⚓ Anduril to build $6.6B submarine component shipyard in Baltimore

Anduril and the White House unveiled Arsenal-2, a "software-defined" shipyard in Baltimore County, Maryland, that will build Virginia-class submarine components for final assembly at Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding.

A Navy contract worth up to $2.9B pairs with $3.7B of Anduril's own money, funding a 187-acre, 2-million-square-foot site run on the company's ArsenalOS software.

Initial operations are expected in 2030; a California facility starts sooner on torpedo tubes, and officials say the yard adds 9 million labor hours a year, roughly a 15% increase.

Rheinmetall Defence Australia and Breaker signed a teaming agreement to integrate Breaker's tactical orchestration agent into the Australian Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle through its open architecture.

In a simulator demonstration, a single operator with under 30 minutes of training commanded a drone swarm using a standard microphone and headset while carrying out regular missions.

Voice tasking keeps crews' hands on primary vehicle controls, and the companies say crewed-uncrewed teaming could extend the Boxer's reach and situational awareness.

Saab UK and Kraken built an experimental "drone seeker" vessel, mounting Saab's Giraffe 1X 3D radar on Kraken's K3 Scout uncrewed surface vessel to detect and track small drones.

The prototype went from concept to sea trials in under seven months, with testing focused on radar performance in maritime conditions.

The companies pitch it for protecting shipping, ports, offshore energy assets, and national infrastructure, operating alone or alongside crewed warships.

JIATF-401, the Pentagon's counter-drone task force, picked four systems for its homeland directed energy pilot: AeroVironment's palletized laser, Epirus' Leonidas microwave, Kord's Firefly laser, and Boeing's Compact Laser Weapon System.

The fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act ordered the pilot, which runs in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration and US Northern Command to expand operational use inside the US.

A December shoot-off will follow, and the task force says it will keep evaluating other directed energy systems for operational use.

Boeing formalized a seven-year, roughly $14.7B undefinitized contract with the Pentagon to triple output of Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (PAC-3 MSE) seekers.

Production runs at Boeing's Huntsville, Alabama, facility and follows an April framework deal, matching Lockheed Martin's plan to raise annual PAC-3 interceptor output from about 600 to 2,000.

The deal lands as US reliance on costly interceptors against cheap munitions, including those Iran used during Operation Epic Fury, draws growing scrutiny.

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