Raw Intel

Somebody has to build the little wings and fins that steer America’s main air-to-air missile, and this week that job went to a small manufacturer most people have never heard of. BK Manufacturing, based in the small town of Arab, Alabama, just picked up a U.S. Air Force contract worth up to $28 million to […]View the full article

Canada’s first F-35A fighter jet completed its maiden flight Sept. 23, taking off from Lockheed Martin’s production facility in Fort Worth, Texas. The aircraft, which carries the construction number AR-1 and will be designated CF-35A once in Royal Canadian Air Force service, flew with an F-35C acting as a safety chase plane. The jet already […]View the full article

Mooresville, North Carolina-based MSI Defense Solutions says its Self-Loading Equipment Deck, a removable mission pallet that can carry weapons and sensors on and off vehicles, appeared on several partner companies’ displays at this week’s Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting in Washington, including one built by General Dynamics Land Systems. In a series of […]View the full article

Americas International Enterprises won a $12.5 million requirements contract requirements contract for F-16 modular low power radio frequency (MLPRF) and dual mode transmitter (DMT) repairs. This contract provides for the repair of both MLPRF and DMT, which function as part of the radar systems of each F-16 C/D aircraft. The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the USAF. One of the most versatile aircraft in the US Air Force inventory, the F-16 Fighting Falcon has been the mainstay of the Air Force aerial combat fleet. With over 1,000 F-16s in service, the platform has b…

I thought that we would have plenty to white space to concentrate on the start of what will be an interesting start to the fighting season in Afghanistan as we try to unwind our intervention there, but alas ... the Russians seem to have other plans, as we noticed yesterday. ~70 miles east of the Ukrainian border. Engineers with their bridging kit. Hey @thinkdefence - how often does a western nation have that much river crossing equipment together in that volume? https://t.co/5fsbafGRNw — cdrsalamander (@cdrsalamander) March 31, 2021 We are in the golden age of OSNIT, but traditional news is reporting on this as well. Ukraine demanded on Thursday that Russia halt…

The long march through the institutions by the diversity commissariat may be shocking for those who just look at DOD, but if you really want a peek in to how bad it is, look around. Today, I would offer to you the foreign service sector. Think about all critical challenges facing our foreign service from Central Asia, to Europe, to the western Pacific, to Africa, to the Middle East ... and then look what they are spending their time on. Check out the July/August edition of The Foreign Service Journal. You can get the PDF here, but here are the critical issues our diplomats must focus on; - Asian Americans Can No Longer Be Silent, and Neither Should You: Generation…

I'm not sure what percentage you can assign to greed, what to wishful thinking, and what to outright corruption, but the last four decades the West has not just sold companies, manufacturing, and economic leverage to the Chinese Communist Authorities - but at critical nodes through the world's critical choke points we've sold and leased to them unique land and resources they now control. How can smart nations try to recover from such a strategic mistake? Well, Australia is trying to figure that out. Details over at USNIBlog. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=yIl2AUoC8zA http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=qj6IDK7rITs http://feeds.feedburner.com/…

Americas According to Jane’s, the Pentagon’s intelligence directorate is investing heavily in systems and programmes specifically designed to knock down barriers to collaboration between US armed forces, allies, and partner countries across all strata of command. Increasing capabilities to foster increased collaboration between the Pentagon and its allies, from an information-sharing and technology perspective, has emerged as a priority for the department’s intelligence directorate. The Brazilian Navy commissioned its first-of-class Riachuelo Class diesel-electric attack submarine, S Riachuelo (S-40), on September 1. The general director of the Directorate-General for Nu…

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $2 billion modification for Phased Array Tracking Radar Intercept on Target (PATRIOT) Advanced Capability-3 missile production. Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, Texas, with an estimated completion date of December 31, 2029. The PATRIOT Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) is a missile defense system developed by the United States, designed to […]View the full article

Americas Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday backed a suggestion by US counterpart Donald Trump for Russia, the United States, and China to all cut their defense budgets in half. “I think it’s a good idea. The US would cut by 50 percent and we would cut by 50 percent and then China would join if it wanted,” Putin said in a televised interview. Russia has massively ramped up military spending since launching its offensive in Ukraine in 2022, boosting economic growth but also inflation. GE Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney have passed the detailed design review of their offerings for the US Air Force’s Next-Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) program. The detailed …

South Korea’s military is under investigation over allegations that armed Apache helicopters conducted provocative flight operations near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) last year, accompanied by false radio transmissions suggesting imminent strikes on North Korean territory. The operations, reportedly ordered by higher command, are now part of a broader probe into whether Seoul sought to […] The post Seoul accused of using Apache helicopters to provoke North Korea first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

The U.S. Army has taken delivery of its first mobile laser weapon systems designed to counter unmanned aerial threats, according to a release issued September 3 by AeroVironment, Inc. The company confirmed the handoff of two prototype Laser Weapon Systems (LWS) under the Army’s Multi-Purpose High Energy Laser (AMP-HEL) program, a directed energy initiative managed […] The post U.S. Army gets first laser-armed squad vehicles first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Ukraine launched a coordinated series of deep strikes overnight, damaging a Russian Buyan-M missile corvette operating in Lake Onega and targeting key elements of Moscow’s military infrastructure across several regions, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on October 4. The Buyan-M — a small missile ship capable of launching Kalibr cruise […] The post Ukrainian strike hits missile corvette deep inside Russia first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Indonesia’s defense minister said the country has not finalized any agreement to buy Chinese J-10 fighter jets, tempering earlier expectations that Jakarta was close to a deal. “Not finished — we are window shopping,” Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin told Bloomberg News on the sidelines of a regional security conference in Kuala Lumpur when asked Friday […]View the full article

Frankly, this should have started in earnest years ago, but I have a theory. We’ll get to that in a moment, but here’s the summary of developments since we all fell into a turkey coma. Ukrainian naval drones hit two oil tankers from Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” as they travelled through the Black Sea, Ukrainian officials have said. Footage verified by the BBC shows waterborne drones speeding through the waves into the vessels, before detonating into a ball of flame, sending black smoke into the air. The targeted tankers were named by Turkish authorities as the Kairos and Virat, both flagged to the Gambia. Both were hit off the Turkish coast on Friday, with the Virat …

The United States has awarded Boeing a ceiling $8.58 billion contract to design, produce, and deliver new F-15IA fighter aircraft for the Israeli Air Force, according to a newly issued contract award notice released on December 29. The hybrid contract covers the design, integration, instrumentation, testing, production, and delivery of 25 new F-15IA aircraft, with […]View the full article

An Israeli drone manufacturer has secured a new foothold in Central Asia after Aero-Sentinel confirmed an exclusive distribution agreement in Kazakhstan, expanding its access to one of the region’s most established security and defense markets. The announcement was made on Sunday by Ofir Avram, chief marketing officer at Aero-Sentinel, who said the company had finalized […]View the full article

The Ukrainian Air Force has begun using French-supplied Mirage 2000 fighter jets to conduct airstrikes against Russian ground targets, according to reporting by Ukrainian defense outlet Militarnyi and footage released by the aviation-linked “Sonyashnyk” community showing precision-guided bomb employment on the battlefield. According to Militarnyi, video published by the Sonyashnyk community shows a Mirage 2000 […]View the full article

Iranian military officials have issued warnings to the United States over a potential ground operation targeting Kharg Island, as new footage circulating on social media shows preparations on the island, including deployment of FPV drones and construction of defensive positions. The statements and imagery emerged amid reports of possible U.S. force positioning in the region. […]View the full article

Shield AI announced on April 20, 2026, that the U.S. Navy has selected the company to provide contractor-owned, contractor-operated intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance services in support of naval and joint force operations. Under the arrangement, Shield AI will compete for up to $800 million in task orders alongside other selected industry partners, delivering persistent ISR […]View the full article