🤖 US Flexes Muscle With New Robotic Arm That Catches Drones Mid-Air

📬 In Today’s Defense Brief

🤖 US Flexes Muscle With New Robotic Arm That Catches Drones Mid-Air – Read More

⚔️ Calidus C-UAS ‘DAMITA’ Packs Four Kill Mechanisms Into One Mobile System – Read More

🤫 Space Force Keeps Golden Dome Orbital Interceptor Contract Winners Secret – Read More

🔭 UK Startup Spaceflux Chosen to Feed Space-Tracking Data to Joint Civil/Defense Hub – Read More

✈️ Dassault Aviation Taps Israeli Firm Aeronautics for AI-Driven Mission Solutions – Read More

🎱 Plus 8 other news stories you may like

📰 Full Breakdown

🤖 US Flexes Muscle With New Robotic Arm That Catches Drones Mid-Air – Read More

• Target Arm’s RALAR (Robotic Arm Launch and Recovery) gives ground vehicles a way to launch and recover drones while on the move, letting troops deploy and snag unmanned aircraft without ever stepping outside the armor. By handling both launch and mid-air capture, the arm turns any suitably equipped platform into a rolling drone hub designed for contested environments.

• The Connecticut-built system is “platform-agnostic,” with mounting concepts for manned vehicles, unmanned ground robots, and even aircraft, minimizing hardware changes between hosts. Precise positioning from Trimble technology synchronizes the arm with vehicle motion, enabling it to intercept returning drones accurately, even at speed and over rough terrain.

• RALAR aims to reduce manpower exposure and speed the find-fix phase of operations. Convoys can pop reconnaissance drones the moment they suspect contact, gaining near-real-time situational awareness. The company also pitches the arm for civilian missions, including emergency services, infrastructure inspection, and disaster response, where rapid, safe drone use is essential.

⚔️ Calidus C-UAS ‘DAMITA’ Packs Four Kill Mechanisms Into One Mobile System – Read More

• Emirati firm Calidus unveiled DAMITA (Drone Air Defense Integrated Tactical Architecture), a vehicle-mounted counter-UAS system that combines one soft-kill option with three hard-kill weapons in a single package. The architecture combines jamming, airburst guns, a 30mm cannon, and a high-energy laser to tackle everything from small quadcopters to more capable unmanned aircraft.

• DAMITA’s soft-kill layer uses an omnidirectional jammer to disrupt drone control, and GPS links out to roughly 5 km when static and about 3 km on the move. For kinetic effects, the system integrates Rheinmetall’s Skyranger 35 turret for programmable airburst munitions, plus an Electro Optic Systems 30mm cannon firing proximity-fused rounds, backed by a laser designed to burn out onboard electronics.

• A multi-sensor suite underpins engagement decisions. IRIS 3D radar separates real targets from clutter within a 5 km bubble, even when the host vehicle is traveling at high speed, while an Aaronia RF scanner monitors emissions from 20 kHz to 8 GHz and can extend detection to 80 km with a long-range antenna. An AI-enabled C2 stack from MARRS Group fuses inputs and recommends optimal firing solutions, giving operators a mobile, layered C-UAS command node.

🤫 Space Force Keeps Golden Dome Orbital Interceptor Contract Winners Secret – Read More

• Space Force confirmed it has awarded the first prototype contracts for Golden Dome’s space-based missile interceptors but declined to name the companies involved, citing security rules and federal disclosure thresholds. Because the awards are structured as “other transaction agreements” valued at less than $9 million, officials say they are not legally required to release contractor identities.

• Reuters previously reported that Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, True Anomaly, and Anduril are among those tapped to begin early work on orbital interceptors designed to intercept missiles during the boost phase. Analysts warn that secrecy around Trump’s directive launching the Golden Dome complicates congressional oversight and public understanding, even as notional program costs range from hundreds of billions to potentially over a trillion dollars.

• These small awards are effectively entry tickets to a much larger competition for multi-billion-dollar follow-on contracts. Industry interest is intense: a separate Missile Defense Agency Golden Dome opportunity drew more than 1,500 questions and an RFP extension. Meanwhile, Space Force has already teed up another prototype called for a kinetic midcourse interceptor, signaling that space-based layers are moving ahead despite persistent transparency concerns at home and abroad.

🔭 UK Startup Spaceflux Chosen to Feed Space-Tracking Data to Joint Civil/Defense Hub – Read More

• UK startup Spaceflux has locked in three contracts in as many months to provide space-domain awareness data to the UK’s National Space Operations Centre (NSpOC), jointly run by the Ministry of Defence and the UK Space Agency. The deals position the firm as a major source of orbital tracking feeds for both civil and defense customers.

• Under the contracts, Spaceflux will deliver persistent surveillance “across all orbits,” from LEO to GEO and beyond, blending routine monitoring of priority UK satellites with on-demand tasking when collisions, fragmentation events, or suspicious maneuvers occur. The company fields about 15 electro-optical telescopes with short-wave infrared imaging, enabling day-night coverage, plus a London research lab and earlier work under Project Nyx Alpha for a sensor in Cyprus.

• Spaceflux’s own telescope data is fused with inputs from partners including Safran, GMV, Look Up, EOS, and Optera, which contribute RF geolocation, radar, laser ranging, and neuromorphic camera feeds. All of this flows into NSpOC’s BOREALIS C2 system, which already supports collision warnings for over 90% of UK-licensed satellites. The latest contracts, totaling several million pounds, deepen the UK’s hybrid public-private model for space surveillance.

✈️ Dassault Aviation Taps Israeli Firm Aeronautics for AI-Driven Mission Solutions – Read More

• Dassault Aviation has signed a strategic agreement with Israel’s Aeronautics Group to co-develop AI-based solutions for unmanned aircraft and mission systems. According to public statements, the collaboration focuses on embedding advanced algorithms into Aeronautics’ UAS portfolio to automate mission planning, support onboard decision-making, and tighten man-machine teaming.

• The partners highlight applications such as smarter sensor tasking, adaptive threat avoidance, and more efficient use of ISR payloads over complex battlefields. Leveraging Dassault’s experience with digital engineering and AI and Aeronautics’ operational drone fleet, the work is intended to shorten the cycle from data capture to actionable intelligence and reduce human operator workload in dense airspaces.

• Beyond frontline operations, the agreement envisions AI tools for predictive maintenance and fleet management, using performance data from Aeronautics’ platforms to anticipate failures and optimize sustainment. Officials frame the partnership as part of a broader push to fuse AI, autonomy, and combat aviation heritage, positioning both companies to supply increasingly intelligent UAS and mission systems to export customers.

🌏 Other Important News

✈️ Air

• GKN Aerospace Wins FMV Contract to Help Sweden Develop Next-Gen UAV Capability – Read More

• Chile’s New T-40 Trainer Aircraft Ushers in VR-Driven Pilot Training – Read More

• Boeing Wins $4.7 Billion Foreign Military Sale for AH-64E Apache Helicopters – Read More

• Taiwan Version of ‘Golden Dome’ Emerges With Sensor-to-Shooter Integration – Read More

• 1,000-Km Reach: Emirati-Belarusian LCCM Mk2 Cruise Missile Breaks Cover – Read More

🛡️ Land

• Indian Borders Find New Protector With First AI-Driven Anti-Drone Ranger – Read More

⚓ Sea

• Coast Guard’s New Cutter Program at Risk of ‘Costly Rework’ and ‘Schedule Delays’: GAO – Read More

🏛️ Homeland

• Hegseth to Order 500 Additional Guardsmen to DC Following Shooting of Two Soldiers – Read More

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