Raw Intel

The United States has deployed six EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft to the Middle East as part of a new force movement linked to preparations for a possible strike on Iran, according to open-source flight tracking data and regional air activity observed this week. The U.S. Navy Growlers departed from Naval Air Station Oceana in […]View the full article

Germany has received its first Arrow 3 missile defense systems from Israel, making it the first country outside Israel to deploy the advanced anti-ballistic weapon. The delivery marks a major step in Germany’s missile defense posture as the country expands its role in European and NATO security. The Arrow 3, jointly developed by Israel Aerospace […]View the full article

A new assessment by Sam Cranny-Evans of Calibre Defence says Chinese defense exports are increasingly under scrutiny as international operators report recurring reliability failures and weak after-sales support across a wide range of systems. According to the analysis, concerns span decades of Chinese arms exports and affect land, air, and naval platforms delivered to multiple […]View the full article

The Texas National Guard is using airboats to conduct riverine patrols on the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, operating in shallow and marshy areas to detect and deter illegal crossings along the Mexico border. Photographs released recently show Guard personnel traveling on a Panther Lightning airboat, a flat-bottomed craft propelled by an aircraft-type propeller, during […]View the full article

If you didn’t get a chance to listen to Sunday’s Midrats Podcast with Mark and me, give it a listen to hear a broader discussion with some additional detail thrown in. Today is going to be a bit different. We are still just ~72-hours from the events, so there is an order of magnitude more of what we don’t know than we do, but some items are breaking out from the fog. On yesterday’s podcast, I briefly mentioned a framework for discussion that I think is helpful to flesh out here—an addendum to my comments on the podcast, so to speak. As we stand here the Monday after the events of Friday night/Saturday morning, what are some clear items of consideration at the Tactical, Op…

Babcock International is moving to position itself as the prime contractor for the British Army’s next generation of light utility vehicles, bringing together approximately 30 UK suppliers at a formal engagement event as it pitches its Toyota-based General Logistics Vehicle to replace the Land Rover fleet after 70 years of service. Babcock convened the suppliers […]View the full article

Russia has revealed a new set of battlefield tactics for its tank units, describing coordinated maneuvers that pair armored vehicles with unmanned aerial systems in ongoing combat operations, according to statements released by the Russian Ministry of Defense and the state corporation Rostec. The Ministry said frontline units now employ a two-tank method in which […]View the full article

A swarm of autonomous boats operated by U.S. Army soldiers spread across a Philippine waterway during Exercise Salaknib 2026, screening a military cargo ship and relaying real-time surveillance data to commanders ashore as American and Philippine forces conducted a combined maritime security demonstration in Casiguran Sound in the northern Philippines. The mission showcased how U.S. […]View the full article

Castelion, a California-based defense technology firm founded by former SpaceX engineers, confirmed that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth visited the company’s headquarters this week. According to the company, Hegseth met with engineers working on rapid-production missile technologies designed to restore industrial agility and increase the pace at which U.S. forces can field advanced weapons. During […]View the full article

Russia’s defense industry has delivered a batch of Su-57 fifth-generation fighter aircraft to the Russian Ministry of Defense. According to United Aircraft Corporation, which operates under Rostec, the aircraft were produced and handed over to the Ministry of Defense as part of ongoing deliveries to the Aerospace Forces. The company said the jets were accepted […]View the full article

You have to be careful about assumptions, especially those you grew up with that are comforting, convenient, and once seemed so real, so solid, that they just were part of the landscape. They just, were. For over a century, there was one jewel in the special relationship between the United States of America and her mother country, Great Britain. That jewel was the Royal Navy. From the convoys and battleship divisions of the Great War, to Five Inch Friday off the Al Faw almost 90 years later, we always knew that there was another highly capable navy out there we could rely on—the Royal Navy and her Commonwealth. During the interbellum, when the U.S. Navy was on par with th…

If everyone can, push to the side any political comments about Starmer or Trump. These are temporary players on a stage with a play going on for well over a century: that of the special relationship in national security matters between the United Kingdom and the United States. We have not always supported each other with vigor. From the Suez Crisis to the Vietnam War—nations have agency and these things happen. Once these spots of bother pass one way or the other, what was a constant was that, though a shadow of her height in the first half of the 20th Century, the UK was still a serious military power. It was a power that her friends and allies baked into their plans and…

The United States Department of War announced 340 additional awards under the Missile Defense Agency’s Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) contract on January 15, expanding a massive procurement program that now totals more than 2,400 awards since early December. The latest awards support a contract vehicle with a ceiling of $151 billion. According […]View the full article

China is reportedly developing a new stealth cruise missile sized to fit inside the internal weapons bays of its J-20 and J-35 stealth fighters, according to technical design documents released in Weibo. The missile’s design specifications set its length at under 4 meters and diameter under 0.85 meters — dimensions that are almost certainly driven […]View the full article

A fire erupted inside the grounds of the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aviation Plant (KnAAZ) named after Yuri Gagarin, Russia’s sole serial manufacturer of the Su-57 Felon fifth-generation fighter jet, according to footage and reports circulating on social media. The open-source intelligence community Cyberboroshno, which analyzes Russian military-industrial activity, reported that video and posts captured on social media […]View the full article

U.S.-based autonomous aviation company Pyka on Feb. 23, 2026, announced development progress on its DropShip autonomous cargo drone, unveiling a new unmanned aircraft designed to conduct logistics transport and casualty evacuation missions in contested environments without risking pilots or high-value aircraft. The announcement comes as military planners seek alternative logistics platforms capable of operating in […]View the full article

Japan’s Ministry of Defense said it has imposed a 2.5-month suspension on Kawasaki Heavy Industries after confirming long-term misconduct in inspections of diesel generators used on submarines. According to a statement released on December 26, the Ministry of Defense of Japan will bar Kawasaki Heavy Industries from designated government contracts from December 26 through March […]View the full article

The U.S. Navy’s amphibious transport dock USS San Antonio (LPD-17) was spotted docked at St. Croix on October 30, according to newly released satellite imagery shared by SA Defensa. The defense monitoring outlet said the vessel was visible in European Space Agency Sentinel-2 imagery, showing the ship moored at port in the U.S. Virgin Islands. […]View the full article

A U.S. Navy aircraft carrier appears to have been operating north of Madagascar en route to the Arabian Sea after an onboard aircraft transmitted its position, according to open-source flight tracking data. Data from Flightradar24 shows a Bell-Boeing CMV-22B Osprey with the callsign “CHOSEN2” flying near the Comoros Islands earlier in the day. The aircraft, […]View the full article

A Russian military An-26 transport aircraft was crashed in occupied Crimea on Tuesday evening after communication with the aircraft was severed during a scheduled flight, according to statements from Russia’s Ministry of Defense and military-linked sources. The fate of the crew and passengers remains unknown, with search-and-rescue teams dispatched to the suspected crash area. The […]View the full article