Giovanni de Briganti, Author at DEFENSE-AEROSPACE

Graphic showing the XM30 FY2027 procurement request of $546.99 million and the $33.07 million kept by House appropriators, equal to the Army's government-furnished equipment line, beside an Army concept rendering of the XM30.

XM30: House Appropriators Kept $33 Million of a $547 Million First Buy

The Army’s first request to buy XM30s, rather than just develop them, ran into an “early to need” cut. The amount that survived matches a single line in the Army’s own cost exhibit. $33.07MHouse Appropriations level for XM30 procurement, down from $546.99M

October 17, 2026

Army vehicles fitted with Next Generation Command and Control systems operate as an on-the-move command post during a 4th Infantry Division demonstration at Fort Carson, Colorado, May 5, 2026.

Digital Systems & Software

NGC2’s $3.78 Billion Request: 76% Procurement, and That’s Where the House Cut

The Army’s largest command-and-control request for fiscal 2027 is mostly a procurement bill. Of the $3.78 billion sought for Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) in the Pentagon’s budget request, briefed April 21, 2026, $2.88 billion is procurement money for transport and

October 16, 2026

One-way attack drones on a display table at a Drone Dominance Program demonstration at Fort Benning, Georgia, overlaid with a chart: zero export permits issued under Ukraine's fast track since July 8, 2026, and 2,000 drones sold to the U.S. military through a Pentagon contest.

Missiles / Drones / Directed Energy

Ukraine’s Drone Export Fast Track: Three Months, No Permits, and a U.S. Assembly Clock

Kyiv’s special export channel for Drone Deal partners had not issued a single permit as of October 2, almost three months after it took effect on July 8. The one documented sale of finished Ukrainian strike drones to a NATO military went

October 9, 2026

A Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Type 88 surface-to-ship missile launcher fires next to U.S. Marine NMESIS and MADIS systems at Paoay Sand Dunes, Philippines, May 6, 2026.

Asia-Pacific

Japan Fired Missiles From the Philippines. Its Access Pact Gives Them No Place to Stay.

The Type 88 firing during Balikatan 2026 was made possible by the Japan-Philippines Reciprocal Access Agreement. Read article by article, the agreement lets Japanese forces come, bring weapons and fire them with Manila’s consent, but it provides no basis for Japanese military

October 7, 2026

Side view of a gray Chinese Navy Type 052D guided-missile destroyer with hull number 159 at sea, showing its forward superstructure, gun and masts.

Naval Systems

China’s 35th Type 052D, and What the Count Actually Measures

Beijing announced the destroyer Tongchuan on May 31 without saying when it entered service. Open-source trackers had already counted 35 ships of the class in February. A close look at the newest 052D, and at the four different numbers that keep getting

October 6, 2026

A large adaptive cycle jet engine suspended by chains in a test facility, instrumented with sensors and wiring

Advanced Propulsion Systems

NGAP Slips Again: House Authorizers Would Cut $51 Million as FY2027 Starts at Last Year’s Rate

House appropriators and Senate authorizers backed the Air Force’s full $513.7 million fiscal 2027 request for next-generation fighter engines; House authorizers recommended cutting it by $51.4 million. A continuing resolution now holds the program to its fiscal 2026 level just as prototype

October 2, 2026

A Romanian Army HIMARS launcher backs into the cargo ramp of a U.S. Air Force MC-130J transport aircraft

Joint Exercises / Special Ops Training

Trojan Footprint 26: 24 Nations, National Segments and the Grasshopper’s European Debut

Europe’s flagship special operations exercise ran in May as a framework: U.S. forces trained with partners directly while host nations ran their own segments with invited allies. Here is what the official record shows, segment by segment. Trojan Footprint 2026 brought about

September 30, 2026

Aerial view of the Pentagon overlaid with a bar chart: annual SF 328 filings approved by OMB rose from 2,650 in 2022 to 62,950 in 2025, a 23.8-fold increase.

Cybersecurity & Electronic Warfare

The Pentagon Put Ownership Vetting Inside Its Information-Security Rules

A proposed DFARS rule would make an eligible foreign-ownership status in a DCSA system a condition of award on contracts above $5 million, cleared or not. Its impact numbers do not reconcile, and the paperwork approval it relies on was enlarged a

September 24, 2026

A German Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft in flight over the North Atlantic

Aircraft (civil/military systems)

Germany’s P-8A Training System: $251 Million and a Long Tail

Berlin signed for a Poseidon simulator in 2023 and hoped to have it in 2027. The U.S. Navy put the contract on Boeing in 2026, with work running to 2031. Two weeks after that contract, Congress was told the fleet it serves

September 23, 2026

Two Army Humvees parked in a field with Spectrum Situational Awareness System equipment mounted on their roofs

Electronic Warfare

The Army’s $350 Million Spectrum Bet Is More Than Twice Its Plan

The S2AS contract drew a single bid and caps orders at $350 million. The Army’s own budget programs 147 systems through FY2031, worth at most about $156 million. On May 29, 2026, the Pentagon announced that 3dB Labs, a small business in

September 22, 2026

Giovanni de Briganti

Authors