Raw Intel

A Patriot air defense battery inside Ukraine has sat with empty launch tubes for weeks, its crew unable to fire because the country has nearly exhausted its stock of interceptor missiles, CNN reported after gaining rare access to the system. CNN was the first outlet allowed to visit an operational Patriot unit on Ukrainian territory, […]View the full article

The U.S. Army will evaluate the Hunter WOLF unmanned ground vehicle with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Polk, Louisiana, on August 20, the vehicle’s manufacturer, BLADE, formerly known as HDT, announced Monday. The event is a Transition in Contact exercise, in which soldiers operate a system in realistic field conditions to test how it […]View the full article

The U.S. Department of War has awarded NODA AI a $100 million contract to scale the company’s autonomous mission command software across the Joint Force, the Austin-based company announced Monday. The award builds on a smaller contract NODA won in July, when the department awarded the company $10 million to develop MAESTRO, orchestration software designed […]View the full article

Raytheon has won a $22.9 billion, seven-year contract to accelerate production of Tomahawk cruise missiles for the U.S. Navy, the RTX business announced Monday. The award was made under the Department of War’s Arsenal of Freedom initiative and follows framework agreements Raytheon signed with the department in February. Those earlier agreements set a target of […]View the full article

As most regulars here know, on the 13th, President Trump issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM), which was known in previous administrations as a National Security Memorandum. Most are aware of it because almost immediately there was much gnashing of teeth, rending of clothes, and general knee-bent running about concerning the future USS Doris Miller (CVN 81) having its EMALS replaced with steam and returning to hydraulics over a lot of the problematic electrical motors used in various elevators, etc. We’ll return to that in a bit—and it is but a small fraction of the story—but let’s make sure everyone understands what an NSPM is. It operates with the …

Voyager Technologies said domestic production of tactical solid rocket motors is not keeping pace with Department of War demand, and detailed how the company is scaling manufacturing to close that gap. Solid rocket motors combine fuel and oxidizer in a pressure vessel with a single nozzle exit point, producing thrust as soon as they are […]View the full article

Honeywell Aerospace tested an integrated counter-drone system against simulated aerial threats during EXTiC 26-2, a technology experimentation event run by U.S. Central Command. Honeywell served as lead systems integrator for the demonstration, pairing sensors and effectors with the company’s AI-driven counter-UAS software to detect, track and mitigate simulated drones while defending a simulated airfield. “As […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force has designated a new turbofan engine built by GE Aerospace and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions as the F143-ZZ-100 and awarded the companies a contract to develop it as a second engine option for the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, the companies announced. The engine, previously known as the GEK800, generates about […]View the full article

North Korea-linked hacking groups launched 99 state-sponsored cyberattacks in the first half of 2026, with South Korea absorbing 19 of them, the most of any country, the Korea Times reported, citing a new threat intelligence report from cybersecurity firm S2W. The figure makes North Korea the most active state-backed threat actor globally over the period, […]View the full article

What a great weekend for a good old fashioned Midrats Podcast Maritime Melee! Petty domestic political posturing has decided to broach a whole series of our favorite subjects for the last 17 years: carrier shortages, neglect of our auxiliaries in our Combat Logistics Force, leadership at sea, ships adrift…enough for a whole series of shows, but Mark and I promise to keep today’s show to an hour. Join us LIVE from 5--6 PM this Sunday at this link. Jump in the live show chat and share your observations or direct a question to us. DON’T MISS IT! If you’re reading this after the show, check back on the Substack page late Sunday or right before your Monday commute, and we’ll h…

The U.S. Coast Guard is seeking companies capable of converting new C-130J transport aircraft into HC-130J surveillance planes, part of a program that will eventually cover 28 Coast Guard aircraft and 12 more for Customs and Border Protection. The Coast Guard’s Office of Aviation Acquisition posted a request for information on August 14, asking industry […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force is buying Chinese-made DJI drones for a Wyoming nuclear missile base, using the foreign aircraft as stand-ins for the kind of drones security forces there are training to detect and shoot down. The 90th Contracting Squadron posted a combined synopsis and solicitation on August 14 seeking a small business vendor to […]View the full article

The U.S. Army has opened a Sources Sought notice for production of the T901-GE-900 turboshaft engine, the next-generation powerplant set to replace the T700 series across the service’s Black Hawk and Apache helicopter fleets. The notice, posted August 14 by the Army’s Aviation Turbine Engines Project Office, asks industry to identify companies capable of executing […]View the full article

Andreas Rupprecht, a researcher who tracks Chinese military aviation, published a photograph he says shows what is likely the first clear image of a J-10CE fighter jet belonging to the Uzbekistan Air Force. “Likely the first clear(er) image of an Uzbekistan Air Force J-10CE,” Rupprecht wrote. Uzbekistan has reportedly agreed to purchase 24 J-10CE fighters […]View the full article

A Spanish F-18 fighter jet flying NATO air policing duty shot down a drone that crossed into Romanian airspace early Sunday, marking the fourth drone Romania has shot down this year, the country’s Ministry of National Defence said. Romanian radar systems detected the aircraft entering national airspace at 4:44 a.m. local time, arriving from neighboring […]View the full article

Russia’s A-50U airborne early warning aircraft function as “flying quarterbacks” for its air defense network, and Moscow has no near-term way to replace the ones it has lost, defense researcher Michael Bohnert wrote in a recent analysis of the fleet. Bohnert said the aircraft’s value comes down to line of sight and the curvature of […]View the full article

OM Defence Systems demonstrates X7 counter-drone interceptor across NATO trials, shifting engagements from FPV pilots to operator-supervised autonomy. UK-based OM Defence Systems is demonstrating the X7 drone interceptor to NATO and British military users and using each event to capture customer requirements, as it moves the counter-drone engagement out of the hands of FPV pilots […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing a $75 million modification to buy initial spare parts for two VC-25B aircraft, the in-development replacement for the current Air Force One fleet. The modification brings the cumulative value of the underlying contract to $4.49 billion, up from $4.42 billion. The modification, listed as P00187 to contract FA8625-16-C-6599, […]View the full article

Boeing has been awarded a $636.1 million modification to its ongoing contract to repair and supply components for the U.S. Army’s AH-64 Apache helicopter fleet, according to a Department of War contract announcement. The modification pushes the cumulative value of the underlying contract past $1.1 billion. The modification, listed as PZ0022 to contract W58RGZ-24-C-0028, covers […]View the full article

The U.S. Army has awarded a $10 billion contract with a potential 26-year term to overhaul how it trains new helicopter pilots, shifting initial flight instruction at Fort Rucker, Alabama, to a contractor-owned, contractor-operated model. M1 Support Services L.P., based in Denton, Texas, won the firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, beating out 10 other bidders after the […]View the full article