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🐴 Did you know: A horse puts out close to 15 horsepower. Why: “horsepower” was coined around 1780 to refer to how much a horse could plod over a full day—a deliberate lowball to sell steam engines. Yep…horsepower was just a marketing gimmick. What does this have to do with defense? Nothing, but you can use it to sound smart!
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New Episode!
In this episode, Mike sits down with Kara Kramer from Vantor to dig into visual-based navigation (VBN) and GPS-denied targeting.
Check it out!
In That Number
260-fold
Poland’s spending on unmanned aerial vehicles and counter-drone systems has grown 260-fold in the last 3 years, surging from roughly $27M in 2023 to $6.9B in 2026.
TRIVIA
On this day 65 years ago, the U.S. launched MIDAS 3 into orbit. The massive 3,500 lb. satellite was the heaviest object put into orbit at the time. What was its mission?
A) test monkeys in space
B) detect missile launches
C) collect space weather
On the Radar
AI
Drone detection from cell networks. Cohere Technologies secured a $28M contract from the Pentagon to develop a prototype system that leverages standard 5G and 6G cellular infrastructure to detect and track drones.
The Merge's Take: This uses “illuminators of opportunity” via a dual-use, distributed, multi-static passive radar network. The current tech leverages 5G’s NR Positioning Reference Signals (NR PRS) to passively reconstruct 3D positioning, but the still-evolving 6G standard is likely to include several ISAC technologies (Integrated Sensing and Communication) when it comes out in ~2030. Keep an eye on the 6G standard. The Pentagon is actively working to ensure these national security features are baked in, and a standards war with Nokia and Ericsson is brewing.
Ukraine MoD
Ukraine weapons exports. The Ukrainian government authorized its first transparent framework for domestic defense firms to export military technology to allied nations. The policy streamlines export approvals down to 30 days for sales over $336,622, and 27 countries have signed up, including 15 NATO countries.
The Merge's Take: Kyiv’s defense production capacity skyrocketed to $55 billion by 2026, yet restrictive domestic procurement budgets and export restrictions have stifled its burgeoning defense industry. Opening foreign commercial channels marks a critical pivot from temporary wartime rationing to long-term industrial sustainability. Not only will this help Ukraine, having these products in the broader defense market will push competition to be better and cheaper.
ASI
FAA air traffic overhaul. The FAA awarded Air Space Intelligence an $875M, 12-year contract to modernize the National Airspace System. ASI’s cloud-native AI platform unifies weather, schedules, routing, and runway constraints to proactively resolve traffic congestion.
The Merge's Take: The FAA picked ASI over Palantir and Thales, who were also bidding on the project. The reason: ASI was already doing this on a commercial basis since 2020. Their AI software manages flight operations for Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines. Why you’re reading about this in defense tech news: ASI also has a contract with the U.S. Air Force for mobility logistics optimization and, earlier this year, was awarded a DIU contract to adapt the software for broader sustainment decision support via generating realistic and actionable courses of action (COAs) for decision makers.
Davis Metal
Defense startups raid civilian parts. Defense tech startups are actively repurposing automotive processors, high-pressure fracking tubes, and pharmaceutical blending methods to bypass severe bottlenecks in the aerospace supply chain and achieve high-rate production.
The Merge's Take: While promising, sourcing critical weapons components from high-volume civilian industries is not a new idea, and there is sometimes a reason it’s not broadly adopted by the evil legacy incumbents. A system with “one nine” works 90% of the time; a system with “two nines” works 99% of the time. It sounds small, but that’s a 10X difference in reliability. Aerospace parts are certified to quantify their reliability, and some military-grade parts are certified to “four nines” (99.99%) and “five nines” (99.999%). And that’s a system, not the components. If you have a series system with 4 components, where 3 are 99.99% reliable, and 1 is 99% reliable, the total system reliability is 98.9%. Yes, the system reliability drops below its weakest link. #math
They Said It
“Nothing will deter conflict more effectively than turning Taiwan into a hornet’s nest of air, surface, and subsurface drones.”
— Raymond Greene, Director of the American Institute in Taiwan, regarding the strategic necessity of asymmetric defense capabilities for the island
Together with Vantor
Unify your system on a trusted ground truth.
Every autonomous system depends on one thing: a trusted understanding of the world around it.
That's becoming harder as GPS grows less reliable and sensor ecosystems become more complex.
Vantor's trusted spatial foundation gives autonomous systems a shared source of truth across space, air, and ground. It's also what powers Raptor, our software that enables GPS-independent drone navigation and precise coordinate extraction. Together, they enable OEMs and systems integrators to build autonomous systems that continue operating when GPS is denied and the mission can't stop.
Knowledge Bombs
Ondas acquired DZYNE Technologies for $875.8M
Lockheed Martin acquired Ultra Maritime for $3.45B
TNO & Destinus are developing radar seekers for interceptor drones
The Air Force opened bidding on a low-cost counter-air missile
L3Harris tested a solid fuel ramjet propulsion system
The Navy requested solutions for hypersonic prototypes
Echodyne opened a $40M factory to produce 30,000 radars annually
Kraken Technology Group & Capewell air-dropped a USV (video!)
Venus Aerospace raised a $91M Series B for its rotating detonation rocket engine
Skapion raised a $36M seed round for its counter-swarm defense system
Kraken closed a $175M funding round at a $1B valuation
AeroVironment won an $80M JIATF-401 contract for counter-drone systems
ReconCraft won a $25M Navy contract for autonomous low-profile vessels
BAE released the first live-fire footage of its new MDACS artillery system
Turkey test-fired a ballistic missile against a moving vessel
Leidos won a $27M USSOCOM contract for AGM-190A missiles
Arkenstone Defense raised a $35M seed to help companies enter the federal market
General Dynamics won a $14M contract for a torpedo-tube-launched robot that lays mines
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ANSWER
B. MIDAS (Missile Defense Alarm System) was a bleeding-edge early warning program designed to rapidly detect and report nuclear ICBM launches in the Soviet Union from space. The program had a number of technological advancements, including a unique polar orbit to maximize coverage and edge-processing of data. The infrared detections in space were too large to transmit to Earth, so software was developed to convert the raw data into geo-located time-stamp messages. Though no longer operational, it’s still in orbit.
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