Raw Intel

If you're on active duty or a civilian employee, you're going to have to go through a struggle session. The best thing you can do to prepare for it is to know what you are going to be subjected to ahead of time. That way you can better get through it. This training isn't as great as supporters say it is, nor is it as bad as it could have been. There is still a lot of problematic items in here - mostly because of who wrote it and the climate to anyone doing anything but saying, "Looks great!" Because it wasn't properly edited, yes, it is political. Anyone who watched the events of the summer of 2020 and have made an objective review of what happened in January (NB: …

China is interested in a lot more than just the first or second island chain. In the vast reaches of the Pacific Ocean, the islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia are critical to the sea lines of communication for the economic powerhouses on both sides. From the Age of Discovery to today, their importance rises to the top of any power who wished to influence the area. To look at this area of returning importance with us for the full hour from 5-6pm Eastern this Sunday will be Alexander B. Gray. The starting point for our conversation will be the issues he raised in two recent articles; How the US Can Protect the Sovereignty of the Smallest Pacific Island i…

Americas General Electric Aviation won a $131.6 million deal for the repair, upgrade or replacement; inventory management; and required supply response times of two T-700 engine components in support of the Navy’s H-60 Seahawk and the Marine Corp’s AH-1 Cobra helicopters. The Navy sought the services from a single vendor in accordance with defense acquisition regulations and will use its annual working capital funds when issuing delivery orders. Work will take place in Massachusetts and Kansas. Estimated completion will be by September 2026. The US Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory recently purchased several SMASH 2000 fire control systems , through its Rapid Capabilit…

Americas Boeing won a $57.7 million order, which provides for the procurement of various initial spares and repair equipment in support of the MQ-25A Stingray air vehicle for the Navy. Work will take place in Missouri and Indiana. Expected completion is in July 2025. Four Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) F-16s have flown for the last time in the United States on July 29. The flights took place at Morris Air National Guard (ANG) Base and it also marks the end of Dutch F-16 training in the United States. Middle East & Africa Dyncorp International LLC won a $56 million contract modification for maintenance support services for the Royal Saudi Land Forces Aviation Co…

Americas Systems Planning and Analysis won a $7 million modification to exercise fiscal 2025 options to provide support services for the Trident II Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile Strategic Weapons System. Tasks to be performed include technical services, program support, assessments, and special studies and systems engineering. Work is expected to be completed September 30, 2025. This contract was awarded as a sole source acquisition with the authority of 10 US. Code 3204(a)(1). SSP, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems won a $48 million modification to exercise an option for continued sustainment of the French Air Force …

Take a break from the heat today to discuss some of the hidden history, and importance, of the Presidential retreat at Camp David with the author of the book, Presidential Seclusion: The Power of Camp David, Charles Ferguson. You can listen at this link, or with the Spotify widget below. After graduating from Georgia Tech and earning his commission, Charles Ferguson served for 11 years in the Submarine force onboard the USS Louisville and as Weapons Officer onboard USS Buffalo with a shore duty at Nuclear Power School in between. He switched to the IRR as Chaplain Candidate while attending seminary at Duke Divinity School and was recommissioned as an Active Duty Chaplain …

The U.S. Army has officially fielded the newest version of its Soldier Borne Sensor reconnaissance drone, earning high praise from Soldiers who trained with it for the first time this month. The system, developed under Program Executive Office Soldier, is designed to give troops real-time intelligence while keeping them out of direct danger. Officials said […] The post U.S. Army fields new pocket-sized recon drone first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

The U.S. Navy has awarded Boeing a $198 million deal to extend the service life of its F/A-18 Block II Super Hornet fighter jets and integrate advanced Block III avionics capabilities, the Pentagon announced. The new contract increases the overall ceiling for a program aimed at modernizing and sustaining one of the Navy’s most widely […] The post U.S. Navy extends Super Hornet’s service life first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

A Ukrainian special operation has targeted Russian troops stationed in the city of Stavropol, deep inside the Russian Federation, resulting in the elimination of at least three servicemen from the Russian Airborne Forces. The strike took place near Military Unit No. 54801, located at 533 Serova Street in central Stavropol, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence […] The post Ukraine blows up Russian troops at home base first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

U.S. soldiers are conducting joint training with Polish and Romanian forces on a counter-drone system deployed urgently to NATO’s eastern flank following a recent series of unmanned aircraft incursions across Europe. According to U.S. and NATO officials, the program reflects lessons drawn from the war in Ukraine, where cheap drones have repeatedly challenged traditional air-defense […]View the full article

Ukraine’s Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has carried out a second strike in recent days against Russia’s Belbek air base in occupied Crimea, destroying Russian military aircraft and damaging critical airfield infrastructure, according to the SBU press service. In a statement, the SBU said its unmanned systems hit the Belbek facility, resulting in the destruction […]View the full article

Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) confirmed on January 20, 2026, that it has taken delivery of a newly developed small unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) designed for underwater defense missions. The announcement was made by the Ministry of Defense’s JMSDF public affairs office, which stated that the domestically developed UUV has now been formally inducted into […]View the full article

Sweden ranked third worldwide in military assistance to Ukraine in 2025, both in total contributions and as a share of national GDP, according to data cited by the Swedish Embassy in Ukraine based on a report from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. The embassy said Sweden’s support reflects a clear political commitment despite […]View the full article

It is always a great day when an alumnus of The Midrats Podcast assumes another position to advance our Navy. A decade after joining the faculty at the Naval War College, Captain Sam Tangredi, USN (Ret.), PhD, has a new line on his CV. From the Summer/Autumn Edition of the Naval War College Review, On a personal note, it is a tremendous honor for me to relieve the watch as editor in chief of the Naval War College Review from Dr. Jon Caverley. Over many years, the Review frequently published my research and analyses. My writing benefited from the assessments and recommendations of great Review editors—including Bob Laske, Frank Uhlig, and Tom Grassey—along with their succ…

Time to catch up with something that, sadly, was lost in the twin storms of the recovery of the pilot and WSO shot down by Iran, and the trip to the moon and back by the crew of Artemis II. For navalists and those concerned with America’s navy and maritime industry, this is some of the best news we have heard in decades. The first to break the news on April 2nd was TradeWinds News’ Eric Priante Martin. A budget proposal by US President Donald Trump will contain what is described as the largest government ship order package since World War II. Scheduled to be released on Friday, it will contain $65.8bn in orders for the US Navy alone, with the vessel proposals spanning bot…

One of the great things about writing for so long on the maritime beat—2004 in my case—is that I’ve had the chance to travel along this path with other people who have been in the game as long or longer than I have. In the November 2007 issue of The Atlantic, Robert D. Kaplan published an essay, America's Elegant Decline. I first mentioned it ten months after its publication while I was in Afghanistan, and then only briefly. It was more or less taken aboard as background info. Fifteen years after its publication, I revisited its points and covered some of it in detail. It says something for Kaplan that a decade and a half later, it still popped into my nogg’n for consider…

The U.S. Army’s 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade has tested a new low-cost interceptor called Skyhammer in Europe, putting Cambridge Aerospace’s system through developmental evaluations designed to determine whether it can fill critical gaps in the layered air defense architecture that American and NATO forces are urgently trying to build along the alliance’s eastern flank. […]View the full article

The U.S. Army has awarded Northrop Grumman a five-year contract to produce the M1147 Advanced Multi-Purpose round, a single 120 mm (4.7 in) tank cartridge that replaces four separate legacy munitions carried by M1 Abrams crews and gives tank commanders the ability to switch between three different detonation modes depending on what they are shooting […]View the full article

Britain’s longest-serving Conservative defense secretary since Winston Churchill says he personally urged Israel’s government to help Ukraine early in the war, and that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government turned him down because it didn’t want to anger Moscow, the UK Defence Journal reported. Ben Wallace, who ran Britain’s Ministry of Defence from 2019 to 2023 and became […]View the full article

U.S. Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal has issued a request for information seeking contractors capable of providing total system sustainment for the HAWK missile system, according to a Sources Sought notice. The Army said it is not committed to issuing a solicitation or awarding a contract as a result of the announcement. Responses are […]View the full article