🔷 Red 6 Rising

In That Number

$2.3B

The 2026 Air Force budget request has nearly $2.3B in DOGE spending cuts spanning over 400 line items.

On the Radar

Red 6 helmet for F-16s. Red 6 announced it won an Air Force contract to integrate its ATARS augmented-reality helmet into the F-16. The helmet enables real-time synthetic air combat training in-flight, enhancing pilot readiness with a virtual threat environment and maneuvering adversaries.

• The Merge’s Take: While Red 6 has previously integrated the T-38, this contract marks the first time the ATARS training system is displacing a combat capability—the venerable JHMCS helmet. That’s a massive market unlock (F-15, F-16, F/A-18, etc.), and something tells us there will be more news coming out of Red 6 in the near future.

Army drone shake-up. The Army is finalizing plans to replace its MQ-1C Gray Eagle and RQ-7B Shadow drone fleets. Previously, the service halted MQ-1C buys and cancelled the RQ-7 replacement program (known as FTUAS). Now the Army says they intend to have an RQ-7 replacement by 2026 and an MQ-1C replacement by 2028.

• The Merge’s Take: The Shadow replacement seems straightforward, but the Gray Eagle replacement—maybe not. General Atomics is pitching its Gray Eagle 25M and Gray Eagle STOL variants, but the Army is interested in a Group 4/5 ISR drone that is capable of short takeoff and landing (STOL) or vertical take-off and landing (VTOL). To our knowledge, there is no Group4/5 VTOL drone in existence—yet—besides this possible new Chinese VTOL drone.

Ukraine counter-drone startup. MaXon Systems raised $300k to accelerate its autonomous air-to-air defense system designed to protect large cities from Shahed drones. Founded earlier this year, MaXon has already completed combat trials of its tech, which uses aerostats to deploy low-cost 180-mph drones to intercept Shaheds.

• The Merge’s Take: MaXon went from idea to combat prototype at breakneck speed, and how they did it is worth a look. They built very little, but spent time breaking down the problem and developing a novel solution using existing equipment, leveraging Ukraine’s Brave1 defense innovation tech cluster. Sources indicate that there are over 20 MaXon aerostats currently protecting Kyiv.

TRIVIA

Which “food fact” was a cover story used to conceal a classified military capability?

A) Spinach builds strength
B) Carrots improve your eyesight
C) Celery improves hearing

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They Said It

“Both the U.S. Marine Corps and the Office of the Secretary of Defense stated that the Valkyrie is becoming a program of record and will be the first CCA [Collaborative Combat Aircraft] in production and fielded for the Marines.”

— Kratos CEO Eric DeMarco on the XQ-58A Valkyrie becoming a production program

Knowledge Bombs

• Ursa Major developed an extended-range motor for the APKWS laser-guided rocket

• STR was awarded an $11.3M contract to continue work on DARPA’s AIR AI F-16 program

• RTX Coyote drone interceptors are now on US Navy destroyers

• Korean Air & Anduril signed a partnership to jointly produce autonomous aircraft in Korea

• Poland signed a $3.8B deal to upgrade its 48 F-16V fighter fleet to the Block 72 standard

• Beacon AI was awarded an Air Force contract to prototype its LLM-powered flight planning software

• South Korea revealed a new air-launched ballistic missile program for its KF-21 fighter

• The Air Force announced a $99M project to develop an AI-powered next-gen target tracking architecture

• Edge Autonomy’s VXE30 Stalker was tapped for the Army’s Long-Range Recon program

• The Marine Corps completed the first MQ-9A test flight with SkyTower II and RDESS/SOAR pods

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ANSWER B. During WWII, British propaganda promoted the idea that eating carrots improved eyesight. This was partly to encourage consumption of surplus carrots due to rationing and possibly to conceal the development of radar technology used by their pilots.