Raw Intel

Robotics company Target Arm Inc. said this week that its drone launch and recovery system has been integrated with unmanned ground vehicles built by HDT Global, a manufacturer of rugged robotic platforms used in military and industrial settings. The company announced the integration on social media on July 27, 2026. The combination pairs HDT Global’s […]View the full article

A rifle that decides, mid-trigger-pull, when to let the round go, not the shooter, is now fielded or in procurement across an estimated 10 to 15 European countries, according to Israel Weapon Industries (IWI). The system, called ARBEL, does not detect drones or aim the weapon. It does one thing: it controls the timing of […]View the full article

Axon Vision, an Israeli defense technology company based in Tel Aviv, announced Monday that it has teamed up with ParaZero Technologies, an Israeli firm based in Kfar Saba, to build an integrated counter-drone system aimed at protecting critical infrastructure sites where blowing an incoming drone out of the sky simply isn’t an option. The new […]View the full article

The Swedish defense company announced Monday that it has received an order for two GlobalEye airborne early warning and control aircraft from an undisclosed country in the Middle East, a deal valued at roughly $1 billion. Deliveries are scheduled for 2030, and beyond that, Saab isn’t saying much. The company cited the sensitive nature of […]View the full article

The Swedish defense company announced Monday that it has received an order for two GlobalEye airborne early warning and control aircraft from an undisclosed country in the Middle East, a deal valued at roughly $1 billion. Deliveries are scheduled for 2030, and beyond that, Saab isn’t saying much. The company cited the sensitive nature of […]View the full article

NATO leaders wrapped up their summit in Ankara, Turkey, in July 2026 having announced more than $50 billion in new defense procurement deals, covering everything from precision strike weapons to air and missile defense systems, according to the alliance’s own summit declaration. Alongside that headline figure, member states also committed to a five-year, $40 billion […]View the full article

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on July 27, 2026, setting a new authorized size for the Russian Armed Forces at 2,426,130 personnel, of which 1,535,000 are uniformed troops, according to the text of the decree published on Russia’s official legal information portal, pravo.gov.ru. The order, numbered Decree 526, formally amends a 2004 decree that […]View the full article

To start off with—usual caveats apply. Yes, this is Axios, but Barak Ravid is a serious reporter that I have no evidence that he has a history of making stuff up. I also know that the Trump administration is pretty good at message control and minimizing leaks…especially on national security issues. I also know that is DC, which is leaky for both official and unofficial reasons. As such, I’ll put forward an opening bet that this is 51% close to right. If I had to place the odds: 10% this is fake news; 20% chance this is an unofficial leak; 70% it is an official leak. Ambient noise and transmission loss of about 30%…so we’re seeing something—good chance—but not quite what h…

Rocket Lab Corporation, the publicly traded space company known primarily for its small satellite launch vehicles, announced a $266 million multi-launch contract with the U.S. Space Force, the branch of the Department of War responsible for military operations in and through space, marking the largest single launch agreement the company has ever secured. The deal […]View the full article

The U.S. Army, Navy and Space Force have tested an electronic warfare system at sea for the first time, and its name alone tells you what kind of punch the Pentagon expects it to pack. The joint services put a maritime version of a system called Hammer of the Gods through its paces in mid-July […]View the full article

The U.S. Army reported that during Project Convergence-Capstone 6, a large-scale experimentation event hosted at Fort Irwin, California, Army Aviation demonstrated a networked strike sequence over the high desert in which two reconnaissance drones located and identified a threat before a third, weaponized drone flew in to finish it off, according to a story by […]View the full article

The U.S. Navy handed a brand-new missile maker $70 million to build a cheap cruise missile, and it says this is only the opening move. The Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition confirmed that PAE Munitions, the Navy’s precision-strike acquisition arm, awarded CoAspire, a company it described as […]View the full article

With increased defense spending becoming the new normal and growing uncertainty on the alliance’s eastern front as the Russo-Ukrainian War enters its fifth summer, the Ankara NATO summit was more than just a photo-op. Returning to the Midrats Podcast to discuss the major takeaways will be Jorge Benitez. You can listen at this link, or via the Spotify link below. SummaryIn this episode, Dr. George Benitez discusses the recent NATO summit, focusing on defense spending, alliance strategies, and the evolving threats from Russia, China, and Iran. He provides insights into NATO’s strategic shifts, the importance of Ukraine’s potential NATO membership, and the challenges of mode…

A Romanian F-16 fighter jet shot down a Russian-linked drone over the Black Sea on Sunday morning, marking the third such intercept in just three days, and Romania’s president says the country has had enough. President Nicusor Dan confirmed that Romanian Air Force pilots downed the drone at 10:13 a.m. local time roughly 12 kilometers […]View the full article

Uzbekistan’s president just got a firsthand look at armored personnel carriers, a self-propelled howitzer, and an upgraded Soviet-era tank rolling out of a factory that barely existed five years ago, and the visit signals a country quietly building its own domestic arms industry from scratch. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev toured the Nurafshon Makhsus Tekhnika enterprise in […]View the full article

An unmanned boat has launched a drone into the air over open ocean, all without a single person on board either vehicle, and the demonstration could change how the Royal Navy watches its own waters. British maritime robotics company ACUA Ocean and American sensor and drone manufacturer Teledyne FLIR Defense confirmed they completed two days […]View the full article

A French rocket engine just fired 21 times in a row, and the company behind it says the hardware survived well enough to fly again. That combination, repeated ignition and confirmed reusability, is exactly what a small aerospace startup needs to prove before anyone lets its hypersonic drone near real flight testing, and this week […]View the full article

The UK Ministry of Defence announced this week that it has chosen the Tekever AR5, a surveillance drone built by the UK-based company Tekever, to replace the British Army’s aging Watchkeeper fleet under a deal worth up to $533 million over the next ten years. The program, called Project CORVUS, will see the Army field […]View the full article

A North Carolina Air National Guard unit, part of the U.S. military’s part-time reserve force, wants to give its people the ability to quietly fly themselves into places a helicopter would get shot down trying to reach, and the shopping list it just published reads less like a defense contract and more like gear for […]View the full article

The U.S. Department of the Air Force published a market research notice this week seeking companies capable of designing, developing, prototyping, manufacturing and fielding what it calls a Semi-Autonomous Collaborative Platform, government shorthand for an uncrewed jet aircraft smart enough to fly and fight alongside a piloted fighter without a human controlling every move. The […]View the full article