✈️ Boeing won both US sixth-gen fighter contracts

Saronic Technologies won a US Navy production contract for Marauder, its 54.9-meter autonomous unmanned surface vessel (USV), after an eight-day evaluation covering more than 140 test scenarios.

Marauder tracked and followed other vessels using passive sensors without active radar, and the tested platform is the one the production contract covers.

Several more hulls are moving through Saronic's production line, and the award builds on its Corsair production contract and Navy landing craft work at its Brownsville, Texas shipyard.

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's former defense minister, launched Army of Robots, a Manhattan Project-style push to field humanoid-like ground robots that eventually replace infantry.

Fedorov targets a first confirmed battlefield result from a humanoid-like robot within six months and an infantry-free assault within a year, starting with investments in already-tested weapons.

The effort copies his Army of Drones model across sensors and robots, cheaper anti-jet-Shahed missiles, and AI strike drones; most humanoid designs shown are not yet in combat.

The Army issued 10 indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts with a $4.15 billion ceiling for counterdrone command-and-control, sensors, and weapons; only about $50 million was obligated at award.

Allen Control Systems, DroneShield, L3Harris WESCAM and four others received $500 million awards; Echodyne and PVP Advanced EO Systems got $250 million and SmartShooter $150 million.

Counterdrone awards now exceed $5 billion against a $7 billion ceiling, and the drone marketplace already cuts allied purchase times from months to days.

Joint Task Force-Southern Border detected at least 378 drones from Aug. 22 to Sept. 22, resulting in 75 turn-backs, 15 engagements, and one capture.

Between 95% and 98% of observed drone activity is reconnaissance supporting human trafficking, its commander says, though officials did not specify how the task force links the two.

No lethal drones have appeared yet, but officials fear Russia-Ukraine lessons spreading to cartels, and the task force already deploys an Army high-energy laser against hostile drones.

Boeing won a multi-billion-dollar Navy contract to produce F/A-XX, the service's first sixth-generation fighter and planned replacement for the F/A-18 Super Hornet fleet.

It is Boeing's second sixth-generation win after the Air Force's F-47 in 2025, and technical and program details remain classified.

Boeing is building a secure St. Louis facility it calls the largest of its kind in the US and says it can deliver both fighters in parallel.

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