missed earlier, delaying programs and driving up costs. Northrop claims to be breaking away from this pattern.

Northrop states that it built the B-21 virtually first, using an extensive digital ecosystem and high-fidelity digital twins long before cutting metal. Succinctly put, unlike previous bombers that were primarily analog and later adapted for the digital era, the B-21 was built to function, endure, and evolve in the contemporary environment.

Developing and producing combat aircraft previously involved designing, building a prototype, testing it, discovering problems, and redesigning. However, Northrop essentially inverted this sequence, using a constantly changing digital model for the Raider.

This gave engineers, manufacturers, and operators a common reference point, enabling them to evaluate and implement design changes almost instantly.

This method enabled engineers to model aerodynamic performance, stealth features, structural loads, and systems integration long before components entered production.

This meant that design modifications that once required expensive rework could be assessed and verified virtually, often in a few hours rather than months. 

The team simulated and refined structural loads, stealth characteristics, flight dynamics, and systems integration in the virtual environment before committing to physical hardware.

As a result, the physical aircraft that emerged from this approach matched or even outperformed the models’ predictions, according to the manufacturer.

This, in turn, has allowed the program to compress testing timelines, accelerate production, and keep costs under tighter control.

Unsurprisingly, the result was an unusually mature aircraft when the first Raider took flight. Northrop earlier said, “Before the B-21 ever took to the sky, the flying test bed completed more than 200 test sorties totaling more than 1,000 flight hours, testing production hardware, software, and sensors in a dynamic environment and enabling teams to tackle discovery well in advance.”

The speed with which B-21 moved from production to testing and into an operational setting at a USAF airbase was best demonstrated by the approach the manufacturer and the Air Force took during flight testing. A major 180-day test cycle was reportedly completed in just 73 days, as revealed in May 2026.

Officials have even stated that the program is exceeding expectations, as test aircraft are achieving high “code one” rates, which is the rate at which the aircraft is ready to fly again with minimal issues

The Combined Test Force achieved half the originally planned missions in less than half the planned time, while supporting significant contract value.

This compression was not the product of rushed flying, and reflected fewer surprises, higher aircraft availability, real-time data analysis, and the ability to clear multiple test points on single sorties.

The advantage of building the aircraft digitally has reportedly extended to the production lines. “Where the digital environment meets the production floor, this digital technology expedites configuration management, facilitating communication between technicians and engineers during the build, in some areas already reducing manufacturing hours by roughly a third,” according to the Northrop Grumman newsroom.

Nonetheless, the B-21 is not without risk, though experts think careful digital engineering, precise digital twins, and a conscious move away from sequential physical prototypes can break the long-standing pattern of delays.

• Contact the author at sakshi.tiwari13 (at) outlook.com
• Follow EurAsian Times on Google News

 

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Washington has sent two contradictory signals on Taiwan in the last few days. Whether these signals reflect strategic ambiguity or strategic confusion in the coming days has become a matter of debate among the strategic experts.

On the one hand, Trump is holding back a $14 billion arms package for Taiwan, pre-approved by the U.S. Congress, despite a bipartisan group of senators explicitly urging him to “formally notify . But the U.S. President has described his decision to pause as a “very good negotiating chip” for his talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Whether that worked in his summit meeting with Xi last week in Washington is not known. But Taiwan’s Defense Minister Wellington Koo confirmed yesterday (October 6) that he has “not heard” of any new sale being cleared, even in smaller chunks.

On the other hand,  the Pentagon is seemingly doing the opposite of this pause.

According to reports, the U.S. Department of Defense will station two representatives on a long-term basis inside Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense headquarters in Taipei from 2026 to 2028.

One official will come from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy [OUSD-Policy] — the office that writes U.S. national security and defense strategy. The second will come from the Institute for Defense Analyses [IDA] — a federally funded think tank that does mathematical modeling for war games and combat capability assessment.

The program is called the “Taiwan-US Defense Ministry Joint Cooperation Assessment,” with a total budget of NT$471 million [$14.8 million], including NT$152.5 million this year for personnel, consultancy, travel, data collection, and even interpretation for classified-level meetings.

If confirmed, this will be unprecedented.

This would mark the first time U.S. defense officials are permanently embedded inside Taiwan’s military headquarters, shifting cooperation away from traditional channels managed through the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), Washington’s de facto embassy.

The military relationship between the United States and Taiwan is highly integrated yet formally unofficial. It is governed by the legal framework of the “U.S. Taiwan Relations Act” (TRA), which Congress passed on April 10, 1979.

Congress enacted it immediately after the U.S. formally terminated its previous “Mutual Defense Treaty with the Republic of China (Taiwan)” to officially recognize “the People’s Republic of China (PRC)” in Beijing.

Rather than abandoning Taiwan, Congress designed the TRA as a legal framework to ensure that “robust, unofficial security, commercial, and cultural ties” continue uninterrupted.

In short, the TRA provides a domestic legal workaround for treating Taiwan as a country without formal diplomatic recognition. However, under it, the U.S. is also obligated to maintain Taiwan’s capacity to resist force or coercion in general and the forcible annexation by the PRC in particular.

Over the years, U.S. personnel have served in Taiwan as trainers and advisers. Hundreds of active-duty U.S. military advisors—often colloquially referred to locally as “English teachers” to maintain a low profile—are routinely deployed across Taiwan.

U.S. military observers are present within Taiwan’s annual “Han Kuang live-fire military exercises”. They actively guide Taiwan’s defense strategy toward decentralized command, logistics, and real-world combat readiness.

Taiwanese fighter pilots undergo advanced combat training at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona.

The US remains Taiwan’s primary foreign weapons supplier, with a total backlog of orders nearing $20 billion.

In fact, Taiwan received its first new batch of two advanced Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 fighter jets on October 2.  This was part of an $8 billion deal approved in 2019 for 66 new-build F-16 Block 70 jets, with the remaining 64 aircraft scheduled for future delivery.  out of a 66-aircraft fleet on order.

However, all these coordination efforts between Washington and Taipei are usually routed through the AIT intermediary, as the U.S. adheres to its  One China” policy. In that sense, the new proposal to station Pentagon personnel directly inside the Taiwanese Defense Ministry represents a shift from this historical status quo.

The new arrangement puts Americans directly into the core of Taiwan’s defense policymaking, including policy coordination, Han Kuang exercise planning, asymmetric warfare doctrine, and major weapons procurement evaluations, it is said.

Of course, the U.S. routinely sends military and civilian defense officials to work directly inside the defense ministries of partner and allied nations. Established by the Pentagon in 2009, the Ministry of Defense Advisors (MODA) Program specifically trains and deploys high-performing senior U.S. Department of Defense civilians.

These advisors are embedded in partner-nation defense ministries to support institutional capacity building, strategy, financial management, and logistics.

The U.S. also actively deploys specialized defense consultants directly to the defense ministries of nations looking to transition away from historical adversaries such as Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, and various Balkan nations looking to exit Moscow’s orbit.

The U.S. has a long history of embedding liaison officers in allied countries. For example, it has a Joint Political-Military Group in Israel that embeds officers in missile-defense cooperation for Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and now Iron Beam. But American officials do not operate inside the Kirya (Israel’s defense headquarters).

Similarly, despite 54,000 US personnel stationed in Japan, no U.S. officer sits inside Japan’s Ministry of Defense to assess combat capability.

Perhaps in NATO countries and South Korea, U.S. military officials are believed to sit together often.

There are also “Offices of Defense Cooperation” (ODC), or United States Military Groups, which are technically attached to the local U.S. Embassy for diplomatic protection. These teams provide security assistance and work in routine, day-to-day coordination with host ministry personnel.

However, what makes the proposed U.S. officials sitting directly within Taiwan’s military headquarters unique is that Taiwan is not an ally of America in the strict sense, as the U.S. lacks formal diplomatic recognition of Taiwan, and these officials will bypass the traditional AIT.

Of course, multiple reports in recent years have claimed that U.S. special forces are permanently stationed in Taiwan to assist its 101st Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion special operations force, though Washington has officially denied it.  The same has been the case with the speculations about the coming and going of U.S. military personnel from the Army Special Operations Command base in Taoyuan.

How will Beijing React?

At the time of writing, Beijing had not issued an official reaction, possibly because Taiwanese media outlets only recently brought details of this long-term Pentagon deployment to light. It has not been declared officially.

But it goes without saying that Beijing would be “certain to protest” and could respond “with expanded exercises and intimidation”, according to  Zivon Wang, a military analyst at the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies in Taipei.

He expects U.S. personnel not to wear uniforms at the Ministry of National Defense because it could be interpreted as a more formalized US-Taiwan military relationship and might further provoke Beijing.

Incidentally, China has made more air and naval incursions across the median line in the Taiwan Strait since 2022. Although Chinese military aircraft had occasionally crossed the median line (established informally in 1954) in the past, the practice became significantly more frequent from 2022, particularly after Nancy Pelosi (then Speaker of the House of Representatives) visited Taiwan in August that year. What had once been an informal but largely respected buffer increasingly became a zone of routine Chinese military activity.

Therefore, it remains to be seen whether China will respond to the Pentagon’s proposed deployment with loud exercises.

It may also remain silent, as nothing is official yet and Trump has his “negotiating chip” of holding back Taiwan’s military package.

Trump’s admirers often see his unpredictability as useful in negotiations with an adversary, because the other side cannot be sure how far he is willing to go.

But his critics argue that his unpredictability becomes counterproductive when allies cannot distinguish a negotiating threat from a real change in American policy.

It remains to be seen who will prove to be right in the case of Taiwan.

• Author and veteran journalist Prakash Nanda is Chairman of the Editorial Board of the EurAsian Times and has been commenting on politics, foreign policy, and strategic affairs for nearly three decades. He is a former National Fellow of the Indian Council for Historical Research and a recipient of the Seoul Peace Prize Scholarship.
• The author can be reached at prakash.nanda (at) hotmail.com

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O Município de Olhão, em parceria com os Agrupamentos de Escolas do concelho e outras entidades parceiras, disponibiliza aos seus munícipes a oferta da Escola a Tempo Inteiro, procurando reforçar a articulação entre a escola, as famílias e a comunidade local e reconhecendo o papel fundamental desta resposta no desenvolvimento pessoal e social das crianças e dos alunos.

No âmbito desta parceria, a Associação Portuguesa para a Inovação e Empreendedorismo Social e Digital (AI9) disponibilizou os “Baús da Brincadeira” às escolas do Município de Olhão, tendo concluído, na passada sexta-feira, a sua entrega em todos os agrupamentos escolares do concelho. A última entrega decorreu na EB1 n.º 4, onde foram disponibilizados os baús destinados ao Agrupamento de Escolas Professor Paula Nogueira.

Cada escola tem agora quatro baús, que disponibilizam um conjunto diversificado de materiais para utilização pelas crianças durante os intervalos.

Os baús incluem materiais criteriosamente selecionados do ponto de vista pedagógico, como jogos de tabuleiro, bolas de diferentes tipos, cordas, arcos, jogos tradicionais e jogos de água, entre outros recursos que estimulam diferentes formas de brincadeira, movimento e interação.

Disponíveis durante os intervalos, estes materiais permitem que as crianças escolham livremente as atividades que querem realizar, explorando os recursos ao seu ritmo e de acordo com os seus interesses, num ambiente de brincadeira espontânea e com a necessária supervisão dos adultos.

Mais do que proporcionar atividades organizadas, a iniciativa pretende valorizar o brincar livre, dando espaço à imaginação, à criatividade, à autonomia e à interação entre pares. O recreio deve ser também um espaço de descoberta, onde as crianças possam experimentar, criar, partilhar e, acima de tudo, ser crianças.

Os “Baús da Brincadeira” constituem, assim, um importante contributo para a criação de recreios mais ativos, inclusivos e estimulantes, reforçando a importância do brincar no desenvolvimento e bem-estar das crianças.

A iniciativa evidencia ainda o valor da parceria entre o Município de Olhão e a AI9, contribuindo para a construção de ambientes educativos mais ricos, participativos e promotores do desenvolvimento integral das crianças.

Haiti has indefinitely postponed elections scheduled for December and February, the electoral council said Tuesday, citing technical and operational requirements as gang violence continues to disrupt preparations. The delay leaves Haitians without a democratic process as authorities struggle to register voters and secure areas needed for the poll.

Christa Pike is "angry and confused" after regaining consciousness almost six days after Tennessee's failed attempt to execute her by lethal injection, one of her attorneys said Wednesday. Pike, the first woman the state has attempted to put to death in 200 years, remains hospitalised with severe injuries to both arms.

O Nintendo 64 foi um marco dos anos 90, reunindo clássicos inesquecíveis que marcaram gerações. Títulos como Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time e GoldenEye 007 ainda são lembrados com carinho. Graças à emulação, hoje é possível reviver essa nostalgia no PC. Aplicativos como o Retrofy permitem jogar esses clássicos no computador. O Retrofy é o aplicativo oficial que reúne mais de 20.000 jogos e 40 consoles emulados, oferecendo acesso vitalício. Nesta retrospectiva, vamos destacar os melhores jogos de N64 e dar dicas práticas de gameplay, estratégias e curiosidades, além de explicar como aproveitar tudo isso via Retrofy sem precisar de hardware antigo.

A Era de Ouro do Nintendo 64

Lançado em 1996, o N64 introduziu várias inovações técnicas: foi o primeiro console a trazer um analógico (thumbstick) no controle padrão e permitiu até quatro jogadores simultâneos. Com acessórios como o Rumble Pak e Expansion Pak, mostrava gráficos 3D avançados para a época. A máquina vendeu quase 33 milhões de unidades e ficou famosa por sua biblioteca de jogos de alta qualidade. Vários títulos do N64 estão frequentemente em listas dos melhores games de todos os tempos. Por exemplo, Super Mario 64 (11,6 milhões de cópias vendidas) foi eleito o melhor jogo do console, assim como Ocarina of Time e GoldenEye 007. Esses sucessos ajudaram o Nintendo 64 a ganhar o título de “Máquina do Ano” em 1996 pela revista Time. Nesta era de ouro, exploramos mundos tridimensionais e novos gêneros, o que tornou os jogos mais complexos e envolventes. Por isso, jogar esses clássicos é tão especial – e com o Retrofy você não precisa do console original: basta um PC para curtir.

Aventuras épicas

• Super Mario 64 (1996) – Primeiro jogo de plataforma 3D do Mario. Mario ganha novas habilidades, como salto mortal e martelada no chão, essenciais para coletar Power Stars. Procure todas as Moedas Vermelhas e explore cada fase para desbloquear 120 estrelas e segredos. Dica: use o triplo salto em esquinas para ganhar altura, e não esqueça de mirar o canhão em Jolly Roger Bay para alcançar áreas secretas.
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998) – Uma aventura de ação/RPG em Hyrule. Link deve resolver quebra-cabeças complexos em calabouços enquanto coleta itens (espadas, escudos, arco e flecha etc.). O guia completo do jogo destaca a importância de “resolver puzzles e não perder itens importantes”. Dica: use a mecânica de “mirar com Z” para travar o alvo nos chefes. Por exemplo, atire flechas no olho de Gohma ou use bombas estrategicamente. Viajar no tempo é crucial: muitas missões requerem voltar e avançar de fase entre garoto e adulto.
• The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (2000) – Continuação direta de Ocarina of Time, com sistema único de ciclo de três dias. Link deve impedir a queda da lua em Termina, usando várias máscaras que mudam suas habilidades. A jogabilidade inovadora de Majora’s Mask, com a repetição temporal e clima sombrio, faz dele “um dos maiores jogos de todos os tempos”. Dica: aprenda músicas no ocarina para acelerar o tempo ou salvar rapidamente em estátuas da coruja. Recolha máscaras raras e complete sidequests antes que o relógio acabe, pois tudo volta a zero a cada três dias.
• Banjo-Kazooie (1998) – Plataforma 3D da Rare com um humor cativante. Você combina as habilidades do urso Banjo e do pássaro Kazooie para coletar notas musicais e peças de quebra-cabeça em cada nível. São centenas de itens espalhados em mundos interligados, com inimigos divertidos e chefes criativos. Críticos elogiam o jogo como “um digno sucessor de Mario 64, que apresenta design de níveis impecável e história inteligente”. Dica: use o salto de sumô para quebrar blocos escondidos e sempre explore cada canto – muitas áreas só abrem após usar habilidades especiais.
• Donkey Kong 64 (1999) – Primeiro jogo 3D do macaco Donkey Kong. Controla cinco Kongs (Donkey, Diddy, Lanky, Tiny e Chunky), cada um com arma e habilidade próprias. Você percorre mundos temáticos para coletar bananas e peças de quebra-cabeça enquanto derrota o Rei K. Rool. Use as botas de chumbo e o laser estrategicamente para encontrar segredos. Em modo multiplayer local (com up to 4 jogadores), é possível competir em lutas de morte súbita. Dica: troque de personagem conforme o ambiente – cada Kong acessa áreas diferentes, então volte em fases anteriores para pegar itens extras.

Corridas emocionantes

• Mario Kart 64 (1996) – Corrida caótica com 16 pistas inspiradas no universo Mario. Cada corredor usa itens especiais (casco vermelho, banana, turbo etc.) para atrapalhar adversários. Segundo a Wikipédia, “caixas dão power-ups para ajudar no progresso”. Dica de truque: contorne curvas fazendo drift (derrapagem) e aproveite o draft (entrar no vácuo) de outros carros para ganhar um boost de velocidade. Familiarize-se com atalhos secretos, como saltos em Wario Stadium ou curvas fechadas no Deserto de Kalimari.
• Diddy Kong Racing (1997) – Combina corridas de karts, aviões e barcos em um modo aventura para até quatro jogadores. Objetivo: coletar cogumelos dourados para vencer desafios e progredir no mapa do jogo. O game inclui personagens clássicos (até o próprio Banjo aparece) e fases variadas, desde florestas tropicais até áreas geladas. Dica: aprenda a usar cada tipo de veículo – nos trechos aquáticos, pilote o barco Winky para fazer manobras em alta velocidade.
• F-Zero X (1998) – Corridas futuristas em 60 quadros por segundo! Controles sem freio exigem reflexos rápidos e uso bem-timed do boost. No modo single-player, pratique antecipar curvas fechadas e usar os pontos de trem para ganhar velocidade extra. Multijogador local de até 2 jogadores traz batalhas intensas. Dica: mantenha o botão de turbo pressionado quando possível e esteja preparado para perder controle em curvas – segure atrás para evitar capotar.
• Wave Race 64 (1996) – Competições de jet-ski com física de água realista. Aproveite as ondas para ganhar impulso ao saltar de crista em crista. Pontos extras são dados por manobras aéreas (como flips e helicópteros). Dica: em pistas longas, ajuste o ângulo do casco para manter alta velocidade, e use o turbo em retas longas após ficar bem centrado nas ondas.

Ação e tiro

• GoldenEye 007 (1997) – FPS que definiu o gênero no console. Baseado em James Bond, o jogo equilibra ação com missão de espionagem. O autor Cesão destaca que os inimigos têm “inteligência”: tiros em pernas, braços ou corpo causam reações diferentes, tornando cada combate imprevisível. Além disso, o modo multiplayer local (até 4 jogadores) se tornou lendário, permitindo partidas de deathmatch na sala de casa. Dica: no single-player, economize munição e use o radar na mira para localizar inimigos escondidos. No multiplayer, aprenda cada mapa (como Complexo de Arma Secreta) e use o Sniper para abater à distância.
• Star Fox 64 (1997) – Tiro em terceira pessoa ambientado no espaço. Pilotando a espaçonave Arwing, você protege a galáxia da ameaça do Andross. Conhecido pelo bordão “Do a barrel roll!”, o jogo tem rotas alternativas que alteram o caminho da história. Dica: faça espirais de 360 graus durante tiros intensos para desviar de projéteis inimigos. Aprenda os comandos especiais (como laser carregado) para derrotar chefes mais rapidamente.
• Perfect Dark (2000) – Sequência espiritual de GoldenEye, com gráficos aprimorados e IA avançada. Joga-se como Joanna Dark em missões de espionagem futuristas. Tem modo cooperativo de duas pessoas e variados cheiros tecnológicos (visão de calor, mira inteligente). Dica: use o rifle IR (visão infravermelha) nas fases noturnas para ver inimigos antes que eles o detectem.
• Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (1998) – Embora não seja exclusivo, está disponível no N64 e traz combate aéreo no universo Star Wars. Pilote X-Wings, Y-Wings e interceptores em missões intensas. Dica: use orientação-trilha para desviar de caças Tie e aprenda rapidamente a atirar em rajadas leves contra alvos menores e pesadas contra capitais.

Jogos de festa e multijogador

• Super Smash Bros. (1999) – O crossover de luta que reuniu heróis da Nintendo em batalhas caóticas. Até quatro jogadores podem lutar simultaneamente em arenas simples ou interativas. Com 12 personagens icônicos (Mario, Link, Pikachu, Kirby etc.), o objetivo é arremessar adversários para fora do cenário. Itens como Flores de Fogo e Bombas adicionam ainda mais diversão. Dica: domine cada personagem – alguns têm ataques rápidos (Kirby), outros golpes poderosos (Donkey Kong). Controle agarros e ataques especiais para virar o jogo.
• Mario Party (1998) – Jogo de tabuleiro eletrônico com mini-games hilários para até quatro amigos. Cada jogador move um peão pelo tabuleiro e compete em minigames aleatórios (corrida de barris, pesca, ritmo musical etc.). Pontue coletando estrelas e moedas. Dica: invista em moedinhas em começo de jogo para comprar estrelas, e fique atento ao minigame bônus no final de cada rodada para ganhar vantagem extra.
• Mario Party 2 e 3 – Sequências que adicionam novos tabuleiros temáticos (carnaval, faroeste) e dezenas de mini-games exclusivos. As dicas são semelhantes: aprenda a controles de cada desafio e planeje rotas pelo tabuleiro para maximizar ganhos. A convivência e risadas com amigos é a maior diversão.
• Pokémon Stadium (2000) – Arena de batalha para os monstros de bolso. Conecte seu Game Boy ou use Pokémon prontos nos desafios clássicos. As batalhas em 3D são divertidas para fãs da série. Dica: treine movimentos variados em cada monstro para ter vantagem em diferentes tipos (Fogo, Água, Elétrico etc.).
• Mario Golf / Mario Tennis – Esportes com pitadas de Mario, ótimos para multiplayer. Use power-ups estratégicos: no golfe, escolher a madeira certa; no tênis, ângulos e topspin para surpreender o adversário.

Retrofy e Nintendo 64 no PC

Depois de lembrar desses clássicos, você deve estar pensando: como jogar tudo isso hoje? É aí que entra o Retrofy. O Retrofy é um serviço brasileiro que emula 40 consoles clássicos no PC, incluindo o Nintendo 64. Com um pagamento único você ganha acesso vitalício a mais de 20.000 jogos. No plano básico já estão incluídos os jogos do N64, sem assinaturas mensais. Basta baixar o aplicativo, instalar no Windows, e todos os jogos virão pré-configurados com os emuladores certos. O próprio site oficial diz: “Retrofy é o aplicativo oficial para jogar mais de 20.000 jogos e 40 consoles no PC, com acesso vitalício”.

Instalar é simples: após comprar, você faz o download do Retrofy e dos jogos desejados. O aplicativo faz o resto. Você nem precisa procurar ROMs na internet ou configurar emulador. Se tiver dúvidas, o Retrofy oferece suporte humano via WhatsApp para ajudar na instalação. Em suma, o Retrofy permite revisitar os melhores jogos do N64 sem complicação. Você aproveita as aventuras, corridas e batalhas mencionadas acima no seu PC. E como o acesso é vitalício, pode voltar a qualquer hora. Por exemplo, se quiser jogar Super Mario 64, basta abrir o Retrofy, selecionar o jogo e usar seu controle ou teclado preferido – tudo configurado de fábrica. Este artigo deu várias dicas práticas para cada jogo; com o Retrofy você pode colocá-las em ação agora mesmo.

Esperamos que essas dicas ajudem você a explorar cada cantinho desses clássicos. E você, qual seu jogo favorito do Nintendo 64? Já usou algum emulador ou o Retrofy para jogar no PC? Tem alguma estratégia secreta para compartilhar? Deixe sua opinião nos comentários abaixo e participe da discussão!

Perguntas Frequentes

O que é o Retrofy? É um aplicativo de emulação brasileiro que reúne milhares de jogos clássicos de dezenas de consoles em um único lugar. Com ele, você paga apenas uma vez e ganha acesso vitalício aos títulos, sem precisar comprar cada jogo ou console original.

Preciso ter um PC potente para emular o N64? Não necessariamente. Como o N64 é um console antigo, qualquer PC razoável roda esses jogos. O Retrofy vem com emuladores otimizados e configurações prontas. Basta instalar, escolher o jogo e jogar.

Como encontro os jogos do Nintendo 64 no Retrofy? No menu de consoles do Retrofy, selecione “Nintendo 64” (incluso no plano básico). A partir daí, verá a lista de jogos disponíveis. Basta clicar no título desejado para baixar e jogar.

Preciso instalar algo extra no console original? Não. Todo o processo é pelo PC. Você não precisa ter o N64 físico nem seus cartuchos. O Retrofy já vem com o emulador e os jogos, tudo pronto para uso.

O Retrofy é seguro e legal? Sim, o Retrofy é um serviço legítimo e conta com mais de uma década de comunidade por trás. Ele oferece garantia de 7 dias para reembolso completo caso você não fique satisfeito. Além disso, há suporte via WhatsApp para dúvidas técnicas, garantindo um uso tranquilo.

The post Os melhores jogos de Nintendo 64 appeared first on Diário da Manhã - O Jornal do leitor Inteligente.

Paramount completed its acquisition of Warner Bros Discover on Tuesday, after a bidding war against Netflix. The deal closed following federal approval of a settlement between Paramount and 12 US states that tried to block the transaction on antitrust grounds. Opponents in the movie industry warned of job cuts, while media groups said Warner-owned CNN's independence could be compromised.

The US has pulled out all its B-1B Lancer bombers from RAF Fairford in the United Kingdom, a key forward operating location used for long-range missions against Iran. 

The abrupt move appears to be an attempt by the US to safeguard its long-range strategic bombers from the fate suffered by other military aircraft destroyed by Iranian attacks in the Middle East.

The B-1B bombers arrived at RAF Fairford in March 2026 as part of Operation Epic Fury. Although the US and Iran agreed to a ceasefire in April 2026, the B-1Bs remained stationed at Fairford amid sustained hostilities.

However, the US hastily withdrew all 12 B-1B Lancers from the base on October 4, 2026, amid renewed threats of an Iran-backed plot against the facility.  The Pentagon confirmed the bombers have returned to their home bases.

“While operational security precluded us from ​confirming the movement of our assets and forces ​in real-time, ‌we can acknowledge now that all US bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have re-deployed to their home ‌stations in the United States,” a Pentagon spokesman reportedly said ‌in ​a statement.

The pullout was extremely unusual since such actions are rarely taken so swiftly from an allied air base thousands of kilometers away from the combat zone. In fact, some of the bombers and their flight crews left RAF Fairford even as aerial refueling aircraft were still being rushed to support the missions to the United States, the New York Times reported.

These claims point towards an uncanny sense of urgency, although the US military has not officially cited a reason for this rushed exodus of bombers from RAF Fairford.

Nonetheless, the move comes days after five British men in their early 20s were arrested near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire after reports of three suspicious vans approaching the base hosting the US bombers.

They were held on suspicion of Explosives Act offenses and preparing a terrorist act, but were released on police bail with strict conditions the next day. However, a sixth man—identified as a 25-year-old dual UK-Iranian national—was later arrested in London on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts. He was later released on bail.

An investigation into what was believed to be a sabotage operation is now underway. However, both the United States and the United Kingdom have since hinted that Iran has links to the potential attack or sabotage operation.

US President Donald Trump said the suspects had been looking to ‌do “big damage” whereas Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it involved the “hands of a foreign actor,” without directly naming Tehran. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said there are “strong indications” that Iran played a role in the security incident at a crucial base that hosts US assets and troops.

Iran dismissed the allegations and has denied any link to the suspected security incident.

“PM Burnham says the UK Government ‘can confirm our belief that we believe Iran to have played a part’ in the RAF Fairford incident,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X last week. “I can confirm Iran’s belief that releasing supposed terrorists working for foreign states really says it all. You’re barking up the wrong tree.”

Iranian Threats Triggered A Pullout?

The US military has not given any information on the urgent threat, whether it was an imminent strike or a sabotage- or terror-related incident. However, the threats issued by the Islamic Republic and its forces in the past may have influenced the decision to withdraw the bombers.

As the hostilities resumed between the US and Iran in July this year, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) claimed that the US was launching bomber sorties from RAF Fairford to attack Iranian cities, adding that any base used to carry out such strikes would be a legitimate target.

“The American aggressor army, which used to launch cruise missiles from its vessels in the Indian Ocean in its aggression after the official resumption of the war, with the end of the missile reserves of the aforementioned vessels, yesterday switched to using B1 planes flying from Fairford Air Base, England,” Tasnim News Agency quoted the IRGC as saying on July 23. “As the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also stated, any base that is used to invade Iran’s territory is our legitimate goal.”

In March 2026, Araghchi told the UK Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, that Iran views the UK’s decision to let the US use British bases as “participation in aggression.” Later, it fired two mid-range ballistic missiles at Diego Garcia, the Indian Ocean military outpost jointly operated by the US and the UK.  Although none of the missiles reached their designated targets, the attack was launched after the UK approved the US use of its bases as launchpads for attacks on Iranian sites targeting the Strait of Hormuz.

RAF Fairford, for one, has been a key hub for US heavy bombers—including the B-1B and the B-52—conducting missions against Iranian missile infrastructure. Although Washington could fly long-range bombers to attack Iran from its own soil, using RAF Fairford has been significant because it enables long-range strikes and reduces flight times to Iranian targets by over 50% compared to US-based launches, allowing higher sortie rates.

According to media reports, a proxy sabotage or terror operation by Iran on RAF Fairford remains a major possibility. In the past, the United Kingdom has accused Iran of conducting cyberattacks and employing criminal networks and proxies to strike at its critics and dissidents on British soil for years.

Apart from a terror plot, it is hard to say whether Iran has the capability to strike RAF Fairford, or any other base in the United Kingdom. Iran has long claimed a self-imposed limit of about 2,000 kilometers for its ballistic missiles. However, its March 2026 attempted strike on the US-UK base at Diego Garcia demonstrated a much longer reach, and analysts have said it could potentially strike parts of the United Kingdom.

The US currently has about 45 operational B-1B bombers in its inventory, and many are aging airframes with very low readiness rates.

Therefore, losing even a single bomber would remove a scarce, high-payload platform that cannot be rapidly replaced, particularly while the B-21 Raider remains in the early stages of introduction. Additionally, a successful Iranian strike on a high-value asset at a known forward location would also carry symbolic weight, demonstrating an ability to impose costs far from the primary theater.

Moreover, the US military has already faced a trial by fire in the Middle East during the course of this war and lost several military aircraft, many of them on the ground, a fate that it may not wish to befall its highly potent but limited bomber fleet.

On March 27, 2026, for instance, an Iranian drone struck an E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft during a strike at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. Photos published after the strike showed that the rear fuselage of E-3 #81-0005 was completely burned out and destroyed, with debris scattered around the aircraft.

On March 2, CENTCOM reported that three F-15Es were shot down and destroyed by friendly fire over Kuwait; all six aircrew ejected safely and were recovered. The fourth F-15E was shot down by Iran during combat operations over Iran on April 5; both aircrew were safely recovered during separate search-and-rescue operations.

On March 14, media reports stated that five additional KC-135s were damaged on the ground at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia during an Iranian strike.

Later, Iran managed to damage an F-35A fighter jet over Iranian airspace. A recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report stated that replacing/repairing the aircraft would cost $120 million, without saying whether it would be written off or repaired.

On April 5, the US forces were forced to destroy two MC-130J Commando II special operations aircraft inside Iran after the planes became stuck and immobilized while supporting combat search-and-rescue efforts for a downed F-15E aircrew. Meanwhile, the US lost an HH-60W Jolly Green II combat search-and-rescue helicopter after it took damage from small-arms fire during the same operation.

In addition to these manned aircraft, the US lost several unmanned aerial vehicles, including MQ-9 Reapers and MQ-1C Tritons. The US has now lost more than 30 Reapers in the conflict with Iran, several destroyed on the ground by Iran across Middle East bases.

If Washington is preparing another round of strikes on Iran, and Tehran answers as it did against US bases in the Middle East, then RAF Fairford could be in the firing line. The IRGC has already called the base a legitimate target. The Pentagon has not said the B-1Bs left because of that threat. Moving all 12 in a day, while tankers were still being scrambled, suggests commanders were not willing to leave a scarce bomber fleet on a base they could no longer treat as safe.

• Contact the author at sakshi.tiwari13 (at) outlook.com
• Follow EurAsian Times on Google News

 

The post Iran Called RAF Fairford a “Legitimate Target.” Now All 12 U.S. B-1B ‘Lancer’ Bombers Have Left the British Base appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.

The recent summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping may have projected an image of renewed engagement; however, while two Presidents negotiated above the surface, their navies were preparing for a contest in which nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs) could play a decisive role.

The strategic rivalry between Washington and Beijing seems to be moving on a very different track—especially under the waters of the Indo-Pacific.

At the moment, the United States may have a substantial lead in the number of SSNs, technology, and operational experience, but China is rapidly catching up by expanding its undersea capabilities.

In its quest to narrow the gap with the US, China has entered a race for undersea advantage across the Indo-Pacific, which could shape deterrence, sea control, and the strategic balance of power for decades to come.

For maritime domination, both SSNs and SSBNs (nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines) play critical roles.

SSBNs primarily provide nuclear deterrence by ensuring a credible second-strike capability, whereas SSNs are essentially designed to conduct hunter-killer missions, including tracking and, if necessary, engaging adversary SSBNs, as well as escorting carrier strike groups (CSGs) for sea control missions.

As Korean scholar Dongkeun Lee points out, in the context of the Indo-Pacific, SSN operations can be broadly classified into two primary missions: (1) countering SSBN capabilities and (2) escorting CSGs. The former is closely associated with nuclear deterrence, whereas the latter reflects the traditional sea power function of controlling and protecting key sea lines of communication (SLOCs).

Both missions are particularly important in this part of the world as its principal flashpoints, including the East China Sea, the South China Sea, and the Taiwan Strait, are all maritime domains. Maintaining credible naval capabilities, therefore,  is essential to advancing both deterrence and broader strategic objectives in the region.

Incidentally, around one-third of global shipping traverses the South China Sea. The maritime gateways here are critical not only for China but also for Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.

American CSGs continue to play a major role in controlling and protecting these critical SLOCs. Consequently, SSNs play an equally crucial role in escorting CSGs. By providing lethal undersea capabilities that can silently target threats across multiple domains, including surface and subsurface targets, SSNs can effectively eliminate threats to aircraft carriers.

The United States permanently deploys an aircraft carrier to the Seventh Fleet, based in Yokosuka, Japan, and it is common for more than one CSG to be present in this region at any given time. SSNs’ presence here serves both to protect US carrier groups and to create the possibility of threatening Chinese nuclear submarines.

Likewise, the PRC is rapidly developing its own CSG capability to counterbalance that of the United States in the South China Sea. China’s Yulin naval base on Hainan Island is an important center for its nuclear submarine forces.

Until recently, the undersea dominance tilted heavily in favor of the US. But the alignments are fast changing.

Though the US Navy still leads with an all-nuclear fleet of 71 active submarines (including 51–53 SSNs/SSGNs), China has now surpassed Russia to command the world’s second-largest nuclear submarine fleet with an estimated 9 to 12 SSNs (such as the Type 093 and Type 093A/093B Shang-class) and 6 SSBNs (Jin-class Type 094), totaling roughly 32 active nuclear submarines across its entire naval forces that operate primarily in the Indo-Pacific region.

In a recent IISS assessment, China launched 10 nuclear-powered submarines between 2021 and 2025, totaling 79,000 tonnes, against America’s 7 boats at 55,000 tonnes. For the first time, China out-built the US in both numbers and tonnage in a five-year window, it is argued.

“Most significantly, this includes the seventh and eighth Type 094 (Jin) nuclear-armed ballistic-missile submarines (SSBNs), which come as part of the emergence of Beijing’s nuclear triad,” the IISS study says.

It noted that commercially available satellite imagery taken in early 2026 showed six Type 094s in total, spread between the Bohai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Co (BSHIC) shipyard in Huludao, the 1st Submarine Base at Jianggezhuang, the Xiaopingdao test facility and the 2nd Submarine Base at Yalong Bay on Hainan Island.

“Allowing for additional boats either on deterrence patrol or under cover for refit during this period, it is almost certainly the case that China has launched a seventh and eighth Type-094 in 2024 and 2025, respectively,” the IIISS study concludes.

In addition to the Type 094s, Bohai is also producing nuclear-powered guided-missile submarines (SSGN) for the People’s Liberation Army, with the study suggesting that nine Type 093B (Shang III) boats have been launched between 2022 and this year, based on commercial satellite imagery of the facility and US government assessments.

Incidentally, in March this year,  the US Navy’s intelligence chief, Rear Admiral Mike Brookes, testified before the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) that China is undertaking a major shift toward building an all-nuclear submarine fleet as part of a broader effort to strengthen its undersea warfare capabilities and expand blue-water naval power.

According to Brookes, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), which operates more than 60 submarines in total, including roughly 50 conventional diesel-electric boats (SSK) and a smaller number of SSNs and SSBNs, is transitioning away from conventional submarines toward a predominantly nuclear construction program to support sustained operations, strategic deterrence and sea-lane interdiction.

Brookes also pointed out that China had expanded submarine production infrastructure across three major shipyards, tripling construction hall capacity and more than doubling production capability to sustain higher output of advanced nuclear boats through the 2030s.

By 2027, China’s submarine force is projected to reach roughly 70 submarines, adding up to six SSGNs, three smaller-class SSNs, and two SSBNs while retiring older Chinese and Russian-built submarines. By 2035, continued expansion could yield up to 80 submarines, with about half nuclear-powered—a major shift in force composition—and projections for the early 2040s include around 20-30 new-class SSGNs and SSBNs.

These platforms will be designed from the keel up for blue-water operations and persistent presence beyond the first island chain, representing an evolution in PLA Navy undersea operational capabilities. China will likely field a more survivable and numerous ballistic missile submarine force equipped with longer-range, more accurate SLBMs, enabling patrols in bastions closer to home waters while holding the US homeland at risk.

Broader deployment of long-range, potentially hypersonic anti-ship and land-attack missiles from undersea platforms is anticipated, along with more sophisticated torpedoes and unmanned vehicles for ISR, mine warfare, and strike missions. Substantial investments in seabed sensors, undersea cables, and unmanned systems will enhance China’s situational awareness while creating vulnerabilities for the US and allies in crisis or conflict.

The Indo-Pacific will remain the PLA Navy’s primary focus, but by 2040 routine submarine deployments to the Indian Ocean, Arctic approaches, and possibly the Atlantic are likely, Brookes cautions.

However, as noted above, the US Navy currently has superior acoustic quieting, combat experience, and highly advanced Virginia-class SSNs. But as the EurAsian Times once explained, the US has a backlog of 12 Virginia-class submarines, in addition to three Columbia-class ballistic submarines.

Its production rate of 1.2 per year falls far short of the required 2.33 per year to meet its own needs and those of its allies (under the AUKUS pact, it is supposed to provide at least three Virginia-class submarines to Australia in the early 2030s).

Only three US shipyards can build nuclear-powered attack submarines (Groton, Connecticut; Quonset Point, Rhode Island; and Newport, Virginia). Only two of them are functional at the moment.

While the US defense industrial base is severely strained, China’s naval shipyards are said to be outperforming. With about 9 older Shang I/II boats plus an estimated 16 Type 093B hulls in service, in trials, or under construction, China is said to have the largest SSN series under construction anywhere.

The 093B reportedly features a vertical launch system for 24 YJ-12/YJ-18 anti-ship cruise missiles and six torpedo tubes, shifting China from torpedo brawls to long-range strike.

In the Indo-Pacific, the undersea race seems to change three fundamentals.

First, the era of uncontested US undersea dominance is over. US SSNs have long hunted Chinese SSBNs inside their bastion, keeping Beijing’s deterrent vulnerable. But now, China can sustain continuous at-sea deterrence patrols from Hainan’s Yalong Bay, protected by surface fleet and seabed sensors. That forces US SSNs to operate closer to Chinese waters, at higher risk, stretching ASW resources thin.

Second, the proliferation of quiet Chinese SSNs with VLS—at least six SSGN hulls launched in the past five years with vertical launch systems that could fire high-speed anti-ship missiles displayed in Beijing—means every US carrier entering the Taiwan Strait or South China Sea now faces a multi-axis underwater missile threat. The carrier’s sanctuary beyond the first island chain, once assumed, is no longer safe.

Third, China’s rapid maritime expansion has fundamentally altered the Indo-Pacific security landscape, prompting Australia and Japan to aggressively build strategic counterweights. Rather than acting in isolation, Canberra and Tokyo have pivoted toward minilateral security alliances, military modernization, and supply chain diversification to offset Beijing’s growing naval dominance.

Australia and Japan, alongside the United States and the Philippines, have formalized a security grouping explicitly designed to counter Beijing’s aggressive maneuvers in the South and East China Seas. This alliance focuses on joint maritime patrols, intelligence sharing, and military interoperability to safeguard freedom of navigation under international law.

Driven by the need to project power across its vast northern approaches, Australia has fundamentally reshaped its defense posture. This is anchored by the AUKUS pact—enabling Australia to acquire conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines—positioning the nation as a formidable southern anchor against Chinese naval projection.

For India, which has no SSNs in service (it previously leased from Russia and now plans indigenous production) and operates only three SSBNs (Arihant, Arighaat, and Aridhaman), the implications are significant.

Against India’s slow naval expansion, Chinese nuclear submarines, including intelligence-gathering vessels, now regularly traverse the Indian Ocean.

Overall, one could say that “the silent service” in the Indo-Pacific is becoming loud.

During the Cold War, the submarine race was primarily fought in the Atlantic. Now, it is shifting to the Indo-Pacific, raising uncertainties over whether it will remain free and open.

• Author and veteran journalist Prakash Nanda is Chairman of the Editorial Board of the EurAsian Times and has been commenting on politics, foreign policy, and strategic affairs for nearly three decades. He is a former National Fellow of the Indian Council for Historical Research and a recipient of the Seoul Peace Prize Scholarship.
• The author can be reached at prakash.nanda (at) hotmail.com

The post As Trump & Xi Talk — U.S. and China’s Nuclear Submarines Race For Dominance in the Indo-Pacific appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.

The Pentagon recently announced a whopping US$24.4 billion contract to defense giant Raytheon to speed up the production of “three-in-one” SM-6 missiles.

The Pentagon called the SM-6 “a critical anti-air and anti-surface warfare munition.” It said the five-year agreement, with two additional option years, “will drive faster production, increase manufacturing throughput, and deliver significant cost savings.”

The deal “provides the defense industry with the long-term predictability needed to expand workforce capacity and secure critical supply chains,” the Pentagon added.

The award lands after a year in which interceptor stocks were burned down. The US Defense Department’s inspector general reported last month that acquisition officials said: “the munitions expenditure on Operation Epic Fury has resulted in strategic inventory shortfalls and revealed industrial base bottlenecks for munitions resupply.”

A September 15 Congressional Budget Office assessment said the United States has probably used between one-half and two-thirds of its stocks of certain missile-defense interceptors since June 2025, naming the SM-6 alongside Patriot, THAAD and the SM-3.

Rebuilding those inventories would take at least five years even if production rose, the agency said, and would leave the Pentagon with fewer interceptors for a possible clash with China.

The CBO put the cost of a Patriot or an SM-6 at about $4 million a round, compared with about $12 million for a THAAD interceptor and $28 million for an SM-3. It said the weapons were used in large numbers defending Israel and then during Operation Epic Fury.

Outside estimates run higher: a table compiled by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and carried by the Financial Times in April put the SM-6 at $5.3 million a round, with a pre-war stock of about 1,160 and wartime use of 190 to 370.

The Pentagon has not published an SM-6 round count for the war.

Raytheon confirmed in a statement that its SM-6 “has been successfully fired from various US Navy ship-based platforms and launchers on land,” calling it a “combat-proven weapon.”

The weapons-maker also acknowledged increased efforts to meet demand. “By continuously investing in our operations and facilities, we are removing constraints and boosting capacity to ensure we deliver this critical capability our sailors depend on,” Raytheon President Phil Jasper said.

SM-6 Missile

The SM-6 missile was created for extended-range anti-air warfare (ER-AAW), including defense against UAVs, military aircraft, anti-ship cruise missiles, and terminal ballistic missile defense. It also acts as a high-velocity anti-ship missile.

U.S. Awards F-22 ‘Raptor’ Pilots for Ops Midnight Hammer as Pentagon Sends 3rd Carrier Towards Iran

The SM-6 is based on the earlier SM-2ER Block IV (RIM-156A) missile airframe, with the AIM-120C AMRAAM active radar-homing seeker replacing the former design’s semi-active seeker.

The official designation is RIM-174 Standard Extended Range Active Missile, or ERAM. It is fired from the Mk 41 vertical launching system already fitted on US and allied destroyers and cruisers, so a ship does not need a new launcher to carry it.

What makes the SM-6 different from the older Standard missiles is that it does not have to rely only on the firing ship’s radar. Through Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air, or NIFC-CA, it can take targeting data from an E-2D Hawkeye, another ship, or a fighter such as the F-35, and engage a target beyond the horizon of the ship that launches it.

The active seeker then finishes the intercept on its own. In plain terms, the missile can be cued by a sensor the target cannot see, and still home in the last miles.

Raytheon describes the SM-6 missile as “three missiles in one,” and says it is the only weapon that can perform anti-air warfare, anti-surface warfare, and ballistic missile defense or sea-based terminal missions.

“Mid Air Horror”: When an F-35 Hit a KC-130 Over California — and Why September Brought the Story Back

The Block IA and IB updates improve the seeker and guidance against harder, complex targets, while the Block IB adds a larger rocket motor for more range and speed against high-end air threats. Its exact range remains classified, but it is widely believed that it could reach over 200 nautical miles and fly at roughly Mach 3.5.

That spread of roles is also why the missile is expensive, and why magazines matter. A destroyer that fills its cells with SM-6s gains reach, but it burns through a scarce inventory if it uses the same missile for aircraft, cruise missiles, ships, and terminal ballistic shots.

China has reportedly been wary of the missile because of its capabilities. US allies in the region, including Japan, Australia, and South Korea, are lined up to acquire it.

The SM-6 on the Typhon Mid-Range Capability launcher is a ship missile adapted for strikes against land and sea targets. The Army has described the battery as a “strategic” weapon system to be used against higher-value targets such as air defense facilities and command and control centers — an important weapon given the region’s prevailing tensions.

In that ground-launched form, it sits alongside the Tomahawk, giving land forces a strike option that once belonged only to ships.

The US has also developed an air-launched variant of the SM-6, known as the AIM-174B, mounted on a US Navy Super Hornet, which broke cover during RIMPAC 2024. Fired from altitude and speed, it pushes an air-to-air engagement far outside the range of a carrier group’s older missiles.

• Contact EurAsian Times at admin (at) eurasiantimes.com
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The US military lost three military aircraft during peacetime in September 2026 alone, highlighting that accidents continue to hit even the world’s most advanced air force. These incidents also reminded us of the mid-air collision between a KC-130J and an F-35B in September 2020 that ended in one of modern aviation’s most remarkable saves.

On September 28, 2026, two naval aviators ejected from an EA-18G Growler assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron 130 after an arresting gear failed during recovery on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier.

Both aircrew were recovered safely. It is currently unknown whether the aircraft was lost or escaped with some damage, and an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the accident.

Earlier in the month, two F-16 Fighting Falcons were destroyed in separate training accidents.

On September 17, an F-16 from the Texas Air National Guard’s 149th Fighter Wing went down in rural Michigan during training from Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, and on September 22, a US Air Force F-16 from the 52nd Fighter Wing at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, crashed on approach after a routine training sortie.

In both cases, the pilot was able to eject, but the aircraft was fully destroyed.

While September was particularly painful for the US military and its prized military aircraft, it also reminds us of the time six years ago when a mid-air collision over California nearly claimed the lives of eight Marines aboard a KC-130J.

When A KC-130 Collided With an F-35B

On the afternoon of September 29, 2020, a U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II, call sign “Bolt 93,” and a KC-130J Super Hercules tanker, call sign “Raider 50,” collided at around 4:00 p.m. while conducting air-to-air refueling operations in the Kane West Military Operations Area near the Salton Sea in Southern California.

The aircraft were participating in Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI) Course 1-21, which is a demanding seven-week advanced training program conducted by Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron 1 at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona. The course reportedly emphasized integrating Marine aviation into Marine Air-Ground Task Force operations under realistic, high-tempo conditions.

The Raider, assigned to Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 352, had already refueled one F-35B and was orbiting to tank the second. The F-35B approached the hose and drogue extended from the refueling pod on the tanker’s right wing and struck the underside of that wing.

As expected, the F-35B arrived for aerial refueling. However, as it approached, the hose and drogue extended from the tanker’s right wing, and it struck the underside of the right wing.

The impact was so massive and violent that it sheared off all propeller blades on the tanker’s two right-side engines, damaged the right fuel tank and refueling pod, and caused severe structural damage, including to the landing gear compartment.

Immediately after, fuel began leaking, raising concerns about a potential onboard fire.

The F-35B that collided with the massive refueller aircraft was critically damaged, forcing the pilot to eject. The aircraft crashed in the Ocotillo Wells area near Salton City, according to reports from the time. However, the KC-130J—piloted by Capt. Michael Wolff and co-pilot Maj. Cory Jones—had a gargantuan task ahead of them. They had to land.

“It was a really violent collision,” Wolff later recalled, adding that everything happened within “1.2 seconds or something. Not enough time to really react and do anything.” Days after the incident, he said the collision was so violent it sent everything flying inside the aircraft. “It was pretty violent… I got my headset back on, grabbed the yoke, and I got the plane back under control,” the pilot of the unfortunate aircraft told USNI News.

After the impact, the crew discovered the collision had left a hole in the aircraft, letting in a blast of outside air as they braved glaring lights and blaring alarms in the cockpit, while the displays lit up with cascading caution and warning messages.

The collision wiped out both engines on the KC-130J’s right (starboard) side. Yet “the impact did not damage our ailerons, elevators or rudder, so we still have all of our primary flight control surfaces,” Wolff later recalled in his interaction with USNI. “At that point, I’m like, OK, let’s get figuring out what’s going on and the best course of action.” “That’s when – it’s kind of cliché – the training kicks in,” he added.

The crew drew on their deep familiarity with the KC-130J, forged through countless flight hours and simulator sessions rehearsing emergency procedures in the air and on the ground. Aircrews are well known for their rigorous adherence to detailed checklists, along with the almost automatic responses and ingrained knowledge that come from repeated practice. “We start running through everything,” Wolff told USNI News later, “and figuring out where to go and communicating to the crew and then outside” to air traffic control. 

The KC-130J crew declared an emergency to Los Angeles Center, reporting a mid-air collision, damage to two engines, a fuel leak, a possible fire, and an emergency descent, as later revealed in the emergency call recording. “We are declaring an emergency. We still have partial control of the aircraft,” Wolff was heard saying in a rather calm manner.

Thick black smoke streamed behind Raider 50 as flames roared from its burning fuel tanks, and the rear crew members confirmed the severity of the damage to engines No. 3 and No. 4. The crew then focused on keeping control of the aircraft and getting it safely back to the ground. “I can see the far right engine – the #4 – from my seat, but I can’t see the #3,” Wolff said. Crew members in the rear of the aircraft “gave me confirmation that [the] thing was toast, and we pulled the fire handle and [made] sure nothing got worse.”

He needed constant updates on whether the fire was dying down or if fuel was still leaking from the wing, stressing that “that communication from the back [crew] is extremely vital to get down safely.”

The crew aboard the aircraft on that fateful day had practiced for an emergency with two engines out, but never for multiple emergencies.

With the tanker still heavy with fuel and only five parachutes available for eight Marines, bailout was not a practical option. The crew committed to landing.

Determined to land safely, the pilots surveyed the surrounding terrain and found Thermal Airport—officially Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport—a viable landing site. “We had a lot of open space between where we were and there – the Salton Sea and a lot of farmland – and we’re not worried about populated areas,” Wolff said.

However, their troubles were far from over.

Just as the crew lined up for a runway landing, the aircraft began drifting right because of the ongoing malfunctions and the distance involved.

With only five parachutes for eight crew members and the aircraft still partially controllable on the remaining engines, they committed to a forced landing rather than a bailout. 

After roughly 12–13 minutes of fighting for control—facing multiple system failures, an uncommanded right turn after dipping below minimum control airspeed, and other issues—they executed a gear-up or belly landing in a farm field near Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport in Thermal, California.

The aircraft skidded several hundred yards and came to rest with extensive damage but intact enough for the entire crew to walk away with only mild injuries.

“It wasn’t quite like the movies where you see you have like a 747 that plows through … We came to a stop pretty quickly,” Wolf said.

Pilot sure earned that DFC

September 29, 2020: a US Marines KC-130 and an F-35 collide during mid-air refueling over California (US). Fighter crashes, pilot ejects safely, KC-130 crash-lands in a carrot field, all 8 aboard survive.

The KC-130 pilot was later awarded the… pic.twitter.com/Xu46wipUUP

— Francisco Cunha – Aviation et al (@OnDisasters) September 29, 2026

The collision, resulting fire damage, and emergency landing meant the aircraft had to be written off. After investigators finished examining the wreckage, Marine Corps teams spent roughly a week removing it from the field. They recovered the rear stabilizers and the aircraft’s tail section, set them up outside the squadron, and painted them in the unit’s distinctive Raider black as a permanent display and reminder.

For their actions, both Capt. Michael Wolff and Maj. Cory Jones received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the highest award in flying and the fourth highest award for bravery. The award recognized the skill, discipline, and crew coordination.

The collision, engine failure, and safe landing marked one of the rare incidents in which every crew member survived, including the F-35 B pilot.

• Contact the author at sakshi.tiwari13 (at) outlook.com
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The US honored seven airmen who piloted F-22 Raptors in combat operations in the Middle East with the “Distinguished Flying Cross” (DFC), even as the United States has relaunched a military buildup in the Region.

Of the seven airmen, six were awarded the DFC for their role in “Operation Midnight Hammer,” launched against Iran in June 2025, while one was honored for a mission in the Middle East without disclosing details.

The DFC is the fourth-highest award for gallantry in the military and honors acts of bravery or exceptional accomplishment in the air. 

The USAF launched Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025 following 12 days of intense clashes between Iran and Israel. The operation included an armada of 125 combat aircraft, including B-2 stealth bombers, F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters, F-16s, F-15Es, and several aerial tankers for refueling, as the EurAsian Times previously reported.

Although the role of the seven B-2 Spirit stealth bombers that dropped 14 bunker-buster GBU-57 MOP bombs on Iran’s underground nuclear facilities has been widely recognized, the F-22 Raptors also played a crucial role in the operation.

These air superiority stealth fighters moved ahead of the B-2 bombers along with the F-35s, conducting air superiority and air defense-suppression missions to clear the way for the B-2s to operate safely and effectively and bomb the three Iranian nuclear sites.

Of the aviators who received the DFC for Operation Midnight Hammer, four came from the Active-Duty 94th Fighter Squadron, part of the 1st Fighter Wing at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., while two came from the associated Virginia Air National Guard’s 149th Fighter Squadron of the 192nd Wing.

Air Combat Command commander Gen. Adrian L. Spain presented the medals to the aviators in a ceremony at the Virginia base on August 31, 2026.

“Their job was to provide air superiority,” Spain said, referring to the F-22s. “The bombers and the rest of the support package relied on these Raptor pilots to clear the skies, shield them from surface threats, and ensure a safe route through heavily contested airspace.”

The F-22 is the USAF’s premier fifth-generation air superiority stealth fighter, allowing it to evade radar detection unlike the 4th- and 4.5th-generation fighters. In fact, the Raptor was purpose-built as an air dominance fighter, optimized to clear the skies of enemy aircraft, escort high-value assets, and operate in the most hostile environments.

Before Operation Midnight Hammer, the F-22 Raptors were also deployed against the Yemen-based Houthis in 2024, as the EurAsian Times reported at the time.

Earlier this year, the F-22 Raptors were once again summoned to the region for Operation Epic Fury, launched against Iran on February 28, 2026, together with Israel’s Operation Roaring Lion.

The F-22 Raptors of the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base were deployed to the Ovda Air Base in Israel for the first time ahead of the operation.

During the initial days of Operation Epic Fury, F-22s reportedly suppressed advanced Iranian air defenses, such as the S-300 and Bavar-373 systems, clearing the way for B-2 bombers and other strike packages.

Flying deep into Iranian airspace, the stealth fighters reportedly carried out pinpoint strikes on high-value targets between March 1 and 9, 2026, including military sites, nuclear-related infrastructure, and IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) command nodes.

The Raptors also reportedly targeted the “infrastructure connected to the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant and Natanz Nuclear Facility,” as US Central Command (CENTCOM) previously noted. It “also coordinated with B-2 Spirit bombers and EA-18G Growler electronic attack jets in layered strike packages designed to overwhelm Iran’s integrated air defenses,” it added.

The seventh F-22 pilot—whose name was withheld—received the decoration on September 22 from Lt. Gen. Jason T. Hinds, commander of US Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), for commanding a strike package during a Middle East mission in contested airspace.

The pilot faced “challenging conditions including enemy threats” and “directed the aircraft formation, making critical decisions with limited time and little margin for error,” the USAFE stated.

“For more than an hour, [the pilot] remained focused on protecting teammates” and “acted decisively to protect the larger force, and ensured the formation could safely return,” Hinds said. “Their actions helped give the strike package the time and freedom needed to accomplish its mission.”

Interestingly, the DFC was awarded and publicized by the US Air Force at a time when tensions are escalating between the United States and Iran.

US Commences Military Build-Up in Middle East

The US is deploying a third US aircraft carrier to the Middle East as part of a fresh military buildup as President Donald Trump weighs new strikes.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group departed its San Diego base last week on the Pentagon’s order. The USS Makin Island amphibious readiness group followed, with its two amphibious landing ships. About 9,000 sailors, 7,000 aboard the carrier and 2,000 aboard the amphibious ships, are en route to waters near Iran.

With USS Theodore Roosevelt’s arrival, three aircraft carriers would be standing guard in West Asia by late October, according to US officials who spoke to the media. As of now, the carriers USS George HW Bush and the USS George Washington, along with the USS Boxer amphibious readiness group, are in the region amid ongoing hostilities.

This would bring the overall US naval presence to more than 20,000 sailors and Marines, along with hundreds of aircraft, significantly expanding the military posture.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) has left San Diego to build a three-carrier presence in the Middle East

Ahead of the U.S. midterm elections, officials confirmed the Roosevelt will join the USS George Washington and the USS George H.W. Bush, a rare trio of supercarriers,… pic.twitter.com/yisXp9TAVu

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 1, 2026

Additionally, reports citing informed sources suggest that the US military sent two additional Patriot missile batteries to protect oil and gas facilities in Saudi Arabia and Qatar in recent weeks.

Notably, the two sides have remained locked in a tense battle since July, when they started trading fire after a long lull that followed the June memorandum of understanding. 

Last week, Iran proposed a new deal in which it would open the Strait of Hormuz in return for lifting the US blockade of its ports, unfreezing funds, and removing sanctions on Iranian oil. However, Trump rejected the proposal, saying Iran is seeking an agreement now because it is losing so badly.

The two sides later held indirect talks, signaling that they may be open to negotiating a fresh deal. However, Trump caused a stir again as he told Time magazine this week that the US military could ramp up bombing of Iran after the November 3 midterm elections that will be held amid continued disapproval of the war at home.

Furthermore, the President said that Iran may have something to do with the recent incident involving the FlyDubai flight, adding that it will be hit very hard if Tehran’s connection is verified.

For now, a deal between Washington and Tehran looks more elusive than ever, especially as the Pentagon is moving major military assets to the region. If Trump decides to resume the bombing, the presence of three aircraft carriers will significantly expand his options and fighter jet presence near Iran.

• Contact the author at sakshi.tiwari13 (at) outlook.com
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A Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) F/A-18F Super Hornet was pictured carrying an AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM) during a US test event in California. The development comes weeks after RAAF said it would become the first operator, outside the US, of the JATMs.

The image, clicked on Sept. 11 at Naval Base Ventura County Point Mugu and released by the U.S. Navy, shows aircraft A44-209 of No. 1 Squadron during Exercise Gray Flag 2026. However, the missile’s ownership remains unconfirmed.

The Navy caption does not name the weapon. Analysts identified the weapon as an AIM-260 training round, citing blue bands that mark an inert motor or warhead. No live firing was reported. The sortie appears to have been a captive-carry flight.

Earlier, as EurAsian Times reported, Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said at Exercise Pitch Black on 6 August that Australia would invest almost A$736 million, about $518 million, to buy the missile through US foreign military sales.

Canberra did not say how many rounds that sum would buy. A separate U.S. notification in March covered a possible sale of up to 450 AIM-260s, plus test vehicles, estimated at $3.16 billion.

“This announcement is the latest milestone in the delivery of long-range, high‑tech capabilities for our Defense Force,” Marles said in Darwin. “The Albanese government continues to deliver critical capabilities that will allow the ADF to strike at a longer range, deter any adversary, and protect our national interests. It is fitting to make this announcement at Exercise Pitch Black, which is an important demonstration of Australia’s commitment to the peace, stability, and security of our region.”

Australia will integrate the missile first on the F/A-18F, then on the F-35A and the EA-18G Growler. Canberra said Australia would be the first country to field the AIM-260 outside the United States, and that it would complement existing air-to-air missiles.

“The acquisition of the AIM-260 JATM will provide Air Force platforms with a credible deterrent against airborne targets, complementing existing air-to-air missile capabilities and other surface-based missile capabilities across the Australian Defense Force (ADF). It will also further enhance Australia’s interoperability with the United States,” the Australian Department of Defense earlier said in a statement.

The existence of the AIM-260 JATM was initially confirmed in 2019 during an Air Force Life Cycle Management Center industry conference. Because of its sensitivity, the AIM-260 JATM is classified as a Special Access Program (SAP), and details have remained mostly classified.

In 2022, General Mark Kelly, the head of the United States Air Force’s Air Combat Command, shared an artist’s concept of the Lockheed Martin F-22 firing an AIM-260 JATM.

More recently, the US Navy publicly revealed the rendering of the missile in February 2025. At the time, experts said it looked similar to the AIM-120 medium-range air-to-air missile.

Nonetheless, the AIM-260 appears to have a larger rocket motor section and no mid-body surfaces, unlike the AIM-120. Although little is known about the JATM, reports suggest it will use dual-pulse rocket motors or ramjets to increase range and performance.

The AIM-260 could carry an advanced multi-mode seeker system that may include infrared imaging and active radar. The dual-seeker system could improve resilience to electronic warfare countermeasures and increase accuracy.

Like the AIM-120D-3 AMRAAM derivative, the AIM-260 is anticipated to have a two-way datalink. This feature would greatly increase the missile’s efficacy in networked battle by enabling mid-course targeting upgrades or re-targeting.

“Akash is The Limit”: India’s AD System Reaches Turkmenistan & Tajikistan: Here’s What Makes It Lethal

The planned US sequence has the AIM-260 entering service first on the F-22 Raptors, then the F-35s and the Navy’s F/A-18E/F. Australia intends to integrate it on the F/A-18F before the F-35A and EA-18G.

US Arms Australia

The Indo-Pacific landscape is rapidly changing, with China emerging as a global military power and intimidating its neighbors. Although not an immediate neighbor, Australia is also concerned by Beijing’s growing military might and ambitions.

Australia has emerged as one of America’s strongest military partners. At the heart of this security architecture is the AUKUS submarine pact, signed alongside the UK.

Under this pact, Australia will acquire a fleet of nuclear-powered (not nuclear-armed) submarines. Nuclear propulsion would give the Australian Navy unparalleled stealth, range, and endurance, allowing it to operate deep within contested waters without surfacing for oxygen, as conventional submarines do.

Washington is also strengthening Australia’s strike capabilities. The RAAF has also acquired F-35 stealth jets, ensuring seamless interoperability with the US military and allies like Japan.

To complement these platforms, Washington has approved the sale of advanced long-range strike weapons, including Tomahawk cruise missiles, HIMARS, and AGM-158B JASSM-ER missiles. These weapons effectively shift Australia’s military posture from territorial defense to robust power projection.

The US is boosting Australia’s capabilities to establish domestic guided-missile manufacturing, securing a resilient supply chain outside the American mainland. Increased rotations of US bombers, maritime patrol aircraft, and troops to northern Australian military bases further cement this partnership.

While Washington and Canberra frame these advancements as essential steps to maintain a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” Beijing views the militarisation as an encirclement strategy. By arming Australia with these cutting-edge capabilities, the US is ensuring that any potential conflict in the region would face a highly sophisticated and unified allied front.

• By ET Online Desk
• Mail us at: editor (at) eurasiantimes.com

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Taiwan has received its first F-16V (Viper) fighter jets from the US amid serious tensions with China, which calls the island a ‘renegade province’.

The Vipers are part of an $8 billion deal for 66 F-16Vs approved during US President Donald Trump’s first term.

The two Lockheed Martin F-16 Vipers touched down at Taiwan’s Chihhangair Air Force Base in Taitung. President Lai Ching-te hailed “a major milestone in elevating Taiwan’s air defense capabilities” and thanked Washington for its “long-standing support”.

Former Air Force serviceman Eric Chan, 57, praised the F-16’s advancements over the past three decades and said the fighter jets based in Taitung will “play a very important defensive role” against China.

“The threat from the CCP has always been there, so we definitely need to strengthen our defense capabilities,” Chan told AFP, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.

F-16 vs F-16 Viper

Earlier, as EurAsian Times reported,  Taiwan’s first two F-16 Vipers — serials 6727 and 6728 — were on the Pacific ferry to Taitung’s Chihhang Air Base.

Deliveries were expected to begin in 2023, and all 66 warplanes were scheduled to be delivered by the end of 2026. However, supply-line pressures due to COVID-19, followed by Lockheed Martin’s decision to shift the F-16 assembly line from Fort Worth to Greenville, pushed the timeline back.

The jet’s electronic-warfare suite has been a separate problem. The embedded AN/ALQ-254 Viper Shield, built by L3Harris, ran into production bottlenecks because it is built into the fuselage rather than carried as a pod.

Taiwanese reporting in July 2026 said the first Block 70s would be delivered without it, with the suite to be fitted later. An AESA radar without the planned internal jammer makes the aircraft thinner than the one in the brochure, and it is a capability gap, not just a reason the schedule slipped.

Iran War: U.S. Awards F-22 Pilots for Midnight Hammer as Pentagon Sends 3rd Carrier Towards Middle East

Lockheed later started two shifts to prioritize Taiwan’s order to deliver the combat jets. Still, the full 66-jet order is not expected to be delivered before 2028.

When Lockheed Martin delivers the 66 new jets by 2028, the Taiwanese Air Force will have more than 200 F-16 Viper fighter jets, making it the largest Viper-standard fleet in the Indo-Pacific region.

F-16 vs F-16 Viper

Both the legacy F-16 and the latest F-16V jets share a common airframe shape, a single-engine layout, 9g capability, and basic flight characteristics.

The main differences are in sensors, computers, cockpit, electronic warfare, and modern weapons/data-link integration.

However, the biggest capability jump is perhaps in the radar system.

The legacy F-16A/B jets used the mechanically scanned AN/APG-66 radar. Most F-16C/D (Blocks 25–52) used the mechanically scanned AN/APG-68.

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These radars have slower scan rates, more limited multi-target tracking capabilities, and poorer jamming performance.

For the F-16V, however, Lockheed Martin uses Northrop Grumman’s AN/APG-83 SABR AESA radar.

It uses electronic beam steering, supports simultaneous air-to-air and air-to-ground modes, high-resolution SAR mapping, better jamming resistance, and tracks more targets at longer ranges.

Lockheed Martin states it delivers 5th-generation radar capabilities through hardware and software commonality with F-22 and F-35 radars.

“It delivers greater situational awareness, flexibility and quicker all-weather targeting and provides pilots with unprecedented target area detail and digital map displays that can be tailored with slew and zoom features,” said Lockheed Martin in a factsheet about the Block 70/72 jets.

The new Viper standard jets also provide enhanced battlespace awareness.

Block 70/72 features a new high-resolution Center Pedestal Display (CPD), which provides critical tactical imagery to pilots and enables them to take full advantage of AESA and targeting pod data.

The new CPD enables color moving maps, larger and easier-to-manage air-to-air Situation Displays, zoom functionality with the ability to switch information among displays, digital display of Flight Instrument Data, and a color/night helmet-mounted display.

Additional integration of the Lockheed Martin Sniper® Advanced Targeting Pod and Legion-ES IRST system increases pilot situational awareness and enhances warfighter survivability.

The F-16V also provides better pilot protection. Lockheed Martin’s Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto GCAS) was purpose-built to prevent deadly crashes and has already saved the lives of multiple pilots and F-16s since the system entered service with the U.S. Air Force in late 2014.

The Auto GCAS is designed to reduce incidents of controlled flight into terrain, or CFIT. According to U.S. Air Force statistics, CFIT incidents account for 26 percent of aircraft losses and a staggering 75 percent of all F-16 pilot fatalities.

The F-16V also provides extended structural capabilities.

The Block 70/72 has an extended structural life to 12,000 hours – more than 50 percent beyond that of previous production F-16 aircraft. The older F-16s had a structural life of around 8,000 hours.

According to Lockheed Martin, the F-16V could serve for 40 years without any major repairs.

The conformal fuel tanks provide increased fuel capacity and range without sacrificing the jet’s aerodynamic performance.

Furthermore, legacy F-16s relied on multiple older computers with limited processing power, whereas the F-16V has a single high-performance Modular Mission Computer (MMC) and a modernized avionics architecture. This gives far higher computing power for sensors, weapons, and data fusion.

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The F-16V is certified for a very wide range of modern weapons, such as AIM-120D AMRAAM, AIM-9X, JASSM, JSOW, JDAM variants, and SDB, and uses Link 16, which provides enhanced situational awareness and enables real-time command, control, and tactical data exchange among military aircraft, ships, and ground forces.

They also have greater electrical power, cooling, and data-processing capacity to support the future integration of advanced electronic warfare equipment, weapons, and infrared search-and-track systems.

Because of all these capabilities, even though both the older F-16 and the latest F-16V share the same airframe design, the F-16V is a much more lethal aircraft.

Modern sensors, avionics, radars, an electronic warfare suite, Link 16, structural improvements, and an improved weapons package and ferry range mean the F-16V is a much more capable jet. That is why operators such as Taiwan, Greece, Bahrain, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Turkey are upgrading their existing F-16 fleets.

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According to Su Tzu-yun, a senior analyst at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, the AN/APG-83 radar was designed to detect targets with small radar cross-sections and could “improve the F-16V’s chances of detecting PLA stealth aircraft such as the J-20 and J-35”.

• Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern  History from the University of Sheffield, UK. 
• He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com

The post Taiwan’s Brand New F-16 Vipers Land at Chihhang AFB. Analyst Says Its Radar May Detect China’s J-20 Jets appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.

More than a year after Donald Trump unofficially offered the F-35 to India, the fighter jet debuted in India’s multinational exercise Tarang Shakti 2026. 

For the first time, six US F-35 Lightning II fighter jets and more than 200 airmen joined the Tarang Shakti multinational drills in Jodhpur, western India.

Photos of the jets appeared on social media ahead of their participation in tactical exercises alongside the Indian Air Force’s stalwarts, including the Rafale, the Su-30MKI, and indigenous Tejas fighters in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.

Meanwhile, the Indian Air Force published a video on September 29, 2026, showing an F-35 and Tejas flying together.

The @usairforce F-35A Lightning IIs are making their exercise debut in India at Tarang Shakti.

Combining stealth, advanced sensors, and information-sharing capabilities, the F-35s bring new opportunities to train with the Indian Air Force and other partners, strengthening… pic.twitter.com/wGfT6OxtAc

— U.S. Embassy India (@USAndIndia) September 29, 2026

The exercise comes more than a year after US President Donald Trump offered the F-35 to India during a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February 2025. So, while the deployment is meant to provide the IAF practical exposure to the aircraft’s operations and sensor integration in a multinational setting, it has inevitably sparked questions about whether the US is signaling its intent to sell the fighter. 

F-35 for India?

“Starting this year, we will be increasing military sales to India by many billions of dollars. We are also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters,” Trump told reporters in February 2025.

Vice President J.D. Vance reiterated the offer during his visit to India in April 2025, saying, “We, of course, want to collaborate more. We want to work together more. And we want your nation to buy more of our military equipment, which we believe is the best in class. American fifth-generation F-35s, for example, would give the Indian Air Force the ability to defend your airspace and protect your people like never before.”

These pitches took many by surprise, but there was a catch: they were merely verbal pitches, not official offers accompanied by formal discussions.

So, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, chief of the Indian Air Force, ultimately told reporters that India was not considering the F-35 option, adding that it had not received a formal offer. A fervent supporter of augmenting Indian air power, the IAF top boss emphasized that purchasing a fighter jet was not like “buying a washing machine or refrigerator,” implying that the appropriate process must be followed. “We haven’t examined it [F-35].”

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Later that year, the Minister of State for External Affairs, Kirti Vardhan Singh, told Parliament that it had held no formal discussions with the US about acquiring F-35 fighter jets.

However, more than a year later, the deployment of the F-35s for Tarang Shakti gives the impression that the exercise may be an attempt by Washington to keep the door open or provide useful exposure that could entice the Indian Air Force (IAF). 

Meanwhile, the Russian envoy to India praised the F-35 fighter jet in a rare move while arguing that it was not suitable for India.

Speaking at the NDTV Defense Forum 2026, Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov said, ”The US is welcome to promote its product. It’s a good aircraft, no doubt about that. But way too expensive. If India goes for that, well, that would be India’s sovereign decision. But we are offering a much better deal. Next year we are going to see hopefully many firsts at the Bengaluru air show.” 

It appears the Russians might be smelling the US offer.

Russia has also been aggressively pursuing to sell India its fifth-generation Su-57, which Moscow positions as a competitor to the F-35.

It has offered New Delhi a host of options, including an off-the-shelf purchase of Su-57 fighters, full licensed production in India, technology transfer, a “two-seat variant,” and help with India’s own fifth-generation aircraft, the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA).

"Good Product But…": Russian Envoy Compares American F-35 With Su-57 Fighter Jethttps://t.co/vUTjeKPq63 pic.twitter.com/4e9n8ufmGx

— NDTV (@ndtv) September 27, 2026

IAF veteran and commentator, Air Marshal Anil Chopra (retd), told the EurAsian Times, “IAF has trained alongside the F-35s in the past, such as in the Pitch Black exercise. The deployment is likely meant to test the waters by enticing the IAF, and probably to create conjecture, considering that no official offer was ever made. They could also be creating a deliberate distraction for India, particularly since the Russians have sustained their Su-57 campaign and expanded the scope of the initial offer to make it more and more appealing.”

“As for the cost factor mentioned by the Russian envoy, everything we buy is expensive. The Su-57 may be cheaper than the F-35 initially when looking at per-unit price, but it wouldn’t be cheap in the long term,” Chopra added.

That said, since both Su-57 and F-35 offers were made to India around the same time, the two jets have been viewed as competitors in the context of India’s acquisition of a fifth-generation fighter to augment its airpower.

As Air Marshal Chopra added: India may need a fifth-gen fighter as a stopgap solution till the AMCA arrives. If the US makes an enticing offer and meets India’s core requirements, American jets offered to the IAF are “quite possible”, but India should best avoid letting the USA get into its fighter aircraft ecosystem.

F-35 vs Su-57 Showdown?

Although India is developing its own fifth-generation stealth aircraft, the AMCA, it is unlikely to be delivered to the IAF before the mid-2030s. Defense Secretary R.K. Singh recently said the first flight is targeted for September 2028, but the aircraft may take time to become operationally available to the IAF.

This means waiting for the AMCA would leave India with a glaring capability gap vis-à-vis adversaries China and Pakistan. China already operates two different fifth-generation stealth fighters: the J-20 and J-35A, and is currently testing two sixth-generation fighter prototypes. Meanwhile, Beijing could export its 5th-gen J-35A to Pakistan.

However, Air Marshal Chopra had earlier told the EurAsian Times that the decision not to show any interest in the Su-57 and the rhetoric about focusing on AMCA is meant to keep American ire and sanctions at bay.

For now, India’s path to bolstering its airpower includes accelerating Tejas production, advancing work on AMCA, and signing a deal for 114 Rafale fighters with France.

Observers have noted that India’s sustained disinterest in buying the F-35, arguably the best fifth-generation stealth fighter on the market, stemmed mainly from American unreliability, including painful delays in delivering F404-IN20 turbofan engines for Tejas Mk-1A jets.

So far, the US has not been able to break into the Indian fighter jet ecosystem, and has pitched multiple warplanes to the IAF, including F-15EX, F-21 (modified F-16), and F/A-18 Super Hornets. However, none of them appears to have lured the Indians. Can the F-35 do? Only time will tell.

Indians are reportedly also concerned about operational costs linked to the F-35, anxiety over introducing a complex Western platform to its fleet, Washington’s unwillingness to transfer the technology and allow local manufacturing, and potential operational restrictions on F-35 use.

Skeptics have noted that the sale may never go through, given that India operates the Russian S-400 air defense system and has integrated it into its layered air defense network.

Earlier, the US expelled Turkey from the F-35 consortium for buying the S-400 and has not yet approved the F-35 sale to it, despite Ankara’s assurances that it would never activate the system.

Meanwhile, India is also aggressively evaluating the French 6th-gen FCAS program.

• Contact the author at sakshi.tiwari13 (at) outlook.com
• Follow EurAsian Times on Google News

 

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After a long period of uncertainty and an ice-thin contest with Northrop Grumman, Boeing has won the US Navy’s F/A-XX next-generation carrier-based fighter contract, making it the sole developer of America’s crewed sixth-generation combat jets, after F-47.

On September 29, the Department of War awarded Boeing a $20 billion contract for the F/A-XX’s full-scale development phase. The contract covers multiple test aircraft for ground, airworthiness, systems, and weapons integration testing.

“The F/A-XX is a critical pillar in our commitment to maintaining peace through strength. F/A-XX will dominate contested airspace, extend operational reach, and deliver a decisive combat advantage for the warfighter,” Michael P. Duffey, Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment, was quoted as saying in the official statement.

Boeing had already secured the Air Force’s F-47 program in March 2025, defeating Lockheed Martin—the company behind both of the service’s fifth-generation fighters, the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II.

Responding to the Navy award, Steve Parker, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, stated: “Delivering two advanced fighters in parallel was always our plan, and we invested accordingly. We are ready and able to build multiple concurrent future combat aircraft franchise programs.”

The decision ends nearly a year of ambiguity surrounding the F/A-XX, which will eventually replace the F/A-18E/F Super Hornets in US Navy service since the 1990s. Last year, the Pentagon said it was prioritizing the F-47 over the F/A-XX, and asked the House and Senate defense policy committees to divert $500 million from the “accelerated development” of a Navy stealth fighter to the F-47.

However, the US Navy’s leadership and Congress pushed back against the Pentagon and called for increased funding and award of the contract.

In January 2026, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees negotiated a draft defense spending bill that earmarked nearly $900 million for the F/A-XX, a stark increase from the $74 million the Pentagon sought.

Naval officials and analysts made the case for the F/A-XX by pointing to its utility amid the burgeoning threat from China in the Indo-Pacific theatre. Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., the head of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense, said, “We need sixth-generation fighters. The US Navy needs sixth-generation fighters. I’m concerned that any hesitancy on our part to proceed with the planned procurement of the sixth-gen fighters for the Navy will leave us dangerously outmatched in a China fight.”

Meanwhile, Daniel Cheever, Commander of Naval Air Forces, was quoted saying: “I’m looking forward to [the F/A-XX] because that sixth-generation means air superiority in that timeframe in the future, which means sea control. And as long as you have air superiority, you have sea control around the globe.”

Beijing has been flying two different prototypes of sixth-generation fighters—the J-36 and the J-50—one of which could possibly evolve into a carrier-based sixth-generation fighter aircraft. This sparked concerns across the US Navy that the service that fielded the world’s first-ever carrier-capable stealth fighter may lose out on this crucial race.

“This achievement marks a new era for the US Navy,” said acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao. “The Sixth-Generation fighter is a generational leap in air superiority and will provide the world’s best aviators with unparalleled capabilities to fight, win, and come home safe. We are excited to partner with Boeing, and for our warfighters to continue to dominate the skies and defeat our nation’s enemies.”

Unlike the USAF NGAD program, the US Navy has released little information on a futuristic F/A-XX, although authorities have said the F/A-XX will have a longer range than current aircraft and serve as a covert tip of the spear for the carrier air wing. In addition, the F/A-XX will be interoperable with manned and unmanned platforms such as Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) and increase the capability of every CCA it teams with.

However, a pressing question experts have been discussing after the award was presented to Boeing is whether the naval fighter will be a navalized variant of the F-47, or the aerospace giant will build a new fighter from the ground up.

F/A-XX vs F-47

Boeing can leverage relevant production experience, supply chains, and design work it has already completed for the F-47 program. 

Many aviation enthusiasts have wondered if Boeing will produce the F/A-XX as a navalized version of the F-47; the two aircraft are built for fundamentally different environments and missions, which will influence their design differences.

The F-47 is a land-based air-superiority fighter focused on speed, altitude, long-range penetration, and counter-air roles to succeed the F-22, whereas the F/A-XX is a carrier-based multirole strike fighter to replace the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler.

This distinction means that the naval F/A-XX next-generation fighter jet must be designed for catapult launches, arrested landings, folding wings for carrier storage, saltwater corrosion resistance, and high sortie rates in a maritime environment, while prioritizing range for Pacific operations and multirole strike capability.

Notably, several past studies examined a joint sixth-generation solution and concluded it was unworkable. For this reason, the USAF and the Navy formally split their paths and decided to pursue separate programs based on specific requirements.

The US Navy has consistently asserted that its fighter will have a separate airframe from the Air Force, rejecting the joint approach controversially used for the F-35 program for many practical reasons.

The Navy’s carrier version, the F-35C, required extensive modifications from the USAF’s F-35A baseline, including a larger wing area, stronger landing gear and structure, folding wingtips, a tailhook, corrosion-resistant materials and coatings, and revised fuel and internal arrangements. The changes added weight, cost, and complexity, contributing to schedule delays and performance compromises.

When every percentage of range, stealth, and kinematic performance matters against near-peer threats such as China, the structural and aerodynamic penalties of carrier suitability become more painful for a pure air-superiority fighter.

That said, the F-47 and F/A-XX may share some basic commonalities, which may even help the US Navy’s next-generation fighter program.

The first question is how quickly a workable F/A-XX can be fielded—which really comes down to how much it draws on the already-developed F-47. If the two designs share much commonality, or were developed together, an F/A-XX could fly much sooner than expected.

Boeing released F/A-XX concept renderings, including one shown at the 2025 Tailhook Symposium and newer ones after the award,  that visually resemble its F-47 concepts in areas such as cockpit shape, overall planform, and possible canard-like foreplanes.

Moreover, the two Boeing designs can share high-value subsystems, sensors, software, open mission systems, Artificial intelligence, or Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) integration, and design philosophy without locking both aircraft into the same airframe.

This level of commonality could offer high cost and risk benefits while preserving optimization.

US Navy’s Fighter Program Trails Yet Again

While the F-47 is on track for its first flight, the F/A-XX has yet to receive a designation, and concerns remain about how Boeing will manage the industrial constraints of pursuing two contemporary programs at the same time.

Air Force Brig. Gen. Timothy Helfrich, the service’s Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Fighters and Advanced Aircraft, recently stated, “We’re not too far away from an F-47 production line, which will be additive to the production capacity.”

By contrast, the F/A-XX is roughly 18 months behind the F-47 in program phase and several years behind in physical hardware maturity.

Boeing has already invested heavily in expanded, secure St. Louis facilities sized for multiple advanced fighters. However, with the F/A-XX, the company will likely face significant industrial constraints developing both aircraft simultaneously while still supporting F-15EX and T-7 production. The company is likely to be constrained by a limited specialized workforce and potential supply-chain bottlenecks.

Against that backdrop, the F-47 will likely receive priority focus first so manufacturing lessons, tooling, supply-chain fixes, and digital production processes can be refined on the Air Force lines before F/A-XX ramps into full-scale assembly in the early 2030s.

Notably, the delay in awarding the F/A-XX contract somewhat mimics a historical pattern of laxity in advancing the US Navy’s fighter jet programs, giving dominant USAF programs more leverage.

The US Navy formally launched the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet program in 1992 as a lower-risk alternative. Although the aircraft made its maiden flight on November 29, 1995, its Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase faced intense political scrutiny and budget constraints throughout the mid-to-late 1990s over its effectiveness and cost.

Meanwhile, a comparable multirole fighter for the USAF, the F-15E Strike Eagle, progressed much faster.

Selected for the Dual-Role Fighter program in February 1984, the Strike Eagle flew its first production model on December 11, 1986, and reached Initial Operational Capability (IOC) in September 1989—a full decade before the Super Hornet entered fleet service in 1999 and reached IOC in 2001.

Later, the Joint Program Office-managed F-35 program prioritized the F-35A and F-35B because of their earlier operational needs and less complex technical requirements than the F-35C. In fact, the F-35C carrier variant was the last to achieve Initial Operational Capability (IOC) in 2019, following the F-35A (2016) and the F-35B (2015).

Since both contracts are now with Boeing, whether this historical pattern will reverse or shrink remains to be seen.

• Contact the author at sakshi.tiwari13 (at) outlook.com
• Follow EurAsian Times on Google News

 

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