Raw Intel

This week, we start another chapter in the Iran conflict. Might as well start with the primary source. What does this actually operationalize into? Let’s see how CENTCOM outlines it. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces will begin supporting Project Freedom, May 4, to restore freedom of navigation for commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The mission, directed by the President, will support merchant vessels seeking to freely transit through the essential international trade corridor. A quarter of the world’s oil trade at sea and significant volumes of fuel and fertilizer products are transported through the strait. “Our support for this defensive mission is…

Israel’s first KC-46 tanker aircraft has completed its maiden flight in the United States, the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced. The aircraft, designated “Gideon” in Hebrew, is the first of six KC-46 tankers procured by the IMOD Mission to the U.S. on behalf of the Israel Defense Forces. Boeing’s KC-46 Pegasus is a multi-role aerial […]View the full article

A drone pilot operating somewhere in the Washington D.C. area recently had no idea he’d been found, until a military police vehicle with a small detection kit on its roof had already pinpointed his location, pulled his grid coordinates, and displayed them on a tablet inside the cabin. The system that did it was DZYNE […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force’s VC-25B Bridge aircraft, the interim replacement for the aging Air Force One fleet, has completed modification and flight testing and is now being painted in a new red, white and blue livery, with a public rollout scheduled for this summer. The Department of War accepted a head-of-state configured Boeing 747-8i from […]View the full article

The U.S. Army has awarded a production contract to SURVICE Engineering for the Joint Autonomous Aerial Resupply System. A cargo drone designed to deliver supplies to troops in the field without putting additional soldiers at risk to do it. The contract came through PM UAS, the Army’s Uncrewed Aircraft Systems Project Office sitting under the […]View the full article

Time to catch up on what’s making a buzz on the waterfront. Join us this Sunday at 5 PM Eastern for a Midrats Podcast May Day Weekend Maritime Melee! You can join LIVE at this link. If you are reading this after the show, refresh the Substack page for the podcast links. This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Share Leave a comment View the full article

Ukrainian armored vehicle maker Inguar Defence has developed a medevac variant of its Inguar-3 in a short development timeline. The medevac version keeps the Inguar-3’s proven armored shell but departs significantly from the baseline configuration inside. The new vehicle features specialized medical equipment, a redesigned floor layout, different mounting points, and a ramp for fast […]View the full article

The U.S. Army is buying a precision wind tunnel for its primary measurement standards laboratory at Redstone Arsenal, a piece of scientific equipment whose specifications reveal exactly how seriously the service takes the accuracy of its own test and measurement infrastructure. The Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal published a solicitation on May 1, 2026, […]View the full article

The U.S. Navy is upgrading the communications suite on the E-6B Mercury, an airborne nuclear relay aircraft, even as the service moves forward with the E-130J Phoenix II, the platform eventually set to replace it. Naval Air Systems Command published a presolicitation notice on May 1, 2026, announcing its intent to award a sole-source delivery […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force wants to keep the Minuteman III flying through 2050, and it’s now looking for contractors who can help figure out how to do it. The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center published a special notice on May 1, 2026, soliciting information from industry on how a contractor could assist in extending the […]View the full article

The U.S. Navy just spread a contract worth up to $650 million across eight small American boatbuilders to keep its fleet of rigid hull inflatable boats stocked for the next decade. Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington awarded eight separate contracts on April 30, collectively valued at $325,9 million at the base level and stretching […]View the full article

Raytheon RTX picked up a $441.6 million contract modification on April 30 to build PATRIOT GEM-T missiles, with the Department of War demanding delivery by September 30 — five months from award, no extensions mentioned. Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, issued the modification bringing the deal’s total cumulative value to $441,600,000, according to […]View the full article

Turkey’s state-owned defense manufacturer MKE has unveiled the URAN, a vehicle-mounted 105mm howitzer derived from its export-proven BORAN towed artillery system, ahead of the SAHA 2026 defense exhibition. The URAN made its public debut through MKE’s official announcement, with the company billing it as a mobile fire support solution engineered for rapid ground maneuver. Where […]View the full article

Sweden launched its first military reconnaissance and surveillance satellite into orbit at 9:00 a.m. Swedish time, marking the country’s operational entry into the space domain and delivering a national capability to detect and analyze threats on a global scale. The satellite lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in […]View the full article

The Israeli Ministerial Committee on Procurement has approved the simultaneous acquisition of two new fighter squadrons — a fourth F-35 squadron from Lockheed Martin and a second F-15IA squadron from Boeing — in deals valued at tens of billions of shekels, the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced Sunday. The approval marks the opening move in […]View the full article

The U.S. Marine Corps needs roughly 40 amphibious warfare ships to sustain its goal of keeping three Marine Expeditionary Units deployed simultaneously, and it currently has 32. That gap, laid out publicly by Marine Lt. Gen. Jay Bargeron at the Modern Day Marine exhibition in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, frames one of the most consequential […]View the full article

Pyka announced on April 27 that its DropShip autonomous aircraft completed its maiden flight, a milestone that the Alameda, California-based company said sets a new benchmark for rapid development of advanced autonomous systems. DropShip is a Group 3+ autonomous aircraft built for contested logistics and multi-mission operations. It carries a maximum takeoff weight of 1,400 […]View the full article

The U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll visited U.S. Army Garrison Ansbach in Germany on April 30, where commanders from the 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade and 12th Combat Aviation Brigade briefed him on counter-unmanned aerial systems tested and implemented over the past year, and among the systems on display was the Merops AS-3 Surveyor counter-drone […]View the full article

An Australian-built submarine drone just crossed the Pacific. C2 Robotics commissioned and christened its Speartooth Large Uncrewed Undersea Vehicle in a formal ceremony marking the first delivery of the platform to the United States. Rather than the traditional bottle of champagne swung by a dignitary, Speartooth was christened by a robotic arm — with a […]View the full article

Green Berets from 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) remotely launched and controlled unmanned surface vessels during Exercise Balikatan 2026, using them to deliver shaped charges against a target vessel off the western coast of Itbayat, Philippines, on April 24 — and the drone boats they operated bore a striking resemblance to one of the most […]View the full article