Defence Blog

Romania has signed a contract for 12 Airbus H225M Caracal military helicopters, the first step in replacing the Romanian Air Force’s aging fleet of locally built IAR-330 Puma helicopters, Airbus Helicopters said on October 7. The deal was concluded through France’s defense procurement agency, the DGA, and is financed under the European Union’s Security Action

Israeli armored vehicle maker Plasan and off-road equipment specialist ASFIR 4X4 have unveiled Stormer, a light tactical vehicle for special operations forces built on a Jeep Gladiator pickup and designed to carry up to 12 people and more than 1,000 kg (2,200 pounds) of payload. The companies will show Stormer at the Association of the

X-Bow Systems has won a prototype agreement worth up to $69.7 million to develop and qualify a solid rocket motor booster for a next-generation U.S. Navy weapon, and to tool a production line in Luling, Texas, that can build up to 500 motors a year, the Albuquerque, New Mexico-based company said on October 7. The

Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation has delivered a new batch of Su-34 fighter-bombers to the Russian Aerospace Forces, the second batch of the jets handed over this year, the company’s parent, state defense conglomerate Rostec, said. Rostec did not say how many aircraft were in the batch. Photos and video released by UAC show at least

French defense startup Harmattan AI has unveiled IRIFI, an autonomous long-range loitering one-way attack drone system that the company says is designed to hit targets up to 2,000 km (1,240 miles) away without relying on satellite navigation or human control during flight. The company revealed the system on October 6, marking its move into deep

New U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress pilots are now making contact with a refueling tanker on their first live training flight, a skill that once took students several sorties to master, after the bomber’s training unit at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, built its air refueling instruction around a virtual reality trainer. A peer-reviewed study

The Florida National Guard fed drone video, unmanned boat data and troop positions from a training exercise at Camp Blanding, Florida, to U.S. Northern Command in Colorado Springs and to Joint Task Force-National Capital Region in the Washington area, where commanders viewed the information remotely. The link-up was part of Drone Crucible 26.3, which ran

The Italian Army has selected an armored version of the INEOS Grenadier 4×4, making Italy the first NATO country to place a large-scale military order for the British-designed off-roader. Deliveries are expected to begin in 2027. The army chose the Grenadier Enhanced Protection Vehicle, or EPV, in its armored configuration. The vehicles will mainly serve

General Dynamics Land Systems will show a version of its M-SHORAD Increment 4 air defense system mounted on a Ford Ranger pickup truck at the Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting in Washington, D.C., which runs October 12 to 14. The display puts a short-range air defense and counter-drone package on a commercial pickup,

A Ukrainian fixed-wing strike drone built to find Russian electronic warfare systems by their own radio signals and dive onto them has been listed on Brave1 Market, the government-run online store where Ukrainian military units order weapons, Ukrainian outlet Defender Media reported. The drone, called SHOT-L1, can strike targets up to 80 km (50 miles)