🤖 Pentagon plans a four-star Autonomous Warfare Command

Saronic broke ground on Port Alpha, an 835-acre Brownsville shipyard backed by more than $3 billion in private capital, with room to expand to nearly 4,400 acres.

The yard opens with 150,000 gross tons of annual capacity, scalable past 2 million, and will build autonomous and crewed ships including Navy landing craft utility (LCU) vessels.

The yard is meant to expand US shipbuilding capacity for the Navy's planned hybrid fleet, alongside Saronic's recent production contract for its Marauder autonomous unmanned surface vessel (USV).

STARK's Vanta 12 USV, over 12 meters long, can stay at sea for weeks and carry missiles, loitering munitions, electronic warfare systems, or MBDA's Sea Venom anti-ship missile.

It tops 40 knots with a 1,200-mile range and was demonstrated in simulated combat missions at NATO's largest exercise for robotic and unmanned maritime systems.

Built in southwest England to support the British Navy's hybrid fleet push, it is pitched to NATO allies as an export product that can be produced at scale.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Autonomous Warfare Command (AUTOWARCOM), a four-star combatant command with service-like authorities to scale robotic and autonomous capabilities across the joint force.

The unmanned systems office, renamed Project Agincourt and co-led by Defense Innovation Unit head Owen West, will clear the path and prototype acquisition pushing dollars toward frontline units.

The Army, Navy and Air Force Departments will create new military occupational specialty frameworks for autonomy, building career paths for a new generation of autonomous warfighters.

The Army awarded Other Transaction Authority agreements to Anduril, Castelion, Lockheed Martin, Mach Industries and RTX to build Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) Increment 4 prototypes.

Increment 4 must hit moving maritime and land targets at 1,000 kilometers or more, roughly double baseline PrSM range, from High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers.

The five will compete in a fiscal 2027 fly-off, after which the Army makes its first down select, two weeks after Lockheed's $1.2 billion Increment 2 award.

Utah counter-drone maker Fortem Technologies closed a $50 million Series B led by Lockheed Martin, which invested $25 million in April.

Proceeds will expand manufacturing at its Lindon, Utah facility and global deployment, after August's selection as a prime on a Homeland Security counter-drone contract worth over $1 billion.

Fortem says it has demonstrated five DroneHunter interceptors splitting five threats among themselves without human intervention, a step founder Adam Robertson ties to AI-driven swarms.

US forces use a reconfigured Xbox-style controller to direct lasers, the New York Post reports, though the Defense Department has not independently verified the engagements.

Operators steer the lasers deployed in the Strait of Hormuz with two analog sticks and a familiar button layout; reported targets include Iranian drones and missiles.

The approach reflects a broader shift toward pairing sophisticated weapons with familiar interfaces that keep human operators in the loop.

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