Raw Intel

German electronic warfare technology company Aaronia AG will make its first public presentation of the AARTOS DF2 direction-finding solution at AOC Europe in Helsinki from May 19 to 21, 2026. The AOC Europe conference, organized by the Association of Old Crows and described as the leading European electronic warfare symposium, brings together decision-makers from armed […]View the full article

Murderers’ Row. Ulithi anchorage, December 8th, 1944. Just three years after the attack on Pearl Harbor. One of the most iconic pictures of WWII. The carriers are (from front to back): USS Wasp (CV-18), USS Yorktown (CV-10), USS Hornet (CV-12), USS Hancock (CV-19) and USS Ticonderoga (CV-14). The oldest of those ships, Yorktown, was only 19 months old. The youngest, Hancock, was commissioned only a little under eight months earlier. All were laid down and took from a bit under three to a bit under four years to build. Just a year prior, the US Navy was so short of aircraft carriers, it had to borrow a carrier from the Royal Navy. At first glance, it appears to be a flex o…

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense has officially codified and cleared for service the Pliushch, a ground-based unmanned reconnaissance and relay platform developed by Ukrainian defense technology company Robotic Complexes, the firm announced Thursday. The certification opens the door to formal procurement by Ukrainian armed forces units and marks another milestone in Kyiv’s effort to field domestically […]View the full article

Lockheed Martin has secured a $991 million contract to produce electronic warfare upgrade kits for 432 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters across three U.S. military services and a substantial international customer base, in one of the largest single F-35 modernization awards in the program’s history. The Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River, Maryland, issued the […]View the full article

Ondas Holdings has unveiled a new robotic ground system called Iron-Wave, a modular unmanned platform designed to integrate multiple robotic units under centralized control and extend military and security operations into contested environments with a reduced operator footprint, the company announced on its official social media account. Ondas Holdings is an American technology holding company […]View the full article

A British uncrewed aircraft developer has completed ground trials of its CAPSTONE unmanned system with air-to-surface missile simulators, its chief executive announced, while simultaneously operating as a teaming partner with BAE Systems on the British Army’s Project NYX loyal wingman competition. Justin Tooth, Chief Executive Officer of Certo Aerospace, disclosed the missile integration testing in […]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

RENK Group AG recorded its highest-ever order intake for an opening quarter in company history, the German propulsion manufacturer announced on May 6, 2026, with approximately $657 million in new orders and a total backlog that has climbed to an all-time high of approximately $7.8 billion. The Augsburg-based company posted first quarter 2026 revenue of […]View the full article

BAE Systems has publicly revealed its Multi-Domain Artillery Cannon System for the first time, offering the defense world its first look at a platform the defense giant is developing to give the U.S. Army a new way to shoot down drones, cruise missiles, and other aerial threats using artillery-style firepower. The images released by BAE […]View the full article

B.E. Meyers & Co. is heading to SOF Week 2026 in Tampa, Florida, with a new high-power laser targeting and illumination system in tow. The Redmond, Washington-based defense technology manufacturer will unveil the VSLAP-V1 at Booth 1153 when the special operations community’s premier annual gathering opens May 18, positioning the device as the next generation […]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

Ukrainian drone forces have struck a Russian naval vessel in the Caspian Sea for at least the third time in recent months, publishing footage on May 17 showing a Fire Point FP-1 attack drone successfully locating and hitting a Project 10410 Svetlyak-class patrol boat in the port area of Kaspiisk, Dagestan, more than 1,500 kilometers […]View the full article

A U.S. defense startup is bringing a next-generation counter-drone system to SOF Week 2026 in Tampa that takes a fundamentally different approach to the close-in drone threat: instead of aiming at incoming targets, it keeps multiple barrels constantly rotating through a full hemisphere, eliminating the aiming delay that makes conventional single-barrel systems vulnerable to fast-moving […]View the full article

A Czech drone company with Ukrainian roots has signed a contract to supply reconnaissance unmanned aerial systems to U.S. Army units stationed in Europe, the company announced, marking what appears to be the first confirmed international defense export contract for U&C UAS and placing a European-manufactured ISR drone into American military service on the continent […]View the full article

HII, one of only two nuclear-capable shipyards in the United States and the sole builder of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, has delivered two autonomous surface vessels to the U.S. Marine Corps under a Defense Innovation Unit contract, completing sea testing that validated the ROMULUS-25’s advanced autonomous capabilities in an operational maritime environment, the company announced May […]View the full article

A German autonomous systems company has demonstrated what it claims is the world’s first fully automatic drone launch and recovery system capable of operating from a moving vessel without any human intervention, and unveiled the commercial product at the Combined Naval Event in Farnborough, United Kingdom. CiS, a European developer of autonomous aerial systems, announced […]View the full article

The U.S. Army’s 11th Airborne Division at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska is training soldiers to detect, evade, and counter small drones using commercial off-the-shelf aircraft loaded with tennis balls to simulate explosive drops. Donovan Fredericksen, a training developer and integrator with U.S. Army Pacific’s G3 Home Station Training Team supporting the 11th Airborne Division, […]View the full article

Latvia has signed a multi-year framework agreement with Origin Robotics to secure a continuous supply of BLAZE autonomous interceptor drones, and structured the deal so other European nations can plug directly into it without running their own procurement from scratch. The Latvian Cabinet of Ministers approved the first contract under the framework on April 21, […]View the full article

Ukrainian forces have tested an unusual tactic that could significantly extend the reach of the Hornet strike drone: launching it from a tethered aerostat at high altitude rather than from a ground-based catapult, a combination that Ukrainian sources claim nearly doubles the weapon’s effective range. The test, details of which circulated through Ukrainian military channels, […]View the full article

More than once, mostly on the Midrats Podcast, I have said something to the effect, “Bravo Zulu to the Iranian engineering team who developed the Shahed. Everyone is copying them left, right, and sideways. Even the Americans are trying to steal their engineering valor.” Well, belay my last: I was not just wrong, but mind-numbingly wrong. Let’s set the record straight. The Shahed drone is as American as apple pie—OK, perhaps apple strudel! The Dornier Drohne Anti-Radar (DAR) was an unmanned aerial vehicle developed by Dornier GmbH to detect and destroy enemy radar installations, especially those used for air defense, within a defined target area. The development project w…