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Sweden and Ukraine signed an agreement covering the procurement of fighter jets for Ukraine’s Air Force, with deliveries set to begin in early 2029, Militarnyi reported. The signing ceremony took place in the presence of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, with Ukraine set to receive not only the aircraft but […]View the full article

Pyka’s autonomous cargo aircraft DropShip flew a 32 km (20-mile) resupply mission entirely without a human pilot from Gulfport to Diamondhead, Mississippi, then executed a precision 91 kg (200 lb) airdrop, as part of the U.S. Army Reserve’s Combat Support Training Exercise within Operation Sentinel Justice, the company announced June 30, 2026. The aircraft also […]View the full article

At 3 a.m. in a contested forward operating base, a patrol thirty kilometres out is taking casualties. They need blood, plasma, and ammunition, not in hours, but in minutes. The aircraft that answers that call launches from a patch of dirt, climbs vertically on four jet turbine engines, pitches forward, and is gone. It returns […]View the full article

Russian investigators have opened criminal cases alleging officials and contractors stole approximately 500 million rubles ($6.4 million) earmarked for constructing naval infrastructure at the home base of Russia’s Caspian Flotilla, the business daily Kommersant reported. The cases, filed under Russia’s criminal code for abuse of authority in fulfilling state defense orders, name Alexander Katser and […]View the full article

Moldova’s Armed Forces will receive more than 100 Senator armored vehicles built by Canadian manufacturer Roshel as part of European Union defense assistance, Militarnyi reported. The procurement will run through the Estonian Centre for Defence Investments under a 2022 to 2025 aid package specifically designed to strengthen the mobility and transport capabilities of Moldova’s military, […]View the full article

One day, and that day may never come, there will be an easy search mechanism for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Until then, the best a humble citizen from the provinces can do is take a low pass, bite a nibble at the most attractive bits, and then head off to digest what you got. Speeches, orders, and policy statements from the Executive Branch are important, but if you really want to drive change or correct error, you have to do it through the legislative branch. Yes, this is not finished and work must be done in the Senate, but let’s take a moment to see what the House has put on the table. I first got a bit too ambitious when I started digging in, and then pulled myself back to focus on just one part of the NDAA. As we like to focus as much as possible on maritime matters, I decided to scope down to the House Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee. We’re going to do a “Five and Ten” report. From their print, there are five items that brought a raised eyebrow. (1) A firm, “hold your horses” on the battleship: Sec. 129—Limitation On Construction of Battleship Pending Certification On Technology Readiness Levels This section would require the Secretary of the Navy to certify that the systems planned for inclusion on the BBG(X) program are at a sufficiently mature technology readiness level before award of a construction contract for the first of class vessel. The long pole in this tent will be the railgun. As you’ll see later, there is concern on the nuclear side of the house, but I’ve had some knowledgeable people tell me that really this isn’t a problem. Everything else, except for the hull form, already exists well enough for a Flight I. (2) FF(X) seems to be heading in an approved Salamander direction: Sec. 130—Strategy for Iterative Development and Flight Modifications for FF(X) Class Frigates This section would require the Secretary of the Navy to develop a strategy for iterative flight development of the new FF(X) vessel class. The Secretary of the Navy would be required to provide a briefing on the development of the strategy to congressional defense committees. (3) My punchline about “building Burke DDG until the crack of doom” seems to be policy now: Sec. 122—Multiyear Procurement Authority for Arleigh Burke Class Destroyers This section would provide multi-year procurement authority for up to fifteen Arleigh Burke class destroyers. (4) That is because, DDG(X) is being written out of law: Sec. 216—Modification to Test Program for Engineering Plant of Certain Vessels This section would apply previous requirements for DDG(X) land based testing and reserve power to subsequent classes of large surface combatants. No, I’m not exaggerating. From the text: (3) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘Senior Technical Authority for the DDG(X) destroyer class of vessels’’ and inserting ‘‘Senior Technical Authority for the class of vessels involved (as designated pursuant to section 8669b of title 10, United States Code)’’; (4) in subsection (d), by striking ‘‘for the DDG(X) destroyer class of vessels’’ and inserting ‘‘for the class of vessels involved’’; (5) in subsection (e), by striking ‘‘by not later than the delivery date of the lead ship in the DDG(X) destroyer class of vessels’’ and inserting ‘‘for a class of vessels by not later than the delivery date of the lead ship in that class of vessels’’; …and so on. Sigh. I guess my “Three Flights” Plan-B is DOA. (5) As Senator Sheehy (R-MT) said, Looks like the House will take one from off yonder there if we build two here. (b) REQUIREMENT FOR PURCHASE OF TWO NEW UNITED STATES-CONSTRUCTED VESSELS FOR EACH FOREIGN-CONSTRUCTED USED VESSEL PURCHASED IN EXCESS OF 12.—Subparagraph (C) of paragraph (3) of subsection (f) of such section is amended to read as follows: ‘‘(C) For each foreign-constructed vessel purchased by the Secretary under the authority of this paragraph in excess of 12, the Secretary shall contract for the purchase of two new vessels each of which is to be constructed in a shipyard located in the United States.’’. For the ten items that put a grin on my face, let’s look at the amendments that have passed. I like the Amendment Tracker, BTW. Nice format. BZ to Rep. Scott (R-GA), Rep. Kiggans (R-VA), and Rep. Courtney (D-CT) for making the Salamander Top-10 from the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee En Bloc: There are some serious items here, and BZ to the subcommittee for what they did not approve. Look at some of the amendments that failed, designed to do little more than give people a chance to grandstand on their pet issues unrelated to seapower. Now, let’s see what makes it across the finish line. Leave a comment Share This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. View the full article

The U.S. Army awarded BAE Systems Land and Armaments a $35 million contract modification on June 30, 2026, for additional production of the general-purpose variant of the Cold Weather All-Terrain Vehicle, the tracked, amphibious troop carrier built to operate where wheeled vehicles simply cannot follow. The Army Contracting Command at Detroit Arsenal, Michigan, made the […]View the full article

AEVEX Corp. secured a $50 million contract from the United States Air Force on June 30, 2026, to continue expanding unmanned mission-support capabilities for current operations, with $27 million in initial funding committed at award. The Solana Beach, California-based company, publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker AVEX, will use the […]View the full article

Esh-Tech, the Israeli laser defense company behind the pulsed-laser counter-drone system DroneLight, raised $18 million in a funding round led by Kinetica Ventures, the company announced June 30, 2026. The Defence Blog previously reported on DroneLight’s public debut, where the system’s central claim was a radical departure from how laser weapons have traditionally worked: instead […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force awarded a combined $471 million in contracts to 28 different companies on a single day, spreading the work of exchanging and repairing aircraft parts for the KC-46 Pegasus tanker across facilities in more than a dozen states and Israel, in a move that targets one of the most persistent and least […]View the full article

Northrop Grumman secured a $312 million contract from the U.S. Navy on June 24, 2026, to produce additional Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program Block 3 systems in two configurations called Hemisphere and Quadrant, expanding a production line that is now arming destroyers, aircraft carriers, and amphibious assault ships with the most capable electronic jamming technology […]View the full article

When a U.S. Special Operations helicopter or tiltrotor flies into hostile territory and an enemy radar locks onto it, the crew has seconds to break that lock before a missile finds them. The system that buys them those seconds just secured its long-term maintenance pipeline. L3Harris Technologies received a $614 million contract from U.S. Special […]View the full article

A self-driving railcar built by a St. Louis startup ended up doing real Army work at America’s largest Army Reserve training exercise this month, moving actual military cargo that arrived unannounced rather than the simulated loads the demonstration was originally designed around. Intramotev announced June 24, 2026, that soldiers operated its TugVolt autonomous battery-electric railcar […]View the full article

Palladyne AI’s subsidiary GuideTech secured a $2.3 million contract with an unnamed defense prime contractor to supply its BRAIN flight computer and FLEX flight software framework for a low-cost kinetic counter-UAS interceptor system, the company announced June 29, 2026. The deal represents a direct product sale of GuideTech’s hardware and software, with the prime contractor […]View the full article

A Polish-Turkish unmanned aircraft system demonstrated approximately one-meter accuracy striking a ground target during live field trials, MBF Group S.A. announced June 30, 2026, marking a significant validation milestone for the IRYDA+ X1 swarm-capable drone platform the Warsaw-based company has been developing with Turkish technology partner Shark Aviation Dynamics since their operating agreement was signed […]View the full article

Nuclear-powered battlecruiser returns to Severomorsk for first time in 27 years (Barents Observer)

For the first time, photographs of the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile have appeared in public, showing the nose section of America’s future nuclear deterrent sitting on the floor of a test chamber in Redondo Beach, California, after completing a structural validation milestone that clears one of the last major engineering hurdles before the missile’s first […]View the full article

Serhii Beskrestnov, known by his call sign “Flash” and serving as an adviser to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, published a public assessment that catalogs nine specific technological deficiencies he says are creating serious problems across the front, ranging from the absence of any mass-production solution against Russian glide bombs to a near-total lag in electronic […]View the full article

Ukrainian Presidential Adviser Denys Brasheuk told Kyodo News in an exclusive interview that Japanese-manufactured components have been identified in approximately 90 percent of the cruise missile and drone types Russia has used in its invasion of Ukraine, Kyodo News reported on June 28, 2026. Brasheuk presented internal Ukrainian government documents during the interview, including materials […]View the full article

Poland signed a $4.83 billion contract with Sweden’s Saab on June 29, 2026, for three A26 Blekinge-class submarines under its long-running Orka program, completing seven months of tense negotiations that at several points threatened to collapse over industrial offset demands, and delivering NATO its most significant Baltic Sea undersea capability expansion since the Cold War. […]View the full article

Barely a month after a rash of resignations from Labour’s defense cadre, we’re starting to see what this is about. The details only confirm what we have all seen coming: those given stewardship of the defense of the United Kingdom do not think it worth defending, nor do they think she should have the ability to effectively do her fair share in the collective defense with her allies. They most unquestionably do not believe that any future government of the United Kingdom, should the nation exist in its present form beyond the near future, should have the ability to project national will to any meaningful degree, anywhere. The decline of her most critical power, her sea power—already at a nadir unseen in centuries—is in its terminal phase. As the nation who relied on her the most as its most reliable and capable ally, the United States needs to see this for what it is. At best, poor vision by leaders beset by error and confused by advisors more versed in military fiction than military practice: at worst intentional destruction by a governing elite who hates their own nation as much as they seem to hate their own subjects. Behold, another seal is broken. The UK will replace a fleet of big, expensive destroyers with smaller, budget warships under an investment plan that seeks to rearm the military for less cash than officers say they need. The move - described by one source as a “pragmatic solution” to funding constraints - will form part of the long-delayed defence investment plan, which the government is finally expected to unveil on Tuesday. We will wait for confirming details with the official release, but it is so bad that I have confidence in what has leaked out. However, it will leave the Royal Navy without a like-for-like successor for its Type 45 destroyer. The £1bn warship is currently the only piece of British kit that can intercept ballistic missiles. Dan Jarvis, the defence secretary, is thought to have secured up to £1.5bn in additional money for the armed forces on top of some £13.5bn already fought for by John Healey, his predecessor. Yet the amount remains far short of the tens of billions of pounds of extra funding that military insiders say would be required to fix the UK’s hollowed-out defences in time for a potential war with Russia by 2030 - a timeline that Sir Keir Starmer has used. This government has no intent to go to war. The Labour government is doing what it can to make sure no other government will be able to either. …the Ministry of Defence that the navy’s six Type 45 destroyers will eventually be replaced by what the department is calling a “common combat vessel”. There is not yet a contract for this ship - the model does not even have a name - but it will be a crewed frigate, which is smaller than a destroyer, and could well be an iteration of the new Type 31 variant that is already being built. The “common combat vessel” will be focused on defending against incoming missiles and drones, which is a core task of a destroyer, rather than anti-submarine warfare, which is a key role of an ordinary frigate. The proposed new warship is also expected to operate alongside a suite of uncrewed air, sea and sub-surface drones, including missile barges to provide a layered air defence. It means, in theory, this “hybrid” capability - which is apparently due to enter into service from the early 2030s, though these sorts of procurements have a sorry history of running late - should be able to perform the same air defence role as a Type 45, but at half the price, according to the defence source. We’ve all seen this before. No one believes that by the early 2030’s, less than a decade from now, the British will be able to design, built, and bring to Full Operational Capability what we have been described so far. No. Serious. Person. This is worse than snake oil—this is a bold-faced lie. You will find few stronger advocates for Robotic Automated Systems (RAS) than me…but I also am clear-eyed about technology risk, programmatic risk, and the track record of compounding both with new technology on an unrealistic timeline. I am also firm in my conviction and consistent in my observations that through mid-century, RAS will be useful parts of any defense system, but they will not have resilience, robustness, code, nor more importantly—ROE—to be more than that. “Our Royal Navy is a formidable force, operating to protect our nation and our allies in the Atlantic and beyond,” Mr Jarvis said in a statement. “These common combat vessels will provide our dedicated sailors with hybrid ships that are designed and built for the increasing threats we face.” The announcement spells the end of naval aspirations to acquire a next-generation destroyer, called the Type 83, which would have been even more costly than the Type 45. Mr. Jarvis — is there something in Wales that tickles your fancy? If you want candor from the mother country, you can find it. Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the previous chief of the defence staff, was scathing about how the armed forces had been allowed to whither under successive governments. In a sign of this decline, the UK is second from the bottom of a table that ranks which country is meeting its NATO commitments, propped up by Iceland, which does not have a military. “Hardly ‘leading in Europe’,” Sir Tony wrote in an article for The Times. “More ‘NATO 31st’ than ‘NATO First’. Awkward.” I think John Foreman put it well earlier this AM; …without a proven, deployable air defence capability vs emerging hyper fast and ballistic missiles the RN won't meet its commitments to the UK and oversea territories, be able to escort a UK task group, nor meet its NATO or OOA responsibilities. There's no operational analysis for any of this. Watching the broad-spectrum collapse of the United Kingdom—ranging from free speech and jury trials to equal protection under the law, quality of life, and national defense—is really sad to see. Self-inflicted by the governing elite that was given everything, but decided future generations did not deserve it. There is a lot of ruin in a nation. There can always be a self-correction, but the farther you get from where you should be, the harder and more painful it will be to get back. As for the rest of us—and by “us” I mean the 87% of my subscribers who are in the USA—what are we to do? Remember what I have been writing about for over two decades when it comes to problems in national defense. Look to the United Kingdom. If we do not take positive action, we are just a decade behind them. That was true, but the Mother Country has drifted so far, I don’t know if that connection is as strong as it once was. Perhaps now it is only as useful as looking to Italy or other more stable (amazing thing to say) medium powers. I really don’t know. I would say Japan or Poland might be good to look at, but they are growing powers, not mature powers, and only Japan is as the U.S. and UK are, a maritime and aerospace power. Helpful, perhaps…but the UK? I think she has drifted too far. After an extended sigh, that is probably best. We need to look for other more capable partners as we approach mid-century. Help the Mother Country as we can and help her return to where she should be, but leave assumptions of the past behind. Build newer partnerships with friends on a firmer footing and build our own power to compensate. Pray for peace. Leave a comment Share This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. View the full article

Estonian soldiers successfully tested a signals intelligence system mounted on a lightweight FPV racing drone during Exercise Spring Storm, the country’s largest annual military exercise, detecting hostile electronic emitters at ranges that ground-based sensors could not reach, the companies behind the system announced June 29. The technology pairing combines Sky Spy’s SkyAgent 001 autonomous passive […]View the full article

Japan’s Self-Defense Forces recruited 11,177 personnel in Fiscal Year 2025, surpassing 10,000 for the first time in three years and marking a 1,453-person increase over the previous year. The turnaround reversed three consecutive years of declining recruitment that had culminated in fiscal 2023, when the SDF hit a record-low recruitment rate of just 51 percent […]View the full article

South Korea successfully completed a technical flight test of its domestically developed long-range air-to-ground missile Cheonryong on June 25, 2026, following two consecutive failures in January and March that forced engineers to remotely shut down the engine and ditch the prototypes in the Yellow Sea, Seoul Economic Daily reported on June 28. The test, conducted […]View the full article

South Korean Air Force fighters scrambled on June 27, 2026, after nearly 10 Chinese and Russian military aircraft successively entered and exited the Korea Air Defense Identification Zone over the country’s eastern and southern waters, prompting Seoul to lodge a formal diplomatic protest with both Beijing and Moscow the following day. China’s Ministry of National […]View the full article