Raw Intel

Serbia has showcased its most advanced main battle tank to date, the M-84AS3, during the “Strength of Unity” military parade. The event highlighted Belgrade’s ongoing efforts to modernize its armored forces while maintaining a complex balance between aspirations for European Union membership and defense cooperation with partners ranging from France and Israel to China and […] The post Serbia shows new M-84AS3 tank with active protection system first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Americas Boeing won a $116 million hybrid deal for Apache logistics support. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Mesa, Arizona, with an estimated completion date of April 30, 2025. Fiscal 2024 Army working capital funds in the amount of $116,703,697 were obligated at the time of the […]View the full article

At the end of the day, when we are all called home, how would you want to be remembered? As a naval officer, what legacy do you wish to leave? Few mortals know the day and time, but if you are looking for a benchmark, you would be hard pressed not to look to Captain Paul Rinn, USN and say, "That. Him. There." As skipper of the frigate Samuel B. Roberts, Capt. Rinn took his crew into the war-torn Persian Gulf where they joined other U.S. warships protecting Kuwaiti tankers that had been reflagged as American vessels during the Iran-Iraq War. Returning from a convoy on April 14, the frigate struck an Iranian contact mine, which blew a massive hole in the hull. The explosi…

Americas The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded three contracts this week to design a nuclear thermal propulsion system that will operate above low Earth orbit in 2025. General Atomics, Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin are the prime contractors for the deal, according to a DARPA new release. The Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program has the potential to achieve rapid maneuver in space, which has been challenging because current electric and chemical space propulsion systems have drawbacks in thrust-to-weight and propellent efficiency, respectively, according to the agency. MBDA will equip the Royal Canadian Navy’s new Canadian S…

Americas The US Navy and Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) are wrapping up a five-year joint effort to develop high-power microwave technology capable of knocking out adversary electronics. The High-Powered Joint Electromagnetic Non-Kinetic Strike (HiJENKS) weapon is undergoing a two-month test at Naval Air Station China Lake, California. The Royal Canadian Navy will have to continue relying on allies and a private firm to refuel its ships at seas after a project to build a new fleet of supply vessels was hit with more delays. The service was supposed to receive its first joint support ship next year, but that delivery is delayed because of pandemic-related work issue…

Americas The US Navy awarded Adams Communication and Engineering Technology with a $37.4 million deal, which provides for non-recurring and recurring efforts required to fabricate, assemble, and support prototyping, system integration, and installation of depot modifications associated with engineering changes to H-53 aircraft for the Navy, Marine Corps and Foreign Military Sales customers. Work will take place in California, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, Arizona, Japan, Korea and Bahrain. Expected completion will be in November 2027. Raytheon won a $23.4 million deal for the procurement of AEGIS Modernization kits for Navy guided-missile destroyers and allied nations.…

This week, navalists everywhere are having fun with the comments by Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth at Center for Strategic and International Studies back on December 1st. First of all ... let's go to the map room. What? Not clear enough? Let me help. Over on twitter, I promised a thorough fisking of her comments ... so here we go. "A more powerful Chinese military helps to underwrite Beijing's strategy to achieve the 'great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation' by 2049 — to include development of the PLA [People's Liberation Army] into a 'world class military' by midcentury," "China's focus on modernizing its military capabilities will strengthen its ability …

For those no longer on active duty or civilian employee of DOD, you haven’t had a chance yet to received your “extremism training.” Thanks to the Salamander underground, we now have a copy for everyone. On a scale of 1 to 10 where a “1” is a solid, well done presentation, and a “10” is an intellectually sloppy, ham-fisted, neo-zampolit led struggle session, I will give this a 6 … edging towards a 7. It was a huge lost opportunity. Officially, this was in response to the storming of the Capitol on 06 JAN. For those who did not catch my comments at the time, you can read them here and here. There would not have been a standdown without that event, but a broader net was th…

As I mentioned on Sunday's Midrats, I've been thinking a lot recently about the implications mid-century of this graph; Along with the larger reasons that India and the United States should further grow their relationship for both security reasons and the simple fact we are both republics, reasonable people would think that American diplomatic and other parts of our government would be giving this relationship the attention is clearly needs. Well, you know my opinion of our State Department. Some related thoughts from our friend Cleo Paskal; The United States sends mixed messages to India.On the one hand, Washington highlighted the importance of India’s rise and lea…

The People's Liberation Army Navy has her capital ships underway and under construction. The Japanese Navy continues her plans to grow in a way not seen in a century, and the lessons on the other side of the Eurasian landmass in Ukraine are shuffling long held assumptions concerning food, fuel, demographics, and economics. We're going to cover this and more Sunday from noon to 1pm Eastern with returning 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 policy, and has written extensively on Chinese military doctrine, technolog…

On paper and in theory, one would think that a nation who love-hates NATO only slightly less than she love-hates the USA, and is always looking for an opportunity to - now that the UK yeet'd itself out of the EU - nudge Germany out of the way so she can be seen as THE leader of Europe, would take the lead in supporting Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian War. Of course, I'm talking about France; If France wants to lead Europe to a new era of military self-reliance, how come its contribution to the war effort in Ukraine is so small? That is the awkward question being posed by some of the country's top strategic thinkers, who are pushing President Emmanuel Macron to make an urg…

Americas Bell Textron Inc. has delivered the 189th and final AH-1Z Viper attack helicopter for the US Marine Corps at Amarillo Assembly Center in Texas, concluding the Program of Record for the latest H-1 platforms. With the delivery of 160 UH-1Y Venom choppers in 2018, the marine corps now has 349 H-1s in service. The Bell AH-1Z Viper was developed to replace the older two-bladed AH-1W Super Cobra. Meanwhile, the UH-1Y replaced the UH-1N Twin Huey constructed specifically for the US Army. The US Navy is developing a torpedo-tube launch and recovery system for nuclear attack submarine-launched underwater drones. Submarines currently require a dry deck shelter and divers …

One thing we touched on during last Sunday's Midrats was the growing unease that the Russo-Ukrainian War would not end before the stockpiles of preferred weapons and the ammunition they use runs out. There has been discussions about both sides of the war burning through their stockpiles at unsustainable rates while the war seems to be expanding. The Russians are having issues even with their assumed relatively deep bunkers - but much of that is bottlenecked by an early 20th Century logistics train on a 21st Century battlefield. Their problems keeping their army equipped is not the more interesting story. The Ukrainians would have run out of weapons and ammunition months a…

The KHAN ballistic missile system, developed by Türkiye’s Roketsan, was spotted at an Indonesian Army installation in East Kalimantan. The missile platform, identified as the ITBM-600, was seen at the Raipur A base of the 18th Field Artillery Battalion (Yonarmed 18/Buritkang Tenggarong) on August 1, 2025. This was first reported by the defense-focused platform Sahabat […] The post Indonesia receives first KHAN ballistic missile system first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Did you catch Biden's speech where he introduced him nomination for Secretary of Defense? In it, if you look at a certain angle, you can see an outline of what you can expect from him - broadly - for national security priorities. I have quotes and details over at USNIBlog. Come by and give it a read and tell me what you think. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=yIl2AUoC8zA http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=qj6IDK7rITs http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=jU_INXPF9fs:1AVju-Le09Y:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=jU_INXPF9fs:1AVju-Le09Y:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=jU_INXPF9f…

Americas Northrop Grumman Aerospace won a $53.7 million deal for the RQ-4B Global Hawk. The contract provides for repair services for “common items” for both the RQ-4 GH and MQ-4C Triton. It will support reparable national stock numbers (NSNs) which encompass the air vehicle, multiple sensor packages, mission control element and launch and recovery element. In addition, this effort includes support engineering services covered under the Engineering Delegation Authority (namely Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages projects) for NSNs transferred to and under the management of the 407th Supply Chain Management Squadron. Northrop Grumman successfully com…

Americas Raytheon proposed an upgrade to the main sensor of the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS). The company is offering the GhostEye MR radar for the air defense missile system. “With the addition of GhostEye MR, we extend battlespace coverage to the full kinematic envelope, or reachable area, of the AMRAAM?ER effector,” said Lindsay Viana, director of ground?based air defense on Raytheon Missiles & Defense’s Requirements and Capabilities team. Defense News reports that Lockheed Martin is evaluating how its Joint Air-to-Ground Missile can be configured for mobile, short-range air defense. “It’s a concept we have. We think it will have applic…

Another DivThu that is somewhere between a Rorschach test and "it speaks for itself." Like so many of these "DEI" conferences, I would first have you note that they in no way actually reflect either "what the fleet looks like" or what the nation "looks like" - two otherwise meaningless measures of effectiveness that they demand of everyone but rarely meet themselves. They are some of the least diverse and inclusive gatherings you can find. Though they can be found almost anywhere leaching funds from various location in DOD, the most cringy are usually found at the service academies where institutional capture or fear lets their branch of the diversity industry pretty much…

Are you aware that NATO nations have already been attacked by Russia? Well, their merchant ships in the Black Sea have. If you know your European history, you know the seriousness of this ... yet, it is out of most people's scan. Links and thoughts over at USNIBlog. Come by and give it a read. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=yIl2AUoC8zA http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=qj6IDK7rITs http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=lFjwNzdVUz8:w0kBNOsXTLM:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=lFjwNzdVUz8:w0kBNOsXTLM:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=lFjwNzdVUz8:w0kBNOsXTLM:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds…

Ukraine’s largest private weapons manufacturer, Ukrainian Armor, has begun mass production of new VOLS military buggies in response to battlefield demand for a low-cost, versatile vehicle designed for logistics and frontline support. According to a report from Oboronka, the company identified a gap in the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ equipment compared to Russian units, which employ […] The post Ukraine’s private company begins mass production of VOLS buggy first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article