F/A-18

Boeing’s IR team had been working around the clock for today’s unveiling of the ‘Batmobile’ style unmanned refueling tanker drone. For days, the internet had been in suspense, trying to guess what Boeing’s big surprise would  be. To boost the suspense, the company's twitter account released a statement last week saying the new aircraft is set to "change the future of air power."

When tinfoil-hat-wearing conspiracy theories cross paths with massive 'defense' budgets and excited politicians, "stranger things" happen.

Welcome to The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program.

As The New York Times exposes, within the $600 billion annual Defense Department budgets, the $22 million spent on the program was almost impossible to find.

Which was how the Pentagon wanted it.

The growing trade feud between the US and Canada escalated overnight when Ottawa announced it was scrapping a plan to buy 18 F-18 Boeing Super Hornet fighter jets amid a deepening dispute with the U.S. aerospace company, Reuters reported. In a snub to the US, Canada's Liberal government will instead announce that intends to acquire a used fleet of older Australia F-18 jets, the same kind of plane Canada currently operates.

Russia scrambled a Su-30 fighter jet after detecting an American ?8? Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft over the Black Sea, according to a Defense Ministry statement. The US spy plane was approaching at high speed to the Russian border, the ministry said. The Russian fighter jet buzzed the US Navy reconnaissance plane at around 1pm local time (10:00 GMT) as it was flying over the neutral waters of the Black Sea, the ministry said.