Raw Intel

Americas The Canadian government has taken the first step in allocating funds for modernizing the North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD). “This funding will enable the enhancement of all-domain surveillance of our northern approaches and renewed investment in continental defence more broadly,” said the spokesperson for Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan. The US and Canada created NORAD in the 1950s to protect North America from a Soviet nuclear attack. Strings of radars and air bases were built to detect and stop incoming missiles and bombers, and placed under a unique joint command. All of the 57 active US Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers were indefinitely grounded this week…

Americas Textron Systems won an $11.3 million deal for the logistics and repair support of MV-22B, CMV-22 (Navy) and CV-22 (Air Force) Osprey components in support of the Joint Service Electronic Combat Systems Tester system. The V-22 Osprey is a joint-service, medium-lift, multimission tilt-rotor aircraft developed by Boeing and Bell Helicopters. Work will take place in Maryland. Estimated completion will be by August 2026. An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with a test re-entry vehicle was launched by Airmen from the Global Strike Command on August 11. During this launch, a Hi Fidelity Joint Test Assembly re-entry vehicle that detonate…

People who have both friends and enemies on the political left and the political right are, for me at least, some of the most interesting in the public arena. They are either doing something very right, or doing a lot very wrong - maybe both. What they usually are not are hyper-political random partisan talking point generators. One of those people is LTG H.R. McMaster, USA (Ret.). At the end of September, he showed up at a conference with a blow torch in one hand and a pair of pliers in the other. I have a few pull quotes and links to the full video from the 4th Great Power Competition Conference over at USNIBlog. Come by and give it a read and listen. http://feeds.fee…

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BRmsJF5OaUI/U8iUfbR92HI/AAAAAAAAIXI/VoI93S9dJF0/s200/220px-Yi_Sun-sin_1.jpg Have you ever heard of Admiral Yi of the Royal Korean Navy? Shame ... he was a complete stud ... and completely Fullbore. This is also instructive for those who think the whole Korea vs Japan thingy just has to do with WWII. No ... a lot deeper than that. It is hard to find good articles online about him outside Wikipedia - so I at least have to use their description of him for the uninitiated - it really is good; Yi Sun-shin (Hangul: 이순신; hanja: 李舜臣; April 28, 1545 – December 16, 1598) was a Korean naval commander, famed for his victories against the Japanese navy du…

Along the spectrum from peacetime exercises to wartime combined operations, successfully integrating multinational forces is not a pick-up game. To do it right requires leaders and institutions years of practice, trust, and demonstrated ability. This is true of all military operations, but especially true when moving forces ashore during amphibious operations. In our constellation of allies, partners and friends along the shores of the Indo-Pacific theater, since 2015 the United States Marine Forces Pacific has led the multi-national Pacific Amphibious Leaders Symposium. Today we are going to dive in to not just the symposium itself to the broader topic of combined amphib…

The last few weeks have been filled with discussions about possible Russian use of tactical nuclear weapons – probably in a demonstration first – because of their collapsing conventional war in Ukraine. There are lots of different scenarios/vignettes you can go through and could spend all day or more on each one, but I’d like to pull one out for you today that brings together a few threads we’ve seen the last nine months. Here are the threads we are going to pull in to the primary subject of this wargame: the Russian Federation decides to demonstrate their willingness to use tactical nuclear weapons. Threads common to this war so far: Russian “gun decking” of material r…

In the second half of the first decade of this century, I had the chance to work with two Estonian Officers, one a Major and the other a Colonel. The Major was a talkative and entertaining man who had some great stories about being a conscript at the end of the Soviet Union. The Colonel started his career as a Soviet Junior Officer - and a very serious man. His Russian was better than his English, and though he was a nice man and great professional, he was not a chatty person about anything prior to 1991. In Afghanistan, I kept an eye on the exceptional work the Estonians did in RC(S), and before I moved back to the USA at the end of the decade I had a chance to visit Ta…

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $50 million to provide associated engineering support for Terminal High Altitude Air Defense 5.0 Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile segment enhancement component development. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, Texas, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2025. The 71st […]View the full article

Americas Saab has won a $494-million contract to supply the US Army with XM919 Individual Assault Munitions (IAM). According to the US Department of Defense, the Swedish company’s proposal bested two others, but it did not reveal the names of the losing firms. Several reports indicate that General Dynamics and Norwegian-Finnish defense conglomerate Nammo also submitted bids. Lockheed Martin won a $3 billion deal, which procures training system and simulation design, development, integration, test, production, deployment, modifications/upgrades, and sustainment in support of the F-35 Lightening II aircraft for the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, non-US Department of Defense…

Polish prosecutors, counterintelligence, and tax authorities are investigating a Warsaw-based company that received nearly 100 million złoty (about $25 million) from a South Korean defense contractor shortly after multi-billion-dollar arms deals were signed between Warsaw and Seoul. The investigation, launched in June by the Warsaw Regional Prosecutor’s Office, is linked to Poland’s high-value defense purchases […] The post Poland launches probe into Korean arms contracts first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

On September 3, 2025, during a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the end of World War II, China’s state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC) reported the successful deployment of its laser-based counter-drone systems in central Beijing. The company said in a statement […] The post China unleashes laser defenses over capital first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

North Korea presented a new multiple launch rocket system during its latest military parade in Pyongyang, a platform that observers say closely resembles the U.S.-made M142 HIMARS. The new system, seen moving through the capital’s streets in convoy formation, has not yet been named, and its performance characteristics remain undisclosed. A column of several new […] The post North Korea builds its own version of HIMARS first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Russia has announced the delivery of a new batch of Su-34 fighter-bombers to its armed forces, according to a statement from the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC). The aircraft are intended to support ongoing combat operations and replace losses sustained during Russia’s war in Ukraine, where the platform has been heavily used in strike missions. According […]View the full article

Teledyne FLIR Defense, a division of Teledyne Technologies Incorporated, has received a $42.5 million contract from the U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command under Delivery Order 3 of the Organic Precision Fires-Light (OPF-L) program, the company announced this week. According to a press release from Teledyne FLIR, the contract covers the delivery of more than 600 […]View the full article

Denmark’s Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organization has procured eight unmanned ground vehicles for testing by the Danish Army, marking the country’s first structured trial of robotic land systems for operational use. According to a statement published by Forsvarsministeriets Materiel- og Indkøbsstyrelse (FMI), the vehicles will be delivered to the Army’s Combat Troops Branch in Slagelse, […]View the full article

Russian military bloggers and media outlets linked to the Ministry of Defense confirmed widespread disruptions of Starlink satellite internet terminals used by Russian forces across the front line and in border regions, sharply degrading battlefield communications. Reports of mass Starlink outages were acknowledged by several of Russia’s largest pro-war Telegram channels and defense-focused publications, which […]View the full article

Chinese armored units have been observed operating Type 96A main battle tanks equipped with the active protection system, according to video footage circulating on Chinese social media. The footage shows several Type 96A tanks being transported while fitted with the APS equipment, suggesting the vehicles belong to an operational military unit rather than a factory […]View the full article

Ukraine has approved the Sky Devil fixed-wing reconnaissance drone for serial production, bringing a new domestically developed intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platform into military service. The drone, developed by Ukrainian defense technology company SkyAtom, has also received a NATO code, making it the company’s first system to complete formal military approval and enter mass production. […]View the full article

Lockheed Martin opened 2026 with flat revenue but a notable earnings drop, reporting first-quarter sales of $18.0 billion and net earnings of $1.5 billion — down from $1.7 billion in the same period a year ago — as production problems on the F-16 and CH-53K programs weighed on results across two of its four business […]View the full article

Latvia has signed a multi-year framework agreement with Origin Robotics to secure a continuous supply of BLAZE autonomous interceptor drones, and structured the deal so other European nations can plug directly into it without running their own procurement from scratch. The Latvian Cabinet of Ministers approved the first contract under the framework on April 21, […]View the full article