Raw Intel

As a long-standing member of Team Philippines, I spent most of the day yesterday with a smile as I watched Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto C. Teodoro at Seoul Defense Dialogue 2026. One of the things that I have been so heartened by what I’ve seen over the last half decade or so is the growing closeness and maturity of our relationship with the Philippines. I have my biases as a retired naval officer who worked with Filipinos for decades, and my hometown has a well-established population of Filipinos in the tens of thousands. They are great people with so much talent and so much potential. We had a spotty decade or so post-Cold War, but with a more balanced view of …

As I like to say, words mean things. I was looking for a quick summary of the significance of the Battle of Agincourt and why it might have been chosen as the name for the effort to, in a year’s time, set up a new 4-star functional combatant command, the Autonomous Warfare Command. In a discussion of Jodi Taylor’s fictional novel A Second Chance, Hazel Cushion over at Welcome to Jodi Taylor Books made a solid summary. The Battle of Agincourt …. demonstrated that a well-disciplined force, equipped with innovative tactics and superior weaponry, could overcome numerical superiority on the battlefield. Moreover, Agincourt shattered the myth of invincibility surrounding the Fr…

The U.S. Air Force plans to grow its fighter force to 1,509 combat-coded jets by 2035, with the F-35 becoming its most numerous fighter and the new F-47 taking over from the F-22, under a revised force structure plan the service sent to Congress on Oct. 16. Lt. Gen. David Tabor, deputy chief of staff […]View the full article

CBC News is reporting that the Harper Government is at least pondering the idea of cutting their losses with the Victoria class submarines and replacing them with nuclear submarines. The Victoria class submarines have been plagued with problems since being acquired from the UK, and despite being described as the "military bargain of the century" when purchased for $750 million in 1998, they have become anything but. The submarines are currently all out of service, with HMCS Victoria the soonest to potentially return to service by late next year. The article describes the issues. One of the subs, HMCS Chicoutimi, has been in active service of the Royal Canadian Na…

A call for grace and spine. We need both if we are going to get through this latest cultural crisis. I was going to post a good news DivThu, but that may have to wait for next week as this article by Rod Dreher requires your attention today. The Diversity Commissariat is still strong, and I think is about to ride a new wave of strength depending on the upcoming election. If you don't see that, then you were not paying attention as, in real time, a Senator declared "Sexual Preference" to be a hate-term, and shortly thereafter the woke brigades at Merriam-Webster Dictionary changed the meaning of the world. They are a nasty and autocratic bunch. They are not playing ga…

Yes, we will continue to discuss LCS because we don't seem to have quiet fully realized the many lessons ... hard, expensive lessons ... of the program. Thanks to the GAO, we have some great info on the maintenance nightmare ... and a kind admission from the CNO that, yes, the anti-transformationalist were correct. Details over at USNIBlog. 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=43cRkrT8qZM:A7awAYnzeR0:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=43cRkrT8qZM:A7awAYnzeR0:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV…

Americas Boeing won a $17.7 million contract modification, which increases the scope to procure the necessary test and engineering support to complete the development of the Next Generation Jammer – Mid-Band system and the phased replacement of the AN/ALQ-99 Tactical Jamming System currently mounted to the EA-18G aircraft. The AN/ALQ-99 intercepts and automatically processes radar signals and power manages the system’s transmitters to effectively jam large numbers of diverse radar threats with very high effective radiated power. The AN/ALQ-249(V)1 Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band (NGJ-MB) system is part of a larger NGJ system that will augment, and ultimately replace the l…

Americas According to Defense Post, The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is developing a next-generation missile concept with a rapidly pivoting forebody. The missile’s “active morphing” capability increases its range and effectiveness against highly maneuverable targets at a limited cost. The missile’s agility is achieved through the articulation control actuation system (ACAS), a “composite […]View the full article

Americas RENK America won a $54.6 million modification by the US Army for for Bradley Fighting Vehicle System and Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle System transmission and hardware production support. Work will be performed in Muskegon, Michigan, with an estimated completion date of July 31, 2025. The Bradley Fighting Vehicle’s role is to transport infantry on the […]View the full article

Americas The US Air Force has tapped Merlin Labs to test autonomous flight technology for the KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft. The stepwise approach will begin with reducing crew workload and then proceeds to reduced crew operations, the Boston-based aviation technology firm explained. A reduced workload could help the crew avoid costly mistakes. Autonomous uncrewed operations at […]View the full article

Americas Northrup Grumman won a $387 million modification to provide continued research and development of the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye Cockpit Technical Refresh cockpit redesign and Theater Combat Identification to replace the current E-2D integrated navigation and controls and display systems and tactical mission computer and display systems for the Navy. Work is expected to be completed in September 2028. Fiscal 2024 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $15,940,911 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the fiscal year. Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.…

Russia is moving ahead with the design of a new ocean-going warship, according to Admiral Alexander Moiseev, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy. The vessel, described as a future “far ocean zone” (blue-water) combat platform, is expected to be laid down under the country’s next State Armament Program. Speaking to Russian state media, Admiral Moiseev confirmed […] The post Russia plans new blue-water warship first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

The Amiral Ronarc’h—France’s first Frégate de Défense et d’Intervention (FDI)—has departed the Naval Group shipyard in Lorient, heading to its homeport in Brest. According to a statement from the French defense procurement agency, Direction générale de l’armement (DGA), the departure follows the completion of sea trials and signals the beginning of the acceptance phase by […] The post French Navy welcomes new combat frigate first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

As the regulars know, my love of the naval gun is unmatched. Not just the ones we should have had. That is why I’ve enjoyed the tempest of the last few weeks about “bringing back battleships” that I fully credit to our friend John Konrad, with a little help recently from President Trump. As for me, in the end I am trending towards a rather cold analysis of the situation. We are well past the point of reactivating the IOWA Class BB for a whole host of reasons. I won’t summarize them here, they are too numerous. I also don’t think we can build new ones, even if there were the money and will to so so. To be blunt, we would first have to build a foundry to make the barrels. N…

I don’t publish new “Long Game” editions as much as I used to in the two decades since it started. The major reason is that the Long Game is here. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has the world’s largest navy. It could be argued that she is the greatest regional naval power in the Western Pacific. We are well past the point that the Pacific could be considered an American lake. Her challenge at the global scale is already well underway, pun intended. However, there is another Long Game that must be played out; it is changing the mindset and people in government, academia, and industry who refuse, for a whole host of reasons, to acknowledge the threat to the West from …

The Royal Netherlands Air and Space Force will receive three additional NH90 NATO Frigate Helicopters (NFHs) under a new contract signed today between NHIndustries (NHI) and the NATO Helicopter Management Agency (NAHEMA), further expanding the Dutch Navy’s maritime aviation fleet. According to a press release from NHIndustries, the helicopters will be assembled by Leonardo in […]View the full article

Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) deployed robotic quadruped drones during a January 2026 airborne assault exercise conducted by the 1st Airborne Brigade, marking the first time the unit integrated unmanned ground vehicles into its annual new-year descent training. According to the training footage broadcast in Japan, the exercise featured an assault element inserting from two […]View the full article

Teledyne FLIR Defense said last week it has introduced major software upgrades to its Ranger radar family, improving detection speed, tracking accuracy, and performance against unmanned aerial threats, with immediate effect on systems deployed worldwide. According to a company announcement, the upgrades apply to the Ranger R8-3DX and Ranger R20SS radar platforms, which are widely […]View the full article

The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that Boeing B-52H Stratofortress bombers conducted strikes on Iranian ballistic missile facilities and command-and-control positions during the opening phase of Operation Epic Fury, according to official statements. The confirmation came alongside newly released footage from United States Central Command Public Affairs showing airmen preparing a B-52H Stratofortress for […]View the full article

An Iranian ballistic missile strike late Thursday heavily damaged the production facility of Israeli drone manufacturer Aero-Sentinel, hitting just meters from the company’s site in Petach Tikva and disrupting part of its manufacturing operations. In comments shared with Defence Blog, the company said the site was struck by an Iranian missile but stressed that the […]View the full article