Military

This summer turned high-power microwave from demo to duty. Live fire in the Indo-Pacific, a Marine expeditionary prototype, and the Army’s Generation II buy show software-defined HPM becoming the mass-defense layer against drone swarms.

After a five-day open-ocean transit and an at-sea refueling demo in September 2025, DARPA’s NOMARS Defiant shows that uncrewed surface vessels are moving from experiments to deployable fleet tools. Here is how reliability, CONOPS, and costs change next.

Canberra just moved Ghost Shark from prototype to program of record, funding a fleet of extra large uncrewed submarines for the Royal Australian Navy. Here is what that shift means for cost, doctrine, and allied adoption.

Israel’s Iron Beam crossed a key September 2025 test milestone and is slated for service by year end, making lasers a real layer in air defense. Here is how cost per shot flips against drones and rockets, where high power microwaves fit, and what must scale by 2030.

With the first operational Tranche 1 satellites launched on September 10, 2025 and MDA’s HBTSS prototypes already on orbit, the United States is shifting from radar-first to space-first missile defense. Here is what will change from 2026 to 2028 and how operators can exploit it.

Japan’s ATLA confirmed in September 2025 that a prototype railgun aboard JS Asuka hit a moving target at sea. Here is why that trial could bend the cost curve of naval air defense and what to watch next.

The Army’s next infantry fighting vehicle cleared its 2025 design gates and is being built as a software defined combat system. Hybrid power, MOSA, and native counter‑UAS aim to turn upgrades from years into months while a 50 mm weapon and AI‑aided fire control push lethality forward.

The Pentagon’s Replicator program is crossing from pilots to production in 2025. Inside the buys, autonomy, and jam-resilient control that turn attritable air, sea, and ground drones into a scalable combat tool, plus what it means for the Indo-Pacific and industry.

With Milestone C on July 2, a $4.94 billion production vehicle on March 31, and IOT&E finished on September 26, 2025, the Precision Strike Missile shifts from promise to presence. Next up: a seeker for moving ships, allied co-fielding, and scale by 2027.

On August 14, 2025 the U.S. Army used LTAMDS and IBCS to intercept a threat from behind the battery, then moved to a $1.7B production award with Poland as the first international buyer. Here is why 360-degree coverage tied to IBCS changes Patriot from a sector defense to an all-azimuth kill web, and what to watch as fielding ramps from 2026 to 2029.

In May 2025 the Navy validated cold‑gas ejection for Conventional Prompt Strike and is converting Zumwalt‑class destroyers to carry twelve common rounds. Here is what CPS is, what still blocks fleet fielding, and how this changes joint strike.

The Pentagon scrapped a new mega radar for Guam and is racing toward a sensor-agnostic kill web that enables remote SM-6 shots across services. Here is how JTMC, IBCS, and Aegis reshape the fight by 2029.

On August 27, 2025 YFQ-42A flew for the first time. In September, the program shifted into mission autonomy trials. The U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft is now a race to an FY26 production decision and meaningful fielding by 2028.

In 2025 the Air Force moves toward an Oklo pilot at Eielson and DoD’s Project Pele heads into assembly and testing at Idaho National Laboratory, setting a practical path for resilient power at the edge.

A 49-drone swarm fell in seconds and the Army signed for next-gen IFPC-HPM. Here is how high-power microwaves are moving from flashy demos to layered air defense at scale in 2025.

Before dawn on September 10, 2025, SDA’s first Tranche 1 mission put a laser‑linked mesh of small satellites into low Earth orbit. Here is how this Transport Layer cuts minutes from the kill chain, why optical crosslinks and on‑orbit autonomy matter, and what Tranche 2 brings next.

The Air Force’s decision to build hundreds of new ICBM silos turns Sentinel from a missile recapitalization into a five-state civil-works megaproject. Here’s what broke reuse, where the real chokepoints are, and how to move faster without sacrificing nuclear surety.

A 1,970-round PAC-3 MSE buy in early September signals a lasting shift in U.S. missile production. Can industry clear seeker and rocket motor bottlenecks, sync Patriot, Aegis and IBCS, and deepen magazines for Europe and the Indo-Pacific?