Raw Intel

In the first week of this year, I made my feeling about the unfortunate Greenland kerfuffle clear, so no need to replow that field. I also have a love/frustration relationship with the Danes. As we tried to fill the CJSOR for ISAF in the 00s, the unending nightmare was having to say, “Well, that is nice…but what are the national caveats?” At least for the first decade of the war, if you saw GBR, AUS, NLD, CAN, EST, DNK on that CJSOR line, you could take a bit of a breath as you knew there would be very few national caveats that would make their utility much different than a U.S. unit. Other nations…not so much. Denmark and Estonia were, in essence, interchangeable with …

New satellite imagery has confirmed extensive destruction at Russia’s Votkinsk Machine Building Plant, a key missile production hub in the Udmurt Republic, following a Ukrainian strike carried out on the night of February 21, according to independent open-source analysts. The confirmation through satellite imagery provides the first visual assessment of damage at one of Russia’s […]View the full article

The Turkish Armed Forces deployed and demonstrated the ASLAN unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) during Exercise STEADFAST DART 26, NATO’s largest exercise of the year, currently underway in northern Germany, showcasing the armed robotic platform during land operations and live demonstrations. The appearance of the ASLAN UGV during a major NATO exercise highlights the growing operational […]View the full article

The U.S. Navy awarded Lockheed Martin a $104 million contract on June 26, 2026, to begin procurement of long-lead materials and early engineering work for the F-100 mid-life upgrade of Spain’s Álvaro de Bazán-class frigates, the most capable surface combatants in the Spanish Navy and one of the most combat-proven Aegis frigate designs operating outside […]View the full article

British Army forces have conducted extended field testing of the Altra ISR and HX-2 reconnaissance-strike drone systems in Kenya, operating the platforms repeatedly in realistic tactical scenarios without direct support from the developer. The activity took place over an 18-day period as part of Exercise HARAKA STORM and was supported by the 4th Infantry Brigade […]View the full article

United States Army soldiers assigned to the 4th Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade conducted live-fire training with the M777 Alpha 2 medium towed howitzer during a Table XV qualification at the Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany on February 5, 2026. According to the U.S. Army, the Table XV event involved integrated […]View the full article

Germany has taken delivery of its 52nd A400M military transport aircraft, Airbus Defence and Space said on Saturday. According to Airbus Defence, the aircraft is the 52nd A400M delivered to Germany as part of the Luftwaffe’s ongoing airlift modernization program. The delivery adds another operational airframe to Germany’s strategic and tactical transport fleet, which is […]View the full article

The fast-attack submarine USS Tucson (SSN 770) slid into Apra Harbor on July 10, swapping its old home in Pearl Harbor for a new one at Naval Base Guam, in a routine-looking port call that carries real weight for how the U.S. Navy positions its undersea forces against a rapidly expanding Chinese fleet. Tucson, a […]View the full article

Navies are expensive. This is true, however, the logic stands that the most expensive navy to have is one that can be defeated by the other navy that was better built, supported, and led. To avoid that, you spend a lot of money on the ships, the Sailors in them, the people ashore who maintain them, the naval infrastructure that supports them, and the leaders that will take them into battle. In times of peace, the opportunity cost of that kind of navy gets a lot of attention. Heck, the naval treaties of a century ago were less about world peace than they were as a mutual agreement between politicians to spend less money on ships and instead have more money to keep their b…

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Israeli-based Orbit Technologies Ltd. for $356.3 million in a transaction that the company says will be funded with existing cash on hand. Orbit is a supplier of satellite-based communication systems used across air, sea, undersea, land, and unmanned platforms, supporting […]View the full article

Epirus released video on January 13 showing its Leonidas VehicleKit high-power microwave system disabling a fiber-optic guided unmanned aerial system during a December 2025 live-fire demonstration at a U.S. government testing site. The company said the demonstration represents the first documented instance of weaponized electromagnetic interference defeating a fiber-optic controlled drone. According to Epirus, the […]View the full article

MatrixSpace announced today that it has been selected as the overall winner of the Defense Innovation Unit’s Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft System (C-sUAS) Low-Cost Sensing (LCS) Challenge, following live operational testing conducted during U.S. Northern Command’s Falcon Peak 25.2 exercise. The selection places MatrixSpace at the top of more than 115 submissions evaluated by the Defense […]View the full article

The SM-2 Block IIIC/CU medium-range surface-to-air missile was showcased publicly for the first time at the Surface Navy Association (SNA) 2026 symposium, bringing new visibility to the next-generation interceptor developed for U.S. Navy surface combatants. Footage from the exhibition shows the SM-2 Block IIIC/CU, designated RIM-66P by Raytheon, displayed as part of ongoing efforts to […]View the full article

Ukraine has sharply increased the daily supply of interceptor drones used to counter Russian Shahed-type uncrewed aerial vehicles, with average deliveries reaching nearly 950 units per day in December, according to information released by the Ministry of Defense. The drones are contracted by the Defense Procurement Agency of the Ministry of Defense and are intended […]View the full article

The United States Navy sent the dock landing ship USS Tortuga (LSD 46) to sea trials from Naval Station Norfolk, marking the vessel’s first time underway since 2014 following an extended modernization effort. The trials are intended to verify that the ship’s upgraded systems and engineering improvements are fully operational, as the Navy works to […]View the full article

A delegation from the United States Army recently visited the Czechoslovak Group (CSG) in the Czech Republic to examine potential cooperation and assess the group’s capabilities in ground systems and artillery ammunition. During the visit, the delegation toured production sites, assembly lines, and manufacturing processes, including a demonstration of the Morana 155 wheeled self-propelled howitzer […]View the full article

Ukraine’s Celebra Tech has integrated its Tryzub laser system into a mobile counter-drone platform capable of engaging targets from FPV drones to reconnaissance unmanned aircraft, the company told Militarny. The Tryzub (the Ukrainian word for trident) was first publicly mentioned in December 2024 by Vadym Sukharevsky, the first commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces. Since […]View the full article

Textron Aviation Defense has finalized its first contract to deliver the Beechcraft T-6 Texan II integrated training system to Japan. According to a press release dated Dec. 21, Textron Aviation Defense confirmed it has completed an initial agreement to supply the Beechcraft T-6JP Texan II to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. The contract was coordinated […]View the full article

United States missile manufacturing is failing to keep pace with the tempo of modern warfare, raising concerns about how quickly the military can replace precision weapons in a high-intensity conflict. To examine where the bottlenecks lie and how they affect readiness, Defence Blog sought comment from John Borrego, Senior Vice President of Aerospace and Defense […]View the full article

ARX Robotics says it has successfully designed and engineered a fully software-defined land system that can be operated remotely and, if required, autonomously, pointing to a shift in how ground logistics and support vehicles could be used in future conflicts. As noted by the company, the project relies on recent advances in safety-certified drive-by-wire technology, […]View the full article