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Bosnia and Herzegovina is doubling down on Turkish anti-drone technology, signing a new contract to acquire 10 KANGAL/ADL 100 radio-frequency jamming systems from Türkiye-based defense manufacturer ASELSAN, Turkish defense outlet Ulusavunma reported. The deal marks the latest step in a defense relationship that has already put Turkish-made drones, armored vehicles and counter-drone hardware into Bosnian […]View the full article

Ukraine’s Flamingo cruise missile has struck deep inside Russia again, this time hitting a defense plant that builds the ejection seats meant to save the lives of Russian fighter pilots and the anti-aircraft missiles meant to shoot down Ukrainian drones. Ukrainian forces attacked the Avitek plant in the Russian city of Kirov early Friday morning […]View the full article

Small and medium-sized wars that populate the periods between larger wars will always give hints to what new weapons, concepts, and technologies will be of importance in the next varsity game. The Spanish-American War and the Boer Wars at the end of the 19th and first decade of the 20th Century along with the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 gave hints to the early years of The Great War. The Spanish Civil War did the same for World War II. Wednesday’s return to the U.S. of our service members killed by Iranian attacks on our base in Jordan had me thinking again of the lessons everyone should be taking onboard from the wars in Ukraine since 2022 and those against Iran and her proxies since 2023. Over the last month, one lesson keeps seeping into my thoughts. The details of that attack, and how it echoes an issue we got our first wake-up call about over six years ago, kept coming up. That little voice in my head kept telling me the lesson is greater than what I was thinking. To make the voices happy, I figured it was time to write it down. What is bouncing around my nogg’n is not a tactical lesson about drones, combined arms, or decision cycles. No, something closer to home, literally. The larger issue is that we are reaching the point that the concept of “the rear” is rapidly decreasing. The Germans learned that by 1943. The Japanese by 1944. Everyone has forgotten it. During the Cold War, of course, we all knew that—but that was for a nuclear fight in a war expected to last hours to days or maybe a few months depending on how it started. After the Cold War, we thought—absent a localized terrorist attack here or there—that any fighting would be done “over there” not “here”. I don’t think we live in that world anymore. There is not a radical change in technology or operations, just convergent evolution of a few trends accelerated by the demands of war. Normalization of the use of conventional ballistic missiles at scale. Launch on warning is a relic of the past. It is but a booster to make an IRBM or MRBM into an ICBM. That is your high and hypersonic. Additive manufacturing and CNC machines have made everything from FPV to short-range cruise missiles (which is what Lucas-like drones are) easily made, transported, and launched in large numbers with little or no notice as your low and slow threat. All make your backyard in Oklahoma the front line. Secure, low probability of intercept/interference navigation and data communications Miniaturization of sensors and propulsion power. Appreciation of the many/small/scalable over the few/large/exquisite. The first and second are receiving a high order multiplier effect from advances in the last three. If we are going to be striking the Chinese mainland in any fight west of the International Date Line, why wouldn’t the Chinese return the favor. In a conventional exchange, it would not be an escalation, it would simply be sound military practice. As I mentioned on yesterday’s UNCLAS Read Board Podcast, we are just a half-to-full decade away from a significant threat to all we have become used to since the end of the Cold War—the security of our CONUS bases. Our Fleet Concentration Areas and Master Air Bases? That just simplifies and economizes targeting. Welcome to the renaissance of the concept of strategic homeporting and dispersal. Masses of ships tightly packed pierside and at one base, with the balance of the national inventory of a given type-model-series parked in perfect lines—open and defenseless? Our military industrial production for some capabilities at a single site location? A shallow bench of spares and reserves? No flex for repair and resupply at peace? Solutions: Disaggregate. Your “fleet concentration area” or “master base” is a national security liability. Accountants love them with equal intensity that forward-looking enemies want you to keep them. That floating barrier around your ships? That’s cute. Make base defense serious, layered, and flexible. If it can be put in a hardened shelter, put it there, especially if it has a nuclear reactor or weapon on it. What can an RPG-7-sized shaped-charge warhead do to an engineering compartment…especially a nuclear one? Do you want to see the consequence management plans for this eventuality? Don’t ask. If more than 30 percent of any capability we have is located at one place, we lose. How scalable are our low rate of production lines? What is the real cost of keeping a ship or aircraft for 50 to 60 years as opposed to putting a demand signal into the system by replacing them at 20 or 30 years? What are the second-order effects of this short-sighted decision making starving our industrial base? How scalable are our parts and repair facilities? How many ways can you move supplies if 30% of your present preferred methods are unavailable at D+1? It isn’t just our bases west of the international date line we should be concerned about, but those in Louisiana and Missouri; Georgia and Colorado. If I can wargame this out, I know people with a lot more resources and talent can. Editor’s Note: No, I will not apologize for the AI-slop poster. I kind of like how in two sentences they can produce ~87.6% of what I wanted.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

Echodyne, a radar manufacturer based in Kirkland, Washington, announced Thursday it has built a plugin that lets its MESA radar systems plug directly into ATAK, the Android Team Awareness Kit software that has become the default shared map and situational awareness tool across much of the U.S. military and a growing list of public safety […]View the full article

A Russian shipyard supplier best known for arming warships just patented a way to put its naval gun on wheels, and the design tells a story about a much larger program that appears to have stalled. Saint Petersburg-based Arsenal Machine-Building Plant, the manufacturer behind Russia’s AK-100, AK-130, AK-726 and A-192M naval guns, has patented a […]View the full article

An artillery rocket costs a fraction of what it takes to shoot one down, and that math has quietly become one of the grinding problems of the current wars and conflicts. European defense company Destinus previewed a possible answer at the Farnborough International Airshow, unveiling Vorexon, a concept-stage ground-based interceptor built to protect specific high-value […]View the full article

A military aircraft has crashed in Russia’s Moscow region near the town of Zvenigorod, with the pilot reportedly ejecting before impact, according to Russian local media and Telegram channels reporting from the scene. Footage circulating from the crash site shows wreckage and emergency response activity near Zvenigorod, roughly 40 miles (65 km) west of central […]View the full article

Thailand’s military has confirmed the arrival of a new batch of American Stryker armored vehicles, resolving the mystery behind the grainy port videos that had been circulating on social media earlier this week. The Royal Thai Army’s 11th Infantry Division Support Regiment posted the confirmation on its official Facebook page, saying its maintenance battalion deployed […]View the full article

Sikorsky, the Lockheed Martin subsidiary best known for the Black Hawk helicopter, announced Wednesday at the Farnborough International Airshow that its Nomad 100 uncrewed aircraft has completed initial ground and flight testing under DARPA’s Early VTOL Aircraft Demonstration program, known as EVADE, a fast-track Pentagon research effort designed to push new vertical takeoff aircraft from […]View the full article

France’s next long-range strike weapon might get its first real trial on Ukraine’s front line against Russian forces. According to French Aid to Europe, citing an anonymous source, prototypes of THUNDART, the system set to become the French Army’s future deep-strike capability, are expected to be tested in Ukraine. “According to an anonymous source, prototypes […]View the full article

A congressman whose own military career started at Fort Campbell has had four of his ideas written into the bill that funds and governs the entire U.S. military for the next year. Rep. Matt Van Epps, a Tennessee Republican representing the state’s 7th District, announced Wednesday that four of his amendments were included in the […]View the full article

Boeing and Lufthansa Technik Defense signed an agreement Wednesday at the Farnborough International Airshow to establish general terms for sustaining Germany’s new CH-47F Block II Chinook heavy-lift helicopters, laying the groundwork for a network of parts warehouses across the country to support the aircraft once they enter Luftwaffe service. The Bundeswehr selected the CH-47F Block […]View the full article

GE Aerospace and Magellan Aerospace Corporation announced Wednesday they have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish maintenance, repair and overhaul capabilities in Canada for the F414-GE-39E engine that powers the Saab JAS 39 Gripen E fighter, an agreement the companies explicitly tied to whether the Canadian government actually decides to buy the Gripen for […]View the full article

SummarySal reflects on 22 years of blogging and podcasting, discusses the Iran conflict, and explores strategic military considerations and future threats. TakeawaysThe importance of willpower in conflicts like Vietnam and Afghanistan The strategic significance of the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea The evolving threat of missile and drone technology The need … Read more View the full article

AM General, the South Bend, Indiana manufacturer that has built the Humvee since the 1980s, was awarded a $98.7 million contract modification, according to a Department of War contract announcement, adding to an existing agreement for various models of the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, commonly known as the Humvee. The modification pushes the total […]View the full article

TCOM LP, based in Columbia, Maryland, was awarded a $447 million contract by U.S. Army Contracting Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, to handle production, fielding, sustainment and lifecycle support for the Persistent Surveillance Systems-Tethered family of systems, an aerostat-based surveillance program the Army has relied on for more than a decade. The contract itself […]View the full article

The Pentagon’s Space Systems Command awarded Rocket Lab USA a $266 million contract for suborbital launch services, according to a Department of War contract announcement, covering 12 confirmed launches with an option for six more, all to be conducted from the Pacific Spaceport Complex on Kodiak Island, Alaska, through the end of 2028. The contract […]View the full article

NODA AI announced Wednesday it has secured a $10 million contract from the Department of War, the current name for the Department of Defense, to develop software that lets American military drones and autonomous vehicles keep executing a commander’s orders even after enemy jamming or cyberattacks cut off their communications links. The contract funds an […]View the full article

Footage of Stryker armored vehicles rolling off a cargo ship at a Thai port has been circulating on TikTok this week, and an open-source account tracking the videos says it points to a fresh shipment of American military hardware arriving in Thailand. The account, run by a user posting as Hem on X under the […]View the full article

I remember sending this off into the ether with a shrug 22 years ago as if it were yesterday. 22nd anniversaries are not that big of a deal, and I know many of you, like my friend Sid, have been with us from the start. I did a good origin story on the 20th anniversary post, so if you’re new, give it a read. At the 20th anniversary, my friend Claude Berube was kind enough to interview me on the inarguable UNCLAS Read Board Podcast that is outside the paywall. I think it ages well. I think for the rest of the 22nd I wanted to take note of a few things. First of all, in the last year, we saw the passing of a CDR Salamander Plankowner, Byron Audler, in April. A good man I had the pleasure of breaking bread with a few times. We also saw last fall the aforementioned Claude Berube—after two decades at the front of the maritime national security debate—decided to decouple from all that, delete almost everything online, and concentrate on things locally. As he told everyone for years, as his 60th year approached, another friend, Bryan McGrath, decided to back away from everything but musings on his Substack. Like with Claude, I respect their decision, but I will not take their path…at least not anytime inside the horizon I see. I know I’ve used the word “friend” a lot in this post. It isn’t by accident. There are “online friends” that may or may not be a friend IRL if they lived nearby. There are DC friends that really aren’t but are nice to be around as long as you understand the nature of that town and the reality that the friendship will exist only as long as they find you useful. That’s OK. It just is. There are also allies, some in the open and some you work with on issues in the background. Those are solid as well. There are also many of you—some who I have had the pleasure of meeting IRL—who I do consider in that perfect circle of acquaintances and friends that I enjoy seeing in comments and when fate allows us to gossip in person between panel discussions, share an adult beverage and/or cigar. Some, like Sid, Byron, Claude, and Bryan, I’ve know for a decade or two, some just in the last few months, but one way or another, allow me to say, “thank you.” Thank you for taking time out of your day to pay a visit here, leave a comment, drop a DM or email, or otherwise just entertain my imperfect observations of the things I see along the waterfront. Here’s to another year—and again, thank you for being part of the CDR Salamander community. Oh, and as a side note, as has become a tradition in the couple of years since I put out the tip jar, if you’ve been pondering becoming part of the paid subscriber community of CDR Salamander underwriters, we have an anniversary sale discount of 22% on yearly or monthly subscriptions which, in addition to my unwavering gratitude, gives you access to the paid-subscriber-only UNCLAS Read Board Podcast. If you are so inclined, follow the link and claim your discount before it expires at midnight Eastern. 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

Raytheon, the RTX-owned defense manufacturer based in Andover, Massachusetts, announced that the U.S. Navy awarded it a $1.8 billion contract extension for hardware production and sustainment of the SPY-6 family of radars, building on an initial contract the company received in March 2022. The extension carries options that, if the Navy exercises all of them, […]View the full article

The British defense giant unveiled BlackThorn, a new family of modular warheads built specifically for the current wave of cheap, mass-produced weapons reshaping modern warfare, from autonomous drones and one-way attack munitions to counter-drone interceptors, missiles and unmanned ground vehicles. BAE Systems designed the warhead family to be modular, meaning the same core technology can […]View the full article

BAE Systems, Boeing and Saab announced they have signed a formal teaming agreement to jointly pursue the UK’s next generation pilot training program, built around Boeing’s T-7 trainer jet, and the deal commits the companies to building a brand new final assembly and integration facility inside Britain. Advanced fast jet training currently runs through the […]View the full article

BAE Systems announced at the Farnborough International Airshow that it has signed a licensing agreement with an unnamed strategic defense partner to support local manufacture of the Light Gun artillery system inside Ukraine, giving Kyiv’s defense industry direct access to the technical know-how behind a weapon British and Commonwealth forces have relied on for half […]View the full article

Somewhere in a Chinese factory right now, a machine is stamping out a rare earth magnet that could end up inside a U.S. missile, and until this week, the Pentagon had no reliable way to force American weapons makers to stop that from happening. President Trump signed an executive order on July 20, 2026 aimed […]View the full article