Raw Intel

A Ukrainian military specialist has published photographs of a downed Russian reconnaissance drone allegedly equipped with a Starlink satellite terminal and a locally manufactured onboard systems. The images, shared by Serhiy Beskrestnov—also known by the callsign “Serhiy Flesh”—provide further evidence that Russia may be using civilian satellite internet services to conduct battlefield surveillance. “Now I […]View the full article

Russia will equip a new batch of T-90M main battle tanks with the Arena-M active protection system featuring an “anti-drone” mode, a Russian Defense Ministry officer said during a broadcast on Russia‑24. The officer said work on updating the Arena-M software was completed in 2025, adding a dedicated sub-mode designed to intercept drones as they […]View the full article

When we started talking about the cost of the new proposed battleship with CBO’s Eric Labs on the latest Midrats Podcast, I knew the topic I wanted to start this week with. First of all, let’s look back at the marker I put down right before the announcement. For planning purposes (and budgeting), assume it will wind up costing at least 2/3 of a Ford CVN w/o her CVW. OK, let’s look at the costs of the Ford Class CVN. Some of the sources I see include the $5 billion of development cost added on to the cost of a bit more than $13 billion for a total of $18 billion for Hull-1 of the Ford CVN, with the follow-on Kennedy, Miller, etc coming in at $14/15 billion. Let’s call it $…

Explosions were reported across multiple Iranian cities, including the capital Tehran, after the United States and Israel carried out coordinated military strikes early Saturday, according to official statements and media reports. United States President Donald Trump described the operation as a “massive and ongoing” military campaign aimed at countering threats posed by Iran. The strikes […]View the full article

Ukraine’s 1st Separate Center of the Unmanned Systems Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine released footage showing a strike on Russian drone operators and launch systems identified as “Gerbera.” The unit said the attack was conducted before the drones could be launched toward Ukrainian cities. The strike appears aimed at intercepting drone attacks at […]View the full article

The core technical problem IARPA is trying to solve is straightforward in concept but formidable in execution: build drone engines and motors out of materials that perform reliably during a mission, then break down on their own afterward, leaving little or no physical trace. Current drone propulsion components — turbine blades, motor housings, combustion chambers, […]View the full article

A Ukrainian software company has developed an AI-powered drone detection system that runs entirely offline on standard consumer hardware, detects targets as small as four pixels at distances up to 2.5 kilometers depending on optics, and automatically alerts military units through messengers with photographs and coordinates within milliseconds of identifying a threat. The system, called […]View the full article

As U.S. forces confront a growing wave of low-cost drone attacks that have exposed a fundamental flaw in how America stocks and prices its air defense arsenal, the Army has tapped a rocket technology startup to scale a more affordable answer: a laser-guided version of one of the most proven rockets in the American inventory. […]View the full article

Elite American and French forces spent a week in the desert heat of East Africa calling in live airstrikes together, sharpening the exact skill that decides whether a bomb lands on an enemy position or a friendly one. U.S. Air Force tactical air control party members and joint terminal attack controllers assigned to the East […]View the full article

The Russian United Shipbuilding Corporation’s Sevmash shipyard held a ceremony to move the multi-purpose nuclear-powered submarine Ulyanovsk out of its construction hall, marking the completion of the vessel’s slipway construction phase, according to a statement from the shipyard. Ulyanovsk is the sixth submarine built in Russia’s modernized Yasen-M class, known formally as Project 885M, a […]View the full article

A commercial supply ship the length of a football field just spent nine days getting a robot brain installed, and then drove itself across open water in Hawaii with the U.S. Army watching. The ship is called the HOS Resolution, a 257-foot (78-meter) offshore supply vessel normally used to haul equipment and supplies to oil […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force has taken delivery of its first two Collaborative Combat Aircraft, uncrewed jets built to fly alongside fighter pilots, at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, the Department of the Air Force said Sept. 24. Anduril delivered its YFQ-44A Fury to the base’s Experimental Operations Unit in August, and General Atomics followed […]View the full article

The U.S. Navy has flown a drone through mission tasks and landed it on a pitching ship at sea with GPS jammed or unavailable and no pilot at the controls, using only the aircraft’s own cameras, motion sensors and onboard software, the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division said. NAWCAD, the U.S. Navy’s main aviation […]View the full article

I'll let you guess which three. More than half the women quizzed (54%) said failure to put the seat down was their man's most irritating trait. Leaving wet towels on the bed was the second most frustrating habit (23%), followed by a propensity to leave dirty laundry on the floor (15%). Other annoyances cited included snoring, doing a bad job at a household chore for the fear of being asked to do it again, not replacing toilet roll, leaving toenail clippings and loose change around the home, drinking straight from the milk bottle and refusing to ask for directions when lost. View the full article

Americas Raytheon won a $38.8 million contract modification for the production of two Fire Control System MK 99 ship sets and the associated technical engineering services in support of the Aegis Combat System on DDG-51 class ships. The DDG 51 Class are the Arleigh Burke class destroyers in service with the US Navy. They are multi-mission warships with offensive and defensive capability in multi-threat air, surface, and subsurface environments. The USS Arleigh Burke (DDG 51), the first ship and namesake of the class, was commissioned on July 4, 1991. Since then 62 more ships have been commissioned. The MK-99 Fire Control System (FCS) is a major component of the AEGIS Comb…

Americas Universal Propulsion Company won a $10.9 million contract for the manufacture of up to 5,000 cartridge initiators and thrusters used in V-22 and CV-22 aircraft. This contract includes a five-year base period with no options. The V-22 Osprey is a joint-service, medium-lift, multimission tilt-rotor aircraft developed by Boeing and Bell Helicopters. Boeing is responsible for the fuselage, landing gear, avionics, electrical and hydraulic systems, performance and flying qualities. Work will take place in California. Estimated completion will be by March 2026. The XQ-58A flew its sixth flight on March 26 and this time the drone opened its weapons bay door in-flight fo…

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $37 million contract modification, which adds scope to procure special tooling and test equipment for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter production line in support of second source canopy tooling and other known capacity gaps for the Navy, Marines, Air Force and non-Department of Defense (DOD) participants. Work will take place in California, Texas, Australia and New Jersey. Estimated completion will be in August 2023. BAE Systems won a $117 million contract from Lockheed Martin to produce next-generation missile seekers for the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM). The seeker technology enables LRASM to detect and engage specific m…

Americas Raytheon won a $9 million contract for the procurement of nine active electronically scanned array radar system APG-79 weapon repairable assemblies in support of the F/A-18 aircraft. The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is a twin-engine, supersonic, all-weather, carrier-capable, multirole combat jet, designed as both a fighter and attack aircraft. Work will take place in Mississippi. The deal contains no options and work is expected to begin October 2022 and be completed by January 2024. Six F-16s from South Carolina Air National Guard’s 169th Fighter Wing are in Colombia for exercise Relampago VII. The purpose of this exercise is to provide the Colombian Air For…

Americas The United States will no longer pursue a plan to deploy the US Army’s Strategic Mid-Range Fires (SMRF) System in Japan. The US Indo-Pacific Command had proposed under its Pacific Deterrence Initiative to deploy these intermediate-range missiles to the first island chain as a conventional deterrent to China. Japan’s recent decision to acquire long-range […]View the full article

Americas The US Army’s chief of staff on Friday grounded all pilots who are not involved in critical missions until they complete required training, after four helicopters crashed in a matter of weeks. Two AH-64 Apache helicopters collided in Alaska on Thursday, killing three soldiers and injuring a fourth, while two Black Hawks crashed in […]View the full article