Raw Intel

I joke now and then about “Make Auxiliary Cruisers Great Again” – but I am only partially joking. What were Auxiliary Cruisers? On the surface, they were somewhere between pirates and commerce raiders, but they were also a way to get more armed ships with your flag on them in the mind of your enemy's planners, disrupting their Sea Lines of Communication (SLOC) (aka supply chains), and complicating their attempts to secure their seas. Turning merchant ships in to warships is an imperfect act, but until your enemy achieves complete sea control, they have a good to acceptable track record of bringing more capability to the fight from the South Pacific to the Indian Ocean and…

Every time I access Google Earth or other open source imagery/mapping service, I am reminded what an amazing time we live in. As early as the 1990s for something as unclassified as hunting, you had to make extraordinary efforts to find good maps. I remember taking pictures with a film camera in the early 90s from a plane window that just happened to be flying over an area I duck hunted ... so I could see where the out of the way wood duck ponds were. Now, a click. On the much more serious note, the efforts made on the military side of the house to get overhead photographs or even good maps cost billions of dollars and the lives of unknown numbers of intelligence assets an…

What do you need tp know to make sure you have all the right talking points around the Thanksgiving table? If someone brings up the Navy, China, Ukraine, inflation, or supply chain issues - well, we know Midrats regulars are already up to speed - but now's your opportunity to make sure all your talking points are up to date! No guests, no set agenda, just open phones, open minds, and open chat room for those who are with us live Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern. Don't be stuck talking about twitter or Taylor Swift this Thanksgiving! Join us live if you can, but it not, you can get the show later by subscribing to the podcast. If you use iTunes, you can add Midrats to your podcas…

Americas The US State Department has cleared the transfer of 24 F-16s from Denmark to Argentina. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Regional Security in the State Department, Mira Resnick, delivered the letter approving the transfer to Jorge Argüello, Argentina’s ambassador to United States on October 11. Also cleared was the transfer of four P-3 maritime patrol […]View the full article

All together now… (click to view full) Britain’s practice of “contracting for availability” for key equipment, rather than paying for spare parts and maintenance hours, may be its most significant defense procurement reform. In a world where older air, sea, and ground vehicle fleets are growing maintenance demands beyond countries’ available budgets, it’s an approach […]View the full article

No, neither that pic above nor the one below is the F/A-XX, but it’s the closest we’ve got. However, let’s review the decades-long Salamander Requirements List we have set out for the next Navy tactical aircraft. All hail the return of the heavy fighter to the airwing: Range: It has to fight in the Pacific and engage other enemies from a distance. Payload: It must be able to carry at least a half-dozen AIM-174B Gunslinger, with a minimum of four of them internally. As the drone wars over Israel have proven its utility again, it must have an internal gun. Flexibility: Must perform air-to-air and air-to-ground missions like the Super Hornet it will replace.. Two Engines:…

Anduril Industries says it has completed the first successful test of its prototype surface-launched Barracuda-500 missile. “To be blunt, existing solutions are too expensive, too exquisite, and too hard to produce,” the company stated in its announcement. “To deter our adversaries, the U.S. and our allies need an affordable, mass-producible way to project power over […] The post Anduril successfully tests surface-launched Barracuda-500 missile first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Lockheed Martin has secured a $233 million contract to deliver its IRST21 Block II infrared search and track systems, along with initial spares, to the U.S. Navy and Air National Guard. The award supports deployment across multiple fighter platforms and follows the Navy’s recent declaration of Initial Operational Capability for the sensor. The IRST21 Block […] The post Lockheed wins $233M deal for advanced IRST sensors first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. has opened a new propulsion manufacturing facility in Auburn Hills, Michigan, aimed at accelerating production of its Spartan family of turbojet engines to meet growing U.S. defense demand for affordable, high-volume air power. The 22,500-square-foot facility includes office space, production lines, assembly areas, and a multi-station test cell designed […]View the full article

Ukraine has signed a series of new defense agreements with German partners worth more than €1.2 billion ($ 1.4 billion), expanding cooperation on air defense, artillery production, drones, and electronic warfare, Ukrainian Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Wednesday. According to Shmyhal, the agreements were concluded following arrangements reached between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and […]View the full article

South Korea has begun deploying its Hyunmoo-5 surface-to-surface ballistic missile to frontline military units, military officials said Sunday, confirming that the country’s most powerful conventional strike weapon has entered operational service as part of efforts to deter North Korea. According to South Korean military officials, the missile began entering frontline units in late 2025 and […]View the full article

In the second half of the last Midrats Podcast, Mark and I discussed the recently released Maritime Action Plan. I still don’t understand why we release such documents on a Friday before a three-day weekend, but whoever makes that call should be left with the next bar tab. To their great credit however, the April 2025 Executive Order demanded a deliverable, and they got it done on time. If you are looking for a naval strategy or other “this type of system doing that” report, you won’t find it here, and nor should you. This is signed by Marco Rubio as National Security Advisor and Russ Vought as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. It is best seen as an eco…

Turkish drone maker Baykar has unveiled a new loitering munition known as the K2 kamikaze, presenting the system in a promotional video released Saturday that showcased the drone’s artificial intelligence–based flight, navigation, and targeting capabilities. The introduction of the K2 reflects the rapid expansion of loitering munition technology, which has become a central tool in […]View the full article

Peraton has landed a U.S. Navy contract worth up to $90.7 million to keep the MK 18 family of explosive ordnance disposal underwater drones operational across fleet commands at home and at key overseas locations, with work running from San Diego to Spain, Bahrain, and Okinawa. Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific awarded the cost-reimbursement contract […]View the full article

A Canadian armored vehicle manufacturer unveiled an image of a new mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle at CANSEC 2026 in Ottawa, revealing the full technical specifications of the Admiral MRAP, a jointly developed platform built in partnership with South African defense firm Panzer following Roshel’s acquisition of the KF411 MRAP design in 2024. The Admiral represents […]View the full article

Estonia took delivery of its first medium-range air defense missile system on June 22, 2026, when the Estonian Air Defence Wing received the IRIS-T SLM at Ämari Air Base, giving a NATO member that shares a 294-kilometer (183-mile) border with Russia the ability to engage aircraft, cruise missiles, and helicopters at ranges and altitudes that […]View the full article

Germany and France just reduced one of Europe’s most ambitious tank programs to a single, carefully worded sentence about “platform-independent technology,” and defense analysts reading between the lines say that sentence effectively confirms the joint program is dead in everything but name, Waldemar Geiger reported for the German defense outlet hartpunkt. The Main Ground Combat […]View the full article

Honeywell Aerospace tested an integrated counter-drone system against simulated aerial threats during EXTiC 26-2, a technology experimentation event run by U.S. Central Command. Honeywell served as lead systems integrator for the demonstration, pairing sensors and effectors with the company’s AI-driven counter-UAS software to detect, track and mitigate simulated drones while defending a simulated airfield. “As […]View the full article

Chinese state television has aired the first semi-official acknowledgment of the country’s massive intercontinental ballistic missile silo fields in a documentary marking the 99th anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army. The program, produced by China’s national broadcaster CCTV, features an army engineer describing years of work building what he calls “houses for missiles” in the […]View the full article

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency plans to pay a Utah company to build a prototype four-legged robot that can walk into hazardous areas on its own and produce a live 3D map of dangerous gases, according to a contract notice the agency posted on October 7. DTRA, the U.S. Department of War agency responsible for […]View the full article