Raw Intel

U.S. Navy engineers in California have tested a prototype camera system designed to spot a sailor falling overboard and alert the ship’s bridge automatically, throwing a 35-pound rescue dummy off the side of a decommissioned destroyer to see whether the cameras would catch it. The test took place on Aug. 14 aboard the Self Defense […]View the full article

The U.S. Army has started flight testing four MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopters that the U.S. Navy was retiring, turning aircraft headed for long-term storage into flying testbeds for Army sensors and saving the Army just over $70 million in procurement costs. The Army’s Redstone Test Center at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, received the four aircraft […]View the full article

Anduril founder Palmer Luckey has pushed back against critics of Warhound, a new Texas startup he conceived with Colossal Biosciences CEO Ben Lamm that plans to clone and gene-edit working dogs for the U.S. military, law enforcement and emergency responders. Warhound emerged from stealth on Oct. 22, 2026, with a $200 million seed round, which […]View the full article

U.S. Army soldiers in Germany are training with AZAK’s S26 unmanned ground vehicle. On Oct. 21, troops from 2nd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment used the robot to evacuate a casualty during a platoon situational training exercise at Grafenwoehr Training Area, the first field use of the system by the Vilseck-based regiment since it began receiving […]View the full article

The Turkish Naval Forces used HAVELSAN’s Barkan unmanned ground vehicle to support amphibious raid and urban warfare training and then to evacuate simulated wounded personnel during TURNAs-2026, the service’s unmanned maritime systems exercise under way in the Gulf of Antalya and the eastern Mediterranean from Oct. 19 to 27, the Naval Forces Command said. The […]View the full article

A Russian drone unit fired about 100 Lancet loitering munitions over three months and hit only three targets, according to pro-Russian militant Pavel Gubarev, who said Ukrainian air defenses brought down most of the rest. The account points to a sharp drop in the effectiveness of one of Russia’s most widely used strike drones, Ukrainian […]View the full article

Ukrainian troops have flown a wounded soldier off the front line with a heavy multirotor drone, in what the unit that organized the mission called the world’s first aerial evacuation of a casualty from the battlefield. The operation was carried out by the unmanned ground systems company of Ukraine’s 92nd Separate Assault Brigade, working with […]View the full article

Lithuania is putting U.S.-made AN/TPS-77 Multi-Role Radars into service to watch its airspace, with the truck-mounted Lockheed Martin systems feeding real-time data into NATO’s integrated air and missile defense network, the country’s Ministry of National Defence said. Lithuania is buying three of the radars under a Foreign Military Sales contract worth about $52.6 million that […]View the full article

The U.S. Navy has selected Radiant to install its Kaleidos nuclear microreactor at Naval Weapons Station Crane in Indiana, putting a commercial company in charge of the service’s first shore-based advanced reactor, which the Department of War wants running no later than September 2028. Radiant announced the selection on Oct. 20, about six weeks after […]View the full article

Armenia’s Defense Minister Suren Papikyan toured Czech aircraft maker Aero Vodochody on Oct. 20 and said L-39 Skyfox jet trainers will soon be flying with Armenia’s armed forces. The country’s Ministry of Defense published a photo series from the visit showing Papikyan with the new aircraft, which can also fly light attack missions. “These marvels […]View the full article

Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force scrambled fighter jets 442 times between April 1 and Sept. 30, about two-thirds more than the 265 scrambles in the same period last year, according to Joint Staff Office figures reported by USNI News. The rise came as Chinese and Russian military aircraft flew near Japan far more often, and the […]View the full article

Türkiye is preparing to deploy military personnel to Saudi Arabia under the new joint defense pact it signed with the kingdom and Pakistan, and the government will send a deployment mandate to the Turkish parliament once lawmakers ratify the agreement, Reuters reported. Ankara has already submitted the pact, known as the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, […]View the full article

Ukraine’s Defense Minister Evgeniy Khmara and Commander-in-Chief Mykhailo Drapatyi met a Lockheed Martin delegation led by Orlando Sanchez Jr., president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, to press for steady weapons deliveries, more PAC-3 interceptors for Patriot and wider F-16 maintenance across Ukraine, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said. The talks centered on the F-16, which the ministry […]View the full article

Some posts are just sad to write, but they are often the ones you need to write. It is no fun watching a friend intentionally and deliberately destroy themselves for no reason. I guess it is time to pick up the conversation we had back in March and June. When I first saw this, I thought, ‘This is reporting from The Sun. Just tabloid trash.’ Not a single submarine commander passed the legendary Perisher course last year. … Only three were selected to attempt it, with two failing at the simulator stage. Surface ships fared little better with less than ten officers passing the command qualification known as CQ2. The Navy needs 35 passes a year to sustain its sea commands. S…

General Dynamics Land Systems has rolled out an upgraded version of PERCH, a bolt-on kit that lets M1A2 Abrams tanks and Stryker armored vehicles launch AeroVironment’s Switchblade 300 loitering munitions, small drones that can scout ahead of a vehicle and then dive onto a target as a guided weapon. The company announced PERCH 2.0 in […]View the full article

A Typhoon uncrewed surface vessel built by California-based Splash Industries demonstrated naval interception during a drone demonstration at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, on Oct. 21, 2026, as part of the Keen Sword 27 exercise between U.S. forces and the Japan Self-Defense Forces. The demonstration put the small, fast drone boat through an intercept […]View the full article

Denmark has rushed more than 50,000 rounds of 20 mm ammunition to Ukraine for the cannons on its F-16 fighter jets, and Ukrainian pilots are already firing them at Russia’s jet-powered Shahed-type attack drones, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on Oct. 23, 2026. The ministry announced the delivery on X, saying Denmark sent the rounds on […]View the full article

No, you don’t want to put up Halloween decorations this afternoon, you want to continue to avoid it until the last minute…and instead plan to join Mark and me from 5-6 PM for another LIVE Midrats Podcast! If its happening in the national security arena and its worth talking about, we’ll cover it. You can listen live and join the studio chat at this link. If you are reading this after the show, check back on the Substack page later Sunday night for the podcast audio links. Leave a comment Share This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. View the full article

Lockheed Martin will upgrade the giant assembly stations where F-35 stealth fighters are joined together at Europe’s only F-35 factory in Cameri, Italy, a plant that now builds jets not just for Italy but for the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland. The work is covered by a $9.4 million contract modification announced by the U.S. Department […]View the full article

Britain will send Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jets to Saudi Arabia to shoot down Houthi missiles and drones aimed at Saudi cities and critical infrastructure, the UK Defense Ministry said on Oct. 20. CNN reported that the jets will fly defensive counter-air missions over the kingdom, and a spokesperson for the prime minister’s office […]View the full article