Raw Intel

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $22.6 million contract modification, which adds scope to procure 22 Electro-Optical Distributed Aperture System shipsets for Distributed Aperture System for Technology Refresh-3 developmental and operational testing, Block 4 testing, the Electromagnetic Environmental Effects aircraft, and a spare sensor set provision in support of F-35 Lightning II next generation capabilities. Work will take place in Texas. Estimated completion will be by July 2023. MH Systems won a $24.7 million deal for the purchase of aircraft painters manpower support. This contract provides for the augmentation of 402d Aircraft Maintenance Group organic forces for dep…

In the very serious and expensive game of national defense, words matter. Even more than words, published documents with the President or Cabinet Secretaries' signatures are the source code of what our government will do as a matter of effort and expenditure. They are the "Ref. A." and regardless of their readability or subjective goodness, they require serious understanding and careful reading. Readers could not ask for a better mind to look at the most recent National Defense Strategy than our friend and occasional guest poster, Bryan McGrath. Refresh your drink of choice and dive in to his overview below. Bryan, over to you. Following close on the heels of the Bid…

Americas Boeing won a $30.4 million modification, which exercises an option to procure eight P-8A aircraft mechanisms as ancillary equipment in support of P-8A production aircraft. Work will take place in Washington. Estimated completion will be in January 2026. The US Office of Naval Research (ONR) has contracted Textron to develop a non-towed mine sweeping payload […]View the full article

Americas Longbow won a $156.4 million deal for procurement of Apache Attack Helicopter Fire Control Radar and other support hardware and auxiliary services. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida; and Linthicum Heights, Maryland, with an estimated completion date of April 30, 2027. The Apache attack helicopter is a combat proven aircraft manufactured by American […]View the full article

Americas The US Navy has introduced a tethered capability to accelerate experiments for tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Called the Tethered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Experimentation Payload System (TULEPS), the solution supports the evaluation of drone software and mission equipment under real-world conditions. Users can attach the machine’s cord directly to a generic UAV airframe without requiring flight authorizations, under all weather conditions, and with various power payloads for endurance trials. The Pentagon’s Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) has contracted six small businesses to expedite the construction of Virginia-class submarines. The $5-billion Maritim…

The British Army announced that its Boxer armored vehicle has successfully completed a Javelin integration trial, marking what it described as a major step toward providing its forces with the ability to fire the anti-tank missile from under armor. According to the Army, “Earlier this year, Boxer successfully completed its Javelin integration trial! This achievement […] The post British Boxer successfully fires Javelin missile first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Russia’s efforts to modernize its airborne early warning and control aircraft have hit a pause, as United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) delays a decision on launching serial production of its A-50 radar planes. The announcement was made by Sergey Korotkov, general designer and deputy general director of UAC, in an interview with TASS. According to Korotkov, […] The post Russia to delay production of A-50 radar plane first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Let’s return to a topic we covered in a FbF last month: the U-Boat war in the Caribbean. Not just the Caribbean, U-Boats in the Gulf of America (nee Mexico). From a strictly professional point of view, you have to tip your hat to the men of the German U-boat fleet. They didn’t have the great fleet boats like we did - no, not even close. But what they did with what they had ... it is still amazing. In the summer of 1942, U-166 patrolled the Gulf of Mexico in searches for a new victim. Steamer Robert E. Lee appeared 70 kilometers from the Mississippi mouth on July 30. The passenger carrier of 5184 tons displacement was going from Trinidad escorted with a PC-566 cruiser. The…

KNL has received a new order from the Finnish Defence Forces for CNHF radios, software features, and software maintenance services, a contract valued at EUR 2 million ($2.3 million). The company said the order follows a larger EUR 15 million ($17.4 million) joint procurement placed in August by the Finnish Defence Forces and Sweden’s FMV […]View the full article

The Royal Thai Air Force has carried out precision airstrikes against Cambodian military targets along the Thai-Cambodian border, using fighter aircraft to strike what were described as ammunition storage facilities, according to reports from both Thai and Cambodian sources. According to information circulating from Thai military-linked accounts, the strikes occurred at approximately 4:00 p.m. local […]View the full article

When it comes to the United Nations’ various bodies, other International Organizations (IO), and the grifty universe of Non Governmental Organizations (NGO)—especially those involving “the environment”—no matter how cynical you are, you are not cynical enough. The whole scene has moved beyond farce, watching the activists across the West, from the Just Stop Oil neo-Luddite types, to the operationalized self-loathing deindustrialization and decarbonization actions throughout Europe whose advocates continue to ignore the world’s greatest polluter of the air and water—the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The reasons are multi-causal, from useful-idiot cluelessness on one en…

UAV Navigation-Grupo Oesía announced on Feb. 12 in Madrid that it has partnered with Poland-based Ekolot Aerospace & Defense (EAD) to integrate its flight control system into the ZEUS fixed-wing VTOL unmanned aircraft platform. According to the company, the collaboration will see UAV Navigation-Grupo Oesía’s guidance, navigation, and control systems embedded into ZEUS, Ekolot EAD’s […]View the full article

Iran has used a modified version of its Shahed-101 loitering munition, featuring structural changes and an electric propulsion system, according to reporting cited by the Ukrainian defense outlet Militarnyi. The development reflects ongoing evolution of Iranian one-way attack drones, which have been used in regional conflicts and in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Analysts say design […]View the full article

A newly identified Ukrainian sea drone fitted with a remotely operated machine-gun mount was spotted during a recent strike attempt on Russia’s naval base at Novorossiysk. Footage circulated by Russian reconnaissance channels appears to show the unmanned surface vessel moving as part of a larger wave of attack drones heading toward the port. One of […]View the full article

Teledyne FLIR Defense announced a major upgrade to its Rogue 1 loitering munition at SOF Week in Tampa, doubling the system’s operating range to more than 12 miles and adding an anti-armor warhead that uses shaped charge jet technology to defeat more heavily protected targets than the original platform could engage. The Rogue 1 Block […]View the full article

An Idaho National Guard cavalry unit that once rode into battle on horses and later trained on 70-ton tanks reorganized from an armored combined arms battalion into a mobile infantry battalion equipped with Infantry Squad Vehicles on June 18, 2026, in a ceremony that signals how profoundly the U.S. Army believes the character of ground […]View the full article

A consulting firm best known for advising Fortune 500 companies on corporate strategy just landed a nearly $20 million contract to fix one of the U.S. military’s most persistent headaches: getting American weapons into allied hands faster. The Boston Consulting Group received a $19.9 million contract from the Army to help redesign how the service […]View the full article

An unmanned aircraft equipped with a microwave retroreflector, a device that bounces radar signals back with the strength of an object roughly twenty times its actual size, is designed to make one radar blip look like a genuine incoming strike drone. That aircraft, called Spectr, is built by OM Defence Systems, a UK based defense […]View the full article

V2X confirmed on September 8, 2026, that it has been awarded a $19 million contract by the U.S. Marine Corps to deliver Tempest counter-drone vehicles, along with the maintenance, software and training needed to keep them running. The announcement puts a public face on a deal the Pentagon had already disclosed. A contract notice dated […]View the full article

Russia has used uncrewed tanks from its Shturm heavy robotic assault system in combat drills for the first time, sending remotely controlled T-72-based vehicles to support assault troops during its Tsentr-2026 strategic exercise. Russian President Vladimir Putin was shown the vehicles at the Chebarkul training range in the Chelyabinsk region, the Russian Defense Ministry said […]View the full article