Swedish defense company Saab has unveiled the Barracuda Poncho, a 1-kilogram wearable multispectral camouflage system that deploys in five seconds and blocks thermal, UV, near-infrared, and short-wave infrared sensors simultaneously. The system is designed specifically to counter the proliferation of drone-based aerial surveillance that now threatens soldiers who briefly leave covered positions.

The poncho features a reversible day-and-night configuration, extending protection across different stages of deployment. Saab describes it as the only wearable that covers the full spectrum of battlefield detection methods rather than targeting a single sensor type.

The Barracuda Poncho joins Saab's existing Soldier System, a helmet-mounted thermal net that debuted earlier. Together they form part of a company-wide effort to extend multispectral camouflage from individual soldiers all the way up to vehicles and operational bases, addressing what Saab frames as a fundamentally changed surveillance environment on modern battlefields.

Anduril has closed a $5 billion Series H round led by returning investors Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, valuing the company at $61 billion, more than double the $30.5 billion it commanded less than a year ago. The raise follows a year in which the nine-year-old company doubled revenue to $2.2 billion.

Recent contract wins include a role in the Golden Dome space-based interceptor program, a Dutch Ministry of Defense contract, and a U.S. Army battle management deal using its Lattice platform. Even so, the Pentagon continues to distribute its bets across multiple defense tech startups; the Air Force recently selected Shield AI's software to pair with Anduril's Fury autonomous fighter rather than award the full package to either company.

Anduril has now raised more than $11 billion in total from investors. The broader defense tech funding surge continues in parallel, with Shield AI closing $1.5 billion in March, Hermeus raising $350 million in April, and Helsing reportedly approaching a new $1.2 billion round at an $18 billion valuation.

The Navy's fiscal year 2027 shipbuilding plan, released Monday, is the first to provide specific procurement targets for unmanned vessels: 47 medium unmanned surface vessels (MUSVs) by 2031, with a goal of 72 in inventory by 2056, plus 16 extra-large unmanned underwater vehicles (XLUUVs) through FY2031 at a cost of $1.1 billion. The plan envisions a 450-vessel fleet by 2031, combining 299 manned warships, 68 auxiliary ships, and 83 unmanned vessels.

The plan also calls for 15 Trump-class nuclear-powered battleships by 2055, with advanced procurement of $1 billion in FY2027 and first-ship procurement of roughly $17 billion planned for FY2028. The Navy says the battleship will serve as a capital ship for Pacific operations, carrying high-energy lasers, electromagnetic railguns, and nuclear strike capability, rather than as a destroyer replacement.

Independent analysts are skeptical of the costs and timeline. Hudson Institute's Bryan Clark estimated that the first battleship could cost roughly $20 billion and take more than 12 years from design to delivery, compared with the Navy's current projections. The Congressional Budget Office previously estimated the 2025 shipbuilding plan at $1 trillion over 30 years; a detailed analysis of the current plan, which features more ships and more expensive hulls, is expected later this year.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that a missile defense architecture aligned with the Golden Dome's executive order would cost $1.2 trillion to develop, deploy, and operate over 20 years, dwarfing the $185 billion already budgeted. The most expensive single component is a constellation of 7,800 space-based interceptors (SBIs) in low Earth orbit, estimated at $720 billion alone, capable of destroying up to 10 ICBMs during their boost phase.

The CBO cautioned that even this architecture could be overwhelmed by a full-scale peer adversary attack from China or Russia, noting that "fully engage" is not synonymous with "fully defeat." Golden Dome director Gen. Michael Guetlein has signaled he is willing to forgo the SBI layer entirely if it proves unaffordable, saying other intercept options exist.

Funding for the program has relied heavily on reconciliation legislation, with $24 billion secured through the 2026 One Big Beautiful Bill and more than $17 billion in additional reconciliation funds requested for FY2027, against just $400 million in base budget. The department is required to demonstrate an operational capability by summer 2028 and field the full objective architecture in the 2030s.

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday it would be "insane" for intelligence agencies not to have early access to advanced AI models with substantial hacking and cyber defense capabilities. His remarks came at Politico's Security Summit as the Trump administration weighs whether the Commerce Department or the intelligence community should lead evaluations of frontier AI.

The NSA has been testing Mythos, Anthropic's unreleased model, according to people familiar with the matter. Himes said the ongoing legal dispute between Anthropic and the Department of Defense (DoD) has not yet set back the intelligence community, but warned a prolonged conflict could become a "massive liability" for national security. Officials are also circulating draft contracting language that would limit a vendor's ability to place conditions on how the government uses its technology.

Himes said the Commerce Department should play a role in AI policy alongside the intelligence community. The administration is examining the broader implications of frontier AI models, including those that could provide commercial entities or adversaries with near-peer cyber capabilities, and is moving toward a more interventionist posture on the sector despite earlier laissez-faire positions.

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