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Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Oct. 29 that Russia is “ready” for a war with Europe but does not want one, and warned that a conflict between them would leave no winners, responding to European warnings that Moscow could be able to attack NATO by the end of the decade. Putin made the remarks […]View the full article

Rheinmetall has booked an order worth a medium three-digit million-euro sum for its share of 69 more Schakal wheeled infantry fighting vehicles for Germany and the Netherlands, the company announced, after the European procurement agency OCCAR exercised the first option under the program’s 2025 contract. OCCAR placed the order with ARTEC, the Rheinmetall and KNDS […]View the full article

The Finnish Defence Forces have teamed up with Helsinki-based headset maker Varjo to test and develop mixed reality training that prepares soldiers to spot and counter small attack drones, the military’s Innovation Unit and the company announced on Oct. 29. Varjo is working with a brigade-level unit of the Finnish Defence Forces on the pilot, […]View the full article

Leonardo DRS raised its full-year 2026 forecast on October 29 after reporting third-quarter revenue of $1.066 billion, up 11% from a year earlier, as demand for tactical radars, naval power and propulsion systems and space sensors drove the gain. Orders grew even faster than sales, with the Arlington, Virginia-based defense electronics maker booking $1.64 billion […]View the full article

A photo released by Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry from a visit by its top military officer to King Khalid Air Base in the kingdom’s southwest appears to show a Royal Bahraini Air Force fighter pilot and a member of the Pakistan Air Force at the base, open-source analysts at OSINTWarfare pointed out in a post. […]View the full article

U.S. Army soldiers and U.S. Air Force airmen at Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany are training on the Rapidly Deployable Small-Unmanned Air Defense System, or RD-SUADS, a palletized counter-drone system built by Trust Automation of San Luis Obispo, California, as they test how training across services can sharpen the response to drone threats, U.S. Army […]View the full article

Finland launched the third of its four new Pohjanmaa-class corvettes at Rauma on Oct. 29, putting three of the Finnish Navy’s largest warships in decades in the water, the Finnish Navy said. The ship was moved out of the construction hall at the Rauma Marine Constructions shipyard on Finland’s west coast, where fitting out will […]View the full article

As the record shows on CDR Salamander and the Midrats Podcast, our shortage of maintenance facilities and the resulting lack of capacity have been known problems for decades. We have known that we don’t have enough capacity to meet even expected peacetime requirements, much less any flex in the system for wars at sea, large or small. As such, absolutely no one should be surprised at this or think it is a new problem. If you see anyone pretending it is either, immediately understand that person is not worth listening to. Here we are, as expected, via Diana Stancy at Breaking Defense. The US Navy expects it will take years for its fleet to recover from recent drawn out deployments, with leaders bracing for a surge in maintenance work that could strain shipyard capacity and force trade-offs between repairs and modernization. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle said Monday that the service is bracing for maintenance availabilities — particularly impacting the destroyer fleet — to snowball as some of its aircraft carriers and surface vessels return from more than 300-day long periods at sea. As a result, the Navy is weighing how to prioritize repairs, shorten some timelines and defer larger projects without pushing the service’s schedule further behind. … “The industrial base will not be able to swallow that pill, and so we’ll have to sequence that,” Kilby said during an Oct. 8 National Commission on the Future of the Navy hearing. “There’s a couple things that can happen there. I’ll defer maintenance. I’ll either squish the package into the bare minimum and not do modernization things I need to do. So that’s the bill that’s being paid there.” This year, extended deployments have pushed the Navy’s ships well beyond their typical seven-month period at sea. For example, the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford completed a 326-day deployment in May — shattering the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln’s previous record of 294 days at sea in 2019 and 2020. No, it is six months, not seven. Eric Labs, a senior analyst for naval forces and weapons at the Congressional Budget Office, said the full impact of ongoing military operations on the fleet is difficult to predict because it’s unclear how long they will continue. However, he said the Navy has historically taken “at least several years” to catch up on maintenance after previous military operations that required a surge in naval capacity. “At a general level, ships that are missing their maintenance availabilities now because of ongoing operations would have that maintenance manifest itself over the next several years,” Labs told Breaking Defense. Eric is great. While Labs said that some private maintenance shipyards that work on the Navy’s surface fleet have voiced concerns about a lack of work at present, he said they would face a hefty workload once destroyers return that would create planning and workforce challenges for both industry and the service. “The private maintenance yards in the US are undergoing a famine and then, later, will experience a feast cycle,” Labs said. “The consequence of that will depend on unique ship circumstances. It could mean some ships will need to return to sea before getting all the maintenance they need, which could just exacerbate problems in the future. Or it could mean some ships will sit idle until the maintenance can be done.” Of course, the question is—when will we stop appreciating this problem, and start taking action? We will find ourselves here again. Bradley Martin, a retired Navy captain who is now a senior policy researcher at RAND, also predicted it would take years for the fleet to recover from maintenance backlogs stemming from current operations in the Middle East. He said nearly every ship class would likely be affected, although the most acute maintenance issues could hit the destroyer fleet, given its heavy operational use in the Middle East. We are seeing good movement on new construction efforts, but what about maintenance? Modernizing existing shipyards and bringing online a new public shipyard will be a great help, but this will take years to fix, and bipartisan support to ensure it does not get strangled in the cradle. Patience and persistence are needed. Lack of both is part of what got us here, but more, faster if possible. Of note, both Labs and Martin quoted in the article above have been on the Midrats Podcast in the last year. If you have not listened to their episodes, here you go! 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

Dallas-based rocket propulsion firm Firehawk has raised more than $150 million in a Series D round that values the company at more than $1.4 billion, money it will use to scale up U.S. production of rocket propellant, solid rocket motors and artillery motors, the company said on social media on Oct. 28. Private equity firm […]View the full article

Ukrainian drone maker Frontline Robotics flew its Linza bomber drone alongside German, Ukrainian and other unmanned air, ground and sea systems during Forward Edge 26, a two-week exercise in Germany hosted by Quantum Systems, the company said on social media. In one deployment, Quantum Systems’ Vector reconnaissance drone spotted simulated enemy drones along the route […]View the full article

Teledyne FLIR Defense has won a $48 million U.S. Army contract to fit Bulgaria’s new Stryker fleet with the same upgraded chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear reconnaissance sensor suite now going to U.S. Army units, the company announced on Oct. 26. U.S. Army Contracting Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, awarded the contract under a […]View the full article

Switzerland has narrowed its search for a second long-range air defense system to Israel’s Barak MX and the French-Italian SAMP/T NG, and will keep its delayed order for U.S. Patriot systems, the Swiss government decided on Oct. 28, Switzerland’s defense procurement agency armasuisse said. The Federal Council, Switzerland’s seven-member government, picked the two finalists after […]View the full article

Israeli company Smart Shooter has delivered the first batch of its SMASH Hopper MG remote weapon stations to an unnamed integrator in Asia, which is building them into a defense system for an Asian military to shoot down drones and engage ground targets, the company said on social media. Smart Shooter did not identify the […]View the full article

The British Army will buy a heavy wheeled recovery vehicle to tow and recover damaged Boxer armored vehicles in the field, after the Ministry of Defence dropped plans for a dedicated Boxer repair and recovery variant, Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard told Parliament, UK Defence Journal reported. Pollard was answering Conservative lawmaker […]View the full article

Israel’s Defense Ministry Director General, retired Maj. Gen. Amir Baram, has visited Covenant, the startup behind the Anthem low-cost cruise missile, in a tour the ministry said focused on strengthening Israel’s munitions independence, expanding its production base and preserving the country’s qualitative and technological edge in the years ahead. The ministry said on social media […]View the full article

German defense startup ARX Robotics and Ukrainian manufacturer Roboneers have completed initial integration tests of Roboneers’ SABER remote weapon station on ARX’s GEREON unmanned ground vehicle, and plan to start fitting armed versions by the end of 2026, the companies announced on Oct. 29. The first SABER modules will be integrated in M2 and MK […]View the full article

Poland will soon hand Ukraine two more MiG-29 fighter jets as part of a new military aid package worth about €50 million (about $56 million), Polish daily Rzeczpospolita reported on Oct. 29, in a story quickly picked up by Ukrainian defense outlet Milarnyi. Reserve Lt. Gen. Dariusz Łukowski, director of the Polish Defense Ministry’s Strategy […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force is looking for companies that can repair and sustain the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System-2, or ASARS-2, the imaging radar carried by the U-2 Dragon Lady spy plane, even as the service asks Congress to retire its last U-2s by the end of fiscal 2027. The Air Force Life Cycle Management […]View the full article

Taiwan detected six Chinese military aircraft, seven People’s Liberation Army Navy ships and one Chinese official ship operating around the island in the 24 hours to 6 a.m. local time on Oct. 29, the Ministry of National Defense said on social media. Five of the six aircraft sorties entered the northern, central and southwestern parts […]View the full article

North Korea launched what may have been a ballistic missile at about 12:36 p.m. local time on Oct. 29, and it is presumed to have fallen near the east coast of the Korean Peninsula without reaching Japan’s territory or exclusive economic zone, Japan’s Ministry of Defense said on social media. Tokyo said Japan, the United […]View the full article

Norway’s Kongsberg ended the third quarter of 2026 with a record order backlog of NOK 174.2 billion (about $18.8 billion), after taking in NOK 23.3 billion (about $2.5 billion) in new orders, more than double the NOK 9.5 billion it booked in the same quarter last year. The defense group reported on Oct. 29 that […]View the full article

Tennessee has launched a bid to host the planned United States Space Academy, proposing a campus at the Coffee County Joint Industrial Park near Tullahoma, minutes from Arnold Air Force Base and about 60 miles (97 km) from Huntsville, Alabama. Gov. Bill Lee announced the bid on Oct. 28 alongside U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and […]View the full article

SummaryIn Episode 49 of the UNCLASS Read Board Podcast, Sal reflects on voting ahead of election day, how Washington-area Navy leadership can shape civilian perceptions of the service, and why he believes demographic and fiscal pressures will reshape the postwar international order. He also revisits his “Terrible Twenties” forecast, comparing it with de… Read more View the full article

Finland will buy the RGW110 heavy disposable anti-tank weapon from Germany’s Dynamit Nobel Defence to replace the APILAS launcher its soldiers have carried since the 1980s, the Finnish Army said on Oct. 28. The purchase is worth about €84.5 million (about $94 million) excluding value-added tax, and deliveries of the weapons, training equipment and instruction […]View the full article

Ukraine’s parliament has approved in a first reading a 2027 state budget that sets aside 4.885 trillion hryvnias (about $107.5 billion) for security and defense, equal to 43.8% of the country’s projected gross domestic product. The Verkhovna Rada passed draft budget No. 16000 on Oct. 28 with 239 votes in favor, 25 against and 26 […]View the full article