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NATO plans to buy six portable kits that can jam satellite navigation signals and the radio links drones use for control and video, so its trainers can expose ships, aircrews and drone operators to realistic interference during exercises. Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, the alliance command in Norfolk, Virginia, that leads NATO’s training and modernization […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory wants industry to build and fly a combined-cycle rotating detonation rocket engine, a type of propulsion that runs on a continuous chain of explosions, as a step toward cheap, high-speed weapons that could be built in large numbers. The lab’s Rocket Propulsion Division at Edwards Air Force Base, California, […]View the full article

Cummings Aerospace has fired two of its 3D-printed Hellhound S3 jet-powered drones from a launcher mounted on a utility vehicle, with a single operator using one handheld controller to send both on separate autonomous missions, the company said. The test took place on Aug. 25, 2026, at the Pendleton UAS Range in Oregon, where an […]View the full article

This is a Monday where those of us on the Front Porch will just nod our heads a bit and grin in that way that only the confidently smug can smile. You know one of my regular statements, and it does not matter if we are talking aircraft, surface ships, or ground forces (I give a pass to submarines): When war comes, you will quickly realize that not only do you not have enough guns, but the ones you do have are too small in caliber. Let’s go back 18 years or so for a couple of quotes from, well, me. First, from April 09, 2008’s post, It always comes back to the gun..., People always try to get rid of the gun - but the cold hard facts of the reality of thousands of years of combat remind you that in the end - it is all about F=MA. You are going to need a gun. Bigger the better. Go ahead and plan for it and save yourselves blood and treasure in the long run. Next from October 27, 2008’s, Launching the Counter Revolution at Sea, You do not have enough or large caliber enough gunfire available to engage targets at sea and ashore. Come on everyone…say it with me…but this time with an upbeat vigor… Eventually everyone goes SalamanderReally, I should never have to cover my own bar tab. The lessons of the last year are clear. The ‘too much military fiction, not enough military history’ missile cult and the big-fleet-engagement-only, vignette-addicted crowd warped ship designs toward too few weapons options. Accountants love it; warfighters are frustrated by it. The low-end threat can still sink you. There are tools here, but often the best that could be found at peace was a manned crew-served .30 or .50. Some success was found where we needed to be: larger manned and crew served auto-cannons. Remember how everyone was so excited about 20mm, 25mm, or—gasp-n-swoon—30mm chain guns as secondary and tertiary batteries? Well, sit down. More is better. With the growing threat of attacks by small unmanned aircraft systems on the battlefield, Northrop Grumman is pitching gun-based air defense systems designed to take down waves of aerial threats. At the Association of the United States Army’s annual convention, Northrop showed off its newest 50mm Gun-Based Air Defense system dubbed the Raid Hunter and the latest iteration of the M230. Both systems are part of Northrop’s patented Bushmaster Chain Guns, a collection of medium-caliber, vehicle-mounted machine guns that operate using an external power source…. According to the specs sheet, the system relies on AI targeting and precision-guided 50mm ammo, which proximity fuzes detonate near a target. … Modeled after the M230 gun for Apache attack helicopters, the M230 Link Fed Dual Feed Bushmaster Chain Gun, or M230LF, can be mounted to an assortment of vehicles, ranging from 4x4s to large ground vehicles to patrol boats. But what’s special about it is that it can use two feed paths, which allow operators to switch between standard proximity-fuzed 30x113mm rounds for countering drones and high-explosive, dual-purpose rounds for armored targets. It’s not just for counter-drone work; you should see what that can do to surface ships that make the mistake of getting in range. Not that there is anything wrong with a good 30mm chain gun. Those will fit in places where 50 mm and larger guns just can’t squeeze in. We also love ‘ole Ma-Deuce. In the military version of a Turducken, what if we mounted a .50 cal on top of a 30mm? Mark 38 Mod 4: a 30mm Bushmaster II cannon with a .50 caliber machine gun on top The video below on this beautiful creature should be labeled NSFW, but we’re going to show it anyway. Like we discussed six months ago in Up-arm the Fleet? With What?, the argument has been won. We need to be arming our warships and auxiliaries to the point that the manpower people are crying, ‘Too much!’—then add on a couple more mounts. I know it, you know it, and now it appears that Congress and OPNAV got religion on it as well in the last few years. Welcome to the party, folks! Glad to have you. Now, do you have time to talk for a moment about our lord and savior, the MK-71? 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 has placed a second order for the FD-1, a drone interceptor that a single soldier can set up and launch in under two minutes, from Florida-based Mountain Horse Solutions, less than a year after the system first came to the service’s attention. The order was issued on Oct. 8 by the U.S. […]View the full article

France has ordered several hundred more MX-10 DAMOCLES kamikaze drones from KNDS France and Delair, and the quadcopter munition has won its first export customer, Luxembourg, which signed a contract worth just over 1.6 million euros ($1.8 million) for an initial capability. The French Ministry of the Armed Forces activated an optional tranche of its […]View the full article

Russian forces have released video of an FPV drone striking one of Ukraine’s largest uncrewed ground vehicles, a Protector, while it was hauling logs near Orikhiv in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. The footage, shared by Russian channels, shows the drone hitting the vehicle’s cargo bed. The front of the Protector, where its control and communications equipment […]View the full article

Russian state defense conglomerate Rostec has described its T-80BVM main battle tank as an “assassin,” claiming the gas turbine-powered vehicle is quiet and well camouflaged enough to make fast, unnoticed flanking moves on the battlefield. In a promotional statement, Rostec said the modernized tank can play several roles: a “steel battering ram” that breaks through […]View the full article

Ukrainian troops have flown a wounded soldier off the front line with a heavy multirotor drone, in what the unit that organized the mission called the world’s first aerial evacuation of a casualty from the battlefield. The operation was carried out by the unmanned ground systems company of Ukraine’s 92nd Separate Assault Brigade, working with […]View the full article

From the Australian ABC news service https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-19/ghost-shark-fleet-aerial-drones-sea-mines-defence/107283746?utm_source=abc_news_web&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_web&utm_content=link

Israel’s Elbit Systems has won a contract worth about $235 million to supply PULS rocket artillery launchers and EXTRA-MR precision-guided rockets to an unnamed European country, along with additional rocket artillery platforms and integrated logistics support, the company said. Elbit did not identify the customer or say how many launchers and rockets the deal covers, […]View the full article

A U.S. Army soldier has been spotted assembling a Stork reconnaissance drone, built by Czech-Ukrainian company U&C UAS, during a major training exercise in Germany, showing the battle-tested design in American hands. The U.S. Army released the image from Combined Resolve 27-01 at the Hohenfels Training Area, part of the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in […]View the full article

Video published online shows Ukraine using an interceptor version of its Bars jet-powered drone to destroy a Russian Geran-5, the first footage of the Ukrainian missile-drone being used against Russia’s own jet-powered attack drones. The clip, shared by the Ukrainian military, shows the interceptor launched from a ground launcher before it strikes the Geran-5. The […]View the full article

The United States is now sending Ukraine only 12 Patriot air defense interceptors a month, about a quarter of what Kyiv received under President Joe Biden, and is holding back some missiles Ukraine has already paid for, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. Zelenskyy made the comments in an interview with Bloomberg in Kyiv published on Oct. […]View the full article

Denmark is buying more Naval Strike Missiles from Norway’s Kongsberg to arm the coastal defense system it acquired last year, under a contract worth about 400 million Norwegian kroner ($42.4 million). Kongsberg announced the deal on Oct. 19, 2026, without saying how many missiles Denmark is getting. The sale is structured as a government-to-government agreement […]View the full article

The trees are showing their fall colors; we’re inside a month from a mid-term election; European cities are burning…but the rest of the world keeps churning from the tip of South America to the steppes of Eurasia. Mark and I will try to hit the wave tops this Sunday from 5-6 p.m. Eastern in our ever-popular Free-for-All format. The show’s live chat will be up and running if there’s a topic that’s a bee in your natsec bonnet, you’d like us to cover…otherwise, grab a drink, and find a chair and enjoy the conversation. You can join LIVE at this link. If you’re reading this after the show, just check the Substack page later on Sunday for the podcast upload. Don’t miss it! 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

Footage released by Yemen’s Houthis appears to show a Saudi National Guard AH-6i helicopter being struck by a loitering munition over Saudi Arabia’s Najran province, after the Saudi-led coalition said the aircraft crashed because of a technical malfunction, killing its two crew members. Coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki said on Oct. 18 that the […]View the full article

Slovenian turret maker Valhalla Turrets is preparing a new version of its Skythunder air defense system armed with General Dynamics Land Systems’ 20 mm M197 Gatling gun and 70 mm laser-guided rockets, designed to shoot down drones and protect critical infrastructure. The company announced the system as “coming soon” in a social media post and […]View the full article

Ukraine’s Magura uncrewed surface vessels, the drone boats that have sunk Russian warships in the Black Sea, took part in a U.S. Army exercise in Michigan, where they were used as floating launch pads for aerial drones. The boats appeared during Bayonet Quest 26, which the 7th Infantry Division, part of Multi-Domain Command-Pacific, ran across […]View the full article

A Russian military satellite has maneuvered to within about 5 km (3 miles) of a commercial radar imaging satellite owned by ICEYE and appears to be holding position there, in what independent tracker Jonathan McDowell said may be the first rendezvous in low Earth orbit between two active satellites without the consent of one of […]View the full article

Latvian company NATRIX, already a supplier of ground drones to Latvia’s armed forces, showed its battle-tested unmanned ground vehicle to Finnish military and security officials on Oct. 8, driving it through forest terrain and hauling cargo at an unmanned ground systems demonstration in Mikkeli, Finland. The event was organized by Millog, the Finnish defense maintenance […]View the full article

British defense technology company Stratonex Defence Technologies has unveiled VARAN, a modular unmanned ground vehicle concept designed to accompany and support forward units on the battlefield, with swappable mission equipment and the ability to navigate without satellite positioning. The company introduced the vehicle on social media and on its website, describing VARAN as a payload-agnostic […]View the full article

The U.S. Army has activated a new sustainment brigade for the 11th Airborne Division in Alaska, giving the Arctic-focused division its own formation to keep troops supplied and supported in some of the harshest conditions the U.S. military operates in. The 11th Airborne Division Sustainment Brigade (Arctic) uncased its colors on Oct. 16, 2026, at […]View the full article

Russia’s Tupolev says about 80% of the systems and equipment on its new Tu-160M strategic bomber have been modernized, and that the aircraft’s onboard electronics were designed as a modular architecture so newer systems can be swapped in later without rebuilding the whole suite. Tupolev General Director Yuri Abrosimov made the claims in comments published […]View the full article

The British Army’s new Challenger 3 tank has now driven 2,000 km (1,240 miles) and fired more than 200 main gun rounds in testing, and it is set to start a tougher phase of trials in November, according to its builder, Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land. RBSL, the British-German joint venture building the tank, shared the […]View the full article