An F/A-18F Super Hornet and an F-35C Lightning II arrive at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, Feb. 7, 2023, in preparation for their flyover of Super Bowl LVII at State Farm Stadium in Glendale on Feb. 12. EXCLUSIVE: Eight fighter jets will conduct a flyover when Polish President Karol Nawrocki arrives at the White House Wednesday morning, Fox News Digital has learned. President Donald Trump's meeting with Nawrocki, whom Trump backed in the Polish elections earlier in 2025, comes amid ongoing negotiations between Poland's neighboring Russia and Ukraine to end the conflict between the two countries. "President Trump is looking forward to welcoming President Nawrocki to the White House, who recently won a historic election in Poland," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a Tuesday statement to Fox News Digital. The "spectacular flyover will honor the memory of a brave Polish fighter pilot whose life was tragically taken too soon and capture the special relationship between our two countries." Four F-16 fighter jets are slated to perform a missing man formation Wednesday to honor a Polish Army F-16 pilot who died in an August crash during a rehearsal for an airshow in Radom, Poland.

A squadron of six Chinese Chengdu J-10 jets took off towards an overcast sky in front of thousands of spectators at an airfield in southern China's coastal city of Zhuhai in mid-November. Flying low in a close V-shaped formation, the jets circled back and as they approached a cluster of buildings near the spectators, trails of red, blue, yellow and white smoke suddenly poured from each plane, bringing a cheer from onlookers that was almost as loud as the roar from the warplanes' engines. Seconds later, the J-10s broke their close formation to show off a series of even more impressive acrobatic manoeuvres. But the aerial show by the seasoned pilots was far from the only demonstration of prowess at the China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition, better known as Airshow China or the Zhuhai Airshow, which is held biennially and named after the city in southern China where it is held. A wide array of new equipment and aircraft available to the Chinese military – known as the People's Liberation Army (PLA) – was unveiled for the first time at the airshow, held from November 12 to 17.

AI-enabled military systems have been effective in battle, but some reliability issues still concern troops and their commanders: former Air Force test pilot. Cheap drones equipped with AI can destroy expensive military equipment, and the Pentagon will need to incorporate autonomous technology into its strategy to advance into the next generation of warfare, a former test pilot and military tech company executive told Fox News. "What we've seen in Europe and other theaters is that they've democratized warfare," said EpiSci Vice President of Tactical Autonomous Systems Chris Gentile. "A $1,000 drone can take out a multimillion-dollar asset." The Pentagon has a portfolio of over 800 contracts for AI-enabled projects.

Russia has conferred state awards on the two fighter pilots involved in the downing of a US surveillance drone that crashed into the Black Sea, the Russian Defence Ministry said, while United States officials announced that its spy flights in the region have resumed. Presenting the awards on Friday to the Su-27 jet fighter pilots, Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu lauded their achievement in preventing the drone from flying into an area near Crimea to which Moscow has banned access. "The drone flew with its transponders off, violating the boundaries of the area of the temporary airspace usage regime established for the special military operation [and] communicated to all users of international airspace," Russia's defence ministry said in a statement, according to The Moscow Times. Pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov said the awards for the pilots were "a clear sign that Russia will keep downing" US drones. "This decision will receive a strong support from the Russian society that wants the government to toughen its policy," Markov wrote in a commentary. Russia's presentation of the awards comes a day after the US military released a declassified 42-second video clip showing the Russian Su-27 fighter jets intercepting the drone and making close passes while dumping fuel in an apparent bid to damage the drone's optical and other hi-tech instruments.

I've become infatuated with this new set of capabilities and the opportunity to create in an utterly new way. While I've generated many random ideas, including some with my 10-year-old, I've also used it as an opportunity to be intentional in order to craft a series of images. As the son of an avid reader of science fiction, who grew up to be one myself, I was surrounded by amazing cover art in my formative years. Conceptually, I wanted to build out a set of portraits of a bear-like race known for their prowess as pilots in the deep reaches of space. It may sound silly, but it proved a wonderful starting point. For the curious, I built these out through many iterations within Midjourney, starting with the initial prompt Panda fighter pilot, cinematic and working from there.

Maverick's next wingman could be a drone. In the movies, fighter pilots are depicted as highly trained military aviators with the skills and experience to defeat adversaries in thrilling aerial dogfights. New technologies, though, are set to redefine what it means to be a "Top Gun," as algorithms, data and machines take on a bigger role in the cockpit -- changes hinted at in "Top Gun: Maverick." "A lot of people talk about, you know, the way of the future, possibly taking the pilot out of the aircraft," said 1st Lt. Walker Gall, an F-35 pilot with the U.S. 48th Fighter Wing based at RAF Lakenheath in England. "That's definitely not something that any of us look forward to." "I'd like to keep my job as long as possible, but I mean, it's hard to argue with newer and newer technology," he said.

Maverick's next wingman could be a drone. In the movies, fighter pilots are depicted as highly trained military aviators with the skills and experience to defeat adversaries in thrilling aerial dogfights. New technologies, though, are set to redefine what it means to be a "Top Gun," as algorithms, data and machines take on a bigger role in the cockpit -- changes hinted at in "Top Gun: Maverick." "A lot of people talk about, you know, the way of the future, possibly taking the pilot out of the aircraft," said 1st Lt. Walker Gall, an F-35 pilot with the U.S. 48th Fighter Wing based at RAF Lakenheath in England. "That's definitely not something that any of us look forward to." "I'd like to keep my job as long as possible, but I mean, it's hard to argue with newer and newer technology," he said.

Kevin Larson crouched behind a boulder and watched the forest through his breath, waiting for the police he knew would come. It was Jan. 19, 2020. He was clinging to an assault rifle with 30 rounds and a conviction that, after all he had been through, there was no way he was going to prison. Larson was a drone pilot -- one of the best. He flew the heavily armed MQ-9 Reaper, and in 650 combat missions between 2013 and 2018, he had launched at least 188 airstrikes, earned 20 medals for achievement and killed a top man on the U.S.' most-wanted terrorist list. The 32-year-old pilot kept a handwritten thank-you note on his refrigerator from the director of the CIA.

I feel sorry for Tom Cruise. The next Top Gun movie will probably star an Apple chip designer and a ... [ ] team of LISP programmers. In August this year, eight teams gathered for the three-day final of DARPA's AlphaDogfight trials. The teams had developed Artificial Intelligence (AI) pilots to control F-16 fighter aircraft in simulated dogfights. The winner beat the human USAF pilot in five dogfights out of five.

This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from. On a cloudless morning last May, a pilot took off from the Niagara Falls International Airport, heading for restricted military airspace over Lake Ontario. The plane, which bore the insignia of the United States Air Force, was a repurposed Czechoslovak jet, an L-39 Albatros, purchased by a private defense contractor. The bay in front of the cockpit was filled with sensors and computer processors that recorded the aircraft's performance. For two hours, the pilot flew counterclockwise around the lake.