🛩️ USAF Eyes Stealth Flying-Wing “Arsenal Plane” Loaded With A2A Missiles

📬 In Today’s Defense Brief

🛩️ USAF Eyes Stealth Flying-Wing “Arsenal Plane” Loaded With A2A Missiles Read More

🛠️ Pentagon Funds $43.4M Alaska Antimony Hub To Secure Munitions Supply Chain Read More

🚢 Navy Preps Next-Gen Modular Missile Program With Hypersonic Variant Read More

🛰️ Space Force Declares ATLAS Space-Domain Awareness Software ‘Operational’ Read More

🤖 BAE Teams With Forterra On Autonomous Armored Vehicle Concept Read More

🎱 Plus 7 other news stories you may like

📰 Full Breakdown

🛩️ USAF Eyes Stealth Flying-Wing “Arsenal Plane” Loaded With A2A Missiles Read More

• The Air Force is studying a stealthy flying-wing “arsenal plane” that could carry “dozens” of air-to-air missiles, complementing fighters in a high-end Indo-Pacific fight. The concept may leverage B-21-like planforms or other flying wings to maximize internal magazine depth and survivability against Chinese threats.

• Reporting indicates the idea is being weighed alongside Collaborative Combat Aircraft options, with tradeoffs between few, large magazine trucks and many, lower-cost UCAVs for distributed mass. Long-range weapons like AIM-260/JATM and potential very-long-range missiles are envisioned to expand standoff reach.

• Advocates argue a big, stealthy missile carrier could surge kinetic capacity and reduce tanker burden, while skeptics note cost, vulnerability if found, and potential impact on CCA funding. The approach aims to offset adversary numbers by bringing concentrated A2A firepower where fighters have limited carriage.

🛠️ Pentagon Funds $43.4M Alaska Antimony Hub To Secure Munitions Supply Chain Read More

• Nova Minerals won a $43.4M Defense Production Act Title III award to build a U.S. antimony mining and refining hub at its Estelle project in Alaska, targeting military-grade antimony trisulfide production. The funding flows through U.S. subsidiary Alaska Range Resources.

• The deal supports a fully domestic, redundant supply chain for a critical mineral used in munitions and other high-tech applications; the U.S. hasn’t produced antimony commercially since 2016. Nova plans to accelerate extraction, concentration, and refining as it advances resource work.

• The award follows a larger Pentagon contract with United States Antimony Corp., underscoring urgency to onshore supply amid strategic competition. Nova’s shares spiked on the news as the company framed the hub as serving defense and broader industrial needs.

🚢 Navy Preps Next-Gen Modular Missile Program With Hypersonic Variant Read More

• A new Navy Modular Missile program is moving toward industry engagement, aiming to field multiple modular variants—including a dedicated long-range hypersonic missile—while scaling magazine capacity across the fleet. An industry day notice marks the first concrete signal since earlier leadership remarks.

• The family approach is expected to span short, medium, and extended-range configurations, evolving beyond the legacy Standard Missile lineage and aligning with efforts to reload VLS at sea and strengthen logistics under contested conditions.

• The initiative comes as the Navy chases modern counter-threats and explores next-gen Sea Sparrow concepts, suggesting a broader refresh of naval air-defense and strike portfolios to restore capacity and responsiveness at scale.

🛰️ Space Force Declares ATLAS Space-Domain Awareness Software ‘Operational’ Read More

• Space Systems Command leaders say ATLAS is “on the ops floor,” generating a catalog and publishing to Space-Track.org as a primary system—marking an operational milestone for the Space Force’s SDA software stack.

• The operationalization of ATLAS aims to speed custody, characterization, and dissemination cycles for resident space objects, strengthening the service’s ability to track maneuvers and inform ops and policy users with fresher, fused data.

• Officials frame ATLAS as a step toward more automated, resilient SDA architectures that lean on modular software and commercial data to handle congestion and counterspace threats in increasingly contested orbits.

🤖 BAE Teams With Forterra On Autonomous Armored Vehicle Concept Read More

• BAE Systems is partnering with Forterra on an autonomous armored vehicle concept, combining BAE’s combat-vehicle heritage with Forterra’s autonomy stack as the Army experiments with unmanned and optionally-manned platforms for contested environments.

• The teaming aims to accelerate development and prototyping for autonomous maneuver, logistics, and potentially armed roles—folding into broader Army efforts to distribute risk, extend sensing, and sustain tempo under EW and drone saturation.

• While details remain early, the collaboration reflects industry’s push to meet emerging requirements for robotic combat vehicles and MUM-T concepts, positioning for future programs as autonomy matures from experiments to fieldable capabilities.

🌏 Other Important News

🛡️ Land

• Army says it mitigated ‘critical’ cybersecurity deficiencies in early NGC2 prototype Read More

• MAPS GEN II anti-jam/spoof Assured-PNT rolls out on Army vehicles with M-Code and sensor fusion Read More

✈️ Air

• US National Guard conducts first-ever in-flight 3D printing on UH-60 Black Hawk to fabricate UAS parts on demand Read More

• Saab’s Loke counter-UAS system makes NATO debut after record build timeline Read More

• Serbia’s PEGASUS emerges as next-gen armed combat UAV concept Read More

🏭 Industry & Policy

• Hegseth signals more personnel changes and acquisition reforms ahead at DOD after Quantico all-call Read More

• Firehawk flight-tests Javelin- and Stinger-class solid rocket motors, notching key Army milestone Read More

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