Raw Intel

While a lot of the attention in unmanned systems the last two decades has been in the air, significant developments on and under the surface of the oceans were happening in parallel. From small mine hunting unmanned surface vessels and the development of the Large Unmanned Surface Vessel above the seas, to unmanned systems the size of lightweight torpedoes to midget submarines below the surface, unmanned maritime systems capabilities are growing each year. With each incremental advance in engineering automation to autonomous operations, their utility from maritime security to war fighting increases as well. For the full hour this Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern our guest to dis…

Why do people leak? In the national security arena, there are broadly two kinds of leaks; - 1) the real dangerous ones that contain information that reveal sources and methods, or worse, put people in danger; - 2) the ones that simply provide evidence that an official position is a lie, or that someone who claims X happened when in reality Y happened … but there is nothing really “classified” about it that would put it in #1 above. You also need to look at who (organization/company/reporter) is reporting them. That can give you a hint as to how accurate they are (yes kiddies, some people invent leaks) and perhaps the motivation of the leaker. Also, if you have a lot of …

A Cold War-era Hawker Hunter aircraft was spotted participating in Gray Flag 2025 over Naval Air Station Point Mugu, California, on September 8, 2025. According to the U.S. Navy, the MK-58 variant—operated by Airborne Tactical Advantage Company (ATAC)—played an active role in the service’s premier large-force test exercise, providing a stable platform for multi-domain capability […] The post Cold War-era jet spotted during U.S. Navy combat simulation first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Americas Raytheon won a $3 billion contract for F-15 Radar Eagle Vision. This contract provides for the production, modernization and support of the F-15 APG-82 radar system to rapidly deliver and stay aligned with the F-15 weapon system program. According To Raytheon, the APG-82(V)1 AESA radar is the latest radar advancement for the US Air Force F-15E fleet and optimizes the F-15E jets multirole mission capability. Additionally, with its extensive range and advanced multi-target track and precision engagement capabilities, the APG-82(V)1 offers enhancement in system reliability over the APG-70 radar. Work will take place in California. Expected completion date is June 8,…

Sweden is not an official ally, but as the largest Scandinavian country, she has influence from Finland, through the Baltic and across the sea to Iceland. She also has a long history with Russia that she cannot keep an eye off for too long. This little bit deserves more attention than it is getting; The Swedish parliament has approved an increase of a whopping 40% in the defence expenditure to counter the threat of Russian aggression. This will take the Swedish defence expenditure to USD 11 billion. This is the first such massive increase in the Swedish defence expenditure in the last 70 years. Only last week, the main parties in the Swedish parliament also adopted th…

Are you ready for what is coming? I hope you are, because the diversity industry is tanned, rested, and ready - and in most places already well down their lines of operation. They have the wind at their back. Have you researched the beliefs of the person set to take over the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice? Those who, like me, believe that the most divisive thing you can do to a diverse republic is to set up a spoils system based on race, creed, color or national origin have not been fighting hard enough. Too many of those who should be our natural allies have surrendered high ground after high ground because they convinced themselves that, "it isn…

CNN’s summary of Sunday’s 2-hr documentary on Afghanistan has some interesting quotes from the commanders – and a few errors – I thought we should start the week out with. What is most interesting here are three individuals speaking out who have mostly stayed in the background: Barno, McNeill, and McKiernan. You’ll come away wanting to hear more from them. No longer in uniform, Gens. Stanley McChrystal, David Petraeus, Joseph Dunford, John Allen, David McKiernan, Dan McNeill, and Lt. Gens. Eikenberry and David Barno, speak frankly. First, as always – let’s pull out the appropriate graphic. Time and context matters. In the article, they don’t do like they should and go ch…

Sometimes, Midrats is like a VLS cell; you don't know what you have until ... wait ... bad analogy... but you get the concept. Today for the full hour, come join us for a classic Midrats melee ... we take on all topics as they come in to range. I'm sure we'll cover the latest Black Sea happenings, interesting justifications for more DDG in Rota, and WESTPAC always makes and appearance. Join us live if you can and roll in with your preferred topic in the chat room or call the switchboard number right here on the showpage. This Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern come join us for a Midrats free for all. Open topic, open chat, open phones. If you use iTunes, you can add Midrats …

For all those Afghan nationals who helped us and we promised we would take care of them, if they are not already out of the country, it looks like the Kabul airlift option is off the table; Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid gave a press briefing and asked the US not to encourage Afghan people to leave the country. He said the group is no longer allowing Afghan nationals to go to Kabul airport and called on crowds at the airport to go home. Mujahid said "our aim is to rebuild our country." "We are asking women to stay home at the moment," until security is guaranteed, the Taliban spokesperson said. He said Taliban fighters are not yet trained "how to deal with women.…

Americas The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) published a request for information on June 14 seeking industry feedback on a concept to wirelessly recharge unmanned air vehicles using a high-powered laser mounted on an external pod. Agency officials want industry feedback on the possibility of retrofitting aerial refueling aircraft like the Air Force’s KC-46 and KC-135 with “an underwing power beaming pod” to wirelessly recharge a fleet of unmanned aerial systems. The benefits of having drones recharge their batteries in mid-air include extended range and having small energy storage capacities. The installation of AN/APG-83 radars on 72 Air National Guard…

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $25.8 million deal, which provides non-recurring engineering for the development, integration, testing, and deployment of the MH-60 Product Line System Configuration 24 fleet release for all MH-60 air platform variants, to include baseline management integrated management planning, integrated development environment support, support equipment baseline management, software architect, core lab support, problem trouble report legacy support, engineering tools support, and development aircraft support for the Navy and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers. The MH-60R Seahawk missions are Anti-Submarine Warfare, Anti-Surface Warfare, Surveillanc…

No one really knows for sure what caused the explosion this AM on the Russian Navy's 54-yr old Alligator Class LST Orsk in the Port of Berdyansk. What we do know was the accident/attack was livestreamed. This video captures it best.Time-lapse video showing the events at the port of Berdyansk this morning. Two LSTs left the port, one of them was on fire. pic.twitter.com/5HljSBOhbQ — C O U P S U R E (@COUPSURE) March 24, 2022 Just as a professional side note: BZ to the crews of the two Ropucha Class LSD for getting underway and out of the way - both of which seems to have fires of their own to fight. What we do know is that the Russians liked to store a lot of things on th…

Americas Northrop Grumman won a $97.3 million contract modification, which exercises options to provide continued test, maintenance, logistics and sustainment engineering support for MQ-4C Triton air vehicles, mission control and operator training systems. This modification also provides continued field service representative’s technical support to ensure that the MQ-4C Triton unmanned aerial system (UAS) aircraft are mission-capable for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions supporting aircraft early operational capability and initial operating capability. Additionally, this modification provides continued reach-back engineering support for both the Navy …

MiG-21 ‘Lancer’ (click to view full) The MiG-21 is reaching the end of its service life, but it can still be effective for a little while. India’s refurbished MiG-21 ‘Bisons’ combined Russian, Indian and Israeli technology to excellent effect in the COPE India 2004 and 2005 exercises with the USAF, and there’s even a Russian-Israeli MiG-21 2000 variant that exists for general sale. Israeli companies have made something of a specialty of refurbishing both Western and Soviet fighters with modern radars, avionics, and Israeli weapons like the Python air-air missile, giving the systems new life. An all-Israeli effort was undertaken for Romania, in order to create Romania’s …

The Pentagon announced Monday that Raytheon has been awarded a $5.04 billion contract to supply the U.S. Army with its Coyote missile system, a combat-proven counter-drone weapon designed to intercept and destroy unmanned aerial threats, including drone swarms. According to the Department of War, Raytheon Co. of Tucson, Arizona, was awarded a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for […] The post Pentagon awards $5B deal to Raytheon for Coyote drone interceptors first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Prince Philip passed today after a long and full life defined by service and duty. I first posted this years ago when he left his official duties, but thought it was the right thing to do to bring it back. As a nod to his service - serving as men of privilege and education should - let's take a moment today to recognize a good XO. Hargreaves was a yeoman aboard the destroyer HMS Wallace on which Philip, son of Prince Andrew of Greece, had been appointed first lieutenant - second-in-command - at the age of 21. In July 1943, engaged in the Allied landings in Sicily, the ship came under repeated bombardment at dead of night and its crew realised that they would probably …

Arrow test concept (click to view full) In a dawning age of rogue states, ballistic missile defenses are steadily become a widely accepted necessity. Iran is widely believed to be developing nuclear capabilities, and Israeli concerns were heightened after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged that Israel be “wiped off the map” (the fact that America was also placed in that category went largely uncovered). Because missile defenses are so important, states like India and Israel have taken steps to ensure that they have the ability to build many of the key pieces. The Arrow project is a collaboration between Boeing and IAI to produce the missile interceptors that a…

Where is European naval power in 2021, what is shaping it, and where is it going? This week returning guest Jeremy Stöhs is with us to review the above issues as outlined in an exceptional report he produced for the Centre for Military Studies at the University of Copenhagen., "How High? The Future of European Naval Power and the High-End Challenge." Jeremy is the Deputy Director of the Austrian Center for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies and the editor for their journal, JIPSS. After service in the Austrian Federal Police in 2005-2010, he studied History and English/American Studies at the Universities of Graz, St. Petersburg (USA) and Marburg (GER) …

For a whole host of reasons, Australia needs a potent and numerous submarine force. Geography and potential opponents make the case pretty straight forward. It looks like they are not on a smooth path; As this is written, the head of the French naval construction company Naval Group, Pierre Eric Pommellet, is in Australia meeting federal ministers in an attempt to rescue the contract. Tragically for Australia – and for Monsieur Pommellet – not one of those ministers has the experience or competence to wrangle a successful result. Many informed commentators in France, Australia and elsewhere now expect the much-celebrated deal to be abandoned. If that happens, replacing…

CH-148 Cyclone (click to view full) Canada’s Maritime Helicopter Replacement Program has been a textbook military procurement program over its long history. Unfortunately, it has been a textbook example of what not to do. While Canada’s 50-year old Sea King fleet aged and deteriorated to potentially dangerous levels, political pettiness and lack of concern turned a straightforward off-the-shelf buy into a 25+ year long odyssey of cancellations, lawsuits, rebids, and more. Eventually, the Canadian military settled on Sikorsky’s H-92 Superhawk as the basis of its new CH-148 Cyclone Maritime Helicopter, which will serve from the decks of Canada’s naval ships and bases. Th…