Giovanni de Briganti, Author at DEFENSE-AEROSPACE

A Royal Australian Air Force E-7A Wedgetail on approach to land, its dorsal MESA radar antenna visible

The E-7A Wedgetail Line in the FY2027 Request

The Pentagon has reversed course on the E-7 twice in two budget cycles. Only one of those reversals has a dollar figure attached to it in an actual bill. E-7A Wedgetail · FY2027 DoD request none requested HASC, authorized none SASC, authorized

September 9, 2026

Marine Corps Gen. Francis L. Donovan watches a demonstration of an unmanned system during the FLEX 2026 exercise

AI & Autonomy

A New Command for Autonomous Warfare, and $55 Billion Behind It

Five months after the Pentagon’s headline budget request, three congressional committees have written down a figure for the same organization, and it isn’t $55 billion. Defense Autonomous Warfare Group · FY2027 Requested, discretionary $1.00B Requested, mandatory $53.6B via reconciliation HASC, authorized $1.00B

September 9, 2026

Two F-35A Lightning II aircraft of the 461st Flight Test Squadron in flight

Contracts & Deals

Kongsberg JSM: the 5 June Award Was Lot Three, at $280.7M

Sources are listed in full at the end. Contract figures come from Department of War announcements; quantities, unit costs and the lot schedule come from the Air Force FY2027 missile procurement justification book, line item JSM000. The $240.9 million Joint Strike Missile

September 4, 2026

Cars queueing at a petrol station in Kaliningrad during fuel shortages in July 2026

Russia-Ukraine War

How Much of Russia’s Refining Is Actually Down?

Figures below cover January to late August 2026 and are attributed to the organisation that produced them, with the date each was given. Claims by parties to the fighting are identified as such. On 4 July, Ukraine’s General Staff said Ukrainian strikes

September 3, 2026

A materials engineer leads a laboratory session at Naval Surface Warfare Center Philadelphia Division

GAO / Think Tank Reports

GAO’s 24th Assessment: The 12-Year Number and What Explains It

GAO-26-108457 was released on 2 July 2026. Figures below are from the report’s analytical section unless otherwise noted. Programme cost and schedule data in the report come from Department of Defense reporting, not from independent measurement. Every account of this year’s assessment

September 2, 2026

Keir Starmer, Donald Trump, Mark Rutte, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Radmila Shekerinska seated at the North Atlantic Council table during the 2026 NATO Summit in Ankara

Europe & NATO

Ankara pledged $50 billion in procurement and €70 billion for Ukraine. Neither number means what it looks like

The Ankara Summit Declaration runs to six paragraphs and carries two large figures. It carries no methodology for either one. Reconstructing the denominators from allied and third-party data gives a materially different picture of how much new money left Ankara — and

August 27, 2026

U.S. Soldiers prepare a PAC-2 missile for loading onto a Patriot system during exercise Tenacious Archer 25 at Koror International Airport, Palau, Aug. 15, 2025.

Air & Missile Defense Systems

$441.6M for GEM-T: About 150 Rounds Against 1,400 Fired

Air & Missile Defense Systems · Analysis · August 2026. Primary source: US Department of War daily contracts bulletin. Inventory figures are think-tank estimates, not disclosed stockpile numbers. The Army’s first PAC-2 buy in thirty years was fully obligated on day one

August 21, 2026

U.S. Department of War press briefing at the Pentagon. Under Secretary Hurst and Space Force Lt. Gen. Whitney speak to reporters about the FY2027 budget proposal. Washington D.C., April 21, 2026.

Defense Budgets / Policy

The FY2027 request: $1.5 trillion and what it actually buys

The FY2027 request was released by OMB on 3 April 2026, with the detailed Department of War rollout on 21 April. Figures below reflect the request as of that rollout. Congressional markup was ongoing at the time of writing — verify against

August 21, 2026

A US Army Air Defense Artilleryman re-loads a MIM-104 Patriot missile launcher in the CENTCOM area of responsibility, 29 April 2026

Middle East

Operation Epic Fury: The Interceptor Numbers, and Why They Disagree

Operation Epic Fury began on 28 February 2026. The figures below were published between March and August 2026 and are attributed to the organisations that produced them. Where sources disagree, both numbers appear. The US Army says it shot down more than

August 20, 2026

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Charlotte Dudenhoeffer

Naval Systems

U.S. Navy Confirms the First FF(X) Frigates Will Launch Without a Vertical Launch System

The U.S. Navy says the first production group of its new FF(X) frigates will deploy without a built-in Vertical Launch System. The service confirmed that point on Dec. 22, 2025, after releasing early renderings that showed no obvious VLS on the bow.

December 22, 2025

Giovanni de Briganti

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