Raw Intel

The Defense Logistics Agency has awarded Ohio steelmaker Metallus a contract worth up to $995 million for High Fragmentation 1 steel, the special alloy used to make the bodies of U.S. 155 mm artillery shells, the U.S. Department of War announced. The five-year, firm-fixed-price contract runs through Sept. 24, 2031, and has no option periods. […]View the full article

The U.S. Marine Corps has awarded Norway’s Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace a contract worth up to $404.4 million for full-rate production and support of Naval Strike Missile launchers and the fire control system that aims them, the U.S. Department of War announced Sept. 25. The firm-fixed-price contract covers the Naval Strike Missile Launcher Unit, its […]View the full article

Tuesday was the 250th anniversary of the death of a young man who was given so much, earned so much, and at the ripe old age of 21 gave it all in service to our nation at its very birth. In case you missed it, I am referring to one of the greatest Americans the state of Connecticut ever produced. At a time when only a minority were in rebellion against the British crown, he stepped forward. As in all revolutions, the example set by others early — and the efforts made by the few who led the way — is what makes their honor so great. Hale had a lot to lose. He came from, and was raised to assume, the highest roles in the established colonial order. Wiki has a great summary,…

Latvia is working to buy Anduril’s Barracuda long-range cruise missiles, President Edgars Rinkēvičs said after visiting the American defense company and meeting its founder, Palmer Luckey. Rinkēvičs wrote that he looked forward to completing the acquisition of the missiles and to further defense industry cooperation. During the visit he also witnessed the signing of memoranda […]View the full article

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency has awarded General Dynamics Information Technology a $16.6 million contract to keep running the computer systems the U.S. military uses to track every nuclear weapon in its stockpile, the U.S. Department of War announced. The cost-plus-fixed-fee contract covers continued support for the Defense Stockpile Management System. The agency said the […]View the full article

The U.S. Army has awarded Leonardo Electronics US $30.1 million to keep developing a way to combine the light from many small semiconductor lasers into a single, more powerful beam, the U.S. Department of War announced. The modification to an existing research contract covers work to develop, study and scale up the power emitted in […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force has taken delivery of its first two Collaborative Combat Aircraft, uncrewed jets built to fly alongside fighter pilots, at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, the Department of the Air Force said Sept. 24. Anduril delivered its YFQ-44A Fury to the base’s Experimental Operations Unit in August, and General Atomics followed […]View the full article

A Chinese HQ-17 short-range air defense system painted in camouflage matching Algerian military vehicles has appeared in photos shared widely on Weibo, with Chinese sources claiming the system is headed to Algeria. The photos were highlighted by an OSINT defense account, which noted that the camouflage pattern matches the paint used on a large number […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force has more than doubled the value of its contract with DZYNE Technologies for operational testing of ULTRA, a glider-like surveillance drone that can stay in the air for more than three days, the U.S. Department of War announced. The $46.1 million modification raises the contract’s total value to $85.6 million, up […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force has added $87.4 million to Northrop Grumman’s contract for the AN/ALQ-257 Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suite, a new radar-jamming and threat-warning system for the F-16 fighter, the U.S. Department of War announced. The modification funds low-rate initial production, the first small production run before full-rate manufacturing. It raises the total value […]View the full article

The U.S. Navy has awarded Northrop Grumman up to $123.8 million to buy long-lead parts for 67 AN/APG-85 radars, the new radar meant for the F-35 fighter, as brand-new jets continue to reach U.S. squadrons with ballast in their noses instead of radars. The contract, announced Sept. 24 by the U.S. Department of War, covers […]View the full article

Romania has received its first K9 self-propelled howitzers, K10 ammunition resupply vehicles and K12 vehicles from South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace under its tracked self-propelled howitzer program. Romania signed a contract worth nearly $1 billion with Hanwha on July 9, 2024, for 54 K9 howitzers and 36 K10 resupply vehicles, along with ammunition and tracked and […]View the full article

A Safran Patroller surveillance drone flew along Poland’s eastern border with Belarus on Thursday, passing near the Białowieża Forest and the town of Hajnówka, flight-tracking data showed. The flight was flagged on X by the open-source account Coffe Report. A Flightradar24 capture from 14:50 UTC listed the aircraft as a Safran S-15 Patroller, categorized as […]View the full article

If you are an old NATO hand, you are very familiar with the struggle to fill the Combined Joint Statement of Requirements (CJSOR), which is where you try to find the actual military units to fill the requirements of your Operational Plans (troops-to-task). Once you finally get some troop-contributing nation (and yes, this is a bunch of land-centric verbiage, but welcome to NATO) to pony up for a specific line, you then have to review the National Caveats that will come with the offer. More often than not, we would be better off not having them arrive at all. A few real world reasons: They can come with so many restrictions (our company of security personnel cannot condu…

The Netherlands plans to turn an Australian-designed laser into a working weapon against drones and build it on Dutch soil, the Dutch Ministry of Defense said Thursday. State Secretary for Defense Derk Boswijk signed a letter of intent this week with Electro Optic Systems (EOS), the Canberra-based maker of the Apollo high-energy laser. The ministry […]View the full article

The U.S. Navy has added $876.4 million to L3Harris Technologies’ contract for the Next Generation Jammer Low Band, a radar-jamming pod for the EA-18G Growler electronic attack jet flown by the U.S. Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force, the U.S. Department of War announced. The award is a modification to the $587.4 million contract […]View the full article

Italy’s Defense Ministry has opened a €5.14 billion ($5.86 billion) procurement for a new main battle tank and vehicles built on it, according to a record published Sept. 21 in the database of Italy’s National Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC). The entry, listed under code BD0D09994D, covers the supply of a new tank and its derivatives for […]View the full article

A U.S. Army heavy battalion equipped with M1 Abrams tanks and an engineer battalion will deploy to Lithuania, the country’s Defense Ministry said Thursday, ending a gap of several months without a U.S. rotational force in the Baltic state. Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas said both battalions will arrive at the end of October. The force […]View the full article

Azerbaijan’s army in the Nakhchivan exclave has received Sivrisinek kamikaze drones, the Baykar-built loitering munition also known as YIHA-III, the Azerbaijani defense outlet TURAN Defence AZ reported. The drones went to the Nakhchivan Separate Combined Arms Army, according to the post. Baku has not announced the delivery, and there is no word on how many […]View the full article

Ethiopia’s military appears to have gained a new shield for its drone fleet: Chinese-made FK-2000 air defense systems, most likely delivered through the United Arab Emirates. Video shared on TikTok reportedly shows at least two of the truck-mounted systems on the road to Amhara, the northern region where government troops have been fighting Fano militias […]View the full article