Raw Intel

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

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

NATO plans to buy six portable kits that can jam satellite navigation signals and the radio links drones use for control and video, so its trainers can expose ships, aircrews and drone operators to realistic interference during exercises. Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, the alliance command in Norfolk, Virginia, that leads NATO’s training and modernization […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory wants industry to build and fly a combined-cycle rotating detonation rocket engine, a type of propulsion that runs on a continuous chain of explosions, as a step toward cheap, high-speed weapons that could be built in large numbers. The lab’s Rocket Propulsion Division at Edwards Air Force Base, California, […]View the full article

Cummings Aerospace has fired two of its 3D-printed Hellhound S3 jet-powered drones from a launcher mounted on a utility vehicle, with a single operator using one handheld controller to send both on separate autonomous missions, the company said. The test took place on Aug. 25, 2026, at the Pendleton UAS Range in Oregon, where an […]View the full article

This is a Monday where those of us on the Front Porch will just nod our heads a bit and grin in that way that only the confidently smug can smile. You know one of my regular statements, and it does not matter if we are talking aircraft, surface ships, or ground forces (I give a pass to submarines): When war comes, you will quickly realize that not only do you not have enough guns, but the ones you do have are too small in caliber. Let’s go back 18 years or so for a couple of quotes from, well, me. First, from April 09, 2008’s post, It always comes back to the gun..., People always try to get rid of the gun - but the cold hard facts of the reality of thousands of years of…

The U.S. Army has placed a second order for the FD-1, a drone interceptor that a single soldier can set up and launch in under two minutes, from Florida-based Mountain Horse Solutions, less than a year after the system first came to the service’s attention. The order was issued on Oct. 8 by the U.S. […]View the full article

France has ordered several hundred more MX-10 DAMOCLES kamikaze drones from KNDS France and Delair, and the quadcopter munition has won its first export customer, Luxembourg, which signed a contract worth just over 1.6 million euros ($1.8 million) for an initial capability. The French Ministry of the Armed Forces activated an optional tranche of its […]View the full article

Russian forces have released video of an FPV drone striking one of Ukraine’s largest uncrewed ground vehicles, a Protector, while it was hauling logs near Orikhiv in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. The footage, shared by Russian channels, shows the drone hitting the vehicle’s cargo bed. The front of the Protector, where its control and communications equipment […]View the full article

Russian state defense conglomerate Rostec has described its T-80BVM main battle tank as an “assassin,” claiming the gas turbine-powered vehicle is quiet and well camouflaged enough to make fast, unnoticed flanking moves on the battlefield. In a promotional statement, Rostec said the modernized tank can play several roles: a “steel battering ram” that breaks through […]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

Israel’s Elbit Systems has won a contract worth about $235 million to supply PULS rocket artillery launchers and EXTRA-MR precision-guided rockets to an unnamed European country, along with additional rocket artillery platforms and integrated logistics support, the company said. Elbit did not identify the customer or say how many launchers and rockets the deal covers, […]View the full article

A U.S. Army soldier has been spotted assembling a Stork reconnaissance drone, built by Czech-Ukrainian company U&C UAS, during a major training exercise in Germany, showing the battle-tested design in American hands. The U.S. Army released the image from Combined Resolve 27-01 at the Hohenfels Training Area, part of the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in […]View the full article

Video published online shows Ukraine using an interceptor version of its Bars jet-powered drone to destroy a Russian Geran-5, the first footage of the Ukrainian missile-drone being used against Russia’s own jet-powered attack drones. The clip, shared by the Ukrainian military, shows the interceptor launched from a ground launcher before it strikes the Geran-5. The […]View the full article

The United States is now sending Ukraine only 12 Patriot air defense interceptors a month, about a quarter of what Kyiv received under President Joe Biden, and is holding back some missiles Ukraine has already paid for, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. Zelenskyy made the comments in an interview with Bloomberg in Kyiv published on Oct. […]View the full article

Denmark is buying more Naval Strike Missiles from Norway’s Kongsberg to arm the coastal defense system it acquired last year, under a contract worth about 400 million Norwegian kroner ($42.4 million). Kongsberg announced the deal on Oct. 19, 2026, without saying how many missiles Denmark is getting. The sale is structured as a government-to-government agreement […]View the full article

The trees are showing their fall colors; we’re inside a month from a mid-term election; European cities are burning…but the rest of the world keeps churning from the tip of South America to the steppes of Eurasia. Mark and I will try to hit the wave tops this Sunday from 5-6 p.m. Eastern in our ever-popular Free-for-All format. The show’s live chat will be up and running if there’s a topic that’s a bee in your natsec bonnet, you’d like us to cover…otherwise, grab a drink, and find a chair and enjoy the conversation. You can join LIVE at this link. If you’re reading this after the show, just check the Substack page later on Sunday for the podcast upload. Don’t miss it! Lea…

Footage released by Yemen’s Houthis appears to show a Saudi National Guard AH-6i helicopter being struck by a loitering munition over Saudi Arabia’s Najran province, after the Saudi-led coalition said the aircraft crashed because of a technical malfunction, killing its two crew members. Coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki said on Oct. 18 that the […]View the full article

Slovenian turret maker Valhalla Turrets is preparing a new version of its Skythunder air defense system armed with General Dynamics Land Systems’ 20 mm M197 Gatling gun and 70 mm laser-guided rockets, designed to shoot down drones and protect critical infrastructure. The company announced the system as “coming soon” in a social media post and […]View the full article

Ukraine’s Magura uncrewed surface vessels, the drone boats that have sunk Russian warships in the Black Sea, took part in a U.S. Army exercise in Michigan, where they were used as floating launch pads for aerial drones. The boats appeared during Bayonet Quest 26, which the 7th Infantry Division, part of Multi-Domain Command-Pacific, ran across […]View the full article