Welcome to the latest edition of Defense Tech and Acquisition.
The biggest stories across the Department and the defense industry this week:
The Pentagon wants more munitions fast and the primes explore low-cost.
Improving accounting for contractors and assessing AI for industry selections.
The Army opens up test ranges and ground autonomy.
The White House directs the Navy to get serious on shipbuilding
Air Force doctrine and tactics must evolve with tech and new training needed.
Space Force issues unfunded priority list and looks to lasers for counter pLEO
Golden Dome current programs and future unclear with funding under threat.
China is increasing use of drones to invade Taiwan; Taiwan is responding in kind.
DONRCO Establishes National Security Plug and Play Consortium for Rapid Acquisition of Advanced Technologies
BLUF: The Department of Navy Rapid Capabilities Office (DON RCO) has established the National Security Plug and Play Consortium (NSPPC), designed to integrate advanced technology into operational systems at scale and speed.
The NSPPC, managed by the Creative Defense Foundation, will connect the DON with a network of technology companies and innovators. This consortium will provide accelerated research, prototyping, and production of vital technologies through various Other Transaction Agreements (OTAs).
The NSPPC will focus on sourcing technologies that work immediately with existing systems, providing accelerated procurement for the DON enterprise through easier access to non-traditional partners and off-the-shelf solutions. With a broad scope that provides flexible contracting to all DON domains, it will include prize challenges, Commercial Solutions Offerings, disruptor events, and wargaming challenges.
The Creative Defense Foundation will host the first meeting of the NSPPC on Sept. 18, bringing together consortium members, DoW leadership, Congressional stakeholders and defense industry partners.
SECNAV established the DON RCO in August 2025 to drive the rapid delivery of transformative solutions to solve the hardest operational problems.
With a focus on providing capabilities within zero to three years, the DON RCO leverages existing technologies in new ways and adapts emerging technologies and unconventional concepts to ensure the Navy can win decisively - both now and in the future.
“This consortium gives us another tool to move at the speed the warfighter demands It expands our access to industry, creates more pathways for competition and innovation, and—most importantly—helps us get relevant capability into the hands of Sailors and Marines faster. That is what the DONRCO is built to do.” VADM Seiko Okano, DON RCO Director
“Through the NSPPC, the DONRCO is providing our partners across the PAEs and their Rapid Capability Cells with another tool to meet their demand signals. Delivering at the speed of relevance is at the heart of the DONRCO, and the consortium is a means to make that happen.” Jim Juster, DONRCO Deputy Director
Our Take: We (Creative Defense Network) are proud to support the Creative Defense Foundation in the execution of the NSPPC. The consortium will enable rapid acquisition of integrated capabilities for the Department of Navy and beyond. The consortium is open to all traditional and non-traditional defense companies at no membership fees. It gives the Department access a broadening industrial base while employing the innovative acquisition approaches championed by the White House, Pentagon, and Congress.
Pentagon Gives Industry 21 Days to Submit Plans for Significantly Faster Weapons Production
BLUF: Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg told defense-industry leaders in an Aug. 5 memo that they have 21 days to submit plans for significantly faster, more aggressive delivery schedules and/or increased production for critical capabilities.
Years-long development cycles are not acceptable. We must dramatically accelerate our program schedules and expand our production capacity now.
Feinberg asks companies to propose specific capital investments and facility expansions and to explain how they would work with the Pentagon to increase weapons production.
Feinberg called on industry to demonstrate its willingness to put skin in the game.
The urgent 21-day deadline was communicated to arms manufacturers like Boeing, Lockheed Martin and RTX.
Feinberg identified 16 critical programs under consideration for accelerated production or increased procurement.
Feinberg Requested Defense Industry Board Members for Briefing
BLUF: Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg requested that large firms send their board members to the Pentagon to receive briefings from department leaders
It’s highly unusual for members of a company’s board of directors to be called into the Pentagon for an in-person meeting.
Some board members have met with officials through the Business Operators for National Defense (BOND).
The goal of the requested meeting was a desire to educate board members on the gravity of the threats facing the U.S. The DoW would only permit board members with security clearances to attend the session.
“These discussions centered on connecting defense industry leaders face-to-face with their government customer and addressing procurement modernization and production scaling. Our industry partners must have a clear understanding of the global strategic competition, particularly as our adversaries target aggressive production timelines. Ultimately, the warfighter and the taxpayer stand to gain when we foster a more responsive, collaborative, and mission-aligned defense industrial base.” Unnamed Defense Official
US Pacific Bases Severely Degraded, Pentagon Inspector Warns
BLUF: The DOW IG warned that US military facilities across the Pacific are in a state of decay, with problems including corrosion, holes in buildings, and the presence of mold and asbestos.
The issues affect infrastructure essential to US preparedness and have been identified through inspections of 11 US facilities across the region.
Pentagon officials attributed the severe degradation to factors including the age of buildings, environmental conditions, and personnel and funding shortages, and said that a detailed timeline for correcting the deficiencies will be established.
At Kadena, which hosts about 20,000 Americans, at least 243 homes on the base had to be vacated because of spalling.
Ethos Rolls Out Readiness Engine to Train Soldiers at the Speed of Tech
BLUF: Ethos rolled out a new training software platform that takes all the skill requirements for specific military roles, compares them with real-time assessments of people across the force, and helps commanders spot and fill training gaps.
Ethos’ training platform—already used by over 50,000 servicemembers across the Air Force, Space Force, Army, and Navy—is broken down into three main parts:
What’s important for each person to know based on their specific role.
Where each individual is against that baseline standard, whether through knowledge or skill assessments on the platform.
Feeds that information into the readiness engine, which allows commanders to see exactly where people are falling short, visualize the proficiency levels across entire units, and take steps to fill the gaps.
Ethos piloted the readiness engine on the Army’s drone operations, since it’s particularly useful with the fast-moving, high-paced things, and now launching this as a general release for all of customers.
“We can’t have a static, 1990s approach to training warfighters when the threats they’re going to face on a daily basis are changing literally week over week in a pretty profound way. The readiness engine is a response to what we feel is an emerging and very important problem in the age of AI and warfare.
Instead of just thinking about completion of training or meeting compliance requirements, it’s how do we maximize the chance of success on whatever we’re asking somebody to do and ensure that they’re as prepared as possible.” Andrew Powell, Ethos CEO
Ethos helps customers like the DOW and the NFL modernize their training and education programs. Our AI quantifies skills and competencies critical to an organization, assesses team proficiency, and addresses knowledge gaps before they become a problem.
Pentagon’s S&T Boss Touts Early Benefits of Re-Org, Including Virtuous Cycles of Collaboration
BLUF: Joseph Jewell, DASW(S&T) discussed how DoW overhauled the sprawling defense innovation ecosystem to unify operational authorities and align modernization.
DoD is the largest funded of federal R&D.
In January DoW unveiled plans to reshape the R&D and innovation landscape to fuse offices, activities and functions under USW(R&E).
In DASW(S&T), they look at basic research in the first levels of applied research. Then they own the verticals for hypersonics, biotech/biomanufacturing, and manufacturing technology. S&T also oversees SBIR/STTR programs.
It also elevated and consolidated six DoD tech hubs: DIU, SCO, DARPA, CDAO, OSC, and TRMC as R&E components.
The new R&E structure sets up virtuous cycles of collaboration.
His team also steers and coordinates defense science and technical relations with foreign partners, including NATO and the Five Eyes alliance.
S&T also managed policies governing FFRDCs and UARCs for long-term studies and analysis.
“We want to move fast. And so, the new structure of R&E really sets up a lot of what you might call virtuous cycles of collaboration.” - Joseph Jewell, DASW for Science and Technology
DARPA Looking to Develop Foundation of Next-Generation Hypersonic Missile Work
BLUF: The Next Generation Hypersonic Cruise Missile effort is interested in vehicle designs, emerging capabilities, and innovative test-and-evaluation technologies.
DARPA is considering a new program to develop a hypersonic missile demonstrator that would serve as the baseline of future weapons.
DARPA’s vision goes beyond future design concepts for an air-breathing hypersonic cruise missile.
While prior technology demonstration programs have successfully proven the fundamental viability of scramjet-powered flight to counter the evolving threat landscape, existing concepts often achieve predictable, incremental gains in isolated performance metrics, representing evolutionary improvements rather than the disruptive capabilities required for future conflicts.
Legacy manufacturing processes often result in systems that are too expensive and complex to produce at the scale required for peer conflict.
DARPA is requesting industry feedback on at least one of three key focus areas. Under the first, the agency is interested in advanced air-breathing hypersonic cruise missile architectures that prioritize offering greater ranges, cruise speeds or altitudes over current systems.
Related: DARPA developing hypersonic cruise missile to evade enemy air defenses and DARPA seeks ‘unconstrained, radical’ concepts for next-gen hypersonic cruise missile
The Pentagon Wants 20 Prize Fighters, Not 200 Midgets
BLUF: Defense is following the familiar pattern of an investment heat cycle.
A handful of institutions lead the market, initially making the high-risk bets and attracting the rest of the pack.
As the table gets crowded, they pull back from the riskiest early-stage wagers and move toward the numbered bets. Eventually, many cash out and move on to the next hot table.
Meanwhile, PE and public-market investors arrive later with much larger checks, concentrating on the safer parts of the table—the field and pass line—where returns may be lower, but the odds are considerably more dependable.
There is universal consensus that six defense primes with 80%+ of the major acquisition programs is too few and that number has to grow. DoW has also made the command intent pretty clear: they don’t ultimately need 200 midgets—they need 20 prize fighters.
If the destination is roughly 20 scaled competitors, there may only be room for another five to ten prize fighters to emerge from the hundreds of companies currently fighting their way up from the bottom.
Eventually the distinction between a “venture-backed defense startup” and a “PE-backed defense platform” may matter a lot less to DoW than whether the company can reliably deliver thousands of systems on schedule.
DoW simply cannot wait another 12–24 months for industry to sort itself out and grow into the demand. If you aren’t in production already, it’s probably too late.
The government may want hundreds of companies competing to discover the best technology, but it does not want to integrate, train, sustain and operate hundreds of bespoke systems at scale.
Once winners emerge from operational testing, procurement naturally begins concentrating around the handful of platforms that can actually be fielded, integrated and supported.
This gets to the fundamental lesson of the reindustrialization wave: the factory is the product.
Other Defense Tech News:
RFI: Advanced Metals Manufacturing Solutions to Strengthen the DIB
New DOD Innovation Hub will Confront Unacceptable Vulnerabilities in Production of Military Fabrics
Lockheed Martin Launches Modular Missile Tech With Storefront
BLUF: Lockheed Martin announced the launch of Strigo, a new line of modular missile and sensor hardware, along with a dedicated product center designed to get weapons into the field faster. The line covers radio-frequency sensors, missile datalinks and missile seeker technologies, all built on a common baseline architecture.
The shared architecture allows Strigo hardware to be reconfigured for different missions, including air defense, missile defense and air-to-surface strike.
Lockheed calls the Strigo Product Center a storefront for ready-now and near-ready hardware that it said can be adapted to customer needs.
The modular approach also lowers life cycle costs. Lockheed said it has made a $250M internal investment in the product center to date.
The center can move a concept from sketch to tested solution in months rather than years, allowing it to have parts on the shelf before the military even asks for them.
Technologies developed through the Strigo family played a role in developing the Increment 2 seeker package for the Army’s Precision Strike Missile (PrSM).
“The center allows us test and deploy new solutions at unprecedented speed. That’s how we turn ‘what if’ into ‘what’s next’ faster than ever before.” - Stacy Kubicek, Lockheed Martin Sensors and Global Sustainment, VP and GM
Related: US: Lockheed Plans to Develop Modular Sensors for Missile Defense
Boeing’s Low-Cost Radar Seeker for Precision Weapons Aces Tests
BLUF: Boeing recently finished another round of tests for its Ultra Low-Cost Seeker (ULCS), as it works to develop a cheaper radar sensor for precision weapons.
The testing campaign, conducted earlier this summer, examined whether the seeker could find and follow targets while handling the tough conditions it would face in real use.
The ULCS successfully detected and tracked targets during aircraft and rocket-based tests earlier this summer.
Boeing is developing ULCS for potential use across its integrated air and missile defense, direct-attack, and cruise missile programs. The technology could help make precision guidance more affordable across a wider range of weapons.
ULCS is built from commercial parts that Boeing has adapted for military use. Its modular design means the same sensor can be adjusted for different weapon programs.
“We are developing ULCS with the goal of sharing a common sensor architecture across several of our programs. It is modular, producible and built with Weapons Open Systems Architecture to speed integration and future changes.” - Bob Ciesla, Boeing VP Precision Engagement Systems
Related: Boeing, Northrop Unveil Low-Cost Intercept Tech and Boeing Unveils Cheap Radar Seeker Built From Off-the-Shelf Parts and Boeing’s Innovative seeker concept passes rapid testing
Northrop Grumman Introduces Raid Hunter for Next-Generation Gun-Based Air Defense System
BLUF: Northrop Grumman introduced Raid Hunter, its new 50mm Gun-Based Air Defense (GBAD) system, a next-generation capability designed to strengthen short-range, layered air defense against increasingly complex aerial threats.
Raid Hunter’s guided 50mm ammunition combined with a high-rate-of-fire Chain Gun delivers lethal, cost-considerate engagement with deep magazines and fast reloads, tackling the economic challenge of massed swarming threats.
Raid Hunter is built to deploy with speed and flexibility through a modular design for rapid transportation on the C-130, with future vehicle-mounted and container-based variants planned.
“Raid Hunter addresses a critical short-range defense gap by delivering rapid, high-capacity protection against complex, mass aerial threats like cruise missiles and drone swarms.” - Kenn Todorov, Northrop Grumman, VP and GM, C2 and Weapons Integration
Hanwha Defense USA Seeks to Acquire Austal USA in $1.2B Potential Deal
BLUF: Hanwha Defense USA, a subsidiary of South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace, has made a preliminary, non-binding offer to purchase Austal USA.
Austal USA’s parent company, the Australian-based Austal, said in financial guidance released today that “The Austal Board and its advisers have carefully assessed the Proposal and determined that it merits further evaluation.
In April 2024, Hanwha put forth a takeover bid for the entirety of Austal, but the Australian company batted down the offer, citing concerns that regulatory approvals from the US and Australia would not come through.
Hanwha’s Philly Shipyard builds the National Security Multi-Mission Vessel (NSMV) currently used as a training ship at state maritime academies, and will build a new missile range instrumentation vessel based on the NSMV design to support the Pentagon’s Golden Dome missile shield system.
“Hanwha has made it a priority to significantly contribute to revitalizing American shipbuilding and is exploring a range of options to expand our footprint in the United States.” James Hewitt, Hanwha Spokesperson
Related: Hanwha Offers to Buy Builder of Navy Ships
Our Take: See the Navy section for White House direction that may impact this deal.
AEVEX to Acquire BlackSea Technologies for Up to $650M
BLUF: AEVEX is acquiring naval technology firm BlackSea Technologies for up to $650M, in an attempt to bolster its presence in the USV and UUV space.
BlackSea builds the Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft (GARC), a 16-foot small unmanned autonomous vessel that the Navy is experimenting with out of Naval Base Coronado.
The Navy’s USV Squadron 3, launched in 2024, operates the system.
AEVEX builds a series of autonomous systems, including an USV dubbed Mako that is designed for ISR missions, as well as kinetic operations
“BlackSea brings exceptional and strategically aligned maritime capability, but just as importantly, it brings a culture of mission focus and ingenuity that reflect the very roots of AEVEX.” - Brian Raduenz, AEVEX, Founder and Executive Chairman
Saronic Expands to Mississippi, Selects Port of Gulfport for Marauder On-Water Testing
BLUF: Saronic announced it has expanded its operations to Gulfport, MS, establishing an initial site for on-water testing of the company’s MUSV, Marauder, at the Port of Gulfport.
As production of Saronic’s Marauder platform continues to scale, the site will support testing and commissioning of the company’s 180 ft. autonomous ships as they move from production to final delivery.
The Saronic facility at the Port of Gulfport spans more than 30,000 square feet and includes dedicated port access, office space, and warehouse space that can support Saronic’s growing operations.
Saronic’s local team includes Mission Operations and Commissioning specialists, who are responsible for taking each Marauder through final end-of-line tests and on-water trials.
Saronic’s first Marauder, which was designed and launched in less than a year, arrived at Gulfport in mid-July and is already undergoing testing at the site.
“Gulfport has developed an incredible ecosystem of partners across industry, academia, and government to advance the future of maritime systems.” - Dino Mavrookas, Saronic, Co-Founder and CEO
“Thanks to innovators like Saronic, unmanned technology is advancing faster, ships are built more efficiently, and our warfighters are better equipped for the challenges ahead.” - Roger Wicker, SASC, Chairman
Related: Saronic Puts First Marauder MUSV Through Testing at Port of Gulfport
Boeing to Sell Three Subsidiaries to eVTOL Firm Archer
BLUF: Boeing is selling off three subsidiaries to Archer Aviation in an all-stock deal and will become a strategic partner in the electric aircraft startup
Boeing will transfer ownership of its drone subsidiary Insitu, air traffic management company SkyGrid and electric aircraft maker Wisk Aero, which was once a fierce rival of Archer.
In exchange, Boeing will take a nearly 16.5% stake in Archer.
The deal allows Wisk, SkyGrid and Insitu to accelerate capability development and time to market while ensuring Boeing capitalizes on its investments in these technologies over the past two decades through continued development in their core businesses.
The release says the deal also consists of a technology sharing arrangement, where Boeing will retain access to the Wisk core autonomous flight technology for its current and next-generation commercial and defense aircraft.
Our Take: This deal is very intriguing. A major defense prime converting holdings into a meaningful equity stake and enduring technology rights in a higher-growth mid-tier innovator. It allows Boeing to de-risk internal execution burdens while retaining strategic influence over autonomy IP critical to both commercial and defense platforms. Expect this structure to become a recurring model as primes increasingly partner with specialized mid-tier firms to accelerate fielding of uncrewed and advanced air systems without diluting focus on their core platforms.
Related Articles:
Joby Builds Defense Muscle with $500M Buy of Resonant Sciences
BLUF: Joby Aviation is buying defense contractor Resonant Sciences in a $500M deal.
Much of what Resonant is up to is not public. They employ around 250 people, advertises radomes and antennas, aircraft testing and stealth designs.
Joby already has a more than 700,000 square-foot footprint in Ohio. Resonant is doubling its footprint. Combined, that will give us roughly 1,000,000 square-feet of space in Dayton.
This gives Joby the ability to do projects that Resonant couldn't do alone and Joby couldn't do alone, but together they can accomplish.
Other Defense Industry News:
Congrats to our friend Artem Sherbinin on his new role as Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Applied Technologies. Big things to come!
The Pentagon Wants to Fix Defense Contracting for Small Business. Here’s What Would Actually Work
BLUF: On 31 July, DoW issued an open call to the Defense Industrial Base: tell us how to fix contract accounting. Specifically, they want “pragmatic ways to streamline data and audit requirements” for business systems and align them with GAAP. Here are some thoughts from a small cybersecurity firm. Formal Letter
The Problem Isn’t Our Accounting. It’s Your Systems.
Small commercial firms already run GAAP-compliant books. We track costs by project. We produce standard invoices. We satisfy commercial auditors. Our accounting is fine.
The barrier to defense work isn’t how we account for money — it’s what happens when we try to get paid.
Wide Area Workflow (WAWF) was designed for companies with entire contracts departments, dedicated WAWF administrators, and infrastructure to manage CLINs, ACRNs, and CAC-authenticated document routing.
A 10-person shop has no business navigating that system. And many of us don’t. We just choose not to pursue defense work.
Here’s What Would Actually Move the Needle
The CASB just eliminated four Cost Accounting Standards that duplicated GAAP. That’s real progress. But if the Department wants to extend that logic, it should look at the business systems too — starting with invoicing.
Create a simplified, web-form-based invoicing portal for contractors below $10M in annual covered contract value.
Import contractor identity from SAM.gov.
Accept GAAP-standard commercial invoice data as the input.
Don’t Just Put a New Homepage on WAWF
The Pentagon’s digital modernization efforts have a pattern: take a broken legacy system, wrap a new UI around it, hold a press conference, and call it transformation with the new ‘Digital Service’.
The backend stays the same. The workflows stay the same. The pain stays the same. The only thing that changes is the screenshot and index.html in the press release.
Build the new system from the ground up around what small businesses actually submit: a commercial invoice. Everything else should be the government’s problem to generate on the backend.
Our Take: This is a powerful recommendation that we hope is heard from the key stakeholders that make these decisions.
Related Article: War Department Releases Open Letter to Defense Industry Stakeholders
Contractor Alleges Army Inappropriately Used AI to Make $450M Contract Award
BLUF: Trax International Corporation is asking the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to direct the Army to reevaluate bids for mission support services at White Sands Missile Range — in part because the department allegedly misused AI to determine the contract award.
The Army used AI that hallucinated multiple times, creating the false impression that Trax’s bid was weaker than rival Southwest Range Services’ successful bid of roughly $450M.
The filing comes after the Government Accountability Office denied Trax’s bid protest in May.
the lawsuit claims that records the Army provided to GAO did not explain whether assigned strengths for the Southwest Range Services bid came from a human at the Source Selection Evaluation Board or an AI tool.
The Army conceded that one of the weaknesses it identified with Trax’s bid is not supported by the record.
Trax is not the first contractor to publicly allege an agency has wrongfully used AI to evaluate contract bids.
Our Take: After reading the GAO decision in detail, we assess that the AI error (which seems to have been based on a single word that was heightened to a weakness) was probably not going to make the difference in this source selection. The bigger issue is the tenuousness of the strengths that were assigned (related to staff continuity, PM hours, processes and knowledge management). Source selections are human affairs, and different groups have different impressions, which is why strengths for some small point in a proposal is very common. However, this is where it falls to senior people in the chain to assess whether these small strengths were worth $29M. We don’t see that being adequately justified given all the factors being the same. The challenge of doing source selections is why evaluators need to move to relying less on proposals and more on oral presentations (where probing questions can be asked and follow-up questions posed) and demonstrations that rely less on flowery words.
Related Article: Did AI blow a $450M Army contract decision? Company says yes
A Startup’s Guide to Working with Large Corporations
BLUF: Large corporations and early-stage startups need each other. While many in the startup and defense tech ecosystem love to criticize traditional defense primes and other large corporations (often for good reason), ultimately corporations serve a crucial role for American national security.
Large primes manage massive, multi-billion dollar projects developing exquisite, cutting-edge, mission critical platforms with little room for failure.
Today, startups simply do not have the engineering teams, clearances, and manufacturing capacity to build systems like nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, and supersonic strike fighters.
Likewise, large commercial corporations have the scale and capacity to produce the high volumes of products and infrastructure essential to modern society while meeting stringent safety and reliability standards that are often beyond the capabilities of a startup.
Partnering with primes and commercial corporations as subcontractors, vendors, or suppliers can provide startups an important bridge in the early years.
These relationships can create the order volumes needed to scale production, reduce unit costs, and help startups cross the proverbial “valley of death” on the path to mass production.
It is critical for startups to understand how defense primes and other large corporations make purchasing and partnership decisions as they craft their Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies and efficiently allocate a startup’s limited resources.
Our experience indicates there are three cases when a corporation would be driven to adopt a startup’s new technology:
1. It solves a serious problem causing a large loss of revenue (ex: one of our portfolio companies is working with a large corporation to help solve quality assurance problems that can cost the customer millions of dollars each year in product recalls, fines, etc.)
2. It significantly reduces operations expenses, or Cost of Goods Sold, on the order of 10X (ex: Apex Space builds satellite buses an order of magnitude cheaper and faster than its legacy competitors, and as such has won contracts with a number of defense primes)
3. Their largest customers, or competitors, force them to adopt the technology (ex: many U.S. military programs are now requiring contractors to translate millions of lines of legacy code into memory safe coding languages, which has driven some defense primes to adopt AI code translation tools like Code Metal)
Regardless of the industry, successful startup engagements with large corporations typically follow a pattern of eight sequential steps:
Identify and Engage the Target Customer
Introduce the Technology and Demonstrate its Capabilities
Engage the Business Unit and Secure Agreement for a Pilot
Plan and Execute the Pilot
Validate Pilot Results, Support Building the Business Case, and Secure Budget Approval
Negotiate and Finalize the Purchase Order or Contract
Manufacture and Prepare the Product for Delivery
Deliver the Product and Receive Payment
Our Take: We recommend all startups and those that advise them read this entire article. While we have historically been skeptical that startups can operate effectively with large primes or corporations for long, there does seem to be a shift where these entities are recognizing that their size and internal processes are not optimized for innovation and are valuing the solutions these smaller partners are bringing. We hope to see this become more the norm and to help the government craft strategies that incentivize this type of partnering.
Army Opens Test Ranges to Private Industry to Help Break Munitions Bottleneck
BLUF: Army is expanding access to its test ranges and proving grounds in an effort to get new munitions, drones, and other types of weapons to the battlefield more quickly.
Test ranges allow companies to prove their weapons work in battlefield conditions, expediting the process of supplying the military.
Military test ranges replicate conditions weapons might encounter when used in combat, such as electronic jamming.
The demand for test ranges has dramatically increased in recent years as the military pursued new generation weapons, including drones, lasers and fast-flying hypersonic missiles.
To get access to military training ranges, companies must find and schedule with the specific range. Under the new initiative, Army officials will help schedule the company access across multiple ranges.
The Army has launched a “concierge service” where companies can schedule the tests at ranges in Michigan, Utah, Arizona and Mississippi through a new website.
The Army hopes to expand the online scheduling and concierge service to more ranges and also allow allies and foreign companies.
Firms can also book time at a new training range in Morocco established by the AFRICOM and the Moroccan military last month.
“Within 30 days of a request, a company that is capable of getting to a range will get access to either one of our domestic ranges or one of our international ranges abroad.” Dan Driscoll, SecArmy
Related: Army Opens Test Ranges to Private Industry and Army attempting to cut tech-testing wait times down to 30 days through base access, scheduling website and Army Unveils Portal to Give Companies Test Range Access Within 30 Days
Army Fires Community Tackling Four Capability Gaps, Including Magazine Depth
BLUF: Army PAE Fires is trying to bridge four key capability gaps as it works on 62 programs.
Propulsion and energetics. The challenge there is straightforward: high cost, complex manufacturing, limited capacity, and in some areas, constrained resources. Propulsion is foundational to almost everything we do in the missile business.
Targeting and seeker. Future conflicts will take place in heavily contested electromagnetic environments. That requires weapons that are hardened.
Industry. The Army needs open architecture and multiple sources.
Munitions breadth and depth. The increasing need to have a more diverse portfolio of weapons for soldiers to choose from.
The future consists of a mix of high-end interceptors that can take down threats like maneuverable ballistic missiles, while soldiers use lower-cost, less capable interceptors for things like non-turbo Shahed drones.
“We do not know of every threat the Army can be confronted with 10 years from now, therefore we cannot design every system as though today’s configuration is the final configuration.” - BG Robert Mikesh,, CPE for Offensive Fires
Army Shifts Autonomy Strategy to Lean More on Awesome Vendors
BLUF: After ditching its original software strategy for autonomous vehicles, the Army has decided to lean on industry to build case-specific autonomous capabilities for different mission sets.
The initial idea to have the Army develop a software backbone for its envisioned fleet of autonomous vehicles in what was called the Army Robotic Software (ARCS) program made sense before there was robust industry investment in all of autonomy.
The whole premise behind ARCS was a modular approach to acquire the pieces of autonomy from different vendor. Now there’s awesome vendors in the space that are doing great stuff, as they demonstrate.
The old architecture was designed to allowed a few vendors to plug-and-play their software on top of the Army-developed backbone.
ARCS was put to bed as the Army underwent a holistic reevaluation of its autonomy portfolio following a massive acquisition overhaul and long-festering struggles to get the autonomy piece of the puzzle working.
Now that industry has shown more robust capability, the plan is to let contractors offer more top-down solutions, teaming together ahead of time.
The Engineer Autonomous Breaching Capability (EABC) program aims to find unmanned systems that can quickly breach obstacles and minefields on future battlefields.
Caterpillar, Forterra, IDV USA and Overland AI, were each awarded a prototyping contract for their autonomy software solutions, organized themselves into teams where they would find a partner to provide the UGV.
Our Take: After many years of watching the Army pursue their suboptimal home grown autonomy software, it is refreshing to see the new leadership trust industry to compete to develop and deliver solutions.
Army Now Using Polaris MRZR for UxS Program
BLUF: Months after restructuring its Unmanned Systems (UxS) autonomy program, the Army is swapping out Infantry Squad Vehicles (ISVs) for Polaris’ MRZR platforms.
RACER is a former DARPA program that developed autonomy software stacks enabling Army and Marine Corps unmanned ground vehicles to maneuver on off-road terrain.
CPE Mission Autonomy created an environment where multiple companies can use the same base platform, as the MRZRs to test their autonomy stacks on, so the Army can get a true head-to-head comparison of where the industry is right now.
“The important thing here is continuing what the RACER program started, which was like, ‘What’s the best you can do in off-road autonomy?’” - Michael Rose, CPE Mission Autonomy, CTO
Army Tests Six Autonomous UGVs for Frontline Resupply and Casualty Evacuation
BLUF: The Army is testing six autonomous ground vehicles designed to move supplies and casualties through dangerous frontline areas.
The Army is moving to put autonomous ground vehicles into one of the most dangerous parts of the battlefield, selecting six companies to develop production-ready prototypes for missions that currently require soldiers to drive into exposed areas.
The Infantry Last Tactical Mile (ILTM) initiative focuses on the stretch between rear support areas and the forward line of own troops (FLOT), where getting ammunition, equipment and supplies forward, or bringing casualties back, can expose personnel to enemy fire.
The six selected companies are Maren-Go, Overland AI, Forterra, Hendrick’s Motorsports, American Rheinmetall and HDT.
Each is expected to provide four prototype vehicles for Army testing.
Army wants systems capable of beyond-line-of-sight autonomous operation.
The vehicles are intended to conduct logistical resupply, casualty evacuation and network-extension missions, potentially allowing troops to perform critical battlefield tasks without putting additional drivers or medics directly in harm’s way.
Related: Army Awards 6 Companies Prototype Contracts for Last Tactical Mile Program
Army Exploring 50mm Cannon to Destroy Drones
BLUF: The Army is looking for companies that can provide a 50mm cannon and ammunition for counter-drone defense.
The goal is to integrate a 50mm ammunition solution to effectively track, engage, and defeat Class 1, 2, and 3 UAS threats.
The Army will conduct a live-fire demonstration using Northrop Grumman’s XM913 Bushmaster 50mm chain gun, with companies supplying 50mm ammunition for testing.
Contractors are asked to provide “a detailed description of the company’s capabilities pertaining to C-UAS, proposed C-UAS system architecture, fire control/sensor integration, detailed draft test or demonstration plan, and how the platform will successfully employ the 50x228mm ammunition against the specified target set.
Army Gears Up to Engage Enemy Surveillance Satellites
BLUF: The Army's space superiority efforts are focused on countering adversary ISR satellites, as well as conducting stratospheric warfare.
The Army is seeking new kit to directly “engage” adversary satellites from the ground, particularly if and when sensing sats are used to target US forces.
Army would follow US national space policy that eschews the use of destructive kinetic anti-satellite attacks that would create long-lived space debris.
The TID-SS shop is responsible for overseeing the design, development and modernization of space-enabled, missile defeat, and high-altitude architectures, as well as synchronizing combat concepts, scientific analysis and the acquisition of new technology.
“It’s not foreign for the Army to shoot a ship at sea. Why should it be any different for the army to engage a satellite in space? It’s the same construct, and it’s a matter of our core competencies to maneuver on the land to be able to deliver effects across all domains.”
“Generally, space superiority is a relative measure against the enemy. We want to have an advantage overall in both how we use space capabilities, but also how we can take away their use of space. That goal is changing the balance in our favor. So, the Army’s job is to do that from the land, and we are expanding that.” - COL Joe Mroszczyk
Army Downed More Than 1,400 Iranian Missiles and Drones in Epic Fury and 12-Day War
BLUF: During the two most recent major Middle East conflicts it has been involved in, the Army swatted down more than 1,400 Iranian missiles and drones.
His comments also come amid concerns about the tremendous expenditure of U.S. interceptors that has exacerbated the stress on America’s magazine depth of these high-end defensive weapons.
Over the 12-day war between Iran and Israel, they successfully engaged 125 ballistic missiles, and during Operation Epic Fury, over 1,200 ballistic, cruise and UAS threats have been neutralized.
“For the last 14 months, the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command has been in the largest air and missile defense fight in U.S. history. I cannot add anything to the emphasis on magazine depth… or for the need for cheaper and wide-ranging mix of interceptors. I mean that couldn’t be made more loud and clear from the highest levels of our government.” - LTG John Rafferty, Army Space and Missile Defense Command
Related: Army Needs Comprehensive Missile Defeat Strategy to Address Air Defense Challenges
“We need a more comprehensive missile defeat strategy that focuses on interceptors, but also equally so on non-kinetic effects, both electronic warfare and directed energy, and the type of targeting in C2 … that will enable us to use that data to make decisions to engage targets faster.” - LTG John Rafferty, Army Space and Missile Defense Command
Other Army News:
Rebuilding the U.S. Navy and America’s Shipbuilding Industrial Base
BLUF: To build upon the actions ordered in Executive Order 14269 (Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance), this memorandum sets forth additional actions to further strengthen the U.S. Navy and America’s Shipbuilding Industrial Base.
Replace the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and Advanced Weapons Elevators with steam and hydraulic systems for CVN-81.
The “Finland Model” shall be used for up to three ship classes, provided that the foreign supplier: builds or acquires a shipyard in the U.S. and builds all ships after the first two such ships in U.S. shipyards, hires and trains an American citizen workforce, licenses the proprietary shipbuilding techniques and technologies used at the parent foreign shipyard to the U.S. shipyards; and sources a U.S. supply chain for construction and maintenance of all ships.
Submit a plan for a new competitive acquisition approach for surface combatants with sufficient inherent capabilities to perform anti‑submarine warfare, surface warfare, and convoy escort duties.
Fifth Public Navy Shipyard. Submit a plan to increase nuclear-powered submarine and aircraft carrier readiness that will include the use of private sector capabilities and the establishment of a fifth public Navy Yard.
Component Repair Center. Establish a Component Repair Center to receive new and refurbish old components and parts as required by the submarine repair industrial base.
Reforming NAVSEA. The objective of these reforms should be to: introduce results‑based accountability for NAVSEA leadership, determined by speed of delivery of vessels and systems; reduce bureaucracy and red tape; eliminate competing priorities among different NAVSEA components, which often result in delayed, cost-prohibitive, or overly complex vessels and systems; and prevent NAVSEA from imposing redesigns or iterative design changes upon original mature parent designs.
OMB Director Russ Vought
The Ford class is too costly and takes too long to build.
Lead ships typically cost the most but the Fords are costlier with each one. $13B for the initial Ford, then $15B for the Kennedy & Enterprise, and $18B expected for the Miller.
If we retire a Nimitz class every four years and replace them every 12 (at minimum based on projections), you have far fewer carriers. Not acceptable.
Our Navy shipyards are at capacity with major backlogs.
A way to add capacity and competition is to entice foreign investment into new DOMESTIC shipyards by block buying with foreign companies that build the initial ships overseas and then build the rest here over time with permanent US capacity.
The alternative? No additional ships from added capacity and ongoing backlog from limited competition. Time to try something different, which is the basis for the "Finland model" that began with the Coast Guard icebreakers & is now being extended to Navy ships. We need more ships!
Our Take: Reverting to steam and hydraulics is a pragmatic reset prioritizes delivery of operational carriers over costly, troubled EMALS. The Finland Model, paired with simpler surface combatants, a fifth public shipyard, a dedicated component-repair center, and NAVSEA reforms directly attacks the bureaucratic root causes of the current backlog. These measures represent the most coherent strategy available for restoring volume and readiness in a shipbuilding base that can no longer meet the Navy’s force-structure requirements under the existing pure-domestic, high-complexity paradigm. We suspect this will be met with much political and bureaucratic resistance.
Firestorm Labs builds drones aboard USS Essex without shore resupply
BLUF: Firestorm Labs produced 3D-printed drones aboard a Navy ship at sea using a containerized microfactory, aiding the Navy in its pursuit of easily built autonomous technology that can quickly boost a warship’s weapons capacity.
Firestorm Labs manufactured more than 1,000 parts and 12 of its proprietary 3D-printable first-person view Squall drones aboard the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex as it transited toward RIMPAC 2026 in Hawaii.
Every part xCell printed on deck is one that doesn’t need to be flown or shipped across contested waters — cutting the fuel, aircraft hours, and personnel it takes to keep a ship operational.
Repairs that once meant days or weeks waiting on a resupply run can now happen in hours, on station.
The service members also helped print mechanical test components that assessed the efficacy of the 3D printer used for drone production and fabricated military repair parts that crew members of the USS Essex needed.
Our Take: Having toured Firestorm Labs tents at the Creative Disruptors in the Desert event, we saw first hand the exciting opportunities of 3D printing drones at scale in remote environments. Every overseas base, starting with those in key theaters, should have an XCELL.
Related Article: Rough waters help firm demo ‘expeditionary manufacturing’ aboard warship
VADM Williams Champions Acquisition Reform and Industrial Base Mobilization to Meet Strategic Needs
BLUF: VADM Douglas Williams, PAE Strategic Systems Programs (SSP), provided insight into supercharging the Navy’s strategic weapons systems industrial base.
Williams keyed in on two pillars of effort related to the defense industrial base: building a resilient workforce for today’s mission and enacting meaningful acquisition reform.
We have to break the bureaucracy, we can’t let paperwork slow us down. PAE SSP’s workforce began using data-driven analysis to inform hiring plans in 2022 and has seen a return on that investment over the past four years.
In today’s acquisition reform environment, I am measuring my contracting officers based on their speed.
Partners across PAE SSP’s industrial base have invested in new facilities and infrastructure to support the modernization of the next generation Trident II D5 Life Extension 2 weapon system, the Navy’s nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N) and the Conventional Prompt Strike hypersonic program (CPS).
“Supercharging the industrial base is something that keeps me up at night. We have to develop a new missile system, and that massive industrial base for all of those commodities to be integrated down to that lowest widget, has to come into production ... those muscles have not been exercised in a long time.” VADM Douglas Williams, PAE SSP
Raytheon, CET Successfully Test New Low-Cost Hadalus UUV for Navy
BLUF: Raytheon and CET demonstrated the Hadalus low-cost, long-endurance UUV in a Navy test, proving submerged launch and autonomous mission capabilities.
During a recent Navy exercise, the UUV completed a series of at-sea missions on a Navy undersea test range, successfully demonstrating its undersea launch capabilities while submerged.
This marks the first time the Navy has seen this integrated capability in the water and points toward a future where a single unmanned undersea platform can perform detect, reacquire and engage functions within one mission.
Hadalus is a 34‑foot UUV with a six‑foot cross section and more than 2,000 nautical miles of endurance. Its free‑flooded, all‑carbon‑fiber exoskeleton delivers exceptional strength and payload capacity while enabling a significantly lower‑cost architecture.
Designed to cost roughly one‑third to one‑fifth of comparable long‑endurance UUVs, Hadalus offers a scalable path to fielding affordable undersea capabilities.
“This demonstration is an important step in a broader roadmap to deliver autonomous, end‑to‑end undersea capabilities that are far less detectable than surface platforms. By tightly coupling design, integration and at‑sea experimentation, we’ve proven we can bring new autonomous solutions to the fleet quickly and cost‑effectively.” Jen Gauthier, Raytheon VP of Naval Systems & Sustainment
Blue Water Autonomy Selected by U.S. Navy for Autonomous Open-Ocean Survey Work
BLUF: Blue Water Autonomy has been selected for a multiple-award contract with the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) to provide high-resolution ocean floor mapping using long-endurance USVs.
Deep open-ocean survey is among the most demanding work at sea, and its value reaches well beyond a map of the seafloor. Surveys like these characterize the operating environment itself such as the terrain, the acoustics, and the shifting conditions that shape how naval forces move and operate far from shore.
NAVOCEANO and the wider Navy have steadily expanded their use of uncrewed systems for these missions to lower cost, reduce risk to personnel, and cover more ocean with fewer assets.
DON RCO, DIU and PAE Aviation Invest $50M to Scale Unmanned Maritime Strike Capabilities
BLUF: The Department of the Navy Rapid Capability Office (DON RCO) and PAE Aviation, in partnership with DIU, announce a $50M investment to rapidly scale their unmanned aviation portfolio.
To maintain maritime superiority, agility in acquisition is just as critical as the technology itself.
This effort expands existing risk reduction work led by the PAE Aviation Rapid Capability Cell (RCC) with Shield AI to advance Runway Independent Maritime Expeditionary Strike capabilities.
The Defense Sector is Under Water: Maritime Investments Reflect Growing Threats
BLUF: Three firms reached similar conclusions, on similar timelines, reflects both increased adversary challenges in this operating domain and the reality that undersea systems are poised to capture more market share.
Lockheed Martin announced it would spend $3.5B to buy undersea specialist Ultra Maritime.
French company Thales announced the purchase of a 36% stake in the French undersea warfare and defense tech company Exail Technologies.
Italy’s Fincantieri announced a nearly $700M investment in four maritime drone and undersea engineering firms.
Policy makers, military professionals and subject matter experts have long emphasized concerns about undersea challenges, but the last five years have seen a greater imperative.
China has used surface and subsea sensors to map the bottom of the ocean in preparation for a conflict in the Indo Pacific. This large-scale project, including at least 42 research vessels over five years.
While the naval sector has not been as acquisitive as other market segments, these investments join a short list of financial plays that focus on established capabilities and market positions.
Navy Receives First New Dry Dock Afloat in 40 Years
BLUF: The Navy’s first Auxiliary Floating Dry Dock Medium built in more than four decades successfully hit the water in late July.
Austal USA launched Auxiliary Floating Dry Dock Medium 15 — a maritime platform designed to lift ships from the water for maintenance — marking the largest vessel launch in the company’s 26-year history and the largest vessel ever.
The platform is 12,000 tons, 694 feet long and boasts a deck of 90,800 square feet.
The vessel, deemed a “Rennie”-type dry dock for its wing walls and pontoons providing buoyancy for lift capacity, can lift 18,000 long tons.
It is designed to accommodate Navy destroyers and cruisers.
Hunting Submarines, Underwater Drones with Two Paired Sonars Showcased by Ultra Maritime
BLUF: Ultra Maritime showed off a new underwater surveillance system at the Navy’s 2026 Lanternfish exercise. The demonstration highlighted how the company’s Sea Spear passive sonar and SSQ-125B active sonobuoy can work together to find UUVs.
The demonstration focused on the use of autonomous systems for counter-UUV and anti-submarine missions.
Sea Spear continuously listened for underwater activity without sending out signals, while the SSQ-125B used active sonar to help locate targets.
Sea Spear provides the passive sensing element of the architecture. It is designed to remain deployed and monitor underwater areas for acoustic signatures associated with potential targets.
The SSQ-125B brings active sensing to the sys. Its sonar can help pinpoint where an underwater object is once the passive sensors detect activity.
Pairing the two systems gives operators access to different forms of acoustic information. Passive sensing can support persistent monitoring, while active sonar can provide more information needed to localize a target.
Other Navy News:
Accelerating the Mission as DON Streamlines Cloud Access for the Warfighter
Navy Doomsday Plane Fleet To Almost Double In Size With New E-130Js
Submarine Warfare Capabilities Advance with $43M in New Contracts
Marine Corps to Get Production-ready Microwave Drone Swarm Killer
BLUF: The Marine Corps inked an $11 million contract with EW company Epirus for a vehicle-mounted weapon that can take down dozens of drones in a single zap.
The contract, awarded through the ONR, will result in the delivery early next year of a High-power Microwave Autonomous Vehicle Operational Capability (HAVOC) system that can autonomously identify drone targets to be dropped from the sky with an electromagnetic pulse.
The award follows prototype testing of the similar Expeditionary Directed Energy Counter-Swarm (ExDECS) weapon prototype that Epirus delivered to the Corps for testing last year under a $5.5M contract.
HAVOC will have 3X the power, improved ruggedness and range and autonomous capabilities intended to simplify decision-making for human operators.
“We’ve tripled the power density nearly in this system. So think of it, from a laser point of view that a lot of people are familiar with, like going from a 50-kilowatt to 150-kilowatt type laser in the same size package. So that directly kind of contributes to lethality, range, these types of things. We’ve also very much increased the reliability of the system and its suitability for various types of weather, types of different locations, dust, and all of that, where the Marines are dragging this thing around.” Andy Lowery, Epirus CEO
Related: Epirus Scores $11M Contract with USMC and Marine Corps Awards Epirus $11M Contract for HAVOC Program
HII’s Watcher USV Completes US Marine Corps Test Program
BLUF: HII completed a DIU prototype program for the Watcher sUSV, demonstrating the platform’s autonomous capabilities and positioning it for potential production.
The Watcher is based on HII’s ROMULUS-25 unmanned surface vessel and was developed in partnership with MetalCraft Marine under DIU’s Production-Ready, Inexpensive, Maritime Expeditionary (PRIME) initiative.
HII delivered two autonomous vessels in December 2025 for testing focused on smaller-form-factor autonomous surface vessels for the US Marine Corps.
Watcher demonstrated its suitability for sUSV interceptor missions, including autonomously transiting hundreds of miles through contested waters, loitering in an assigned operating area while monitoring for surface threats, and sprinting to intercept a noncooperative maneuvering vessel.
The two ROMULUS-25 vessels completed a series of at-sea assessments covering autonomous mission behaviors, seakeeping, performance and operations in degraded environments. The vessels also participated in contractor demonstrations and government-led autonomy assessments.
The Watcher uses HII’s Odyssey Autonomous Control System (ACS), a modular open systems architecture designed to support autonomous navigation, mission planning, collaborative behaviors and multi-domain operations.
The system also enables AI-enabled contact recognition and identification, as well as edge-based decision-making.
Related: HII Watcher Autonomous USV Passes Critical DIU Performance Tests and HII/MetalCraft Marine Autonomous ROMULUS USV with HII Autonomy Successfully Passed a Critical DoW Test
Existing Airpower Theory Still Explains Modern Warfare
BLUF: Recent articles have contended that persistent adversary effects, proliferating low-altitude threats, and emerging technologies expose deficiencies in enduring concepts such as air superiority and justify new frameworks, including the “air littoral.” The evidence offered, however actually confirms a recurring feature of warfare.
That feature is that technologies and methods change continuously, while the enduring principles governing the force employment remain remarkably durable.
The disagreement begins with the framework used to evaluate operations. Joint doctrine distinguishes among the tactical, operational, and strategic levels of war because each addresses a different dimension of military action.
Success, or failure, at one level does not determine success at another.
They argue that because Iran retains the ability to threaten maritime commerce and generate strategic effects, the operational success of recent air operations should be discounted.
Opening Iran’s skies demonstrated the ability to suppress integrated air defenses, penetrate contested airspace, strike assigned targets, and establish the freedom of action necessary to accomplish assigned military objectives.
Those are operational outcomes. Whether those outcomes ultimately compel Tehran to alter its political behavior is a strategic question informed by diplomacy, economic pressure, escalation, and military force operating together.
Evaluating one by the standard of the other conflates distinct levels of war.
The same principle exposes the weakness of the proposed “air littoral.”
Cruise missiles and small attack drones unquestionably present serious operational challenges, but those challenges do not arise because they inhabit a newly discovered domain.
They arise because modern air defenses must detect, track, and defeat a diverse threat set across a wider range of altitudes, speeds, signatures, and flight profiles.
Existing joint doctrine already addresses how to meet those challenges through offensive counterair, defensive counterair, integrated air and missile defense, command and control, and air battle management.
Military history is a record of continuous adaptation. Radar transformed air defense. Precision-guided munitions revolutionized strike warfare. Stealth altered penetration tactics.
Today, cruise missiles, one-way attack drones, autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, and increasingly sophisticated sensor networks continue that same pattern of technological evolution.
Airpower theory has evolved because thoughtful practitioners challenged assumptions, tested concepts against operational experience, and refined doctrine when evidence demanded it.
Our Take: We honestly have a hard time parsing the differences in Lt Gen Deptula and Col Georgulis arguments as both seem to be cogent and just saying that we need to adapt to the new threats and have different technological opportunities. We do like to see different factions argue so seeing the nuanced perspective between the air battle management community and the fighter community is intriguing in and of itself. We definitely understand Deptula’s point that military campaigns should be “devised around clearly defined political objectives and the integration of effects across domains” while recognizing that recent history has shown limited effectiveness in integrating economic pressure and diplomacy with military operations. The fact is adversaries are just damn resilient or obstinate.
In this way, maybe both authors are too myopic and the fact is that the pressure points we have are maybe ones we don’t understand very well. We likely still need the mix of forces to execute counterair and all the other Air Force missions but maybe we also need a whole new suite of asymmetric capabilities that are unique to each adversary and their weaknesses because the future of warfare can’t be that we bomb their country into oblivion and achieve few political objectives…as Iran is demonstrating currently.
MILDEP Manifesto
BLUF: In a message to the acquisition workforce, Cropsey articulated 3 things he expects from himself and the Air Force acquirers.
First, our mission is to set the conditions for winning by adopting an operational mindset, instilling a sense of urgency, and forging high-performing teams that deliver.
Second, our focus is executing three priorities: accelerating data/digital/AI; integrating at scale; and building better enablers.
Third, our outcomes must achieve capability and capacity at cost, lethality at speed, and “ilities” that deliver.
Our Take: These are great points that I hope the Air Force acquisition workforce takes to heart. Read the whole letter here.
Air Force Seeks AI Tool to Help Manage Minuteman III ICBM Sustainment
BLUF: The Air Force is searching for an artificial intelligent agent that can centralize the various data streams underpinning its aging nuclear ballistic missile fleet.
In a request for information, the Air Force says the Minuteman III (MMIII) program manages key data across “approximately 60 disparate and disconnected systems,” from “local hard drives” to “shared networks.”
But it has no way to centrally govern all of them, requiring considerable manhours for tasks like assessing when parts may need to be replaced.
The Air Force must continuously keep 400 missiles ready to launch at a moment’s notice, a responsibility often described as a “no-fail” mission since failure could lead to catastrophic consequences.
The Air Force expects that the AI tool can collate data in “near-real time” and cut down on manual compilation by a “measurable amount” that will be negotiated with a successful contractor.
Air Force Explores AI Tools to Predict Aircraft Failures, Strengthen Sustainment
BLUF: While the Air Force is increasingly turning to AI for its sustainment and maintenance needs, officials say most efforts remain in experimentation or market research as they determine where the technology can provide meaningful gains.
One of the most popular applications for AI among portfolio executives is predictive maintenance, which is already being implemented in some programs.
The practice involves using real-time sensor data, performance records and machine learning to forecast when a military platform will fail — allowing personnel to repair or replace parts before they ever break.
“I would say we definitely have our foot in the pool, but we need to jump in a little deeper.” - Brig Gen William Ottati, PAE for Mobility
“It is super easy to say and very difficult to do in practice.” - Col Timothy Spaulding, PAE Bombers
Our Take: The Air Force is a master of overthinking and over researching things before implementation. The key here is to pick a real problem and implement a couple different solutions to see how it can be solved. The application for improving airworthiness should be an example to follow and build on to show the way.
Report Pushes New Training Approach for Air Force on AI and Tech
BLUF: A new report on modernizing Air Force training and education suggests borrowing a method from the civilian technology industry to help Airmen and Guardians build skills in key new areas like artificial intelligence: stackable certificates.
Also called stackable certifications, this approach breaks up long-duration coursework into smaller, bite-sized options that build skills upon each other to reach a higher level of technical expertise, with certifications along the way.
The idea is for training to be on-demand and “just-in-time” to meet a specific need, instead of one-time and untethered from real-world applications.
The report authors offer two approaches to integrating stackable certificates into DAF training and education:
Integrating stackable certificates for technical skill training to the workforce, where it would benefit career fields or missions.
Updating Professional Military Education curricula with stackable certificates where appropriate and feasible.
The authors aren’t advocating for the model to entirely replace the existing structure of in-residence schools and other more traditional forms of training. Instead, they see it as a way to complement and supplement the existing system in areas where operational and job demands make those options unrealistic.
The report highlights challenges to implementing a modernized training and education system:
Cultural Resistance: Traditional military promotion pathways favor conventional in-residence education, which can create a bias against virtual credentials.
Operational Burnout: Heavy day-to-day mission demands heavily limit the personal study time available to Airmen and Guardians.
Accreditation Gaps: Inconsistent certificate quality from varied providers threatens to dilute established service-learning standards.
Retention Deficits: Private-sector companies actively lure newly upskilled tech talent.
Career Penalties: Misaligned promotion boards may undervalue certifications compared to standard milestones.
Partner Coordination: Varied university timelines and programmatic constraints complicate cross-institutional funding and curriculum sync.
Our Take: We 100% support new approaches to training as our experience is that they haven’t been updated much in decades.
Swarm Aero Wins $10M Air Force Research Lab Contract
BLUF: Swarm Aero is building a Reaper-sized Group 5 drone, designed to be mass-manufacturable and capable of operating in a swarm using its own in-house autonomy and command-and-control (C2) software.
That new manufacturing approach—including the materials and processes is why AFRL awarded the startup a $10M R&D contract focused on high-rate composite manufacturing for aircraft parts.
This is pretty much what the DIU is looking for under the recently released Massed Modular Aircraft (MMA) solicitation, which is designed to find a lower-cost replacement for the workhorse (and super pricey) MQ-9 Reaper drones.
The MMA requirements include a payload capacity of “at least” 2,800 pounds, a one-way range of 8,000 nautical miles, and a focus on payload and software modularity.
The DIU wants that aircraft operational by 2031.
Air Force Wants a Drone Factory in a Box for Rapid, Remote Deployments
BLUF: The Air Force wants to step up its ability to field unmanned systems with deployable manufacturing equipment for turning out small drones in austere terrain.
The RSO is asking industry to submit ideas for creating expeditionary manufacturing equipment for producing and maintaining Group 1 and 2 drones for reconnaissance, attack, and counter-drone missions.
The RFI is another step in the Air Force’s march to become more self-sufficient at defending its air bases from drones and other aerial threats.
Currently, the service relies primarily on the Small Unmanned Air Defense Systems.
The Air Force “does not have a preferred production capacity” but instead is interested in “scalable” expeditionary manufacturing equipment that can be loaded into a shipping container and transported by “C-130, cargo ship, and helicopter sling-load.”
The RSO wants to hear from companies that can adapt to multiple “vendor agnostic compatible materials” and components with minimal reconfiguration.
Air Force Establishes Branch to Develop GPS Alternatives
BLUF: The Air Force recently established an organization to field new technologies that can provide positioning, navigation and timing alternatives to GPS.
The Assured and Alternate PNT Branch is a hybrid organization between the service’s Military Code Aviation Receivers Joint Program Office and AFRL.
The new organization will be co-located with PNT and navigation warfare experts at AFRL “so that they can teach some of our engineers about technology, and we can identify from a JPO perspective which things are ready to get fielded into the fusion boxes that we’re going to be fielding over the next two years.”
Our Take: We have recommended for years to push tighter integration between researchers and acquirers (for military specific tech). Our approach was to pull the researchers into the program office, but this seems to take the other option of going to AFRL.
Space Command Identifies Capabilities It Needs for the Next Space War
BLUF: Space Command has ranked offensive space capabilities and systems for countering proliferated low Earth orbit constellations as its two highest priority needs for fiscal years 2029 through 2033.
The list puts what Whiting called “integrated space fires” and “counter-pLEO” capabilities first and second.
Integrated Space Fires refers broadly to the ability to produce military effects against adversary space capabilities.
Counter pLEO is IDing ways to disrupt the function of an entire satellite network rather than attacking large numbers of spacecraft individually.
Those are followed by joint integrated space command and control; dedicated space domain awareness for space engagements; and sustained space maneuver.
The Integrated Priorities List is Space Command’s assessment of capability gaps based on emerging threats, planned Pentagon investments and technologies under development.
“We’re a combatant command and we fight to win wars. To win, we need credible, acknowledged, kinetic and non-kinetic fires. They are a key component of how we establish space superiority and restore credible deterrence.”
“The reason we’re highlighting counter proliferated low Earth orbit is because we see a gap right now. So, we are asking industry, we are asking research and development firms, the government labs, to please put their time, effort and attention into this problem area. I don’t want any U.S. forces to be put at risk because somebody else might have a proliferated low Earth orbit constellation that could find, fix a track and target them, for example.”
Related Articles:
Joint force needs kinetic and non-kinetic weapons for space war
SPACECOM Wants to Proliferate Ground Stations—and Counter Adversary Proliferation
Laser Weapons for Space? US Officials See Threat, Opportunity
BLUF: As the Pentagon and other militaries rush to deploy large satellite constellations designed to be less susceptible to kinetic attack, US military officials responsible see laser weapons as both a future threat and an opportunity.
ASATs are impractical so searching for node vulnerabilities to take down proliferated constellations is going to be key.
Directed-energy weapons provide new “opportunities” for counterspace operations to be executed affordably and at scale.
The Space Force over the past couple of years has increasingly been voicing concern about Chinese and Russian development of laser ASAT systems.
With regard to cyber weapons, it was noted that already the Navy’s component to SPACECOM integrates cyber and space operations in a way that “is very powerful.”
Targeting communications hubs and satellite ground stations is yet another way to cheaply and efficiently disrupt or disable proliferated constellations.
Our Take: It makes sense and our adversaries are likely already targeting us but there is some fear of escalation here. If SPACECOM is seen to focus on those vulnerabilities, adversaries may also double down and it’s unclear who has more risk.
Space: The Next Frontier for Maneuver Warfare
BLUF: The Space Warfighting framework formally declares a shift in U.S. policy toward treating space as a complex and contested warfighting domain.
Gen Whiting has directly stated that a satellite locked into a predictable orbit is not a strategic asset; it is a target.
His call for a formal maneuver warfare strategy, which Space Command is developing under a wargaming program known as the Apollo Maneuvers, is a generational shift in how DoW intends to operate in space.
This cogent argument is supported by accelerating advances in technology and logistics that will make orbital maneuver possible.
However, the current discussion tends to underemphasize what is arguably the most operationally consequential challenge: space-generated data is simply not useful without a sound communications infrastructure connecting maneuvering spacecraft to each other and military commanders tasked with decision-making.
Operationally, maneuver warfare requires real-time situational awareness, low-latency command and control and near-real time redirection of information flows as conditions change.
New advanced commercial satellites can provide an assured communications backbone using space relay services that connect military or 3rd party satellites to space-based networks, so data securely reaches commanders on the ground.
Fundamentally, maneuverability in space is not only about propellant and on-orbit servicing. It is about the sustained, assured information flow across vast battlespace that spans every orbit and geographic theater simultaneously.
Our Take: 100%. Timely data and decision analytics will determine if space commanders can respond in a military useful way or stuck in limbo trying to understand what is happening and formulating how to respond.
Space Command to Host Live-Fly Advanced Maneuver Exercise
BLUF: Space Command is preparing to host a live-fly exercise in the coming weeks to test advanced maneuver concepts that will inform its strategy for dynamic operations in orbit.
The exercise is part of SPACECOM’s Apollo Maneuvers, a demonstration series Whiting unveiled in January aimed at refining tactics and ultimately informing future maneuver warfare doctrine.
The effort is linked to Operation Olympic Defender—a partnership between seven countries to better integrate space operations and data sharing among allies.
Whiting previously told reporters that SPACECOM would coordinate Apollo Maneuvers events to coincide with on-orbit logistics and refueling demonstrations the Space Force plans to run this year and next.
Space Kinetic Awarded $50M for Space Maneuverability
BLUF: Space Kinetic announced a $50M OTA award from the Space Force to develop Whirlwind—its space maneuverability and deployment system.
Whirlwind flings small, ruggedized microsatellites from a host spacecraft at high velocities—without firing a thruster.
The microsatellites carry their own propulsion and comms, but Whirlwind provides the majority of the initial Delta-V electromechanically, sidestepping the rocket equation.
Bringing drone economics to orbit means payloads need to be cheap, responsive, and attritable.
By decoupling the payload from the space vehicle, Space Kinetic aims to shift the burden of maneuver from the payloads to the host—minimizing mass, cost, and complexity.
Space Force Orders Two More Impulse Space Vehicles for Maneuvering Demonstrations
BLUF: Space Force has added $28M to an existing contract with Impulse Space to provide two more maneuverable spacecraft for tactically responsive space missions, in an effort to give military operators faster options for responding to activity in orbit.
The contract modification will fund Victus Salo 2 and 3, which will use Impulse’s Mira spacecraft to host government-provided payloads for missions in LEO.
Victus Salo is part of the Space Force’s broader Tactically Responsive Space, or TacRS, effort to shorten the time needed to deploy and operate spacecraft.
Related Articles:
Impulse Space Selected by Space Systems Command to Support Additional VICTUS SALO Missions
Space Force Plans Two More Missions to Test Tactically Responsive Maneuvers
Firefly’s SciTec Awarded $94M Space Force Contract to Advance Ground-Based Radar Digitization Program
BLUF: SciTec, a Firefly Aerospace company, has been awarded a $93.7M FFP OT for ground-based radar digitization. This contract provides for modernization efforts to create a common architecture and design for the upgrade of ground-based radars.
Bipartisan Senate Bill Would Sharpen Space Force Training for Conflict with China
BLUF: Two Senators have introduced bipartisan legislation that would direct the Pentagon to strengthen the Space Force’s preparation for a potential conflict with China by expanding training, wargaming and simulation while requiring a new public assessment of Beijing’s commercial space sector.
The Space Superiority Readiness Act would require DoW to expand the Space Force’s capacity to conduct wargaming, modeling and simulation of peer conflicts in space and develop training programs focused on the tactics, techniques and procedures needed for space control operations.
The legislation also calls for an unclassified report to Congress on China’s commercial space capabilities and their potential military applications within 180 days of enactment.
The measure comes as the Space Force increasingly emphasizes preparing guardians for combat operations in orbit rather than solely operating satellites that support military forces on Earth.
The service has been developing its Operational Test and Training Infrastructure, or OTTI, a network of simulators, live training ranges, adversary representations and distributed environments intended to allow Guardians to train against realistic threats without relying on operational satellites.
Our Take: This is desperately needed as the training of the past has not kept pace with space operations especially not those operations that will be required in the future.
SpaceX Increasing Footprint in Missile Defense
BLUF: SpaceX is no longer simply the Pentagon’s dominant launch provider but is also becoming a central supplier of the satellite networks and communications infrastructure underpinning the military’s next-generation missile defense architecture.
As more missile defense functions migrate into space, more of the Pentagon investment is flowing to companies whose roots are in the commercial space sector, led by SpaceX.
The Space Force awarded SpaceX a $2.29B contract to build the initial backbone of the Space Data Network, a secure, high-capacity communications architecture in LEO to move data among military sensors, command systems and weapons.
The service expects a fully operational prototype by the end of 2027, an aggressive schedule that favored a company with an existing satellite platform, optical communications network and high-rate production capability.
The Space Force selected SpaceX for a separate $4.16B contract to build the initial constellation for its space-based Airborne Moving Target Indicator program.
The satellites are intended to provide persistent tracking of aircraft and other airborne targets from orbit, shifting a mission traditionally performed by surveillance aircraft into space.
The Space Force also placed an order worth $1.6B for 18 Falcon 9 launches under National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 to deploy satellites supporting its Space-Based Sensing and Targeting portfolio through the end of 2027.
By grouping the Space Data Network and AMTI contracts under the same national security business, the company signaled that it sees those programs as part of a common military architecture rather than separate procurements.
Space Force officials have said they intend to field modular architectures supported by multiple suppliers. But near-term acquisition decisions emphasize mature technology, lower nonrecurring engineering costs and delivery schedules measured in months rather than years.
The Space Force last week announced contracts totaling $615M to Rocket Lab, Systems & Technology Research and a third undisclosed company as part of a second task order under the AMTI program.
“The core focus of this second task order is diversifying our capabilities and ensuring we don’t rely on a single technical solution. The additional companies are intended to explore fundamentally different ways of accomplishing the mission while preserving long-term competition as the architecture evolves.” - Ryan Frazier, PAE Space-Based Sensing and Targeting
Our Take: This is the right approach. Field what’s available within a modular architecture and build the competition pipeline to minimize vendor lock in any one area but allow other players to mature and compete for future work - while also getting capability to the warfighter fast.
Related Article: Officials hedge SpaceX aircraft-tracking satellite bet with three smaller company contracts
Space Force Taps 5 Companies for Space Data Network Connectivity Demos
BLUF: Space Force has contracted five vendors to demonstrate that its future mega-constellation can effectively share information between systems owned by different companies.
Each contractor will receive $12M under a set of OT agreements that will fund work for two related efforts.
Together, the deals are intended to lay the groundwork to field optical laser communication terminals for the service’s planned Space Data Network (SDN) architecture.
The five companies selected are Amazon LEO for Government, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab and York Space Systems — all of which are part of the Space Force’s SDN industry consortium.
The service wants to field the Space Data Network as a hybrid architecture, with both military-owned and commercial payloads built by different companies.
“The new prototyping and demonstration deals are intended to validate the Space Force’s multi-vendor approach. We have to break away from the old way of doing business, which too often locked the government into single-source vendors for decades. By investing in standardized interfaces now, we are creating a clear runway for any capable and innovative company to come in and compete. It keeps the playing field level and ensures we can constantly bring the best commercial technology to our missions.” Brig Gen Ryan Frazier, PAE SBST
Related Article: Space Force Adds 5 New Vendors to Space Data Network Project
Rocket Lab Corporation Announces Progress on Iridium Acquisition
BLUF: Rocket Lab Corporation, a global leader in launch services and space systems, announced substantial milestones in connection with its previously announced proposed acquisition of Iridium Communications.
The waiting period under the U.S. Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, in connection with its pending acquisition of Iridium expired on August 12.
Rocket Lab also today filed its Registration Statement on Form S-4 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which represents a substantial step in the process toward completing the proposed transaction.
As part of its financing strategy, Rocket Lab announced today that, together with Iridium, it intends to seek certain amendments to Iridium’s existing term loan credit facility with an aggregate amount of $1.775B.
Astranis Unveils Perceptor, an SDA Product for GEO
BLUF: The company announced Perceptor, an SDA and maneuverability platform designed to operate in higher—and strategically important—orbits, including GEO.
The announcement comes just three months after Astranis brought in a whopping $450M+ in new funding, including a $300M Series E.
Perceptor will be built on Astranis’ MicroGEO satellite platform, which the company already uses in-orbit for communications missions however, it will carry extra hardware for its mission, including:
A suite of sensors to help with everything from determining the capabilities of adversary spacecraft, to providing details about anomalies on allied sats.
Propulsion hardware to maneuver throughout GEO more than a dozen times in one mission.
The ability to operate with other spacecraft as part of a constellation.
Department of War Launches the Golden Dome for America Hub To Accelerate Industry Engagement
BLUF: The Golden Dome for America office announced the official launch of the “Golden Dome for America Ecosystem Hub” (the Hub), a digital platform designed to streamline collaboration between DoW and the commercial technology sector.
Accessible immediately at hub.goldendome.mil.
The Hub serves as a unified entry point for traditional defense contractors, commercial tech companies, venture capitalists, academic institutions, research laboratories, and nontraditional entrepreneurs.
Key capabilities and features of the Hub include:
Direct Engagement and Rapid Submissions: Traditional and nontraditional innovators can easily register, upload concepts, and submit designs directly to program decision-makers, bypassing months of administrative delays.
Transparent Demand Signals: The Hub provides real-time, unclassified visibility into the immediate capability gaps of the Golden Dome program, allowing the private sector to align investment and R&D with active mission requirements.
If Funding Falters, ‘There’s No Golden Dome,’ Guetlein Warns
BLUF: Work on the Golden Dome national air defense shield could come to a grinding halt in October if lawmakers do not figure out a way to continue funding for the presidential initiative, the general in charge of the massive project warned.
Guetlein’s comments come as lawmakers are preparing for the upcoming midterm elections and grappling with just how to fund DoW in FY27.
Part of that challenge revolves around the White House’s strategic gamble when it asked for $1.5T for in FY27 by splitting it into two pots — $1.15T trillion in the base request and an additional $350B in a reconciliation request.
The Pentagon wants to spend some $17.5B on Golden Dome in FY27, but less than $400M of that total is found in the base budget, leaving a vast majority of the funding tied to the fate of reconciliation.
Pentagon leaders are looking at possible avenues to reshuffle FY27 funds to keep Golden Dome work going.
“There are discussions within the department about how to go forward because we have diversified execution of a lot of these capabilities, and a lot of these capabilities are already requested by combatant commands. There are some alternatives that we can pursue. We have not made any decisions on any pathway. If Golden Dome is not able to continue to invest in those type of capabilities, then the Space Force could decide at that time to continue the investments.” Gen Guetlein
Related Articles:
Golden Dome money starting to reach contractors, but long-term funding still unclear
Golden Dome Missile Defense Shield At Risk Of Grinding To A Halt Due To Budget Impasse
Space-Based Interceptor Contractors Passed First Golden Dome Milestone
BLUF: The Golden Dome DRPM said that the 12 contenders for future space-based interceptor (SBI) development contracts have passed the first of four milestones in the Space Force’s demonstration effort.
There are four “gates” under SSC’s unusual prized-based SBI competition.
The arrangement requires industry competitors to self-fund prototype development and demonstrations of space-based weapons that can neutralize enemy missiles, in hopes of winning small pots of prize money along the way.
Gate 1 is to get the design in place and do component level testing.
Gate 2 is to build a capability that can go into outer space.
Gate 3 is to prove that that capability works in outer space.
Gate 4 is to prove that the capability actually works as part of the broader Golden Dome architecture
The demonstration competition covers three flavors of SBIs for hitting adversary ballistic and hypersonic missiles, both nuclear and conventional:
boost-phase endo-atmospheric interceptors for hitting incoming missiles within the Earth’s atmosphere shortly after launch;
exo-atmospheric interceptors, to knock them down a little later after they have left the atmosphere; and,
mid-course interceptors, designed to strike when the adversary missiles are partially through their flight path.
ICBM Killer Passes Two Key Tests Ahead of Design Review
BLUF: Lockheed Martin’s new ICBM killer, ordered two years ago to supersede the oft-troubled GMD interceptor, hit two major milestones this week and is expected to clear the design phase later this year.
Lockheed Martin announced that they had successfully fired its stage 2 rocket motor in a static test.
NGI should clear the critical design review, or CDR, phase by the end of this year.
In 2024, the Missile Defense Agency awarded Lockheed Martin an $18B contract to design and build the Next Generation Interceptor.
Related Article: Lockheed Martin Announces Successful Static-Fire Test of Next Generation Interceptor’s Stage 2 Motor
U.S. Must Fuse Missile Warning and Defense to Defeat Future Threats
BLUF: The U.S. needs to change the way it tracks and defends against future missile threats. The need to do so comes as changes in missile technology are moving faster than the current defeat system can keep up with.
The U.S. military has space-based early warning sensors that are integrated into its existing sensing, and has been for decades. But these warn of launches, they generally don’t track a weapon throughout its flight cycle.
The SDA is developing a number of missile-tracking satellites as part of their tranches that they’re launching. The MDA, meanwhile, has “a long history of integrating battle management.
Those two together are really helping Space Command take separate disparate stovepipe information and bring it together.
The reason to make this change is that “we have to make these decisions faster, and that data flow has to be able to enable our layered defenses – whether that’s coming from a THAAD, a Patriot, or directed energy, or SM-3, or space-based interceptors in the future – it is going to be dependent on our decision speed.
“Historically, if you start from the high end here, missile defense and missile warning were operating on separate and distinct stovepipe networks. Missile warning, of course, was going to detect a launch and let people know something’s coming inbound and see a duck and cover and whatnot, and missile defenders were looking to get a little bit more fidelity in their track and be able to shoot down an incoming missile. But today we don’t really have any ballistic missiles. Everything is maneuvering. Everything is complex, and so we can’t provide warning without providing a lot more observations on these missiles.”
Army Selects Air Defense Unit to Prepare for Golden Dome Mission
BLUF: An Army unit has been picked to begin training and testing out plans for the Pentagon’s Golden Dome air defense mission.
“It’s a battalion-size formation that will be the Army’s initial contribution to [Golden Dome], but there will be elements from other echelons that’ll have to play a role in that.” Lt. Gen. John Rafferty, Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC) and Joint Task Force-Gold (JTF-Gold) Commander
MDA Pursuing Mobile Radar to Detect and Track Hypersonic Missiles, Other Advanced Threats
BLUF: MDA issued a presolicitation Monday for a new highly mobile, rapidly deployable sensor system that could help the U.S. military detect and track hypersonic missiles and other advanced airborne threats.
The Forward-Based Mode (FBM) Radar Next initiative is being spearheaded by MDA’s Mobile Land-Based Sensors Project Office, which aims to prototype the technology.
Notably, officials want to create a system that can be quickly transitioned into mass production amid growing threats in the air domain.
As adversarial missile capabilities become increasingly sophisticated, the need for agile, survivable, and highly precise forward-based sensors has increased.
Current static or semi-mobile radars are vulnerable to counterattacks and lack the rapid relocation capabilities necessary for modern distributed operations.
FBM Radar Next will close this gap by providing a system that can be quickly transported, set up, and operated in austere forward locations while maintaining interoperability with existing C2BMC networks.
The new mobile radar must be transportable via C-17 military airlift and tactical ground vehicles, and provide high-sensitivity detection, persistent tracking and precise discrimination of advanced threats in “high-clutter and contested electromagnetic environments.”
Other technical objectives and requirements include flexible aperture configuration and open systems architecture, as well as physical, thermal and electromagnetic signatures that are engineered to enhance survivability.
Related Article: Hunt For New Mobile Missile Defense Radar Reinforced by Lessons from Iran War
U.S. Not Prepared to Handle Drone Attack from Inside Homeland: Deputy NORAD Commander
BLUF: The deputy commander of United States Northern Command (NORTHCOM) was asked if he could defend against an attack by a swarm of drones in the homeland. His reply was blunt and chilling: “No.”
Gen Jarrard’s statements were a sharp admission by a U.S. military leader of a number of interconnected gaps, including the lack of domain awareness over the homeland.
He was also raising other concerns we have often highlighted, like having the right systems in place to take drones down once they are detected and the proper authority to use them when needed.
In particular, near-field attacks like Operation Spiderweb pose a huge threat and one that would be hard to stop once it began.
Compared to a combat theater, there are fewer defenses and far less surveillance, let alone similar alert levels, at sensitive installations all over the U.S.
“We don’t have the sensors, and depending on where that swarm is going to attack, it depends on whether we have any sensors at all, and also on whether we’ve got any effectors to go after that problem. So, we are ill-equipped right now to handle something like that, and obviously we’ve seen it used. We’re seeing it used on a daily basis around the world, and we’ve got to figure out how to mitigate that threat, but we’re not there yet.” Lt. Gen. Joseph Jarrard
U.S. Expands Missile Production as Army Seeks More Depth in its Arsenal
BLUF: The Pentagon is pressing defense contractors to increase production of missile interceptors as recent conflicts expose a longstanding weakness in air and missile defense: inventories of the most capable weapons can be depleted faster than industry can replace them.
Army leaders say increasing production is only part of the answer.
Last week, the department announced multibillion-dollar agreements to increase output of PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptors and components.
Those actions follow a $1B Pentagon investment in L3Harris Technologies intended in part to expand solid rocket motor capacity.
The production push addresses the immediate problem of replenishing inventories.
But military planners have long argued that a force built around sophisticated interceptors such as PAC-3 MSE and THAAD can face an unfavorable cost and inventory equation if those weapons are used against every type of threat.
THAAD, for example, provides a high-altitude layer of ballistic-missile defense that can’t simply be replaced by a cheaper short-range system.
Patriot generally operates lower in the battlespace. Together they give commanders multiple opportunities to engage an incoming missile.
“The future of missile defense is a mix of high end and lower cost interceptors. We’re not really in the quantity business, we’re more in the consumption business” Lt. Gen. John Rafferty
Our Take: This is why we need a serious Low-Cost Interceptor program that is well funded and has high prioritization from the Department.
CENTCOM Creates First ‘Multinational’ Attack Drone Task Force After Months of War with Iran
BLUF: With the Iran war in its sixth month and unmanned systems having played a defining role in the conflict, CENTCOM said it was launching a new drone task force.
Task Force Falcon Strike will use air, surface and sub-sea one-way attack drones.
This will be conducted alongside regional partners, that the command said it was still in the process of “consulting and officially inviting” to the new unit.
The announcement comes months after CENTCOM launched Task Force Scorpion Strike, a separate drone squadron known for its use of the LUCAS, which the U.S. reverse-engineered from an Iranian UAS.
How a Drone ‘Hellscape’ Might Stop a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan
BLUF: To repel any future Chinese invasion, Taiwan is building fleets of flying drones and unmanned attack boats. The goal is to use them to help locate and attack Chinese forces approaching the island, relying on Taiwanese soldiers trained to move quickly before China can strike them.
U.S. commanders who developed this strategy call it a “hellscape”: overwhelming an invading force with waves of drones, missiles and artillery, and making an amphibious assault so risky that China’s leaders are deterred from trying.
Inspired by lessons from Ukraine and other recent war zones, Taiwan is now accelerating efforts to put that strategy into practice.
Taiwan faces a particularly urgent threat: China, which is roughly 110 miles away, claims the self-governed island as its territory. Chinese leaders say they want to absorb Taiwan peacefully but will not rule out using force.
Aiming to make the island a drone superpower, the government says it wants Taiwan to make 100,000 drones a month by 2030, with around half exported.
It also wants the military to acquire over 210,000 flying and seaborne drones.
For Taiwan, acquiring the drones may be the straightforward part.
To master drone warfare, Taiwan must also retool its military organization, training and doctrine. It must learn to operate swarms of drones, rapidly assess and share the intelligence they provide and prevent an enemy from disabling them.
This will require troops to be more mobile and self-sustaining.
Taiwan also recently created a Littoral Combat Command, integrating drones, mobile missiles and artillery into a coastal shield against a Chinese invasion.
In the first three months of 2026, Taiwan exported drones worth $115 million, exceeding its total drone exports for all of 2025.
America is Sailing Through the Taiwan Strait Less. Does It Matter?
BLUF: In December 2025, high-intensity Chinese military exercises around Taiwan featured a mock comprehensive air and naval blockade of the island. Weeks later, US naval vessels entered the Taiwan Strait to carry out the first naval transit of 2026.
While the transit provided reassurance to some regional capitals, especially Taipei, it remains the only publicly declared transit the US Navy has initiated in the Taiwan Strait this year, and one of only three since the start of this administration.
That marks a substantial decrease from prior years, which — at a time when Chinese military coercion has intensified — raises some serious concerns.
In contrast, current rates project only 14 publicly reported transits for the entirety of Trump 2.0 — in what would amount to a 50 percent decline from Trump 1.0 and a 56 percent decline from the Biden administration.
If America’s presence in one of the world’s most contested waterways is quietly fading, the strategic ramifications could be serious.
Transits give the US Navy practical experience navigating the Strait and if there is a prolonged decline in Taiwan Strait transits, the U.S. will lose that operating experience and it could possibly embolden Beijing to pursue coercive, illegal and destabilizing military activities with greater confidence.
The severing of undersea cables and lately the unlawful stops and inspections of Taiwanese vessels are part of Beijing’s “salami-slicing” tactics aimed at draining the vigilance of Taiwan’s government.
Some observers posit that the dip since the start of Trump 2.0 is the result of the US Navy engaging in “silent transits,” in which the Pentagon declines to publicize passages to dampen tensions with Beijing.
Cambridge Aerospace Raises $300M at a $3.4B Valuation
BLUF: UK-based defense hotshot Cambridge Aerospace announced that it’s raised a $300M Series C at a $3.4B valuation.
Cambridge’s central thesis is pretty simple: The team set out to build interceptors that were cheap enough (and quick enough to produce) to match a Shahed or a Geran. As we all know by now, it is stupid to waste a Patriot on a $50K drone.
So far, the company’s building two main platforms:
Skyhammer: A “high subsonic interceptor” designed to take down moderate-speed threats. Skyhammer flies at 700km/h and has a range of about 30 km. This mini-missile is in production and on contract with the MoD.
Starhammer: A high-speed rocket-powered interceptor designed to take down more “high-speed, high-value threats” like cruise missiles. Starhammer will fly at Mach 2 with a range of about 10 km. This larger interceptor is at TRL 3-4 with flight tests planned for the back half of this year.
The Defence Startup That Should Have Succeeded
Our Take: Read the whole post as it presents an interesting scenario that all acquisition professionals need to take into account as they engage with maturing vendors.
Chinese Army Drones Target USVs in Exercises
BLUF: The People’s Liberation Army Ground Force trained last week to use armed drones against unmanned surface vessels.
A Chinese military media post highlighted the armed KVD002 unmanned combat aerial vehicles engaging fast moving drone boats with missiles.
The footage depicted at least 13 drones attached to the PLA’s ground force unit.
In recent years, UCAVs have been deployed by the U.S. and Ukraine to strike small craft, fast boats and drones in the Caribbean, Black Sea and the Middle East.
The service’s growing drone force – as well as missile launchers equipped with specialized long-range munitions – can aid Beijing’s efforts during a potential invasion or blockade of the island.
American allies in the region have also eyed the utility of unmanned assets to asymmetrically counter Chinese naval forces.
Tokyo views USVs as a key component of its broader unmanned defensive plans.
In the South China Sea, the Philippine Navy is actively operating American-made and funded USVs to monitor Chinese forces operating around disputed maritime features. It is set to receive armed drones from the U.S. asymmetric capabilities program in 2027.
China’s Long March 7A Rocket Explodes 85 Seconds After Liftoff, Losing ChinaSat-4B
BLUF: A Long March 7A rocket broke apart shortly after liftoff Monday, destroying a communications satellite and ending China’s latest orbital mission. The failure occurred before the rocket could complete its initial powered flight.
Some spaceflight observers have suggested the flight termination system may have destroyed the rocket. Such systems can end a mission when a vehicle becomes unsafe or deviates significantly from its planned trajectory.
Other International News:
How Congress Is Reshaping the Administration’s FY27 Budget
BLUF: Three of the four House and Senate committees have marked up the defense spending proposal. None addressed the White House's proposal to spend $350B through reconciliation, though discussions are underway for a smaller package that could include money sought in a supplemental request for operations in Iran and other priorities.
Even without reconciliation, all the budget proposals released by congressional defense committees so far sign off on a $1.1T discretionary budget request, which is around $242B more than the FY26 base budget and $91B more than the total FY26 enacted level.
The administration’s efforts to quickly increase production of munitions, drones, and missile defenses, among other priorities, may have to be tempered.
The GOP has been working on a smaller reconciliation bill that includes $60 billion for the Pentagon. If adopted, that funding would primarily support initiatives contained in the Iran war supplemental request, particularly munitions replenishment.
See our NDAA and budget posts for the latest insights and analysis.
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Right, but the budget reality is a 2027 production start for most of these new munitions lines. The real bottleneck is still the second-tier component suppliers.
The biggest threat to National security is the President thinking he knows more than anyone else, i.e. change the launch propulsion systems on aircraft carriers and starting a war and boxing ourselves in while China continues to prepare for their number 1 adversary and I can assure you it isn't Japan