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In That Number
133,000
The U.S. Army issued a request to procure approximately 133,000 Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) rockets by 2034 to replenish stockpiles depleted by conflicts in Ukraine and Iran.
The plan requires contractors to produce 19,002 rockets annually from 2028 to 2034, marking a nearly 36% increase over Lockheed Martin's current target production capacity.
On the Radar
USAF
Target Drones Wanted. The Air Force issued an RFI for a three-tier family of aerial targets—from Group 1/2 drones designed to be shot down in volume to reusable supersonic targets mimicking stealth fighters. The current fleet consists of just two solutions: Kratos’ BQM-167 sub-scale targets and QF-16 full-scale targets (which ended conversions in 2025). Unlike earlier efforts, this new effort explicitly invites commercial, dual-use, and non-developmental solutions.
The Merge's Take: The tier-2 target requirement seems like more BQM-167s, but the other two tiers are what to watch. Some tier-1 backstory: a project called 5GAT had been limping along for years with a number of test and funding setbacks before it went away. Then NGAT started looking at a QF-16 replacement, which also went nowhere. Tier 3 is likely to leverage Group 2 one-way attack drones, which is less of a surrogate and closer to realistic test and evaluation…because right now the Air Force has no economical way to test and train to weapons such as the APKWS.
USN
Bridge Program Expands Access. The DIU launched the Bridge Program to attack 3 persistent barriers facing commercial companies: classified infrastructure, cybersecurity accreditation, and test access. Its first effort is establishing commercially operated shared classified facilities across 10 U.S. cities, with the goal of making secure infrastructure available in months instead of years.
The Merge's Take: The press release says it was conceived and developed in DIU, but part of the effort and most of the name come from DARPA’s BRIDGES program. Regardless, security is the number one barrier for new entrants into defense—it's tough to solve a problem when you don’t have access to the details, and the traditional path takes
monthsyears to get access, accredited facilities, and IT in place.
GA-ASI
Wildfire Drone. General Atomics unveiled "Wildfire," its offering for DIU’s Massed Modular Aircraft (MMA) competition. MMA aims to replace depleted MQ-9 Reaper fleets (also a General Atomics product) with a more affordable alternative and has drawn both traditional and non-traditional bidders.
The Merge's Take: General Atomics has the obvious incumbent advantage, has a number of other Group 5 drones flying right now, has been developing these-sized aircraft for 30+ years, and has been thinking about what comes after the MQ-9 for 6+ years. They say it’s a clean-sheet design (so not a Gambit derivative), but have said not much more (the above image is their previous MQ-9 replacement concept). Maybe they will unveil it next month at AFA’s ASC. Speaking of that event, start-up Swarmer is using AFA to unveil their long-awaited MQ-9-type drone (and MMA contender).
What to Watch: The Air Force is explicitly borrowing the continuous competition model from its CCA program, which uses a 4-6-vendor selection pool for concept refinement instead of picking a winner based on PowerPoint. Selections will be made by December, so expect to see at least 2 dark horses in that pool; then the real work begins to suss out fact from fiction of these paper airplanes.
TRIVIA
On August 23, 1962, the U.S. launched a classified satellite under the bland cover name “Program 35.” What Cold War problem was it designed to solve?
A) Detect nuclear tests in space
B) Identify contrails from high-altitude aircraft
C) Help spy satellites avoid clouds
They Said It
“The cavalry arrived here to meet your cavalry in private industry to make sure that we are not drone-sufficient, from parity, but drone-dominant.”
— Emil Michael, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, speaking at the first White House Drone Dominance event
Knowledge Bombs
Castelion raised a $1B Series C to scale production of hypersonic weapons
Raytheon won a $22.9B contract to boost Tomahawk missile production
Smack raised $61M in Series B funding to scale its Alpha decision platform
X-Bow won an $11M MDA contract for low-cost interceptor development
Purple Rhombus won an Army contract for long-range Group 2 drones
Raft won a $99M Army contract for data and AI capabilities
Elroy Air won a $46M Army contract for cargo drones
Muon Space raised $250M in Series C funding to scale space infrastructure
Saildrone & Lockheed Martin launched JAGM missiles from a USV
AV & Eyeonix launched a joint venture in Greece
GE Aerospace & Kratos won JASSM missile engine contracts
HII won a $2.2B task order for surveillance in SOUTHCOM
SpaceWERX announced 11 firms were selected for their 26.1 STRATFI
AEVEX received a $41M award for one-way attack systems
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ANSWER
C. Project 35 was created to provide cloud-cover/weather information in support of the classified CORONA reconnaissance satellite program. CORONA had limited film, and early missions returned expensive photographs of clouds. The classified system was used in the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 and eventually became the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). Declassified in 1972, DMSP is still in use today and provides meteorological, oceanographic, and solar weather data.
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