Next Insurgent Won’t Need a Patron; Navy, Shipbuilders Bringing Robots Online to Build, Maintain Fleet

INNOVATION

UK awards $26m hypersonic target contract to Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin UK will design, build, and test a hypersonic target simulating threats travelling at speeds above Mach 5.

Oracle Defence Tech Summit: Accelerating mission advantage through sovereign cloud, AI, and defense innovation

Defense organizations are under pressure to modernize at speed while protecting sovereignty, resilience, security, and operational control. Across NATO and allied nations, trusted data, cloud infrastructure, and AI have become strategic capabilities that can directly influence mission readiness.

These priorities shaped discussions at the Oracle Defence Tech Summit in Brussels on June 25, 2026, which brought together defense leaders, public sector decision makers, and defense technology startups. The event focused on one of the most urgent questions facing the sector today: how do we move critical technology from promising concept to operational advantage, faster?

Pentagon’s next APFIT round will prioritize tech that ‘can be made cheaply at scale’

Applications will soon open for the next round of DOD's Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies program.

Army Test and Evaluation Command Empowering Industry Partners

The Army is in the middle of a rapid, continuous transformation to maintain its competitive edge against evolving threats.

This new landscape demands agility and deep collaboration with industry partners to integrate cutting-edge commercial technologies at the speed of relevance. At Test and Evaluation Command, we are committed to evolving in lockstep with the Army, and that means transforming processes to bring solutions to the field faster and more effectively.

Segers Aero, Standard Aero, Turbopower win $343m T56 support contract

The firm fixed-price service contract covers the repair and overhaul of non-commercial T56 engine parts used in C-130 aircraft.

INVESTMENT

Anduril reportedly in talks to raise funding at $100B valuation, more than 3x last year's mark

Defense tech company Anduril is said to be raising a new round of capital that may push its valuation up by a whopping $40 billion to about $100 billion, Reuters reported, citing anonymous sources.

Antares Raises $470M to Field Military-Focused Microreactors

This morning, LA-based space and defense-focused nuclear startup Antares announced a whopping $470M Series C—including $370M in equity and $100M in debt—to “build reactors” and get them up and running “on military installations by 2028,” CEO Jordan Bramble told Tectonic.

FPF Defense Raises $10M for Interceptors

Late last week, FPF Defense—a new cUAS company founded by former Acting Secretary of Defense and Director of the US National Counterterrorism Center Chris Miller—announced that it’s scored a “strategic investment” co-led by RSE Ventures and Ondas Inc.

AI

US Military Supercharges Data Processing With First AI Supercomputer

DGX GB300 is an AI supercomputer built to process large-scale workloads, support advanced model development, and accelerate data analysis.

Are We Building 'The Entity'? What Military AI Is Actually Becoming

As artificial intelligence spreads across the U.S. military, the real concern is not a rogue supercomputer, but whether human oversight can keep pace with systems designed to move faster than people. Using a pop-culture reference from Mission: Impossible

When AI Agents Attack: Autonomous Cyber Operations and Europe’s Governance Gap

Autonomous AI agents are increasingly prevalent in cyberspace. The EU needs a real-time monitoring strategy, to invest in AI defenses, and to reduce its strategic dependence on U.S. frontier models.

TECHNOLOGY

US Air National Guard Eyes Powered Paragliders for Special Missions

The North Carolina Air National Guard intends to acquire powered paragliding systems to enhance the survivability and operational effectiveness of Air Force Special Warfare personnel during combat and disaster response missions.

A paramotor-equipped team could quietly deploy into remote or inaccessible areas with essential payloads to establish communications, conduct independent aerial assessments, and perform life-saving operations without relying on conventional air or ground transport.

Navy, Shipbuilders Bringing Robots Online to Build, Maintain Fleet

The Navy is looking to rapidly expand its fleet, and the service and its shipbuilders are incorporating new robotics technologies into the construction and sustainment of current and future military vessels.

The service’s fiscal year 2027 shipbuilding plan calls for the Navy to invest in 75 new battle force ships, 47 support boats and 47 medium unmanned surface vessels over the five-year Future Years Defense Program. However, the industrial base lacks the skilled workforce to build these ships, said Ariyan Kabir, co-founder and CEO of GrayMatter Robotics.

Frankenburgh, ACUA and Babcock pair up for a new line of naval defence

A new partnership between a prime and two startups aims to transform autonomous surface systems to defend against drones

The Next Insurgent Won’t Need a Patron

The war has opened new avenues of technological adaptation for the violent non-state actors in the region and beyond.

SPACE

Space Force Wants Commercial Bandwidth for SATCOM Experiments

The Space Force is moving forward with a series of experiments to test ideas for broadening its narrowband satellite communication mission to medium-Earth orbit, and a new notice to industry seeks commercial satellites to help demonstrate the viability of a future hybrid architecture.

EUROPE

Why Norway and Finland Should Preserve Two of Europe's Most Important Security Arrangements

Svalbard is a stark archipelago of glaciers and coal mines lying 650 kilometers (403 miles) north of Norway’s North Cape, roughly halfway between the Norwegian mainland and the North Pole. It belongs to Norway but is governed under a 1920 treaty that grants nationals of more than 40 signatory states sweeping economic rights while barring Oslo from constructing naval bases or using the archipelago for “warlike” purposes. Far to the south, in the Baltic Sea between the Finnish and Swedish coasts, lie the Åland Islands, which are composed of roughly 6,500 islands and reefs. They are also home to 30,000 Swedish-speaking Finns. These islands are similarly bound by a 1921 convention that prohibits military fortification, constraining what NATO can do in and above them.

DRONES

UK selects Tekever AR5 surveillance drones to succeed Watchkeeper

The acquisition is slated to see up to 24 aircraft delivered to the British Army by 2029.

Pentagon adds ‘bombers’ to Drone Dominance Program

Officials issued a new request for solutions focused on “reusable bomber/dropper platforms.”

As drones take over, ejection-seat makers prepare for a pilotless battlefield

In the eight decades since Martin-Baker conducted its first in-flight test, its ejection seats have saved the lives of more than 7,800 aviators. But more recently, advancements in robotic and autonomous aircraft have Martin-Baker and fellow ejection-seat makers looking for ways to keep themselves alive and well.