Raw Intel

The top American general in South Korea described the Korean Peninsula as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s perspective, and China’s embassy in Seoul responded by publicly telling him he had crossed the line, injecting a pointed diplomatic confrontation into a week already complicated by the broader state of U.S.-China relations. General […]View the full article

Russian Su-57 stealth fighters have resumed high-tempo cruise missile operations along nearly the entire length of the Ukrainian front, with Ukrainian air raid monitoring services recording more than ten confirmed launch events during May alone, a pace of operations that had been significantly curtailed following a Ukrainian drone strike deep inside Russia earlier this spring. […]View the full article

I’m not sure another nation has the same underlying concern for prisoners of war (POWs) that Americans do. I don’t think anyone else has a POW/MIA flag flying all over the place, even if we don’t have any POWs. As everyone was reminded this spring, we will go to incredible ends to stop our people from being taken prisoner if we have to. We will try to rescue them if we can. Perhaps it is the legacy of the British prison ships of the Revolutionary War, the nightmares of the American Civil War camps, or the memory of how our POWs were treated in Vietnam and Korea. In WWII’s European Theater, conditions were rough, but they were not so bad that we couldn’t make a comedy seri…

More than a dozen countries are now waiting in line to buy the rocket artillery system that rewrote the rules of the war in Ukraine, and the U.S. Army just signed a contract to make sure all of them can keep it running. A $180 million award announced May 28 will put Lockheed Martin in […]View the full article

The U.S. Marine Corps has begun fielding its most heavily armed amphibious vehicle, a tracked fighting machine that can swim from a ship in open ocean, roll onto a hostile beach under fire, and engage enemy targets with a 30mm automatic cannon at ranges that far exceed anything the Corps’ previous amphibious platforms could match. […]View the full article

Canada unveiled a new self-propelled artillery system at its premier defense exhibition this week that can fire a 155mm shell while moving at speed, reload automatically without a gunner exposed outside the vehicle, and hit targets up to 70 km (43 miles) away, all operated by a crew of three from inside an armored hull […]View the full article

A Canadian armored vehicle manufacturer unveiled an image of a new mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle at CANSEC 2026 in Ottawa, revealing the full technical specifications of the Admiral MRAP, a jointly developed platform built in partnership with South African defense firm Panzer following Roshel’s acquisition of the KF411 MRAP design in 2024. The Admiral represents […]View the full article

A Canadian armored vehicle manufacturer and a Singaporean defense engineering giant unveiled a joint concept at Canada’s premier defense exhibition that could fundamentally change how infantry units deliver indirect fire: a light pickup truck carrying a fully automated mortar system that two soldiers can deploy in 15 seconds and stow just as fast before driving […]View the full article

A coalition of European and Ukrainian defense companies launched Dronetex at Odense Airport in Denmark, presenting a set of integrated air defense and counter-drone technologies that its members describe not as future concepts but as systems already operating in real-world conditions, including on active frontlines in Ukraine. The event, organized in partnership with Rasmussen Global, […]View the full article

The U.S. Army is pumping $20 million into expanding AeroVironment’s Huntsville, Alabama facility to accelerate production of Freedom Eagle-1, a new low-cost interceptor missile designed to shoot down drones and aircraft at a price point that makes defending against mass aerial attacks economically viable for the first time. The $20.2 million government investment, announced May […]View the full article

As opposed to taking this moment to celebrate, once again, the success of Italian-Americans in the face of widespread discrimination, it appears the signal went out to dirty up General Christopher LaNeve, USA, acting Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army and by all appearances should be nominated to take that position, pending Senate confirmation. This isn’t something done by some rando anon typing away on X or Substack, but in the pages of The Wall Street Journal by a serious journalist we’ve known for a long time, Lara Seligman and her co-author who, no offense, I don’t know from Adam’s off-ox, Dan Lyon. If you are not familiar with the good General, Lara & Dan’s article …

Sweden announced on May 28 that it will donate 16 Gripen C/D fighter jets to Ukraine and enable the purchase of up to 20 newer Gripen E/F aircraft funded through a 2.5 billion euro ($2.90 billion) EU loan, with long-term ambitions to deliver between 100 and 150 Gripen aircraft to Kyiv and training of Ukrainian […]View the full article

Ukrainian investigators have published their findings from the wreckage of a nuclear-capable Russian ballistic missile that struck an industrial zone near Bila Tserkva on the night of May 23-24, and what they found inside the debris tells a story that undercuts several of the claims Moscow has built around its most heavily promoted weapon. Russia […]View the full article

Armenia publicly displayed Iranian-made air defense systems at its Republic Day parade in Yerevan on May 28, confirming that Tehran has made its first known weapons export of the Majid AD-08 short-range missile system to a foreign military. Around four Majid AD-08 systems were spotted by open-source analysts during parade rehearsals in Yerevan’s Republic Square […]View the full article

Social media video published this week shows a Russian Mi-26 heavy transport helicopter lowering a Pantsir-SMD-E short-range air defense system onto the rooftop of a building in Moscow, a deployment that captures in a single image how profoundly Ukraine’s drone campaign has changed the security calculus inside Russia’s own capital. The Mi-26, the world’s largest […]View the full article

Lithuania will purchase 936 Patria 6×6 armored vehicles from Finland in a landmark procurement approved by the State Defence Council on Wednesday, with President Gitanas Nausėda confirming that 300 of the vehicles are expected to arrive by 2030 and that part of the production process will take place inside Lithuania itself. The decision makes Lithuania […]View the full article

Germany ordered more than 2,000 military transport trucks from Rheinmetall in a contract worth approximately $1.18 billion, the largest single logistics vehicle call-off under a framework agreement the Bundeswehr signed in 2024 to procure up to 6,500 vehicles from Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles. Deliveries will begin in the first half of 2026, with the vast […]View the full article

Germany’s Bundeswehr has placed a second major order for Rheinmetall’s LLM-VarioRay Laser-Light-Module, committing to a six-figure quantity of the weapon-mounted targeting devices for delivery between 2026 and 2032, with the contract value running into several hundred million euros. The call-off, approved by the German parliament’s Budget Committee in December 2025 and formalized under a framework […]View the full article

Elbit Systems announced a $350 million contract on May 28 to modernize main battle tanks for an undisclosed international customer, delivering an upgrade package that replaces the vehicles’ fire control systems, gun and turret drives, communications, and situational awareness systems over four years. The customer’s identity remains confidential, continuing a pattern in Elbit’s recent contract […]View the full article

Rheinmetall UK has introduced Shadow Wolf, a new tactical vehicle competing for the British Army’s Land Mobility Programme, positioning it as a next-generation replacement for the aging light vehicle fleet that British ground forces currently operate across demanding operational environments. The announcement describes a platform built on the same proven architecture as the Caracal tactical […]View the full article