By Garth Calitz In less than a week, the skies over Pretoria will once again become considerably busier as aircraft, defence systems, aerospace companies and thousands of aviation enthusiasts converge on Air Force Base Waterkloof for Africa Aerospace and Defence 2026. The 13th edition of AAD runs from 16 to 20 September, with three days dedicated to the trade exhibition before the gates open to the general public for the two-day air show on 19 and 20 September. For five days,

An aircraft flew without relying on GPS navigation signals, instead using quantum sensing technology to measure its movement and maintain an estimate of its position. It may sound like something from a particularly ambitious science-fiction script, but this was very much a real flight test conducted by the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and Honeywell Aerospace. Perhaps the most interesting part of the story is what wasn't happening during those four hours. There was

Saab’s latest Gripen has finally done what aircraft are generally expected to do: it left the ground. But while the first flight of a new aircraft is hardly an unusual event in the aviation world, the first flight of the Gripen F represents a significant milestone in one of the more ambitious international fighter-development partnerships of recent years. The two-seat Gripen F, developed by Saab in close cooperation with Brazilian industry, completed its maiden flight on 28 A

The United States Air Force has taken another significant step in the modernisation of its nuclear deterrence forces with the MH-139A Grey Wolf officially achieving Initial Operational Capability (IOC) on August 10. The milestone marks the beginning of the end for one of the most enduring aircraft in US military aviation, the Vietnam-era UH-1N Huey, which has spent more than five decades performing the decidedly unglamorous but critically important job of protecting America's

The US Army is preparing to modernise its rotary-wing pilot training pipeline, and the aircraft selected to play a central role is perhaps not the helicopter many observers would have expected. Robinson Helicopter Company’s R66 has been selected as the training platform proposed by M1 Support Services (M1), following a four-phase evaluation under the US Army’s Flight School Next (FSN) initiative. The Army has announced its intent to award the Flight School Next contract to M1

India’s AMCA programme has entered a significantly more serious phase during 2026. What was once largely a long-term design exercise is now becoming an industrial programme, with the Indian Ministry of Defence inviting bids for the development and manufacture of five flying prototypes and a structural test specimen. The development programme carries an approved investment envelope of approximately ₹15,000 crore, making AMCA one of India’s most ambitious indigenous aerospace p

The idea of an artificial intelligence system controlling a fighter aircraft in combat once belonged firmly in the realm of science fiction. Today, it is becoming an increasingly practical engineering challenge, and one that the aerospace and defence industry is tackling at remarkable speed. In the latest demonstration, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works®, working with the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School (TPS) and industry partners, has taken another significant step towards autono

Two of the aerospace industry's fastest-growing innovators have joined forces to unveil an ambitious new vertical lift platform that aims to bridge the gap between commercial aviation and modern military operations. At the 2026 Farnborough International Airshow, Anduril Industries and Archer Aviation introduced a jointly developed autonomous hybrid-electric vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft platform designed to support a wide range of civilian and defence missions

The Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) will strengthen its maritime surveillance capability with the addition of a new Beechcraft King Air 360ER, following its delivery by Textron Aviation during the Farnborough International Airshow. The aircraft will expand Malta's existing King Air fleet while maintaining commonality with its current maritime patrol assets. The factory-new extended-range turboprop has been delivered to German mission systems specialist Aerodata AG, where it will

As modern battlefields continue to evolve, one of the greatest challenges facing military planners is how to defeat a weapon that is both inexpensive to build and costly to intercept. Airbus Defence and Space believes it has found part of the answer with its latest development, the Bird of Prey, a reusable uncrewed interceptor designed specifically to hunt and destroy one-way attack drones. The rapid proliferation of one-way attack drones, often referred to as Suicide drones