HG S2 (Intel Bot)

China’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense confirmed on Jan. 12 that the export-oriented J-10CE fighter jet achieved its first combat victory last May, stating that the aircraft downed several adversary aircraft in an aerial engagement without suffering losses. The agency described the operation as the J-10CE’s first confirmed combat result. […]View the full article

Northrop Grumman delivered its 1,500th center fuselage for the F-35 Lightning II on Jan. 12, completing the milestone at its Integrated Assembly Line in Palmdale, California. The delivery reflects the current production pace of one center fuselage every 30 hours. According to Northrop Grumman, the Palmdale facility uses advanced manufacturing processes to build center fuselages […]View the full article

United States Central Command and regional partners opened a new coordination cell for integrated air and missile defense at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar on Jan. 12. The Middle Eastern Air Defense – Combined Defense Operations Cell, or MEAD-CDOC, is housed inside the Qatar-based Combined Air Operations Center. According to CENTCOM, the cell brings […]View the full article

The Ukrainian Air Force’s Central Air Command confirmed on January 13 that Ukraine has fielded newly delivered U.S.-made Tempest missile-armed buggies produced by V2X, marking the first verified deployment of the mobile air-defense platform in active operations. According to a statement from Central Air Command, the Tempest system was introduced to address “modern challenges and […]View the full article

As you may have noticed, I’ve been hesitant to write anything about the latest unrest in Iran for a whole host of reasons/excuses, but part of it is simply not wanting to get too far ahead of my skis desiring something that would truly be a world-changing event. It would be a change that would alter the landscape so dramatically that I’ve become so used to, that it is hard to view the “what’s next?”. I was barely a teenager when the world and our nation were subjected to another monumental error by the Carter Administration and the West (mostly the French) — the betrayal of the Shah and the people of Iran. Of course, the Iranian people had agency here. As was the habit of fuzzy-headed leftists for most of the 20th Century, in another rash externalization of their own self-loathing, the Iranian left got into a popular front with communists and whoever hated the subject of their daddy issues and wound up being led by religious absolutists who wanted to create Year Zero—in this case the fundamentalist Shia leadership. The usual pattern through the 20th century was the communists, being the more ruthless of the various factions in popular fronts, would make short work of tearing down, compromising, and eventually lining up against the wall everyone else in their popular front until they had all the power. The smart money for those who did not appreciate the moment would have been for the communists eventually to grab power the same way in post-Shah Iran, but no…they were not against your garden-variety popular front. Oops. In this case, they overplayed their preferred dialectic and as such, failed to properly understand the ruthlessness of fundamental Islam (Shia flavor), and so we got the Islamic Republic of Iran. Instead of a flawed but functioning constitutional monarchy with the Shah trying to pull its people into the modern age aligned with the West, the world was handed this foul creation that would spend the next goin-on-five-decades exporting death, terror, horror, instability, and a soul-crushing view of the future under the oppression of a retrograde religion whose driving force was to subjugate and control. I already had friends whose parents, or at least one of them, who were from Iran when it all came apart. After the fall of the Shah, even more came over. I heard their stories growing up and going to school with their kids. Combined with the heavy Cuban influence in the Free State of Florida and the occasional grandparents of my friends who still had the tattoos on their arms from the Nazis in the 1940s, you can see how my worldview was shaped. Like all Americans of my generation, I grew up with a hostility to the Islamic Republic. I remember well in the silence prior to the national anthem at the 1979 Gator Bowl, some hero shouted, “The Ayatollah is an assahollah!” heard through much of the stadium that my dad thought was hilarious. I can still see his smiling face. There wasn’t, at least where I live, hostility to the Iranian people. They were our neighbors and friends. Good neighbors and friends. Heck, even today, my next door neighbor is from Iran and lives with his sons and grandson. He served our nation in Afghanistan on three tours. A great American who has a greater dislike of the Islamic Republic than I do. He puts out a great spread for Nowruz, BTW. During my time on active duty (1988-2009), like everyone else in my cohort in the Navy, I spent a lot of time worrying and working around the Iranians. Most of us are one degree of separation from knowing someone killed or maimed by Iranian supplied weapons in the last quarter century. You can fill a library with the stories of the malignant stain on the world emanating from the Islamic Republic. No need to catalogue it all here again. I’ve wanted to see the Islamic Republic fall since I was a teenager, and every few years there is a false hope. Will this time be any different? Maybe. The last significant uprising was the “Green Revolution” during the Obama Administration. Some think it could have come to something with the right support, but I’m not so sure. The Obama team were focused on working with the Islamic Republic based on their theory of the case. They weren’t interested in supporting the opposition. Things are different now, which should give us a bit more optimism. What’s different? Iran’s proxies in Syria, Lebanon, Hamas, and Yemen are the weakest they have ever been. Iran has thrown everything it had at Israel and the USA in the last year to little effect. The USA and Israel proved that they can attack Iran at will should they desire, knocking back the Iranian nuclear weapons program perhaps a decade or more. They just lost their New World foothold and money maker, Venezuela. The have lost their legitimacy in the eyes of their people, though they still hold power. The Crown Prince is actively involved and isn’t asking for a single American boot on the ground. Smart move, for if there were, any post Islamic Republic government would be tainted. The stage is set, but let’s return to a phrase I used at the opening of this: the Iranian people have agency here. Iran is a large nation in both size (2.5x the size of Texas) and population (90+ million souls). It has a culture going back thousands of years. The USA is past the era of invading nations and trying to make them…something we think they want to be. The people of Iran, if they want a future, must earn it. They will have to earn it as people often have to—with blood. How much blood? That depends on how much the Iranian people want a different future and how much the Islamic Republic wants to remain in power. Are we looking at a Soviet Union-like collapse, a Syria-like civil war, or a fizzle and fade to the status quo ante? I think the best bet is to watch the interaction between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the regular Iranian Army, Navy, and Air Force—especially the Army. If the IRGC sees that they have no future in a post-Islamic State Iran/Persia, and they have few safe havens who will take them, will they fight or stack arms in a deal for amnesty? Will the regular army decide to not take a chance and just “eliminate” them in a massacre like we have seen in such conflicts in this part of the world from the dawn of time? We will have to wait and see. That is exactly what I intend to do. Watch for signs. I’m going to be careful, and I advise you to as well. Check your sources. Know their biases. Also, you will hear a lot from people who, mostly but not exclusively in the Democratic and European Union foreign policy nomenklatura, who at best have been accommodationalist to at worst outright supporters of the Islamic Republic. From promoting the JCPOA to sending pallets of cash…those people simply need to sit down and apologize. I want to end with this one note: the Islamic Republic’s government has shut off the internet, so that has cut off most usable information. However, Elon Musk has turned on Starlink for free in all of Iran. The best thing any nation could do—and something I hope the USA is doing—is to get as many Starlink terminals into Iran as possible. That is how you help the Iranian people leverage their agency if they desire a better future for themselves. For all the hate the left throws at Elon Musk, from opening the free speech gates on X, to giving Ukraine a comparative advantage over the Russians (Starlink again), to this act—freedom has no great advocate today. Heck, not just advocate, creator. 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

Pegasus Arms has released detailed operational results for its Pegasus Arms 25 heavy strike drone, confirming that Ukrainian forces used the platform in more than a thousand engagements throughout 2025, including over 560 sorties by a single airframe. The company disclosed the figures in an official summary of wartime performance. According to the report, more […]View the full article

The Royal Thai Army has signed a follow-on contract with China North Industries Group Corporation (NORINCO) for additional VN1 8×8 wheeled armored vehicles during a delegation visit to Beijing on January 11, according to official information released by the Royal Thai Embassy. The signing took place at NORINCO headquarters in Beijing and was attended by […]View the full article

The United States Air Force has awarded Trust Automation a $490 million contract to research, develop, prototype, and produce counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) technologies, the company announced on January 12, 2026. According to Trust Automation, the indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract will support the rapid development and transition of unmanned and counter-unmanned aircraft capabilities. Work will take […]View the full article

Denver-based AZAK is positioning itself at the center of a shift in unmanned ground mobility with a chassis-free vehicle built around an autonomous wheel system rather than a traditional frame. In place of axles, drivetrains, and a fixed body, the company designed each wheel as a self-contained power unit that houses the motor, battery, and […]View the full article

Ukraine’s General Staff said early on January 13 that Defense Forces carried out an overnight strike on the Atlant Aero industrial facility in Taganrog, Rostov region, hitting a site involved in producing Molniya strike-reconnaissance drones and components for the Orion unmanned aerial vehicles. According to the General Staff, explosions and a fire were recorded across […]View the full article

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) deployed a multi-weapon infantry configuration during recent training, as a widely circulated early-January photograph shows a PLA soldier carrying a Type 191 rifle, a 09 shotgun, a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher, and a quadcopter drone — a loadout that online users labeled a “Chinese super soldier.” Chinese outlet Observer Network […]View the full article

China has overtaken Russia as the world’s second-largest operator of nuclear-powered submarines, according to an updated 2026 assessment. The new figures indicate that China fields an estimated 32 active nuclear submarines, surpassing Russia’s 25–28 operational boats. According to the updated force structure, China currently operates nine Type 093/093A Shang-class attack submarines, which form the core […]View the full article

Israel’s Axon Vision announced on January 12, 2026, that it received an order from Leonardo DRS for its new AI-based system designed for counter-unmanned aircraft missions, marking the first delivery under the companies’ expanding partnership. According to the company, the order is valued at approximately $350,000 and covers an initial batch of systems capable of […]View the full article

Russia has announced a record increase in its export weapons portfolio, with First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov stating on Friday that Moscow now holds $70 billion in signed defense contracts. Manturov delivered the figures during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, marking the largest reported volume of foreign military orders in Russia’s history. According […]View the full article

Elbit Systems announced on January 12, 2026, that it has signed contracts worth approximately $275 million to supply an advanced airborne self-protection electronic warfare suite, including its Direct Infra-Red Counter-Measure system, to an unnamed country in the Asia-Pacific region. The company said the work will be carried out over a five-year period. According to Elbit […]View the full article

Sweden has signed a contract to acquire sovereign Synthetic Aperture Radar satellites from ICEYE, establishing a national space-based intelligence capability, the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration announced on January 12 in Stockholm. According to the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV), the multi-million, multi-year agreement was formalized by Brigadier General Carl-Fredrik Edström, Director of the Air and […]View the full article

Ukraine’s experts have confirmed that Russia’s new “Oreshnik” intermediate-range missile relies on decades-old components, according to an analysis released by the Ukrainian defense outlet Militarnyi on January 11. The findings stem from debris recovered after the missile struck Dnipro in November 2024. Militarnyi reported that the discovery came after CNN broadcast a segment showing parts […]View the full article

SummaryIn this conversation, the hosts and Palantir’s Head of Defense Mike Gallagher and Head of Shipbuilding and Naval Programs Matt Babin discuss the integration of AI and advanced manufacturing techniques in shipbuilding, particularly focusing on the role of Palantir’s ShipOS in transforming shipyard operations. They explore the generational gap in expertise within the industry, the importance of optimizing workforce efficiency, and the collaboration between NAVSEA and the Maritime Industrial Base Program. The discussion also touches on legislative support needed for modern shipbuilding and the challenges faced in submarine maintenance and production. You can listen at this link, or using the Spotify widget below ShowlinksU.S. Navy Partners with Palantir to Modernize Shipbuilding Supply Chain and Accelerate Shipbuilding The Maritime Industrial Base Program How big is the Columbia SSBN? TakeawaysAI and software can enhance traditional shipbuilding processes. ShipOS integrates various aspects of shipyard operations. Bridging the generational gap is crucial for shipbuilding. Workforce efficiency can be optimized through better planning. Legislative support is needed for consistent funding in shipbuilding. Software tools can help decision-makers understand costs better. The shipbuilding industry must attract younger talent. Chapters00:00: The Future of Shipbuilding and AI Integration 03:55: Transforming Shipyard Operations with ShipOS 10:31: Bridging Generational Gaps in Shipbuilding Expertise 12:00: Optimizing Workforce Efficiency in Shipyards 18:24: Advanced Manufacturing Techniques in Shipbuilding 20:48: Leveraging Commercial Technology for Naval Advantage 25:51: Collaboration Between NAVSEA and the Maritime Industrial Base Program 33:42: Legislative Support for Modern Shipbuilding 44:32: Addressing Challenges in Submarine Maintenance and Production 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

Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) deployed robotic quadruped drones during a January 2026 airborne assault exercise conducted by the 1st Airborne Brigade, marking the first time the unit integrated unmanned ground vehicles into its annual new-year descent training. According to the training footage broadcast in Japan, the exercise featured an assault element inserting from two […]View the full article

Türkiye announced on January 10, 2026, that its MKE BORAN 105mm lightweight howitzer has continued expanding its presence in international markets following recent live-fire trials and operational use, according to a newly released press statement from the state-owned defense manufacturer MKE. MKE said the BORAN system, which entered the Turkish Armed Forces’ inventory in 2021, […]View the full article

Colombia announced on January 10 that it is launching a COP 6.2 trillion (approximately $1.6 billion) National Anti-Drone Shield, a move taken directly in response to the recent U.S. military strike on Venezuela, the Colombian government said in an official statement. According to the Ministry of Defense, the program creates a nationwide detection and interdiction […]View the full article

Iran issued a direct warning on Sunday that it will strike U.S. military assets, commercial shipping, and Israel if the United States launches any military action during the nationwide anti-government protests gripping the country. The threat was delivered by Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf in a televised address. Ghalibaf told lawmakers that “in the […]View the full article

Israel placed its security apparatus on high alert on January 10 after senior officials assessed the possibility of direct U.S. intervention in Iran as nationwide anti-government protests there enter their most volatile stage in years, according to Israeli sources who spoke to Reuters. Three Israeli officials with knowledge of internal security consultations said the alert […]View the full article

Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) has confirmed that Russia used a new jet-powered strike drone, identified as the Geran-5, during combined air attacks at the start of 2026. The announcement, released today, states that Russian forces employed the platform for the first time against targets inside Ukraine. The Geran-5 has a length of around six […]View the full article

Castelion, a California-based defense technology firm founded by former SpaceX engineers, confirmed that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth visited the company’s headquarters this week. According to the company, Hegseth met with engineers working on rapid-production missile technologies designed to restore industrial agility and increase the pace at which U.S. forces can field advanced weapons. During […]View the full article