Raw Intel

Americas The USAF Research Laboratory (AFRL) awarded General Atomics $18 million to design and develop an unmanned Off-Board Sensing Station (OBSS) aircraft. AFRL is developing an open architecture concept Autonomous Collaborative Platform (ACP) to achieve its goals of rapid time-to-market and low acquisition cost, while extending and enhancing the sensing volume of manned platforms. Sentry View Systems won a $63 million deal for the Minuteman III Remote Visual Assessment Contractor Logistical Support 2.0. The LGM-30 Minuteman III, built by Boeing, is an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). It is a long-range, solid-fuel, three-stage ICBM with the capability to car…

I just dropped this tweet as an afterthought on twitter last night and it received a LOT of interest so I thought I would bring it over to the blog for review and discussion. Again, the Austrian Army is providing the best briefs on the Russo-Ukrainian War. Col. Markus Reisner, AUT Army sets the benchmark. If your German is iffy, you can get English subtitles in settings by going Settings<Subtitles/CC<English. The Kursk-Donbas side by side is exceptional at the 13-minute mark. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=yIl2AUoC8zA http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=qj6IDK7rITs http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=aJhgQXCoD6g:koQ4UyYrX5…

Now that everyone has spent the last three weeks of the Russo-Ukrainian war watching what modern, precision guided, long-range fires can do to large, static supply bases - specifically "ammo dumps" - I'd like you to take a moment and read this in a new light; The Army in the Pacific had its first crack at testing out its APS-Afloat capability in March in the Philippines during exercises Salaknib 22 and Balikatan 22. part of Operation Pathways, a larger exercise in the theater. The 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division used it coming from ships designed to harbor complete equipment sets and spares the Army anticipates needing should a crisis unfold. ..…

From 12–25 August 1920 there was one of the more important battles of modern history that is relatively unknown out of the country the battle took place in. It is a story of audacity in th eface of incredible odds by a nation only reborn less than two years earlier against an equally younger malignancy. The Battle of Warsaw; The Polish-born and much feared head of the Cheka (Bolshevik secret police), Feliks Dzierzinsky, was made head of a Polish Revolutionary Committee, which would follow the Red Army and form the new government. Lenin was absolutely confident of success. Initially all went well, and within six weeks the Red Army was at the gates of Warsaw. But as the Po…

AH-64 in Afghanistan (click to view full) The AH-64 Apache will remain the US Army’s primary armed helicopter for several more decades, thanks to the collapse of the RAH-66 Comanche program, and the retirement sans replacement of the US Army’s Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH). Apaches also serve with a number of American allies, some of […]View the full article

Americas The 8th Fighter Squadron (FS) at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, recently unveiled a striking new addition to their fleet – an F-16 Viper flagship painted in a sleek matte black color scheme, reminiscent of the legendary F-117 Nighthawk. This unique paint job serves as a powerful tribute to the squadron’s history and the groundbreaking capabilities of the retired stealth aircraft. The “Black Sheep” nickname reflects the squadron’s proud history, and this new paint scheme specifically honors their time flying the F-117. “We were one of the Holloman fighter units to fly the F-117 Nighthawk,” explained Major Daniel Thompson, an instructor pilot with the 8th FS.…

Americas Sentrycs has received a multi-million-dollar award to integrate its counter-unmanned aerial system technologies for an undisclosed Latin American defense customer. Under the effort, the Tel Aviv-based company will provide fixed, portable, and vehicle-mounted versions of its anti-drone kits to address the user’s multi-layer defense requirements against evolving autonomous airborne threats. Part of the countermeasure devices will be used for low-footprint protection across military bases, mobile operations, special forces missions, and VIP security. In another production qualification trial, the US Army’s Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) has completed a flight test …

The U.S. Army has awarded three agreements valued at approximately $15.5 million to Forterra of Clarksburg, Maryland, Overland AI of Seattle, Washington, and Scout AI of Sunnyvale, California, as part of an effort to accelerate autonomous mobility within Army formations. According to the Army, the Unmanned Systems (UxS) Autonomy agreements will integrate commercial autonomy solutions […] The post U.S. Army aims to turn squad vehicles into drones first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has released its final solicitation for the Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) program — a sweeping effort to transform how the United States develops and deploys next-generation missile defense capabilities. According to the solicitation, SHIELD will function as a Multiple Award Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract designed […] The post Pentagon unveils $151B SHIELD missile defense program first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

A website that tracks GPS interference has reported extensive jamming activity across Venezuela’s northeastern coast and surrounding Caribbean waters, including areas west and east of Trinidad and Tobago. The disruption, recorded over the last two days, shows multiple high-density clusters of interference, displayed in red and yellow hexagons, indicating elevated signal disturbance levels. Most of […]View the full article

Russia has suffered a failed Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) test after a launch at the Yasny range in the Orenburg region ended in an explosion only seconds after liftoff. The missile rose roughly 200–400 meters before detonating in midair and crashing back to the ground, leaving behind a visible purple toxic cloud. The incident occurred […]View the full article

China’s People’s Liberation Army on Monday publicly displayed H-6 long-range bombers armed with air-launched cruise missiles during Justice Mission-2025 exercises around Taiwan, according to official imagery and statements released by the PLA Eastern Theater Command. The aircraft shown during the drills were H-6 bombers equipped with two air-to-surface missiles assessed by open-source analysts to be […]View the full article

At the end of the decade, our last two submarine tenders (AS) will be decommissioned after a half-century of service. This summer, at the last possible moment (natch), we found out what the next step would be. The US Department of Defense (DOD) has awarded General Dynamics NASSCO of San Diego a US$72.66 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification to a previously awarded contract to support the US Navy’s AS(X)-class submarine tender next generation design maturation. The DOD said there will also be a US$27.26 million option for additional design maturation efforts, which, if exercised, could bring the cumulative value of this contract modification to US$99.92 million…

The United States Air Force has awarded aerospace manufacturer Boeing a not-to-exceed $61,5 million contract for the replenishment of the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator weapon system, according to a contract announcement released by the service. The work will support production of key components for the heavy bunker-penetrating bomb and will be carried out in St. […]View the full article

Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate (GUR) said March 24 that its forces destroyed a launcher from Russia’s Bastion coastal missile system in occupied Crimea during overnight strikes. The GUR said the system had been used to launch Zircon hypersonic missiles against Ukraine and confirmed that two Zircon missiles were also destroyed in the attack. According to […]View the full article

Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces have announced a combat milestone with no documented precedent in modern warfare — operators from the Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) division of the 412th Nemesis Brigade successfully intercepted a Russian Shahed attack drone using an interceptor drone launched from an unmanned naval platform. The engagement took place within a maritime operational […]View the full article

MatrixSpace is providing airspace awareness sensors to Operation Flytrap 5.0, a major U.S. Army-led counter-drone exercise running May 1 through 15 in Lithuania, after the company’s technology won the xTechCounter Strike competition at the preceding Flytrap 4.5 exercise in November 2025. The company’s participation comes with a competitive pedigree that distinguishes it from other exhibitors […]View the full article

Shield AI, the San Diego-based defense technology company that has been building autonomous flight systems for military applications since 2015, announced that its Hivemind AI completed its first autonomous multi-platform teaming flight in Oklahoma, combining its V-BAT unmanned aircraft with multiple Hornet drones from Destinus Defence in a demonstration that points directly at how military […]View the full article

From New England to Puerto Rico, across the Gulf of America, skipping over the desert to the West Coast…the vast American coastline is littered with closed and abandoned shipyards. They surround us like ghosts haunting the ruins of a once great empire, whispering of what once was. Some have been repurposed so much it would require a national emergency to claw back the waterfront. Others only a bit, and another cohort almost frozen in aspic from the day they were closed. Every time there is a proposal to do something as straightforward as reviving Charleston or something more ambitious like Jan Sramek’s Solano Shipyard, those trying to make forward progress have to swim t…

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on July 27, 2026, setting a new authorized size for the Russian Armed Forces at 2,426,130 personnel, of which 1,535,000 are uniformed troops, according to the text of the decree published on Russia’s official legal information portal, pravo.gov.ru. The order, numbered Decree 526, formally amends a 2004 decree that […]View the full article