The G7 will release up to 100 million barrels as Ukraine's drones keep hitting Russian refineries. Putin put the campaign's cost at 1% of GDP and said a strike pause would not return Russian diesel while sanctions stand.
France Plans State-Owned AI for Rafale Wingmen, With a Fighter-Drone Trial in 2028
By owning the AI architecture itself, France aims to swap suppliers and push new mission software to its fighters and combat drones as fast as threats change.
Europe · Autonomy · Rafale
Blackstone Builds Falcata Around Interceptor Guidance 'Brains'
Blackstone has combined TSC and ASEI into Falcata, a company built to expand output of the seekers, guidance electronics and navigation systems inside the cheaper interceptors needed against mass drone and missile threats.
USA · Funding · Blackstone
Lockheed Leads Fortem's $50 Million Round to Scale DroneHunter for Its Sanctum Network
Lockheed Martin led Fortem's $50 million Series B to expand DroneHunter production in Utah and tie Fortem's radars and interceptors into its Sanctum counter-drone software. The Army's new counter-drone IDIQ does not name Fortem.
USA · air defense · Partner Signal
Shield AI Will Build Its X-BAT Fighter Near Seattle and Fly Every One in Kansas
Shield AI has fixed the factory and flight-test sites for its runway-independent AI-piloted fighter, which has yet to fly and whose production dates do not yet line up.
USA · Autonomy · Shield AI
Hegseth Announces Four-Star Autonomous Warfare Command, Pending Congress
The Pentagon wants a 12th combatant command for drones and robotics by Oct. 1, 2027, and until Congress agrees, the work runs through the office already buying them.
USA · Autonomy · Autonomous Warfare Command
U.S. Shuts Britain, France and the Baltics Out of Pentagon-Led NATO Talks
The Trump administration's hand-picked NATO working group leaves out Europe's two nuclear powers and the three allies that spend the largest share of GDP on defense.
Europe · USA · Policy
DEUTZ built the first GEREON ground robots for ARX Robotics at its Ulm plant, 12 weeks after the pair announced production. The batch is bound for Ukraine's Defense Forces. Neither firm disclosed volume or contract value.
Ukraine's ground robots can now cross the rivers and marshes that cut their supply runs, and the first one to do it on a mission was driven entirely by hand.
Russia's drone campaign has reached the bridges that join Kyiv's two banks, and ISW assesses that repeated, precise hits with shaped-charge warheads could eventually do serious damage.
Ukraine's first announced FP-7 combat launch gives Kyiv a domestic ballistic strike weapon. Fire Point's faster FP-7.x interceptor faces a harder test, and both depend on production Ukraine has not yet shown.
The Army's $4.15 billion Domestic Shield counter-drone vehicle fits the small drone over a U.S. base. Only $50 million is funded, and its one Ukraine-tested interceptor flies at about half the speed of Russia's Geran-4.
The Pentagon's up-to-$20.7 billion AMRAAM contract refills U.S. and allied magazines through 2033. Ukraine, where F-16s and NASAMS fire the missile at Russian cruise missiles and jet drones, is not a named buyer.
Fire Point’s FP-7 tests and delayed Danish propellant plant show how technology access, procurement and factory output condition Kyiv’s negotiating leverage.
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