The deal secures the advanced variant of the helicopter, with scheduled delivery at the beginning of the next decade. It follows months of uncertainty surrounding the deal’s viability, caused by the Israeli government’s inability to finalize the pact despite multiple offer extensions granted by the Americans.

An agreement was previously stalled due to a dispute between the Israeli ministry of finance and the Israeli ministry of defense over funding sources. The ministry of finance demanded budget adjustments and a defined funding source, while the defense establishment pressed to approve the procurement as “urgent,” regardless of general budget discussions.

This gridlock persisted even as the U.S. granted Israel several extensions, culminating in a deadline of Oct. 7, 2026. After missing this original window, concerns arose in Israel that Boeing’s production slot would be routed to other international customers, leading to delivery delays and price increases.

In a last-minute move, Israeli defense officials reached out to their U.S. counterparts and requested another extension. The Americans agreed and opened what Israeli officials conveyed to the press here as a “final window” on the condition that the deal be signed immediately. This prompted an urgent Israeli Cabinet phone vote on Wednesday, which approved the necessary budgetary source at the expense of another long-term, non-defense national program, and made the signing of the deal possible at the same day.

The AH-64E Apache “Echo” is a twin-engine, tandem-seat attack helicopter. The aircraft’s integrated weapon and targeting suite accommodates a payload of up to 16 Hellfire missiles, 76 2.75-inch rockets, and an M230-series 30mm automatic chain gun supplied with up to 1,200 rounds of ammunition.

The platform incorporates digital network connectivity via Link 16, manned-unmanned teaming capabilities for drone control, and a modular open systems approach designed to allow the integration of hardware and software modifications.

The country now conceives the future fighter, dubbed Avion de Combat du Futur or ACF, as a national project, with a target of flying conventional missions in 2040, Bellanger told the National Assembly’s defense committee in a hearing here on Wednesday.

“We’re now moving on to work that will prefigure and enable the birth of this ACF, this future combat aircraft as a national program,” Bellanger said. France remains open to possible cooperation with other countries, “but within different frameworks and which won’t be structural to the birth of this aircraft.”

France and Germany agreed to scrap the FCAS project in June, after years of wrangling about specifications and industrial control between Dassault Aviation and Airbus. That’s left both countries without a clear successor for their existing fleets of Rafale and Eurofighter jets, respectively, though Germany has started receiving the first F-35 jets ordered in 2022 to replace the Panavia Tornado.

Dassault Aviation CEO Éric Trappier has said his company and France have all the know-how and skills to develop a next-generation fighter jet, together with engine partner Safran and defense-electronics firm Thales, and he would be able to do so “well below” a budget of €50 billion (US$56 billion).

All the years working on FCAS “haven’t been wasted,” with progress in areas including the aircraft, drones, stealth, connectivity and combat cloud, Bellanger said. Work had been split up in several so-called pillars that also included a new engine, with Dassault and Airbus working on the next-gen fighter pillar at the heart of the system.

“The halt of the FCAS program doesn’t mean we’re throwing everything away,” Bellanger said. “Our teams, the industrial teams have been working on the NGF, stealth, the cloud, and so on. All of that will allow us to continue at this stage on a national basis, while also focusing on this very important aspect of interoperability.”

France must “absolutely continue” working with Germany and other countries on the combat cloud, as interoperability between European crewed platforms will be vital, “to avoid thinking of a war fought side by side, but rather one fought together,” Bellanger said.

Bellanger said that even if FCAS wasn’t a success from an industrial standpoint, he has a very good working relationship with his German counterpart, with both commanders on the same page regarding their vision for future air combat, and both advocating for common operational requirements for the cloud component.

The Rafale successor will need to carry the ASN4G hypersonic nuclear cruise missile in 2050, and working back from that date means the aircraft will need to be flying in 2040 for conventional missions, Bellanger said. Moving ahead with a national program will allow France to meet the deadlines essential for nuclear deterrence by 2040, he said.

France will need to have a Rafale F5 standard in 2035 that incorporates the first components of the future combat aircraft, related to the engine, the sensors and the Stratus RS missile to neutralize enemy air defenses, according to Bellanger.

Bellanger said the British-Italian-Japanese GCAP project to develop a sixth-generation aircraft is working towards “a different kind of aircraft, it’s almost a strategic bomber.” He said “it’s not all roses” within the GCAP consortium, with cooperation inevitably requiring compromises.

The Air Force chief said France will receive its first long-range one-way munitions in the summer of 2027 with MBDA’s Deluge drone, which will form the basis for the country’s first squadron of bombing and reconnaissance drones. The force is also experimenting with interceptor drones with an eye on creating a dedicated drone-interceptor squadron.

The Air and Space Force further plans to create a very-high altitude squadron to deploy stratospheric balloons, which can be used for communication relays or as a platform for intelligence sensors, as well as other systems with long-endurance capabilities such as tethered balloons.

The air force envisages future strikes into enemy territory that will involve a first wave of a large number of disposable drones to weaken enemy air defenses, which will be the role of the new squadron, according to Bellanger. The disposable drones will be capable of kinetic operations, but also non-kinetic operations including jamming, saturation, or deception, the air force chief said.

A second wave of reusable but expendable drones would then create a breach to allow for deep strikes using crewed and uncrewed systems, he said.

“To strike the enemy on their own turf, we now have to think of overwhelming air defenses with low-cost bombing drones and electronic warfare capabilities such as offensive jamming.”

Martin Herem, a retired general who took office Sept. 16, floated the idea in interviews after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. He told The Baltic Sentinel and the daily Postimees that Estonia should study the option, saying air-to-air weapons are the most effective counter to the drones.

He gave no aircraft type, budget or timeline.

Herem has not committed to buying anything. He told The Baltic Sentinel he is also looking at computer-controlled cannons, heavy machine guns and fast, jet-powered interceptor drones. He noted that Estonia already has pilots, air-control expertise and L-39 trainers.

The two L-39 Albatros trainers Estonia uses are leased, according to the Estonian military’s website. Their civilian status and lease terms would complicate any move to arm them, the former head of Estonia’s air force said back in April.

The proposal responds to a threat that is growing fast. Yuriy Ihnat, a Ukrainian air force spokesman, said Ukraine intercepted about 40% of jet-powered drones in July and 60% in August, according to Hromadske. In the same period, the number of jet-powered drones fired at Ukraine increased from a few hundred to several thousands a month. Ukraine’s defense ministry puts their speed at more than 400 kilometers per hour.

None of the three Baltic states have their own fighter fleet. NATO allies police their skies on rotation, and allied jets have shot down drones over Latvia in June and over Lithuania on Sept. 15. Estonia’s air-policing rotation currently includes Turkish F-16s at Ämari. Spanish F-18s were scheduled to depart after their rotation in “early October,” according to the Estonian military.

Neither Latvia nor Lithuania have floated buying jet aircraft of their own. Both are putting money into cheaper counter-drone layers instead, and Latvia is considering the Embraer’s A-29 Super Tucano, a light turboprop fighter aircraft, for air-defense missions.

Lithuania’s government on Sept. 2 authorized the defense ministry to skip standard procurement rules to buy trial batches of interceptor drones and radars. Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas said Vilnius would favor systems already tested in Ukraine. Lithuania is also testing Ukraine’s SkyFortress acoustic detection system.

Latvia is building what State Secretary Airis Rikveilis called a “wall of drones” on its eastern border. It will combine radars, interceptor drones and command equipment.

NATO planners have repeatedly said that using heavy fighters against small drones is disproportionately expensive. Interceptor drones and ground-based air defenses often cost substantially less to procure and to operate.

“We are continuing our discussions regarding the combat aviation component, particularly regarding the Rafale,” Vautrin told French lawmakers in response to questions about aid to Ukraine during a 2027 defense-budget hearing here. “From November, we will begin the first training of Ukrainian pilots on Rafale.”

Ukrainian pilots will soon begin training on Rafale aircraft in France, a major step forward for Ukraine’s combat aviation, the country’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post on Monday, citing a conversation with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

Ukraine in July agreed on a roadmap with France that included a plan to buy 16 Rafale fighter jets together with the accompanying weapon systems. The country has previously received F-16 jets from several European countries, Mirage 2000 fighters from France, and in May agreed to buy 20 new Gripen jets, with Sweden donating 16 units of an older model.

The first Rafale jets are expected to fly in Ukrainian skies in 2028 or 2029, Macron said in July.

Both countries are continuing to work on localizing production of French missiles and aerial bombs in Ukraine, Zelenskyy said on Monday. Vautrin said in her hearing that a licensing process is currently underway for missiles.

“We are fully aware that by supporting Ukraine, we are defending Europe,” Vautrin said.

As part of the July agreement, Ukraine would also acquire an initial batch of SAMP/T NG air-defense batteries with missiles, Macron said at the time. The countries further approved licensing agreements for production in Ukraine of the AASM glide-bomb kit, the Aster 30 air-defense interceptor that arms the SAMP/T, as well as the SCALP/Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missile.

Ukraine has already operated an older version of the French-Italian SAMP/T air-defense system, which relies on the Aster family of interceptors manufactured by MBDA. The country also uses the AASM Hammer precision glide-bomb developed by Safran.

Ukraine in November last year signed a letter of intent to buy up to 100 of Rafale jets manufactured by Dassault Aviation, after a similar letter of intent a month earlier between Ukraine and Sweden for the export of up to 150 Gripen jets, produced by Saab.

The Rafale integrates MBDA’s Meteor, considered by analysts to be one of the best long-range air-to-air missiles in service with Western militaries. The aircraft also features a high-end electronic warfare suite and a radar from Thales, both of which were upgraded as part of the Rafale’s F4.1 standard, qualified in March 2023.

Embraer’s C-390 Millennium is competing with Lockheed Martin’s C-130J Super Hercules as India seeks to replace its aging military transport fleet that includes the Soviet-era Antonov An-32.

The formal race for one of India’s biggest military aviation contracts set off in August when India issued a Request for Proposal to five Indian companies setting the stage for the bidding. Global aviation companies are partnering with Indian firms because New Delhi has mandated that while the initial multi role aircraft will be delivered ready to fly, the rest must be built domestically.

With India’s focus on building a local aerospace industrial base, Embraer announced on Oct. 1 that the company and its Indian partner, Mahindra Defence, have identified the central Indian city of Nagpur as a production site for the aircraft if they are awarded the contract.

“Identifying Nagpur as a potential location for an assembly facility is an important step in building a robust, long-term aerospace ecosystem in the country,” said Bosco da Costa Junior, president and CEO of Embraer Defense & Security, in a joint statement with Mahindra.

The two companies said they will progressively integrate Indian aerospace companies into the C-390 Millennium ecosystem to deliver manufacturing, training and lifecycle support.

Lockheed Martin already has a presence in India — the Indian Air Force currently operates 12 C-130J Super Hercules aircraft. The company says the aircraft it is now offering, the C-130J-30 in its Block 8.1.2 configuration, will be more advanced than the ones currently with the air force.

If it wins, Lockheed has said that 12 aircraft would be built in the U.S. and 48 in India in partnership with Tata Advanced Systems Limited, with which it has a joint venture.

The American company already has a manufacturing base in India. It makes key components, including the aircraft’s empennage or tail assembly, locally with Tata.

Winning the contract would mean establishing a bigger industrial footprint in India, Dan Tenney, Lockheed Martin’s senior vice president for global business development and strategy, recently told the Press Trust of India.

“We have a long partnership with Tata that produces components and empennages of the C-130J aircraft. It is a very robust capability that will be expanded in our current bid,” he said.

The company has also proposed upgrading the Indian Air Force’s existing fleet of 12 C-130Js.

India has set a requirement of minimum 40% domestic content for the aircraft. Because the country shares long Himalayan borders with rivals Pakistan and China, the aircraft must also be able to operate in high-altitude locations and from temporary or unpaved strips. Besides ferrying troops, vehicles and ammunition, India also uses military transport aircraft for disaster relief and humanitarian assistance.

The bids are due by early December, after which the proposals will go through technical evaluation.

Amid its two decade-long push for greater local production and technology transfer, the government wants the mega aviation contract to deepen the country’s defense manufacturing footprint.

A dozen B-1 bombers were stationed at RAF Fairford air base, located northwest of London. The planes had been used for U.S. strikes on Iran.

“While operational security precluded us from confirming the movement of our assets and forces in real-time, we can acknowledge now that all US bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have re-deployed to their home stations in the United States,” a Pentagon spokesman wrote in an email.

Britain has “strong indications” that Iran was involved in a suspected plot targeting the base, Prime Minister Andy ​Burnham said on Wednesday. Iran said accusations linking Tehran to the alleged plan were baseless and summoned the British ambassador in Tehran over the issue.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that the aircraft were removed from the base amid security concerns over suspected terror plots against the facility.

The British government had allowed the U.S. to use bombers based at Fairford to strike Iranian missile sites that were attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. President Donald Trump said those involved in the plot had planned “big damage” while US ​Secretary of State Marco Rubio also pointed to the “hands of a foreign actor.”

Taiwan faces a rising military threat from Beijing, which claims the democratically governed island as its own territory. Taipei has complained of repeated delays to weapons ordered from the United States, its most important international backer and arms supplier.

The delivery, to Taitung’s Chihhang Air Base on the mountainous east coast, comes amid growing concern in Taiwan about the Trump administration’s commitment to arming Taipei, despite Washington saying there has been no change in policy.

The aircraft, which flew via Hawaii and Guam, touched down at noon (0400 GMT).

“This is an important development in strengthening Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” President Lai Ching-te wrote on Facebook, thanking the United States for its support.

Speaking to reporters at parliament in Taipei, Defence Minister Wellington Koo said there would be other new F-16Vs arriving soon, though he did not give details.

In 2019 the U.S. approved an $8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16V fighter jets to Taiwan, which would take its F-16 fleet to more than 200. But issues such as software problems delayed delivery of the planes.

The arrival of the first two aircraft came almost exactly a week after US President Donald Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington.

Trump said in May, after meeting Xi in Beijing, that he was holding a new $14 billion package for Taiwan in abeyance, though he did approve one worth $11 billion in December 2025.

China threat level

U.S. officials believe a Chinese invasion of Taiwan before 2028 is increasingly unlikely, people familiar with U.S. thinking told Reuters. Taiwan holds its next presidential election in early 2028.

“China’s intention to annex Taiwan by force has never changed,” Koo said.

Taiwan also has an ambitious domestic weapons program, including building what is eventually planned to be eight submarines, drawing on expertise and technology from several countries, including the United States and Britain.

The first boat, the Narwhal, had been due to be delivered to the navy in 2024, but the program — Taiwan’s first attempt to build a submarine — has been hit with delays.

Chen Jeng-horng, chairman of CSBC, which is building the vessels, told reporters in southern Taiwan’s Kaohsiung that the Narwhal was undergoing its final tests before delivery.

“Of course, the sooner the better for all parties,” he added, without giving a timeframe for when the navy would get it.

Advanced new fighter

The new F-16V jets have advanced avionics, weapons and radar systems to better counter the Chinese air force, including its stealthy J-20 fighters, though Washington has been unwilling to provide Taiwan its most advanced fighters such as the F-22 or F-35.

The United States is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, but the two have no formal diplomatic relations.

Beijing has repeatedly told Washington to stop arming Taiwan. The Chinese foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the arrival of the F-16s.

“We continue standing with friends and allies across the Indo-Pacific to advance our shared prosperity, security, and values — that includes Taiwan,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson said when asked about the new F-16s.

The project seeks to develop open, modular architecture for combat aircraft and sovereign AI technology that gives the government greater control over the tech, rather than having to rely on companies for critical systems, said Col. Cédric, head of the Air Force capability-development office, in a press briefing here on Thursday.

As AI becomes more powerful, the likes of Airbus and BAE Systems in Europe and General Atomics and Anduril in the United States are leveraging the technology to develop collaborative combat aircraft, also referred to as “loyal wingmen.” While many of those projects are company-driven, the French project would keep some of the critical technology under state control.

“What Hypairion is really about is equipping the Air Force and our platforms with architectures that are open, modular and owned by the government,” Col. Cédric said. He was identified only by his first name, in line with the Armed Forces Ministry’s policy for military staff. “Our goal is to move away from proprietary systems that lock down sensors and weaponry.”

The Ministerial Agency for Defence AI will be in charge of providing sovereign AI technology for the project in several areas, particularly command and control as well as mission autonomy, said Col. Thibault, deputy director for AI applications at the agency, known as Amiad. He described mission autonomy as AI that assists pilots with mission planning, in-flight decisions and post-mission analysis.

Amiad already uses AI to coordinate different platforms in the French Army’s Pendragon robotics project, and proposes to create an industrial hub for Hypairion where both traditional aerospace firms and smaller startups can interact with the project, an approach tested in Pendragon.

“The point of the Hypairion project is for the French state to retain control of the overall architecture and to be able to integrate the most capable startups or industrial companies,” Col. Thibault said. He said companies might join and leave the project, while Hypairion retains its capabilities in-house.

The Air Force is modifying two Mirage 2000s fighters at Mont-de-Marsan airbase to become AI test beds, adding a new computer that will allow to test “all kinds of use cases” starting by the end of the year, according to Col. Cédric. Mont-de-Marsan in southwest France is home to the Escadron de chasse et d’expérimentation, a dedicated fighter squadron for testing and evaluation.

Development will be incremental, and the first stage of Hypairion won’t necessarily be about having an operational capability, but will look at areas such as energy consumption and system interfacing, Col. Cédric said. First use cases being considered include using AI to optimize flight paths or tactical decisions such as when to deploy air-to-air or air-to-ground weapons.

The unmanned aircraft set to fly in 2028 will be a test platform and may not be the future wing-man drone planned for France’s Rafale jet as part of the fighter’s future F5 standard, though the experimentation will help pick a suitable platform later in the decade, Col. Cédric said.

The DGA has set a target data of 2033 for the first version of the Rafale F5, but will work on collaborative platforms within the framework of the current F4 standard before then, said General Engineer of Armaments Sébastien, in charge of the Rafale program at the directorate.

The goal of integrating AI on the Rafale is to help crews manage the “absolutely phenomenal cognitive load” to maintain future operational superiority, he said. The armaments engineer cited the Talios laser-designation pod from Thales, set to be delivered to the armed forces in 2027, as a concrete application of AI, able to scan an area and provide a fighter crew a list of potential targets.

Col. Cédric described a hypothetical future in which a fighter crew would carry out a mission in the morning, in between missions identify an adaptation against an enemy countermeasure, and take off again in the afternoon with updated software. That will require system architectures to evolve, he said.

The French Air Force officer likened future manned and unmanned platforms to “flying computers” on which the keyboard, screen or software could be changed without compromising security. The goal of the architecture being developed within Hypairion is to separate the flight-safety aspect from the ability to carry out missions, he said.

The Air Force doesn’t envisage a future with only unmanned aircraft, for both ethical and operational reasons, according to the colonel, who said the decision to deploy weapons remains a human one, and AI can make mistakes. “Humans can be augmented or supplemented by AI, but the assessment of the operational situation, tactical judgment, and so on, these are still entirely the domain of humans.”

As the Air Force prepares the Rafale F5 standard, “a true mid-life overhaul of the aircraft,” focus areas include adequacy of hardware resources, as the system needs to be able to handle complex calculations, Sébastien at the DGA said. Another focus is system openness, meaning “the armed forces must be able to tailor artificial intelligence according to their own needs and so dispose of an open system.”

The Rafale’s F4 standard already includes an initial level of openness through a tablet connected to the mission system, and the F5 standard will seek to broaden the scope of data available to the tablet, give it access to the mission system’s computing resources, and improve the ability to interface with onboard communication systems and data links, according to the DGA engineer.

“This in particular will make it possible, and without waiting for the deployment of the F5 standard, to control autonomous combat platforms from the Rafale,” Sébastien said.

While France relies on Dassault Aviation and other major industrial partners for the Rafale to develop AI in the fighter’s major systems, the armed forces want to ensure operational autonomy, meaning having “the ability to tailor the AI to the specific operational needs of the theater,” the engineer said.

Hypairion will work on a road map covering usage concepts, doctrine, scaling up the work force as well as the actual equipment, resulting in a first full-scale trial of collaborative combat drones flying alongside fighter jets in 2028, according to Col. Cédric.

“The challenge for the Air and Space Force is ultimately to determine what a fighter squadron will look like in 2035 or 2040, once all these systems are potentially integrated into the squadron,” Col. Cédric said. “Today, it’s actually quite rare to come across computer scientists in a fighter squadron. Perhaps tomorrow, that will be a daily occurrence.”

Miller is currently the deputy chief of Space Operations, Strategy, Plans, Programs and Requirements. He will, if confirmed, take over Space Command after his predecessor, Gen. Stephen Whiting, steps down from command toward the end of the year or the beginning of the next.

“Congratulations to Lt. Gen. Miller on his nomination to serve as Commander, U.S. Space Command,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. Douglas Schiess said in a social media post. “He is an exceptional guardian who has represented our service with distinction, and we believe he is a strong candidate for this critical joint leadership role.”

Prior to his current post, Miller served as the commander of Space Operations Command at Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado. He also served as the special assistant to the vice chief of space operations at Peterson and has held roles commanding guardians and airmen at the squadron, group and wing levels at various bases.

If confirmed, Miller will become the fourth commander of SPACECOM since its reestablishment in 2019, at a time when U.S. leaders are increasingly emphasizing the role of space in operations and the nation’s defense.

The nomination comes on the heels of Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink revealing that the department has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force from “hostile adversary action.” Keeping details sparse, he declined to say what type of weapon it is and reasserted its necessity for deterrence.

Officials have touted space’s role in recent missions, such as Operation Epic Fury, calling its capability essential to the joint force.

“During Operation Epic Fury, our components, notably at U.S. Central Command and Space Command with support from components at European Command and Pacific Command, demonstrated that guardians are not supporting from the sidelines as a ‘nice to have,’ but we are delivering spacepower directly into the fight as a ‘need to have,’” Schiess said during his keynote at the mid-September Air & Space Forces Association’s 2026 Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

As commander, Miller will be responsible for the space domain while providing space-enabled combat effects across the world, bearing combat command authority over joint warfighters operating ground and space-based systems.

Miller would succeed Whiting, who has held the position since January 2024 after being nominated by former President Joe Biden the year prior and confirmed in December 2024.

Whiting previously served as commander of Space Operations Command and held numerous positions across U.S. Strategic Command, Air Force headquarters and the Office of the Deputy Secretary of Defense.

A formal confirmation hearing for Miller has yet to be set by the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Analysis of thousands of flight records as well as gigabytes of leaked internal company documents, aviation filings and emails suggest a link between the sanctioned aircraft and more than 100 missions flown on behalf of the UAE government and its royal family since mid-2025.

The Russian company behind these planes, Aviacon Zitotrans, has been sanctioned by the United States, Canada and Ukraine for its support in Russia’s war effort. Previous reporting also revealed its role in sustaining Moscow’s mercenaries in Africa. The specific planes that pop up in the flight logs of UAE’s operations have been separately designated as blocked property by the U.S. government.

This article is the second in a multi-part series that uncovers the peculiar network of front companies, airlines and Soviet-era freight planes.

The UAE’s apparent use of a military-linked Russian cargo airline, alongside its role as a hub for Russian sanctions circumvention, runs contrary to Western efforts to isolate Moscow internationally and cut the Kremlin off from cash flows it needs to maintain its war against Ukraine.

Flight tracks collected by Defense News show that Aviacon Zitotrans’s Soviet-era Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft flew missions linking the UAE to destinations in Africa, following the same routes and operational patterns as those used by other operators that have been tied to the UAE’s support for the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan’s civil war. Several flights operated out of UAE military bases rather than civilian airports, implying a government connection.

Defense News reached out to the UAE embassies in Vienna and Washington, to the Abu Dhabi Media Office and the UAE’s foreign ministry for comment on the Aviacon Zitotrans links, but received no response. The airline itself also did not respond to a request for comment.

Other flights flown by Aviacon Zitotrans aircraft and identified by Defense News appear to have flown from the UAE to a private airstrip in eastern Pakistan known as Chandana Airstrip or Al Habieb Airport, which previous reporting has tied to the royal Al Nahyan ruling house of Abu Dhabi. The airstrip does not appear in online ICAO/IATA code databases or Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority lists. International reporting has identified it as a gateway to the Gulf royal family’s falconry hunting grounds in Pakistan.

Sparse videos and images exist on the internet of the airfield. Defense News reviewed footage showing large portraits of Gulf monarchs and Pakistani politicians next to the apron and framed in a plush airport waiting room, along with plenty of UAE flags flying alongside Pakistani ones. UAE personnel are flown in ahead of the royals’ use of the airstrip, according to a private plane tracker’s 2022 investigation.

Delivering weapons

When not operating on behalf of the UAE, Aviacon Zitotrans flies missions for the Russian government, including the shipment of weapons around the world. Leaked internal documents viewed by Defense News show that the airline has delivered combat helicopters to Southeast Asia, armored personnel vehicles to Turkey, and received a special exemption from the Russian government to fly missiles and their warheads.

The company lists “government and military airlifts” as one of its areas of operations on its website, touting that the Il-76 planes it uses are “capable of operating from short and unpaved runways” and “achieved an excellent reputation for its versatility and operational reliability.”

The cabin and rear ramp “provides smooth loading/unloading for many kinds of rolling stock, such as armored personnel carriers (APCs), utility trucks, trailers etc,” the company’s website explains.

“Aviacon Zitotrans specializes in using Il-76 aircraft, which are very helpful, very sturdy aircraft for transporting cargo and transporting people,” said Margaux Garcia, senior analyst with C4ADS, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization specializing in analyzing illicit networks. “They were originally built to be military transport aircraft, so it makes sense that they’re being used for that purpose.”

The company’s Russia-linked operations in Africa have previously attracted attention and prompted the U.S. government to sanction the airline. Sub-Saharan Africa was the main theatre of operations for the infamous Wagner Group, which has been rebranded as Africa Corps following the death of its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

While most Western countries have cut trade with Russia and its state-affiliated entities to a minimum, and the European Union has banned all Russian aircraft from its airspace, the UAE government maintains friendly commercial and diplomatic relations. As a consequence, the country has turned into a hub for Russian sanctions circumvention and foreign procurement, a trend confirmed by the leaked Aviacon Zitotrans air waybills Defense News examined, which routinely showed the procurement of Western goods, including sanctioned electronics, through the Gulf monarchy.

Previous reporting by Reuters has also identified Dubai’s gold markets as a crucial lifeline for Russia, given its exclusion from global payment systems such as SWIFT.

At least three Aviacon Zitotrans-affiliated aircraft have flown routes that match known patterns of UAE government-sponsored missions since September 2025: RA-76842, RA-76502, RA-76846. Another aircraft, RA-76834, flew a mission connecting the UAE’s Sweihan Air Base to Bosaso, Somalia, a known Emirati logistics hub used for weapons shipments into Africa before Somali authorities canceled the relevant agreements with the UAE in January 2026.

“It perfectly makes sense within their business model that they would work for any kind of group that would be willing to fund them. It’s a similar type of work to the work that they seem to do for Russia. So it makes sense that they would expand into this other market,” said Garcia.

All three aircraft flying the vast majority of apparent UAE-chartered missions are explicitly listed by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control as directly blocked property. Any other Aviacon Zitotrans airframes, including all that may have touched UAE territory on their Russian missions, are blocked by extension due to their connection to the company.

Most flights generally followed the same pattern: The aircraft would first depart a UAE airfield, usually the joint civil-military airport at Al Ain, Abu Dhabi airport, or, more rarely, a military base in the UAE. It would then fly south and west to the Gulf of Aden, where its transponder track would disappear. It would then reappear at the same location over the Gulf of Aden, flying back to the UAE later that day or a few days later.

Transponder conundrum

“If you notice that all of these planes that are run by the same airline all drop off of coverage, then that’s a notable pattern — especially if it happens that most other airplanes are able to travel through that area without dropping coverage,” said Garcia, whom Defense News showed its findings and data. “So it’s not a signal issue. It’s not a coverage issue. That suggests perhaps they are intentionally turning off their transponders; they’re hiding their activity.”

In total, Defense News identified well over 100 Aviacon Zitotrans sorties that had telltale characteristics of UAE government-linked cargo operations.

Defense News used a commercial aircraft tracking archive including ADS-B transponder and MLAT location data to follow the aircraft in question, building an extensive database of almost 9,000 flights conducted by a number of shadow airlines globally since early 2025. Each flight was manually reviewed. The data is often spotty due to deliberate obfuscation techniques or limited coverage, requiring pattern-matching and secondary sourcing through local reporting, ground photography and satellite imagery.

A handful of transponder tracks gave a more complete picture, filling in some of the blanks. A recurring destination was Ethiopia, particularly the Harar Meda Air Base, the Ethiopian military’s main air force facility, and Addis Ababa International Airport.

The Ethiopian embassies in Washington and Berlin did not return a request for comment.

The UAE and Russia are both deeply embroiled in the Sudanese civil war, but their governments support opposing sides. While Abu Dhabi supports the Rapid Support Forces, Russia has thrown its weight behind the government and its Sudanese Armed Forces. Aviacon Zitotrans’s apparent work for both the UAE and Russia has led to the situation that the same aircraft may be supplying opposing sides of the brutal civil war, sometimes flying from Russia and Turkey into Port Sudan, the SAF’s main supply point, and sometimes operating on UAE missions likely supporting the RSF through the African hinterland.

Aside from Africa, a handful of flights that took place during these aircraft’s apparent use by the UAE connected the Emirates to other Gulf countries, including Kuwait and Qatar.

Beyond the use of Aviacon Zitotrans aircraft, the UAE operates a fleet of cargo aircraft using front companies and ostensibly civilian charter cargo aircraft on similar missions, which Defense News will explore in a forthcoming investigation.

It’s unclear why UAE leaders picked Aviacon Zitotrans from the extensive market of cargo charter airlines. “It may be that they have seen Aviacon Zitotrans’s experience in this area, that they’ve worked in the same kind of high-sensitivity operations,” said Garcia.

The aircraft were also tracked flying other missions in equatorial and sub-Saharan Africa, including in Libya, Uganda, D.R. Congo and Nigeria, over the past year and a half. However, based on known patterns, many of these missions are likely to have been Russia-linked rather than on behalf of the UAE, even though the UAE was sometimes used as a stopover location or hub on the way.

Defense News has previously reported on an Aviacon Zitotrans Il-76 aircraft flying a secretive mission to Venezuela during mounting U.S. pressure on the country in October 2025. It was later revealed that the aircraft had delivered a Russian air defense system to Caracas. Intermediary refuelling stops are essential for these aircraft to cover such distances, as the range of the Ilyushin planes would otherwise be insufficient, the CEO of a different Russian shadow airline told Defense News as part of an earlier investigation.

“If this is the case that Aviacon is also running missions for the UAE alongside illicit missions for Russia, then it is significant because it shows that the UAE does not see the sanctions against Aviacon as a sufficient deterrent to stop working with them,” Garcia concluded.