Air Force picks Anduril, GA-ASI for fighter-class drone production
Air Force awards Anduril and General Atomics production contracts for 150+ collaborative combat aircraft, locking out legacy primes from the hardware market and accelerating autonomous wingman deployment by four months.
NRL laser demo collapses two defense missions into one platform
NRL demonstrated a single laser system that transmits power wirelessly and switches to counter-drone defense without interruption, collapsing two separate logistics and defense functions onto one Boeing-integrated platform.
Senate moves to mandate human control over autonomous drone swarms
Sen. Kelly's NDAA amendment requires human authority over lethal autonomous systems, directly constraining platforms like Shield AI's LUCAS and Anduril's Lattice already under Pentagon contract.
Senate moves to create first autonomous-systems combatant command since 2019
Senate Armed Services Committee advances FY2027 NDAA provision permitting a new four-star combatant command for robotic systems, reshaping how the Pentagon buys and deploys autonomous weapons.
Mach Industries wins Navy strike drone contract, closes $300M Series C
Mach Industries won a DIU contract to build the Navy's runway-independent strike aircraft while closing a $300M Series C at $1.8B valuation, signaling venture capital's bet on autonomous weapons manufacturing reaching scale.
Navy locks in ISR vendors for 7 years with $350M contract vehicle
The Navy awarded 16 companies spots on a $350M indefinite-delivery contract for intelligence and surveillance systems, shutting out 15 other bidders and establishing the primary procurement vehicle for ISR task orders through 2033.
Pentagon opens equity checkbook for U.S. drone makers
Trump administration explores direct government equity stakes in drone manufacturers through the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital, fundamentally restructuring access to defense capital.
AEVEX books $34M in Air Force contracts as newly public drone maker scales
AEVEX Corp., fresh from April IPO, won $15.6M in Air Force mission-support contracts within weeks of a $18.5M production award, signaling rapid adoption of additive-manufactured autonomous systems over legacy contractors.
SOCOM's Civilian Overseer Gets Real Budget Authority Over Drone Programs
USSOCOM's advisory board SOLIC is being transformed into an institution with genuine control over Special Operations autonomous systems acquisition, signaling a structural shift in how SOF validates and fields emerging defense tech.
Helsing's $1.2B raise and HENSOLDT deal reshape European drone warfare
Helsing secures $1.2B funding and partners with German sensor maker HENSOLDT to equip CA-1 Europa combat drone, positioning Europe's defense AI leader to compete with Anduril.
Nominal raises $80M, lands $53M Air Force contract
Hardware testing platform Nominal closed Series B-2 at $1B valuation, then secured $53M Air Force IDIQ to standardize DoD test infrastructure, the real inflection point.
Anduril quietly built hypersonics. Now it's testing them for real.
Anduril Industries is contracting Rocket Lab for three $30M hypersonic test flights with its own capital, confirming a private defense tech firm is now funding independent hypersonic R&D outside government programs.
Rocket Lab books record Neutron backlog before first flight
Rocket Lab signed its largest contract ever, five Neutron and three Electron dedicated launches, pushing backlog to $2.2B and proving the medium-lift market will pay full price for a working alternative to Falcon 9.
Anduril lands $100M Space Force mesh network contract modification
Anduril's IDIQ ceiling for space domain awareness mesh networking doubles to $200M, extending the company's AI-powered infrastructure into orbital layers of next-gen integrated defense.
Army taps AeroVironment for loitering drone that changes small-unit strike
The Army awarded AeroVironment a prototype contract for Switchblade 400 under the LASSO program, positioning the drone as a core component of a $1.2 billion multi-year modernization of tactical precision strike.
Space Force awards $3.2B for orbital kill vehicles by 2028
The U.S. Space Force distributed 20 contracts worth up to $3.2 billion across 12 companies to build space-based missile interceptors in low-Earth orbit, aiming for operational capability within two years.
Pacific Defense wins Marine Corps EW prototype, signaling shift to open architecture
Pacific Defense awarded 12-month USMC contract to prototype software-defined electronic warfare systems, establishing foothold for cross-service MOSA/CMOSS adoption in tactical EW.
Anduril's Copperhead-500M Changes the Undersea Autonomy Game
Anduril released footage of its Copperhead-500M autonomous underwater munition hitting speed records in April 2026, six weeks after winning a Navy CAMP contract to deploy it from its Dive-XL submarine — the first credible link between carrier vehicle and payload in commercial undersea autonomy.
Air Force Warfighters Fly Anduril's Fury Drone From Laptop, No Base Required
Combat crews from the Air Force's Experimental Operations Unit flew Anduril's YFQ-44A Fury collaborative combat aircraft from a simulated forward operating base using only a ruggedized laptop, marking the first time warfighters—not engineers—operated the semiautonomous drone without fixed infrastructure.
Air Force hands full control of Anduril's Fury drone to combat crews
Anduril's YFQ-44A Fury passed its first combat-crew evaluation at Edwards AFB, with warfighters — not test pilots — executing full operational control. The milestone gates the production downselect decision due this summer.