Raw Intel

Americas The Navy contracted Raytheon Missiles $ Defense with a $24.8 million modification for procurement of fiscal 2021 Navy Standard Missile-2 intermediate level provisioned items ordered spares; and to exercise one-year options for fiscal 2021 Standard Missile-2 and Standard Missile-6 repairs and maintenance. The SM-2 is the U.S Navy’s primary surface-to-air defense weapon and is part of the AEGIS Weapon System along Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Arleigh Burke Class destroyers. The SM-6, also known as RIM-174, is a ship-launched extended range variant of the anti-air and anti-surface interceptor missile developed by Raytheon Company. It is also a key part of the AEGI…

R.K. Lembke has an article over at Small Wars Journal that had me nodding my head in agreement on the subject more than any I have read in a long time. Regular readers of CDR Salamander will see many of the issues we've raised here over they years, but Lembke's presentation, tying them in together while providing sound and well documented quotes from the start, is simply a powerhouse. I spent half a decade of my active duty life on, and for a few months, in Afghanistan. A wee bit early on at the Tactical, but most as a staff weenie on the in-theater Operational and Strategic levels at USA and NATO commands from Bush43 through to the first year of the Obama administratio…

...we have better start planning to fight the marathon. Now that we are contested at sea, we are setting ourselves up to be unable to return ships to the fight. Details from the GAO's latest over at USNIBlog. Give it a read and wake up. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=yIl2AUoC8zA http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=qj6IDK7rITs http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=ljcXeWKB1UY:EKgL8FL2X5o:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=ljcXeWKB1UY:EKgL8FL2X5o:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=ljcXeWKB1UY:EKgL8FL2X5o:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=ljcXeWKB1UY:EKg…

Ah, yes, The Terrible 20s. What if you had the leadership and malaise of the Carter Administration mixed in with the budgetary pressures of the Clinton Administration ... with a little bit of Biden Administration special sauce mixed in? We're not even a year in to the Biden Admin still at the start of the 20s...so you know this was coming. Via Joe Gould at DefenseNews; House progressives will have a few chances to hold down the defense budget this week, but it’s going to be an uphill fight. The House is set to vote this week on two Democratic amendments to cut the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act’s $740 billion top line. One would reduce it by roughly 10 …

More than a few times the last month I have found myself referring to the Sailors of the FITZGERALD and McCain. I've dug in to the archives from the summer of 2017 to look again at some of the things I wrote while things were fresh. This week, let's look back to AUG 2017 when I first wrote this. There can be only one FbF today, nothing else comes close. The supplemental preliminary inquiry into the collision involving the USS FITZGERALD (DDG 62) and the ACX CRYSTAL from 17 JUN of this year is out. The report is dated 11 AUG 17. You can get it from the SECNAV's site here, or read the whole thing posted below. I wanted to pull one extended quote from it for your review. I…

The People's Republic of China does not have to aggressively take our status as the premier world power. It appears that we are willingly giving it to them, sooner more than later. As a maritime and aerospace power, especially when it comes to the challenge west of Wake, if you want to understand how serious our nation's national security nomenklatura is toward the clear threat to the place previous generations died by the hundreds of thousands to place us in the last century - just look at what we are spending our money on. Megan Eckstein over at DefenseNews has the summary for everyone. It isn't pleasant reading, especially for those who have their eyes on the world aro…

Before the Russo-Ukrainian War kicked off in February, on the Top-5 lists of any navalist worth their salt was the Arctic. If you are an Atlanticist/NATO type, it was in your Top-3. Sea lanes/SLOC, resource access, resource protection, environmental protection and monitoring, and just good old sound military planning kept the Arctic on everyone’s mind. The fact that especially in the USA there was no small bit of “out of sight out of mind” neglect, specifically with our icebreaking capabilities, brought as much concern. The non-Arctic nation of China deciding she wanted to be a player only made it even more important that policy makers wake up. When you look at the playin…

Americas General Dynamics Land Systems was awarded a $21,998,374 modification for Abrams systems technical support. Work will be performed in Sterling Heights, Michigan, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 15, 2025. Fiscal 2024 research, development, test, and evaluation, Army funds in the amount of $21,998,374 were obligated at the time of the award. Army […]View the full article

Americas The US Department of Defense has signed an agreement with Australia and the UK to collaborate on “offensive and defensive” hypersonic technologies. The partnership aims to accelerate the development, testing, and evaluation of cutting-edge hypersonic vehicles and technologies, including long-range missiles capable of traveling considerably faster than the speed of sound. Northrop Grumman has delivered its Stand-in Attack Weapon (SiAW) test missile to the US Air Force, which is designed to target rapidly relocatable threats. The test missile will be used to verify the safe carriage and separation of the weapon from its launch aircraft. In 2023, the US Air Force aw…

A Swedish-Estonian shipbuilder has unveiled a new modular rigid inflatable boat (RIB) designed to give defense and security operators the ability to reconfigure missions in minutes. XW Production, a startup operating across Sweden and Estonia, announced the launch of its XW Modular 750, an aluminum RIB platform tested by professional divers, border guards, and naval […] The post Swedish-Estonian team unveils modular combat craft first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Embraer and Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) announced on September 23 that they have signed an agreement for the purchase of one A-29 Super Tucano light attack and reconnaissance aircraft. The deal, revealed at the Air & Space Forces Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference, comes ahead of an anticipated U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) case. […] The post SNC buys A-29 Super Tucano for future FMS case first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

An exclusive report by Babel has revealed the operations of a Ukrainian strike unit that converts commercial ultralight aircraft into long-range unmanned combat drones capable of hitting Russian targets hundreds of kilometers away. The covert unit, part of the 14th Regiment of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, has carried out 102 missions, 78 of which were […] The post Ukraine converts ultralights into unmanned bombers first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Raytheon Co. has been awarded a $698.9 million contract by the U.S. Army for the production of NASAMS (National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System) fire units intended for Taiwan under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. According to the Department of War’s contract announcement, the award includes the procurement of complete NASAMS fire units, with work […]View the full article

PteroDynamics and AeroVironment said they have completed a joint technology demonstration integrating electronic warfare sensors on an autonomous vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aircraft, marking a step in exploring new options for U.S. Navy littoral surveillance missions. According to a press release distributed by EINPresswire on December 16, the companies collaborated during Silent Swarm 25, […]View the full article

The United States Army has deployed M1 Abrams main battle tanks to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, confirming a new movement of heavy armored forces into the Middle East as regional tensions remain elevated. U.S. soldiers assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment, Task Force Reaper, were photographed driving an M1 […]View the full article

Those who follow me on X know that every couple of months I remind everyone that we are gleefully training those whose life’s work is to defeat this nation. If you have been to a major top-shelf university or research institution’s graduation ceremony in the last two decades, one thing that dramatically stands out is how many People’s Republic of China (PRC) nationals are receiving not just undergraduate degrees, but master’s degrees and PhDs in the most highly skilled STEM fields from biostatistics to quantum physics. From aerospace engineering to industrial design—PRC nationals are overrepresented to an outlandish degree. Don’t forget, these are the places basic researc…

A video released by United States Central Command appears to show the destruction of a Cobra V8 electronic warfare system during a U.S. airstrike targeting military facilities in Iran. The system was located at a surface-to-air missile site west of Bandar Imam Khomeini in Khuzestan province, according to open-source analysis. This strike has drawn attention […]View the full article

Mali’s army has received a new shipment of military equipment from China, with newly surfaced convoy footage indicating that the delivery likely includes YITIAN-L short-range air defense systems mounted on Dongfeng Mengshi tactical vehicles, according to Militarnyi. The convoy was recently observed moving on roads in Mali and transporting newly arrived Chinese-made equipment, including vehicles […]View the full article

Israel’s first KC-46 tanker aircraft has completed its maiden flight in the United States, the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced. The aircraft, designated “Gideon” in Hebrew, is the first of six KC-46 tankers procured by the IMOD Mission to the U.S. on behalf of the Israel Defense Forces. Boeing’s KC-46 Pegasus is a multi-role aerial […]View the full article

Russia’s Uralvagonzavod concern publicly unveiled for the first time a prototype of the DT-3PM light articulated tracked all-terrain vehicle at the Gas. Oil. Technologies exhibition in Ufa, presenting a dual-use platform that its developers describe as equally suited for Arctic military operations and civilian industrial work in some of the world’s most remote and hostile […]View the full article