Raw Intel

A small aircraft lifted off a dirt airstrip in western India after rolling forward just 22 meters (72 feet), roughly the length of two school buses, and that short hop has validated a technology an Indian startup hopes could eventually move troops and supplies into places no runway has ever reached. Ahmedabad-based Cligent Aerospace confirmed […]View the full article

A steady flow of American personnel moving in and out of Wuhan Camp in Longtan, Taoyuan, some driving civilian rental cars and others on foot, has drawn renewed attention to the scale of the U.S. military’s ongoing special operations presence in Taiwan, according to a report circulating from United Daily News (UDN) article and amplified […]View the full article

German engineering firm RENK just locked in more than $308 million in future business keeping one of Europe’s newest tracked infantry vehicles actually moving, extending its transmission supply agreement with Rheinmetall for the KF41 Lynx on July 9. The expanded framework agreement, worth more than €270 million ($308.72 million) including options, covers the supply of […]View the full article

The scientists and technicians who build America’s newest nuclear bomb just finished a critical manufacturing step three months ahead of schedule, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration announced, marking another milestone in what officials describe as one of the fastest nuclear weapons development efforts since the Cold War. NNSA said its Y-12 […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force awarded Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, the Norwegian company that builds the weapon, $98.4 million to produce the next batch of Joint Strike Missiles, with work taking place at Kongsberg’s factory in Norway and wrapping up by June 30, 2030. The Joint Strike Missile, known by its American designation AGM-184A, solves a […]View the full article

A South Korean defense company that was barely known outside Asia a decade ago has received the kind of financial endorsement that opens doors in the international capital markets, after S&P Global Ratings assigned Hanwha Aerospace an ‘A-‘ long-term issuer credit rating with a stable outlook on June 22, 2026, placing the maker of the […]View the full article

The U.S. Navy has hired four civilian cargo ships capable of driving military vehicles directly onto beaches and island piers without fixed port infrastructure, chartering them for operations out of Naha, Japan, starting July 30, 2026, in a $37 million contract that tells a precise story about how seriously American military planners are taking the […]View the full article

A Ukrainian air defense system built by the U.S. defense company Sierra Nevada Corporation was destroyed in Kharkiv region by a Russian first-person-view (FPV) drone operated by the “Sever” (North) assault grouping, marking what appears to be the first confirmed combat loss of the MAAWLR anti-drone missile launcher in the war. The MAAWLR, which stands […]View the full article

A helicopter maker and an electric aircraft startup just proved they can bolt cutting-edge autonomy software onto a brand-new aircraft in under two weeks, a pace that would have sounded absurd for military aviation programs just a few years ago. Sikorsky, the helicopter manufacturer owned by Lockheed Martin, announced at the Farnborough International Airshow that […]View the full article

I remember sending this off into the ether with a shrug 22 years ago as if it were yesterday. 22nd anniversaries are not that big of a deal, and I know many of you, like my friend Sid, have been with us from the start. I did a good origin story on the 20th anniversary post, so if you’re new, give it a read. At the 20th anniversary, my friend Claude Berube was kind enough to interview me on the inarguable UNCLAS Read Board Podcast that is outside the paywall. I think it ages well. I think for the rest of the 22nd I wanted to take note of a few things. First of all, in the last year, we saw the passing of a CDR Salamander Plankowner, Byron Audler, in April. A good man I had…

GE Aerospace and Magellan Aerospace Corporation announced Wednesday they have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish maintenance, repair and overhaul capabilities in Canada for the F414-GE-39E engine that powers the Saab JAS 39 Gripen E fighter, an agreement the companies explicitly tied to whether the Canadian government actually decides to buy the Gripen for […]View the full article

The U.S. Army awarded BAE Systems Land and Armaments a $35 million contract modification on June 30, 2026, for additional production of the general-purpose variant of the Cold Weather All-Terrain Vehicle, the tracked, amphibious troop carrier built to operate where wheeled vehicles simply cannot follow. The Army Contracting Command at Detroit Arsenal, Michigan, made the […]View the full article

A French rocket engine just fired 21 times in a row, and the company behind it says the hardware survived well enough to fly again. That combination, repeated ignition and confirmed reusability, is exactly what a small aerospace startup needs to prove before anyone lets its hypersonic drone near real flight testing, and this week […]View the full article

A two-person engineering firm in a small Colorado town just picked up a $4.3 million contract to help the Air Force answer a question that still sounds like science fiction: can rockets replace cargo planes for getting supplies anywhere on Earth in under two hours? The Department of the Air Force awarded the money to […]View the full article

The combat jet that is supposed to replace an aging fighter fleet on the front lines of the Pacific flew back into Okinawa this week, months after the Air Force quietly admitted its permanent arrival has slipped by a year. An F-15EX Eagle II, escorted by two F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft, landed at Kadena Air […]View the full article

A photo circulating from inside Russia appears to show a T-90M main battle tank fitted with the Arena-M active protection system riding on a tank transporter, a sighting that, if confirmed, would mark one of the clearer visual indications yet that Russia’s newest hard-kill defense against incoming threats is moving beyond limited trials and into […]View the full article

A Taiwanese military unit that once had nine administrative vehicles at its disposal now has just one it can actually drive, according to a claim a lawmaker raised directly to the island’s defense minister this week, Taiwan’s FTV News reported. Kuomintang legislator Ma Wen-chun pressed Defense Minister Wellington Koo during a Legislative Yuan questioning session […]View the full article

Japan’s military has apparently been flying a helicopter modification nobody outside a small circle of aviation watchers knew existed, until a Japanese photographer caught the aircraft airborne and posted the images online. A user posting under the handle nobita0114 published photographs on X showing a Japan Ground Self-Defense Force UH-2 utility helicopter in flight fitted […]View the full article

Ukraine’s military has shown a homemade air defense system built by bolting American anti-tank missiles onto a Rada radar and welding the whole thing to a Dutch army truck. Ukraine’s 302nd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade publicly displayed a new mobile variant of the STASH short-range air defense system in an official video, mounting the launcher on […]View the full article

As the NATO Summit is ongoing, I think it is time for me and my American readers to have an adult conversation with each other, like adults. Calm, short, and to the point. If you have honored me with your visits for very long, you will know that for over two decades I have been pointing out the disgraceful level of free-riding our allies in NATO made a habit of. I saw it in person in its worst ways as a NATO staff officer in Europe and Afghanistan, as I wrote about it at the time. Since I returned home, I have returned to the subject on a regular basis. It would be an understatement to say that I have been exceptionally pleased to hear the argument brought to a wider aud…