Military 7

Lore & Background

In the Factorio world, the alien invaders—enemies that grow in number and ferocity as the player's factory expands—have long since outmatched any single ground unit. Tanks crumble under concentrated fire; turrets, however numerous, leave gaps. The Bomber, unlocked only after the player has pushed their industrial and military capabilities to their absolute limit, represents a qualitative leap: a platform that ignores terrain, that can strike a cluster of enemies from above, and that turns the open sky into a weaponized corridor. Its existence implies that the player's factory has reached a scale of oil production and chemical processing that can sustain an airborne fleet, not just a single vehicle.

In Their Own Story

The refueling station hummed, its oil pump cycling with a low, steady groan. Klonan's silhouette was barely visible through the haze of exhaust, one hand resting on the bomber's fuselage as it settled onto the pad. Ten bombs. Ten chances to thin the spawner cluster three hundred meters east before the evening rush. He dropped the first one over the treeline and watched the dirt bloom outward in a perfect ring, small enemies scattering like startled beetles. The second bomb went wide—his hand had trembled, just slightly—and the explosion swallowed a patch of grass that hadn't needed killing. He exhaled. Nine left. The fuel gauge ticked down, patient and indifferent, and somewhere beyond the smoke, the factory whirred on, indifferent to the sky above it.

Reader's Guide

Military 7 is the capstone of the entire military research chain. It unlocks the Bomber, a flying vehicle that carries a limited number of bombs and can drop them on enemy clusters. Unlike the car, the Bomber operates at a fixed altitude, cannot be damaged by ground enemies while airborne, and must return to a refueling station to replenish its oil supply. Its speed is lower than the car, and its bomb capacity is finite, so it functions as a mobile artillery platform rather than a general-purpose transport. Prerequisite chain: Military 7 requires Military 6, which requires Military 5, and so on back through Military 1. This means the player must have already researched tanks, rocket turrets, gun turrets, railgun turrets, laser turrets, and flamethrower turrets before even beginning the final military study. In practice, by the time Military 7 is available, the player's factory is producing a wide array of science packs, and the research cost—spanning multiple science types including Military, Production, and Chemical—completes in a relatively short window compared to earlier tiers. In the broader tech tree, Military 7 sits alongside other endgame researches and is often pursued after the player has secured a stable oil pipeline and a dedicated refueling station near their most contested border. The Bomber does not replace ground forces; it complements them by allowing the player to strike enemy groups that are too spread out for a tank to efficiently engage, or to clear a path for a ground advance without losing a vehicle to concentrated turret fire.

Did You Know?

• The Bomber is the only player vehicle in Factorio that operates at a fixed altitude and cannot be attacked by ground-based enemies while airborne.
• Military 7 is the last of seven sequential military researches, meaning a player cannot skip any tier to reach it—each one must be completed in order.
• The Bomber's bomb capacity is limited, and dropping all bombs requires the player to return to a refueling station before it can carry more, creating a natural rotation cycle.
• Because the Bomber uses oil as fuel, unlocking and operating it effectively requires a functioning oil pipeline and pump infrastructure, tying late-game military power directly to the player's chemical processing chain.