Raw Intel

Thick smoke was still rising over Volgograd’s Krasnooktyabrsky District on the morning of June 27 when open-source analysts began piecing together what had just happened to one of Russia’s most critical defense manufacturing sites. According to the monitoring Telegram channel Exilenova+, FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles struck the Titan-Barrikady plant at least three times, with footage […]View the full article

Boeing and Lufthansa Technik Defense signed an agreement Wednesday at the Farnborough International Airshow to establish general terms for sustaining Germany’s new CH-47F Block II Chinook heavy-lift helicopters, laying the groundwork for a network of parts warehouses across the country to support the aircraft once they enter Luftwaffe service. The Bundeswehr selected the CH-47F Block […]View the full article

For me, it is funny but serious that the phrase I started saying in 2019 that we were going to keep building Arleigh Burke DDGs “until the crack of doom” has turned into prophecy. With the anticipated death of DDG(X) and FFG-62, the Burkes are about the only game in town. That fact naturally flows into a point we have raised here and on the Midrats Podcast for the last couple of decades: How are we going to conduct repair and maintenance under combat conditions should we find ourselves in a fight west of the International Date Line? Well, we’ve got the perfect intersection of both issues for the next episode of Midrats. This RAND Report from May caught my eye: The Arle…

Ukraine’s Defense Forces destroyed a Russian S-400 air defense launcher in Russia’s Bryansk Oblast on Sept. 17, using FP-1 drones, according to Fire Point, the Ukrainian company that builds the drone. Fire Point said the launcher had been modified by Russian forces to strike ground targets and had previously been used against Kyiv. The company […]View the full article

Leidos has picked X-Bow Systems, a New Mexico rocket motor maker, to develop and build the booster motors for the U.S. Army’s Low-Cost Containerized Munition, a ground-launched cruise missile the Pentagon wants to buy in large numbers. X-Bow announced the selection on Oct. 12 at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual meeting in Washington. […]View the full article

No, I’m not going to let this go. Yes, I am going to throw this in your face. What message does this send to friend or foe? BEHOLD! Want to see the absolute state of it all, in detail? Well, in another recent pic - this just happened to be the first one I could find - you can download the hi-res here, if you zoom in to just one section, you can see the long-term damage being done to the ship. This isn't just cosmetic. This is what is being sold; This is what is actually being seen by anyone who sees this ship: "This is a slowly degrading force sent by a declining empire. They send their warships to impress us, but all I see is a nation and its nav…

To start your week off right you should give our friend James Holmes's latest over at Real Clear Defense a read, How to Overcome Weaknesses in the Western Way of Sea War. He starts by setting up two distinguishing characteristics of how we prefer to start a war; Chinese anti-access strategy envisions pummeling U.S. forces forward-deployed along the East Asian rimland while preventing the larger U.S. Pacific Fleet from reaching the battleground from its home ports in Hawaii or on the west coast in time to affect a war’s outcome. ... The second aspect is this: Western maritime services fight in “systems” that depend heavily on the electromagnetic spectrum to pass in…

CH-148 Cyclone (click to view full) Canada’s Maritime Helicopter Replacement Program has been a textbook military procurement program over its long history. Unfortunately, it has been a textbook example of what not to do. While Canada’s 50-year old Sea King fleet aged and deteriorated to potentially dangerous levels, political pettiness and lack of concern turned a straightforward off-the-shelf buy into a 25+ year long odyssey of cancellations, lawsuits, rebids, and more. Eventually, the Canadian military settled on Sikorsky’s H-92 Superhawk as the basis of its new CH-148 Cyclone Maritime Helicopter, which will serve from the decks of Canada’s naval ships and bases. Th…

Simply a superb interview with General Anthony Zinni, USA (Ret) by Mie Augier and Major Sean F. X. Barrett, USMC over at CIMSEC. What is so impressive about it is the the focus of the interview - wargaming. There are few things more misunderstood, abused, and poorly done than wargaming. Done incorrectly, either by incompetence or malice, it can lead to the death of millions and the destruction of nations. No, that isn't an exaggeration. Let's pull a few quotes that grabbed my attention; I think gaming was more valuable at the lower levels, at the tactical level, maybe lower operational level. ... As you go higher up, I found there was too much in the way of service po…

We're going to kick out Midrats' 13th year with someone who has been with us from the start, best friend to the show Dr. Claude Berube! If you care about American history in general, and US Navy history in particular, you won't want to miss a minute of this Sunday's show. Claude will be with us for the full hour this Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern to discuss his latest and 4th non-fiction book, On Wide Seas: The US Navy in the Jacksonian Era, just released by University of Alabama Press. Claude earned his PhD in Military History from the King's College, London and holds two master's from Northeastern and the Naval War College. In his 30-year career, he has worked as a defense …

At the end of the day, when we are all called home, how would you want to be remembered? As a naval officer, what legacy do you wish to leave? Few mortals know the day and time, but if you are looking for a benchmark, you would be hard pressed not to look to Captain Paul Rinn, USN and say, "That. Him. There." As skipper of the frigate Samuel B. Roberts, Capt. Rinn took his crew into the war-torn Persian Gulf where they joined other U.S. warships protecting Kuwaiti tankers that had been reflagged as American vessels during the Iran-Iraq War. Returning from a convoy on April 14, the frigate struck an Iranian contact mine, which blew a massive hole in the hull. The explosi…

Now that you’re in that time where you’re trying to make that transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas & New Years saturation … give your stomach and mind a break and join EagleOne and Sal for a maritime and national security free for all this Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern. As is usual with our free for all format, the studio line is open for you to call in and the chat room will be running for your questions, observations … or even topics you wish we’d discuss but it seems we never get around to. In the course of the hour we’ll try to at least touch on this week’s warship chicken in San Diego, why everyone should care about secure undersea infrastructure, and take anoth…

Americas The US Navy together with Raytheon successfully test fired another round of Excalibur N5 munitions, the company announced on Monday. The Raytheon Excalibur N5 is a 5-inch or 127mm artillery projectile intended for use by surface warships utilizing 127mm cannons such as the Mk 45 naval gun system. The N5 is the naval variant […]View the full article

Americas The US Air Force has awarded Boeing a $7.5-billion contract for Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) tail kits that convert air-launched, unguided bombs into guided munitions. The contract includes spares, repairs, technical, and Laser Joint Direct Attack Munition sensor kits with an expected completion date of February 29, 2030. Some JDAMs will go to the […]View the full article

Americas The Uruguayan Air Force (FAU) has acquired five A-29 Super Tucano aircraft from Brazilian firm Embraer. The deal includes mission equipment, integrated logistics services, and a flight simulator. “We are ready to offer the best multimission aircraft to the FAU as well as our full support to increase their operational readiness and to enhance their capabilities to accomplish strategic missions such as border surveillance,” said Bosco da Costa Junior, President and CEO of Embraer. Boeing won an $18.5 million delivery order for the repair of R2 trailing edge flaps used on the F/A-18 E/F aircraft. The delivery order does not include an option period. All work will be…

Russia is forming mobile counter-drone units to defend its energy infrastructure amid an escalating wave of Ukrainian drone attacks that have crippled the country’s refining capacity and caused its worst gasoline shortage in three decades. The move comes as strikes on oil refineries continue to degrade Russian fuel production, with some estimates suggesting that 20–25% […] The post Russia deploys mobile anti-drone units amid fuel crisis first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Peru has unveiled an ambitious plan to modernize its armored forces through a long-term partnership with South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem and STX, combining imports and local production of advanced military vehicles. The initiative will replace Peru’s aging fleet of tanks and armored vehicles, most of which date back to the 1970s, and lay the foundation […] The post Peru to locally produce South Korean combat vehicles first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

California-based drone manufacturer Pyka has released video footage showing its first DropShip cargo UAV running its hybrid propulsion system, marking what the company describes as a key milestone in the aircraft’s development. The test, conducted earlier this month, demonstrated integration of the full hybrid-drive system ahead of the aircraft’s initial flight trials. “It’s alive!” Pyka […]View the full article

Taiwan’s Army Armored 584th Brigade conducted an urban operational readiness and key infrastructure protection exercise on Thursday in the Hsinchu area, deploying M1A2T main battle tanks alongside multiple armored vehicle types as part of a battalion-level drill. As reported by Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, the exercise was aimed at validating the unit’s ability to […]View the full article

Russia used Tu-22M3 Backfire-C bombers to launch a salvo of heavy Kh-22/Kh-32 cruise missiles toward the Kyiv region on January 24, marking the first recorded use of these weapons against targets near the Ukrainian capital. Ukrainian air defense forces reported that Russia fired 12 Kh-22 or Kh-32 missiles toward a target on the outskirts of […]View the full article