Raw Intel

Everyone should be familiar with what a “stress test” is, like your doctor gives you if he thinks you have a problem with your ticker. That or if you served, a “smoke check” with either a piece of equipment or a person. If you really want to find out where there is a weakness in a system is so you can make changes, reinforce, or simply know where the limits are—you need to stress the system to its design limit. The problems will reveal themselves. Even weak and suboptimal systems can get along just fine as long as they are not under stress. Do that too long, and you never really know if the system will function fully as designed when you need it at full performance. Heck,…

The United States Army has awarded a four-year contract to Global Military Products to assume facility management and new product development responsibilities at the Quad Cities Cartridge Case Facility (QCCCF) at Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois, according to an April 1 announcement. The government-owned site, which has operated for more than a century as part […]View the full article

Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation confirmed the new Su-57 prototype’s maiden flight, with test pilot and Hero of Russia Sergei Bogdan at the controls in a sortie described by officials as proceeding normally in accordance with its test plan. Denis Manturov, Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister, announced the milestone, describing the aircraft as a platform combining […]View the full article

A matte-black Mitsubishi Delica D:5 minivan bearing no license plates, no unit markings, and a rooftop loaded with cameras, sensors, antennas, and a loudspeaker was photographed operating near Japan’s largest Ground Self-Defense Force live-fire exercise in Shizuoka Prefecture on June 7, 2026, according to Japanese military photo journalist Masaya Takewaka, writing for Transport News. The […]View the full article

A ceasefire that ended a war three weeks ago collapsed within hours on Tuesday, after gunfire and explosions started flying between the United States and Iran again, and President Donald Trump stood in front of reporters at a NATO summit and simply declared it dead. The immediate spark was a string of attacks on commercial […]View the full article

A very strange and rather short article came out yesterday from Richard Fontaine, the CEO at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). I shouldn’t have to say this, but I will: this isn’t personal, this is professional. I had to double-check the publication date as it just read, well, strange. But no, August 4th, 2026. Its title, Japan isn’t rearming. It’s adapting to a new era. It is something if it were written by someone else, I might ignore…but Richard isn’t just some rando anon pounding away on Substack…so here we go. In the name of all that is holy. I know Richard has been in DC a long time and is well soaked in the Beltway NATSEC miasma…but someone has to put …

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a U.S. federal agency, is moving to buy a single armored vehicle from Roshel LLC on a sole-source basis, saying its current fleet of armored trucks has aged to the point where some units date back to 2008 and are becoming too unreliable to drive long distances. […]View the full article

I have an affection for all the ships I have been on, and the Big E is one of my girls. I like to keep an eye on her. She’s the ship that keeps on giving, in a lot of ways. I am quite sure that when the USS Enterprise (CVN 65) was laid down during the Eisenhower Administration just 13 years after the end of WWII, someone had to have thought, “How are they going to deal with all the radioactive bits when they decommission her in the next century?” I’d place a pretty good bet that in hushed tones, the general response was, “We’ll be dead by then. That will be someone else’s problem.” Maybe not. Back then they probably thought we’d do something responsible like, “Oh, they’ll…

The U.S. Army has placed a second order for the FD-1, a drone interceptor that a single soldier can set up and launch in under two minutes, from Florida-based Mountain Horse Solutions, less than a year after the system first came to the service’s attention. The order was issued on Oct. 8 by the U.S. […]View the full article

Americas Over the weekend, Israel’s Defense Ministry completed the delivery of Iron Dome air defense systems to the US Army under an agreement between the two countries, providing the second of two batteries. The systems will be employed in the defense of US troops against a variety of ballistic and aerial threats. The United States and Israel signed the agreement in August 2019 for the provision of two Iron Dome batteries. The first was delivered in September and is already being prepared for operational use. The second was also delivered in accordance with the project schedule. The delivery was made by the Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO), part of the Defense …

One of the most compartmentalized areas, rightfully, in the national security apparatus involve the electromagnetic spectrum. Has been true for most of the last century. Radar, radio, and now IP based systems - they all can either be used to find or reveal your side or the other's location. "War winning technology" is perhaps an overused phrase, but some of these capabilities seem to be close to that. Some are hidden in plain sight, others with elaborate cover stories, some hidden in riddles and spin. One thing I keep telling myself as I type out my thoughts almost every day, is to remember that what I once knew is with each passing year very dated, and even when in the…

So, PERS-41, the Director of Surface Officer Assignments, is coming to give everyone a brief. Great! For you career minded folks who want to see what is expected of you, there is no better source. So, what's on the agenda? Of course, you can almost feel the oxygen leave the room. Of course. This is 2021, and as you have not had the Diversity Industry talking points thrown at you every 15-seconds, after the, "Why I am Interesting" introduction, PERS-41 will lead with that. Of course. Before we get to those slides, I want you to remember something for me. As this is 2021, at the very highest levels the mask has slipped - like we saw last week. Welcome this fact. It makes i…

Americas General Dynamics won a $533 million deal for Lead Yard Support and Development Studies and Design efforts related to Virginia-class submarines. The deal includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of the modification to $813,720,300. The Virginia-Class new attack submarine is an advanced stealth multimission nuclear-powered submarine for deep ocean anti-submarine warfare and littoral (shallow water) operations. Work will take place in Connecticut and Virginia. Expected completion will be by October 2023. Thomas Instrument won a $13.6 million deal for depot-level overhaul services of the C-5 dual-powered winch, National Stock Number 168…

Americas The Charles Stark won a $95.1 million modification, which exercises fiscal 2023 options to provide technical and engineering services necessary to maintain and sustain the Trident II Strategic Weapon System MK 6 Guidance subsystem. The effort also includes a requirement for strategic guidance, navigation, and control subject matter expertise and resources to plan and […]View the full article

Americas Lockheed Martin Aeronautics won an $8.4 million modification, which adds scope to procure diminishing manufacturing sources in support of production, retrofit, spares, replenishment and repairs for the F-35 Lightning II program for the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, Foreign Military Sales customers, and non-US Department of Defense participants. Work will be performed in Fort […]View the full article

Americas Technology company Shield AI has conducted a “groundbreaking” demonstration of coordinated autonomous flight on two Kratos MQM-178 Firejets. The planes were flown by the company’s Hivemind artificial intelligence pilots, collaborating to execute coordinated maneuvers under realistic combat scenarios. All computing was executed on board, and communication “seamlessly integrated” on board the aircraft, the San Diego-based firm said. The US Army has awarded Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) a $93.5-million contract to lead systems integration for the High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES) program. The deal supports the service’s efforts to employ a n…

Americas The US Marine Corps has created the Marine Corps Attack Drone Team (MCADT) to enhance combat effectiveness by integrating advanced drone technology into its operations. This team will focus on training Marines to use first-person view (FPV) drones, which are increasingly important in modern conflicts. MCADT will also act as a hub for expertise in drone tactics, helping the Marine Corps develop new capabilities and refine requirements for unmanned systems. Based at Weapons Training Battalion in Quantico, Virginia, the team will collaborate with the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory to ensure Marines remain agile and effective in evolving battlefields. The initia…

The British Army has received its first domestically built Boxer armored vehicle, marking a key milestone in the United Kingdom’s £5 billion ($7 billion) program to deliver 623 units across multiple variants. Produced by Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL) at its Telford facility, the vehicle has been transported to Bovington, where it will serve as […] The post First UK-made Boxer joins British Army first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Pratt & Whitney, a business unit of RTX, has been awarded an $18 million engine sustainment contract from the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), the company announced. The agreement covers continued maintenance and support for the TF33 engines powering NATO’s fleet of E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft. The three-year contract […] The post Pratt & Whitney to support NATO’s AWACS fleet first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Ukrainian forces have released a short video showing what appears to be the first combat interception of a Russian Kh-69 stealth cruise missile using the U.S.-made VAMPIRE counter-UAS system. The video, published by the Ukrainian military, shows the system engaging an incoming aerial target during a recent Russian missile strike on Ukraine. Though the military […] The post Cheap U.S. rocket system downs Russian stealth missile first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article