Raw Intel

A Slovak defense engineering company has signed a framework agreement worth up to $580 million with Slovakia’s Ministry of Defence for military excavator systems, structured under the European Union’s new SAFE financing program in a way that allows any other EU member state to join the contract without running its own separate procurement competition. CSM […]View the full article

A Munich-based artificial intelligence startup called SE3 Labs stepped out of stealth mode on June 26, 2026, announcing that its spatial AI platform is already under contract with the German Bundeswehr and operational in military exercises across Europe, where the company says it has reduced the time between detecting a target and engaging it by […]View the full article

China stole a march on us. In any multiplayer game, you cannot get scope-locked. While you may focus on one enemy or one particular part of the game, others are not standing by idly, politely waiting their turn to move. No, they will encourage your distraction. They will let you indulge yourself in other problems. Meanwhile, they move through the unguarded gates into fertile fields. We live on a large, round ball—but we think right and left because that is what our maps look like on our wall, across our screens. North-up, head-down, obsessing about the grind off some hot, dry, legacy concern or wet tropical island no one has heard of. Where are moves taking place we are n…

Poland’s Ministry of National Defense said Wednesday that its armed forces maintain various air and missile defense capabilities to protect designated targets, including cities, pushing back against public criticism that Polish urban centers lack air defense coverage. The ministry did not name the source of the criticism directly, but the statement follows weeks of political […]View the full article

Americas A US Marine Corps AH-1W gunship now retired to Picatinny Arsenal. It will be used as a laboratory for the XM915 20mm Gatling gun. The Bell AH-1W Super Cobra was flown from NAS Joint Reserve Base New Orleans to Picatinny Arsenal by Marines Lt. Col. Mark Diss and Capt. Garrett Peirce. The US Army plans to fit the XM915 on its Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft. The Super Cobra, a twin-engine attack helicopter, is the first aviation aircraft to be housed on post for research and development purposes at the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center, also known as DEVCOM. The US Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) procured a …

UH-72As: MEDEVAC (click to view full) DID’s FOCUS articles offer in-depth, updated looks at significant military programs of record. This is DID’s FOCUS Article regarding the US Army’s Light Utility Helicopter program, covering the program and its objectives, the winning bid team and industrial arrangements, and contracts. The US Army’s LUH program will finish as a 325 helicopter acquisition program that will be worth about $2.3 billion when all is said and done. It aimed to replace existing UH-1 Hueys and OH-58 Kiowa utility variants in non-combat roles, freeing up larger and more expensive UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters for front-line duty. In June 2006, a variant of E…

Once again we are faced with two options: 1) the CNO is fighting as best he can to slow roll the forces of hate and division that are trying to turn his service in to an organization beset by strife, division, and sectarianism by saying the right words to keep the worst at bay while waiting for the tides to shift or; 2) the CNO is a true believer, more woke than woke – and he is going to drag everyone down with him. I am open to either option – or perhaps a 3rd “useful idiot” – but the CNO is not an idiot. He is a smart, hardworking, and talented man. As such, we must default to 1 or 2. Things are leaning towards 2. “My goal is to put the Navy in a place over the next 2…

Americas Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States are cooperating on hypersonic weapons and electronic warfare capabilities. This was announced by the leaders of the three countries have said. The move comes amid growing concern by the US and allies about China’s growing military assertiveness in the Pacific. US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the plan after holding a check-in on the progress of AUKUS, the Indo-Pacific alliance that was launched by the three countries in September. The United States’ next-generation land-based intercontinental ballistic missile system (ICBM) has b…

Americas The Space Force’s primary acquisition command, Space Systems Command, will wrap up plans for two new “Systems Deltas” to support electronic warfare and positioning, navigation and timing operations by mid-next month, according to a senior SSC official. NATO is expected to adopt its first-ever counter-drone doctrine, which will in part advise member states on layered […]View the full article

Americas Northrop Grumman won a $7 billion deal for B-2 modernization and sustainment. This contract provides for B-2 enhancements, sustainment, logistics elements including sustaining engineering, software maintenance, and support equipment. Also included is programmed depot maintenance of the fleet and other interim contractor support. Work will be performed at Palmdale, California; with performance at other […]View the full article

Americas Sikorsky won a $375.9 million modification to provide full funding for UH-60M and HH-60M aircraft. Work will be performed in Stratford, Connecticut, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2027. Fiscal 2025 aircraft procurement, Army funds in the amount of $375,937,755 were obligated at the time of the award. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. Lockheed Martin has announced that its new Tactical Satellite, dubbed “TacSat,” will be launched in 2025 aboard a Firefly Aerospace Alpha rocket. The company plans to test TacSat in several exercises scheduled for next year, evaluating its performance for rapid deployment…

On Monday, the Congressional Research Service came out with its latest, Navy DDG(X) Next-Generation Destroyer Program: Background and Issues for Congress. This is worth your time, as we need to get this right. We have to get this right because we have yet to cut steel on a successfully designed surface warship since Ronaldus Magnus was CINC. The same organizations, processes—and in some cases people—that failed on DDG-1000, LCS, CG(X), and are doing their best to scupper FFG-62, are working on DDG(X), so keep a weather eye on the program. I’m trying to be an optimist, but concerns have been growing roots for years. Low-trust is well-deserved. At first read, I thought we …

Electronic Warfare (EW) has become one of the most decisive tools in modern drone warfare, with jamming now shaping battlefields from Ukraine to Israel’s borders. Aviv Bar Zohar, a leading counter-UAS expert, told Defence Blog that while current EW systems disrupt or disable most GPS-based drones, new navigation technologies are beginning to challenge that advantage. […] The post Expert: Jamming dominates, but drones adapt first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Ukrainian air defense units have shot down a Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber that attempted to strike the city of Zaporizhzhia in the early hours of Thursday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said. In a statement released by the military, officials reported that the aircraft was destroyed as it conducted bombing operations in […] The post Ukraine shoots down Russian Su-34, crew killed first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

There is nothing personal here in the use of Admiral Cooper’s picture or in Kimo Fanell’s article over at American Greatness, Restoring America’s Warfighting Ethos: Too Many Ribbons… Clean Up America’s Military Awards Program. It is just an opportunity to point out again a problem that a lot of us continue to hope for action on: the obscene bloat of awards, badges, and pins. The Navy isn’t even the worst offender. The admiral’s appearance, while lawful and within standards, does raise the issue of the Pentagon’s awards system, where America’s senior military officers are able to obtain, let alone wear, that many rows of ribbons, awards, decorations, and badges—the latter…

There is one thing that the aviation community is really good at—being brutally honest in mishap investigations and having little wiggle room for poor transparency in discussing why fellow aviators died. They track their data carefully, and when something isn’t right, they find out why. Of course, there are exceptions and people who violate this tradition written in blood, but when they are discovered, they are treated like people who were caught sleeping with their sister…usually. As such, this from Military Times got my attention. The Navy’s data on just its own aviation mishaps shows a marked increase this year. The Naval Safety Command reported eight Class A aviation …

Insitu, a Boeing company, in collaboration with Hood Tech, has released new capability upgrades for its Flying Launch and Recovery System, or FLARES, aimed at expanding the operational reach of the long-endurance Integrator uncrewed aerial system. The updates were announced on December 17, 2025, and are focused on improving resilience, communications, and expeditionary performance in […]View the full article

I don’t know about you, but in the arch from Ukraine to Israel, the Red Sea, and Venezuela to the First Island Chain (OK, that is less of an arc than a Nike Swoosh), it is getting hard to keep up on the natsec front. It is fun, and exciting, to keep track of the flashing objects—it is real, you can see it, and it is what we are most comfortable with. If you are looking at the long-term, there are the things in the background, the machine inside the skin, that really matter. It has been a busy year, and the new Pentagon team—younger and more vigorous than its predecessor—is moving fast across a whole host of fronts when it comes not just to people, but process, organizatio…

Leonardo DRS announced on Feb. 17, 2026, that it has been awarded multiple contracts under the Missile Defense Agency’s Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) program, an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity agreement with a ceiling value of $151 billion aimed at accelerating delivery of air and missile defense capabilities for U.S. forces. According to a company press […]View the full article

The United States Navy’s Naval Air Systems Command announced plans on March 16 to pursue a sole-source contract with Boeing for software updates to the Harpoon missile support system, according to a presolicitation notice. The effort focuses on updating the Common Munitions BIT/Reprogramming Equipment Mission Application Program, a system used to support and maintain Harpoon […]View the full article