Raw Intel

Austin-based defense startup Aeon has carried out another successful test of its Zeus advanced tactical weapon system, the company announced, continuing a rapid development cycle that has seen the small firm push its guided mini-missile through repeated build-and-iterate testing rounds. Aeon founder and CEO Naweed Tahmas confirmed the test in a public statement: “Another day, […]View the full article

The United States Army has launched a new effort to improve how it produces and manages ammunition, issuing a contract notice on March 27 for engineering support services worth up to $44.6 million. The work will focus on upgrading and supporting the country’s Ammunition Industrial Base, with proposals due by April 20, 2026. Demand for […]View the full article

Blockades, 11-month deployments, and building plans…a full plate for a Midrats Free for All. We go LIVE at 5 PM Eastern this Sunday. You can join us at this link. If you are reading this after the show, check the Substack later Sunday night for the podcast upload. Leave a comment Share This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. View the full article

The U.S. Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin $154 million to begin purchasing the long-lead components needed to build 11 F-35 stealth fighters for a foreign government whose identity the Pentagon has not disclosed, adding another batch of the world’s most widely sold combat aircraft to an order book that spans more than a dozen nations. […]View the full article

Ukraine continues to receive American weapons through the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List without interruption, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed this week — but he was equally direct about what that pipeline still cannot fix. The flow of U.S. arms has held. The air defense shortfall has not. “Regarding arms supplies from the United States, they have […]View the full article

For the first time, Ukrainian military instructors with direct frontline combat experience have arrived in Germany to train Bundeswehr units — a striking reversal of the training relationship that has defined Western military assistance to Ukraine since 2022, according to Militarniy. The deployment, confirmed by German Army Inspector Lieutenant General Christian Freuding in an interview […]View the full article

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced a sweeping three-bill legislative package on April 22, 2026, aimed at expanding American fighter aircraft production, retaining experienced military pilots, and reversing what the lawmakers describe as a dangerous erosion of U.S. air superiority. The package, led by Senators Ted Budd (R-N.C.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), both members […]View the full article

AimLock and FN America unveiled a joint counter-drone weapon system at SOF Week 2026 in Tampa on May 19, combining AimLock’s artificial intelligence targeting technology with one of the most widely deployed remote weapon stations in the Western military market to create a system capable of detecting, tracking, and automatically calculating firing solutions against small […]View the full article

One of America’s most iconic warplanes went down Monday morning at a military base in the California desert, setting off a large fire visible from miles away and triggering an immediate emergency response. Edwards Air Force Base, the sprawling flight test installation located in the Mojave Desert roughly 160 km (100 miles) north of Los […]View the full article

Canada broke ground on two major military construction projects in Latvia on May 19, laying foundation stones for a rotary-wing helicopter facility at Lielvārde Air Base and accommodation buildings at both Lielvārde and Riga in a combined investment of €64 million, or approximately $70 million. The ceremony marked the latest installment in what has become […]View the full article

Japan’s Defense Minister met with the team behind one of the country’s more unconventional defense startups — a company building military drones out of cardboard — and the conversation signals where Tokyo thinks its unmanned future is headed. Shinjiro Koizumi, Japan’s Minister of Defense, held a meeting with representatives of Air Kamui, a startup that […]View the full article

Ukrainian drone operators reached deep into Russian territory on April 29, striking two Russian military helicopters on the ground in Voronezh Oblast. The operation was a joint effort by combined crews of the 429th Unmanned Systems Brigade “Achilles” and the 43rd Separate Army Aviation Brigade, planned and executed in coordination with Special Operations Center “A.” […]View the full article

Green Berets from 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) remotely launched and controlled unmanned surface vessels during Exercise Balikatan 2026, using them to deliver shaped charges against a target vessel off the western coast of Itbayat, Philippines, on April 24 — and the drone boats they operated bore a striking resemblance to one of the most […]View the full article

Time to catch up on what’s making a buzz on the waterfront. Join us this Sunday at 5 PM Eastern for a Midrats Podcast May Day Weekend Maritime Melee! You can join LIVE at this link. If you are reading this after the show, refresh the Substack page for the podcast links. This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Share Leave a comment View the full article

The U.S. Navy just spread a contract worth up to $650 million across eight small American boatbuilders to keep its fleet of rigid hull inflatable boats stocked for the next decade. Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington awarded eight separate contracts on April 30, collectively valued at $325,9 million at the base level and stretching […]View the full article

South Korean defense and aerospace company LIG Defense & Aerospace — known as LIG D&A — announced on April 8, 2026, the establishment of its first American subsidiary, LIG Defense U.S. Inc. The new entity, to be referred to as LIG U.S., will operate as the company’s primary hub for partnership development, technology exchange, and […]View the full article

I don’t know about you, but I really want to hear your garden-variety journalist read this from the teleprompter. Türkiye will host a NATO Summit in Ankara on 7- 8 July 2026. The meeting will be chaired by the NATO Secretary General and will take place at the Beştepe Presidential Compound (T.C. Cumhurbaşkanlığı Külliyesi) in Ankara, Türkiye. As we stand by for the summit, I am going to watch who writes “Turkey” like a proper English speaker, or “Türkiye” like a compromised low-T drone scared of its shadow. OK, enough of me being unserious and petty. Let’s dive into the important things. If you don’t have a NATO background, you might not be anticipating much, but that woul…

Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate conducted two successful rocket launches into space during the ongoing full-scale war with Russia, reaching altitudes of over 100 kilometers and 204 kilometers respectively, according to Fedir Venislavsky, Chairman of the Subcommittee on State Security, Defense and Defense Innovation of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence. Venislavsky […]View the full article

For almost two years, the war on the Continent had been raging. The Battle of Verdun has already happened, but the real bloodshed had not even started yet, with the Battle of the Somme only a month away. While the European land armies have been fighting on a scale not seen since Napoleon a century earlier, major conflicts at sea were rare in spite of the major belligerents having great and powerful fleets. Like two heavyweight boxers wary of each other, the surface fleets of the Royal Navy and the Kaiserliche Marine stared at each other across the North Sea, throwing a jab here or there, but not committing for a hard fight. Then, in the early morning hours of May 31st, Vi…

Ukraine’s Independence Day parade in Kyiv on August 24 included a new naval drone, the MV11, from the Ukrainian company UFORCE. It is the largest vessel yet built in the company’s MAGURA family, an unmanned surface vessel line credited with helping push Russia’s Black Sea Fleet back from Ukrainian waters. The parade marked the first […]View the full article