Raw Intel

Finnish-made Sisu GTP 4×4 armored vehicles have appeared in the inventory of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces, a development that raises immediate questions about how they got there — because Finland has never publicly announced transferring them. Ukrainian military historian Andriy Kharuk first reported the appearance of the Sisu GTP 4×4 in Ukrainian Special Operations Forces […]View the full article

Spain unveiled the industrial blueprint for its next generation of fighter pilot training on April 28, 2026, as an Airbus-led consortium presented the full programme structure for the Spanish Air and Space Force’s new Integrated Combat Training System — a contract awarded in December 2025 that will retire the country’s aging F-5 fleet and replace […]View the full article

It is well past time that we had a frigate SITREP, specifically the gray-hulled version of the Legend-class Cutter we are going to build for our Navy. No reason to rehash my concerns and assumptions—click the frigate hypertext above if you need to catch up, but…let me just say…though I’m glad she’s on the way and we’ll find good use for her, I hope Flight I is a short run. I know hope is not a plan, but back in December, I had this little bit of hope: I suspect that already there is work being done on a Flight II, which will incorporate the multi-mission capability of the patrol frigate proposed over a dozen years ago … While looking over the FY27 budget request, it appea…

Last week we started things off with a discussion of the 18 battle force and 16 non-battle force ships. Let’s look back at that. It may have taken nine years, but there was a post of mine from 2017 that finally got a smile: On the list of "unsexy but important" are many items from icebreakers, to command ships, to hospital ships, that every POM cycle get left on the cutting room floor by the gaggle of cats chasing laser pointers we have in charge of building our fleet. When you look at the list from last Monday and the news from last summer about icebreakers, we seemed to have one ship that still is not getting the investment it needs—command ships. We’re running out of t…

Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate has published a detailed technical breakdown of a previously obscure Russian cruise missile developed specifically for the Su-57 stealth fighter, revealing not only the weapon’s architecture and capabilities but the extensive network of foreign components — American, Chinese, Swiss, Japanese, German, Taiwanese, and Irish — that made it possible to build. […]View the full article

Elbit Systems inaugurated a new unmanned aerial systems production facility in Chitila, Romania on April 27, 2026 — and marked the occasion by flying the Watchkeeper XR over Romanian skies for the first time, turning a ribbon-cutting into a live capability demonstration for Romanian government and military officials watching from the ground. The Chitila facility […]View the full article

The U.S. Navy commissioned its newest fast-attack submarine, USS Idaho, at Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut on April 25, 2026 — adding a boat built for undersea warfare, surveillance, and special operations to a fleet that its leadership describes as operating forward every hour of every day. The ceremony at Groton brought […]View the full article

Oshkosh Defense is rolling two significant platforms onto the Modern Day Marine exhibition floor this week — including an autonomous ground vehicle armed with anti-ship missiles that represents one of the Marine Corps’ most consequential doctrinal shifts in a generation. The company will exhibit at Modern Day Marine from April 28 through 30, 2026, showcasing […]View the full article

SummaryThis episode features Dr. Colin Dueck, with Mark and Sal, discussing the historical and strategic importance of U.S. policy towards Latin America, the evolution of the Monroe Doctrine, and current challenges and opportunities in the hemisphere. Discussion is centered on how U.S. foreign policy can shape the future of the region amid great power competition. You can listen at this link, subscribe to the podcast, or listen via the Spotify widget below. Show LinksWhy the Monroe Doctrine Still Matters, Colin Dueck Dr. Colin Dueck’s AEI page China’s Growing Influence in Latin America, Council on Foreign Relations Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America The b…

A California defense startup brought its football-sized throw-and-fly drone to a NATO base in Romania and walked away with what its CEO described as massive interest from more than 500 senior military representatives — a significant moment for a company that formally unveiled its STUD system less than a month ago and is already racing […]View the full article

A California company better known for building antennas that connect aircraft to satellites has quietly entered one of the most competitive markets in defense — and at the U.S. Army’s recent Cross Domain Fires Concept Focused Warfighting Experiment, its mobile High Power Microwave system showed up mounted on a pickup truck, cued by Echodyne’s EchoShield […]View the full article

A Russian military helicopter went down near Wabaria in the Gao region of Mali on April 25, confirmed by Russian sources, as fighters from the Azawad Liberation Front and al-Qaeda-linked JNIM launched the largest coordinated offensive in the country in years — striking simultaneously at the capital Bamako, the military stronghold of Kati, and the […]View the full article

U.S. Special Operations Command published a broad industry solicitation on Friday, calling on companies, nonprofits, and research organizations to join a new technology development initiative aimed at pushing cutting-edge capabilities into the hands of special operations forces — with a particular focus on the maritime domain and the multi-domain fight that USSOCOM believes defines the […]View the full article

General Dynamics Land Systems quietly crossed a significant threshold this week, pulling in a $13.5 million contract modification that pushed its Abrams technical support contract past the $1 billion mark — a milestone that underscores just how much the U.S. Army spends keeping its primary battle tank operationally ready. Army Contracting Command at Detroit Arsenal […]View the full article

The U.S. Marine Corps awarded a $9.5 million contract to a British defense company to procure compact radio frequency jammers capable of neutralizing small drones — and the urgency language attached to the award signals that this is not routine procurement. Marine Corps System Command in Quantico, Virginia, awarded the $9,515,508 firm-fixed-price and cost reimbursement […]View the full article

A small California defense company just landed a $105 million Navy contract to push its Blackbeard hypersonic weapon through live fire testing in the Indo-Pacific — and the Pentagon is betting on a startup to deliver one of the most strategically critical weapon types in modern warfare. Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in Lakehurst, […]View the full article

The Defence Blog is publishing this statement to document a pattern of conduct by EOS Defense Systems USA, Inc. and its parent company, Electro Optic Systems (ASX: EOS), that we consider a direct affront to press freedom and independent defence journalism. On April 21, 2026, Electro Optic Systems published a press release announcing the demonstration […]View the full article

Poland is running operational tests of acoustic reconnaissance systems and electronic warfare equipment at the Central Air Force Proving Ground in Ustka, as the country’s Ministry of National Defense accelerates technology evaluation under its Tarcza Wschód — Shield East — border defense program. Seven acoustic reconnaissance solutions are currently undergoing testing at the Ustka range. […]View the full article

So, what did you do after high school? How long have you had to wait for your full story to be understood? I offer to you Teddy Sheean; On December 1, 1942, Sheean was a gunner’s mate on the corvette HMAS Armidale, when it came under attack during an operation near Japanese-occupied Timor, now the country of Timor-Leste across the Timor Sea from the Australian city of Darwin. ... ...Japanese warplanes swooped in on the Armidale. The Australian corvette was hit by two torpedoes launched by the Japanese planes and quickly began to sink, according to the AWM. An order was given to abandon ship. “Sheean was wounded and, rather than abandon ship, he strapped himself to his Oer…

Estonian-based Frankenburg Technologies has released footage of its Mark I missile undergoing ground test firings in an air-to-air system configuration. The test campaign focuses on risk reduction across three specific technical challenges: rail and pylon configuration, safe separation from the launch platform, and the missile’s transition to stable flight after release. All three are critical […]View the full article