🔦 Army signs first production contract for a laser weapon

Hermeus selected Anduril's Lattice mission autonomy suite for its Quarterhorse high-speed aircraft, with paired flight testing set to begin next year.

Quarterhorse flights have been manually controlled remotely to date, and CEO Zach Shore wants automated spin-up and takeoff so one person can manage multiple platforms.

The deal extends Lattice, already in the mix for the Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, onto a large airframe targeting speeds up to Mach 3.

The latest Defense News Top 100 puts combined annual defense revenue at $700 billion, up 11.3% from $629 billion the prior year.

Lockheed Martin leads at $72.1 billion, followed by RTX, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman, while Germany's Rheinmetall climbed to 15th on $11.2 billion.

Production capacity, not funding, is now the binding constraint, with interceptor shortfalls persisting and US shipbuilding order books filled into the 2030s.

York Space Systems introduced LX/V-CLASS, a spacecraft platform built for sustained operations in very low Earth orbit and derived from its S- and LX-CLASS buses.

Flying closer to Earth yields higher-resolution imagery and shorter signal paths, and York validated the required system stack during its BANE mission at altitudes as low as 200 kilometers.

York has invested more than $755 million in production and supply chain capacity, and says it can deliver a spacecraft six to seven months after contract award.

A UH-60M Black Hawk launched Anduril Altius-700M launched effects that autonomously struck both stationary and moving targets during Project Convergence Capstone 6.

The Altius-700M carries a 33-pound warhead, flies for 1.25 hours and reaches roughly 160 kilometers, extending sensing and strike well past the helicopter's operating area.

The three-day Mojave Desert campaign also validated the drones in extreme temperatures, and the next phase pairs the Altius-700M with a cavalry unit.

California firm Mara's Spike system pairs a Spotter targeting unit using visual, acoustic and optional radar sensors with Seeker, a tube-launched kinetic interceptor.

Seeker weighs 250 grams and flies at 200 km/h, closing on targets under onboard guidance while a human sets rules of engagement and can abort launches.

Spike scales from rucksack-portable squad protection to vehicle-mounted convoy cover and multi-kilometer perimeters, aimed at FPV drones that electronic jamming increasingly fails to stop.

The Army awarded AeroVironment $464.8 million under the Enduring-High Energy Laser program, which the service calls its first production contract for a high-energy laser weapon.

AV will deliver dozens of 30-kilowatt LOCUST X3 systems under an other transaction agreement, with integration planned on the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle.

A $30 million expansion of AV's Albuquerque facility backs the production ramp, moving directed energy from prototype demonstrations toward fielded counter-drone capability.

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