Raw Intel

U.S. Army soldiers launched micro-High-Altitude Balloons at the Yausubetsu Training Area on Hokkaido, Japan, on Sept. 18, including one that carried an APOLLO-R drone. Observers from Japan, the United Kingdom and Australia watched the demonstration during Exercise Orient Shield 26, according to the title of the U.S. Army’s video. Balloons are often seen as relics […]View the full article

Oshkosh Defense has started building the first prototype of the Dutch Expeditionary Patrol Vehicle, a version of its Joint Light Tactical Vehicle known in the Netherlands as the Kaaiman, for the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps, the company said on Oct. 13. The Netherlands Ministry of Defence ordered 150 of the vehicles in June 2025 at […]View the full article

Americas The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency chose 3 teams of researchers led by Raytheon, BAE Systems, and Northrop Grumman. They have been selected to develop event-based infrared (IR) camera technologies. The project was awarded under the agency’s Fast Event-based Neuromorphic Camera and Electronics program. Event-based cameras are an emerging class of sensors with demonstrated advantages relative to traditional imagers. These advanced models operate asynchronously and only transmit information about pixels that have changed. This means they produce significantly less data and operate with much lower latency and power. The US Army’s new Infantry Squad Veh…

Let's check in on the pre-war scorecard from our friends over at DefenseNews. The interesting part will be to revisit this in a year's time. BZ to the nations carrying their fair share of the load and more importantly, living up to the promises they made to their friends; Greece, USA, Poland, United Kingdom, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, & Lithuania. We should also find a way to reward those nations with a "*" next to their name. 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=FfmRkcarb34:pWuXFbz5Zw0:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspo…

After an absolutely dreadful decade long record failure of the most basic of all naval requirements - corrosion control - could our long navalist nightmare (at least this one) be coming to an end? As in most things, ignore the excuses and emotional responses (some of the worst, by serving naval officers of all things was, "It is just a sign of how hard we are working." - as if no navy ever worked harder than the <checks news feed> US Navy at peace) - watch what naval leadership is saying, and look with your own eyes at what you see. An interesting story from Mike Glenn over at The Washington Times this weekend is worth your time to read. It quotes some of our favori…

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P1MJGwRXp8Y/UYMZ3abL7nI/AAAAAAAAGxA/5YM9bb8rkoI/s320/image.jpgThe below was posted nine years ago when the Vietnamese government helped us bring a few Shipmates home. I thought of this over Christmas when I was still stewing about Big Navy's final success in killing what little remained of the Navy's trained CSAR capability with the death of HSC-85. One of the big and enduring lessons of the Vietnam War was the absolute requirement to maintain a cadre of specially trained navy rotary wing aircrew and equipment for special operations and combat search and rescue. We learned that lesson because of what happened when we had non-trained personnel d…

Americas L3Harris has announced that its new electronic warfare suite “Viper Shield” is nearing another major milestone ahead of planned production in 2025. Company official Anna Gragossian told Breaking Defense that the next program milestone will demonstrate the system’s ability to detect enemy radar activities, helping military pilots evade threats. The demonstration is expected to take […]View the full article

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense has confirmed that 50 of its domestically produced Clouded Leopard 8×8 armored vehicles developed structural cracks due to poor welding and metal fatigue. The issue, first raised during a legislative committee hearing by lawmaker Wang Ting-yu, prompted an internal investigation and corrective measures. The announcement came during a National Defense […] The post Cracks found in dozens of Taiwanese-made armored vehicles first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

A model believed to represent Russia’s newest “Oreshnik” ballistic missile system has appeared on the desk of Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko. The image, which surfaced during a meeting in Minsk, shows a scale model of a large wheeled launcher — reportedly mounted on an MZKT-79291 chassis with a 12×12 wheel configuration — widely believed to […] The post Leaked image shows model of Russia’s new RS-26 ballistic missile first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

We talked a bit about the national dysfunction that is our shipbuilding in the USA a bit on the last Midrats Podcast, and the amazing reality of how much we need South Korea’s expertise in an area we once were the world standard. Demonstrating the strong pace of collaboration, in early October, the two companies agreed to jointly pursue the U.S. Navy’s next-generation logistics ship (NGLS) design contract. Leveraging HII’s complex shipbuilding experience and HHI’s expertise with proven designs in use with the Royal New Zealand and South Korean navies, the two companies will team to respond to the U.S. Navy’s recent request for proposal (RFP) for the concept design phase o…

Japan’s Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA) has released new details on an advanced uncrewed aircraft research program designed to enable future drones to operate alongside manned combat aircraft. The update comes after ATLA published footage on Nov. 21 showing flight tests involving an experimental uncrewed aircraft and a manned helicopter. According to ATLA’s Aeronautical […]View the full article

The U.S. Army said one of its forward-deployed artillery units in South Korea has carried out the first live-fire exercise of the modernized M270A2 Multiple Launch Rocket System on the Korean Peninsula, a move aimed at strengthening deterrence against North Korea. According to the U.S. Army, Charlie Battery, 1st Battalion, 38th Field Artillery Regiment, assigned […]View the full article

United States Army aviation units assigned to the 12th Combat Aviation Brigade staged multiple CH-47F Chinook and AH-64E Apache helicopters at Katterbach Army Airfield in Germany on Jan. 26, 2026, as crews worked to clear flight lines during a heavy winter storm, the service confirmed. According to U.S. Army imagery and unit statements, helicopters from […]View the full article

Russia’s three-day special military operation is now entering its fifth year (even longer if you consider this just picking up after 2014 unfinished business). This war has many lessons, but at the top has to be the dangers of a military led by leaders who enable the compounding errors of optimism filters, and having senior political leadership who are not wise enough—or brave enough—to ensure they have a staff that is willing to ask the smart, hard questions before deciding to take their nation into the dark room that is war. Another thing history will tell us is that the resistance of the Ukrainian people against Russia is a story of the ages. On paper, Ukraine should …

Lockheed Martin has signed executive agreements with Poland’s Wojskowe Zakłady Lotnicze No. 1 (WZL-1) in Lodz, part of the PGZ Group, to support key components of AH-64E Apache attack helicopters. The agreements, valued at approximately 300 million zloty ($81 million), cover maintenance, repair, and testing of critical systems. According to the agreement, the Lodz facility […]View the full article

Washington-based investment syndicate Pravo Ventures has invested in Ukrainian aerostat developer Aerobavovna, backing a company already supplying airborne platforms to Ukrainian forces for communications and sensing tasks. In a statement, Pravo Ventures said Aerobavovna is “building critical aerostat-based capabilities for Ukraine and its allies,” adding that it is “excited about the team’s continued growth and […]View the full article

Pratt & Whitney has completed a fully digital assembly readiness review for its XA103 adaptive engine, clearing the last major design-phase hurdle before the company begins procuring physical hardware for the first test build of an engine it says will outperform anything currently flying. The review, conducted entirely within Pratt & Whitney’s digital engineering environment, […]View the full article

France has fired its next-generation air-to-air missile from a Rafale at supersonic speed for the first time, clearing one of the most demanding technical hurdles in the weapon’s qualification program and moving MBDA’s MICA NG significantly closer to operational service. The second development firing of the MICA NG, which stands for Missile for Interception, Combat, […]View the full article

Palladyne AI’s subsidiary GuideTech secured a $2.3 million contract with an unnamed defense prime contractor to supply its BRAIN flight computer and FLEX flight software framework for a low-cost kinetic counter-UAS interceptor system, the company announced June 29, 2026. The deal represents a direct product sale of GuideTech’s hardware and software, with the prime contractor […]View the full article

The U.S. Defense Logistics Agency awarded Rockwell Collins ESA Vision Systems, a Fort Worth, Texas company, an estimated $333 million contract to supply spare parts and repair services for the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System, a fighter pilot’s helmet that doubles as a targeting computer. The system, known in defense circles by its acronym JHMCS, […]View the full article