Raw Intel

Norway has built one of the most capable stealth, anti-ship missiles in the Western arsenal, and the United States Air Force ordered another batch of them for $241 million, deepening a transatlantic weapons partnership that has become increasingly central to American plans for fighting a war in the Pacific or the North Atlantic against a […]View the full article

The U.S. Army has awarded an $11.2 million contract to Teledyne FLIR Defense to deliver more than 45 drone kits capable of flying into chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear contamination zones and mapping hazards in real time, keeping soldiers out of environments that can kill within seconds of exposure. Teledyne Technologies announced the contract award […]View the full article

France has fired its next-generation air-to-air missile from a Rafale at supersonic speed for the first time, clearing one of the most demanding technical hurdles in the weapon’s qualification program and moving MBDA’s MICA NG significantly closer to operational service. The second development firing of the MICA NG, which stands for Missile for Interception, Combat, […]View the full article

Australia fired its first domestically built self-propelled howitzers during live-fire training last week, completing the journey from a production line in Geelong to live rounds downrange in a matter of months — a timeline that would have seemed implausible for a major weapons system just a few years ago. Thirty gunners from Townsville’s 4th Regiment, […]View the full article

Vladimir Putin told the world’s press agency chiefs this week that Russia’s Su-57 fighter is the best combat aircraft on the planet. Independent analysts and the jet’s own production record tell a more complicated story. Putin made the claim at a meeting with leaders of major international news agencies organized by TASS, Russia’s state news […]View the full article

A Ukrainian naval drone lost control after Russian electronic warfare jammed its guidance system during a Black Sea mission, drifted into Romanian territorial waters, and detonated inside the civilian port of Constanța on Friday morning, the Ukrainian Navy confirmed. The explosion, which shook windows across the city and triggered a mass evacuation of the coastline, […]View the full article

Back in 2007, I did a Battle of Midway FbF that featured one of my favorite aircraft, the Brewster Buffalo. In the post, I focused on then 2LT William “Bill” Brooks, USMCR. In the mid-60’s Mr. Brooks helped found Bellevue University, among other things. Back in 2010, I was notified by the President of Bellevue University that Mr. Brooks passed away. In his honor, I would like to repost that FbF from 2007 and 2010. You could spend a lifetime on Battle of Midway posts - that is what I like about it. This time, I want to focus on the men of Marine Fighting Squadron 221. Men who knew they were being asked to do a suicide mission, but did it - and did it well. They were, as …

A maritime drone of the type used in the war in Ukraine self-detonated Friday morning inside the civilian port of Constanța, Romania’s largest Black Sea harbor, after authorities discovered the device at berth 78 and began working to neutralize it. The explosion occurred at approximately 10:30 a.m., roughly four and a half hours after the […]View the full article

The U.S. Army has standardized a new smartphone-based fire control application for all mortar units, replacing two decades-old software systems with a single app that runs on an Android phone and took the 82nd Airborne Division almost no time to learn. The Mortars App achieved full release and clearance to become the standard fire control […]View the full article

The United States Air Force’s newest special operations aircraft is a lean, rugged turboprop built for long loiter times, precision strikes, and operations from remote airstrips in some of the world’s most austere environments. There is just one problem: it has nowhere to put anything and the 17th Special Operations Squadron, the only OA-1K flying […]View the full article

The United States Army is searching for a missile cheap enough to be fired in large numbers against the kind of threats that modern battlefields produce by the hundreds, and it wants working hardware ready to demonstrate by the end of fiscal year 2026. A request for information first posted May 15 and updated June […]View the full article

The United States has not produced its own TNT since the 1980s, relying entirely on overseas allies to supply the explosive that fills its artillery shells, bombs, and grenades. That four-decade gap in domestic production is now being closed, and according to a June 4 contract notice, the Army awarded Repkon USA a $77.9 million […]View the full article

Russia’s defense industry is claiming a milestone on one of its most closely watched aviation programs, and this time the claim carries slightly more weight than usual. The United Aircraft Corporation, Russia’s state-owned aircraft manufacturing conglomerate, confirmed this week that physical construction of the first flying prototype of the Su-75 Checkmate, a single-engine fifth-generation stealth […]View the full article

Vietnam has publicly displayed the T-1, a domestically developed amphibious light tank that represents the most ambitious armored vehicle project the country’s defense industry has ever attempted. The T-1 prototype appeared at a public display in Vietnam, drawing immediate attention from regional military observers for what it signals about Hanoi’s defense industrial ambitions as much […]View the full article

Russia’s state defense conglomerate Rostec has unveiled what it claims is the lightest body armor in its class, presenting the Obereg 2.0 vest to the defense ministers of Moscow’s closest military allies at a showcase outside the Russian capital. Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov led a delegation of defense ministers from the Collective Security Treaty […]View the full article

Six Russian military aircraft operating in Baltic airspace in a single day triggered a joint NATO scramble involving French and Swedish fighter jets, the latest reminder that the skies above one of Europe’s most sensitive stretches of territory remain an active theater of aerial friction between the alliance and Moscow. NATO Air Command confirmed that […]View the full article

More than 40 of Northrop Grumman’s most advanced ground radar systems are already in the hands of U.S. Marines and airmen, and the company is pushing the system hard to international buyers as demand for mobile, multi-mission air defense sensors surges worldwide. Northrop Grumman published a capability overview on June 4, highlighting the operational status […]View the full article

A First-Person View (FPV) drone, the cheap remote-controlled kamikaze weapon that has killed more soldiers in this war than almost any other single weapon type, struck a Ukrainian military Humvee directly in the windshield during a combat mission in the Zaporizhzhia direction. The crew inside survived. The glass held. Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence directorate, known by […]View the full article

The most consequential fighter jet Germany has ever ordered just crossed a milestone that brings it meaningfully closer to the flight line. Lockheed Martin announced that the engine powering Germany’s first F-35 has been installed, confirming that the aircraft is progressing through final production and moving toward delivery of what will be Berlin’s first fifth-generation […]View the full article

Two of the U.S. defense industry’s most closely watched companies announced they are joining forces to compete for one of the Army’s most significant ground combat modernization programs, pairing a combat-proven Israeli-American cannon system with Silicon Valley’s most prominent defense technology firm. Elbit Systems of America and Anduril Industries announced a strategic teaming agreement on […]View the full article