Rheinmetall Defence Australia and startup Praetorian Aeronautics delivered AERIE, a container launcher for 20+ Arrow interceptors, on Oct. 7. Operator demonstrations follow in Q4; no customer, order or price is named.
Navy Adds $150 Million to Shield AI's X-BAT, With Export Protections Built In
Shield AI is matching a $150 million Navy award that pays to make its AI-piloted, runway-free fighter exportable, lifting X-BAT commitments to $400 million before its first flight test.
USA · Autonomy · Shield AI
Raytheon Wins Up to $6.3 Billion for SM-3s the Pentagon Planned to Stop Buying
The award backs interceptor replenishment after combat use against Iran, but the missile count is undisclosed and industry warns funding gaps could delay investment.
USA · Policy · SM-3
Navy Puts X-Bow and Ursa Major on the Same Quad-Pack Interceptor Motor
Two awards in three days give the Navy two companies developing a motor for the medium-range variant of its planned Standard Missile successor, a four-per-cell interceptor.
USA · Naval · X-Bow Systems
Harmattan AI Unveils a 2,000 km Autonomous Strike Drone. Morocco Signed a Letter of Intent the Next Day.
Harmattan AI says IRIFI is designed to fly 2,000 kilometers without satellite navigation and finish a mission with no human control; Morocco signed on before payload, speed or price were disclosed.
Europe · Autonomy · Harmattan AI
Northrop's Self-Funded Talon Blue Flies Itself at Mojave After Losing the CCA Round on Cost
The company-funded YFQ-48A cut parts and weight to get Northrop back into an Air Force drone-wingman plan that already has two airframes in production.
USA · Autonomy · Northrop Grumman
Anduril Wins Up to $2.9 Billion Navy Award, Plans $3.7 Billion Submarine-Parts Yard
An outcome-paid Navy contract moves a drone and software company into the Virginia-class supply chain, but the Maryland yard does not open until 2030.
USA · Naval · Anduril
Intelic's Nexus software links radars, cameras and interceptor drones from different makers on one screen in Ukraine, and the Netherlands is paying more than €30 million to build its own drone force on it.
Yandex says drones disabled several modules at its Kaluga data center, a day after Sasovo shut down, leaving it three untouched sites.
The first confirmed strike on Russian data infrastructure took a Yandex Cloud zone offline, weeks after Russia began knocking out data centres in Kyiv.
A glide bomb killed 33 people at a Kramatorsk bus stop. Drones hit Kyiv's bridges seven times in four days. Putin's target is civilian life, and the defense comes down to interceptor engines.
Dealroom forecasts a record $10.5B for European defence startups in 2026, but mega-rounds are over 85% of it and US investors supply 47%. Russia's jet drones set the test.
An unmarked shoulder-fired missile in a Rostov air-defense team resembles China's QW series. Its origin is unconfirmed, but Ukraine's drone campaign explains why Russia wants it.
Berlin is paying Quantum Systems to scale interceptor production inside Ukraine before any interceptor drone has shown it can reliably kill Russia's jet-powered Gerans.
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