Raw Intel

Ukraine’s military intelligence confirmed the delivery of a newly developed armed patrol boat to the Main Directorate of Intelligence on January 1, describing it as a New Year’s transfer to support maritime operations. According to a statement released by the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine, the specialized vessel was purchased and handed over by […]View the full article

Lithuanian defense units equipped with unmanned aerial systems from Granta Autonomy demonstrated their capabilities during a high-level visit attended by Frederik X and Queen Mary of Denmark, alongside Gitanas Nausėda and First Lady Diana Nausėdienė, according to a statement released by the Vilnius-based company. The visit took place at formations of the National Defence Volunteers […]View the full article

Iran launched a new wave of ballistic missiles and attack drones toward Dubai on Saturday, triggering explosions across the city and prompting emergency security measures by authorities in the United Arab Emirates, according to official statements and regional reporting. The attacks targeted one of the Middle East’s largest urban and tourism centers, with air-defense systems […]View the full article

The United States Navy has safely undocked the Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Albany (SSN 753) on March 26 at Naval Submarine Base New London. According to the Navy, USS Albany arrived at Submarine Base New London in the summer of 2025 and has since undergone a range of repairs, structural inspections, and upgrades to […]View the full article

I mentioned in passing on Sunday’s Midrats Podcast a graph attributed to Bloomberg that wandered into my feed right before the show. Here it is. It’s not new. It came out a few years ago. I’ve looked for the original article, but no joy. However, it has been picked up in quite a few places with no challenge, so let’s assume it is ligit. The implications here are absolutely critical, as it should impact a lot of the planning assumptions people have been using as they look at a rising China and the moment that it passes the U.S. economically. Not wanting to get head-faked, I looked around for other data that might show similar data. There’s more. That shows the same inflec…

Pete Hegseth, the United States Secretary of War, unveiled the Trump administration’s proposed $1.5 trillion defense budget on Thursday, calling it a “generational down payment” on American national security and framing it as the most ambitious military investment in modern history. The announcement, made via Hegseth’s official social media account and accompanied by a promotional […]View the full article

Sudan’s military appears to have used a Turkish-made HİSAR-A surface-to-air missile during an attempt to repel a drone attack over Khartoum, offering open-source evidence that Turkish-made HİSAR-A air defense missiles may be in use by the Sudanese Armed Forces. Rich Tedd, an OSINT analyst who tracks military hardware through imagery and wreckage identification, published photographs […]View the full article

Turkish defense manufacturer Roketsan conducted a live-fire test of its TAYFUN Block-3 ballistic missile, striking a free-moving, unmanned surface vessel roughly 7 meters (23 feet) long, built to represent a small fishing boat, with a live warhead traveling at hypersonic terminal speed. The company described the hit as achieved with surgical precision, and Turkish officials […]View the full article

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions announced on July 28, 2026, that construction of its Indiana Payload Integration Facility for Hypersonic Systems in Crane, Indiana, has been completed ahead of schedule. The $50 million facility, spanning 68,000 square feet (6,317 sq m), is purpose-built for rapid, affordable preparation of experimental payloads, the sensors, guidance systems, and […]View the full article

Ukraine’s National Guard just started fielding a robot roughly the size of a Humvee, built to haul ammunition into combat zones so soldiers don’t have to. Four units of Ukraine’s National Guard have received the first batch of Protector ground robotic complexes, part of a 100-unit contract funded by the German government, the National Guard […]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

LGM-30G Minuteman III (click to view full) For 50 years, land-based Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) have been part of the US primary strategic deterrence capability, the nuclear-armed triad that also includes submarine-launched ballistic missiles and long range heavy bombers. Although the main target for the US deterrent – the Soviet Union – imploded in 1991, other threats – such as nuclear-armed rogue states and non-state actors – have emerged. To address these new threats, the US Air Force undertook a major ICBM modernization program. To carry out this program, the USAF awarded a 15-year ICBM Prime Integration Contract (F42610-98-C-0001) in 1997 to a tea…

Americas The F-15EX variant of the F-15 series of US Air Force fighter planes, was renamed the Eagle II in a ceremony on Wednesday at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. Lt. Gen. Duke Richardson announced the official designation in a rollout of the plane, which will replace the aging F-15C/D fleet. The US Air Force accepted its first F-15EX from manufacturer Boeing on March 11. The US Air Force (USAF)/Lockheed Martin AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) conventional hypersonic glide weapon prototype failed its first booster vehicle flight test on April 5, according to a statement. The ARRW failed to complete its launch sequence and did not deploy from its Boein…

A little over a decade ago, we lost the last half of one of the great teams of WWII; a local boy and father of USAF Special Operations. If what they did took place in Europe, they would have had a movie made out of it. As it took place in the Burma theater - well - at least we can cover it here. John R. Alison, a World War II fighter pilot who helped lead a daring and unprecedented Allied air invasion of Burma, has died, a son said Wednesday. The retired Air Force major general and former Northrop Corp. executive died of natural causes Monday at his home in Washington, John R. Alison III said. Alison's wartime achievements included seven victories, six in the air, qua…

BZ to our Coast Guard friends. There is a lot of good here in this message. The master message is, "tell our story." Simple but powerful. Having Chiefs - every Chief - helping bring in new people sounds like it should be happening already, but it isn't. Telling "our" story should be a given, but it isn't. All the services are having trouble recruiting, and no small measure of the problem is that our senior leadership from CJCS on down spent a bit too much time the last few years playing socio-political games and telling the public the military is full of racists, sexists, and rapists to a degree that we don't have time to spend telling the great story that represents 99.…

Americas According to news reports in Israel, the United States had approached Israel to release its stockpile of MIM-23 HAWK air defense missiles and transfer them to Ukraine. But the head of the Israeli Defense Ministry’s political-Military Bureau, Dror Shalom, reportedly told the Pentagon that Israel has not changed its policy of not sending weapons […]View the full article

Americas L3Harris won a $85 million deal for Small Form Factor Weapons Attritable Radio Multi-Mode (SWARMM) Family 1 (SF1) radio products and services. Fiscal 2023 research and development funds (Navy) in the amount of $1,000,000 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Work […]View the full article

Americas North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) conducted a series of intercepts involving Russian and Chinese military aircraft operating within the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) on July 24. Two Russian Tu-95MS and two Chinese H-6K aircraft were detected, tracked, and intercepted by NORAD fighter jets from the United States and Canada. While operating in international airspace, their presence within the ADIZ necessitated a response from NORAD which dispatched F-16, F-35 and CF-18 fighter aircraft. Raytheon won a $325 million ceiling increase modification for the StormBreaker® Small Diameter Bomb Increment II (SDB II, GBU-53/B). The modification …

Russia is increasingly fielding its Su-57 Felon stealth fighter jets in combat operations against Ukraine, according to multiple sources, including the aviation-focused community “Sonyashnyk,” which is closely linked to Ukrainian military observers. The reports suggest a shift in both the intensity and sophistication of Su-57 employment. Russian forces are reportedly refining armament options and testing […] The post Russia expands use of Su-57 fighter in Ukraine first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS) has announced a major expansion of its armored vehicle production and support infrastructure in Germany, aiming to manufacture up to 500 Piranha wheeled armored vehicles and 500 Eagle V protected vehicles per year for the German Armed Forces. The announcement was made by Thomas Kauffmann, Vice President of GDELS […] The post GDELS scales up armored vehicle production in Germany first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article