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The Netherlands and France held the first meeting of a new bilateral Nuclear Steering Group on Oct. 14, opening high-level talks on how French nuclear forces and European conventional forces could work together to deter attacks on Europe, the Dutch Ministry of Defence said. The ministry announced the meeting in a statement on Oct. 15, […]View the full article

Lockheed Martin plans to create 6,000 jobs across the United States, including 2,000 in Texas, as it expands munitions production. At the center of the plan is a $300 million expansion of its Grand Prairie missile parts plant, where defense manufacturing startup Hadrian will install an automated machining cell. The company announced the plan on […]View the full article

The British Army has dropped plans for armored mortar, repair and recovery, and anti-tank overwatch versions of its Boxer wheeled armored vehicle, and has ruled out using Boxer in the armored cavalry role, Defence Minister Luke Pollard told Parliament. Pollard, the minister for defence readiness and industry, gave the answers in response to written questions […]View the full article

Saab has presented the first GlobalEye airborne early warning and control aircraft built for the Swedish Air Force, a business jet-based radar plane that will replace the two older surveillance aircraft Sweden gave to Ukraine. The company unveiled the aircraft on Oct. 15. The jet will now go through a phase of testing and verification […]View the full article

The U.S. Navy has flown a drone through mission tasks and landed it on a pitching ship at sea with GPS jammed or unavailable and no pilot at the controls, using only the aircraft’s own cameras, motion sensors and onboard software, the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division said. NAWCAD, the U.S. Navy’s main aviation […]View the full article

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon’s advanced research arm, has awarded the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory a contract worth up to $499.8 million to keep the lab working on DARPA engineering, development and research projects through October 2031. The U.S. Department of War announced the award on Oct. 14. Under the […]View the full article

Türkiye’s state-owned defense company MKE has delivered three more E-ZPT electric armored personnel carriers to the Turkish Land Forces Command, adding to a small fleet of rebuilt M113s that run on battery power instead of a diesel engine alone. MKE announced the handover in a post on X on Oct. 15, describing the E-ZPT as […]View the full article

Türkiye has signed a supply contract with missile maker Roketsan for land-based CAKIR cruise missile systems for the Turkish Land Forces, Haluk Görgün, head of the country’s Presidency of Defense Industries, announced on Oct. 15. Görgün said in a post on X that the contract is meant to strengthen the army’s long-range strike capability, and […]View the full article

There she is…just look at her—a B-52G in all her Cold War 1980s livery that says, “Yes, my belly is bright white, because I’m going to nuke you and don’t want to get all hot afterwards” glory. For generations before us, and for generations to come, whenever a military competitor posed a challenge to our nation, you were usually one or two bullet points away from someone asking, “Hey, can we configure a B-52 to do that?” As one finds with platforms with built-in flexibility and square footage, the answer is usually “yes.” By the time the 1970s were over, the U.S. Navy realized that it didn’t just have a Soviet submarine problem, it had a significant Soviet surface fleet to deal with in the North Atlantic and Pacific. Our submarines were not the solution…they had more pressing issues to deal with, and they couldn’t be everywhere. Our aircraft carriers and air wings were not designed to take on surface forces. They could do it, and their aircraft could carry Harpoons, but…still. Sure, the Navy had P-3C Orions that could also launch Harpoons at range, but…still…not in saturation numbers, and not that quickly. At some point, it was asked, “Hey, can we configure a B-52 to do that?”, and the answer was, “Yes.” By the early 1980s, heavy bomber wings operating out of Loring Air Force Base in Maine and Guam were certified to bring the pain with 8–12 Harpoons per bomber. I was the first time Midshipman Salamander became aware of this monster…but that was almost four-and-a-half decades ago…the same length of time as that between 1900 and the end of WWII. The Harpoon is … not quite what it used to be, but we could get by with it. Well, in the last half-decade, the U.S. Navy has discovered that it is now the world’s second-largest navy and again finds itself faced with a numerically superior and dangerous opponent at sea, this time the People’s Liberation Army Navy. We have a modernization plan for that. The US Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) issued a notice on October 7, 2026 signaling its intent to award a sole-source contract to Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control under an existing basic ordering agreement. The goal is to integrate the AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) onto the US Air Force’s B-52H strategic bombers. Interested parties have until October 22, 2026 to respond. … The B-52H can already carry up to 20 AGM-158 JASSMs on its wing pylons. LRASM (AGM-158C) was developed from the JASSM airframe, adapted specifically for the anti-ship mission. Because the two missiles share the same base platform, extending the B-52’s JASSM-carrying capability to LRASM is seen as a relatively natural technical step, with the bulk of the work concentrated on software, interfaces and certification. LRASM also carries added radar-warning receivers, target-recognition algorithms and autonomous targeting logic, and is known for being able to operate independently under electronic warfare conditions such as GPS jamming or disrupted communications. More than just B-52 possibilities here… The Air Force has already integrated the munition of which LRASM is derived from, the AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), across its bomber and fighter fleets. B-52 and B-1 fleets have extensively deployed the missile during the U.S.-Iran War, according to Pentagon media. For its maritime strike-focused derivative, the Air Force first fielded the missile from the B-1 Lancer. In June, the service revealed that the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber can launch LRASM during a sinking exercise in the Indo-Pacific. The U.S. Navy’s patrol bomber (as I like to call it just to excite the usual suspects), the P-8A Poseidon, is stuck with the legacy Harpoon for a while. U.S. Navy’s P-8A Poseidon currently deploy AGM-84D Block 1C Harpoon anti-ship missiles for their anti-surface warfare missions. Incremental future upgrades include the AGM-84 Harpoon II+ variant which brings GPS and a data link that allows the shooter to change the missile’s target in flight. The venerable (and world famous) Harpoon will have to be replaced, eventually, at some point in the future, as is already the case on surface ships (with the Naval Strike Missile selected by the U.S. Navy for new programs such as the LCS and FFG(X)). That is…unfortunate…but not for too much longer. Last year, testing was done with the P-8A and LRASM. I assume she can carry them on the same pylons she carries Harpoon on, so that gives her four. Four is not 20, but it is more than 0, and that means something. Let’s be direct about this. In the event of a war west of the International Date Line, our heavy bombers will be the belle of the ball. There will be more missions for them than aircraft. We know that. Perhaps, if we have I&W of a large force taking to sea, we can get some bombers loaded with 20 LRASMs to bring the pain, but that would be about it. The Navy needs its own long-range asset to carry LRASM. The P-8A will need to be it…but…still…a BUFF bringing 20 to a party…that’s style. UPDATE: I forgot to put in this helpful grid. 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

Satellite imagery of Russia’s Borisoglebsk air base shows that a Ukrainian Neptune missile strike destroyed four Su-34 fighter-bombers and badly damaged two more, backing up the Ukrainian Navy’s claim that it hit six of the jets on the night of Oct. 14–15. The images, published by the Ukrainian aviation monitoring channel AviVector, compare the airfield […]View the full article

Ukraine’s Support Forces, the branch that runs the military’s engineering and demining units, have received another batch of equipment from the international Demining Capability Coalition led by Lithuania and Iceland, including Ukrainian-built Inguar-3 mine-resistant armored vehicles. The Support Forces Command announced the handover on Oct. 15 but did not list the full contents of the […]View the full article

Aurelius Systems is showing its Archimedes autonomous laser weapon mounted on an American Rheinmetall unmanned ground vehicle at the Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting in Washington this week, where the two companies are pitching mobile laser defense against small drones to U.S. Army buyers. The San Francisco-based startup said in a post on […]View the full article

Russia launched more than 850 Shahed attack drones at Ukraine in roughly a day and a half, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Oct. 15, an onslaught that came as a new speed cap on SpaceX’s Starlink network curtailed the interceptor drones Ukraine uses to shoot them down. Zelenskyy said the count covered the period from […]View the full article

Ukrainian charity Come Back Alive has handed frontline units 80 new interceptor drones designed to bring down Russia’s jet-powered Shahed attack drones, also known as Geran-4, paying 13.6 million hryvnias, roughly $302,000 or about $3,800 per drone, with money donated by Ukrainian fuel station chain OKKO. The foundation announced the delivery in a post on […]View the full article

Mooresville, North Carolina-based MSI Defense Solutions says its Self-Loading Equipment Deck, a removable mission pallet that can carry weapons and sensors on and off vehicles, appeared on several partner companies’ displays at this week’s Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting in Washington, including one built by General Dynamics Land Systems. In a series of […]View the full article

Romanian company Maximus Labs has released new footage of its Max1 unmanned ground vehicle and now says the tracked machine is deployed in a military theater of operations, although it has not named the armed force using it or where. Chief executive Alexandru Radulescu made the claim in a LinkedIn post accompanying the images, writing […]View the full article

North Korea test-fired two types of submarine-launched strategic cruise missiles in the sea east of the Korean Peninsula on Oct. 14, state media said, in what South Korean analysts believe was the first missile launch from the Hero Kim Kun Ok, the submarine Pyongyang unveiled three years ago as its first “tactical nuclear attack submarine.” […]View the full article

South Korea’s Cheongwang laser air defense weapon and a 30-kilowatt vehicle-mounted laser shot down all three target drones flown against them during a South Korean Army exercise on Oct. 14, manufacturer Hanwha Systems said. The demonstration took place during the Army TIGER+ Future Warfare Integrated Combat Exercise hosted by Republic of Korea Army headquarters, in […]View the full article

Israel has signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of War to buy 12 Boeing AH-64E Apache attack helicopters, the newest version of the Apache, with deliveries scheduled to begin early in the next decade, the Israel Ministry of Defense said on Oct. 14. The ministry’s director general, Maj. Gen. (res.) Amir Baram, instructed Israel’s […]View the full article

A small Performance Drone Works quadcopter carrying a Leonardo DRS laser designator guided precision mortar rounds onto targets beyond the normal maximum range of a 120 mm mortar during a recent test for U.S. Army special operations forces at Dugway, Utah, Leonardo DRS said on Oct. 14. The company said its STAG-5 electro-optical and infrared […]View the full article

The German Air Force has fired its new IRIS-T SLM air defense system for the first time at the NATO Missile Firing Installation on Crete, completing the operational certification the system needed before it can be relied on in German service, manufacturer Diehl Defence said this week. Air Defence Missile Group 61, the unit based […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force went looking for three new flight test ideas for its AI-controlled X-62 VISTA research jet and came away with more than 30, after the first research symposium built around the aircraft drew over 80 participants to Edwards Air Force Base, California, in August. The three-day meeting at the U.S. Air Force […]View the full article

U.S. drone maker WingXpand has unveiled xPAIR, a removable control unit that the company says can be moved between its small fixed-wing aircraft, a ground vehicle and a small boat, letting one set of AI software and sensors run uncrewed systems in the air, on land and on water. The Schaumburg, Illinois, company introduced the […]View the full article

A Ukrainian Air Force Il-76MD heavy transport aircraft was tracked on Oct. 12 flying out of Sharurah, a Saudi town in Najran Province near the border with Yemen, in a rare appearance of a Ukrainian military cargo plane in the south of the kingdom. Flight-tracking data shared by the open-source account Egypt’s Intel Observer shows […]View the full article

The U.S. Marine Corps is buying a small tracked cargo loader that can pick a fully loaded 4,500 kg (10,000-pound) air cargo pallet off the ground and still fit inside an MV-22 Osprey, under a contract worth more than $10 million to Las Vegas-based S.A.F.E. Structure Designs. The company announced the award for its SAFE […]View the full article