Drone Darling Powerus Goes Public; Anduril Snaps Up Popoto Modem

INNOVATION

STARK’s AI-Powered USV Emerges as a New Defender for European Waters

Vanta 12 combines AI-enabled autonomy with modular weapons for persistent maritime surveillance and strike missions.

Hegseth plans ‘Autonomous Warfare Command’

The Pentagon will create a combatant command to lead its efforts to develop and deploy robotic weapons, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday in a speech peppered with Bible verses and insults to the press.

Cyber Operators Are Deployed in Place. The Pentagon Should Treat Them That Way

A cyber operator can spend a shift tracking an adversary halfway around the world, walk to the parking lot, and be home in time for dinner. There is no flight home, no demobilization, and no transition from an operational mission back to ordinary life. The war zone is a commute away. That arrangement looks like one of the advantages of cyber warfare. It is also becoming one of its human costs.

MacGyver at Scale: Winning Future Air Wars of Rapid Technological Adaptation

During a recent training exercise in the western Pacific, a small group of engineers single-handedly saved the day.

In the scenario, adversary covert forces used first-person view drones to intercept American helicopters that were shuttling between austere forward island airbases. Some helicopters were shot down, and the rest were forced to suspend flight operations, meaning the island bases were cut off from each other and from easy resupply. Fortunately, one of the U.S. bases included a small, forward-deployed team of military engineers and their equipment. They analyzed the adversary radio control techniques and then designed and built custom self-protection radio jammers, fabricating the circuit boards on-site and mounting them to the helicopters using 3D-printed housings. The jammers were software-reprogrammable, allowing them to easily adapt to new radio frequencies. Within days, the U.S. helicopters were back in action, protected by their new jamming pods.

INVESTMENT

Osavul snaps up $10M to expand its hybrid threat detector tech to more users

NATO partner says it is tracking 1B+ data points monthly to figure out what grey-zone campaigns are coming up

Protego Ventures closes debut $125M fund for Israeli defense tech

Defense and venture capital used to rarely overlap, but that’s no longer the case. Defense tech VC dealmaking set a record in Q1 2026, and new VC firms have emerged around the world to invest solely in defense startups.

Blackstone Backs Launch of Defense Tech Company Falcata

Blackstone said Thursday it made a strategic investment in Falcata to help the latter bring together technologies that support multiple stages of interceptor guidance.

The launch follows a series of agreements the Department of War signed with industry to increase munitions production, including deals to strengthen the interceptor supply chain.

Goldman Sachs & Co. acted as Blackstone’s exclusive financial advisor, while Simpson Thacher & Bartlett provided legal counsel.

AI

South Korea to Train Defense AI Talent From the University Level

A new university-industry program will give students hands-on experience with defense data while creating a direct pathway into AI roles at Hanwha Aerospace.

TECHNOLOGY

Ondas Pushes Drone Defense 10 Km Out With New Non-Kinetic C-UAS

REACH uses directional radio-frequency signals to focus electronic energy on specific targets.

ACQUISITION

Anduril Snaps Up Popoto Modem

The defense tech giant announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that it has acquired Sandwich, Massachusetts-based underwater acoustics company Popoto Modem to “accelerate Anduril’s efforts to develop, produce, and deploy a fleet of autonomous underwater systems.”

SPACE

Army codifies decades of space expertise, welcomes over 600 Soldiers to new Space Operations Branch

More than 600 Soldiers reclassified to the new 40D Tactical Space Operations Specialist MOS, Oct. 1, 2026.

These Soldiers join the new Army Space Operations branch and become the newest warfighters in the space domain.

“We had nearly 3,000 Soldiers apply, and selected over 600 of the most capable, professional Soldiers in the Army,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Rickey Jackson, command sergeant major of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command. “We drew talent from Military Intelligence, Air Defense Artillery and the Signal Corps, but the 40D MOS is open for anyone to apply. Ultimately, we are looking for Soldiers who master their current jobs and consistently stand apart from their peers.”

EUROPE

How Ukraine Uses AI on the Battlefield: Drones, Data, and Defense Tech

In Ukraine, a technology can go from an idea to real-world testing within weeks, receive feedback, and evolve. The full-scale war has turned Ukraine into a unique testing ground for autonomous systems and a laboratory for technologies that could reshape the global market as soon as tomorrow.

Ukraine war fatigue fuels defense-spending downgrade plan in Italy

Italian military planners risk losing out on €8 billion ($9 billion) in funding as government and opposition parties seek to cut both defense spending and support for Ukraine.

The plans to limit spending emerged this week as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni continues to be squeezed between NATO spending targets and voter opposition to spending tax payers’ cash on arms not hospitals.

DRONES

Liminal Ground Drone Selected for Second Phase of Pentagon Competition

An unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) with a heavy wheel-based design has advanced to the second phase of a Pentagon-led competition after clearing an initial technical evaluation.

The Dynamic Unmanned Expendable Light Vehicle (DUEL-V) from US startup Liminal Industries will be demonstrated to US military and government officials as part of the GroundBreaker 1 program.

Drone Darling Powerus Goes Public

After coming out of pretty much nowhere earlier this year, Powerus has notched headline after headline. But yesterday, the Florida-based drone startup made its biggest power play yet— ringing the bell on the Nasdaq to start trading as a public company.

The company first announced plans to go public back in March via a slightly unconventional merger with Aureus Greenway, a Trump family-backed golf course holding company, after securing investment from the president’s eldest sons, Eric and Don Jr.

ARMY

Smart Shooter secures counter-UAS contract from JIATF-401

The 36-month sole-supplier agreement covers SMASH fire control hardware, software, training and support for US force protection missions.

NAVY

Navy, Raytheon ink $24.4B deal for SM-6 'acceleration'

The US Navy and RTX subsidiary Raytheon have inked a $24.4 billion deal designed to “accelerate” production of the Standard Missile-6 (SM-6), the Pentagon announced.

“This five-year agreement, with two additional option years, will drive faster production, increase manufacturing throughput, and deliver significant cost savings across the defense industrial base,” the Pentagon wrote in the announcement Thursday evening.

Kongsberg wins up to $404m US contract for Naval Strike Missile

The contract covers production and sustainment for the NSM launcher, weapon control system, and related support equipment.

AIR FORCE

US Air Force Taps AI to Expose Hidden Foreign Ties in Supply Chains

The effort will use AI and knowledge graphs to help analysts uncover connections and assess potential risks across companies and research institutions.

T-7 in the Air Links Up with Simulators for LVC Flight in USAF First

Three T-7A Red Hawks flew together at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas, on Sept. 16—but only one was a real aircraft in the air. The other two jets were virtual, controlled from simulators on the ground. All three shared a single, common operating picture.