Raw Intel

There are certain people who, due to the quality of their work, the content of their character, and their downright excellence and dedication to their chosen field, influence generations of people. In a way, they become a benchmark, a reference point, an ideal. In naval history, for the last few generations of naval officers, one name has risen to the top of everyone’s list, Dr. Craig L. Symonds. Dr. Symonds passed away earlier this week. Craig L. Symonds, beloved scholar, writer, professor, husband, father, and grandfather, passed away at home on Tuesday, October 13th from complications due to cancer. He was 79. Craig was born and raised in Anaheim CA on December 31st, 1…

Shield AI has released new details on how its Hivemind autonomy software steered two Taiwanese uncrewed boats through a joint patrol off southern Taiwan, fusing radar and ship-tracking data into a single picture and switching the pair from patrol to escort duty without an operator directing each move. The U.S. company described the July demonstration […]View the full article

The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) arrived at Yokosuka, Japan, on Oct. 16, 2026, with the cruiser USS Chosin (CG 65) and the destroyer USS Decatur (DDG 73), as the strike group prepares for the U.S.-Japan exercise Keen Sword. The three ships of Carrier Strike Group 9 pulled into Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka, […]View the full article

A newly fielded U.S. Army Typhon missile battery assigned to Europe has fired its first Tomahawk cruise missile, launching it during a live-fire at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California, on Sept. 28, 2026, in what the service said was the third Typhon launch within the continental United States. The Mid-Range Capability Battery of […]View the full article

The U.S. Marine Corps has turned a 2nd Marine Division artillery battalion at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, into its first medium-range missile battalion, built around a launcher that fires Naval Strike Missiles at enemy ships from land. 1st Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment was formally re-designated on Oct. 9, 2026, under the service’s Force Design 2030 […]View the full article

The U.S. Army has asked industry for a lighter version of its planned autonomous missile launcher and wants working prototypes ready to fire live munitions in Australia during the Talisman Sabre 2027 exercise in August 2027. The service released a request for solutions briefs for the Common Autonomous Multi-Domain Launcher-Lite, or CAML-Lite, on Oct. 15. […]View the full article

Taiwan is paying General Atomics Aeronautical Systems $38.8 million to keep its new MQ-9B SkyGuardian drones flying, under a contractor logistics support deal that runs through August 2029, the U.S. Department of War said. The award, announced on Oct. 15 in the Pentagon’s daily contract list and signed on Oct. 1, covers sustainment services and […]View the full article

An unnamed foreign government is paying Lockheed Martin another $18.8 million to develop and integrate a version of the F-35 fighter jet built to its own specifications, the U.S. Department of War said on Oct. 15. The Pentagon’s daily contract announcement said the modification to an existing contract with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth, […]View the full article

The Netherlands and France held the first meeting of a new bilateral Nuclear Steering Group on Oct. 14, opening high-level talks on how French nuclear forces and European conventional forces could work together to deter attacks on Europe, the Dutch Ministry of Defence said. The ministry announced the meeting in a statement on Oct. 15, […]View the full article

Lockheed Martin plans to create 6,000 jobs across the United States, including 2,000 in Texas, as it expands munitions production. At the center of the plan is a $300 million expansion of its Grand Prairie missile parts plant, where defense manufacturing startup Hadrian will install an automated machining cell. The company announced the plan on […]View the full article

The British Army has dropped plans for armored mortar, repair and recovery, and anti-tank overwatch versions of its Boxer wheeled armored vehicle, and has ruled out using Boxer in the armored cavalry role, Defence Minister Luke Pollard told Parliament. Pollard, the minister for defence readiness and industry, gave the answers in response to written questions […]View the full article

Saab has presented the first GlobalEye airborne early warning and control aircraft built for the Swedish Air Force, a business jet-based radar plane that will replace the two older surveillance aircraft Sweden gave to Ukraine. The company unveiled the aircraft on Oct. 15. The jet will now go through a phase of testing and verification […]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

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon’s advanced research arm, has awarded the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory a contract worth up to $499.8 million to keep the lab working on DARPA engineering, development and research projects through October 2031. The U.S. Department of War announced the award on Oct. 14. Under the […]View the full article

Türkiye’s state-owned defense company MKE has delivered three more E-ZPT electric armored personnel carriers to the Turkish Land Forces Command, adding to a small fleet of rebuilt M113s that run on battery power instead of a diesel engine alone. MKE announced the handover in a post on X on Oct. 15, describing the E-ZPT as […]View the full article

Türkiye has signed a supply contract with missile maker Roketsan for land-based CAKIR cruise missile systems for the Turkish Land Forces, Haluk Görgün, head of the country’s Presidency of Defense Industries, announced on Oct. 15. Görgün said in a post on X that the contract is meant to strengthen the army’s long-range strike capability, and […]View the full article

There she is…just look at her—a B-52G in all her Cold War 1980s livery that says, “Yes, my belly is bright white, because I’m going to nuke you and don’t want to get all hot afterwards” glory. For generations before us, and for generations to come, whenever a military competitor posed a challenge to our nation, you were usually one or two bullet points away from someone asking, “Hey, can we configure a B-52 to do that?” As one finds with platforms with built-in flexibility and square footage, the answer is usually “yes.” By the time the 1970s were over, the U.S. Navy realized that it didn’t just have a Soviet submarine problem, it had a significant Soviet surface fleet to…

Satellite imagery of Russia’s Borisoglebsk air base shows that a Ukrainian Neptune missile strike destroyed four Su-34 fighter-bombers and badly damaged two more, backing up the Ukrainian Navy’s claim that it hit six of the jets on the night of Oct. 14–15. The images, published by the Ukrainian aviation monitoring channel AviVector, compare the airfield […]View the full article

Ukraine’s Support Forces, the branch that runs the military’s engineering and demining units, have received another batch of equipment from the international Demining Capability Coalition led by Lithuania and Iceland, including Ukrainian-built Inguar-3 mine-resistant armored vehicles. The Support Forces Command announced the handover on Oct. 15 but did not list the full contents of the […]View the full article

Aurelius Systems is showing its Archimedes autonomous laser weapon mounted on an American Rheinmetall unmanned ground vehicle at the Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting in Washington this week, where the two companies are pitching mobile laser defense against small drones to U.S. Army buyers. The San Francisco-based startup said in a post on […]View the full article