Raw Intel

If CWO5 Eric Slover did not not exist, I don’t know if a writer would be able to create him. At this week’s State of the Union speech, two people were awarded the Medal of Honor for actions almost 75 years apart. The first was Elmer Royce Williams, Captain, USN (Ret.)., who we covered a month ago for his actions in the Korean War that had to be kept secret for so long. The second saw a much quick turnaround for actions in the capture of Maduro in Venezuela. I don’t think I need to add more. Attention to Citation: Chief Warrant Officer Five Eric A. Slover distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity, above and beyond the call of duty, on January 3, 2026,…

Latvia has begun transferring batches of CVR(T) armored vehicles to Ukraine, with deliveries already underway, Ukraine’s Minister of Defense Mykhailo Fedorov said following a meeting with Latvian Defense Minister Andris Sprūds. The vehicles are being supplied to reinforce Ukrainian battalion-level units. “Met with Latvia’s Minister of Defense Andris Sprūds. We discussed the development of joint […]View the full article

The U.S. Department of State has approved a possible Foreign Military Sale to Germany valued at an estimated $11.9 billion, covering eight complete shipsets of Aegis-based Integrated Combat Systems along with a comprehensive package of weapons, sensors, and support equipment. The determination, which must still clear a congressional notification process before it becomes a binding […]View the full article

Australian Skyborne Technologies has received a U.S. Department of War Limited Safety Release for its CODiAQ armed quadruped robot, clearing the system to proceed into Operational Test and Evaluation and combat assessments with U.S. Special Operations Command units and a partnered foreign ally. The safety release, granted through a competitively awarded research, development, test, and […]View the full article

Fresh Sentinel-2 satellite imagery has confirmed what local Russian officials initially denied: Ukrainian long-range attack drones struck the 15th Naval Arsenal of the Russian Navy at Bolshaya Izhora in the Leningrad region, triggering a massive fire and secondary detonations powerful enough that more than 600 residents of nearby settlements had to be evacuated while Russian […]View the full article

Czech paratroopers in Chrudim have received their first U.S.-made Flyer 72 HD light tactical vehicles, beginning the replacement of aging Land Rover Defender Kajman vehicles that have served the unit since 2009 and giving the Czech Army’s airborne force a more mobile platform for raids, command tasks and combat operations across difficult terrain. The vehicles […]View the full article

A Calgary startup has built a missile that weighs about as much as a housecat, and it might end up deciding whether a $100,000 drone attack on a power plant succeeds or fails. North Vector Dynamics, a Canadian defense technology company based in Calgary, posted on social media on July 27, 2026, introducing the CM-70, […]View the full article

Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation held a keel-laying ceremony this week at its Admiralty Shipyards for a new Project 677 Lada-class diesel-electric submarine for the Russian Navy, the company said. The submarine, designed by United Shipbuilding’s Rubin Design Bureau, has been named Maloyaroslavets. United Shipbuilding described it as the sixth submarine in the Lada series, though […]View the full article

Italy’s Defense Ministry has opened a €5.14 billion ($5.86 billion) procurement for a new main battle tank and vehicles built on it, according to a record published Sept. 21 in the database of Italy’s National Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC). The entry, listed under code BD0D09994D, covers the supply of a new tank and its derivatives for […]View the full article

Israel has signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of War to buy 12 Boeing AH-64E Apache attack helicopters, the newest version of the Apache, with deliveries scheduled to begin early in the next decade, the Israel Ministry of Defense said on Oct. 14. The ministry’s director general, Maj. Gen. (res.) Amir Baram, instructed Israel’s […]View the full article

Americas Bell Boeing won a $18 million contract modification, which exercises an option to continue providing technical analysis, engineering and integration services for various systems and sub systems in support of the V-22 aircraft for the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Foreign Military Sales customers. The V-22 Osprey is a joint service multirole combat aircraft utilizing tiltrotor technology to combine the vertical performance of a helicopter with the speed and range of a fixed-wing aircraft. With its rotors in vertical position, it can take off, land and hover like a helicopter. Once airborne, it can convert to a turboprop airplane capable of high-speed, high-alt…

Americas The MQ-9 in service with the US Air Force has carried out an Automatic Takeoff and Landing Capability (ATLC) test and the drone is now cleared for Agile Combat Employment operations. A specialized launch and recovery crew is no longer required when the MQ-9 land and the unmanned air vehicle can now be diverted to a foreign field where it has never been before. The test was carried out by the 556th Test and Evaluation Squadron on July 8. On the first day, the drone was flown from Creech to Cannon air force base using satellite control. Kitty Hawk’s Heaviside aircraft has obtained airworthiness approval by the US Air Force, allowing the aircraft to enter its next …

In what history will show was a failed effort, for almost two decades, the most advanced military and police forces in the West tried to build a security force for the people of Afghanistan, an effort that took off with great urgency towards the end of the first decade of the conflict. A cornerstone of that effort was NATO Training Mission–Afghanistan (NTM-A). Our guests Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern to discuss this effort and what lessons it holds for the future will be Dr. Martin Loicano and Dr. Craig C. “C. C.” Felker. Using extensive research and two combined years in Afghanistan, they've documented the 2009-2010 effort in their book, No Moment of Victory: the NATO Train…

Well, if you are German, all it takes is this; The head of the German navy resigned late Saturday after coming under fire at home and abroad for comments he made on Ukraine and Russia. Speaking at an event in India on Friday, vice admiral Kay-Achim Schoenbach had said Ukraine would not regain the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. Schoenbach also said it was important to have Russia on the same side against China, and suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin deserved “respect."At some point in my career spending 9 of my 21 years on GOFO staffs, I was told that it is best to make sure that the principal not be allowed too much "free swim" time if the…

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $43.6 million order, which provides for diminishing manufacturing sources non-recurring engineering in support of a redesigned panoramic cockpit display electronic unit video mixer for F-35 Lightning II production aircraft for the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers, and non-US Department of Defense participants. Work will take place in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to be completed in January 2029. Lockheed Martin Sippican won a $14 million contract modification to exercise options for engineering and maintenance services for the Heavyweight MK48 Torpedo Program at the Intermediate Maintenance Acti…

I think that pic captures the soul of a battleship well, don't you think? 108 years after her commissioning, she got underway again for a well needed dry docking. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ObWh_P2FodI/T77zjjqRXyI/AAAAAAAAB94/kz9TLghqooo/s320/uss-texas-bb35.jpgI had a lot of people reach out to me about seeing her underway again, so for this week's FbF I'll reach back 8-yrs ago when we last mentioned the USS TEXAS (BB-35).We could spend hours on the ship that my paternal Grandfather (GM3 Salamander) saw from his ship, the USS ARKANSAS (BB-33), with the Brits in WWI - but let's just say "Happy Birthday" to the grand lady who completed 34 years of commissioned service an…

Whenever I see something about South Korea, their economy or their military, I think of my dad's generation who were of draft age during the Korean War. I've read a bit about the war and the condition of the country and its people when we fought to keep the communist yoke of their neck, and when you look at the South Korea of 2023, it is simply an amazing testimony what free enterprise and education can do to a people held back by autocracy and illiteracy ... with a good bit of rule of law and a benign quasi-imperial military power willing to give them the security to grow. Worth the war? I think so. In the last year, South Korea has impressed many who were not paying att…

Americas The US Air Force has unveiled plans to beddown up to 12 Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) F-15 fighter jets at Andersen Air Force Base (AFB), Guam. The decision is part of a revised proposal for the base’s infrastructure upgrades, aligning with strategic initiatives in the Indo-Pacific region. The proposal, first announced on […]View the full article

Americas The US Marine Corps has equipped its MQ-9 Reaper drone with an electronic warfare pod that makes the aircraft nearly invisible to enemy eyes. Called the T-SOAR (Scalable Open Architecture Reconnaissance), the pod mimics an enemy’s radar and communication emissions and sends them back to the source. “What they bring with them is a sensing and making sense capability,” Seapower quoted Commandant of the Marine Corps General Eric M. Smith as saying at a Brookings Institution event last week. Mistral Inc. has started the production of the Thor vertical takeoff and landing mini drone at its Nottingham, Maryland, facility. The Thor unmanned aerial system is part of the …

The Pentagon has awarded Lockheed Martin a $9.5 billion contract to increase production of its AGM-158 series of long-range missiles. According to a company statement issued on July 31, the contract supports increased deliveries of both the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) and the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), two of the U.S. military’s most […] The post Pentagon awards $9.5B to Lockheed for long-range missiles first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article