Thursday, July 30, 2026
Navy's $76.6B subs ⚓, SpaceX's $1.6B launch win 🚀, Agon's $30M debut 🛡️
Leonardo DRS to acquire Raft in $450M all-cash deal
2 min readLeonardo DRS, the US arm of Italy's Leonardo, agreed to buy McLean, Virginia software firm Raft for $450M in cash this week. Founded in 2018, Raft builds open-architecture mission software for multi-domain data fusion and AI-driven situational awareness for national-security customers, with the deal expected to close in Q4 2026. A hardware-and-sensing prime paying nine figures for a software startup shows how central data fusion and mission autonomy have become to defense M&A.
Agon emerges from stealth with $30M to train autonomous weapons
2 min readUK defense startup Agon launched from stealth with $30M across a $7M pre-seed and $23M seed, backed by Lakestar, Lux, Bessemer, XYZ, D3, and 201 Ventures. Founded by a former European lead at Applied Intuition and Anduril, Agon builds a synthetic "battle arena" where counter-drone and other autonomous systems train against simulated swarms. Software that iterates weapon autonomy faster than the adversary is becoming its own defense-tech category.
Navy awards $76.6B to General Dynamics and HII for 14 submarines
2 min readThe Navy awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat and HII $76.6B for 14 boats — nine Block VI Virginia-class and five Build II Columbia-class — after a nearly three-year negotiation over rising labor and material costs. The package includes roughly $42.1B for the Virginias, $29.5B for the Columbias, and about $5B for shipyard capacity. It is one of the largest shipbuilding awards ever and anchors the submarine industrial base for a decade.
SpaceX wins $1.6B for 18 Space Force sensing-and-targeting launches
2 min readSpaceX won $1.6B in Space Force task orders for 18 Falcon 9 launches from Vandenberg through 2027, carrying Space Based Sensing and Targeting satellites that detect and track airborne threats. The orders fall under National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 and push SpaceX's Pentagon haul past $8B this year. The award cements SpaceX as the launch backbone of the Golden Dome missile-defense build-out.
Impulse Space wins $27.8M SBIR Phase III for two more Mira vehicles
2 min readThe Air Force added $27.8M to Impulse Space's SBIR Phase III contract for two additional Mira orbital transfer vehicles, lifting its cumulative value to $62.8M. Government payloads on the vehicles will perform space-domain-awareness characterization in low Earth orbit through 2030. A VC-backed space-mobility startup taking repeat SBIR Phase III work shows how fast new entrants are embedding in Space Force operations.
AeroVironment and Applied Intuition turn Mayhem 10 into a swarm
2 min readAeroVironment and Applied Intuition unveiled a teaming agreement to run Applied's Acuity ISR/Strike autonomy onboard AV's Mayhem 10 launched-effects drones. In a recent demo, multiple Mayhem 10s synchronized, swarmed, and adapted to simulated threats under a single operator's oversight, executing collaborative find-fix-track-target-engage behavior. Platform-agnostic autonomy software layered onto existing munitions is how the US hopes to field affordable swarms fast.
DARPA chases nuclear power the size of a 'AA battery'
2 min readDARPA's Rads to Watts program has seven teams racing to build miniature radioisotope power cells that run for years without recharging, converting decay from isotopes like Strontium-90 into electricity. A recent $3.37M award targets a proof-of-concept delivering more than 10 watts per kilogram with a yearslong shelf life. Persistent, tiny nuclear power could unlock long-endurance drones, undersea sensors, and space assets.
Pentagon opens $100M contest for drone-launching robot boats
2 min readThe Defense Innovation Unit opened a year-long, $100M challenge for unmanned surface vessels that carry and launch at least two aerial drones to find and defeat threats, with a first $40M sprint closing August 10. Entries need 200-nautical-mile reach, 10-knot cruise, and a 2-kilogram kinetic payload, with in-water testing this fall. The goal is forward fielding within 120 days.
Ukraine's Brave1 and NATO launch joint counter-drone funding
2 min readUkraine's Brave1 defense-tech cluster and NATO opened a joint innovation program offering up to €500M ($570M) per partner for ventures pairing a Ukrainian firm with a NATO-member company. The first call targets counter-drone tech against FPV and Shahed-type threats, plus electronic warfare and high-altitude platforms. Channeling combat-proven Ukrainian know-how into allied startups is reshaping where European defense money flows.