Raw Intel

Thales and Renault Group are joining forces to mass-produce a French kamikaze drone, betting that the country’s largest carmaker can do for loitering munitions what it has long done for hatchbacks: build them at scale and at optimized cost. The two companies signed a partnership agreement on June 16, 2026, to jointly develop and industrialize […]View the full article

Germany and Ukraine signed agreements that include €750 million ($870 million) for 200 Bohdana self-propelled artillery systems on Zetros chassis, and those systems now have a confirmed name and barrel specification: defense analyst Jeff, reporting from Eurosatory 2026 in Paris on Tuesday, wrote that a representative from Ukrainian Armoured Vehicles [was likely referring to Ukrainian […]View the full article

The satellite communication network that Ukrainian forces depend on to coordinate everything from drone strikes to artillery fire has a new enemy, and Ukraine is already destroying it. Ukrainian defense advisor Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov, a widely followed open-source intelligence analyst who tracks electronic warfare developments along the front, has publicly identified a Russian electronic warfare […]View the full article

Lockheed Martin announced the HIMARS FLEX on June 16, a modular evolution of the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System that introduces a dual-pod launcher configuration capable of carrying double the munitions of the standard single-pod HIMARS, adds the ability to fire air and missile defense interceptors including the PAC-3 from the same chassis, and […]View the full article

The shoulder-fired missile that Ukrainian soldiers have used to destroy hundreds of Russian tanks is about to become the subject of one of the most significant American weapons procurement planning exercises in years, as the U.S. Army Contracting Command issued a sources sought notice on June 15, 2026, asking defense manufacturers to identify whether they […]View the full article

The United States Naval Research Laboratory, the scientific and technology development arm of the Navy and Marine Corps, has received a transportable satellite tracking antenna system from the Space Force’s Space Systems Command, transferred from a unit called System Delta 81 to NRL’s Blossom Point Tracking Facility in Welcome, Maryland, in a move that quietly […]View the full article

REGENT Craft, the Rhode Island company building what it calls an entirely new category of maritime transportation, announced June 16 that it has completed a 255,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, purpose-built for a vessel that travels like a boat, lifts onto underwater foils like a racing yacht, and then takes off to […]View the full article

Washington has approved Brazil’s request to purchase 100 FIM-92K Stinger Block I missiles to enhance the country’s short-range air defense capability, in a transaction valued at $330 million that upgrades South America’s largest military’s ability to protect its own airspace, with the State Department saying the sale would support Brazil’s territorial security and counter narco-terrorist […]View the full article

A Canadian startup has completed the design of what it describes as the first all-electric motorcycle purpose-built for military intelligence and reconnaissance missions, and the vehicle is now ready for trials with the Canadian Armed Forces, bringing a platform that operates below 50 decibels of acoustic noise, survives temperatures from minus 45 degrees Celsius to […]View the full article

Singapore has requested, and the U.S. has approved, a possible $73 million Foreign Military Sale package covering fire control system upgrades for the city-state’s fleet of HIMARS rocket artillery, a move that will significantly enhance one of Southeast Asia’s most capable ground-based precision strike systems and deepen the military technology relationship between Washington and one […]View the full article

Kalyani Strategic Systems Limited, the defense subsidiary of Indian industrial giant Bharat Forge, and Paramount, the South African-founded global aerospace and defense group, chose the opening of Eurosatory 2026 in Paris on June 16 to jointly unveil the Simha 4×4, a next-generation modular multipurpose vehicle developed by Kalyani Strategic Systems Limited and Paramount, aimed at […]View the full article

Remember, we must revisit the failures of the past in order that they shall not be repeated. Well, that’s the theory. Of all the disastrous series of failures this century to build a surface combatant, none were as unnecessary and avoidable as the failure of the Constellation Class FFG. Over six years ago, we found out that we were going to build a U.S. version of the Franco-Italian FREMM in a push to finally get a proper frigate into the fleet. I was ecstatic…but wary. Throughout the process, we had indications and warnings that the same institutional circus and its convoy of clown cars, which begat LCS, CG(X), and DDG-1000, had a hand on the wheel of what was then FFG(X…

One of America’s most iconic warplanes went down Monday morning at a military base in the California desert, setting off a large fire visible from miles away and triggering an immediate emergency response. Edwards Air Force Base, the sprawling flight test installation located in the Mojave Desert roughly 160 km (100 miles) north of Los […]View the full article

A Cold War-era tank first fielded in 1965 is about to get a new brain, a new gun system, and a new purpose on one of the most dangerous battlefields in the world. Defense analyst Jeff, writing for Defense Archives on Monday, reported that a Cockerill spokesperson confirmed to him at Eurosatory 2026 in Paris […]View the full article

The vehicle that Finnish defense company Patria and German transmission manufacturer RENK Group unveiled at Eurosatory 2026 in Paris on Monday is designed to go where commanders decide it should go and do what they need it to do without putting a single soldier in harm’s way to make that happen, because nobody sits inside […]View the full article

Thirty-six tank-busting rounds, a 105mm cannon, three crew members, and a vehicle light enough to fly aboard an Airbus A400M military transport. That is what John Cockerill Defense and Arquus brought to Eurosatory 2026 in Paris when they pulled the covers off the FENRIS, a wheeled fire support vehicle designed to fill the gap that […]View the full article

A supersonic bomber that Russia uses to launch cruise missiles at Ukrainian cities came down in a field near the Siberian city of Svirsk on Monday, adding another hull to a list of losses that the Kremlin can ill afford and has no practical way to replenish. Russia’s Aerospace Forces confirmed that a Tu-22M3 long-range […]View the full article

Nobody has to be inside it, and that is entirely the point, because on today’s battlefield a crewed turret is a target and the soldier behind the gun is the first to die when it gets hit. At Eurosatory 2026, the defense trade show running this week in Paris, Germany’s Rheinmetall unveiled the CT-025 20, […]View the full article

Russia sank the original Henichesk in 2022, striking the minesweeper with cruise missiles launched from occupied Crimea while it was covering the withdrawal of special forces troops near the Kinburn Spit, and on Monday Ukraine got the name back in the only way that matters at sea: on the bow of a warship flying the […]View the full article

Back in the first week of May, we had the second edition in what has become a series about what options exist on the table to get additional weapons on ships: Yes, Reality Demands More Guns, Larger Guns, Everywhere. It was a follow-up to March’s Up-arm the Fleet? With What? A principal concern I have was outlined in a previous article in November 2024, Arm the Auxiliaries. If you are new to the issue, give the above a read and then come back. In addition to the primary concern, the secondary concern is our existing ships that are already armed, but do not have the best mix of weapons to address the new reality—the many cheap, unsophisticated, but deadly swarming threats n…