Raw Intel

ASELSAN, a Turkish state-affiliated defense electronics company, announced that its TOLUN-P munition is mission-ready, describing the weapon as delivering precision deep strike capability against hardened battlefield targets including armored vehicles, bunkers, and structures protected by reinforced concrete. The company said TOLUN-P combines GNSS and INS guidance, satellite positioning paired with an internal inertial navigation system […]View the full article

Boeing plans to offer Japan’s Ministry of Defense a drone it developed jointly with the Royal Australian Air Force, as Tokyo works out a new coastal defense concept built around unmanned aircraft, according to the Nikkei. Boeing’s defense division president, Steve Parker, told Nikkei the company will propose its MQ-28 Ghost Bat drone to the […]View the full article

The U.S. Army has picked five winners in a competition to test how commercial humanoid robots could be used by the military, including a two-legged robot called Alex that is built to take hits and carries ballistic protection. The Army announced the xTechHumanoid winners on Sept. 11, two days after nine finalists demonstrated their technology […]View the full article

Ukrainian drones have destroyed a Russian 9K515 Tornado-S heavy multiple launch rocket system in occupied Kherson Oblast, hitting the launcher with several different kamikaze drones in succession in a strike carried out by the Prymary unit of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence (HUR), which released the footage on Oct. 20. OSINT analyst Dominik geolocated the strike to […]View the full article

You know I liked the LCS-I better than the mission-module-madness ..... and it looks like LCS-I has morphed into the cringe inducing Multi-Mission Surface Combatant .... that has morphed into what is showing up at the Dubai Air Show as the "Named by Captain Obvious" Surface Combatant Ship ...... which if you must give me something in a USA designed hull that is ready to go now and is smaller than a DDG-51 in order to meet the Frigate Gap ..... I'll take this over the uni-mission LCS any day. Just look at it! ...provides simultaneous Anti-Air, Anti-Surface, Anti-Submarine, Electronic Warfare and Special Operations support capabilities. ... is a high speed, highly …

Some FbF are so good ... you have to bring them back every few years. After a couple of week's FbF on other subjects, let's catch up with the Battle Off Samar. This time the USS HEERMANN (DD-532). HEERMANN screened transports and landing ships safely to the beaches of Leyte and then joined Rear Admiral Thomas L. Sprague's Escort Carrier Task Group 77.4 which was made up of three escort carrier task units, known as the three "Taffies" because of their radio call signs: "Taffy 1", "Taffy 2", and "Taffy 3". Destroyers HOEL and JOHNSTON joined her in screening Rear Admiral Clifton A. F. Sprague's unit, "Taffy 3" which also included his flagship FANSHAW BAY (CVE-70) and thre…

LPD-17 cutaway (click to view full) LPD-17 San Antonio class amphibious assault support vessels are just entering service with the US Navy, and 11 ships of this class are eventually slated to replace up to 41 previous ships. Much like their smaller predecessors, their mission is to embark, transport, land, and support elements of a US Marine Corps Landing Force. The difference is found in these ships’ size, their cost, and the capabilities and technologies used to perform those missions. Among other additions, this new ship is designed to operate the Marines’ new MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, alongside the standard well decks for hovercraft and amphibious armored pe…

How many ships can a US Army division afford to lose when crossing the Pacific? You know, the ships that will carry their equipment and munitions? Have we thought this through? I'm pondering over at USNIBlog. Come on over and give it a read. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=yIl2AUoC8zA http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=qj6IDK7rITs http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=QDpqhuD2OL0:cOjkkhf0Eiw:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=QDpqhuD2OL0:cOjkkhf0Eiw:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=QDpqhuD2OL0:cOjkkhf0Eiw:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=QDpqhuD2OL0…

Americas Boeing won a $10 million modification for F-15C and F-15E Mission Training Centers (MTC). The contract modification provides for updates to the F-15 MTC training systems in order to achieve training service objectives. Boeing is upgrading USAF F-15C and F-15E MTCs with the Suite 9.1 Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System. Work will take place in Idaho, North Carolina, Nevada, Japan and England. The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) tested its three-setting 2,000-pound (nearly 910 kg) Dialable Effects Munition (DEM) recently. The Air Force says that this capability will give it the ability to prosecute targets more effectively in high-end fights,…

After yesterday's post, you might thing this is ice week ... and maybe it is. Have you pondered lately the state of Russian, American, and ... yes ... Chinese icebreakers? Of course you have ... so you'll want to run over to USNIBlog and ponder what bubbled up in the last month. 'Tis the season, dontchaknow. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=yIl2AUoC8zA http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=qj6IDK7rITs http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=QF3ncHb-4i0:xksX97DejdE:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=QF3ncHb-4i0:xksX97DejdE:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=QF3ncHb-4i0:xksX97DejdE:V_sGLiPBp…

Americas FlightSafety International won a $32 million contract for the exercise of the KC-46 Aircrew Training System (ATS) Production Year 7 options. The contract modification is for the exercise of option contract line item numbers for additional weapon system trainers, boom operator trainers, fuselage trainer, pilot part task trainers, support equipment, McChord site activations, systems engineering and program management, summative evaluation and new refresher training scenarios. Work will take place in Oklahoma. Estimated completion date is January 7, 2024. Sikorsky won a $42.2 million deal for non-personal technical services in support of sustainment of the H-60 Bla…

Bofors Archer system (click to view full) BAE Systems Bofors’ Archer is a light, air-portable, and highly automated 155/52 light mobile artillery system. Archer began as a Swedish project, administered by their FMV procurement agency. Funding was provided for system development and some initial production, but the project’s future had been shadowed by anemic Swedish defense budgets. In May 2007, however, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with Norway’s FLO procurement agency, which evolved into a joint production venture. Just as initial production moved the Archer system from concept to imminent reality, however, Norway left the program. Why? The Archer Syste…

Resupply through thousands of miles of hostile waters to your forces well inside the enemy's aircraft reach and a day's sail or two from their home bases. Your navy intends to bring and keep the fight in to the enemy's backyard, stay there, and defeat them at sea in order to give your nation dominance in their enemy's backyard. One force has well over a century of dominance in all the world's oceans. A superb tradition of training and combat excellence in these exact waters. They have fewer, but larger ships ... but as well trained as their crews are, they are also under the stress of constant threat and being far away from home waters. The other force also has a traditi…

Though the Americans are now in the fight, still on every front; desperation. At every morning brief, more ships sunk. The enemy surrounds you as you starve. Your ships and aircraft sit idle for lack of fuel and parts. Through waves of attacks, a relief convoy comes ... and you wait. Do they know your desperation? Will they make it? What can be done? Well, in comes the US merchant marine professional, Captain Dudley Mason - the master of the tanker SS OHIO - and his crew and convoy. For the details, let's look at the citation for his George Cross and the award to two of his crew, Frederick August Larsen, Jr., Junior Third Officer and Francis A. Dales, Deck Cadet-Mi…

Americas The Science Applications International Corp. won a $19 million deal for B-52H software engineering services. This contract provides engineering expertise for the software on the B-52 aircraft. Work will be performed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and is expected to be completed by July 10, 2028. This award is the result of a sole source […]View the full article

Americas L3Harris Interstate Electronics won a $15.1 million for TRIDENT II (D5) Flight Test Instrumentation systems support. This contract award also benefits a foreign military sale to the United Kingdom. Work is expected to be completed by February 8, 2027. This contract is being awarded on a sole source basis under 10 US Code 3204(a)(1) […]View the full article

Americas Northrop Grumman Systems won a $18 million modification, which adds scope to provide continued engineering, logistics, support equipment, obsolescence, software, hardware, trade studies, incidental material, impact assessment, risk and program analysis activities support in support of production cut in integration to implement, analyze and evaluate the life cycle software and hardware updates encompassing a broad spectrum of software and/or hardware engineering, design, programming, integration, manufacturing and quality, and test activities with varying levels and periods of intensity for the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft for the Navy. Naval Air Systems Command…

Americas Overland AI has added its autonomous technology to the US Army’s SMET (Small Multipurpose Equipment Transport) vehicle, made by General Dynamics. The vehicle was upgraded with Overland AI’s OverDrive software, SPARK hardware, and OverWatch control system, allowing it to drive itself. The upgraded vehicle was tested over two weeks during Project Convergence Capstone 5, an important Army event for trying out new technologies. RTX has been approved to start limited production of the US Army’s new radar system, called the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS). This new radar will replace the old Patriot radar, which has been in use since the 1980s. LTAMD…

I first read Jen Judson’s article in Defense News back when it came out … and was simply in awe. I simply respect the audacity and enthusiasm by a man whose love of land-centric thinking is only matched by his demand that time and space bend to his will. Please clap. It is a well known cynical, and correct, angle that all the post-Goldwater-Nichols diktat was simply a way for the Army to exert an artificially large influence on the strategic direction of the otherwise natural maritime and aerospace power that is the United States. It didn’t so much lift Army up, but kept the Navy and USAF thinking suppressed through institutional barriers, bureaucratic obfuscation, and ge…

The U.S. Air Force has announced the arrival of a second B-21 Raider flight test aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base. According to a Department of the Air Force release on September 11, the new test asset will allow engineers and flight crews to move beyond initial flight performance checks and into more advanced phases […] The post U.S. Air Force adds second B-21 to accelerate testing first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article