Raw Intel

Lockheed Martin has received an $850.4 million Navy contract modification to continue work on the Trident II (D5) Life Extension 2 program. The award, announced April 15, goes to Lockheed Martin Space of Titusville, Florida, under a cost-plus-incentive-fee modification to an existing contract. It covers advanced design and development work for the Strategic Systems Programs’ […]View the full article

Raytheon is moving its AMRAAM Extended Range missile into full-rate production under a new $234.8 million contract from the Department of War. The award gives Raytheon Co. of Tucson, Arizona, a not-to-exceed $234,757,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee undefinitized contract action to complete the work needed for the production transition. The contract runs through April 13, 2030, with all […]View the full article

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Wednesday that allies remain committed to keeping military aid flowing to Ukraine, voicing confidence that additional support can be funded through the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List, or PURL, before the end of the year. Speaking after a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Berlin on April 15, […]View the full article

Ukraine’s Air Force intercepted the vast majority of a 703-target barrage on April 16, but missiles and drones still broke through — killing civilians in Kyiv, Odesa, and Dnipro in the third consecutive day of large-scale Russian aerial bombardment. Ukraine’s Air Force reported Thursday morning that Russian forces conducted two waves of combined aerial attacks […]View the full article

In this episode, Sal discusses recent naval activities, U.S. Iran tensions, and the strategic importance of maritime power. The conversation emphasizes the significance of maritime and aerospace capabilities in national security and offers insights into geopolitical choke points, regional alliances, and the future of U.S. military readiness. Key topics:T… Read more View the full article

The United Kingdom’s National Armaments Director Group has awarded a £879 million (approximately $1.1 billion) three-year contract to Boeing Defence UK to maintain and support the British Army’s AH-64E Apache attack helicopters and the Royal Air Force’s Chinook HC heavy-lift helicopters. The contract covers maintenance, technical services, logistical support, and — critically for the Apache […]View the full article

The U.S. Army gave its most ambitious rotorcraft program a name to match its ambitions on April 15, officially designating Bell Textron’s MV-75 tiltrotor aircraft the Cheyenne II during the Army Aviation Association of America’s annual Warfighting Summit in Nashville, Tennessee. The naming honors two federally recognized nations: the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of Montana and […]View the full article

On Monday, we discussed the announcement earlier this month of 34 ships and the $65.8 billion coming Navy’s way to buy them. What I’ve been trying to get a firm grasp on are what those 18 battle force ships and 16 non-battle force ships will be. I thought by now I’d find a “Ref. A” for those numbers, but no joy. So, I reached out to a real professional and friend to the blog (who will remain on the DL) for some help. Trust me on this—if anyone can figure it out, he can. Even he admits that it’s hard to find the numbers. The biggest issue is that the only budget document for ships we can get ahold of right now is the Department of War’s Procurement Programs (P-1) Brief for…

A powerful explosion was reported at the Samara Kommunar plant in Samara, Russia, a defense-industrial facility directly involved in the production of explosives and the filling of munitions, according to local sources and open-source intelligence communities monitoring activity in the region. The blast was reported at the Federal State Enterprise Samarsky Zavod Kommunar, a plant […]View the full article

Britain’s Ministry of Defence announced on April 15, 2026, that it will deliver at least 120,000 drones to Ukraine this year in the largest drone package the United Kingdom has ever provided to Kyiv. Deliveries have already begun this month, the ministry confirmed, with the package spanning long-range strike drones, intelligence and reconnaissance platforms, logistics […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force’s B-21 Raider stealth bomber has successfully conducted aerial refueling with a KC-135 Stratotanker as part of its ongoing flight test campaign, the Department of the Air Force announced on April 14, 2026. The milestone, achieved during the program’s rigorous test and evaluation program at Edwards Air Force Base, California, was presented […]View the full article

A Japanese defense technology startup has begun offering a domestically produced fixed-wing drone, with a unit cost of approximately 70,000 yen — roughly $450 at current exchange rates. JISDA, formally known as Japan Integrated Security Design Agency and headquartered in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward, announced the availability of the ACM-01 “Shiraha” on April 14, 2026, positioning […]View the full article

The Missile Defense Agency awarded Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation a $475 million modification to an existing prototype agreement on April 3, 2026, accelerating development of the Glide Phase Interceptor — the United States’ primary program to defeat hypersonic glide vehicles in flight. The modification pushes the total value of the agreement from $832 million to […]View the full article

Dynetics, a subsidiary of the American defense giant Leidos, has been awarded a $617 million contract to produce Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment Two systems for the U.S. Army, the Department of War announced on April 14, 2026. The award covers the fiscal year 2026 production buy of one of the Army’s most closely watched […]View the full article

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared in an interview that Ukraine is facing the worst possible shortage of interceptor missiles for its Patriot air defense batteries, adding that the ongoing war involving Iran is compounding the problem by diverting weapons away from the Ukrainian front. Speaking to Germany’s ZDF network, Zelenskyy delivered one of his starkest […]View the full article

The Royal Navy has launched a formal Request for Information (RFI) seeking unmanned aerial systems capable of clearing and monitoring maritime weapons test ranges, Navy Command Headquarters announced on April 14, 2026. The technical scope disclosed in the RFI published on the United Kingdom’s Defence Sourcing Portal and Contracts Finder is expansive. The Royal Navy […]View the full article

Raytheon, an RTX business, has signed a $3.7 billion contract to supply Patriot GEM-T interceptors for Ukraine, the company announced. The agreement covers the delivery of Guidance Enhanced Missile-Tactical interceptors, one of the Patriot missile variants used by both U.S. operators and international customers. Raytheon said the missiles are intended to strengthen Ukraine’s ability to […]View the full article

Redwire has secured more than $20 million in awards during the first quarter of fiscal year 2026 to supply its Stalker unmanned aircraft systems to the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps’ small tactical drone office, the company said. The order includes the Marine Corps’ first purchase of Redwire’s Advanced Navigation version of the Stalker Block […]View the full article

Satellite images published Tuesday provide the first visual confirmation that the April 11 fire at Russia’s Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aviation Plant — known as KnAAZ — caused significant structural damage to the workshop responsible for manufacturing the composite airframe components of the Su-57 Felon stealth fighter. The images, released by the OSINT group Exilenova+, show multiple roof […]View the full article

As of Monday night, after a bunch of OSIT accounts said that the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) had passed through Gibraltar, more and more reports indicate the contrary, she and her escorts are off Namibia, about to head around the Cape of Good Hope instead. It was kind of fun watching the competing reports. There are quite a few reasons to do this. We’ll find out the reason this time at some point, but don’t get lost in the details. It isn’t nothing. As usual, The Other Sal went to the chartroom to make sure everyone understood the state of play. Stop for a second—there is a gift here if we are willing to accept it. Remember one of the fundamentals we like to revisit her…