Neros's $250M raise 🛸, Torch's $992M win 🎯, Golden Dome cliff 🛡️

Neros raises $250M Series C at a $2.5B valuation

Torrance-based Neros raised a $250 million Series C at a $2.5 billion valuation, co-led by Sequoia Capital and the American Strategic Technology Fund with Thiel Capital joining. The capital funds mass production of its Archer attack drone and Bandit interceptor, pushing annual output from roughly 14,000 units toward one million Archers by 2028. The raise underscores how attritable-drone makers are commanding growth-stage valuations once reserved for primes; watch whether production actually scales to the numbers pitched.

Joby to buy Resonant Sciences for $500M, standing up a defense arm

Joby Aviation agreed to acquire Dayton-based Resonant Sciences for roughly $500 million — about $450 million cash plus $50 million in stock — to build a dedicated defense business. Resonant builds radio-frequency and mission systems, electronic countermeasures, and autonomy for US national-security customers, with more than $100 million in trailing revenue growing about 40% year over year. The eVTOL maker joins Archer in pivoting toward defense, betting air-taxi autonomy transfers to military missions; the deal closes in 1H 2027 pending approvals.

Torch Technologies wins $992M Air Force test-and-evaluation contract

Huntsville's Torch Technologies won a $992.4 million IDIQ for technical advisory services supporting aerospace research, development, test, and evaluation at the Air Force Test Center, Eglin AFB. Running through September 2031, the award was the single largest of the day's Pentagon contracts, with no funds obligated at signing. The ceiling underscores how much the T&E backbone for missiles and drones runs through Eglin — and through employee-owned specialists like Torch rather than the primes.

Army picks six vendors for infantry 'last tactical mile' robots

The Army awarded prototype Other Transaction Agreements to six companies — Overland AI, Forterra, American Rheinmetall, HDT, Maren-Go, and Hendrick Motorsports — for its Infantry Last Tactical Mile program. Each vendor delivers four production-ready autonomous ground vehicles to haul supplies and run casualty evacuation across the contested gap between support units and the forward line. It's a notable OTA win for VC-backed autonomy firms Overland AI and Forterra alongside primes; an operational assessment with a real Army unit begins in early 2027.

General Atomics gets $47M to sustain Navy MQ drone fleet

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems received a $47.4 million modification exercising options for continued engineering and logistics support on a Navy unmanned-aircraft program. The work spans program and risk management, non-standard maintenance, airworthiness certification, cybersecurity, and diminishing-manufacturing-source support for the fielded fleet. It's routine sustainment, not new capability — but a reminder that keeping large drones flying is a steady, high-margin annuity for incumbents.

Boeing and Northrop unveil low-cost interceptor tech at SMD Symposium

At Huntsville's Space and Missile Defense Symposium, Boeing revealed an Ultra Low-Cost Seeker built from modified commercial parts that survived a captive-carry flight test detecting and tracking targets. Northrop separately debuted Raid Hunter, a 50mm cannon firing maneuvering, proximity-fused rounds at drone swarms and cruise missiles for a few thousand dollars a shot. Both target the Pentagon's 'affordable mass' push as the Iran war drains costly interceptors; Boeing plans more flight tests next year and Northrop a 2027 prototype.

Leonardo DRS defeats small drones with a software-only update

Leonardo DRS said its fielded SGT STOUT M-SHORAD system defeated Group 1 and 2 drone threats in a US government test using only software updates — no new hardware. The vehicle was built to counter larger Group 3 aircraft, so extending it to smaller drones without added kit stretches an existing platform against a cheaper threat. Software-defined counter-UAS is exactly the low-cost, fast-fielding answer the Army wants; the open-architecture approach also leaves room for AI decision aids and new effectors.

Guetlein warns a stopgap budget could stall Golden Dome

Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein told the symposium a continuing resolution offers 'no topline to fall back on,' warning the program could halt without a new funding path. Golden Dome relies entirely on reconciliation dollars — about 90% of last year's roughly $24 billion is obligated — with the administration seeking $17.5 billion more for fiscal 2027. The warning crystallizes the risk for startups and primes betting on Golden Dome, whose funding sits outside the defense topline a CR would extend.

Pentagon opens a 'Golden Dome for America Hub' for industry

The Department of War launched a 'Golden Dome for America Hub' to speed industry engagement and streamline partnerships for the homeland missile-defense build-out. It arrives the same week officials warned funding could stall, signaling the Pentagon wants companies lined up and ready if the money materializes. For vendors, a single front door beats chasing scattered program offices — assuming the hub actually shortens the path to contracts.

DISA sets a release date for the next big cloud contract

The Defense Information Systems Agency will release the solicitation for its next enterprise cloud vehicle, the follow-on to the multibillion-dollar Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract. JWCC spread the Pentagon's cloud spend across Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Oracle, and the successor will reset how billions in defense cloud work gets divided. For dual-use software firms, the terms will signal how open the next cloud era is to challengers beyond the four hyperscalers.

The Army is swapping Polaris MRZR unmanned trucks into its Infantry Squad Vehicle program, an official said.

The Air Force is testing AI tools to predict aircraft failures and strengthen sustainment.

Soldiers stress-tested small drones against jamming and terrain in a Mojave Desert exercise.

US officials see both threat and opportunity in space-based laser weapons, Breaking Defense reports.