PilotPhotog Podcast

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: 250 years ago, the United States began as a risky idea written on parchment. Today that idea is protected by something you can hear, see, and measure: air power built to deter wars before they start and to win if deterrence fails. We tell that story through six aircraft that form a living bridge between America’s past and its...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: A stealth bomber that moves from concept to prototype to flight faster than expected is already rare. A stealth bomber that then crushes its own developmental flight testing timeline is almost unheard of. We dig into how the B-21 Raider is pulling that off at Edwards Air Force Base and why the real story isn’t just the flying...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: A carrier strike doesn’t start with bombs, it starts with knowing what’s watching you. Today I’m telling the story of the ES-3A Shadow, one of the Navy’s most unusual aircraft and one of its most valuable: a carrier-based SIGINT and ELINT platform designed to listen, identify, and geolocate enemy radar and communications while...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: Stealth isn’t “dead” and it also isn’t enough. What actually decides who lives in contested airspace is who can sense, sort, jam, and adapt faster across the electromagnetic spectrum, and that’s why the F-35 is getting a nearly billion-dollar Barracuda electronic warfare upgrade. We walk through what the AN/ASQ-239 is built to...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: The Navy’s do-everything fighter is heading toward the end of the production line, and the question behind the headlines is bigger than one airplane: what replaces a carrier workhorse when budgets, engineering capacity, and strategy all collide? We dig into the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet story from the moment the Navy needed a lif...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: The A-10 Warthog was supposed to be done. Too slow, too old, and too exposed for modern wars. Then Operation Epic Fury kicks off and suddenly the most advanced stealth jets run into a problem they can’t solve cleanly: small, fast attack boats weaving through commercial traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, plus high-pressure missio...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: A stealth fighter gets hit by a surface-to-air missile deep inside enemy territory and still makes it home. That single moment in Operation Epic Fury forces a hard reset on everything we think we “know” about fifth-generation airpower and it puts the F-35 Lightning II under the brightest possible spotlight: real combat, real d...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: A single ejection over Iran turns into a 48-hour nightmare: one airman recovered fast, the other wedged into a mountain crevice while patrols sweep the ridgelines and a bounty spreads across the highlands. We walk through how that kind of isolation becomes a strategic crisis, not just a rescue problem, especially after years o...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: Support the show To help support this podcast and become a PilotPhotog ProCast member: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1555784/support If you enjoy this episode, subscribe to this podcast, you can find links to most podcast streaming services here:  PilotPhotog Podcast (buzzsprout.com) Sign up for the free weekly newsletter Hangar...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: The ocean is the perfect place to hide a weapon you never want seen, and nuclear submarines proved it. We follow the moment the US Navy realizes its World War II era anti-submarine warfare playbook can’t protect billion-dollar supercarriers anymore, then track the unlikely solution: a compact jet that sounds like a vacuum clea...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: An aircraft carrier can look like a steel monument to power, but the real story is what happens when it stops being a symbol and becomes a system. We walk through Operation Epic Fury as a blueprint for modern carrier warfare: two carriers in two seas creating a shield and sword, dividing the battlespace, and forcing an enemy t...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: A freezing South Dakota night, wrenches crusted in frost, and a bomber built to bend physics and distance to its will. We take you from the flight line to the target area to unpack how the B‑1B Lancer—once a controversial Cold War project—became America’s relentless conventional strike hammer during Operation Epic Fury. We bre...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: A blazing flat spin over Kuwait wasn’t the story anyone expected during Operation Epic Fury. Three F-15E Strike Eagles—flown by some of the most experienced crews in the world—were knocked down by a friendly battery while defending vital energy infrastructure under alarm-red conditions. We walk through the chain that made it p...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: The sky over Tehran burned at 0300, but the outcome had been scripted hours earlier in the dark. We pull back the curtain on Operation Epic Fury to show how a fifth‑generation architecture—Raptors, Lightnings, carriers, growlers, drones, and tireless tanker crews—shaped the fight before the first Tomahawk ever left its tube. T...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: What if the smartest move isn’t building the strongest shield, but flooding the sky with cheap spears? We unpack the rise of LUCAS, a $35,000 one-way attack drone that turns the cost math of modern warfare on its head and forces a rethink of deterrence, doctrine, and industry. By studying adversary tactics and embracing “good...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: A cargo jet that doesn’t dogfight, doesn’t sneak, and rarely breaks the speed of sound reshaped modern power by doing one thing better than anyone else: showing up with the right cargo, at the right place, right on time. We dig into the C‑17 Globemaster’s improbable rise from near‑cancellation to cornerstone of air mobility, a...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: A stealth “ghost” is quietly rewriting the future of airpower—and we pull the curtain back on what it means. The F‑47, centerpiece of the Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance program, isn’t just another fighter; it’s the quarterback for a family of systems built to outrange, outcompute, and outlast peer adversaries. We br...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: A supercarrier doesn’t just vanish for drama; it goes silent to change the fight. We follow the USS Abraham Lincoln as it cuts its transponder, enters emission control, and sprints from the South China Sea toward Iran, transforming from a visible symbol into a hunting platform built for electronic dominance. Along the way, we...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: A defended capital went dark, the radars filled with ghosts, and minutes later the target was airborne over open water. We take you inside Operation Absolute Resolve, our most detailed breakdown yet of how stealth ISR, electronic warfare, and Tier 1 aviation converged to capture Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores from the heart o...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: The most decisive missions are the ones that never launch. This episode tracks a living thread of strategic airpower—from the magnesium “Peacemaker” to the digital-native Raider—and shows how bombers shaped diplomacy as much as war. We start with first principles: why strategic bombing is about deterrence and credibility, not...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: Imagine launching a jet from a space smaller than a pickleball court and sending it 2,100 nautical miles to jam, scout, and fight—without a pilot on board. That’s XBat: a VTOL, fighter-powered, AI-driven aircraft that challenges everything we assume about runways, range, and risk. We walk through why a GE F100 fighter engine i...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: The most decisive move in modern air combat doesn’t happen at the merge—it happens minutes earlier, when one side quietly builds a picture the other can’t see. We explore how the F-35 flips the script from hero pilot dogfights to information-driven dominance, turning stealth, sensors, and networks into time, options, and contr...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: What if the most modern idea in airpower is a bomber that first flew in 1952? We dive into the B-52’s improbable journey from late‑1940s sketch to 21st‑century missile truck, showing how one airframe kept adapting while faster, sleeker, and stealthier rivals fell away. We start with the postwar requirement for a true intercont...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: A copper sunrise over the Mojave, a silent climb into the haze, and radar screens that fade to nothing—our story begins with a moment that changed how airpower thinks. We trace the F-22 Raptor’s path from Cold War anxiety to apex hunter, exploring why the Air Force bet on a fighter that wouldn’t just outfly enemies but erase i...

Enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general? Send me a text message: The sky doesn’t forgive mistakes, and neither does history. We take you inside the F-35 Lightning II’s turbulent journey—from an “impossible” 1990s idea to the networked backbone of Western air power—and ask the uncomfortable question: is this the end state of air combat, or a smart bridge to a sixth‑generation future? We star...