Missile Defense Procurement: The Pentagon is pushing cheaper air-defense interceptors, awarding X-Bow Systems nearly $11M to develop a sub-$750,000 interceptor under the Missile Defense Agency’s Rapid Response Small Launcher effort. Army Modernization: The U.S. Army is moving TITAN into production, awarding Palantir and Anduril a combined $192M delivery order for the AI-enabled mobile targeting platform. Energy Resilience for Bases: The Army’s Janus Program selected vendors and sites for a $2.2B push to install microreactors on U.S. military bases, aiming to keep power flowing during grid outages. Industrial Base & Workforce: The Department of War backed a $4M STEM push tied to national STEM festivals and a long media campaign to feed the defense industrial workforce pipeline. Microelectronics Testing: DoD awarded $22.1M to expand domestic radiation testing infrastructure for radiation-hardened microelectronics via the ORBITS project at Michigan State. Ukraine Defense Tech: Ousted Ukrainian defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov is launching a new defense tech company with Palantir CEO Alex Karp as lead investor. Naval Shipbuilding: Sweden finalized a deal for four French-built frigates, positioning them to triple Sweden’s air-defense capability. Middle East Escalation: The U.S. carried out new strikes on Iran as Tehran fired missiles and drones in response, including reports of a wedding-house strike. Defense Tech M&A: GoPro agreed to a $285M merger with Starman Optical, pivoting its optics IP toward AI data center, defense, and national security markets. Air Defense Exports: Israel is looking to scale up its layered air-defense system exports, with the UAE flagged as a likely next buyer after the Greece deal. Drone/Autonomy Industry: Harmattan AI is setting up in Morocco to mass-produce drones and build local AI defense capacity.