The Defense Feed

Today's batch was dominated by the defense-industrial base and unmanned systems, with procurement and contracts (14 items) and drone and autonomy reporting (11 items) outweighing a still-active air (10) and naval (6) picture, while land, space, cyber and institutional coverage ran thin. The clearest signal is an accelerating Western munitions and artillery replenishment: BAE Systems reports Bofors artillery and ammunition output up three- to fourfold and is expanding missile, munitions and combat-vehicle production across the US and Europe, General Dynamics cites double-digit growth in ammunition and missile components, and Rheinmetall cautions that ramping ATACMS output will take time as the US rebuilds stocks. Counter-drone and maritime autonomy formed the second major thread, as the US Army moved to make high-energy lasers a permanent counter-UAS weapon, the USAF sought a new ground launcher to defend air bases against swarms and cruise missiles, USS Theodore Roosevelt stood up the first carrier MQ-25 control center, a USAF drone fired an AIM-120 in a live test, and NATO trialed GPS-denied autonomous drones. Allied undersea posture also shifted, with the US Navy retiring the attack submarine USS San Juan amid fleet pressure even as Australia confirmed enduring Virginia-class access at HMAS Stirling under AUKUS, and the EU expanded its IRIS-squared secure constellation to 348 spacecraft. Watch munitions capacity as the binding constraint on Western readiness, the widening counter-UAS and one-way-attack USV competition, and the near-total absence of direct cyber-operations reporting in today's cycle.