Raw Intel

It is a beautiful place today when you drive by it, but then you notice a curious red dragon facing a wood. The Welsh soldiers were just seven months out of training when they entered into combat at Mametz Wood. Many had never fired a round in combat, and used broomsticks rather than rifles at drill practice. In sharp contrast they faced the elite Lehr Regiment of Prussian Guards - highly-trained professional soldiers who were deeply entrenched in the dense woods. Their trenches were dug into chalk and thick wire stretched through the battleground, while the wood was heavily fortified with machine guns.As part of the Battle of the Somme was the Battle of Mametz Wood; Ma…

With all its inefficiencies, bloat, and error; with all its problematic revolving door issues between government/military and civilian sectors – there is no greater existential requirement for a mature nation than to have its own military-industrial sector. In peace it is easy to forget that in times of war – times that will always come with our warlike species – the vanities of peace can soon become a bleeding ulcer at war. While small nations simply cannot sustain the full spectrum of military equipment due to overhead and development costs, medium to large nations have options. You may on occasion have to partner with friendly nations, but what strings come with those …

If you don’t wake up every morning cursing those responsible for defense and China policy in the 1990s … the gobsmackingly short sighted arrogance of it all – then what use are you, actually? With a few exceptions, from partially completed CV rusting in Ukraine to teaching the Communist Chinese how to MIRV ICBM warheads, to opening up our best research institutions to spies an assets, the USA was beset internally by unserious people with the attention span of a hamster and the historical perspective of a newborn in serious jobs requiring long-term thinking and decision making. The harvest of this decade of frivolity continue to ripen, and via Jeremy Bogaisky, at Forbes – …

Americas Oasis Systems won a $19 million deal for Sea Hunter and Seahawk operations and sustainment. This award includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this delivery order to $37,435,818. Work will be performed in San Diego, California; Ventura, California; Rockville, Maryland; Burlington, Massachusetts; and various locations across the US. Work […]View the full article

American and South Korean troops carried out counter-drone training at Camp Humphreys, South Korea, on August 20, 2025, as part of the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise. The training, conducted by the ROK-U.S. Combined Division’s 652nd Air Defense unit in coordination with the U.S. Army’s 5-17 Air Cavalry Squadron, focused on detecting and suppressing hostile […] The post U.S. and South Korean forces train to counter drone threats first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Ukraine’s new Inguar-3 armored vehicle has entered service with the National Guard and already faced a battlefield test, surviving a direct strike from an FPV drone. Video circulated on social media showed the vehicle continuing its mission after the attack, with the crew unharmed. Reports said the drone impact caused a fire at the point […] The post Ukrainian Inguar-3 survives FPV drone hit first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Aerospace giant Boeing has been awarded a series of multiyear contracts valued at approximately $2.7 billion to manufacture more than 3,000 Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) seekers through 2030, the company announced. The seekers are built by Boeing for Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor for the PAC-3 interceptor, and play a central role in enabling the […] The post Boeing boosts PAC-3 production in $2.7B deal first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

The U.S. Navy’s last Independence-variant littoral combat ship has reached Florida ahead of its commissioning ceremony next week. According to the Navy, USS Pierre (LCS 38) arrived in Panama City, Florida, as preparations continue for its formal entry into the fleet on November 15. Pierre is the nineteenth and final Independence-variant LCS constructed for the […]View the full article

Chinese military pressure around Taiwan intensified again this week after a People’s Liberation Army Navy warship used politically charged language during a radio exchange with a Taiwanese aircraft, prompting a firm response from Taiwan’s Air Force and drawing widespread attention online. According to reporting by Taiwanese media and recordings shared by the long-running military monitoring […]View the full article

United States Air Force personnel released a photo of an MQ-9 Reaper assigned to the 431st Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron on January 13, showing the aircraft positioned inside a shelter at Kunsan Air Base, Republic of Korea. The Air Force said the squadron’s presence reinforces U.S. commitment to security on the Korean Peninsula and provides a […]View the full article

U.S.-based iRocket announced the successful completion of a test flight of its iRX-100 missile integrated with a launcher supplied by Arnold Defense, confirming the system’s compatibility and operational performance. The company said the missile reached Mach 2 and traveled approximately six kilometers during the demonstration, validating its use with Arnold Defense’s launcher platform. According to […]View the full article

The 75th U.S. Army Reserve Innovation Command has completed a structured research effort aimed at shaping the next version of the Army’s robotic load-carrying vehicle, gathering feedback from soldiers across all three Army components to inform requirements for the Small Multipurpose Equipment Transport Increment 2. The study was led by Lt. Col. Vikram Mittal and […]View the full article

The U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll visited U.S. Army Garrison Ansbach in Germany on April 30, where commanders from the 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade and 12th Combat Aviation Brigade briefed him on counter-unmanned aerial systems tested and implemented over the past year, and among the systems on display was the Merops AS-3 Surveyor counter-drone […]View the full article

An Israeli satellite company announced on May 26 that its RUNNER satellite can now detect and track moving objects from orbit around the clock, including at night, a capability the company describes as the first of its kind in persistent space-based surveillance. ImageSat International said the new capability uses onboard artificial intelligence to autonomously detect, […]View the full article

A sprawling Cuban intelligence facility just 145 kilometers (90 miles) from the Florida coast has completed construction of a powerful new antenna array capable of intercepting and tracking American military communications across the southeastern United States and the Caribbean, the Center for Strategic and International Studies reported on June 18, 2026. Satellite imagery analyzed by […]View the full article

Sudan’s army destroyed two Chinese-made combat drones flown by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces within the same operation, one shot out of the sky with an air-to-air missile and a second wrecked on the ground, according to footage published July 13 by Clash Report, a Turkish-based news outlet that has covered Sudan’s drone war extensively. […]View the full article

Researchers at Monash University have published a capacity maturity model for assessing how prepared a country is to defend itself against disinformation campaigns, backed by a 103-page white paper that lays out the reasoning behind it in far more depth than the university’s public summary of the project disclosed. The model and white paper were […]View the full article

Ukraine’s Navy said one of its Sargan-3000 uncrewed surface vessels destroyed a Russian drone boat in the Black Sea, describing the engagement as the first battle in history between two uncrewed naval vessels. The Navy said its Defense Intelligence partners spotted the Russian craft before the Sargan-3000 closed in and destroyed it using a remote-controlled […]View the full article

Japan has put its longest-range missile system on public display for the first time since deployment, showing the Type 25 surface-to-ship guided missile launcher to local residents at the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force’s Camp Kengun in Kumamoto on Oct. 3. Four vehicles, including the missile launcher and an ammunition carrier, were lined up inside the […]View the full article

About 30 of Poland’s South Korean-built K2 tanks are sitting in military workshops with various faults, most of them at the army base in Braniewo in the country’s northeast, Radio ZET reported, and some of the damage involves the engines of a fleet that has grown to more than 200 tanks delivered so far. The […]View the full article