Raw Intel

The Department of the Navy awarded an $86.2 million contract to L3Harris Technologies on Jan. 30 for the Precision Attack Strike Munition, a new weapon intended to enhance the lethality and survivability of U.S. Marine Corps rotary-wing aircraft. The Precision Attack Strike Munition, or PASM, will provide Marine Corps AH-1Z attack helicopters with a longer-range, […]View the full article

The United States Army plans to spend $250 million to procure 50 Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicles (AMPVs) to replenish combat vehicles transferred to Ukraine, according to a Pentagon reconciliation spending plan recently submitted to Congress. The planned contract award is expected before April and is intended to restore armored vehicle inventories after large-scale security assistance deliveries. […]View the full article

Having trouble keeping up with the world around you? Head swirling with too much? You’re not alone. Good news…we’ll get you all caught up and set right. Returning to the Midrats Podcast this Sunday LIVE from 5-6 PM Eastern will be Blake Herzinger. You can listen live at this link. If you’re reading this after the show, refresh the Substack page later Sunday evening and the podcast will be uploaded and linked. Leave a comment Share This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. View the full article

The U.S. Army procured ten Valinor Condor unmanned aerial vehicles for flight testing and evaluation at Arcane Thunder 26, according to an announcement by Valinor Enterprises published Tuesday. UAS pilots from U.S. Army Multi-Domain Task Force – Europe got hands-on time with the system during the exercise, evaluating its capabilities including high-altitude balloon deployment and […]View the full article

The U.S. Army has awarded Northrop Grumman a $325.5 million contract to develop a high-altitude long-endurance drone specifically designed to collect test data from high-speed weapons systems, filling a capability gap that has slowed the Pentagon’s ability to evaluate hypersonic and other advanced high-speed programs at the pace that competition with China and Russia demands. […]View the full article

U.S. Army soldiers recently trained alongside the Wild Goose robotic ground vehicle, a small unmanned platform designed to carry heavy weapons, ammunition, and casualties across terrain that wheeled vehicles cannot reach, according to an announcement from American Rheinmetall, the American subsidiary of the German defense giant. The training, conducted over several days in partnership with […]View the full article

Russia has lost another attack helicopter in Africa, this time to Tuareg rebel fighters in Mali rather than to the war in Ukraine that has already cost Moscow dozens of similar aircraft. The Azawad Liberation Front, a Tuareg-led rebel coalition known by its French acronym FLA, claimed its fighters shot down a Mi-24P, a Soviet-designed […]View the full article

The U.S. Defense Innovation Unit, the Pentagon office tasked with pulling commercial technology into military use faster than traditional defense contracting normally allows, announced that it completed a successful unmanned stores separation flight test with Hermeus, an Atlanta-based hypersonic aircraft company, as part of the DIU’s Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities program, known as […]View the full article

Polish fighter jets intercepted a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft over the Baltic Sea on Monday, roughly 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Łeba on Poland’s coast, Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said. “Russia has once again tested our deterrence and air defense systems,” Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote. “Before noon, 30 km […]View the full article

The U.S. Navy has set up a new command to turn its growing collection of drones, unmanned boats and robotic submarines into tools sailors can actually fight with, naming Rear Adm. Melvin Smith as its first commander. The Robotic and Autonomous Systems Warfighting Development Center, known as RASWDC, is headquartered at Joint Expeditionary Base Little […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force has added three small companies to a contract worth up to $5.4 billion for privately flown “Red Air” adversary aircraft and close air support training, including a firm that flies small planes made to mimic enemy drones and cruise missiles. KestrelX of Driggs, Idaho, A2G International of Melbourne, Florida, and Fleet […]View the full article

The Navy's hate-hate relationship with its fleet of small ships would be a comedy if it were not so tragic. As recorded here in the opening years of this blog, one of the greatest errors of the last 40-yrs was the Navy's retreat from its exceptional riverine force it learned it needed the hard way in Vietnam. At the end of the 1990s, we disestablished the vestige of this once great capability in the Navy Reserve just a half decade before they would be desperately needed in Iraq. Untold numbers of American and allied personnel were killed and maimed because we invaded a nation whose central geographical feature were two great rivers that we could not, for years, gain e…

Americas Boeing won a $20.7 million deal, which provides for logistics management, product support analysis and integration, maintenance planning, technical data, support equipment maintenance, and engineering services in support of the P-8A aircraft for the Navy and the governments of Australia, Norway, and the United Kingdom. Work will take place in Florida, Washington, Maryland, Iceland and Japan. Estimated completion will be in September 2023. Bell Boeing won a $13.4 million contract by the Navy. The deal provides engineering, management, technical, and acquisition support for the implementation and sustainment of V-22 capability defect packages for V-22 avionics and…

Since August of last year, this picture keeps cropping up, and for good reason. Images posted on the Chinese social media platform Weibo show five hulls of the Luyang III-class Type 052 destroyer under construction at the state-owned Dalian Shipyard in Liaoning province, northeast China China is building at a wartime pace - more than just these five - for a reason. They have plans ... or at least want to be ready to execute a plan ... one long in the making. While we're at it, let's bring up a picture of the People's Liberation Army Navy's first aircraft carrier Liaoning - without which they would be at least one if not two decades behind in building their carrier fleet.…

Javelin, firing (click to view full) The FGM-148 Javelin missile system aimed to solve 2 key problems experienced by American forces. One was a series of disastrous experiences in Vietnam, trying to use 66mm M72 LAW rockets against old Soviet tanks. A number of replacement options like the Mk 153 SMAW and the AT4/M136 spun […]View the full article

Ukrainian company Fulltime Robotics has presented a working prototype of its new anti-drone laser system, dubbed SlimBeam, designed specifically to engage and neutralize small FPV drones. The system was showcased during IRON DEMO 2025, where it drew attention for its compact size and directed-energy capabilities. According to an exclusive report by Oboronka, the SlimBeam laser […] The post Ukrainian startup develops lightweight drone-killer laser first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

British defense engineering firm Supacat has secured its first export contract with the Czech Ministry of Defense for 18 HMT Mk3 Extenda high-mobility vehicles, a system known in the UK as the Jackal 3 Extenda. The platforms will be delivered to the Czech Army’s 601st Special Forces Group, a premier rapid response and special reconnaissance […] The post Czech military buys Jackal 3 vehicles first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

As the war in Ukraine continues into its fourth year, one lesson stands out for militaries worldwide: even the simplest weapons can have a place on the modern battlefield. Among them is the shotgun — a smoothbore firearm long dismissed as outdated, yet now proving its worth against one of the most difficult threats facing […] The post Shotguns return to relevance in drone warfare first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

The United States has intensified the use of its tethered aerostat radar system operating out of Lajas, Puerto Rico, expanding persistent airborne surveillance across the Caribbean amid growing regional security concerns. The long-standing system, equipped with the Lockheed Martin–built Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS), has been flying more frequently in recent weeks, according to defense […]View the full article

ImageSat International, a provider of space-based intelligence solutions, has introduced a new satellite platform named RUNNER, capable of real-time movement tracking from orbit—a capability the company says marks a new era for operational intelligence. According to ISI, RUNNER is the first satellite of its kind to provide dynamic, in-orbit surveillance enhanced by embedded artificial intelligence. […]View the full article