What America's First Warships Teach Us About Defense Tech; Typhoon USV to Launch One-Way Drones With a Single Button

INNOVATION

Integration Advantage: What America's First Warships Still Teach Us About Defense Tech

For generations, warfare had clear boundaries—land, sea and air. Today, those boundaries have disappeared. We're being challenged across every domain simultaneously, from the deepest ocean trenches to the far reaches of space, from the battlefield to the boardroom. We must confront not only the sophistication of these threats but a pace of change unlike anything in our history. The speed at which technology evolves now rivals the threat itself.

How to Strengthen U.S. Deterrence Ecosystem

The United States faces a strategic imperative that transcends mere technological superiority — it must out-innovate models of state-directed vertical integration.

Its competitors — to include China, Russia and Iran — operate with a seamless, sometimes coercive, alignment between government, industry and academia — allowing them to move with speed and scale around critical technologies.

Privacy-focused communication app aims for military customers and beyond

When adversaries can forge faces and voices in real time, traditional secure messaging is no longer enough.

Firehawk Inks $24M Deal with the Pentagon’s IBAS Program for Artillery Propellant

The 155mm shell has been a workhorse of the US military’s artillery arsenal since World War I, but America has had a bit of a hard time, to put it lightly, ramping up production of the over-century-old munition to keep up with renewed demand from US and allied customers.

AI

Dataminr Brings Agentic AI to Real-Time Intelligence for Defense Agencies

Dataminr’s First Alert Advanced uses AI agents to verify events, gather context, and update intelligence automatically.

TECHNOLOGY

Teledyne FLIR to Build Tech That Gives Troops Better Eyes in Infrared Light

As part of the US Army’s Delivering Unmatched Thermal Capability Hastened (DUTCH) initiative, the Oregon-based firm will be under contract to work on advancing uncooled thermal imaging sensors that are smaller in size and cheaper to make without sacrificing performance.

Maneuver Isn’t Dead, Armor Isn’t Obsolete: Modern Battlefield Conditions Encourage Positional Warfare, But Don’t Dictate It

For the past several years, scholars and practitioners have vigorously debated the utility of armored formations on an increasingly lethal modern battlefield characterized by a proliferation of sensors, precision long-range fires, and integrated command and control networks. Recent campaigns—including the 2006 Hezbollah-Israeli War, the 2017 Battle for Mosul, the 2020 Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, and the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive against the Surovikin Line—appear to support claims that maneuver warfare is no longer viable. Commentary and debate, ranging from superficial, media-driven reactions to deeply researched analysis, between casual observers, scholars, and practitioners, continue unabated.

Thomas Global completes M1A2 Abrams simulator delivery to Australia

The M1A2 Abrams Immersive Tactical Trainers are used to train personnel for the Australian Army’s M1A2 Abrams SEPv3 main battle tank fleet.

SPACE

Space Force Adopts Digital Engineering Tool for NC3 Satellites

Space Systems Command has been working with General Dynamics Information Technology since 2023 to develop the platform, called Project Enigma, for its Evolved Strategic Satellite Communications program—a fleet of nuclear command and control spacecraft that will replace the legacy Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite constellation. Because many aspects of the program are classified, SSC needed a secure environment where its prime contractor Boeing and other industry partners could share and validate designs.

EUROPE

Estonia’s Wolfram Europa invests €200 million into Latvian munitions site

Tallinn, Estonia energetic materials supplier Wolfram Europa said it will invest €200 million to build a vertically integrated energetics complex near Jēkabpils, Latvia. It has secured a 40-hectare site under a long-term land agreement with Latvijas Valsts Meži, the Latvian state forestry company.

German Air Force selects Lufthansa for Initial Pilot Training

The training covers theory subjects such as meteorology and aviation law, plus mission planning and practical flying skills.

Spain clears $6.3bn joint Airbus tanker deal with Poland

The deal, financed through the EU SAFE loan, will enable Poland to acquire its first Airbus A330 MRTT aircraft.

Italy eyes US tech for souping up dumb missiles into drone interceptors

The Italian Air Force is mulling the purchase of U.S. technology that turns cheap unguided missiles into precision weapons, offering a low-cost option for taking out drones instead of using pricy air-to-air missiles.

The potential deal was made possible by the U.S. Department of State’s approval of a Foreign Military Sale to Italy of 5,031 BAE Systems Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) II guidance systems.

DRONES

Taiwan Can Buy 200,000 Drones To Stop a Taiwan Invasion. But Replacing Them in a Fight Is the Challenge No One Wants to Face

If Taiwanese drones are still finding targets over a beachhead in week three, Chinese units moving supplies inland, widening a lodgment, or reopening a captured port stay exposed the whole time.

Typhoon USV Gains Ability to Launch One-Way Drones With a Single Button

Typhoon uses the Splash command-and-control system to deploy drones with the press of a button.

ARMY

How the Army benefits from diverse interceptors, plus a window into modernization

The chief of the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command shares more from our recent interview in Huntsville, Ala.

NAVY

US Navy Moves to Modernize USS Boxer With $150M BAE Systems Contract

The US Navy has awarded BAE Systems a $149.8-million firm-fixed-price contract for the maintenance, modernization, and repair of the USS Boxer (LHD 4), a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship.

BAE Systems will perform the work at Naval Base San Diego, California, with completion expected by October 2028. Contract options could increase the total value to $180 million.

Lockheed Martin wins $14.6 million Navy submarine EW engineering contract

The AN/BLQ-10 is an electronic-support-measures system that provides submarines with the ability to detect, classify, locate and identify radio-frequency signals from radar and communications systems.

STRATEGY

Leave Europe to the Europeans

The case for a U.S. military drawdown.

From Hormuz to the Caucasus: The New Geography of Energy Security

Every crisis in the Middle East returns the world’s attention to the same stretch of water. When tankers are seized, or missiles fly near the Persian Gulf, oil prices move, insurers reprice risk, shipping reroutes, and the United States repositions naval and airpower to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. The reflex is sound, because the strait carries volumes nothing else can. Alongside the maritime map, a second geography of energy security is taking shape: the pipelines, railways, power lines, and transit corridors linking the Caspian Basin and the South Caucasus to Europe.

What the US and China should address in their September AI meeting

The US and China are about to meet this September to talk about AI. As the world’s two leading AI superpowers, the US and China’s engagement with AI have strategic implications for not only the AI and chip industries but also how they are governed globally. What do we need to know about this meeting? How could the US and China make the best out of their talks?