Raw Intel

The Massachusetts Air National Guard’s 104th Fighter Wing formally welcomed the F-35A Lightning II to Barnes Air National Guard Base on September 13, 2026, marking the aircraft’s arrival after a transition process that began more than three years ago. The ceremony drew Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, military officials and representatives from Kenya and Paraguay, whose […]View the full article

The littoral combat ship USS St. Louis (LCS 19) left Naval Station Mayport on September 13 to take over U.S. Northern Command’s mission patrolling waters near the U.S. southern border, the U.S. Navy said. The ship relieves USS Cooperstown (LCS 23), which returned to Mayport on August 31 after a four-month deployment to the region. […]View the full article

An Eitan wheeled armored personnel carrier fitted with Hetz Dorban, an Israeli-developed hard-kill active protection system, was photographed during a recent training exercise, according to images published on the Israel Defense Forces’ website in August 2026. The system is marketed internationally under its commercial name, Iron Fist, by Elbit Systems. Hetz Dorban uses radar and […]View the full article

Retired Gen. David Petraeus said the Russian drone that struck a train near Ukraine’s border with Poland on September 13 was a jet-powered version of Russia’s Geran/Shahed attack drone, adding a detail Ukrainian officials had not specified in their own statements on the strike. Petraeus, a former CIA director and retired four-star U.S. Army general, […]View the full article

Photos published by military observer Massimo Frantarelli show a Russian Navy corvette in Kronstadt painted to resemble a waterfront building, with outlines suggesting windows and doors on its hull, alongside netting rigged over the deck to blunt drone strikes. The image, credited to M. Mishin and dated August 22, shows the ship at the Leningrad […]View the full article

A Russian satellite built to maneuver alongside and inspect other countries’ spacecraft up close fell back to Earth on September 12, but the object that came down may not have been the real satellite, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who tracks satellite activity. The satellite, Kosmos-2558, launched from […]View the full article

Under heavy cloud cover, Russia fired a massive barrage of Geran-2 attack drones, the Russian-built version of Iran’s Shahed-136, at western Ukraine early Sunday. The Ukrainian General Staff said Russia launched 863 drones at Ukraine over the previous 24 hours, one of the largest barrages of the war. French open-source analyst Clément Molin wrote on […]View the full article

A long-endurance surveillance drone built by Maryland-based Platform Aerospace was spotted taking off from a Jordanian air base used by U.S. forces on September 13, 2026, according to flight-tracking data shared by an open-source intelligence account. The MenchOsint described it as the first known sighting of the aircraft, known as Vanilla, operating from Jordan. The […]View the full article

Ukraine’s Defense Forces struck a Russian chemical plant in Volgograd overnight on September 10-11, 2026, using FP-5 “Flamingo” cruise missiles, according to Fire Point, the Ukrainian company that manufactures the weapon. Fire Point said the missiles hit their target directly and sparked a large fire at the facility. The target, Volgogradpromproekt, is a specialty chemicals […]View the full article

The U.S. State Department has approved a possible $140 million sale of four UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters to Argentina, a deal that would give the Argentine Army its first Black Hawks. The approval, notified to Congress on September 10, 2026, follows through on a purchase Argentine officials confirmed earlier this year. The package includes the […]View the full article

A U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III landed at Camp Davis South, part of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, marking the first time the heavy-lift aircraft has touched down there in more than 20 years. The roughly 140-ton jet, longer than half a football field, landed alongside Canadian C-130 transports to support […]View the full article

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has finished dismantling the SM-1 nuclear power plant at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, the Army’s first nuclear reactor and the first facility in the country to send nuclear-generated electricity into the commercial power grid. The Corps’ Baltimore District completed the last field work this year, closing out a project that […]View the full article

The U.S. Army is testing two rival versions of a new digital command network by putting them in the hands of soldiers in two active-duty divisions at once, and the service’s testing command says it can now judge how each performs within one to two weeks of a field exercise ending, down from the months […]View the full article

The U.S. Coast Guard held a ceremony at Air Station Sacramento, California, marking delivery of the station’s first HC-130J Super Hercules, the aircraft that will eventually replace its smaller C-27J Spartan patrol planes. Vice Adm. Joseph Buzzella, commander of U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area, presided over the event. “This is a monumental step forward for […]View the full article

Ukraine’s Navy said one of its Sargan-3000 uncrewed surface vessels destroyed a Russian drone boat in the Black Sea, describing the engagement as the first battle in history between two uncrewed naval vessels. The Navy said its Defense Intelligence partners spotted the Russian craft before the Sargan-3000 closed in and destroyed it using a remote-controlled […]View the full article

Russia’s state-owned tank manufacturer Uralvagonzavod has delivered another batch of T-90M “Proryv” and T-72B3M tanks to the Russian Army, the company said, timed to coincide with Russia’s Tank Crew Day. As with previous shipments, Uralvagonzavod did not disclose how many tanks were included in the batch or where they are headed. The company said the […]View the full article

The Office of the Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration has awarded a $161 million Strategic Breakthrough contract to Antares, a California nuclear startup, to advance a reactor design meant to power spacecraft. The company describes it as the largest Department of War award to date focused specifically on […]View the full article

ELVO, Greece’s main military vehicle manufacturer, has shown off the first Mercedes G-Class “jeeps” modernized under a new refit program built to extend the life of the Greek Army’s aging vehicle fleet rather than replace it outright. The vehicles being upgraded are roughly 30 years old. ELVO is fitting a new engine and automatic transmission, […]View the full article

The U.S. Army has selected Fort Benning, Georgia, as one of five military bases that will host nuclear microreactors under a new Pentagon energy resilience initiative called the Janus Program, Army officials announced August 26, 2026. Fort Benning will pair with California-based Radiant Industries to install three of the company’s one-megawatt Kaleidos microreactors, adding a […]View the full article

Russia’s war against Ukraine has turned unmanned aircraft from a supporting capability into one of the central elements of modern battlefield operations. It has also forced drone manufacturers to confront a problem that peacetime testing cannot fully reproduce: how to keep an aircraft useful when tactics, electronic warfare threats and operational requirements can change within […]View the full article