Topic: Military Aircraft

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded all domestic departures on January 11, 2023, following a system outage of the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system. While officials attributed the failure to a corrupted file during maintenance, skepticism remains regarding the simultaneous outage of the Canadian NOTAM system. Observations of increased military jet and air refueler activity during the grounding suggest potential undisclosed operations or a "money grab" by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to secure funding for FAA modernization.

The Office of Naval Research has developed technology that allows a Vietnam-era Huey helicopter to fly autonomously using a tablet for basic instructions. While the military sees this as a way to deliver supplies without risking pilots, the hosts argue that the complexity of flying a helicopter—which they compare to "ballet"—cannot be fully replicated by a computer.

Britain and France have signed a new defense cooperation treaty that includes sharing aircraft carriers and nuclear testing facilities. While officials claim this is not a loss of sovereignty, the move is seen as a response to declining national budgets and a way to form a military partnership outside of German-led EU structures. The treaty allows for joint operations and a rapid reaction force.

The BBC reports that British troops are under investigation for allegedly using military aircraft to smuggle heroin out of Afghanistan. The Ministry of Defence acknowledged unsubstantiated claims and increased the use of sniffer dogs at bases. The hosts note that Afghanistan produces 90% of the world's opium and suggest the military has been involved in such trafficking for years.