Joining other defense technology startups that are leveraging Palantir Technologies’ [PLTR] software manufacturing platform, Vatn Systems on Wednesday said they have partnered with the company to help as it transitions to production.
The two-year-old Rhode Island-based startup is developing autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for defense and commercial uses. Vatn has been testing its AUVs in military exercises, including with the Navy, and said it has a dozen vehicles with government customers and more on order.
The partnership with Palantir will accelerate production, Vatn said.
“What it allows us to do is build, basically, a digital twin of our entire manufacturing process that allows us to better understand on every level what’s happening,” Nelson Mills, co-founder and CEO of Vatn, told Defense Daily on Monday ahead of the announcement. “Like, where are some supply chain hiccups? Where along our production are we having assembly issues? What points of failure are we experiencing? And to understand that in one central platform where all our data comes in and allows us to better respond to that and scale our manufacturing.”
Palantir’s artificial intelligence-powered Warp Speed technology is “unique” to the market and offers users a “competitive edge,” Mills said. The manufacturing platform features machine learning that will allows companies to “understand and improve your processes and automate it,” he said.
Last month Palantir announced partnerships with startups Epirus, Red Cat [RCAT], Saildrone, Saronic, and Ursa Major, and non-traditional defense company Sierra Nevada Corp. to deploy Warp Speed to bolster their manufacturing, optimize maintenance, and improve other aspects of their operations. Palantir has similar arrangements with Anduril Industries, L3Harris Technologies [LHX], and others.
Vatn last fall announced a $13 million seed round to expand its team. Among others, investors include Lockheed Martin [LMT], RTX [RTX], and Science Applications International Corp. [SAIC] (Defense Daily, Nov. 12, 2024). At that time, the company had 18 employees and now has 37, Mills said.
Skelmir 6, a six-inch diameter AUV that looks like a torpedo and weighs between 50 and 60 pounds, is Vatn’s first product. The AUV is priced to be expendable, but is retrievable, and can carry a payload up to 20 pounds with a range of 20 nautical miles. The company is planning to introduce additional products with longer ranges.
Vatn is working with various government customers and “all of them have a clear pathway toward a larger program,” Mills said.
The international coalition coordinating security assistance efforts for Ukraine, now led by the U.K. and Germany, has pledged a “record boost” of $23.7 billion in new weapons aid for Kyiv.
The update followed the latest Ukraine Defense Contract Group meeting on April 11 at NATO headquarters in Brussels, with the U.S. not announcing new security assistance plans and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth participating virtually in the meeting.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov and UK Defence Minister John Healey hold a joint press conference on April 11, 2025 following the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels. Photo: Screenshot of livestream.
“Given Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine, we must concede [that] peace in Ukraine appears to be out of reach in the immediate future. We will ensure that Ukraine continues to benefit from our joint military support. Russia needs to understand that Ukraine is able to go on fighting and we will support it,” German Defense Minister Borius Pistorius said in a press conference following the UDCG meeting.
U.K. Defence Minister John Healey, who joined Pistorious and Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov for the briefing, noted the latest UDCG meeting once again gathered senior defense officials from 51 countries to discuss Kyiv’s battlefield needs.
Healey noted that the “record boost in military funding” committed by UDCG members at the meeting included the U.K.’s plan to spend $6 billion in 2025 on support for Ukraine, announcing a new $462.4 million package to “surge” capabilities such as radar systems, anti-tank mines and “hundreds and thousands of new drones” and to repair vehicles its previously provided to Kyiv.
The U.K.’s new weapons aid is part of a larger $595.4 million tranche of support, co-funded by Norway, with the Ministry of Defence noting it will include “high maneuverable first-person view drones to attack targets, and drones which can drop explosives on Russian positions.”
“The new kit will be procured from a mixture of U.K. and Ukrainian suppliers, demonstrating how investment into Ukraine’s defense supports jobs and the economies of both the U.K. and Ukraine,” the U.K. Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
The U.K. on Monday also announced it’s transferred a $994.9 million loan to Ukraine, paid for by assets from Russian sanctions, that can be used for Kyiv to procure military equipment, including “urgently needed” air defense capabilities.
Pistorius, following the UDCG meeting, noted the German government has agreed to provide $12.4 billion in further security assistance to Ukraine through 2029 and that Berlin has plans to deliver Ukraine “additional air defense systems of different ranges as well as guided missiles” in 2025.
“[Germany] will [also] continuously make available self-propelled howitzers, infantry fighting vehicles as well as main battle tanks and ammunition to the Ukrainian land forces,” Pistorius said.
Pistorius also addressed Hegseth’s decision not to attend the UDCG meeting in-person, stating it was due to scheduling matters.
“The most important fact was that he took part. He addressed the auditorium with some, I would say, interesting and correct assessments,” Pistorius said. “In the future and the weeks to come, we will see what’s going to happen with the U.S. participation, with the U.S. support. I am not able to have a look in the crystal ball. We [will] wait and see.”
The Biden administration initiated the UDCG following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin led each meeting, with the U.S. having typically announced new weapons packages to coincide with each gathering.
Hegseth said last month that European partners must provide “the overwhelming share” of future weapons aid to Ukraine (Defense Daily, Feb. 12).
“What I have been saying during the last month too is we should better look on our own and do what we have to do and what we can do. And this is what we are doing now. We take on more responsibility as Europeans and NATO…We do whatever we can do to support Ukraine as long as it takes and I think today was quite impressive evidence of what we are capable of and willing to do,” Pistorius said on April 11.
Umerov noted Europe is “taking over the lead” for providing security assistance to Ukraine, while adding that the U.S. is Kyiv’s “prime partner.”
“The U.S. has told us, after the new administration stepped in, that they will be beside Europe, beside Ukraine, but their focus will be in the Indo-Pacific. They’re still participating in the UDCG, they are providing us security assistance and they took a lead in the peace initiative,” Umerov said.
The Trump administration in March temporarily paused the transfer of previously approved military aid to Ukraine, which was then lifted after Kyiv endorsed a 30-day ceasefire proposal aimed at ending Russia’s invasion (Defense Daily, March 11).
Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, head of U.S. European Command, recently told lawmakers that if the U.S. were to withhold future security assistance and intelligence sharing to Ukraine it would have “a rapid and deleterious effect on their ability to fight” (Defense Daily, April 4).
“Many of our allies have stepped up their ability to produce things for Ukrainians…There are some real advances and diversification of their supply sources,” Cavoli said. “But undoubtedly, the Ukrainians are very dependent on our assistance.”
About 2,500 workers represented by the Marine Draftsmen’s Association (MDA) UAW Local 571 union might go on strike if the union and shipbuilder General Dynamics Electric Boat [GD] do not reach a new agreement.
On Monday union leaders announced more than two-thirds of the local members voted to allow a potential strike. The last five-year contract for Local 571 expired on April 4.
The General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, Conn. (Photo: GD Electric Boat)
The union represents draftsmen, designers, and various technical and office workers.
The Electric Boat Connecticut shipyard builds Virginia-class attack submarines and Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines for the Navy, alongside HII‘s Newport News Shipbuilding [HII] in Virginia.
Union leaders have made frequent video updates to members on Facebook and the union’s website.
On April 4, after being presented with what the company said was its final best offer, Local 571 president Bill Lewis said, “being pissed off is saying the least, I’ll be honest. We’re not happy with the process, where we are at this moment with what they’ve presented.”
While the company has offered a 5.4 percent wage increase in the first year and four percent each for the following four years, the union said the company refused to consider discussing other union complaints about cost of living adjustments given increased housing costs, profit sharing, and pensions for all employees.
Starting in 2010 after a previous round of negotiations during a downturn, new employees lost the chance for pensions, so 1,850 current members do not have them.
Lewis previously said Electric Boat started bargaining by offering wage increases of 4%, 3%, 3%, 2% and 2% over the next five years each.
Lewis argued one percent of the company’s profits would cover all of the union’s demands.
Previously, in 2023 Electric Boat and the Metal Trades Council (MTC) union, an AFL-CIO union, agreed to a five-year contract with 21.4 percent wage increases over the total five-year contract term, alongside other benefits increases (Defense Daily, Oct. 10, 2023).
MTC represents 3,400 skilled trades employees at the yard, which covers welders, electricians, machinists, pipefitters, laborers, painters, transportation services and administration support.
Beyond MDA and MTC there are two other unions at EB: the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America Local 1302 and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1186.
While the membership approved of a potential strike, union leadership underscored the employees were directed to work as normal until such a decision is made.
During an April 14 meeting of union members, UAW President Shawn Fain backed their negotiations and threat to strike, arguing the company can go back to negotiations and get serious about demands or they can “keep messing around. The choice is theirs, and the clock is ticking.”
BWX Technologies [BWXT] said Tuesday it acquired 97 acres of land in Oak Ridge, Tenn., with the goal of rebuilding domestic uranium enrichment capabilities by manufacturing centrifuges.
According to the emailed press release, the land acquisition would support DoE and its semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) deployment of Domestic Uranium Enrichment Centrifuge Experiment (DUECE) technology. The land is at Horizon Center industrial park near DoE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The NNSA also announced in a sole-source intention
notice on databases FedConnect and sam.gov April 9 that BWXT would likely be awarded a sole source contract for a Domestic Uranium Enrichment Pilot Plant. The company would design, license, construct and operate a uranium enrichment pilot plant facility to demonstrate “production readiness” of DUECE technology to establish a supply of low-enriched uranium, before transitioning to highly enriched uranium production in the future to support naval nuclear propulsion fuel production.
This contract, according to the sole-source notice, is in support of the DUECE Pilot Plant Deployment Study awarded to BWXT subsidiary Nuclear Fuels Services in August 2024. The contract requires Nuclear Fuel Services to complete a yearlong engineering study to evaluate options for the pilot plant.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory manages the DUECE program which aims to develop uranium enrichment technology and information for national security purposes. Oak Ridge’s DUECE program is one of two domestic uranium enrichment options, alongside Centrus Energy Corp.’s AC-100M, that NNSA had beenconsidering for its defense-enrichment plant.
NNSAexpects the second of two planned DUECE demonstrations to complete in fiscal year 2029, which runs through Sept. 30, 2029. The hope from the DoE is that it starts domestically enriching uranium by the 2030s.
The State Department this week approved more than $1.1 billion in potential foreign military sales (FMS), including an $825 million deal for Stinger missiles to Morocco.
The Moroccan purchase entails up to 600 FIM-92K Stinger Block I man-portable surface-to-air missiles and related support for the country’s Army. RTX [RTX] and Lockheed Martin [LMT] are the principal contractors on the proposed sale announced on Tuesday.
The department on Tuesday also approved a potential $120 million FMS to the Philippines for TH-73A training helicopters and support, to include an aircraft simulator, spare engines, avionics, commercial GPS, aircraft hoists and lifts. Leonardo’s AgustaWestland Philadelphia Corp. is the principal contractor for the sale.
On Monday the State Department approved a potential $180 million FMS to Israel of Eitan Powerpack Engines supplied by Rolls-Royce Solutions America, Inc. The deal includes Eitan 8V199TE21-D engines and components that would be added to a previous $85.5 million FMS with Israel for the same engines.
The engines power Israel’s Eitan armored fighting vehicles.
The Defense Innovation Unit announced April 10 next steps in its Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations program to deploy microreactor nuclear systems for power reliability at select military locations.
The companies selected are:
Antares Nuclear;
BWXT Advanced Technologies [BWXT];
General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems;
Kairos Power;
Oklo;
Radiant Industries Incorporated;
Westinghouse Government Services; and
X-energy
These companies are “eligible” to receive contracts for the program for “commercially available dual use microreactor technology,” according to the press release.
“U.S. energy dominance and security are more critical than ever, especially in supporting Air Force and Space Force missions,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Infrastructure, Energy, and Environment, Nancy Balkus, said in the release. “To ensure our installations can respond at a moment’s notice, we must strengthen our lethality by accelerating the deployment of emerging technologies like advanced nuclear energy – delivering reliable, cost-effective, and secure power to our bases.”
According to the Department of Energy, a microreactor is transportable in size, factory-made, and able to provide 1-20 megawatts of power.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting approaches for prototype spacecraft that can autonomously navigate and be highly maneuverable in a low lunar orbit (LLO) for cislunar space situational awareness (SSA) in support of the Space Force.
Multiple Other Transaction for Prototype agreements are expected under the Lunar Assay via Small Satellite Orbiter (LASSO) effort, DARPA said on Monday. The goal is an affordable and scalable commercial capability that provides SSA for cislunar space, the agency said in the solicitation.
The usual vision for SSA for cislunar space is to outfit large spacecraft with “exquisite optics,” an approach that is expensive to build and launch, the agency said. The LASSO effort is aimed at developing more “cost-efficient” solutions that involve one or a few small satellites with propulsion capabilities to maintain LLO to enable the sensor to capture enough measurements of the moon’s surface, and to navigate autonomously at low altitudes to automatically adjust trajectories.
“SSA in cislunar space has strained current capabilities, forcing assessment of improvements in sensors, processing algorithms, and even navigation techniques required for this challenge,” DARPA said. “Sustained and advanced maneuverability for spacecraft is key to enabling further improvements of SSA in cislunar space.”
DARPA also wants sensors on the LASSO orbiter that combine data with existing “lunar data to establish a proven reserve understanding of lunar water resources,” and give high confidence that it is worth retrieving resource samples. Awardees will also conduct an economic study that compare the cost of supplying water from Earth versus the estimated costs of relying on water from the moon.
A proposer’s day is planned for May 13 and abstracts are due by May 27.
Rocket Lab [RKLB] on Monday said its HASTE suborbital testbed vehicle has been added to two multi-billion dollar Air Force and United Kingdom contracts to provide hypersonic test launches and other services.
The Air Force award is the potential $46 billion multi-vendor Enterprise-Wide Agile Acquisition Contract (EWAAC) 10-year indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract. EWAAC has 298 vendors.
Under EWAAC, the Air Force can rapidly acquire services and technologies.
For the U.K. Ministry of Defence’s potential $1.3 billion Hypersonic Technologies & Capability Development Framework, Rocket Lab is eligible to bid on services, technologies, and testing capabilities in support of the country’s own hypersonic technology.
“Keeping pace with global developments means more affordable tests at a higher rate that expands the boundaries of hypersonic technology and that’s a capability we’re already providing all in one platform with HASTE, at a commercial price and cadence that serves the mission of both nations,” Peter Beck, co-founder and CEO of Rocket Lab, said in a statement.
Using some of the technology from Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle, HASTE has a modified upper kick state for hypersonic technology tests and a larger payload capacity of up to 1,540 pounds. The company says the suborbital rocket can deploy technologies at speeds of more than 7.5 kilometers per second to test air breathing, glide, and ballistic payloads, and technologies to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere from space.
Epirus recently unveiled the name and test results of its new prototype high-energy high-power microwave (HPM) system that can disable various unmanned vehicle engines, the Leonidas H2O.
The company on April 8 announced it used the Navy’s Advanced Naval Technology Exercise Coastal Trident (ANTX-CT) program tests to demonstrate the system’s effectiveness against four kinds of commercially available vessel motors, ranging from 40 to 90 horsepower.
Epirus’ suite of high-power microwave counter-drone systems. (Photo: Epirus)
The company underscored during ANTX CT24 the prototype weapon was successful against each target at various “operationally relevant ranges,” but the range limitation meant the testing had to occur at about half the system’s maximum potential output power and with limited waveforms.
Last year, Epirus noted the Navy would experiment with the company’s HPM technology at ANTC CT24. At the time the company said it previously conducted preliminary work for the systems that temporarily scramble the electronics of an outboard motor (Defense Daily, April 4).
Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme’s Office of Technology coordinated the live-fire demonstration.
Epirus said its Leonidas H2O is built using its preexisting scalable Leonidas solid-state software-defined energy-based HPM platform, which emits non-ionizing radiation that is safe for ordnance, fuel and personnel.
The company noted the company’s HPM technology is tested and proven as a counter-swarm option with open architecture, an unlimited magazine and demonstrated non-kinetic effects against a range of electronic threats.
The Department of Defense has spent years of research and development and poured tens-of-millions of dollars into developing a non-kinetic vessel stop solution, with no operational system deployed to date. With Leonidas H2O, we are bringing forth a proven technology with demonstrated effectiveness to fill this capability gap, today,” Andy Lowery, the Epirus CEO, said.
Lockheed Martin [LMT] delivered the 60 kW kilowatt output high energy laser with the integrated optical-dazzler and surveillance (HELIOS) weapon in 2022, aimed at disabling unmanned aircraft systems and small boats. It was installed on the USS Preble (DDG-88) but the Navy is still testing HELIOS only on that vessel (Defense Daily, Aug. 18, 2022).
Brendan Applegate, ANTX-Coastal Trident program Principal Investigator, said Epirus’ participation in the ANTX program “helps to facilitate early eyes on leading edge technologies that are key to enabling the Navy’s mission.”
Applegate added this also provides “valuable resources” to the project team, helping them develop their technical development and assessment capabilities.
Last October, the Army proposed a new contract for Epirus to develop a second-generation of its microwave-based weapon geared at taking out small drones, GEN II Integrated Fires Protection Capability High Power Microwave (IFPC-HPM) system. This followed successful Army testing of the system against unmanned aircraft systems and swarms of drones (Defense Daily, Oct. 10, 2024).
A Navy official told a panel of senators last week that the lead Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine is currently running 12 to 18 months late, but they are trying to recover some of that delay time.
In a written statement for the Senate Armed Services Seapower subcommittee hearing April 8, program executive officers for the Navy’s nuclear-powered submarine and aircraft carrier programs as well as the manager for the Maritime Industrial Base office said the future USS
District of Columbia (SSBN-826) is more than 50 percent complete.
Artist rendering of the future Columbia-class nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), which will replace the Ohio-class submarines. (Illustration: U.S. Navy)
Shipbuilders General Dynamics Electric Boat [GD] and HII Newport News Shipbuilding [HII] started building the submarine in fiscal year 2021.
The statement said delivery is running up to a year and a half behind schedule based on shipbuilder performance, supply chain problems, the complexity of the first-in-class boat construction, and testing.
“However, we’re taking action right now to accelerate and recover as much schedule as you possibly can,” Rear Adm. Todd Weeks, Program Executive Officer for Strategic Submarines, said during the hearing.
While the Navy says SSBN-826 must be ready to start patrol to make up for retiring Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines by fiscal year 2031, Weeks projected the first boat will be ready around 2029. Between delivery and the first deployment, the boats must undergo significant testing and certification.
Last year, Matt Sermon, former executive director of the Program Executive Office for SSBNs and current Program Manager for the Maritime Industrial Base office, promised the Navy will have SSBN-826 on patrol in 2030, even if the path is difficult. At the time he said the ship was on track to deliver 12 months late (Defense Daily, Nov. 18, 2024).
Previously, the shipbuilding review released in April 2024 said the first Columbia-class submarine was running 12 to 16 months behind schedule, while the latest range estimate adds two more months (Defense Daily, April 3, 2024).
The written statement elaborated that the Navy is working with the submarine shipbuilders General Dynamics Electric Boat [GD] and HII Newport News Shipbuilding [HII] “to implement an aggressive, alternative build strategy to recover up to 12 months of schedule, improve overall performance, and deliver the lead ship as rapidly as possible.”
The officials noted Navy investments in the overall submarine industrial base have improved three main factors so far: hiring by 41 percent in 2023 and exceeded targets in 2024, increased capacity of vendors in key market spaces, shoring up single source suppliers and developing new suppliers, and strategic outsourcing and manufacturing technology is on track to help increase production.
However, outside those areas, “we have not observed the needed and expected ramp-up in Columbia-class and Virginia-class submarine production rates necessary to keep pace with the 1+2 strategy.”
The written statement argued the Navy, submarine shipbuilders and supply base all underestimated the effort needed to shift from low-rate production to the annual one Columbia-class plus two Virginia-class rate the Navy needs for “an era of near-peer competition.”
The officials said the current tactic to improve the situation is “intrusive program office deck plate presence to help inform and drive improvement,” backed by the submarine program offices, Supervisor of Shipbuilding and both shipbuilders
The Navy and shipbuilders also conducted “in-depth reviews” into the underlying drivers of performance issues for new lines of effort to push increasing production rates, which informed new production rate projections.
HII transporting the stern of the future USS District of Columbia (SSBN-826), the first Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, to General Dynamics Electric Boat in January 2024. (Photo: HII by Ashley Cowan)
The Navy said it now projects these tactics plus ongoing investments will continue improvements to be seen from 2025 through 2029.
When asked by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) about the expected timelines of the follow-on Columbia-class boats, Weeks said the second SSBN, the future USS Wisconsin (SSBN-827), is currently on schedule to be delivered within 80 months of construction start, in 2032.
The Navy is tracking the next five ships to be on time but he noted they are “really in the early construction phase of those. So we’re not in a position yet to be able to evaluate where they are relative to the delivery schedule.”
The third boat, the future USS Groton (SSBN-828), is planned to be delivered in 2034.
