Raw Intel

The U.S. Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin a $73.9 million contract modification to procure, test and deliver Indra Rigel radar electronic countermeasures systems for four Multi-Mission Surface Combatant ships being built for Saudi Arabia, according to a Department of War contract announcement. The award modifies an existing contract and will be funded entirely through Foreign […]View the full article

The U.S. Army has awarded Elroy Air a $46 million contract to develop an autonomous, hybrid-electric VTOL aircraft for modular cargo delivery, according to a Department of War contract announcement. The Phase III Small Business Innovation Research award covers development of a Group IV unmanned aircraft system, a Pentagon classification for larger drones weighing more […]View the full article

It is easy to forget how long the China Doves and the China Lobby—wait, I repeat myself—held absolute control of power and influence over the full spectrum of the American political nomenklatura. Bush-41 and Bush-43 were both supporters of a rising China. The Clinton Administration was LITERALLY the Coffee Klatch Era. Obama “welcomed China’s rise” … and everyone this century has been too distracted to slow the creeping influence and control of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from the South China Sea to the Southwest Pacific. Only in the last decade has there been a real shift where the China Doves have lost the dominant position in most of the national security nom…

Latvian unmanned systems manufacturer NEWT21 has completed an EU-funded project to move its FOG and RAY unmanned surface vehicles from prototype to production-ready status, the company announced on Tuesday. The project, formally titled “Modernisation of an Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) and Preparation of the Production Process,” carried the reference number 1.2.1.1/3/25/A/005. NEWT21 said the work […]View the full article

Australia and Japan have completed the first successful field trials of a jointly developed high-energy laser system, called Boobook, at test sites in South Australia, Australia’s Department of Defence announced Tuesday. The trials took place at the Cultana Training Area and the Defence Science and Technology Group’s Edinburgh facility. Boobook is the first co-development project […]View the full article

Marine Group Boat Works has delivered a new Range Support Vessel to the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division for operations on the Point Mugu Sea Range off Southern California, the San Diego-based shipbuilder announced Monday. The aluminum vessel was built at MGBW’s Chula Vista, California, shipyard to support weapons testing and evaluation on the […]View the full article

Thirteen Democratic senators sent Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth a letter Monday demanding written answers about conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, whose deployment has stretched past 250 days with more than 200 of those days without a port call. The letter was led by Sens. Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin, both Michigan Democrats, and signed […]View the full article

Japan’s Coast Guard confirmed a South Korean survey ship, the Tamhae 3, was conducting an unauthorized marine survey inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone west of the Takeshima islets on August 7, prompting formal protests from Tokyo, Japan’s Foreign Ministry and Coast Guard said. A Japan Coast Guard patrol vessel spotted the Tamhae 3 at around […]View the full article

Germany’s first F-35A, designated MG-01, has moved into Aircraft Final Finishes at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth, Texas, production facility, where it will receive paint and a stealth coating before continuing toward delivery to the Luftwaffe, the company said Monday. The aircraft entered final assembly in March, when its wing, forward, center and aft fuselage sections […]View the full article

Russia’s Northern Machine-Building Enterprise sent the nuclear-powered submarine Khabarovsk to sea for factory trials on August 17, the vessel’s first time underway since construction began in 2014, according to Russian defense-monitoring channels. The submarine, built under Project 09851 at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk, is designed to carry the Poseidon (NATO name: KANYON) nuclear-powered underwater […]View the full article

A Patriot air defense battery inside Ukraine has sat with empty launch tubes for weeks, its crew unable to fire because the country has nearly exhausted its stock of interceptor missiles, CNN reported after gaining rare access to the system. CNN was the first outlet allowed to visit an operational Patriot unit on Ukrainian territory, […]View the full article

The U.S. Army will evaluate the Hunter WOLF unmanned ground vehicle with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Polk, Louisiana, on August 20, the vehicle’s manufacturer, BLADE, formerly known as HDT, announced Monday. The event is a Transition in Contact exercise, in which soldiers operate a system in realistic field conditions to test how it […]View the full article

The U.S. Department of War has awarded NODA AI a $100 million contract to scale the company’s autonomous mission command software across the Joint Force, the Austin-based company announced Monday. The award builds on a smaller contract NODA won in July, when the department awarded the company $10 million to develop MAESTRO, orchestration software designed […]View the full article

Raytheon has won a $22.9 billion, seven-year contract to accelerate production of Tomahawk cruise missiles for the U.S. Navy, the RTX business announced Monday. The award was made under the Department of War’s Arsenal of Freedom initiative and follows framework agreements Raytheon signed with the department in February. Those earlier agreements set a target of […]View the full article

As most regulars here know, on the 13th, President Trump issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM), which was known in previous administrations as a National Security Memorandum. Most are aware of it because almost immediately there was much gnashing of teeth, rending of clothes, and general knee-bent running about concerning the future USS Doris Miller (CVN 81) having its EMALS replaced with steam and returning to hydraulics over a lot of the problematic electrical motors used in various elevators, etc. We’ll return to that in a bit—and it is but a small fraction of the story—but let’s make sure everyone understands what an NSPM is. It operates with the …

Voyager Technologies said domestic production of tactical solid rocket motors is not keeping pace with Department of War demand, and detailed how the company is scaling manufacturing to close that gap. Solid rocket motors combine fuel and oxidizer in a pressure vessel with a single nozzle exit point, producing thrust as soon as they are […]View the full article

Honeywell Aerospace tested an integrated counter-drone system against simulated aerial threats during EXTiC 26-2, a technology experimentation event run by U.S. Central Command. Honeywell served as lead systems integrator for the demonstration, pairing sensors and effectors with the company’s AI-driven counter-UAS software to detect, track and mitigate simulated drones while defending a simulated airfield. “As […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force has designated a new turbofan engine built by GE Aerospace and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions as the F143-ZZ-100 and awarded the companies a contract to develop it as a second engine option for the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, the companies announced. The engine, previously known as the GEK800, generates about […]View the full article

North Korea-linked hacking groups launched 99 state-sponsored cyberattacks in the first half of 2026, with South Korea absorbing 19 of them, the most of any country, the Korea Times reported, citing a new threat intelligence report from cybersecurity firm S2W. The figure makes North Korea the most active state-backed threat actor globally over the period, […]View the full article

What a great weekend for a good old fashioned Midrats Podcast Maritime Melee! Petty domestic political posturing has decided to broach a whole series of our favorite subjects for the last 17 years: carrier shortages, neglect of our auxiliaries in our Combat Logistics Force, leadership at sea, ships adrift…enough for a whole series of shows, but Mark and I promise to keep today’s show to an hour. Join us LIVE from 5--6 PM this Sunday at this link. Jump in the live show chat and share your observations or direct a question to us. DON’T MISS IT! If you’re reading this after the show, check back on the Substack page late Sunday or right before your Monday commute, and we’ll h…