Raw Intel

If you are a regular in the chat room during the live airing of Midrats or EagleOne's homeblog - then you know who Saturn 5 is. He even visits here now and then. Though most may not know it - he is also one of the few regular commenters from Turkey in the Navy milblogosphere. After my post earlier this week - I asked if he wanted to offer up a guest post here on the topic of Turkey today, Kemalism, and where things are headed - from the Turkish perspective. BZ to S5 - he dove right in with a quick response. Thanks S5! The rest of this post is from Saturn5.While the dust cloud around Israeli raid on Gaza flotilla last week is settling down, informed minds…

The Department of Defense (DoD) announces that Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn will leave the post later this year. A replacement is expected to be found by the autumn. Two House Foreign Affairs sub-committees held a joint session to consider the extent of Somalia’s piracy and crime networks, the influence of the Islamist al Shabaab group and the growing humanitarian crisis affecting almost 3 million Somalis. More and more shipping companies are ignoring the UN’s IMO, and hiring armed guards to fight pirate attacks. The IMO is expected to cave soon, and introduce vetting procedures for guards. Following Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s dem…

MC-12 arrives (click to view full) Despite all of the high-tech fighter hours flown in theater, Hawker Beechcraft’s twin-propeller King Air 350 continues to gain traction as an affordable, long-endurance option for light cargo delivery in remote areas – and effective manned battlefield surveillance and attack. Iraq’s Air Force was the first to order them, and an initial 6-plane UC-12W order from the US Marines/Navy followed in July 2008. Former US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates pushed hard to improve ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance) capabilities on the front lines, and one of those planned purchases involved about 30 King Air 350/ C-12 aircraft …

Americas CAE USA-Mission Solutions won a $10.8 million contract modification for the F-15E, F-16 and F-22A contract aircrew training and courseware development contract. The modification is for exercising Option Year Four. The Boeing F-15E dual-role fighter is an advanced long-range interdiction fighter and tactical aircraft. The F-15E is the latest version of the Eagle, a Mach 2.5-class twin-engine fighter. The F-16, the mainstay of the Air Force aerial combat fleet, has been adapted to complete a number of missions, including air-to-air fighting, ground attack and electronic warfare. The F-22A Raptor is an advanced tactical fighter aircraft. Work will be performed at Jo…

Americas During a ceremony held on October 6 at the Pennsylvania National Guard’s Eastern Army National Guard Aviation Training Site, the US Army unveiled the newest variant of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, the UH-60V. As part of their preparation for beginning instruction, EAATS instructor pilots have been training on six UH-60Vs they received from the Utility Helicopter Program Office in July. General Dynamics won a $482.1 million contract modification for lead yard support and development studies and design efforts related to Virginia Class submarines. The Virginia Class new attack submarine is an advanced stealth multimission nuclear-powered submarine for deep oce…

Elite failure. I guess this is German week, but so be it, they're in the news. For those who follow me on twitter, you are familiar with the #WeNeedNewElites hashtag. I started using it as a reference point on the American issue with the serial elite failures that are putting our nation at strategic risk, but it applies throughout the West. The problem is dangerous to our collective security with our allies, especially Germany. More than anything else, Germany just frustrates me. Maybe I'm the problem as I expect more from her than she seems to want to give. I feel like a track coach who has a promising athlete that is so racked with self-doubt, conflicting priorities, a…

Most who have had their kids enter college in the last couple of decades - especially the last decade - have seen the sociopolitical indoctrination of our kids in the world view of the diversity industry. They don't just get informed about how racist their nation is, they are told that their college, their classes, even they themselves are "problematic." For many who have not been in the military recently, you might think that this issue is mostly a problem at civilian liberal arts colleges and maybe it creeps in to STEM programs at public universities, but surely our nation's service academies are not wasting time injecting disunity and division in to our military's next…

One thing we touched on during last Sunday's Midrats was the growing unease that the Russo-Ukrainian War would not end before the stockpiles of preferred weapons and the ammunition they use runs out. There has been discussions about both sides of the war burning through their stockpiles at unsustainable rates while the war seems to be expanding. The Russians are having issues even with their assumed relatively deep bunkers - but much of that is bottlenecked by an early 20th Century logistics train on a 21st Century battlefield. Their problems keeping their army equipped is not the more interesting story. The Ukrainians would have run out of weapons and ammunition months a…

Americas The US has agreed to co-produce the Stryker armored fighting vehicle with India in an effort to enhance New Delhi’s deterrence against China. New Delhi recently submitted a letter of intent for the deal to Washington, Nikkei reported citing a US defense official. The US Air Force has announced that its B-21 Raider stealth bomber completed […]View the full article

Americas Applied Visual Technology won a $28 million firm-fixed-price contract for Targeted Fidelity Apache Tactical Trainer simulators, the Tactical Control Centre, and the Network Simulation Environment. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida; and Kooiweg, Netherlands, with an estimated completion date of September 15, 2026. Army Contracting Command, Orlando, Florida, is the contracting activity. The […]View the full article

Americas The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) demonstrated the first at-sea refueling of the No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS) program. A pair of unmanned surface vessels (USV) — the Ranger and the Mariner — demonstrated the task originally designed for the program’s Defiant USV. A long-endurance NOMARS USV is intended to be designed from the ground up without the necessity for humans on board. Bollinger Shipyards has started the construction of the US Coast Guard’s initial vessel planned under the Polar Security Cutter (PSC) program. The PSC effort will replace the service’s aging ships deployed for national, maritime, commercial, and economic securit…

It is only fitting that we do an update this last Friday of July of one of my favorite FbF that I have referred to often over the years. I first mentioned the subject of the FbF on the OG Blog 19 years ago. Finally, a decade ago, I gave her story its own FbF. I’ll do that again today, but first things first. Earlier this month, Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan made the following announcement: During the Battle of the Coral Sea in World War II, Chief Petty Officer Oscar V. Peterson heroically saved 123 sailors aboard USS Neosho by manually closing critical steam-line valves while unprotected amid smoke and flames. He suffered severe burns and died six days later. He wa…

If you haven’t had a chance to read the new Chief of Naval Operations’ (CNO) opening comments upon taking the job earlier this week, take a moment to give it a read. We all like bulleted lists, so let me pull this out of the middle By the time my tenure ends, I want to be judged by the results we achieve together, plain and simple. Platforms delivered and repaired on time. Fully manned and combat ready ships. Ordnance production meeting contracted demand. Backlogs in repair parts eliminated. Sailors trained to the highest levels of mastery. I’d like to focus on the second bullet, “Fully manned and combat ready ships“. The CNO’s duties are defined in 10 U.S. Code § 8032 - …

Boeing announced it will relocate its F/A-18 Super Hornet Service Life Modification (SLM) operations from the St. Louis region by 2027 as part of a broader strategic realignment to support future aircraft programs. The move, revealed on September 24, comes as the company continues to expand its defense manufacturing operations in St. Louis — including […] The post Super Hornet upgrade program heads to new sites first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

South Korea showcased a new variant of its indigenous wheeled armored vehicle, the 8×8 “Tigon” MCV-105, at the 2025 Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition (ADEX), underlining the country’s efforts to expand its ground systems portfolio for both domestic use and export. The MCV-105, developed by Hanwha Defense, features a 105mm tank gun mounted in […] The post South Korea tests export waters with new wheeled tank first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

At the MILIPOL defense exhibition, KNDS France Robotics introduced a new payload that connects its NERVA-LG ground robot to the broader ecosystem of FPV aerial drones, allowing joint deployment, video integration, and enhanced target identification using AI. KNDS France Robotics has presented a new payload system that allows its NERVA-LG unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) to […]View the full article

Germany has placed its first production order for the RCH155 wheeled howitzer, moving to introduce a new remote-controlled artillery system into service under a long-term framework agreement that could eventually reach 500 vehicles. According to the announcement, the German Armed Forces awarded the order to ARTEC GmbH. The contract covers the first 84 RCH155 systems […]View the full article

South Korea has launched a 1.9 trillion-won ($1.29 billion) program to develop a new class of aircraft designed to jam and disrupt enemy air defense networks, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) announced. DAPA said the project, known as Block-I, will focus on developing large, dedicated electronic warfare aircraft capable of degrading an adversary’s integrated […]View the full article

The United States Air Force has awarded DCS, based in Alexandria, Virginia, a nearly $100 million research and development contract to deliver advanced tools designed to model and predict mission-level operational effects across multiple warfighting domains, according to a contract announcement released Feb. 19, 2026. The $94,745,601 contract provides the Air Force with analytical capabilities […]View the full article

The United States Army demonstrated a long-range aviation combat operation exceeding 1,300 miles during the Talon Reach exercise on March 12, 2026, conducting a coordinated attack and air assault mission across the Korean Peninsula. According to the Army, the large-scale operation involved AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopters, and CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift […]View the full article