News
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Babcock is reshaping how smaller suppliers enter defence programmes today. Its SME charter targets contracting friction, test access, and payment discipline across the UK industrial base.
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The Air Force is withholding fresh tanker orders from Boeing. That turns the KC-46’s unresolved boom, vision, and quality defects into a production test for a programme the service still expects to anchor US tanker recapitalisation.
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Cyber defence now depends on securing machines, identities, and code. A new threat intelligence report warns that agentic AI is accelerating cyber risk for defence contractors and the wider industrial base around them.
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Integrated air defence is becoming a software and manufacturing contest. Leonardo’s Michelangelo programme is now moving toward a Ukraine test, turning a new multi-domain air defence concept into an early industrial and operational proving ground.
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Thermal concealment is moving from specialist gear into wider procurement. The US Marine Corps is seeking a multispectral overgarment that can reduce visual and infrared detection while still meeting strict requirements on weight, durability, and field usability.
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Anduril is expanding deeper into space defence manufacturing capability now. The ExoAnalytic acquisition adds a global tracking network, missile-sensing expertise, and a 130-person engineering team as the company pushes into space domain awareness and infrared satellite payloads.
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Britain is formalising hybrid fleet procurement with a 20-boat order. Kraken’s Project Beehive win gives the Royal Navy near-term operational testbeds and a broader industrial platform for serial USV assembly, autonomy integration, and support.
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Britain is rebuilding naval anchor manufacturing through a Midlands contract. Solid Swivel will supply anchors, chain cables, and fittings for more than 30 Royal Navy vessels, including six 12.5-tonne units for the Queen Elizabeth-class carriers.
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Romania and Ukraine have formalised plans for joint drone production. The agreement could move Ukrainian defence manufacturing into Romania under SAFE-backed financing, giving Bucharest a direct role in scaling combat-proven systems inside the EU and NATO industrial base.
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Britain has brought ultrahigh-temperature composite manufacturing capability onshore at last. Dstl-backed work at Cross Manufacturing creates a pilot-scale domestic route for ceramic matrix composites aimed at hypersonic, space, and propulsion programmes.