Verified military news tracked by GlobalMilitary.net: aircraft losses and deliveries, warship commissionings, procurement decisions, program milestones and data analysis drawn from our inventory database. Also available as an RSS feed.
Lockheed Martin said on October 6 that the Royal Moroccan Air Force's first F-16 Block 72, a two-seat F-16D, had flown from its Greenville, South Carolina, plant, the first flight of the Pratt & Whitney-engined version of the latest-generation Fighting Falcon.
The U.S. Air Force says a Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile flight test unit was released by the Royal Australian Air Force over an Australian test range, without disclosing the date, the launch aircraft or whether the scramjet-powered weapon achieved powered flight.
The French Navy ballistic-missile submarine Le Vigilant launched an M51.3 without a nuclear warhead off Finistère, western France, on October 6, 2026, the first submarine firing of the missile's latest version, Defense News reported.
Spain has chosen the Airbus A321 as the platform for three signals-intelligence aircraft for the Spanish Air and Space Force, restoring a dedicated airborne SIGINT capability the country has lacked since its Boeing 707 was retired in 2014.
GlobalMilitary.net's inventory data counts 101 P-3 Orions in military service across 12 countries, down from 211 in 16 countries in its 2022 snapshot, as US agencies retire special-mission Orions and Japan draws down the largest remaining fleet.
The prototype of the Bréguet Br.1050 Alizé, the French Navy's carrier-based anti-submarine turboprop, first flew from Toulouse-Blagnac on 6 October 1956; 89 were built, and the type served France until September 2000 and India until 1991.
The first two new-build F-16C Block 70 fighters landed at Chihhang Air Base on October 2, 2026, beginning deliveries on a 66-jet order that GMN's inventory data shows is the largest open F-16 order anywhere and that would lift Taiwan from seventh to fifth among F-16 operators on current figures.
Northrop Grumman said on October 3, 2026 that its company-funded YFQ-48A Talon Blue had taxied, taken off, maneuvered and landed without pilot input at Mojave, California, as the US Air Force prepares to select designs for Increment 2 of its Collaborative Combat Aircraft program.
North Korea says a Saturday launch from the Wonsan area was a drill of its hypersonic strategic weapon system that struck a target 1,000 km away; South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff tracked a single ballistic missile flying more than 700 km into the East Sea.
The Australian Army has retired its Tiger attack helicopters, marking the fleet's sundown in Darwin on 30 September and leaving France, Germany and Spain as the only users; GlobalMilitary.net data counts 3,623 active attack helicopters in 81 countries.
Diehl Defence and Germany's BAAINBw procurement office signed a contract on October 2, 2026 to adapt the IRIS-T SLM surface-to-air missile system for the German Navy's four Baden-Württemberg-class frigates, which were completed without a medium-range air defense missile.
The B-1B Lancer achieved initial operational capability on 1 October 1986; four decades later, 45 of the 100 bombers built remain in US Air Force service at Ellsworth and Dyess, and modernization funding is now planned to keep the type relevant through 2037.
The US Navy on Oct. 1, 2026 awarded RTX's Raytheon unit a multiyear contract worth up to $24.4 billion for Standard Missile-6 interceptors, a five-year deal with two option years whose quantities remain undisclosed and whose funding Congress has yet to appropriate.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on October 1, 2026 that Ukraine's domestically developed FP-7 tactical ballistic missile, built by Fire Point, had been used in combat for the first time, without disclosing the target or location; the claim has not been independently verified.
The Pentagon's AMRAAM contract of up to $20.7 billion, announced on September 28, 2026, expands output of a missile whose rocket burns early and then coasts; Europe's Meteor uses a throttleable ramjet that MBDA says thrusts until intercept.
The Pentagon on 28 September announced a five-year AIM-120 AMRAAM production contract with RTX's Raytheon business worth up to $20.7 billion, an undefinitized award that Reuters described as provisional because Congress has not yet funded the full deal.
The Pentagon announced on September 29, 2026 that Boeing will build the F/A-XX, the US Navy's sixth-generation carrier-based fighter, under a full-scale development contract worth more than $20 billion to replace the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler from the 2030s.
Russia plans to spend 17.1 trillion roubles ($202.6 billion) on national defense in 2027, around 27% more than originally budgeted and the highest figure since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to government budget documents seen by Reuters on September 28.
The Pakistan Navy announced on 27 September that PNS Hangor, the lead boat of eight Chinese-designed submarines ordered in 2015, launched an anti-ship cruise missile against a designated target in the North Arabian Sea in its first live weapon firing, without disclosing the missile type.
Chile's defense minister announced in Punta Arenas on September 24 that the Chilean Air Force has formally begun the process of replacing its F-5E/F Tiger III fighters, in service since 1976, within a package that also covers transports, helicopters, maritime patrol and Antarctic capabilities.
Canada's term sheet and NATO's joint buy both settle on an aircraft without the E-3's rotating saucer; the physics behind the three designs explains what the flat Erieye array gains in revisit rate and what it gives up ahead and astern.