All Activity
- Today
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Defence Blog - Russia’s warship put garden mesh on its hull to stop drones
A photograph making the rounds among Russian military analysts shows the Russian Navy’s latest answer to Ukraine’s growing drone threat at sea: a thin green mesh net, the kind more commonly found on garden trellises or insect screens, draped over the superstructure of a 40-year-old landing ship tasked with escorting a cargo vessel through the […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Ukraine’s drone hunters can’t keep up with Russia’s fastest drones
Ukraine’s drone interceptor crews cannot reliably chase down Russia’s new jet-powered attack drones because their aircraft simply are not fast enough to catch them before their batteries run out, a frontline Ukrainian air defense commander has revealed in an interview to Militarnyi. The commander, who goes by the call sign “Ramzes” and leads the anti-drone […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Indian truck-mounted cannon enters the U.S. Army artillery race
An Indian-made artillery gun is now in the running to equip the U.S. Army, after AM General, the Michigan-based military vehicle maker best known for building the Humvee, signed a strategic partnership with India’s Kalyani Strategic Systems Limited at the Eurosatory defense exposition in Paris on June 18, 2026, and immediately submitted a joint proposal […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - U.S. Navy research chief: stop copying what industry builds
The U.S. Navy is overhauling how it moves research from laboratory to warship, with its top science official announcing a new strategy that strips bureaucracy from the development pipeline and demands that the service’s $3 billion annual research budget stop competing with the private sector for work that commercial investors will fund on their own, […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - U.S. Marines launch spy drone from warship deep in the South China Sea
A surveillance drone that needs no runway, no catapult, and no dedicated launch infrastructure lifted off from the deck of a U.S. Navy warship in the South China Sea on June 17, 2026, and in doing so illustrated exactly the kind of warfare that keeps Chinese military planners up at night. Marines and Department of […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Saudi base completes first Typhoon heavy overhaul outside Europe
King Fahd Air Base in Taif, Saudi Arabia, has marked a significant milestone in the Royal Saudi Air Force’s drive toward defense self-sufficiency, completing the first scheduled heavy maintenance overhaul of an RSAF Eurofighter Typhoon following the aircraft’s accumulation of 2,500 flight hours. The operation was conducted entirely on Saudi soil over a period of […]View the full article
- Yesterday
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Defence Blog - Laser drone-killer robot displayed at Detroit defense show
A robotic combat vehicle carrying an autonomous laser weapon system designed to shoot down drones rolled onto the floor of a Detroit manufacturing conference this week, placing one of the most futuristic weapons concepts in modern defense squarely in the middle of America’s industrial heartland. Aurelius Systems, a defense technology company developing autonomous directed energy […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - UK startup tests new long-range strike missile
A small British aerospace company has successfully flight-tested a long-range strike weapon under a UK Ministry of Defence program, validating a development model that bypassed the traditional procurement bureaucracy and delivered a working one-way attack system at a fraction of the cost and time that established defense primes typically require. Rotron Aerospace, a UK-based advanced […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Europe missile maker develops new deep strike weapon
Europe’s largest missile manufacturer has successfully fired its newest ground-launched deep strike weapon twice in the span of three months, completing a development cycle so compressed that the weapon went from drawing board to live firing in under a year, a timeline that would have been considered impossible by conventional defense industry standards a decade […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Boeing KC-46 boom falls into Atlantic in second snap-off in a year
A known design flaw in the U.S. Air Force’s newest and most expensive aerial refueling tanker has now contributed to four separate midair accidents since 2022, including two incidents where the aircraft’s refueling boom, a 15-meter (50-foot) telescoping arm worth millions of dollars, was torn completely off the plane and fell into the ocean, Task […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Britain seeks missile launchers for its crewless warship fleet
Britain’s military is exploring a radical new concept for its naval missile defenses, one where warships and robotic vessels can sit armed and ready to fire for a month at a time with nobody on board to maintain them, and the UK Ministry of Defence is now asking the defense industry to help figure out […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Russia lays keel of ninth Yasen-M nuclear attack submarine
Russia laid the keel of a new nuclear-powered attack submarine on June 17, 2026, the first vessel of its class to enter construction in six years and a signal that Moscow is pressing ahead with its most capable undersea weapons program despite the enormous financial and industrial strain of the war in Ukraine. The ceremony […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Turkish firm STM builds second logistics ship for Portuguese Navy
Turkey has begun construction of a second naval replenishment and logistics support ship for the Portuguese Navy, marking a significant expansion of Ankara’s defense export portfolio into NATO’s maritime domain, Ulusavunma reported. STM, Savunma Teknolojileri Mühendislik, the Ankara-based state-affiliated Turkish defense technology company that serves as the prime contractor for the program, started construction of […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Mystery shrouded fighter jet spotted at Japan’s top test base
A mystery military aircraft draped entirely in white fabric was spotted at Japan’s Gifu Air Base on June 18, 2026, triggering immediate speculation across defense-focused social media about what the shrouded airframe might be and why it was being kept hidden in plain sight on an active flight line. The sighting was first posted by […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Russia reportedly upgrades Mi-28NM attack helicopter to fight drones
Russia appears to have modified its most advanced attack helicopter with new electronic warfare equipment, and the changes visible in recently released Russian military footage suggest the Mi-28NM is being adapted to counter the drone threat that has fundamentally reshaped the battlefield over Ukraine. Israeli defense analyst Guy Plopsky, who closely tracks Russian military aviation […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Leonardo wins UK deal to keep Britain’s warplanes ready
Britain’s military aircraft fleet, from Typhoon fighter jets to Chinook helicopters currently flying combat support missions in the Middle East, will stay in the air under a new contract that ensures a steady supply of the thousands of small consumable parts that keep modern warplanes mission-ready. The National Armaments Director Group, the UK defence procurement […]View the full article
- Last week
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Defence Blog - Kremlin moves to launch new mobilization wave
Russia is preparing a new mobilization wave, and the evidence is no longer confined to analyst assessments — it is showing up in deleted government reports, police roundups on city streets, and a sitting member of Russia’s own parliament warning publicly that the Kremlin has run out of other options. Mobilization drills for civil administrators […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Roshel develops new-generation of Captain armored vehicle
A Canadian armored vehicle manufacturer has unveiled a new generation of one of its most versatile protected vehicles, building it on an entirely new platform and pushing its payload capacity to levels the company says are the highest in its class, at a moment when demand for light protected mobility has rarely been stronger. Roshel, […]View the full article
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CDR Salamander - Fullbore Friday
On Thursday, we were reminded what the word exceptional actually means. Three were awarded the Medal of Honor. I tried to find a copy of the text of their citations, but they are not posted yet that I could find. Retired Marine Corps Maj. James Capers Jr.: Recognized for his exceptional bravery and leadership while leading a rescue mission while severely wounded during the Vietnam War. Retired Army Maj. Nicholas Dockery: Awarded for his courageous actions and for defending his platoon while under heavy attack in the Kapisa Province of Afghanistan. Late Marine Corps Col. John W. Ripley (Posthumous): Honored for his extraordinary heroism during the Vietnam War, where he exposed himself to intense fire to rig and detonate explosives that destroyed the Dong Ha Bridge and halted an enemy advance. We covered him in March, if you’d like to read more. If you missed it, here’s the video. Any more commentary on my part would be superfluous. Share Leave a comment This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. View the full article
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Defence Blog - Idaho Guard swaps 70-ton tanks for light utility vehicles
An Idaho National Guard cavalry unit that once rode into battle on horses and later trained on 70-ton tanks reorganized from an armored combined arms battalion into a mobile infantry battalion equipped with Infantry Squad Vehicles on June 18, 2026, in a ceremony that signals how profoundly the U.S. Army believes the character of ground […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - U.S. Army launches $95 million biotech accelerator
The U.S. Army is building a biotech startup accelerator designed to fast-track biological defense technologies from laboratory bench to battlefield, and it wants nonprofit organizations to run it, with up to $95 million on the table and the possibility of a follow-on contract worth as much as $500 million. The Army’s Capability Program Executive for […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Pentagon wants computers that work with almost no power or memory
The Pentagon’s most ambitious research arm wants to build computers that can think in the dark, operate on almost no power, and keep working even when their own hardware is failing, and it is now asking the technology world to help figure out how. DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Pentagon’s research and technology […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - U.S.-built M-ATV shields Ukrainian soldiers from Russian drone strike
A Ukrainian military video published this week shows the aftermath of a Russian fiber-optic FPV drone strike on an American-supplied Oshkosh M-ATV armored vehicle, with Ukrainian forces reporting that the armored crew compartment held and the soldiers inside survived the impact, though the vehicle itself suffered serious damage. The footage, released by Ukrainian military personnel, […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - China-linked spy site in Cuba is now fully operational
A sprawling Cuban intelligence facility just 145 kilometers (90 miles) from the Florida coast has completed construction of a powerful new antenna array capable of intercepting and tracking American military communications across the southeastern United States and the Caribbean, the Center for Strategic and International Studies reported on June 18, 2026. Satellite imagery analyzed by […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - South Korea and France join forces on long-range missiles
Hanwha Aerospace, the South Korean defense giant behind one of the most combat-credible rocket artillery systems currently in service, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with French defense technology company Thales on June 17, 2026, at Eurosatory 2026, the biennial land warfare exhibition held at Paris Nord Villepinte. The agreement commits the two companies to integrating […]View the full article