🏭 Hadrian raised $1.37B at a $7.87B valuation

The Navy established a Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Robotic and Autonomous Systems (DRPM RAS), with Chris Miller acting in the role and reporting to William Toti.

The office consolidates requirements, resourcing, and acquisition for unmanned programs across the Navy and Marine Corps, modeled on the long-running submarine DRPM structure.

It will work alongside the Department of War's DRPM for unmanned offensive and defensive systems, which reports to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg.

Rheinmetall trimmed its 2026 naval sales forecast by 300 million euros ($346 million) after Germany scrapped the six-ship F126 frigate program in June.

Full-year company sales are still guided at 13.7 to 14.2 billion euros, far above the 9.9 billion euros booked in 2025.

Berlin moved instead to eight ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems MEKO frigates for anti-submarine warfare, a purchase still awaiting parliamentary Budget Committee approval.

Russia has fielded a ground-based electronic warfare system, Volna Kupol Grant, that jams Starlink by directing narrow-beam high-frequency signals at the satellites themselves.

Each unit reportedly blocks up to eight bands across 20 square kilometers, operating between 14 and 14.5 gigahertz out to 16 kilometers.

Overloading satellite antennas rather than ground terminals could leave spacecraft degraded after an attack ends, according to developer claims that remain unverified.

Japan's 2026 defense white paper expands its treatment of the industrial base, flagging companies that have exited defense contracting, including Komatsu and Mitsui.

A 2023 production law nearly doubled allowable contractor profit margins to 15 percent, and ministerial approvals of company improvement plans reached 164 in fiscal 2025 versus 36 two years earlier.

Tokyo is leaning outward for scale, citing Mogami-class frigate sales and the Global Combat Air Programme as vehicles for industrial growth.

Lockheed Martin took its SensorMAX AI sonar system to sea at RIMPAC 2026, with two MH-60R helicopters dropping sonobuoys off Hawaii.

The system handled up to eight simultaneous surveillance feeds and helped aircrews classify potential submarine contacts as acoustic data streamed in.

Unfamiliar signatures went to ground operators, who retrained the models in under five minutes and pushed updates back over an encrypted link.

Hadrian closed $1.37 billion in new equity at a $7.87 billion valuation, more than quadruple where investors marked the automated-factory company in January.

The round is co-led by WCM Investment Management, Washington Harbour Partners, Valor Equity Partners, 137 Ventures, and Baillie Gifford.

Chief executive Chris Power said the capital funds new factories, workforce growth, and the Opus platform, targeting submarine, munitions, and drone production bottlenecks.

An airport worker at Leipzig/Halle found a drone carrying an improvised explosive device on the tarmac, meters from an Antonov An-124 cargo jet.

Federal police removed the detonator, which had failed to function; the same night a departing DHL cargo aircraft struck an unidentified object and landed with minor damage.

It is the first explosive-laden drone recovered in Europe far from Ukraine, and German authorities have opened a counter-terror investigation without naming a suspect.

Aurelius Systems closed a $40 million Series A co-led by Draper Associates and KAS Venture Partners, with General Catalyst and Hanwha Defense USA participating.

Proceeds scale production of Archimedes, an autonomous directed-energy platform that identifies, tracks, and engages aerial threats, plus vertical integration across its supply chain.

The 19-person San Francisco firm expects to more than double headcount by year-end, following an American Rheinmetall integration partnership and testing at T-REX 26-2.

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