Golden Dome is a Trillion Dollar Gambit

INNOVATION

STARK Enters the Maritime Domain

Whoever thought the “maritime autonomy was all the rage” era was over, think again. This morning, European defense tech company STARK announced that they’re officially entering the maritime domain with a range of unmanned surface vessels (USVs), tested for the past month at NATO’s REP(MUS) exercise.

INVESTMENT

Booz Allen is eyeing these 4 defense-tech fields for investment

Investors are betting billions of dollars that the world of defense tech is a gold mine, despite the Pentagon's reputation for sluggish purchases and arcane regulations.

Stratis, a Mysterious Icelandic Startup, Emerges from Stealth to Build a ‘Palantir for Europe’

Darkstar writes its biggest cheque yet to back the mission-led startup focused on Ukraine and European tech sovereignty.

AI

Military AI needs guardrails—not to slow it down, but to keep it useful

Modifying commercial models isn’t as easy as removing the parts that discourage users from killing people.

TECHNOLOGY

Golden Dome is a Trillion Dollar Gambit

U.S. President Donald Trump set high expectations for “Golden Dome.” His executive order directing development of this homeland air and missile defense system lists a broad range of threats: “ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks from peer, near-peer, and rogue adversaries.”

At an Oval Office event, he went further, claiming Golden Dome would be “very close to 100 percent” effective, completed “in about three years,” and cost “about $175 billion.”

POLICY

Moldova's Playbook: How to Fight a Hybrid War—and Win.

In the shadow of the Ukraine war, a different kind of European battle was fought, and decisively won. Moldova, a small, impoverished former Soviet State, has just delivered a masterclass in democratic resilience.

Defense Tech, SBIR, and the Government’s Funding Fracas

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a double whammy of fun today. Not only has the long-anticipated government shutdown commenced, but SBIR/STTR reauthorization

EUROPE

Aspichi Is Building A Virtual Front for Soldiers in Ukraine

When Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022, many Ukrainians had to decide quickly how they could be useful. For CTO Max Goncharuk and his co-founder Victor Samolyenko, both from the IT world, the answer was tech. “We had just opened an office in Kyiv,” he recalled. “Four days later, we had to close it because of the invasion.”