Raw Intel

The Z-20T assault helicopter, developed by China’s Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC), was featured in flight demonstrations at the 7th China Helicopter Exposition in Tianjin after making its first public appearance during a military parade on September 3. The aircraft, developed by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), combines airlift capabilities with integrated firepower in […] The post China shows armed Z-20T helicopter in action first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Russia’s state defense conglomerate Rostec says the Uralvagonzavod plant has delivered another batch of TOS‑1A “Solntsepyok” heavy flamethrower systems to the Ministry of Defense. The delivery was announced ahead of the country’s Day of Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops, a date often used by Moscow to highlight equipment tied to these units. According to […]View the full article

The Turkish domestically developed Tayfun ballistic missile has successfully struck its target during a recent test launch. The test involved the Tayfun missile and its associated weapon system, which is already in mass production and being delivered to the Turkish Armed Forces. Testing is continuing across multiple variants of Tayfun, which Turkish authorities describe as […]View the full article

General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) has been awarded a $988 million contract to modernize the U.S. Navy’s command-and-control and surveillance systems across all classes of surface combatant ships, the company announced on Jan. 12. The award, issued in December, launches a one-year base period with four one-year options and a six-month extension. According to the […]View the full article

Turkey’s largest defense company ASELSAN displayed a trailer-mounted version of its SARP 100/35 weapon turret during a recent facility visit by Turkish official Bayraktaroğlu, according to information shared by Ahmet Alemdar, co-founder of Defence Turk Magazine, on social media platform X. Images published following the visit showed the SARP 100/35 system — previously known as […]View the full article

Documents circulating on social media suggest that Russia’s Progress helicopter plant may have evaluated the possible production of Ka-52M attack helicopters for a foreign customer, with online speculation pointing to potential interest from China. The documents have not been independently verified, but they appear to be internal correspondence from Arsenyev Aviation Company Progress, the Russian […]View the full article

South Korea’s Air Force has rolled out the first production model of its indigenously developed Medium-Altitude Reconnaissance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. The rollout ceremony was announced by the Republic of Korea Air Force on Wednesday, with Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Son Seok-rak describing the aircraft as a key step toward a future manned-unmanned force […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force wants to keep the Minuteman III flying through 2050, and it’s now looking for contractors who can help figure out how to do it. The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center published a special notice on May 1, 2026, soliciting information from industry on how a contractor could assist in extending the […]View the full article

Every time an F-35 lands, its brakes absorb an enormous amount of heat. The world’s most advanced stealth fighter weighs more than 29,000 pounds fully loaded, lands at speeds exceeding 150 miles per hour, and stops using a braking system that has to dissipate that kinetic energy within the length of a runway. When the […]View the full article

Russia appears to have modified its most advanced attack helicopter with new electronic warfare equipment, and the changes visible in recently released Russian military footage suggest the Mi-28NM is being adapted to counter the drone threat that has fundamentally reshaped the battlefield over Ukraine. Israeli defense analyst Guy Plopsky, who closely tracks Russian military aviation […]View the full article

One of the great frustrations about the military operations of the last few years has been the lack of storytelling. Both the usual suspects in the media and the insular turn in the military’s PAO apparatus of the last decade and a half are to blame. That is why about all you see are second-tier stories about whether the Army or Navy can put on better impromptu beach airshows or not, or worse—whatever the Pentagon Press Corps™ in exile feels like writing about that only interests their knitting circle socio-political fetishes within a Lime Bike ride of their 5th-floor apartment in Alexandria. You have to look elsewhere, unless you’re willing to be content with lazy and u…

The U.S. Army has awarded a $10 billion contract with a potential 26-year term to overhaul how it trains new helicopter pilots, shifting initial flight instruction at Fort Rucker, Alabama, to a contractor-owned, contractor-operated model. M1 Support Services L.P., based in Denton, Texas, won the firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, beating out 10 other bidders after the […]View the full article

Ukraine’s Defense Forces struck a Russian chemical plant in Volgograd overnight on September 10-11, 2026, using FP-5 “Flamingo” cruise missiles, according to Fire Point, the Ukrainian company that manufactures the weapon. Fire Point said the missiles hit their target directly and sparked a large fire at the facility. The target, Volgogradpromproekt, is a specialty chemicals […]View the full article

France test-fired its newest submarine-launched nuclear missile, the M51.3, from a ballistic missile submarine for the first time on Oct. 6, with President Emmanuel Macron watching from a French Navy frigate off the coast of Brittany. The missile was launched from the submarine Le Vigilant off Finistère and came down in the North Atlantic several […]View the full article

China’s Liaoning carrier group has carried out its second far-seas training deployment to the Western Pacific this year, a decade after the carrier’s first such voyage in 2016, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported on Oct. 24, describing the ship’s path over those 10 years as a three-step climb from training ship to combat ship to […]View the full article

UCAS-D/ N-UCAS concept (click to view full) The idea of UAVs with full stealth and combat capabilities has come a long way, quickly. Air forces around the world are pursuing R&D programs, but in the USA, progress is being led by the US Navy. Their interest is well-founded. A May 2007 non-partisan report discussed the lengthening reach of ship-killers. Meanwhile, the US Navy’s carrier fleet sees its strike range shrinking to 1950s distances, and prepares for a future with fewer carrier air wings than operational carriers. Could UCAV/UCAS vehicles with longer ranges, and indefinite flight time limits via aerial refueling, solve these problems? Some people in the Navy…

There is a lot of wishcasting when it come to talking about "the next war." A lot of money is to be made in peace selling a vision of what people desire the next war to be; a fast war, an easy war, a war fought on our ethical spectrum with the weapons we like, on a timescale that works best for us. History teaches that war does not work this way. No one gets the next war exactly right, but some get it partially right. That is why you need to be suspicious of single points of failure or any cult-like following of concepts or personalities that make this historically hard seem easy. There is one thing that you can count on when it comes to big or even medium wars; they …

A little over a decade ago, we coined "The Terrible 20s" to describe what we saw as the challenge we are experiencing now. A point I made then still applies; if you want a preview of the USN in a decade, look at the Royal Navy today; Look at what the Royal Navy is dealing with today, and it isn't a stretch to see similar challenges for ourselves. Look and learn - and perhaps we can mitigate the pain. Have you seen the absolute state of what the Royal Navy is looking at towards the end of this decade? From the summary report of the recent report out of the House of Commons, “We’re going to need a bigger Navy;” Towards the end of the decade in 2027–28 the Navy will begin …

This week I want to return to our topic from last week, the critically important case presently with the US Supreme Court, Students for Fair Admission v. President and Fellows of Harvard College & the University of North Carolina. I'm going to bring out an extended pull quote from the Amicus Brief of Veterans for Fairness and Merit. You can read it all at the prior link, but this is coming from pages 27-28. It makes so many of the points we have been making here for the last 18-years about the raw and unfair racialist policies our military practices in general, and our service academies do in particular. We have said for years to all who would listen that these sect…

Americas Boeing won a $116 million hybrid deal for Apache logistics support. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Mesa, Arizona, with an estimated completion date of April 30, 2025. Fiscal 2024 Army working capital funds in the amount of $116,703,697 were obligated at the time of the […]View the full article