The Aces

In 2026, the British Royal Air Force officially designated two of its operators "aces." The ace title dates to the First World War. It was created to recognize pilots who engaged and destroyed five or more enemy aircraft in aerial combat. Pilots. People who flew planes into the sky and shot at other planes. I want to establish this clearly before continuing.

The two aces in question were sitting in Iraq. They were not flying planes. They were using a controller that, according to Sky News, "works almost exactly like a PlayStation pad." They were shooting down Iranian drones. They shot down twenty-eight drones per day.

(I am not making this up. The British government confirmed the designations. The controller works like a PlayStation. This detail appeared in the news coverage as though it were a side note.)

One of the aces is twenty-one years old. When asked about the experience, he said: "The adrenaline is a bit higher than Call of Duty, but it's all in the thumbs."

I would like you to hold that sentence for a moment.

"It's all in the thumbs" is now the official recorded description of the activity that earned the title the RAF created to honor pilots who flew open-cockpit biplanes at 135 miles per hour while being actively shot at, and who described the experience in terms that did not include thumbs.

The RAF spokesperson confirmed the ace title and added: "Those hours on the couch were not wasted." This is an official statement. It has been issued by the British military. It refers to gaming hours. The statement exists in the world.

(The PlayStation controller retails for approximately $70. The PlayStation controller was designed for gaming. The manual does not mention drones. The manual covers the R2 button, the L2 button, the touchpad, and something called the DualSense Adaptive Triggers. Aerial combat against Iranian military hardware does not appear in the index. The index was presumably written before this application was known.)

The defense industry has spent considerable resources over the past century developing specialized military hardware for aerial combat operations. Flight simulators. Military-grade targeting interfaces. Purpose-built controllers with appropriate grip profiles and documented pressure tolerances. These products exist. They have been purchased. Some of them are still being purchased.

The RAF has reviewed this situation and confirmed the ace title applies.

What happens next is unclear. The PlayStation manual is being consulted. No updates have been released.