Raw Intel

Americas Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) completed acceptance sea trials on Friday for the amphibious transport dock Fort Lauderdale (LPD 28). The San Antonio Class ship, built at HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division, spent several days with the US Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey. Ingalls’ shipbuilders will now complete final finish work on the ship in preparation for delivery this quarter. General Dynamics won a $19.2 million deal for Environmental and Ship Motion Forecasting (ESMF) systems, which provides sea-based forces with environmental and ship motion forecasting as input to the common operation tactical picture, in order to forecast windows of opportunit…

As with many things in the last nine months, the bolt from the blue in the maritime national security world that was the September 2021 announcement of AUKUS - trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States - has faded from view as the more immediate and interesting Russo-Ukrainian War took the headlines. Even without the war, as with many long-term programs that start with a flash, AUKUS would have become a background issue anyway - which is a shame. Most are left remembering the interesting bit - nuclear submarines for the Royal Australian Navy - but is that really the most important thing about AUKUS? Our friend Alessio Patalano o…

Ultra APV demonstrator (click to view full) In an age of non-linear warfare, where front lines are nebulous at best and non-existent at worst, one of the biggest casualties is… the concept of unprotected rear echelon vehicles, designed with the idea that they’d never see serious combat. That imperative is being driven home on 2 fronts. One front is operational. The other front is buying trends. These trends, and their design imperatives, found their way into the USA’s Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program, which aims to replace many of the US military’s 120,000 or so Humvees. The US military’s goal is a 7-10 ton vehicle that’s lighter than its MRAPs and easier to tr…

Hanwha Systems has officially launched mass production of its active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar system for South Korea’s next-generation KF-21 fighter jet. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), in partnership with Hanwha Systems, hosted a rollout ceremony on August 5 at the company’s Yongin Research and Development Center. The event was attended by more […] The post South Korea begins mass production of AESA radar for KF-21 fighter first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

U.S. Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 232 (VMFA-232), known as the “Red Devils,” arrived at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Iwakuni, Japan, on September 8, 2025, as part of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Unit Deployment Program (UDP). The F/A-18 Hornet squadron, based out of MCAS Miramar, California, is now assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 12, 1st […] The post U.S. Marine Corps deploys Red Devils squadron to Japan first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Rightfully, over the last week there’s been a fair bit of chatter about TLAM going to Ukraine. The United States is considering Ukraine’s request to obtain long-range Tomahawk missiles for its effort to push back against Russian invaders, Vice President JD Vance said on Sunday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has asked the United States to sell Tomahawks to European nations that would send them to Ukraine. Vance said on “Fox News Sunday” that U.S. President Donald Trump would make the “final determination” on whether to allow the deal. ISW, where the above graphic came from, had a solid thread over at X on the implications, but it could use a little bit of a wet b…

Swarmbotics AI, a robotics developer, is pitching a new class of ground-based, modular unmanned systems that operate in coordinated swarms and carry anti-tank effects, the company says. The firm confirmed that its antitank variant is called FireAnt, a lightweight, attritable unmanned ground vehicle intended to work in groups under a single operator to detect, track […]View the full article

New images have surfaced online of a Chinese armored vehicle that closely resembles the German-Dutch Boxer platform, reigniting speculation about China’s push to develop modular armored solutions for export markets. The photos, which appeared on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, show the vehicle moving in an industrial zone in Baotou, located in China’s Inner […]View the full article

A rare U.S. Air Force RQ-170 “Sentinel” stealth surveillance drone was spotted returning on Saturday morning to Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in eastern Puerto Rico, following U.S. military strikes conducted overnight against targets in Venezuela. Video circulating on social media shows the flying-wing aircraft on approach and landing at the naval air station, now used […]View the full article

Vietnam’s Ministry of Defense has reportedly signed an agreement with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems to equip the Vietnamese army with the “Maoz” drone, known as the Spike Firefly loitering munition, in a deal valued at approximately $250 million. According to a report by Intelligence Online, the agreement includes the establishment of a production facility in […]View the full article

U.S. Central Command released new footage from Operation Epic Fury showing a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launching a missile visually consistent with the United States Army’s Precision Strike Missile (PrSM), suggesting the system may have been used in combat for the first time during strikes against Iranian targets. The footage has drawn attention […]View the full article

Airbus said Monday that its Bird of Prey counter-drone interceptor completed its first demonstration flight at a military training area in northern Germany. The test used a Mark I air-to-air missile developed by defense startup Frankenburg Technologies, marking the first public demonstration of the system in a realistic military scenario. Airbus said the demonstration was […]View the full article

The U.S. Army has requested $5.47 billion to buy ammunition in Fiscal Year 2027 — everything from 5.56mm rifle cartridges to 155mm artillery shells to tank rounds — according to the Department of the Army’s official budget document submitted to Congress in April 2026. It is the largest single-year Army ammunition request in recent memory, […]View the full article

A British aerospace startup that had positioned itself as a potential future replacement for the Royal Air Force’s Red Arrows display team has collapsed into administration, citing sustained cashflow pressure caused by repeated delays to the UK Defence Investment Plan and geopolitical factors affecting its funding sources. Aeralis Limited, the developer of a modular light […]View the full article

Ukraine struck a Russian defense electronics factory for the second time in five weeks on Tuesday, hitting the same Cheboksary facility with domestically developed Flamingo cruise missiles, demonstrating both the growing reach of Ukrainian long-range weapons and the persistent vulnerability of Russian military industry to attacks that Moscow’s air defenses cannot reliably stop. The target […]View the full article

A Swedish aerospace startup has let journalists watch its foot-long, carbon-fiber interceptor drone chase down and destroy a target aircraft in real time, the first live public demonstration of a system the company hopes will help defend against the wave of cheap attack drones reshaping modern warfare. Nordic Air Defence held what it called a […]View the full article

Rheinmetall has unveiled a warship built to outgun vessels twice its size, betting that a mid-sized frigate packed with the same missile defense technology found on America’s largest destroyers can win over navies looking to modernize without breaking their budgets. Rheinmetall, the German defense manufacturer, revealed the GMF 140, a next-generation guided missile frigate measuring […]View the full article

2020 has been a year … that is an understatement. From the maritime and national security perspective what were the bold-faced items that changed the outlook the most. While COVID-19 absorbed much of everyone’s time, the world kept turning and history kept moving. Using our ever-popular melee format – open topic, open chat room and open phones for Midrats’ end of the year review. We’ll be live and hope you’ll join us this Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern. DON’T MISS IT! If you use iTunes, you can add Midrats to your podcast list simply by clicking the iTunes button at the main showpage - or you can just click here. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=yIl2AUoC8z…

We picked Option A it appears. I remember when we thought about Option C and believed Option B was too long. I have extended thoughts on the Afghanistan withdraw announcement today over at USNIBlog. It's been a long time coming ... but regular readers here know that. Come on by and give me your thoughts. 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=A_rxYai-AN4:JiIqTl4iUrM:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=A_rxYai-AN4:JiIqTl4iUrM:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=A_rxYai-AN4:JiIqTl4iUrM:V_sGLiPB…

You're a reader of CDRSalamander ... so I know that you not only find port clearing sexy ... but you know it's important. Do you know the story of Umm Qasr in 2003? Well, head on over to USNIBlog and ponder with me. 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=9b9wbfxCB0I:6VtvehTZbSA:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=9b9wbfxCB0I:6VtvehTZbSA:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=9b9wbfxCB0I:6VtvehTZbSA:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=9b9wbfxCB0I:6VtvehTZbSA:F7zBnMyn0Lo htt…