News

  • Hardiman takes DAF CIO role as cyber modernisation pressure grows

    Hardiman takes DAF CIO role as cyber modernisation pressure grows

    Keith Hardiman has been approved as chief information officer for the Department of the Air Force, putting a permanent leader over enterprise IT, cybersecurity, data, and AI at a point when digital resilience is feeding directly into force design and programme execution.

  • HII scales Romulus line with automated USV production model

    HII scales Romulus line with automated USV production model

    HII is expanding its Romulus unmanned surface vessel assembly capability in Louisiana and pairing it with a new robotics-led manufacturing initiative, underlining the industry’s shift from prototype builds toward higher-rate autonomous vessel production.

  • US Navy pushes MUSV toward trials and early fielding

    US Navy pushes MUSV toward trials and early fielding

    The US Navy has opened its new MUSV pathway with on-water testing due this year and fielding targeted for FY2027, signalling a stronger preference for mature, production-ready autonomous vessels over prolonged developmental prototyping.

  • Kongsberg and Salt land Norway standardised vessel design work

    Kongsberg and Salt land Norway standardised vessel design work

    Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace and Salt Ship Design have won the contract to design Norway’s new standardised naval vessels, pushing a modular, common-design approach that could reshape how support and patrol-type fleets are built and sustained.

  • Italy opens carrier path for TB3 naval UCAV

    Italy opens carrier path for TB3 naval UCAV

    Italy’s navy has pointed toward a TB3 carrier option for ITS Cavour, linking its future unmanned air wing more closely to the Leonardo-Baykar industrial partnership and opening a new European route into fixed-wing naval UCAV integration.

  • Airbus Bird of Prey scores first live counter-UAS engagement

    Airbus Bird of Prey scores first live counter-UAS engagement

    Airbus has completed the first demonstration flight of its Bird of Prey interceptor, with the uncrewed system autonomously detecting and engaging a one-way attack drone in a test that points toward a more manufacturable counter-UAS cost curve.

  • Lyme Bay conversion advances autonomous mine warfare

    Lyme Bay conversion advances autonomous mine warfare

    RFA Lyme Bay is being prepared to act as a minehunting mothership, giving the Royal Navy a crewed platform able to deploy, recover, and command autonomous mine-countermeasure systems as it pushes further into hybrid maritime operations.

  • HMS Active float-off moves Type 31 into fit-out

    HMS Active float-off moves Type 31 into fit-out

    HMS Active has completed float-off at Rosyth, pushing the Type 31 programme into another visible production milestone as Babcock moves the second Inspiration-class frigate from structural assembly into the next stage of fit-out and systems integration.

  • Lockheed Martin deepens UK manufacturing push through MTC

    Lockheed Martin deepens UK manufacturing push through MTC

    Lockheed Martin has joined the Manufacturing Technology Centre as a Tier 1 member, pairing that move with a UK technology roadmap effort aimed at accelerating defence innovation into production and broadening the role of British suppliers in future capability delivery.

  • Shield AI funding extends autonomy industrial stack

    Shield AI funding extends autonomy industrial stack

    Shield AI’s latest raise deepens defence autonomy’s industrial stack further. The financing and planned Aechelon acquisition strengthen the software, simulation, and validation layer behind autonomous military aviation.