Giovanni de Briganti, Author at DEFENSE-AEROSPACE

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.

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

Official group photograph of NATO Heads of State and Government at the 2026 Ankara Summit

Industrial Partnerships

NSDIF26: Joint Procurement From Communique to Contract

NATO’s new industry strategy was endorsed the same week as its $50 billion procurement headline. The strategy’s own text says it carries no legal or funding force and covers only the pre-competitive phase. The agency that actually negotiates and signs joint-procurement contracts

September 18, 2026

An MH-139A Grey Wolf flies alongside a missile security convoy at Malmstrom Air Force Base

Helicopters

MH-139A Grey Wolf: how the full-rate production decision kept moving

The 2023 production baseline targeted the full-rate production decision for March 2025. The FY2027 budget projected it for August 2026. Along the way, the Air Force funded 36 of 50 production helicopters and declared the type’s initial operational capability for nuclear security.

September 17, 2026

Gen. Michael A. Guetlein speaks at a podium during a Golden Dome for America event

Space Systems

Golden Dome’s Space Layer: $17.5 Billion, Mostly Off-Budget

Two Congressional Research Service products, published a day apart, can’t agree on what “$17.5 billion” means for Golden Dome. The continuing resolution that followed settled a different question: for now, none of it is protected. Document Figure given What it says CRS

September 16, 2026

A soldier stands in front of an emplaced THAAD launcher prepared to fire interceptors

Defense Infrastructure & Manufacturing

Interceptor Stocks After a 38-Day Campaign

The factories rebuilding Patriot and THAAD stocks are running on a dated, public paper trail. The stocks themselves are the subject of a public fight between a cable network and the Secretary of War. Neither argument settles what Congress has actually paid

September 10, 2026

Giovanni de Briganti

Authors