🚢 Gecko robots will inspect Anduril's submarine parts

Gecko Robotics will deploy its inspection robots and AI software at Anduril facilities, ahead of Anduril's $6.6B Arsenal-2 submarine parts shipyard in Baltimore County, Maryland.
The robots will run non-destructive testing (NDT) on submarine components, which Anduril says will cut inspection wait times and give its inspectors better tools.
Anduril plans to carry those quality processes into Arsenal-2 from day one, as industry falls short of the Navy's goal of two Virginia-class deliveries a year.

Fortastra closed a $30M Series A led by First In, with Upfront Ventures and Space Capital participating, to build maneuverable spacecraft that guard satellites in orbit.
Its first two prototypes, Watchdog V0, reached orbit October 1 on SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare, about a year after the Torrance startup's seed round.
The money funds two more prototype spacecraft targeted for launch in early 2028, plus engineering hires and production capacity for expected Pentagon orders.

Shield AI won a $150M Navy agreement for its X-BAT autonomous fighter and is matching it with $150M of its own capital, bringing total commitments to $400M.
The funding runs through the Pentagon's Defense Exportability Features program, which builds security and export protections into the jet so allies can buy it.
First flight is scheduled for late 2026 in Kansas, with production starting in Des Moines, Washington, in 2028 and scaling toward 150 jets a year.

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Textron Systems received a $230M Navy contract modification to build two more ship-to-shore connector (SSC) craft at its New Orleans shipyard.
Textron has delivered 18 SSCs and has 13 more in test and production; the craft move troops and materiel off amphibious ships and reach 80% of the world's coastline.

A Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) war game held in Taiwan in late September found US planning lags for a Chinese cyber and economic pressure campaign.
The scenario escalated from cellular outages and satellite pressure to damaged undersea cables and disabled substations, with China then targeting Taiwan's backup networks over weeks.
FDD's Mark Montgomery said officials plan for recovery in hours when it takes days or weeks, and FDD wants to run future exercises with congressional staff and federal agencies.

The Army awarded nine companies about $93.6M in one-year contracts to supply applications for Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2).
Winners are General Dynamics Mission Systems, Air Space Intelligence Federal, Immersive Wisdom, LMI, Mente Systems, Stilman Advanced Strategies, Onebrief, Rune Technologies, and AIR, formerly Govini.
The apps go to I Corps as NGC2 scales from division to corps level, days after Anduril's data layer contract worth up to $1.8B.

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