Raw Intel

Though I blend in well with the populations of Europe who have ready access to the North Sea, my bloodline has been unconnected to Europe for four centuries. I am an unalloyed North American, yet as our culture is an offshoot of Europe, I keep an eye on the goings on there. You have to as Europe continues to be a source of conflict. Their waring ethno-states generate more national security problems than can be consumed internally. That manages to bring North America in to their scrimmages. Beyond and more impactful today than military , Europe is a source for trends that impact cultural, social, economic, and military change throughout the globe. China is trying to c…

Americas L3Harris Interstate Electronics won a $15.1 million for TRIDENT II (D5) Flight Test Instrumentation systems support. This contract award also benefits a foreign military sale to the United Kingdom. Work is expected to be completed by February 8, 2027. This contract is being awarded on a sole source basis under 10 US Code 3204(a)(1) […]View the full article

Everyone should just let the system work out. There is a lot of emotion on all sides, but don’t assume the worst of your fellow neighbors. There remains a lot of slop and imperfection in our voting system. If you are unhappy with what your state does, then change it. Florida did over the last two decades after the 2000 debacle, your state can too. It appears that there was no big wave or endorsement of either side, but hopefully we’ll have an answer by the end of the week at latest … worst case by Christmas. What we will have is an incredibly divided government – as close to a 51/49-49/51 nation as you can get. That can be a feature or a bug, but what it isn’t is a m…

Americas Marines assigned to Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force – Crisis Response – Central Command (SPMAGTF-CR-CC) practice using the Drone Buster at an undisclosed location. This hand-held jammer has the ability to force a drone to descend or return to its operator. The first Biden administration’s defense budget asks for $715 billion for fiscal 2022, including a $5.5 billion increase in research and development accounts and an $8 billion cut in procurement. This signals a new focus on new technologies at the expense of older programs. Middle East & Africa ULAQ Armed Unmanned Surface Vehicle (AUSV), developed by Turkish companies Meteksan Defense and ARE…

Will someone please save us from our experts? Question everyone. Defer to no one. If you have learned nothing the last two decades, at least know this; our elite aren’t. Our best institutions do not produce the best product. Credentialism is the last refuge of the incompetent. You have to assume these are well meaning people, but building off of yesterday’s post – let this week be a lesson to everyone that our self-selecting elites are like the Bourbons, “They had learned nothing and forgotten nothing.” I’m not sure I can do more but quote from the latest article in FP by By Charli Carpenter, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and director of Huma…

I really can't stop thinking about how smart this is. A dirty little secret is that one of the largest deltas out there in the maritime sector between what we know what will be needed in wartime vs. what we have invested in at peace is mine warfare. Since WWII more US Navy ships have been damaged by mines than any other weapon, and yet from money to promotion prospects, MIW is always put in the dusty corner. Without even diving in to the capability mire of defensive MIW - even more neglected is offensive MIW. How do you create a capability for this for the USA and her allies when it is almost non-existant? Yes, I have been a critic of mission modules the last few decades…

Americas Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group ships are heading to the Mediterranean Sea for exercise Neptune Strike ’22, the Pentagon said. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby says the deployment is not a response to increased tensions with Russia. He stressed that planning for Neptune Strike ’22 began in 2020. “The exercise itself is not designed against the kinds of scenarios that might happen with respect to Ukraine. It really is a NATO maritime exercise to test … really a wide range of maritime capabilities that we want to make sure we continue to improve.” The US Army Contracting Command Issued a Sources Sought notification for an organic small unit-level Lethal Miniatur…

Americas A second F-15EX has arrived at Eglin Air Force Base and the aircraft will be flown by the 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron. This is also the final F-15EX delivery to the US Air Force for FY21. The F-15EX will make its exercise debut at Northern Edge 2021. The two F-15EXs and testers from the 40th Flight Test Squadron and 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron will work together in integrated developmental and operational test, effectively expediting the test timeline. Northrop Grumman won a $2 billion deal for sustaining engineering support and program management support services for the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) propulsion subsystem. The deal with a…

Americas Textron Systems won a $15.8 million contract for a one-time mid-life upgrade engineering change proposal for the advanced boresight equipment (ABE) system to modernize and bring 100 fielded domestic and Foreign Military Sales units up to the current commercial off the shelf configuration. Additionally, this contract procures depot repair and upgrade support for the ABE currently installed on AH-1Z, AH-1W and MH-60R combat aircraft, ashore and afloat. Depot repair and upgrade support includes tear down and evaluation of ABE, as well as restoration, modification, and procurement of spare parts in support of ABE component and assembly repairs and upgrades. Work will…

We have all seen this brief every decade or so for decades. You can almost use the same sales pitch as before, just move the clauses around. We know what is wanted - but it is hard. Instead of saying that, we try to trick everyone in to thinking there is a new idea out there. There isn't ... and every time "we" pretend there is, we lose more credibility. The latest example from the, “This is Why DOD Can’t Have Nice Things” is the superbly mockable “Joint All-Domain Command and Control" (JADC2) concept. It is almost insulting in that is seems to be written by people who either themselves don’t know what has been going on in this area for the last few decades, or they …

As the D-Day invasion was ongoing, the German Navy sortied what they could to try to drive the allies back across the channel. The most feared were the French based U-boats. Please read the whole thing, but here is a nice summary of one of the under-told stories of WWII, Coastal Command. On night. One crew. Two U-boats. Fullbore. “G-George” droned on through the night. Men drank coffee from thermos flasks, kept the chatter to a minimum, scanned the endless sea and began to feel the numbing weariness set in that came with these long over-water patrols. But adrenalin shot through their bloodstreams like amphetamine just after 2 a.m. when Foster announced on the intercom…

Unlike Germany and Italy, Japan has been much slower to get back in to the military game outside its borders. Much of that derives from the constitutional restrictions we put in their new government after WWII. With that are the habits generations of Japanese leaders have developed when looking at this area and are comfortable with. Slowly, that is changing. Especially as memories fade of Japanese occupation, and a sober appreciation of the very real threat from China, each year brings more details. Here's the latest move; The government is considering exporting the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s destroyer to Indonesia, according to informed sources. Negotiations …

Americas Over the weekend, Israel’s Defense Ministry completed the delivery of Iron Dome air defense systems to the US Army under an agreement between the two countries, providing the second of two batteries. The systems will be employed in the defense of US troops against a variety of ballistic and aerial threats. The United States and Israel signed the agreement in August 2019 for the provision of two Iron Dome batteries. The first was delivered in September and is already being prepared for operational use. The second was also delivered in accordance with the project schedule. The delivery was made by the Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO), part of the Defense …

Americas Northrop Grumman won a $15 million contract modification, which provides additional labor and material to incorporate production engineering change proposals that modify MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft system production assets to an Integrated Functional Capability 4.0 multiple intelligence configuration for the Navy and the government of Australia. Work will take place in California, New York, North Dakotaand various locations within the continental. Expected completion will be in April 2025 The Air Force contracted Lockheed Martin with $450 million for Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) production support. The contract will provide lifecycle support …

While the world's eyes are focused on Russia and Ukraine - and probably will for the foreseeable future - the People's Republic of China is not standing still. How can China use this moment to her advantage? What possible lessons can China take away from the Ukraine conflict so far, and perhaps more importantly, how should it impact how we and our allies look at China? Returning to Midrats to discuss these and related questions this Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern will be our guest Dean Cheng. Dean is the Senior Research Fellow for Chinese political and security affairs at the Asia Studies Center of The Heritage Foundation. He specializes in Chinese military and foreign polic…

Have you watched the “build a little, test a little, learn a lot” progress of SpaceX over the last few years? Like what Tesla has been able to do? Been impressed? Wondered why the USN hasn’t been able to bring a successful new warship online in two decades? Well … via Blake Stilwell at military.com we have a few rules from Elon Musk in a 2018 email that … well … I’ll let you read them; ...here are a few productivity recommendations: – Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get worse over time. Please get (sic) of all large meetings, unless you’re certain they are providing value to the whole audience, in which case keep them…

Americas F-35 fighter plane engines are in short supply, with the solution months away, causing the Defense Department to reduce its schedule of exhibition flights and to start planning for a shortage as soon as 2022. The Defense Department’s F-35 office has advised that about five to six percent of the US. F-35 fleet could be without useable engines by 2022, and up to 20 percent of the plane’s fleet could be sidelined by 2025. According to Defense News, the F-135 Heavy Maintenance Center, located at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, has been unable to process engines for repairs and maintenance, and catching up will take months. According to Lockheed Martin, the company …

Americas Serco won a $22 million contract action in support of the Program Executive Office (PEO) “SHIPS” PMS 400D mission to design, build, outfit and test all DDG 51 guided-missile destroyer-class ships, increasing the design performance capability of the DDG 51 class ships. The Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) class guided missile destroyers provide a wide range of warfighting capabilities in multi-threat air, surface and subsurface environments. The US Navy currently has seven new DDG 51 Flight III destroyers under construction, Work will take place in Washington DC. Estimated completion date is September 8, 2022. JF Taylor won an $8 million deal for F-35 high fidelity crewsta…

Americas Airbus US Space & Defense won a $14.3 million deal for UH-72 Lakota helicopter contractor logistics support and engineering services. The UH-72 Lakota is the US Army’s multi-mission helicopter, which acts as the key platform for the US Army, Navy and National Guard in their mission of protecting and serving communities across America. It combines operational capability, reliability and affordability, fulfilling all the Army’s requirements for speed, range, endurance and overall performance. Work will take place in Texas. Estimated completion date is December 31, 2026. The US Navy’s Airborne Command & Control and Logistics Wing (ACCLOGWING) achieved a new…

We should savor the victories when they come our way. Elections matter, and the average American does not want to have sectarianism, division, and hate injected in to their children using their money. As we've said here for 18-years, those promoting division based on race, creed, color, and other immutable characteristics have no place in a diverse 21st Century Republic. Elections mean things because for some reason, it can be hard to find leaders with the moral courage to do the right thing. Governor DeSantis on Tuesday announced a legislative proposal to eliminate programs, courses, and bureaucracies dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and critical rac…