Raw Intel

U.S. Army armor officers argue that armored formations remain viable on the modern battlefield despite the spread of drones and precision-guided weapons, according to an essay published by the Modern War Institute at West Point. The piece, written by Lt. Col. Alan Hastings, Maj. James Casey and Capt. Elijah Leroux, responds to years of debate […]View the full article

General Dynamics Land Systems delivered its XM30 Wolf infantry fighting vehicle to the U.S. Army at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, last Friday, according to a post by Geoffrey Norman, a retired Army brigadier general now working on the GDLS team. Norman, who spent 30 years in the Army as a tanker and cavalryman, joined the […]View the full article

The U.S. Navy’s Harpoon Coastal Defense System successfully launched a Harpoon missile from land and struck a target vessel in near-shore waters during a two-day test in late July at Point Mugu Sea Range, California, the Navy said. The event, designated Developmental Test 1, brought together the Strike Weapons Program Office known as PMX-201, the […]View the full article

Somebody has to build the little wings and fins that steer America’s main air-to-air missile, and this week that job went to a small manufacturer most people have never heard of. BK Manufacturing, based in the small town of Arab, Alabama, just picked up a U.S. Air Force contract worth up to $28 million to […]View the full article

The U.S. Army just bought a small fleet of drones from a company most people have never heard of, and interestingly, only one company even bothered to bid for the job. The Army awarded Integrate DG LLC a contract worth up to $27.8 million to supply its Alphawing drone system, along with support gear and […]View the full article

The engine maker behind America’s most advanced fighter jet just got a quarter-billion-dollar boost to fix problems with that engine and make it more powerful. Pratt & Whitney, the company that builds the F135 engine powering every F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, received a contract modification worth up to $240.8 million from the Department of War. […]View the full article

ESOX Group has completed development of its X2 unmanned ground vehicle and opened the platform to client pilot programs, the company announced this week. The X2 uses four in-wheel electric motors, called Theron motors, delivering a combined 1,000 newton-meters of torque directly to the wheels. ESOX said the design eliminates the gearbox and driveshaft found […]View the full article

Firehawk successfully fired six Hydra-70 rockets in a live-fire test at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, the company said Friday, achieving a 100 percent success rate. The rockets were built at Firehawk’s facility in Crawford, Mississippi, and fired from an M261 rocket launcher, the launcher used operationally with the Hydra-70 system on aircraft including the AH-64 […]View the full article

In our 21st century minds, it is easy to forget that 250 years ago, residents of the 13 Colonies had only a vague concept of themselves as ‘Americans’ and of America as a nation. They were, before anything, residents of their colony/state. Indeed, in less than a century, this concept had become so strong that it was one of the issues over which we fought our Civil War. Any yet, just over a month after the 13 Colonies declared their independence, at the southern end of Long Island in New York, a few hundred men from Maryland and Delaware, part of an Army led by a Virginian fighting in a revolution started by New Englanders stood in front of a massive host of British and Ge…

Ukraine’s Security Service struck a Russian Tu-95MS strategic bomber at the Engels-2 airbase in Russia’s Saratov region overnight Friday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, citing operations by the agency’s Alpha special operations unit, Militarnyi reported. The strike marks the second time in roughly six weeks that Ukrainian drones operated by the SBU’s “Alpha” Center for Special […]View the full article

The U.S. Army signed a deal worth up to $99 million for a small handheld gadget that can detect drones and other radio signals on the battlefield. The device is called MOTH, short for a spectrum analyzer, and it’s made by a California company called Heaviside Industries. The Army’s contract runs through 2031, according to […]View the full article

Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation held a keel-laying ceremony this week at its Admiralty Shipyards for a new Project 677 Lada-class diesel-electric submarine for the Russian Navy, the company said. The submarine, designed by United Shipbuilding’s Rubin Design Bureau, has been named Maloyaroslavets. United Shipbuilding described it as the sixth submarine in the Lada series, though […]View the full article

Raytheon has completed a 17,000-square-foot (1,579 square meter) expansion of its manufacturing facility in Forest, Mississippi, the company said Thursday. The $50 million project is expected to create 100 high-skill jobs by 2028, according to Raytheon, an RTX business. The expansion will serve as a production, test and integration hub for Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band […]View the full article

A firearms and military analyst who posts under the handle Gatnerd has drawn attention on X to a pattern in recent Western weapons development: several systems now being marketed as new technology closely mirror concepts first tested during the final years of the Cold War in the 1980s. The commentary centers on the FireAnt uncrewed […]View the full article

Spain’s first two S-80 Plus class submarines put to sea together for the first time this week, the Spanish Navy said. The Isaac Peral (S-81) and the Narciso Monturiol (S-82) represent what the Navy described as another step in Spain’s strategic autonomy and its submarine force’s deterrent capability. Isaac Peral, the lead boat of the […]View the full article

MSI Defence Systems has won a £16.6 million ($22.6 million) contract to supply three 30mm naval gun systems to an unnamed NATO country, according to Navy Lookout. The deal includes MSI-DS’s own radar and optical fire-control system, which the company says allows the gun mounts to engage aircraft, drones, surface vessels and semi-submersible threats. Deliveries […]View the full article

Latvia tested a new way to protect its infantry vehicles from one of the biggest threats on today’s battlefield: cheap, swarming drones. The country’s Ministry of Defence held a demonstration Thursday at the Ādaži military base, mounting counter-drone systems onto its new Hunter infantry fighting vehicle to see how well they work. The systems came […]View the full article

Russia fired an upgraded ballistic missile at Kyiv for the first time this summer, one with roughly 40 percent more range than the version Moscow has used against Ukraine for years, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said this week. The agency, known as HUR, said the missile is called the 9M723-2. It’s an upgraded version of […]View the full article

Yesterday saw the fifth anniversary of the slaughter at Abbey Gate. Two years ago, I reposted what I wrote on that day as the news came in. I think it is time again. I will not forget. I found myself on X having a few contentious back-and-forths with people about Afghanistan this week, but on Wednesday night, a post from our friend Kristina just brought it all back to me. Good. Bit by bit, perhaps some wrongs can be made right, but much still needs to be done. Those in senior civilian leadership positions five years ago still have not been held to account. Some of the senior military leadership still avoid the topic, or try to discuss what a great NEO they conducted. Sti…

REGENT Craft has raised $240 million in Series B funding, split evenly between equity and debt, the Rhode Island-based seaglider manufacturer announced Thursday. The round was co-led by investment firms Mare Liberum and AE Ventures, with debt capital provided by Erebor Bank. The new funding brings REGENT’s total raised to date, across equity and debt, […]View the full article