Raw Intel

As I said on Monday, I can argue both sides of the battleship debate. I think it is time to flesh that out a bit. If you didn’t read Monday’s post linked above, follow the link and catch up. I’ll reference a few items there that I don’t think I need to repeat here. Additionally, this post is really a follow-up to the earlier one, or at least that is my intention at the start. At the moment, I’m going to do my best to put my emotions and biases I outlined Monday to the side for a bit, and look at it with as cold of an eye as I can. If you are really on team battleship, there are some critical vulnerabilities from the start that you need to accept. The Trump Class: this is …

Qatar’s Ministry of Defense said on March 2, 2026, that Qatari air defenses shot down two Iranian Su-24 Fencer swing-wing attack jets and intercepted multiple ballistic missiles and drones targeting the country, according to an official statement released in Doha. The ministry stated that Qatar Emiri Air Force and naval air defense units successfully neutralized […]View the full article

Northrop Grumman on March 31 showcased the autonomous mission capabilities of its Lumberjack Group 3 uncrewed aircraft system during the United States Army 101st Airborne Division’s Operation Lethal Eagle exercise. According to NG, the Lumberjack drone demonstrated full autonomous mission control through the U.S. Army’s Maven Smart System, allowing Army personnel to test how the […]View the full article

The U.S. Department of State approved a $200 million Foreign Military Sale to the Dutch government covering 530 AGM-114R2 Hellfire missiles — a significant jump from the 386 missiles cleared in a $150 million deal just two years ago. Lockheed Martin Corporation in Orlando, Florida, is the principal contractor. The package also includes technical assistance […]View the full article

The U.S. Army is searching for missiles that cost less than $1 million each, issuing a formal request for information on May 15, 2026, that lays out one of the most explicit cost-driven weapons procurement challenges the service has publicly articulated. The Army’s Capability Program Executive for Defensive Fires, operating through the Rapid Capabilities and […]View the full article

OK, let’s let them tell their story first, then I’ll dive in. From The American Legion website: The Global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation on June 10 unveiled the long-awaited design that will pay tribute to servicemembers and families involved in GWOT. The design incorporates a living place of reflection, a concept shaped by 20,000 Americans and a 23-member Design Advisory Council of Gold Star family members, veterans and servicemembers. It is organized around a single architectural gesture: “the embrace,” a vegetated arch of reclaimed steel rising from the earth and returning to the ground. “This design was shaped by history and held sacred from the beginning — for…

Ukraine’s Army Aviation command plans to retire its Soviet-designed helicopter fleet in favor of American-made UH-60 Black Hawks, Brigadier General Pavlo Bardakov, commander of Army Aviation under Ukraine’s Ground Forces Command, told LIGA.net in an interview published last week. Bardakov said the shift away from Ukraine’s existing Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters has become unavoidable, because […]View the full article

The U.S. Army has told drone makers it wants a battlefield scout small enough to fold into a backpack-sized case, tough enough to carry a lethal weapon, and versatile enough to deliver two pints of blood to a wounded soldier. The U.S. Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal issued a Call for Solutions on August […]View the full article

General Dynamics Land Systems released the first publicly available photo of its Wolf XM30 prototype in transit this week, showing the vehicle wrapped entirely in a black tarp and strapped to a flatbed trailer. The image follows the company’s confirmation that it delivered the prototype to the U.S. Army at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, on […]View the full article

Taiwan broke ground Monday on an aerospace and drone industrial park in the southern county of Chiayi, where the island’s main military research institute wants to build a drone supply chain free of Chinese parts. President Lai Ching-te led the Sept. 28 ceremony, which also opened a new Minxiong campus for the National Chung-Shan Institute […]View the full article

Ukraine’s Magura uncrewed surface vessels, the drone boats that have sunk Russian warships in the Black Sea, took part in a U.S. Army exercise in Michigan, where they were used as floating launch pads for aerial drones. The boats appeared during Bayonet Quest 26, which the 7th Infantry Division, part of Multi-Domain Command-Pacific, ran across […]View the full article

I'm just gonna come out and say that this argument hasn't aged well: Employing a squadron of stealth fifth-generation F-22s along with other select capabilities would help reduce the need to expend significantly more resources while reducing operational risk. Coercive diplomacy backed by naval presence, decisive air power, and accurate weapons in the region would allow the U.S. and others to negate Libyan air defenses and air forces. The world-class capability inherent in the F-22 also bears a psychological-intimidation factor that sends a clear message that no Libyan aircraft will fly without consequences. Simply talking about a no-fly zone should highlight th…

There is something going on more than the usual spring maneuvers in Russian occupied Ukraine. The below from Der Spiegel is in Crimea ... so not an easy jump further in to mainland Ukrainian territory ... but ... still. Moscow has been relocating military units near the Ukraine for weeks. Trains with tanks, howitzers and transporters are also rolling into the Crimea, annexed by Russia . A huge new army camp has arisen in the east of the Black Sea Peninsula, as satellite images available to SPIEGEL show. About 30 kilometers from the town of Marfivka near the coast, the Russian military has gradually built a makeshift base, as this animation shows. If the area was …

In September of last year, the national security story was the announcement of AUKUS - trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Though the Russo-Ukrainian War quickly took it from headlines, it is still moving forward - and in ways you may not expect. These three Anglosphere nations have a long cultural, diplomatic, economic, and military history together - so many of the building blocks are already there to make something impressive. Using his recent article in the Australian Strategic Policy Institute as a starting off point, our guest for the full hour returning to Midrats this Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern will be Dr. Alessio …

Americas The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has sought proposals for a counter-anti-access(A2)/area denial (AD) drone swarm command and control (C2) system. The Pentagon agency wants the Autonomous Multi-domain Adaptive Swarms-of-Swarms (AMASS) to steer thousands of disparate drones, enabling US and coalition forces to penetrate adversaries’ theater-level A2/AD bubble. The system is intended to […]View the full article

Americas The US has tested an upgraded satellite communications (SATCOM) capability on an MQ-9 Reaper aerial drone during a multilateral exercise at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. Led by the Air National Guard-Air Force Reserve Test Center (AATC), the demonstration is part of an effort to deploy the drone on future intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance […]View the full article

Americas Boeing won a $264 million deal, which provides inspections, modifications, and repairs to the F/A-18 E/F and EA-18G aircrafts to include inner wing panel repairs in support of remanufacturing efforts to restore the inner wing panel service life projections to the new design specifications. Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. The Canadian Department of Defense started construction of a Quick Reaction Alert facility at the Bagotville base in Quebec. The site will house Ottawa’s future F-35A combat aircraft fleet and support North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) operations in partnership with the US military. …

Americas BAE Systems Controls Inc., based in Endicott, New York, has received a contract modification to repair the KC-135 Stratotanker’s fuel management panel and integrated fuel management computer. This fixed-price modification increases the total contract value from $5.2 million to $7.6 million and extends the contract term. The work will continue in Endicott, New York, with completion expected by March 14, 2026. Currently, no additional funds are being allocated for this extension. Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma oversees the contracting activities. Raytheon Co. has been awarded an $18.5 million contract modification for the Evolved SeaSparrow Missile (ESSM) and NA…

Motorola Solutions has completed its acquisition of Los Angeles-based Silvus Technologies, a company known for developing advanced mobile ad-hoc networking (MANET) systems used by defense and public safety agencies across the globe. According to a press release from Motorola Solutions, the acquisition will integrate Silvus’ low-latency, infrastructure-independent communications systems into Motorola’s existing suite of land […] The post Motorola Solutions buys Silvus for battlefield networking edge first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Swedish defense startup Nordic Air Defence and military vehicle manufacturer Volvo Defense have announced a joint effort to develop a new mobile counter-unmanned aircraft system (CUAS), aimed at protecting military vehicles against the growing threat of cheap, weaponized drones. According to the two companies, the system—called VIPRO—will integrate Nordic’s Kreuger 100XR drone interceptor into Volvo’s […] The post Volvo, Nordic Air Defence team up on new anti-drone pod first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article