Raw Intel

Pyka announced on April 27 that its DropShip autonomous aircraft completed its maiden flight, a milestone that the Alameda, California-based company said sets a new benchmark for rapid development of advanced autonomous systems. DropShip is a Group 3+ autonomous aircraft built for contested logistics and multi-mission operations. It carries a maximum takeoff weight of 1,400 […]View the full article

The U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll visited U.S. Army Garrison Ansbach in Germany on April 30, where commanders from the 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade and 12th Combat Aviation Brigade briefed him on counter-unmanned aerial systems tested and implemented over the past year, and among the systems on display was the Merops AS-3 Surveyor counter-drone […]View the full article

An Australian-built submarine drone just crossed the Pacific. C2 Robotics commissioned and christened its Speartooth Large Uncrewed Undersea Vehicle in a formal ceremony marking the first delivery of the platform to the United States. Rather than the traditional bottle of champagne swung by a dignitary, Speartooth was christened by a robotic arm — with a […]View the full article

Green Berets from 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) remotely launched and controlled unmanned surface vessels during Exercise Balikatan 2026, using them to deliver shaped charges against a target vessel off the western coast of Itbayat, Philippines, on April 24 — and the drone boats they operated bore a striking resemblance to one of the most […]View the full article

KIHOMAC’s founder and CEO Ki Ho Kang took to social media on Friday to share flight test footage of Agami, the company’s fixed-wing drone developed under Project Liberty, a program specifically designed to demonstrate that military-grade UAVs can be produced at wartime scale without the bottlenecks that have plagued American drone manufacturing for years. The […]View the full article

U.S. President Donald Trump just gave Allen Control Systems the most public endorsement a defense startup could ask for. Speaking at the White House, Trump praised the Austin-based company’s Bullfrog autonomous weapon station, calling it “that new very special machine gun that knocks them out of the air like flies.” Allen Control Systems posted the […]View the full article

Britain’s newest drone-killing missile just proved itself in the desert, according to the latest UK government report. Cambridge Aerospace’s Skyhammer interceptor missiles and launchers successfully completed trials in Jordan less than two weeks after the UK Ministry of Defence signed a multi-million-pound contract with the veteran-led startup. The tests took place at one of Deep […]View the full article

Askari Defense has been selected as a semifinalist in the U.S. Army’s xTech|Adaptive Strike competition, and the Atlanta-based company is heading to the National Training Center to put its Rift Alpha interceptor drone through its paces alongside the soldiers it was designed to protect. The selection marks a concrete step forward for a small firm […]View the full article

Sierra Nevada Company’s BRAWLR air defense system made a notable public appearance at Exercise FLEX 2026, when senior U.S. military commanders, including the four-star head of U.S. Southern Command, got a close look at the weapon system integrated aboard a Textron Systems’ multi-mission uncrewed surface vessel. The visit brought together Marine Gen. Francis L. Donovan, […]View the full article

With the Falkland Islands War back in the news, thought ti would be fun to bring back a FbF from 2017 on a nice, tidy OP by our British friends. A great story via our friends at ThinkDefence about an exceptional side-show to The Falkland Island war. Pebble Island lies to the north of West Falkland and in 1982, its 25 inhabitants were mainly involved with tending 25,000 sheep. Its small airstrip was subject to a daring raid by the SAS. It did have an airstrip, though, or more accurately, four, three of grass, and the other on the beach. On the 24th of April, Naval Air Station Calderon (as it was called) was established there. ... HMS Hermes was detached along with HMS Gla…

The United States Army has delivered its first Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV) equipped with a 30mm cannon to the 1st Cavalry Division, marking the initial fielding of a more heavily armed variant of the platform, the division confirmed in a recent announcement. The first new combat vehicles have been received by the division’s units as […]View the full article

Norway’s first Leopard 2A8 NO main battle tanks arrived at Rena camp in Østerdalen on April 30, 2026. The new main battle tanks came equipped with Trophy active protection systems, making them among the most survivable tanks fielded by any NATO nation. Two of the 54 Leopard 2A8 NO tanks Norway has ordered from German […]View the full article

A Utah defense technology company has launched an autonomous ground vehicle that carries 2,400 pounds of payload, travels 280 miles on a single charge, and exports 38 kilowatts of power to charge drones, run directed energy weapons, and sustain forward command posts. It’s all without a human on board. Hypercraft, based in Provo, Utah, announced […]View the full article

There is a point an officer’s career when they take a double take, and ask the question, “Why is that amphib commanded by an aviator?” The excuses one hears…well…here’s a change, and it makes sense. For LHA/LHD, LPD, and LSD, welcome to full-time SWO-dom. You have to pay attention to a letter from the CNO that comes out of the gate as direct and as clear as: Amphibious ship readiness and operational availability for years have been below Navy standards of acceptable levels. There are a lot of parallel threads in this letter that ask great questions from what it takes to have a ship ready for war, to the questionable “fleet up” concept, to…what looks like…what does your a…

General Dynamics European Land Systems has successfully demonstrated an acoustic drone detection system on the ASCOD infantry fighting vehicle. This is a passive, vehicle-integrated sensor that locates FPV attack drones in real time without emitting any signal that an enemy could detect. The system, called CASTLE, was developed in cooperation with Microflown AVISA and demonstrated […]View the full article

An Israeli AI defense company has cleared a major operational hurdle for its drone detection system. Axon Vision, listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under the ticker AXN and headquartered in Israel, announced on April 30, 2026, the successful completion of operational demonstrations and evaluation activities for its EDGE ClearSky drone detection system. The […]View the full article

A California antenna company has officially announced a High Power Microwave weapon that can fry drone electronics without firing a round, and it is already small enough to mount on an Infantry Squad Vehicle. ThinKom Solutions, headquartered in Hawthorne, California, announced on April 30, 2026, the self-funded development of Alecto, a mobile High Power Microwave […]View the full article

The German Bundeswehr successfully tested AI-enabled drone swarms last week, with European defense technology company STARK demonstrating its loitering munition and command and control software in a live exercise that integrated reconnaissance and strike capabilities into a single operational sequence. STARK participated in the trials with its Virtus loitering munition and Minerva command and control […]View the full article

U.S. Air Force Special Warfare Airmen tested a commercial off-the-shelf kinetic counter-drone interceptor in Arizona earlier this month. The proof-of-concept event brought together Airmen from the 48th Rescue Squadron, 7th Air Support Operations Squadron, and 316th Civil Engineer Squadron Explosive Ordnance Disposal at the Arizona Army National Guard Florence Military Reservation. The exercise integrated a […]View the full article

Lithuania is buying a second HIMARS battery, expanding a procurement agreement with the United States that now covers additional launchers, munitions, training, and logistics support — and pushing the combined value of both batteries to approximately $778 million. The Lithuanian Ministry of National Defense and the U.S. Defense Resources Agency signed the contract amendment covering […]View the full article