STRATDELA #41

Springtime salvoes everywhere

STRATDELA Newsletter

Apr 10, 2026

Strategic offensive weapons

B-21 Raider caught testing aerial refueling.

USAF considers a second production line for the Raider.

More LRSO footage surfaced:

B-2A, B-52H and B-1B had some extensive action around and even over Iran, as you all know.

Sentinel ICBM launch silo prototyping to be accelerated.

The French held another POKER exercise in March.

Kareliya SSBN (667BDRM/Delta-IV) getting ready for patrol after repairs. More here:

Russian Nuclear Forces

Karelia Project 667BDRM/Delta IV submarine is preparing to resume service

Karelia submarine of the Project 667BDRM/Delta IV class is preparing to resume service after an overhaul that included refueling of the reactor. The submarine carries 16 Sineva/R-29RM missiles, each capable of carrying four warheads. It is based in Gadzhievo, in the Northern Fleet…

21 days ago · 7 likes · Pavel Podvig

Some footage from Yars ICBM exercise in Siberia:

Some Sarmat or Avangard test launches were expected, but nothing happened, as it seems.

Nuclear Enterprise and Testing

Some new statements by the US officials on alleged Chinese nuclear tests:

“It appears they’re doing testing in the hundreds of tons of yield. These are not small tests, folks,” Williams said.
“And these are absolutely against the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and all of the pronouncements they’ve made.”

NNSA produced a new enriched uranium “button” at Y-12.

Hyperhype

A pair of Kinzhal carriers (MiG-31I) had some fun over the Sea of Japan.

First LRHW Dark Eagle unit probably declared operational by the US Army as of the time of this writing, likely it is Bravo Battery, 1st Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Multi-Domain Task Force at JBLM.

Still the progress is limited due to “…manufacturing and production process, which isn’t very automated and a lot of those subcomponents and a lot of that assembly that’s occurring is occurring by hand”. Still, officials believe it “…provides for a lot of deterrence and capability”.

Some hypersonic testing action reportedly took place in Australia, at Woomera Range.

Works on mating Zumwalt with CPS continue.

US plans to support further development and testing of the Japanese HVGP. Which is now called “Type 25 HVGP”, and already deployed at Camp Fuji near the city of Gotemba in Shizuoka Prefecture, with more units to follow at Camp Kamifurano in the town of Kamifurano, Hokkaido, and Camp Ebino in the city of Ebino, Miyazaki Prefecture.

Post-INF (and other long-range precision weapons)

US Army wants to see PrSM Increment 4 with up to 1000 km range and capability to hit moving targets as soon as in 2029. Will be very interesting to look at technologies involved. PrSM Inc. 2 tested on March 12, and Lockheed Martin seems satisfied.

UK and Germany also want to get their own long-range strike capability by the 2030s, with ELSA notably not mentioned in relevant statements.

Japan deployed Type 12 improved capability anti-ship/land-attack cruise missiles at the Ken-gun Garrison in Higashi Ward, Kumamoto City.

By the way, they have been re-designated as “Type 25 surface-to-ship missile”. Ship-launched and air-launched versions to follow.

Early Warning and Missile Defense and Military Space

This release from the US Space Force about partnership with the Texas Space Commission includes some interesting phrases, like “decompose adversary kill chains”, “outpace sophisticated adversaries” and “avoid operational surprise and deny the first mover advantage”.

Space Force expands the so-called Ground Based Radar Digitization (GBRD) effort.

Some challenges still exist in terms of integration of different US assets for the missile warning and defense missions.

Space Force established dedicated cyber squadrons to protect launches.

L3Harris reported full-scale production of missile-tracking satellites at their new Florida facility.

New satellites for the SDA Tranche 1 Tracking program in production at L3Harris’ manufacturing facility

This Satellite Integration and Test facility might be

Some good points from True Anomaly on dogfighting, or rather “sloth fighting” in space.

Back to Space Force, they are serious about cislunar operations. For now, more TacRS operations claimed as successful, now we know about another Space Safari - VICTUS DIEM.

Reportedly, UK RAF has been involved in missile warning and defense operations at the Middle East through their radar at Fylingdales.

Astroscale achieved some progress with their project to provide UK with military space tracking capability. Private contractors and new concepts are quite popular in Europe, including inspector satellite motherships.

LeoLabs are also very open and explicit about providing services for military customers.

Seekers for THAAD interceptors production is to be quadrupled. By the way, here is how it looks assembled…or semi-disassembled:

Also, PAC-3 seekers production to be tripled.

Arms control, diplomacy and signalling

US and France discussed non-pro, deterrence and strategic stability on March 9. Arms control was notably absent from the readout as a topic.

More US/Japan cooperation:

The United States and Japan affirmed their commitment to deploying advanced capabilities in Japan to enable a strong denial defense posture. This year, the two sides will maintain close coordination, building on the successful 2025 deployment of the U.S. Typhon missile system to mainland Japan.
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In support of missile defense cooperation, the two sides will rapidly increase by fourfold the production of Standard Missile 3 Block IIA missiles in Japan.

CSTO consultations on arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation took place on March 31st.