Raw Intel

Leonardo DRS has successfully integrated its Maritime Mission Equipment Package onto an autonomous unmanned surface vessel, delivering a new counter-drone capability designed to detect, track, identify, and defeat aerial unmanned threats in the maritime domain. The company announced the integration ahead of its showcase at the Navy League Sea-Air-Space Symposium, where the M-MEP will be […]View the full article

Israeli underwater defense company DSIT Solutions unveiled a layered Underwater Domain Awareness concept at CNE 2026, introducing for the first time its BlueShield counter-UUV sonar alongside an integrated architecture designed to give naval commanders a continuous, AI-supported picture of everything moving beneath the surface from diver-range distances to the approaches of major ports and straits. […]View the full article

The United States government has approved the sale of seven surplus Marine Corps amphibious assault vehicles to Italy in a $30.6 million deal that will help Rome maintain the ability to put troops ashore from the sea as NATO faces growing pressure to expand its expeditionary capabilities. The U.S. Department of State notified Congress of […]View the full article

The U.S. Navy has told the defense industry it wants an alternative to its own primary radar-killing missile, and it wants companies capable of building as many as 600 of them every year. The Naval Air Systems Command, the branch of the Navy responsible for developing and buying naval aircraft and weapons, published a Request […]View the full article

The nuclear missiles sitting in underground silos across the American heartland run on hardware that is more than five decades old, and keeping the parts flowing to maintain them received a $12 million boost in software support. Carahsoft, a government technology reseller based in Reston, Virginia, has been awarded a firm-fixed-price contract worth up to […]View the full article

General Dynamics Land Systems delivered its XM30 Wolf infantry fighting vehicle to the U.S. Army at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, last Friday, according to a post by Geoffrey Norman, a retired Army brigadier general now working on the GDLS team. Norman, who spent 30 years in the Army as a tanker and cavalryman, joined the […]View the full article

China’s spaceplane has spent the past three months releasing, retrieving, and then recapturing the same small satellite in orbit, according to a timeline astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell posted Sept. 23 based on U.S. Space Force tracking data. It’s the clearest look yet at what the vehicle, known unofficially as Shenlong, has been doing during its fourth […]View the full article

Russia launched more than 850 Shahed attack drones at Ukraine in roughly a day and a half, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Oct. 15, an onslaught that came as a new speed cap on SpaceX’s Starlink network curtailed the interceptor drones Ukraine uses to shoot them down. Zelenskyy said the count covered the period from […]View the full article

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $10.9 million contract for Advanced Raptor Enhancement & Sustainment (ARES) for the F-22 Program Office. This contract vehicle provides support for the necessary supplies and services to sustain and modernize the F-22 Raptor, including modernization hardware kit procurement and services such as upgrades, enhancements and fixes, as well as performance-based logistics services. The F-22A Raptor is an advanced tactical fighter aircraft. Lockheed Martin received a $7 billion five-year contract to maintain the USAF fleet of F-22 Raptor stealth fighters, in December 2019. Work under the new deal will take place in Texas. Estimated completion d…

Americas Northrop Grumman won a $10.5 million contract modification, which adds scope to procure 55 Link 16 A-kits, to include 26 each for AH-1Z and UH-1Y production aircraft; two spares for AH-1Z aircraft; and one spare for UH-1Y aircraft, as well as one A-kit test stand for the Navy. The Naval Air Systems Command ist the contracting activity. The United States Marine Corps replaced the two-bladed AH-1W Super Cobra with the AH-1Z Viper, which features a new, four-bladed composite rotor system, performance-matched transmission, four-bladed tail rotor, upgraded landing gear and a fully integrated glass cockpit. The AH-1Z is equipped with an integrated advanced fire control…

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $17.6 million modification, which will exercise options for ship integration and test of the Aegis Weapon System (AWS) for AWS baselines through Advanced Capability Build (ACB) 16. Work will take place in New Jersey, Virginia, California, Washington DC, Mississippi, Florida and Maine. Estimated completion will be by May 2023. Austal USA won a $11.4 million contract modification to exercise an option for littoral combat ship (LCS) industrial post-delivery availability support for USS Augusta (LCS 34). The LCS main purpose is to take up operations such as patrolling, port visits, anti-piracy, and partnership-building exercises to free up high…

Do I ever tire of DivThu? Yes, every Thursday I tire of it ... but we've been at it so long, why not? Do I get tired of the topic? Well, sure. Heck, almost 13-years ago I tired of seeing higher education organizations - always claiming poverty - spending millions of dollars a year, especially at the service academies, doing nothing but promoting the division of young men and woman on the basis of race and ethnicity. ...but ... especially in the last few years, there has been a wonderfully blossoming of the understanding of this cancer in higher education that bleeds out in to the general culture. That glimmer of hope and the fact that we seem to be getting traction is, re…

Americas Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., part of Lockheed Martin, has received a $232.4 million contract modification to procure additional long-lead time materials for the CH-53K King Stallion helicopters. This modification is for Lot 10 full-rate production of the aircraft for the US Marine Corps. The work will be carried out at Sikorsky’s facility in Stratford, Connecticut, and is set to be completed by March 20262. The Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, Maryland, is overseeing the contract and will use fiscal year 2025 aircraft procurement funds for this project. This contract ensures that the Marine Corps’ next-generation heavy-lift helicopter program remains on s…

It’s time to catch up on the latest issues on the maritime and national security front and get out of the summer heat. Midrats goes LIVE today at 5pm Eastern in our free-for-all format. Hop in the show chat room and offer your topics and question…or observations of the topics we’ll discuss. You can join live at this link, but if you are reading this after the show, just check this Substack post later Sunday when I’ll update this page with the podcast. COME JOIN US! Leave a comment Share This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. View the full article

Israel-based Aero-Sentinel has developed the G2 Premium unmanned aerial vehicle, a reconnaissance drone designed for extended endurance, near-silent operation, and advanced algorithmic tracking for defense and security missions. According to Aero-Sentinel, the G2 Premium is engineered to meet the demands of covert surveillance in contested environments. The system combines 80 minutes of flight endurance with […] The post Aero-Sentinel’s G2 Premium drone redefines covert reconnaissance first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Raytheon, an RTX business, has delivered its 500th Evolved SeaSparrow Missile (ESSM) Block 2 to the U.S. Navy, marking a major milestone in one of NATO’s most enduring air defense programs. The company says it is preparing to nearly double production by mid-2026 as global demand for advanced naval air defense capabilities continues to grow. […] The post Raytheon hits 500 ESSM Block 2 missile deliveries first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Russia’s state-owned defense conglomerate Rostec said it has delivered another batch of Su-35S multirole fighters to the country’s armed forces, continuing a steady flow of aircraft to operational units despite reported wartime losses. According to a statement from the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), part of Rostec, the Su-35S fighters are designed to secure air superiority […]View the full article

China appears to be expanding its experimentation with directed-energy weapons at sea, after new images circulating on Chinese social media showed the LY-1 laser system mounted on the open deck of a civilian roll-on/roll-off (Ro-Ro) vessel. The photos depict a camouflaged carrier vehicle strapped to the ship’s deck with heavy chains, topped by a large […]View the full article

India on Dec. 29 conducted the first successful flight test of the Pinaka Long Range Guided Rocket, validating a maximum strike range of 120 kilometers during a trial at the Integrated Test Range in Chandipur, according to an official statement issued in New Delhi. The maiden test of the Pinaka Long Range Guided Rocket, designated […]View the full article

The United States Air Force has begun moving combat search and rescue (CSAR) aircraft from the United States toward Europe and the Middle East, according to flight activity reported by intelligence analyst Oliver Alexander. Alexander reported that two HC-130J Combat King II aircraft departed from Patrick Space Force Base in Florida, while a C-17 Globemaster […]View the full article