🛰️ Varda, LeoLabs & Anduril Demo On-Orbit Maneuver Tracking with AI Integration

📬 In Today’s Defense Brief

💥 Air Force, ARA & Boeing Team on Next-Gen Penetrator for Bunker-Busting Missions Read More

🛰️ Varda, LeoLabs & Anduril Demo On-Orbit Maneuver Tracking with AI Integration Read More

🔭 AeroVironment Wins $240M Order for Space Long-Haul Laser Communications Read More

🎯 Smartshooter Unveils Latest SMASH Anti-Drone Fire-Control Upgrades Read More

🛡️ U.S. Army Deploys M2A3 Bradleys to Poland to Bolster NATO’s Eastern Flank Read More

🎱 Plus 8 other news stories you may like

📰 Full Breakdown

💥 Air Force, ARA & Boeing Team on Next-Gen Penetrator for Bunker-Busting Missions Read More

• The Air Force tapped Analytical Research Associates and Boeing to mature a Next-Generation Penetrator (NGP) expected to succeed or augment the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, with a focus on hardened, deeply buried targets and modern air defenses.

• Early work centers on advanced warhead physics, guidance, and carriage options that could let bombers deliver effects from safer standoff ranges, while improving survivability against integrated air defense systems.

• Service officials frame NGP as a deterrence signal and operational need, ensuring credible strike options against subterranean facilities as pacing threats harden critical infrastructure and expand underground complexes.

🛰️ Varda, LeoLabs & Anduril Demo On-Orbit Maneuver Tracking with AI Integration Read More

• Varda Space, LeoLabs and Anduril integrated commercial space-domain awareness data with AI-enabled software to track on-orbit maneuvers ahead of a hypersonic reentry demonstration, stressing timeliness and automation.

• The event fused sensor custody, maneuver detection, and rapid data plumbing into operationally relevant timelines, showing how commercial SDA can augment government catalogs in congested LEO.

• Partners say the approach shortens the find-fix-assess loop for responsive space ops and missile-warning experiments, a model the Pentagon is pushing to scale through mixed government-commercial architectures.

🔭 AeroVironment Wins $240M Order for Space Long-Haul Laser Communications Read More

• AeroVironment secured a $240M contract for long-haul optical communications, supplying space laser links to move large data volumes securely across theater and back to ground users.

• The package emphasizes SWaP-efficient terminals, pointing/tracking stability, and high-throughput links, enabling resilient connectivity that’s harder to jam or intercept than traditional RF.

• Defense customers view optical crosslinks as a backbone for proliferated LEO constellations, feeding ISR, tactical edge nodes, and C2 networks that demand low-latency, high-assurance pathways.

🎯 Smartshooter Unveils Latest SMASH Anti-Drone Fire-Control Upgrades Read More

• Smartshooter’s newest SMASH fire-control iteration adds faster target acquisition and improved tracking for Class-1/2 UAS, turning rifles and crew-served weapons into precision C-UAS tools at low cost.

• Upgrades include enhanced computer vision, stabilization, and shooter-assist cues to raise first-round hit probability against small, erratic drones in cluttered environments.

• Militaries increasingly pair SMASH-equipped teams with radars and EW jammers in layered defense, providing a last-line kinetic option when swarms leak through higher tiers.

🛡️ U.S. Army Deploys M2A3 Bradleys to Poland to Bolster NATO’s Eastern Flank Read More

• The Army moved M2A3 Bradley IFVs into Poland, underscoring rapid reinforcement and forward presence along NATO’s eastern flank amid sustained Russia-NATO tensions.

• The rotation brings combined-arms training, logistics rehearsals, and interoperability with Polish forces, aligning with the alliance’s push for credible, immediately employable combat power.

• Officials say the deployment signals persistent deterrence and complements air/missile defense and prepositioned stocks to shorten timelines for crisis response.

🌏 Other Important News

✈️ Air

• Air Force atomic clock breakthrough aims to boost GPS timing resilience for PNT in contested environments Read More

• Raytheon nets $205M Phalanx CIWS production contract extension Read More

• EOS brands its high-energy laser “Apollo,” eyeing ship/ground C-UAS roles Read More

🛡️ Land

• Israel’s Skana robotic duo pairs a UGV with an armed quad-copter for scout-strike teaming Read More

• U.S. Rangers field test drones with tank-killing payloads in combined-arms experiments Read More

🛰️ Space

• ICEYE wins satellite order from Finland to bolster national ISR Read More

🏭 Industry & Policy

• AIRO and Nord Drone Group form JV to field Ukraine-proven UAS tech at scale Read More

• Trump administration asks Supreme Court to let it block $4B in foreign aid funding Read More

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