Raw Intel

BAE Systems’ new identification friend or foe system for the F-16 has been certified by the U.S. Department of War, clearing it for use on U.S. Air Force fighters, the company said Sept. 29. The AN/APX-127(V)1 Combined Interrogator Transponder received AIMS certification, the approval that shows an identification system meets U.S. and NATO standards and […]View the full article

Argentina’s armed forces have formally taken on their first IWI ARAD 5 and ARAD 7 rifles from Israel, the start of a program to replace the FN FAL and M-16 rifles now carried by troops in all three services. Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Carlos Presti presided over the Sept. 29 ceremony after the Joint Staff […]View the full article

The Pentagon’s counter-drone task force has awarded Israeli company Smart Shooter a contract worth up to $150 million for its SMASH rifle sights, which help soldiers shoot down small drones with their regular service weapons. The U.S. Department of War’s Joint Interagency Task Force 401, known as JIATF-401, announced the three-year award on Sept. 29, […]View the full article

Ukraine’s F-16 pilots have shot down more than 3,150 Russian aerial targets, including 666 cruise missiles and about 2,500 drones, the commander of Ukraine’s Air Force said during a meeting with Lockheed Martin. Lt. Gen. Anatolii Kryvonozhko gave the figures when a Ukrainian Air Force delegation he led met with representatives of the U.S. company, […]View the full article

A Russian Tu-95MS strategic bomber crashed in the Amur region of Russia’s Far East on Sept. 29, killing six of the seven crew members on board. The bomber went down near the village of Krasnoyarovo after an engine failure during takeoff, according to sources in the Russian military. The sole survivor was taken to hospital. […]View the full article

I have an affection for all the ships I have been on, and the Big E is one of my girls. I like to keep an eye on her. She’s the ship that keeps on giving, in a lot of ways. I am quite sure that when the USS Enterprise (CVN 65) was laid down during the Eisenhower Administration just 13 years after the end of WWII, someone had to have thought, “How are they going to deal with all the radioactive bits when they decommission her in the next century?” I’d place a pretty good bet that in hushed tones, the general response was, “We’ll be dead by then. That will be someone else’s problem.” Maybe not. Back then they probably thought we’d do something responsible like, “Oh, they’ll…

The U.S. Navy is paying Raytheon up to $30.2 million to line up additional suppliers for key parts of the AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile, including the cooling engine for its heat-seeking sensor and its warhead components. The undefinitized contract modification, announced by the U.S. Department of War, covers engineering work to qualify new manufacturing sources […]View the full article

The United States will supply the Philippine Coast Guard with three secondhand King Air 350 turboprop aircraft, two of them fitted with surveillance sensors, under a $39.6 million contract that finalizes a deal the two countries signed in February. The U.S. Department of War announced the firm-fixed-price award to Technology Service Corp., a small business […]View the full article

The Pentagon has ordered another $52.3 million worth of L3Harris proximity fuzes that turn laser-guided APKWS rockets into drone killers, more than doubling the value of a fuze contract signed just four months ago. The firm-fixed-price modification, announced by the U.S. Department of War, adds to a contract the Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded Honeywell Aerospace $25.6 million to keep developing a small, radiation-hardened gyroscope accurate enough for “strategic” use, the class of navigation sensor that has to work in space and survive the effects of a nuclear environment. The cost-plus-fixed-fee contract covers what the Pentagon calls the compact strategic gyroscope […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force has awarded balloon maker Aerostar a $64.4 million contract to quickly build a prototype for an urgent high-altitude balloon requirement under a project called Swamp Gas. The contract covers development of a “minimum viable product” prototype, meaning an early working version with just enough capability to be tested and used, to […]View the full article

Russia plans to spend a record 17.1 trillion rubles ($201 billion) on its military in 2027, while its budget deficit this year is now expected to reach double the government’s earlier forecast, according to government documents seen by Reuters. The defense figure is about 27% higher than the 13.5 trillion rubles Moscow had previously penciled […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Raytheon a multi-year contract worth up to $20.7 billion to build AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, a deal the company says will push production of the weapon to record levels. The award, announced Sept. 25 by the U.S. Department of War, covers complete missiles, spare guidance sections and related work, and […]View the full article

President Donald Trump on Monday denied discussing U.S. weapons sales to China with Chinese President Xi Jinping, a day after his ambassador to Beijing said Trump had floated the idea, though Trump added that China would “probably like to buy” American arms. Trump was asked by reporters about comments by David Perdue, the U.S. ambassador […]View the full article

Denmark’s armed forces have taken delivery of nine unmanned ground vehicles built by Dropla, a Danish company founded by Ukrainians, to train drone operators, including conscripts, at the country’s military drone center. Denmark’s defense procurement agency, known by its Danish initials FMI, bought the Dropla 4×4 vehicles for the Danish Defence Drone Center, the agency […]View the full article

The CIA has restored the helicopter that carried the first American team into Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks, repainting it in the camouflage it wore in 2001 to mark the 25th anniversary of the mission. The Russian-designed helicopter sits on the grounds of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. It flew a seven-man CIA team, […]View the full article

Ukrainian missile maker Fire Point has changed the published specifications of its FP-7.x anti-ballistic interceptor, now listing a combined infrared and radar seeker for the weapon instead of the infrared-only seeker it described earlier. The company posted an updated specification card for the missile on X, which it calls the FP-7.x Freyja interceptor. In August, […]View the full article

Redwire has now delivered more than 300 of its Penguin reconnaissance drones to Ukraine, the company said, and the version flying there today climbs much higher than the aircraft first sent in 2022 so that Russian FPV attack drones have a harder time reaching it. The U.S. space and defense company disclosed the figure in […]View the full article

Liminal Industries, a U.S. startup building unmanned ground vehicles meant to be produced and fielded in large numbers, has advanced to the second phase of the GroundBreaker 1 competition and will demonstrate its DUEL-V vehicle to U.S. military evaluators in North Dakota next month. The company announced Sept. 28 that its Phase I submission passed […]View the full article

It is no secret that I am a huge fan of Japan’s yet-unnamed cruiser, the ASEV. I put my thoughts down about it 18 months ago. You can click here to review if you wish. Like I said to more than one person, “So, the Japanese are going to get the CG(X) we should have already in the fleet?” Well, now the Italians are making me green with envy too. Europe’s Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR) has issued a €3.7 billion ($4.2 billion) contract for the production of two Italian Navy DDX destroyers to the Orizzonte Sistemi Navali (OSN) joint venture, made up of local firms Fincantieri and Leonardo. “The DDX programme is set to redefine the Italian Navy’s capability…