Well, the rumors are true. SecDef Pete Hegseth announced the creation of a joint interagency anti-drone task force that will “bring together our best talent from all our agencies to counter these threats and restore control of our skies.”.

One cat, two cat, Red Cat, Blue…Ops? (Sorry.) Aerial drone-maker @RedCatHoldings announced the launch of a maritime division called Blue Ops, diving headfirst into the ever-growing unmanned surface vehicle (USV) space.

Who said the primes don’t move fast enough? Sixteen months after they scored a contract to build an autonomous friend for fighter jets, @GeneralAtomics' YFQ-42A Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) took flight.

In case you haven’t noticed, there’s been a bit of a shakeup in the DoD innovation world. The head of DIU is out, critical technology areas are changing, the Navy is overhauling how it develops and adopts new tech, and JCIDS is dead.

Looks like we’re on a bit of a maritime kick today. This morning, unmanned surface vessel (USV) company @saildrone announced that its 74-foot Surveyor vessel has received full classification from the @ABSeagle.

There are a lot of startups out there making autonomous speedboats and small surface vehicles, but @BlueWaterShips is thinking bigger: The newly launched maritime autonomy company is going all in on a 150-foot autonomous warship.

New Mexico and Roadrunner Venture Studios are getting in on the trend. The venture studio announced that it will lead a $25M initiative backed by the New Mexico Economic Development Department to build a quantum campus in downtown Albuquerque.

Automation company @reliable_robot won a $17.4M AFWERX contract to turn the Cessna 208B Caravan into a remotely piloted cargo hauler for the Air Force.

Rocket motor startup @FirehawkAero announced that it has completed a successful flight test of its 3D-printed GMLRS-class analog hybrid rocket engine as part of its ongoing Phase III SBIR contract with the @aal_innovation.

ARX Robotics unveiled its first combat-capable UGV: Combat Gereon. The company says that the mini, battle-hardened robot-tank was built in a “European-Ukrainian development campaign” and honed with direct feedback from Ukrainian users on the frontline.

Scaling production is hard. Luckily for Kraken Technology, they’ve just partnered with German shipbuilding big dog NVL to ramp up manufacturing of their speedboat drones at NVL’s Blohm+Voss shipyard in Hamburg. Helps to have friends in high places.

The defense world is enthralled by innovation and new tech, but the older, less exciting stuff is just as important in modern warfighting. The problem is that the US has struggled to produce them, and munition stocks have become a hot topic.

Alabama-based Performance Drone Works announced the official opening of Drone Factory 01 in Huntsville, a “state-of-the-art” production facility that the company says will be able to churn out over 60,000 FPV drones a year.

The US Army is taking a page out of Amazon’s book and building Prime for the primes. The Army announced it’s planning to roll out an e-commerce-style marketplace for drones then this week said they’re setting up something similar for tactical radios.

Things are heating up in Europe, y’all. Bloomberg reported that German drone company Stark is in talks to raise $60M at a $500M valuation, led by US-based mega-VC Sequoia Capital. A company spokesperson confirmed the raise to Tectonic.

After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Trump met in the Oval Office, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine had offered to buy about $90B worth of US weapons as part of a deal to end the war with Russia.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin unexpectedly announced his retirement halfway into his four-year term. The Air Force said Allvin will continue serving until his successor is confirmed to minimize disruption. Never a dull moment, huh? .

.@XBowSystems announced a $13.9M joint investment with the US Army to “design, prototype, and test an advanced manufactured SRM for the standard-range Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System,” which is produced by @LockheedMartin.

Frying them with microwaves, shooting them down, jamming them—c-UAS companies have a growing and creative array of ways to take down drones. But Israeli-American drone-takeover company D-Fend has a novel solution: commandeering them.

The autonomous aviation startup Grid Aero emerged from stealth with $6M in funding, co-led by @CalibrateVC and Ubiquity Ventures, and a promise to build a cheaper, “autonomous air cargo network” that can meet the resupply needs of the military.