Raw Intel

Ukrainian Defense Forces struck one of Russia’s largest ammunition storage sites overnight on Feb. 12, targeting a comprehensive missile, munitions, and explosives arsenal near the settlement of Kotluban in Russia’s Volgograd region, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In a statement, the General Staff said units of the Defense Forces […]View the full article

The United States Army has approved the M111 Offensive Hand Grenade for Full Material Release, clearing the weapon for operational use and marking the first new lethal hand grenade approved for service since 1968. The decision allows the Army to begin replacing the aging Mk3A2 grenade series, which has remained in limited use due to […]View the full article

U.S. Central Command’s top officer directed a strike against an underground Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps headquarters near Tehran while American forces were simultaneously conducting a rescue operation for a downed airman inside Iran, high-level U.S. defense sources told Fox News on Monday. Admiral Brad Cooper, the CENTCOM commander, ordered B-2 Spirit stealth bombers to fly […]View the full article

Lithuania is buying a second HIMARS battery, expanding a procurement agreement with the United States that now covers additional launchers, munitions, training, and logistics support — and pushing the combined value of both batteries to approximately $778 million. The Lithuanian Ministry of National Defense and the U.S. Defense Resources Agency signed the contract amendment covering […]View the full article

Beretta Defense Technologies will unveil a new remote-controlled weapon station for counter-drone operations at Eurosatory 2026 in Paris next month, bringing to the exhibition a platform that mounts eight Benelli Drone Guardian shotgun systems on a single automated turret capable of tracking and engaging drone targets without requiring an operator to physically aim the weapon. […]View the full article

Russia is preparing a new mobilization wave, and the evidence is no longer confined to analyst assessments — it is showing up in deleted government reports, police roundups on city streets, and a sitting member of Russia’s own parliament warning publicly that the Kremlin has run out of other options. Mobilization drills for civil administrators […]View the full article

Ghostworks, a boutique shipyard based in Holland, Michigan, introduced MRLN, the Multirole Remote Logistics Node, on July 14 at the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit, an event hosted by U.S. Senator Dave McCormick at the Army War College in Carlisle. MRLN is not a boat itself but a remote-piloting and autonomy system that installs onto […]View the full article

A robotic combat vehicle that can drive itself 280 miles while charging drones, powering radar and running a portable command post has rolled through a demonstration in the Utah desert for a room full of government, defense and technology leaders. Hypercraft, a Provo, Utah-based autonomous vehicle company, showed off its Razorback unmanned ground vehicle at […]View the full article

Ukraine’s Defense Forces struck Russia’s naval base at Novorossiysk overnight on September 8-9, hitting the Kalibr-missile frigate Admiral Essen and starting a fire on its deck superstructure, according to Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence agency, known as HUR. HUR said operators from its Active Operations Department carried out the strike as part of a joint deep-strike operation […]View the full article

Americas Boeing won a $366 million contract modification, which increases the ceiling to extend the service life for up to 32 F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft. Boeing delivered the first Super Hornet to the US Navy in February 2020 under the Service Life Modification (SLM) Block III conversion programme. The initial Super Hornets delivered under SLM extended the aircraft’s service life from 6,000 to 7,500 flight hours. Work under the modification will take place in Texas and Missouri. Estimated completion is in May 2024. The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has awarded a research contract to Stratolaunch for rapid-turnaround hypersonic flight testing. The company will use its…

As a former recidivist staff weenie, one thing that I keep thinking about when it comes to watching the performance of the Russians in Ukraine is the clearly deficient staff work. I've touched on it a bit here, over on Midrats and my visit to Bill Roggio's podcast, so regulars here are familiar with my take; this is a textbook case of the real world impact of a dysfunctional staff culture. No staff can do their job without clear and well thought out Commander's Intent and higher Direction and Guidance, but more importantly, the staff needs to be able to produce an honest Estimate of the Situation and Joint Intelligence Preparation of the Battlespace. These cannot be allow…

Americas The Iowa Air National Guard has repainted an F-16A static display in a gold paint scheme. This scheme replicates the F-16C that was painted in gold back in 1996 to commemorate the 185th Fighter Wing’s 50th anniversary back then. The original F-16C #85-1565 is now a QF-16 and will eventually be destroyed during live-fire training exercise. Northrop Grumman won a $337.9 million deal, which provides researching alternatives, investigating and documenting new capabilities and anomalies related to H-1 avionics and weapons; and the development, integration, verification, validation, and testing of H-1 Integrated Avionics Systems, as well as identifies maintenance capa…

Americas Sikorsky won a $280.4 million modification, which exercises an option to procure long lead items in support of full rate production Lot 8, CH-53K aircraft. CH-53K King Stallion is a next-generation heavy-lift cargo helicopter. Work will take place in Connecticut. Expected completion will be in December 2023. General Electric won a $1 billion requirements contract for repair, replacement, and program support of 784 F414 engine components in support of F/A-18 aircraft. This contract includes a five-year base with no options. Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support is the contracting activity. Work will take place in various continental US contractor lo…

There was a topic as a JO in the 1990s that we bandied about when we started to think about what we wanted to see show up in the fleet before we had to fight a no kidding war at sea for any length of time. Of course, at the end of the Cold War when "there was no other place I'd want to be" was in the air with the world waking up from history etc ... no one was really interested in spending the shrinking Clinton Era defense budget on something that, at best, maybe should be on the bottom of the unfunded priorities list from the perspective of the Potomac Flotilla. At the end of the decade and the experience of Desert Fox, the requirement came in to even sharper relief. Wit…

Americas A hypersonic missile data processing center is slated to be established at the Air National Guard base at Hector Field. This announcement was made by Senator John Hoeven, during the Grand Farm Autonomous Nation Conference at the Fargo Microsoft campus on August 29. The data center is a crucial component of the Sky Range […]View the full article

Americas The Navy awarded a $536 million contract to NorthStar Maritime Dismantlement Service to dismantle, recycle and dispose of the former aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVN-65), a four-year undertaking that will set precedents for future nuclear-powered ship disposals. “Under this contract CVN-65 will be dismantled in its entirety, and all resulting materials will be properly recycled or disposed of. Specifically, hazardous materials, including low-level radioactive waste, will be packaged and safely transported for disposal at authorized licensed sites,” according to a May 30 contract announcement. Hermeus has flight-tested its Quarterhorse Mk 1 remotely piloted drone …

Italy has been a laggard in defense spending for a while. Although Italy claims, through some accounting tricks, to reach 2% of GDP, in reality, she is at ~1.5%, which still amounts to about $34 billion—right between Poland and Australia. Italy is not a 3rd-tier economy. So, let’s accept that Italy will be Italy. She won’t get to 5% of GDP on defense like some will (Poland for instance). We should give her some credit, and she decides to match the USA at ~3% of GDP. With the numbers we have on our cocktail napkin that would get us another …. $34 billion? A doubling? No, that is too optimistic. We can’t realistically expect that. We are talking about Italy here. We can’t …

China has reached a new threshold in its fifth-generation fighter program, confirming the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) now fields at least 300 Chengdu J-20 stealth aircraft. The expansion underscores Beijing’s rapid pace in deploying advanced combat aircraft and places China second only to the United States in operational fifth-generation fleets. The confirmation came […] The post China closes gap with U.S. in fifth-gen fighter race first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

A previously unseen image of Russia’s Su-57 multirole fighter has surfaced on pro-Kremlin social media channels, showing the aircraft’s internal tail-mounted weapons bay in detail. The release appears to be part of a broader effort by Moscow to promote the export potential of the fifth-generation jet as it seeks foreign funding to complete development. The […] The post Rare photo reveals Su-57’s hidden weapon bay first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

EDGE and Anduril have announced plans to form a major joint venture aimed at accelerating the design and production of autonomous systems for civil and defense use across the Middle East. The companies describe the initiative as a step that deepens the long-standing U.S.–UAE defense partnership by placing advanced, software-defined capabilities into regional production and […]View the full article