Raw Intel

Bulgaria has received the first batch of Stryker armored vehicles, with five combat vehicles arriving at the port of Burgas on Feb. 14, 2026, marking the start of deliveries under the country’s military modernization program, the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense announced. The shipment represents the initial phase of a broader procurement effort conducted through international […]View the full article

Big Japanese defense manufacturer Kawasaki Heavy Industries has confirmed that it is studying the development of two types of collaborative unmanned aircraft, including a missile-like system and an aircraft-type platform. According to comments by Hiroyoshi Shimokawa, president of Kawasaki Heavy Industries’ Aerospace Systems Company, the firm is currently developing a concept known as the Collaborative […]View the full article

Certo Aerospace has demonstrated a new anti-submarine warfare capability for the Royal Navy, using its CAPSTONE vertical take-off and landing drone in a flight test at Keevil Airfield on Feb. 23. The trial, conducted under the Navy’s ATLANTIC BASTION technology demonstration program, focused on the aircraft’s ability to detect, locate, and track underwater targets using […]View the full article

The F-35 Joint Program Office is preparing to modify the fighter’s In-Line File Encryption Device software to support government-mandated quantum-resistant algorithms, according to a presolicitation notice published on May 6, 2026. The notice, issued through Naval Air Systems Command, signals that the F-35 program is beginning the process of hardening one of the aircraft’s core […]View the full article

A drone equipped with an airborne signals intelligence system successfully detected, classified, and geolocated every high-priority radio frequency emitter in a French military exercise earlier this month, demonstrating a capability that could fundamentally change how ground forces find and track adversary communications equipment, drone operators, and jammers without putting soldiers within range of the threats […]View the full article

A Lithuanian drone company has unveiled a purpose-built interceptor designed to destroy Shahed-class attack drones in flight, adding a new kinetic counter-drone weapon to the growing arsenal of small nations that have turned four years of front-line experience in Ukraine into exportable defense technology. Granta Autonomy announced the Black Wasp on June 24, 2026, describing […]View the full article

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps released photographs Sunday of a downed drone its Ground Forces say they shot out of the sky over southern Iran, and the aircraft in the photos traces back to a U.S. Army Special Forces exercise conducted thousands of miles away in the Philippines just three months earlier. Babak Taghvaee, an […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has opened a solicitation for Relentless Wolfpack, a program intended to demonstrate that weapons from different vendors can coordinate against targets in contested airspace, according to a call published under the PACER Broad Agency Announcement. The call, issued by AFRL’s Air Warfare Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base, seeks […]View the full article

Ultra APV demonstrator (click to view full) In an age of non-linear warfare, where front lines are nebulous at best and non-existent at worst, one of the biggest casualties is… the concept of unprotected rear echelon vehicles, designed with the idea that they’d never see serious combat. That imperative is being driven home on 2 fronts. One front is operational. The other front is buying trends. These trends, and their design imperatives, found their way into the USA’s Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program, which aims to replace many of the US military’s 120,000 or so Humvees. The US military’s goal is a 7-10 ton vehicle that’s lighter than its MRAPs and easier to…

Americas Naval Air Force Atlantic tested a long-range aerial drone last weekend, the Navy announced. The long-range cargo transport, dubbed Blue Water UAS, is designed to operate with Naval Forces that typically operate in heavy winds over open water and require aircraft to land on vessels that are moving rapidly at sea. The proof-of-concept test was conducted last Sunday by transporting lightweight logistical equipment from the mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center at Naval Station Norfolk on board USS Gerald R. Ford while the carrier was in-port. Boeing announced that its T-7A Red Hawk advanced trainer has entered production at its plant in St. Louis. Chuck Dabundo,…

China's military posturing is in the air this Monday, so we'll look west of Wake to start the week out. Though rough translations can be a challenge to read, if you get a chance to read your main opponent's intellectual work that references how they think - you should make the effort. Though it would be great to have a more recent copy, thanks to the USAF's Air University you can read the People's Republic of China Science of Military Strategy (2013). They use a slightly different approach to think about the same issue all militaries do - how to look at the different areas of power and control. In the West, most of us think in "domains." The PRC's 2013 work uses the term …

Americas The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has awarded $3 million in contracts to two non-profits to hire and educate new digital security personnel from underserved communities. The agency signed agreements with Tennessee-based apprenticeship organization South Memphis Renewal Community Development Corporation (SMRCDC) and New York tech skills instructor Per Scholas. BAE Systems has […]View the full article

Americas Boeing won a $19 million modification for the F-15 Eagle Passive/Active Warning Survivability System. The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $824,669,013. Work will be performed at Nashua, New Hampshire, and is expected to be completed by December 31, 2026. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson Air […]View the full article

Americas Sikorsky Aircraft won three contracts by the US Navy in support of the CH-53K. The first deal is worth $175.7 million for the procurement of 22 main modules in support of the CH-53K aircraft. The second contract is worth $132.9 million for the procurement of 128 main rotor blade assemblies, the third one involved $11.6 million for the procurement of eight helicopter rotor hub assemblies. Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) pilots have begun intensive training with the Royal Air Force (RAF) on the P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft. This collaboration marks a crucial phase in the RCAF’s transition to the advanced platform, replacing the aging CP-140 Aurora fleet. …

OK, hold on…you might have suffered the same yawn that I did when reading news about our old girl NIXIE… U.S. Navy budget documentation released last week is adding a series of new capabilities to the current AN/SLQ-25 Nixie countermeasures suite, including a new hard-kill capability via deck launchers, set to be deployed to over 168 different front-line ships in coming years. …until you got to the second clause. I know some of you are thinking, “Oh, we can talk about hard kill now?” Then, in the next paragraph by Carter Johnson at Naval News, this sexy little creature wanders on stage, The hard-kill weapon, known as the Mk58 Compact Rapid Attack Weapon (CRAW), is expecte…

At Uncrewed Innovation Day 2025, defense technology firms MDSI and Armadrone conducted a live demonstration of advanced drone warfare integration, showcasing the controlled release of a precision-guided munition from an uncrewed aerial platform. The trial featured Armadrone’s PUNISHER drone carrying MDSI’s precision-guided munition, known as MAILMAN, in a test that emphasized seamless interoperability and accuracy. […] The post Punisher drone tests MAILMAN munition in Denmark first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Raytheon, an RTX business, has successfully completed testing of a ground-launched variant of its StormBreaker smart weapon, developing and launching the prototype in just 50 days. The rapid test underscores the company’s push to expand precision strike options beyond the air domain and into ground-based platforms. The test took place this spring at a private […] The post Raytheon tests ground-launched precision strike system first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

The United States military has withdrawn its Typhon mid-range missile launcher from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni after deploying it there in September for joint exercises with Japan. The Chugoku-Shikoku Defense Bureau notified the city of Iwakuni about the withdrawal on November 17, according to information communicated to local officials. The launcher, known as Typhon, […]View the full article

A Danish startup is entering the unmanned logistics market with a family of heavy-lift, high-speed autonomous cargo aircraft designed to move large payloads over medium distances. Acodyne says it is developing an unmanned electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft aimed at what it describes as the “middle-mile” logistics segment, a space between short-range drones and […]View the full article

As you all know, I love nothing more than quoting myself. So, Front Porch members of long standing by now can say things from memory: Plan Salamander for the U.S. posture toward Europe that I have been proposing in one form or another for a couple of decades+. Here is just one example from 15 years ago. …withdraw all maneuver forces from Asia and Europe except for what is needed at Combined Training and Logistics Bases with our most important allies. No, we don’t leave NATO. I’m a former NATO staff officer who used to give seminars on operational planning at war colleges all over Europe. We just need a 21st century reality check. We still have 80-100,000 personnel there. …