Defense Tech Newsletter

INNOVATION

The Arms Race is Measured in Gigawatts

Why America’s military edge runs through a civilian grid.

Thales Puts a New Kind of Missile Launcher Through Its First Live Test

A remote launcher designed to bring missile firepower to land and maritime platforms without onboard crews.

INVESTMENT

Veterans are the skilled workforce Tennessee needs to build a new defense tech corridor

Tennessee has the opportunity to build a new defense tech corridor. This corridor could stretch from Fort Campbell, one of the largest military installations in the United States, to Huntsville, Alabama, home of Redstone Arsenal. Along the way, it would connect military expertise with manufacturing and research capabilities in Clarksville, Nashville, Murfreesboro and Tullahoma.

AI

Palladyne AI’s BRAIN Named Finalist in US Army Interceptor Competition

The selection highlights growing interest in onboard AI systems for low-cost interceptors and counter-drone defense applications.

TECHNOLOGY

F-35s Train In India For “Red Flag Of The East”

Seven foreign air forces trained alongside the Indian Air Force, as American F-35s took part in their first exercise in India.

Project Omega Raises $80M to Turn Nuclear Waste Into the Pentagon's Next Power Supply

The US has a nuclear waste problem. A startup has an idea on how to fix it—and give all the power-hungry drones, sensors, and other hardware the Pentagon loves a next-gen, long-duration energy supply. Investors are going all-in on it.

DRONES

High-Speed Aircraft Startup Hermeus Joins Forces With Northrop Grumman

The partners say they are charting a new course to bring operational very-high-speed drones to the U.S. military.

Plans To Fly Talon Blue CCA Drone From British Carrier Confirmed By Northrop Grumman

The Royal Navy wants to infuse drone capabilities into its air wings and Talon Blue would be far more advanced than anything that has flown off the carriers yet.

Allen Control Systems launches new division to develop counter-drone lasers

The announcement comes amid the Pentagon's growing interest in laser weapons, which use concentrated beams of energy to heat and destroy targets.

SPACE

DoD pushes out 3 loans totaling $450M to bolster US space companies

One industry source told Breaking Defense that the reason for the spate of new loan announcements is that the Pentagon "needed to finalize loans by the end of the fiscal year."

The new space race: Ground control

Governments are pouring record public sums into space. But the returns, and above all the rockets, still belong mostly to America and China.

OwlO Cloud Emerges from Stealth to Build European Orbital Cloud Network

The company is aiming to help European satellite operators process more of their data in orbit. To do so, OwlO Cloud is planning to have at least 10 spacecraft—orbital cloud nodes (OCN)—operational by 2030. Each OCN will be equipped with data processing and storage hardware, as well as optical-comms tech, provided largely by European suppliers.

EUROPE

Germany, Poland tap SATIM to analyze military satellite imagery

SATIM, a Polish maker of AI-based analysis tools for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, has obtained a contract from Poland’s Ministry of National Defence to supply software for the automated analysis of satellite imagery.

The company is building on its ongoing cooperation with Germany’s Rheinmetall to support the German SPOCK-1 satellite reconnaissance program.

European Defense Tech Hub Brought Its First Hackathon to Bulgaria

Following its expansion across Europe and beyond, the European Defense Tech Hub has brought its hackathon format to Sofia, gathering more than 80 participants.

POLICY

Tough choices, uncertainty, and scrutiny may lie ahead for defense contractors

New and existing defense programs may face funding delays or challenges, and companies could see a flurry of Congressional anti-corruption inquiries when the new Democrat-majority Congress takes office next year, experts say. Until then, industry can expect a push for funding by the current majority.

STARTUPS

Uforce raises $700M at a $6B valuation to scale out its multi-domain defence roll-up play

Ukranian/UK business brings in a mammoth Series A from both government and private backers

Physical AI for National Security: The Startups Fine-Tuning Robotics Foundation Models

How startups are fine tuning robotics foundation models for manufacturing, logistics, critical infrastructure, and more

ARMY

Projecting Precision: 25th Infantry Division executes HIMARS rapid infiltration at JPMRC 27-01

Mastering the ability to rapidly project lethal, long-range fires across the expanse of the Pacific Ocean is a defining capability of the modern U.S. Army.

During Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center Rotation 27-01, the 25th Infantry Division showcased exactly how that capability operates, executing a highly complex HIMARS rapid infiltration — known as HIRAIN — dry-fire exercise on the island of Kauai.

AIR FORCE

C-17s Will Soon Be Armed With Pallets of Cruise Missiles

After years of experiments and tests, senior Air Force leaders say they’re on the verge of using C-17s and other cargo aircraft to launch cruise missiles via airdrop, touting the development as a way to bolster the combat fleet and a major shift in the service’s mindset.

Revamp of pilot training curriculum at 19th Air Force nears completion, officials say

The new approach is rooted in a concept known as competency mapping, which entails collecting data from past courses, identifying the knowledge, skills and abilities trainees must develop for each airframe and then using the resulting map to inform the course syllabus, said Christy Stephens, chief of curriculum for the unit’s Flying Training Center of Excellence.

Previously, the key metrics for pilot readiness were in-flight hours, time spent in a simulator and completion of sequential scenario-driven exercises.

RESEARCH

From Europe to Japan, hybrid warfare targets democracies

Russian and Chinese influence operations, artificial intelligence, and the growing vulnerabilities of open societies. In Tokyo, Jun Osawa, Senior Fellow at the Nakasone Peace Institute, examines how competition in the information domain is evolving, highlighting a security challenge increasingly shared by Japan, Italy, and Europe

Breaking the Boom and Bust Cycle

With munition demand high, the Pentagon’s industrial efforts should consider the long run.