Raw Intel

The U.S. Army has taken delivery of its first new locomotives in more than a decade, part of an effort to replace a rail fleet in which more than a third of the active engines are older than their 65-year expected service life. The Army’s Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, known as TACOM, said its rail […]View the full article

It is on rare occasion that we do a guest post here, but friend to the blog, Midrats Podcast alumnus, and co-host the CavasShips podcast, Chris Servello put together an inspired review of the moment we are at, this decision point, our nation has as a naval power. A must read. Chris, over to you. Standing in Greenwich, on the outskirts of London, surrounded by museum ships, artifacts and reminders of centuries of British seapower, I found myself thinking less about the past than about America’s maritime future. That may sound like an odd conclusion to draw in a museum. But every gallery seemed to make the same point: naval power is not inherited forever. It depends on dec…

The U.S. Marine Corps is buying a small tracked cargo loader that can pick a fully loaded 4,500 kg (10,000-pound) air cargo pallet off the ground and still fit inside an MV-22 Osprey, under a contract worth more than $10 million to Las Vegas-based S.A.F.E. Structure Designs. The company announced the award for its SAFE […]View the full article

Saab has presented the first GlobalEye airborne early warning and control aircraft built for the Swedish Air Force, a business jet-based radar plane that will replace the two older surveillance aircraft Sweden gave to Ukraine. The company unveiled the aircraft on Oct. 15. The jet will now go through a phase of testing and verification […]View the full article

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon’s advanced research arm, has awarded the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory a contract worth up to $499.8 million to keep the lab working on DARPA engineering, development and research projects through October 2031. The U.S. Department of War announced the award on Oct. 14. Under the […]View the full article

An unnamed foreign government is paying Lockheed Martin another $18.8 million to develop and integrate a version of the F-35 fighter jet built to its own specifications, the U.S. Department of War said on Oct. 15. The Pentagon’s daily contract announcement said the modification to an existing contract with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth, […]View the full article

U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth fighters from Alaska are operating from Tsuiki Air Base on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu as part of Keen Sword 27, the largest iteration so far of the biennial U.S.-Japan military exercise. A photo released by the U.S. military shows an F-22 from the 525th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron parked […]View the full article

BLADE, the robotics company formerly known as HDT, said it has submitted its Hunter WOLF unmanned ground vehicle for the U.S. Army’s Infantry Last Tactical Mile initiative, a prototype effort to use robotic vehicles for resupply and casualty evacuation near the front line. The company was one of six vendors the U.S. Army selected for […]View the full article

Romania has signed a contract for 12 Airbus H225M Caracal military helicopters, the first step in replacing the Romanian Air Force’s aging fleet of locally built IAR-330 Puma helicopters, Airbus Helicopters said on October 7. The deal was concluded through France’s defense procurement agency, the DGA, and is financed under the European Union’s Security Action […]View the full article

The Florida National Guard fed drone video, unmanned boat data and troop positions from a training exercise at Camp Blanding, Florida, to U.S. Northern Command in Colorado Springs and to Joint Task Force-National Capital Region in the Washington area, where commanders viewed the information remotely. The link-up was part of Drone Crucible 26.3, which ran […]View the full article

The Italian Army has selected an armored version of the INEOS Grenadier 4×4, making Italy the first NATO country to place a large-scale military order for the British-designed off-roader. Deliveries are expected to begin in 2027. The army chose the Grenadier Enhanced Protection Vehicle, or EPV, in its armored configuration. The vehicles will mainly serve […]View the full article

The U.S. State Department has approved a possible sale of up to 2,020 Javelin anti-tank missiles and 200 launch units to Egypt, a package estimated at $832 million that would give the Egyptian military the shoulder-fired weapon for the first time. The approval, dated October 2 and sent to Congress as a formal notification, covers […]View the full article

U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II stealth fighters flew alongside Moroccan F-16s on the opening day of the Marrakech Airshow, putting the jet in front of a country that has been reported to be interested in buying it and that already fields a growing list of American weapons. The airshow runs Oct. 7-10 at a […]View the full article

Airbus and Kratos have flown the Valkyrie uncrewed combat aircraft in Europe for the first time, a step toward offering Germany a drone wingman for its Eurofighters by 2029. The flight, announced on Oct. 12, took place at a test site in northern Europe that the companies did not name. Airbus Defence and Space CEO […]View the full article

Anduril Industries has unveiled Steelfin, a family of surface-to-air interceptor missiles designed to shoot down cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missiles at a fraction of the cost of today’s interceptors, with flight tests set to begin next year. The company announced Steelfin on Oct. 12, the first day of the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual […]View the full article

A former Italian Navy mine warfare officer has launched Sentiq Defence, a company based in Bordighera on Italy’s Ligurian coast that will supply navies, coast guards and port and energy operators with uncrewed boats, underwater surveillance sonars, remotely operated submersibles and aerial drones, the company announced on Oct. 13. Sentiq starts out as an integrator, […]View the full article

MARTAC, the Florida maker of high-speed unmanned surface vessels used by the U.S. Navy, has selected SEA.AI’s maritime machine vision system for its drone boat fleet, adding cameras that spot and classify other vessels on their own without a human watching a video feed. SEA.AI announced the integration on Oct. 13, saying MARTAC has made […]View the full article

Russian state defense conglomerate Rostec is pitching its new 30 mm ZAK-30 “Tsitadel” anti-drone gun as a direct competitor to Western systems such as Germany’s Skynex and the U.S.-made Phalanx, saying its combat use has shown advantages in automation, cost per shot, and effectiveness on the world market. Rostec made the claim in a statement […]View the full article

U.S. drone maker WingXpand has unveiled xPAIR, a removable control unit that the company says can be moved between its small fixed-wing aircraft, a ground vehicle and a small boat, letting one set of AI software and sensors run uncrewed systems in the air, on land and on water. The Schaumburg, Illinois, company introduced the […]View the full article

The British Army has dropped plans for armored mortar, repair and recovery, and anti-tank overwatch versions of its Boxer wheeled armored vehicle, and has ruled out using Boxer in the armored cavalry role, Defence Minister Luke Pollard told Parliament. Pollard, the minister for defence readiness and industry, gave the answers in response to written questions […]View the full article