Raw Intel

LT B .... gird your loins. View the full article

Gina Harkins over at Military Times yesterday has some great quotes from CNO Gilday. He is saying things most readers here will be happy with. It would have been ideal for a CNO 10-12 years ago to have said most of the following – because it was as true then as it is now – but we’ll take today over another decade’s wait. We need to look for action and follow through, but this is all very sound stuff; "I don't mean to be dramatic, but I feel like, if the Navy loses its head, if we go off course and we take our eyes off those things we need to focus on ... I think we may not be able to recover in this century," Gilday told reporters Friday, ahead of the document's rele…

One little nugget I’ve said too much that last week or so is that to many in the national security nomenklatura – especially in DC – the process is the product. The measure of effectiveness isn’t the ultimate delivery of useful kit to the fleet, but adherence to the process. Billions upon billions of dollars can be made for years and POM-cycles on end getting ready to think about possible things that might be of some use … maybe. We wind up with dead end programs that produce nothing. No one really is held to account. At the end of the day you have to do one of two things: 1. Like with the fail to transition that was ZUMWALT, you have to restart the legacy ARLEIGH B…

Americas Raytheon proposed an upgrade to the main sensor of the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS). The company is offering the GhostEye MR radar for the air defense missile system. “With the addition of GhostEye MR, we extend battlespace coverage to the full kinematic envelope, or reachable area, of the AMRAAM?ER effector,” said Lindsay Viana, director of ground?based air defense on Raytheon Missiles & Defense’s Requirements and Capabilities team. Defense News reports that Lockheed Martin is evaluating how its Joint Air-to-Ground Missile can be configured for mobile, short-range air defense. “It’s a concept we have. We think it will have applic…

Americas Science Application International won a $102.5 million to exercise options for the production, spares, production support material, engineering support and hardware repair of components for MK 48 Heavyweight Torpedo All Up Round. This modification is in support of the MK 48 Mod 7 Heavyweight Torpedo program. This contract combines purchases to support the Navy, […]View the full article

Americas BAE Systems recently demonstrated the teaming of the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) C4/UAS variant with an IAI/ELTA Systems Rex MK infantry combat support system. The manned-unmanned pairing enhances the platform’s “mission parameters and tactical sphere” while decreasing the risk to human life in an uncertain environment, according to BAE Systems. CAE Usa won a […]View the full article

JASSM-ER from B-1B (click to view full) The 2,000 pound AGM-158 JASSM (Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile) is intended to be a stealthy, inexpensive GPS/IIR (Global Positioning system/ Imaging InfraRed) guided cruise missile. It’s designed to attack well-defended targets without putting its carrier aircraft in the crosshairs of new long-range surface to air missile systems. JASSM […]View the full article

Americas AAR Government Services won a $1.2 billion deal, which provides P-8A Poseidon aircraft depot scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, fulfillment of depot in-service repair/planner and estimator requirements, technical directive incorporation, airframe modifications, and in-field maintenance support for the Navy, the Royal Australian Air Force, and Foreign Military Sales customers. These contracts were competitively procured via an electronic request for proposal; three offers were received. Naval Air System Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Sikorsky Aircraft won an $18 million delivery order for the procurement of 40 blade rotary rudd…

The Indonesian Air Force (TNI AU) has released the first images of its newly acquired Dassault Rafale. The aircraft, a two-seat Rafale B carrying tail number T-0301, represents the first of 42 jets ordered by Indonesia under a 2022 contract with Dassault Aviation. According to TNI AU, the photographs were taken in Mérignac, France, where […] The post Indonesia unveils first Rafale fighter jet first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

NATO allies and European defense leaders are moving to reduce reliance on vulnerable global supply chains by prioritizing stockpiles, acquisition, and control of critical raw materials (CRMs) vital to modern military systems. The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) has reported that these efforts reflect a growing recognition of how supply chain weaknesses can affect […] The post NATO focuses on rare earths for defense first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Kymeta Corporation announced today that its Osprey u8 satellite terminal has been selected as a multi-orbit communications solution for the U.S. Army’s Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) Pilot, underscoring the service’s push for resilient, mobile networking capabilities in complex operational environments. The selection of Kymeta’s technology follows Army assessments under programs such as Armored […] The post U.S. Army selects Osprey u8 satellite terminal for resilient comms first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

A member of Russia’s State Duma (a lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia) has called for the country to conduct a simulated nuclear strike on full-scale mock-ups of Western landmarks, including a replica of the Pentagon, in what he described as a demonstration intended to “cool” the West. The remarks, carried by the […]View the full article

Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace has signed a new contract with the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) to deliver PROTECTOR remote weapon stations (RWS) for use on several Swedish Army platforms, including the CV90 (local name Stridsfordon 90) infantry fighting vehicle. According to a company announcement issued on December 8, the contract is valued at over […]View the full article

United States forces used Navy EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft during the January 3 strike on Venezuela, employing high-power jamming to disable multiple layers of the country’s air-defense network. The action was first acknowledged through statements from Venezuelan military personnel who reported that radar systems “were blinded” minutes before precision weapons struck their sites. According […]View the full article

The United States Navy on February 6, 2026 highlighted the role of the Shipboard Weapons Integration Team in validating how new weapons are stored, moved, and handled aboard Navy ships, work led by the Naval Air Weapons Division at Naval Air Weapons Station Point Mugu. The Shipboard Weapons Integration Team, known as SWIT, provides independent […]View the full article

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw the launch of strategic cruise missiles from the newly built Choe Hyon destroyer during inspections of the warship earlier this week, according to state media reports published Thursday. According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim Jong-un visited the Choe Hyon destroyer on Tuesday and Wednesday to inspect […]View the full article

The United States Army has opened a competition for a new heavy version of its Infantry Squad Vehicle, launching a fast-track acquisition effort. The solicitation, issued by Contracting Command–Detroit Arsenal under notice W912CH-26-S-C005, seeks a commercially available tactical vehicle that can be fielded quickly with only limited changes to an existing platform. At the center […]View the full article

U.S. Special Operations Command published a broad industry solicitation on Friday, calling on companies, nonprofits, and research organizations to join a new technology development initiative aimed at pushing cutting-edge capabilities into the hands of special operations forces — with a particular focus on the maritime domain and the multi-domain fight that USSOCOM believes defines the […]View the full article

Russia’s Strategic Rocket Forces conducted their second successful test launch of the RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile on May 12, 2026, firing the weapon from a silo at Dombarovsky near Yasny in the Orenburg region and announcing the result publicly through the Russian Ministry of Defence. The test is Russia’s first publicly acknowledged Sarmat success […]View the full article

Back in the first week of May, we had the second edition in what has become a series about what options exist on the table to get additional weapons on ships: Yes, Reality Demands More Guns, Larger Guns, Everywhere. It was a follow-up to March’s Up-arm the Fleet? With What? A principal concern I have was outlined in a previous article in November 2024, Arm the Auxiliaries. If you are new to the issue, give the above a read and then come back. In addition to the primary concern, the secondary concern is our existing ships that are already armed, but do not have the best mix of weapons to address the new reality—the many cheap, unsophisticated, but deadly swarming threats n…