Raw Intel

Serhii Beskrestnov, known by his call sign “Flash” and serving as an adviser to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, published a public assessment that catalogs nine specific technological deficiencies he says are creating serious problems across the front, ranging from the absence of any mass-production solution against Russian glide bombs to a near-total lag in electronic […]View the full article

Ukraine’s Flamingo cruise missile has struck deep inside Russia again, this time hitting a defense plant that builds the ejection seats meant to save the lives of Russian fighter pilots and the anti-aircraft missiles meant to shoot down Ukrainian drones. Ukrainian forces attacked the Avitek plant in the Russian city of Kirov early Friday morning […]View the full article

A Ford F-250 that can drive itself carried a shotgun-armed drone-killing turret onto a live-fire range at Fort Bragg on August 18, 2026, the latest test in a U.S. Army program built to get engineers out of the blast radius during breaching operations. The vehicle, tested at Range 63 as part of Project Sandhills 2.0, […]View the full article

Americas Northrop Grumman Systems won a $4.8 billion deal for Global Hawk development, modernization, retrofit and sustainment activities for all Air Force Global Hawk variants. The contract provides for management, including program, business and technical areas; engineering efforts, including configuration management, data management, reliability, availability and maintainability, and related areas of concern such as technical refresh, diminishing manufacturing sources, etc.; studies and analyses; design, development, integration, test and evaluation; contract/production line closeout/shutdown; training; sparing; overseas contingency operations support; fielding; cyber …

Take a moment and think about all that is going on in the world from the South China Sea, to Afghanistan, to the Sahel, to the Russian near abroad. Think about the challenges military members and their families face on a daily basis with record deployments, caring for kids in a COVID environment, take your pick. I now want you to think about what you want the scarce time available in each mortal's 24-hr day invested in by the following people: Deputy Secretary of Defense; Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; The Secretaries of the Military Departments, Military Service Chiefs, and the OSD Principal Staff Assistants. What if we had it a weekly meeting called the …

The last few Thursdays we've pushed back rather hard on the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Gilday, USN. To be frank, he's earned it not just from me, but from Congressmen, Senators and commentators all over. If you recall, we tried to warn him back in February that his addition of the book "How to be Anti-Racist" by the highly problematic Ibram X. Kendi was a mistake. In the end, his defense of his choice and the excuses he gave - and those of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Milley, USA - have been hollow mostly because their is nothing on the list that promotes the "critical thinking" they say they want, or attempts to get a full view of the…

You graduated from the Naval Academy with the world at war. While it seemed your nation’s politicians were saying they would do all they could to stay out of this war – you probably knew better. It was a big war, and one side was being fed and armed from our side of the ocean. After graduation you get assigned to a battleship – and within a year, your nation goes to war. Your battleship was not just any ship, she was the USS Connecticut (BB-18), the flagship for The Great White Fleet a decade earlier, and now flagship of the Fifth Battleship Division. Yet, your war never really came. You spent the war never leaving the east coast. You spent the entire war on what you rea…

Americas A US Navy MH-60S Knighthawk helicopter made a crash landing in coastal Virginia. The incident took place shortly before 11:30 am on January 12. Virginia State Police said the aircraft hit several trees on the way down. The MH-60S was assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 26, based out of Naval Station Norfolk, roughly 30 miles southeast of Smithfield. Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Ingalls Shipbuilding division achieved the Aegis light-off milestone on the US Navy’s first Flight III Arleigh Burke Class guided missile destroyer Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125). The Flight III upgrade incorporates a number of design modifications that collectively provide signif…

We cannot do anything about the continental powerhouses in NATO who can also make a bid difference helping the Ukrainians defend their soil. Specifically Germany and France, who mostly insist on token assistance or sitting on the sidelines relatively speaking as Russia gets ready for a mid-20th Century like summer offensive east of the Carpathians, but we can do what we can do. Though our industrial capacity is not ready to support a long, global conflict - we do have quite a deep warehouse of items that are slightly used, but good for a few more years. As we have already come off the sidelines in the Russo-Ukrainian War when it comes to supplying lethal aid, we might as …

The “Out Years” is fantasy. It is a place where people wishcast the future they want. Let’s take a quick look at this gem from the Annual Long-Range Plan for Construction of Naval Vessels for FY 2007. How'd that work out for us? From that report looking forward nine years to 2016, it shows us having spent money on building in that time period … what exactly? Seven (7) DD(X), aka DDG-1000, and six (6) CG(X). Yeah … so be careful trusting these documents. That is why I simply refuse to listen to anyone’s pontifications on 2040 or 2045. Come on people. It’s insulting. Let’s stick with that template of 9-years above, it's bad enough. From today that window would get us to 20…

Americas Rolls-Royce won a $74.7 million deal, which procures 28 V-22 AE1107C engines (24 for production aircraft and 4 spare engines) in support of the V-22 Osprey for the Navy and Marine Corps. Work will be performed in Indianapolis, Indiana, and is expected to be completed in December 2023. The V-22 Osprey is a joint-service, medium-lift, multimission tilt-rotor aircraft developed by Boeing and Bell Helicopters. Boeing is responsible for the fuselage, landing gear, avionics, electrical and hydraulic systems, performance and flying qualities. Bell Helicopter Textron is responsible for the wing and nacelle, propulsion, rotor, empennage (complete tail system), ramp, overw…

Boxer MRAV (click to view full) Wheeled armored vehicles have become much more common, but the Dutch-German Boxer stands out from the crowd. Its English acronym is “Multi Role Armoured Vehicle” (MRAV), but rather than being a family of different vehicles, the Boxer will use a single chassis, with snap-in modules for different purposes from […]View the full article

Americas South Korea is offering its K9 Thunder self-propelled howitzer to the US Army to fill the capability gap created by canceling the Extended-Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) program. Launched in 2018, the ERCA program aimed to provide the service with a long-range artillery strike capability by having a Paladin M109 howitzer mounted with a 30-foot […]View the full article

Americas Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) has christened the US Navy’s 14th San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock vessel, the USS Harrisburg, in Pascagoula, Mississippi. The hull was named after Pennsylvania’s capital city to honor the region’s continuous support for the US armed forces as well as its critical role in the country’s industrial history. Notable contributions by the Harrisburg were recorded throughout the Westward Migration, the American Civil War, and the Industrial Revolution. At the ceremony in Pascagoula, US Navy Ships Program Executive Officer Rear Admr. Tom Anderson provided the keynote address for the event. The first F-15E Strike Eagles equi…

Lockheed Martin has received a $2.06 billion contract modification to produce additional Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors for the U.S. government, the Department of Defense announced. The new award raises the total value of the current production contract from $8.35 billion to over $10.4 billion, with work set to continue through December 1, […] The post Lockheed secures $2B deal to rebuild THAAD stockpile first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Defense analyst Fabian Hoffmann has released a detailed study tracing the trajectory of Ukraine’s missile programs from 2014 to 2025, highlighting the country’s efforts to transition from limited post-Soviet capabilities to a diverse but still developing long-range strike arsenal. In his latest Missile Matters post, Hoffmann examined the rise, setbacks, and future of Ukraine’s deep-strike […] The post Analysis: Ukraine builds future strike arsenal first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

The Pentagon announced that Maryland-based defense contractor Mistral Inc. has been awarded a $982 million contract to supply lethal unmanned systems to the U.S. Army. According to the Department of War, Mistral Inc., headquartered in Bethesda, was awarded the hybrid cost-no-fee and firm-fixed-price contract to “provide Lethal Unmanned Systems.” Work locations and funding will be […] The post U.S. Army buys kamikaze drones in nearly $1 billion contract first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Flowcopter announced Tuesday that it has completed a full week of flight testing under Project MORRIGHAN, a jHubMed initiative focused on uncrewed logistics support and casualty evacuation capabilities for the United Kingdom’s defense community. According to the company, the tests marked an important milestone in demonstrating the FC100 heavy-lift drone’s operational potential. In a statement […]View the full article

Raytheon, an RTX business, has been awarded a $1.7 billion foreign military sales contract to supply Spain with four Patriot air and missile defense systems. According to the company, the contract covers a complete Patriot configuration, including radars, launchers, command-and-control stations, and training equipment. The package is intended to modernize Spain’s air and missile defense […]View the full article

Taiwan has begun the first dive tests of its domestically built submarine Hai Kun (SS-711), marking a new phase in the island’s indigenous submarine program. According to Taiwan’s Liberty Times and other local outlets, the submarine conducted its initial submersion test on Sunday, moving beyond surface and harbor trials that have taken place over the […]View the full article