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And both the email and board notifications came thru that you'd replied. (The reason for doing the post to test email notifications).

Thanks for sharing, that's rather more intimidating than our rabbits.

Robotics company Target Arm Inc. said this week that its drone launch and recovery system has been integrated with unmanned ground vehicles built by HDT Global, a manufacturer of rugged robotic platforms used in military and industrial settings. The company announced the integration on social media on July 27, 2026. The combination pairs HDT Global’s […]View the full article

A rifle that decides, mid-trigger-pull, when to let the round go, not the shooter, is now fielded or in procurement across an estimated 10 to 15 European countries, according to Israel Weapon Industries (IWI). The system, called ARBEL, does not detect drones or aim the weapon. It does one thing: it controls the timing of […]View the full article

Axon Vision, an Israeli defense technology company based in Tel Aviv, announced Monday that it has teamed up with ParaZero Technologies, an Israeli firm based in Kfar Saba, to build an integrated counter-drone system aimed at protecting critical infrastructure sites where blowing an incoming drone out of the sky simply isn’t an option. The new […]View the full article

To start off with—usual caveats apply. Yes, this is Axios, but Barak Ravid is a serious reporter that I have no evidence that he has a history of making stuff up. I also know that the Trump administration is pretty good at message control and minimizing leaks…especially on national security issues. I also know that is DC, which is leaky for both official and unofficial reasons. As such, I’ll put forward an opening bet that this is 51% close to right. If I had to place the odds: 10% this is fake news; 20% chance this is an unofficial leak; 70% it is an official leak. Ambient noise and transmission loss of about 30%…so we’re seeing something—good chance—but not quite what happened…but good enough I think to comment on. As such, let’s look at what looks like a Cliff’s Notes version of a decision brief as reported by Ravid in Sunday: Top U.S. military commander in Middle East advised halting Hormuz bombing. The top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, Adm. Brad Cooper, recommended stopping the bombing campaign around the Strait of Hormuz because it has reached the limit of its effectiveness, according to two sources with knowledge of his position. Admiral Cooper looks to be doing exactly what he is supposed to do from an Operational Planning perspective. He received Higher Direction and Guidance (D&G) and Commander’s Intent (CI) in what looks like a Sequel Plan to whatever started months ago, and worked out a series of Courses of Action (COA) to meet the D&G/CI. You want to give the Principal options, but you also want to make sure you give a clear recommendation of which COA he should pursue. Sometimes, the Principal will take your recommendation as is. Perhaps with a few minor changes, or direction to—if you’re like me and bring three COA to the briefing—instead go with one of the not-recommended COA, or something between the two. If you’ve done a really bad job, or were not privy to information you should have been known, you’ll be told to go in a completely different direction. All that is normal and expected. Each COA has its advantages and disadvantages, strengths and weaknesses—more risk in one area, less in others. Some have certain assumptions, others do not. It is an art, not a science. Earlier in the week, Admiral Cooper gave his recommendation on the way forward to the Pentagon, the joint chiefs and the White House, the sources said. He stressed that the two weeks of strikes in the Strait of Hormuz area had significantly degraded Iran’s ability to attack ships. Cooper noted that the designated bombing targets had been mostly exhausted. … He stressed that the two weeks of strikes in the Strait of Hormuz area had significantly degraded Iran’s ability to attack ships. Cooper noted that the designated bombing targets had been mostly exhausted. This looks to be part of Cooper’s Commander’s Estimate of the Situation that informs his recommendations. As this is an ongoing operation, this can and should change as facts change on the ground. The CENTCOM commander said a possible next step would be to resume major combat operations to finish the 20% of targets the U.S. military designated but didn’t strike during Operation Epic Fury. Absent a decision to return to major combat operations, he stressed there was no point in continuing the bombing campaign of the previous two weeks, the sources said. I’ve seen that “20%” number in a few places and sounds about right. I would hazard a guess that that 20% is nationwide, not limited to the Strait of Hormuz. As such, that other 20% is most likely your 3rd and 4th tier targets not worth taking the risk of losing an aircraft and crew behind enemy lines. We got good/lucky once, no need to try our luck again. At this point, we just need to let the J2 house cook. Find those military targets that threaten the Strait of Hormuz, take care of them as needed, but otherwise husband resources. As I’ve made myself clear over the last few months, mostly on the UNCLAS Read Board Podcast, I was supportive of a more limited punitive expedition and cautioned against expanding the initial mission set. It appears we are returning to centerline. If Ravid’s reporting is correct, then perhaps we are resetting to a more pragmatic and realistic stance towards Iran. Good. 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

With increased defense spending becoming the new normal and growing uncertainty on the alliance’s eastern front as the Russo-Ukrainian War enters its fifth summer, the Ankara NATO summit was more than just a photo-op. Returning to the Midrats Podcast to discuss the major takeaways will be Jorge Benitez. You can listen at this link, or via the Spotify link below. SummaryIn this episode, Dr. George Benitez discusses the recent NATO summit, focusing on defense spending, alliance strategies, and the evolving threats from Russia, China, and Iran. He provides insights into NATO’s strategic shifts, the importance of Ukraine’s potential NATO membership, and the challenges of modern military logistics and industrial capacity. Show LinksThe Ankara Summit Declaration NATO Summit history NATO nations’ defense spending as a percentage of GDP Robert Gates’s 2011 speech Patriot missiles produced in Germany TakeawaysNATO has increased defense spending by 20% since 2023, with a goal of 5% of GDP. Ukraine’s military readiness and combat experience are vital for NATO deterrence. The alliance’s focus on China has waned, despite growing threats from Chinese cooperation with Russia and Iran. European defense industries are expanding production, e.g., Patriot missile manufacturing in Europe. Geography and proximity to Russia heavily influence NATO members’ defense budgets and perceptions of threat. Chapters00:00: Introduction and overview of NATO summit 02:07: Dr. Benitez’s insights on NATO’s recent summit 04:12: US leadership and NATO’s Article 5 reaffirmation 05:50: Defense spending commitments and burden sharing 08:10: Russian threat and European defense efforts 12:22: Geography and threat perception in NATO 20:00: Ukraine’s role and NATO expansion 37:55: China’s evolving role and NATO’s strategic focus 45:25: European defense industries and supply chain resilience 01:01:17: European and NATO industrial cooperation 01:02:40: Closing remarks and follow-up Dr. Jorge Benitez is Associate Professor of International Relations at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College. Before he joined the faculty of the Marine Corps Command and Staff College, Dr. Benitez served as a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, where he regularly briefed senior US and foreign officials on national security issues. Earlier in his career, he served as Assistant for Alliance issues to the Director of NATO Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He also worked on international security issues at the Department of State and the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis. You can follow his coverage of security issues on X @NATOSource. Dr. Benitez received a B.A. with honors from the University of Florida, where he majored in both Political Science and History. He later graduated with an M.P.P. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. 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

A Romanian F-16 fighter jet shot down a Russian-linked drone over the Black Sea on Sunday morning, marking the third such intercept in just three days, and Romania’s president says the country has had enough. President Nicusor Dan confirmed that Romanian Air Force pilots downed the drone at 10:13 a.m. local time roughly 12 kilometers […]View the full article

Uzbekistan’s president just got a firsthand look at armored personnel carriers, a self-propelled howitzer, and an upgraded Soviet-era tank rolling out of a factory that barely existed five years ago, and the visit signals a country quietly building its own domestic arms industry from scratch. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev toured the Nurafshon Makhsus Tekhnika enterprise in […]View the full article

An unmanned boat has launched a drone into the air over open ocean, all without a single person on board either vehicle, and the demonstration could change how the Royal Navy watches its own waters. British maritime robotics company ACUA Ocean and American sensor and drone manufacturer Teledyne FLIR Defense confirmed they completed two days […]View the full article

A French rocket engine just fired 21 times in a row, and the company behind it says the hardware survived well enough to fly again. That combination, repeated ignition and confirmed reusability, is exactly what a small aerospace startup needs to prove before anyone lets its hypersonic drone near real flight testing, and this week […]View the full article

The UK Ministry of Defence announced this week that it has chosen the Tekever AR5, a surveillance drone built by the UK-based company Tekever, to replace the British Army’s aging Watchkeeper fleet under a deal worth up to $533 million over the next ten years. The program, called Project CORVUS, will see the Army field […]View the full article

Some sources: “War in Ukraine. Volume 2: Russian Invasion, February 2022. Tom Cooper, Adrien Fontanellaz, Edward Crowther and Milos Sipos. Helion Books 2023. Hostomel: 3,502 Meters That Broke the “Kyiv in Three Days...— Ukrinform.https://warontherocks.com/the-battle-of-hostomel-airport-a-key-moment-in-russias-defeat-in-kyiv/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Antonov_Airport https://theaviationgeekclub.com/russias-implausible-claim-that-200-helicopters-took-part-in-antonov-airport-assault-the-disastrous-russian-seize-of-hostomel-airport/ https://mwi.westpoint.edu/urban-warfare-project-case-study-12-battle-of-kyiv/

Assault on Hostomel-Antonov Airport. February 24, 2022. Historical Scenario. Assault on Hostomel-Antonov Airport. February 24, 2022. Historical Scenario. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for EC2003 Battle for the Mediterranean Battleset and the HCDB2-170909 (or later) 1980-2025 era Platform Database. This scenario is designed with Advanced Scenario Editor Build 2017.013 and to be run with HCE 2015.008+ or later. This scenario is designed to be played from the Blue/Ukrainian side or from the Red/Russian side. You should play a few times first the Blue side to avoid spoilers, and only later play the Red side. Image: The only one An-225 Mriya (Dream) destroyed in the Hostomel-Antonov airport aside many other destroyed aircrafts, photo took fifty days after the Russian invasion, and released for enhancing the idea of resistance. The largest and most powerful transport aircraft on the planet had set 240 world records, but for the Ukrainians Dream will never die. Photo by KCSA, Oleksii Samsonov, and this file comes from the website of the Kyiv City Council and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. and took from Wikipedia Commons. From the eventful year of 2014 (Mainly from the Russian invasion of Crimea) the world was beginning clearly the so-called Second Cold War, the President of Russia Vladimir Putin (ex-KGB lieutenant colonel) was showing clearly his plan to recover the Russian Empire including previous Soviet territories for reinstitute the greatness of "his" Russia, and to guarantee his passage on the History as saviour of the Rodina. After the massive Russian build-up of forces from late 2021 in Russia and Belarus near the Ukrainian border, NATO forces were forced to an increased and constant deployment near Ukraine and the Eastern Mediterranean, to deterrent Putin's ambition. The probably original plan was to avoid an intervention by NATO ground forces but preventing the Russian main forces to enter Ukrainian territory, and to get this target to establish an air and sea exclusion zone around and over Ukraine. But at last, on February 24, 2022, Russian forces invaded Ukraine against most forecast, sinking the world in a new state of international relations, as consequence of a long and failed campaign of unexpected outcomes. One of the first military actions was a Russian heliborne assault (From the theoretically “neutral” Belarus! Also Russian armoured columns came from Belarus) on the Hostomel-Antonov international cargo airport and testing facility, some 20 nautical miles from the Ukrainian capital city, Kyiv. The original Russian idea was the late arrival of airborne troops on Hostomel-Antonov via Il-76 Candid, but the runway was very damaged after the initial battle. The surprise of improvised defence by very small Ukrainian forces turn the Russians away from the airport grounds in the evening of the same February 24 and very possibly preventing the occupation of Kyiv by Russia. But the next day a second wave heliborne and armoured force took the airport for the invader Russians. But the airport was abandoned on April 2 by the Russian forces when them “strategically” retired from the Kyiv Oblast. The forces available to both sides are very small in this scenario, to reflect the chaos and surprise of the Russian invaders in face of the opposition of the Ukranian forces, and the improvised defence by the Ukranian side. Another legend born those days was the MIG-29 “Ghost of Kyiv”, some of it is also reflected in the scenario. A very simple and easy scenario, at least apparently, and perhaps surprisingly balanced. Could you do better than Russian or Ukrainian historical forces on this scenario? Enrique Mas, July 26, 2026. File Information Submitter broncepulido Submitted 07/26/2026 Category MEDC View File

A North Carolina Air National Guard unit, part of the U.S. military’s part-time reserve force, wants to give its people the ability to quietly fly themselves into places a helicopter would get shot down trying to reach, and the shopping list it just published reads less like a defense contract and more like gear for […]View the full article

The U.S. Department of the Air Force published a market research notice this week seeking companies capable of designing, developing, prototyping, manufacturing and fielding what it calls a Semi-Autonomous Collaborative Platform, government shorthand for an uncrewed jet aircraft smart enough to fly and fight alongside a piloted fighter without a human controlling every move. The […]View the full article

U.S. Marine Corps attack and utility helicopters are heading into a major upgrade built specifically to carry the next generation of weapons, and the electrical rewiring needed to make that possible just landed a $33.6 million contract. Naval Air Systems Command handed Bell Textron, the Fort Worth, Texas manufacturer that builds both helicopters, the deal […]View the full article

The U.S. Defense Logistics Agency awarded Rockwell Collins ESA Vision Systems, a Fort Worth, Texas company, an estimated $333 million contract to supply spare parts and repair services for the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System, a fighter pilot’s helmet that doubles as a targeting computer. The system, known in defense circles by its acronym JHMCS, […]View the full article

The U.S. Space Development Agency, the Pentagon office building America’s next generation of missile-tracking satellites, awarded General Dynamics Mission Systems a contract with a ceiling of $400 million to develop the ground segment for Tranche Three of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, the government’s name for a sprawling network of satellites meant to give American […]View the full article

Three countries have taken a real step toward keeping their new stealth fighters flying without shipping them back to Texas every time something breaks, and the Pentagon just handed Lockheed Martin $23 million to make it happen. The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command awarded Lockheed Martin Corporation, the Fort Worth, Texas defense giant that builds […]View the full article

An electric motor smaller than a coffee mug might decide whether America’s drone army flies during the next crisis, and the U.S. Army has placed a nearly $80 million bet on building that motor at home instead of buying it from a country Pentagon planners increasingly view as an adversary. The Department of War announced […]View the full article

A single explosion at one South Korean missile factory has exposed just how fragile the supply chain behind the country’s booming arms export business really is, since many of the components that go into a guided missile can only be built by one qualified company in the entire nation. The Korea Times reported that the […]View the full article

Romania shot down a second drone in its own airspace within 24 hours on Saturday morning, a milestone that would have been unthinkable for a NATO member just weeks ago and now marks the second time in two days that Romanian pilots have opened fire inside their own country’s skies. President Nicușor Dan announced the […]View the full article

North Korea has resumed sending Russia one of its deadliest ballistic missiles, a weapon that started this war as a punchline for its terrible aim and has since become one of the most accurate short-range missiles in Moscow’s arsenal. That’s according to Polkovnik GSH, an open-source intelligence account with close ties to Ukraine’s armed forces, […]View the full article