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Mingus: Army To Lead New Joint Interagency Task Force On Drones, C-UAS

The Army is working to stand up a new joint interagency task force focused on drones and counter-UAS capabilities, the service’s vice chief said on Wednesday.

Gen. James Mingus, the Army vice chief of staff, said the idea for the Army to lead the effort was presented and approved recently by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, with Mingus comparing it to the task force established in the early 2000’s to rapidly address improvised explosive device (IED) threats in Iraq and Afghanistan.

U.S. Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Mingus leads a discussion during Project Convergence – Capstone 4 at Camp Pendleton, Calif. on Feb. 28 (U.S. Army Photo)

“UAVs [and] counter-UAS, that’s our IEDs of today. And we need an organization that is joint, interagency, has a colorless pot of money and the authorities to go from requirements all the way to acquisition in a rapid way to be able to keep pace with that,” Mingus said during a discussion hosted by the Association of the United States Army and Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“We’re in the process of standing that organization up and getting it going. The Army’s going to lead it. But this will be a joint organization to be able to deal with joint solutions in the future,” Mingus added. “We’ve been trying to advocate this for some time now and the secretary recently made the decision to allow us to move out on it because we cannot move fast enough in this space.”

Mingus didn’t provide additional details on specific objectives for the new task force, but it could build off the current Army-led Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Office (JCO).

The Pentagon has also pursued rapid fielding of both drones and C-UAS platforms for the two iterations of its Replicator initiative.

On C-UAS, Mingus said he doesn’t see the capability space as a “static environment” and said solutions will need to evolve over time to deal with new drone threats.

“[There’s] no single solution. It’s got to be at every level. It’s got to be layered. Every squad’s got to be able to protect itself all the way up to formations that provide higher-end capability. It’s going to be a combination of high energy lasers, or lasers period. There are maybe going to high-powered microwaves that are there. It will be interceptors. We have the Coyote Block 2C which is out there right now, our most effective interceptor that we have. But that’s not going to last, it’s going to have to be replaced. [We want] interceptors that continue to come down in cost so the price point between the shot and what the adversary’s doing has to be in line. We can’t shoot an $130,000 missiles and a thousand dollar drone,” Mingus said.

Both drones and C-UAS are two portfolios, along electronic warfare, where the Army is seeking $2.4 billion in agile funding authority for fiscal year 2026 to be able to move money around flexibly rather than being locked into more rigid budget line items (Defense Daily, June 26).

“When it comes to things that move at a rate that is faster than a traditional budgetary cycle, we cannot do the funding and the budgeting the same way we have done in the past,” Mingus said.

Mingus has previously said the agile funding strategy should eventually cover all technology that advances faster than the standard budget cycle (Defense Daily, April 22).

Editor’s Note

In observance of the Independence Day holiday, Defense Daily will not publish July 3 and 4. Your next issue will be dated July 8

Defense Watch: NATO Nuclear Mission, GMTI, AV Raise, UKR Aid Pause

NATO Nuclear Mission. While Pantex said in May that it built the first production B61-13 nuclear gravity bomb almost a year early on the heels of the last B61-12 coming off the line, the Royal Air Force (RAF) is to buy 12 new Lockheed Martin F-35A fighters capable of carrying conventional munitions and the B61-12–the latter allowing the RAF to join NATO’s nuclear mission. The office of United Kingdom (U.K.) Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that the new F-35A buy supports 20,000 jobs “with 15 percent of the global supply chain for the jets based in Britain” and that the F-35As will fly from RAF Markham. They are part of a U.K. planned buy of 138 F-35s. “The purchase represents the biggest strengthening of the U.K.’s nuclear posture in a generation,” Starmer’s office said. “It also reintroduces a nuclear role for the Royal Air Force for the first time since the U.K. retired its sovereign air-launched nuclear weapons following the end of the Cold War.”

Space GMTI Production.

The U.S. Space Force’s fiscal 2026 budget request includes nearly $1.1 billion in research and development for space-based ground moving target indication (GMTI) to replace the now retired Joint STARS aircraft by Northrop Grumman. The Space Force request says that the classified development of space-based GMTI by the service and the National Reconnaissance Office will replace “a portion” of the former Joint STARS fleet–a construct based on the Space Force’s Space Warfighting Analysis Center’s (SWAC) analysis of alternatives in September 2022. The plans for space-based GMTI have called for a System Requirements Review for the first block of planned systems by the end of September. The increase between fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026 in the Space Force’s desired funding for space-based GMTI is “due to ramp-up of production consistent with the program baseline,” Space Force said. The fielding of space-based GMTI is to end in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2030.

Rocket Lab CDR. Rocket Lab USA said that it has finished Critical Design Review (CDR) of its 18 satellites for the U.S. Space Force Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Tranche 2 Transport Layer-Beta (T2TL-Beta) program. “The milestone follows Rocket Lab’s successful Preliminary Design Review in late 2024, confirms that spacecraft design, manufacturing approach, and systems architecture meet all mission requirements and enables the program to move into full-scale production,” the company said. “Rocket Lab’s spacecraft for the T2TL-Beta program is based on its high-performance Lightning platform, tailored for the power and data-handling demands of national security LEO [low Earth orbit] constellations. As a vertically integrated provider, Rocket Lab designs and manufactures its spacecraft buses and key subsystems in-house, including solar panels, composite structures, star trackers, reaction wheels, radios, avionics, flight and ground software, launch dispensers, and more allowing the company to maintain tight control over quality, cost, and schedule.”

DDG-129. The Navy and HII christened the future USS Jeremiah Denton (DDG-129) Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer on June 28. The ship is named after former Sen. Jeremiah Denton (R-Ala.), who served in the Navy during the Vietnam War and was awarded a Navy Cross for heroism as a prisoner of war. Beyond this ship, HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., has four other Flight III DDGs under construction: the future USS Ted Stevens (DDG-128), George M. Neal (DDG-131), Sam Nunn (DDG-133) and Thad Cochran (DDG-135). The Flight III destroyers feature upgrades and modifications to accommodate the ANSPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar.

SSN-800. HII announced on July 2 it recently launched the future USS Arkansas (SSN-800) Virginia-class submarine into the James River at its Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), Va., facility. The shipbuilders did this to transfer the boat from construction to a floating dry dock facility to move on to final outfitting, testing and crew certification. SSN-800 will be the 27th Virginia-class submarine and 13th delivered by NNS.

MCM Sea Breeze. Naval forces from 13 countries started the nearly two-week-long Exercise Sea Breeze 25-2 on June 30, a mine countermeasure (MCM)-focused exercise, in Portland, England, U.K. Participants plan to perform mine hunting operations using MCM Vessels (MCMVs), explosive ordnance disposal teams, dive and salvage operations, unmanned underwater vehicles 9UUVs) and unmanned surface vessels (USVs). The exercise is meant to provide the NATO allies and partner countries with the ability to enhance interoperability and warfighting in the Black Sea region. The exercise will culminate in a demonstration that combines various capabilities. This is the second part of Sea Breeze 25, with section 25-1 hosted by the Romanian Armed Forces at Smardan Range, Romania, June 1-20, 2025. Black Sea and NATO partners have been training under the annual Exercise Sea Breeze since 1997.

RIMPAC 2026 Planning. Representatives from several countries met in San Diego for the Initial Planning Conference for the 30th iteration of biennial Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC), scheduled for summer 2026. Commander of U.S. Third Fleet Vice Adm. John Wade said the partners were brought in “to align on shared objectives, discuss potential training scenarios, and lay the groundwork for an exercise that will enhance our collective interoperability and readiness to respond to the complex challenges of the maritime domain.”

UNITAS 2025 Planning. U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet hosted the final planning conference (FPC) for the 66th iteration of UNITAS 2025 from June 23-27, following the April main-planning conference. UNITAS 2025 is scheduled to run from Sept. 15 to Oct. 6 off the East Coast of the U.S., with shore-based events at Naval Station Mayport, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C., Naval Station Norfolk, Va., and Naval Air Station Oceana, Dam Neck Annex. UNITAS is set to include a variety of maritime and littoral operations, including a live-fire sinking exercise (SINKEX) and amphibious landings. The Navy said it will also show off maritime technology like unmanned and hybrid fleet systems, culminating in unspecified high-end warfighting events. The FPC included over 250 representatives from over 210 countries, including Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Singapore, Spain, and the U.S.

AV Raise. AeroVironment last week announced offerings of common stock and senior notes expected to raise about $1.5 billion in funding, with most of the new funding going toward existing debt repayments and the remainder, just over $500 million for general corporate purposes such as increasing manufacturing capacity. AV is bullish on its future growth and is already expanding production capacity to meet anticipated demand for its drones and other defense products.

IPMDA Expansion. The Quad last week announced the geographic expansion of the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) across the Indian Ocean region. Begun during the Biden administration, the IPMDA is focused on maintaining a near-real-time maritime domain awareness picture in the Indo-Pacific region. “We continue to implement the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness, including the increased provision of space-based collection and sharing of radio frequency data, analytical training, and capacity building,” the Quad Foreign Ministers said in a statement July 1. Development of an IPMDA common operation picture is still being assessed, they said. The Quad consists of the U.S., Australia, India, and Japan.

…Critical Minerals. The latest meeting of the Quad Foreign Ministers also resulted in the launch of a Critical Minerals Initiative focused on “security and diversifying critical mineral supply chains.” The initiative includes working with the private sector to help increase investments in critical materials.

TransDigm Deal. TransDigm deal last week closed its acquisition of Servotronics, a designer and manufacturer of highly engineered servo valves to the commercial aerospace and defense market. Servotronics has about 275 employees generated about $45 million in sales in 2024.

Coast Guard sUAS. The Coast Guard last week awarded Parrot ANAFI a $68,000 contract to purchase three of the company’s UKR drone kits, spare batteries, and propellers for an operational test and evaluation of the Parrot ANAFI UKR small quadcopter drones to support service missions. The service currently uses the Parrot ANAFI USA drones, which Parrot has discontinued manufacturing. The short-range small unmanned aircraft systems will “support the full scope of Coast Guard missions and this initial procurement will also support test and evaluation that informs development of training materials including launch and recovery procedures for underway operations,” a service spokesperson told Defense Daily.

Big C-UAS Award. Australia’s DroneShield last month announced its largest ever single order, nearly $41 million, to provide handheld detection and counter-drone systems, and related equipment to a European military customer. The company expects to complete deliveries by the end of September. DroneShield had less than $38 million in sales in 2024. Separately, the company received $6 million in contracts from a defense customer in Latin America for handheld and on-the-move counter-unmanned aircraft systems.

Space Warning. The threat environment to space-related systems from malicious cyber activity and electronic warfare is at a “heightened” level and are exacerbated by conflicts in the Middle East, leading government agencies and the private sector to “warn that low-level attacks may soon rise to sophisticated attacks,” the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) said last week. Contributing factors leading to the higher threat level include an increase in targeting against organizations in the space and related sectors, existing and new hacktivist groups targeting entities in the national security, defense, and space sphere, interference with Global Navigation Satellite Systems in parallel with geopolitical events, threat groups using as-a-service tools to navigate past cybersecurity protections, and variable risks stemming from a dynamic space environment, the ISAC said. The Space ISAC is an all-threat information sharing center.

Bacon Retiring. Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), chair of the House Armed Services Committee’s Cyber, Information Technologies and Innovation Subcommittee, confirmed on June 30 he will not seek reelection in 2026. Bacon, 61, was first elected to represent Nebraska’s 2nd district in 2016, which followed 29 years of service in the Air Force where he retired in 2014 as a brigadier general. “After three decades in the Air Force and now going on one decade in Congress, I look forward to coming home in the evenings and being with my wife and seeing more of our adult children and eight grandchildren, who all live near my home,” Bacon said in a statement. In his announcement, Bacon noted his support for Offutt Air Force in his district and his work to push for a new DoD electronic warfare strategy and efforts to bolster the Air Force’s fleet of EA-37B Compass Call aircraft. Bacon, a moderate, has recently voiced opposition to several Trump administration efforts, including the White House’s tariffs policy.

Machine Guns. The Army has awarded FN America a $4.9 million contract to supply more M240L lightweight medium machine guns, the company said on July 1. “The M240L continues the collaborative effort between FN, the U.S. Army and the individual soldier to provide the most effective weapon systems for the warfighter,” Mark Cherpes, president and CEO of FN America, said in a statement. “The development saw the introduction of new materials along with new manufacturing techniques that have paved the way for the future generation of military equipment. We are extremely proud of this product and look forward to working with the U.S. Army to deliver against this contract.”

UKR Aid Pause. Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed on July 2 that DoD has paused the shipment of some weapons and munitions to Ukraine, but said the department won’t be providing details on the specific capabilities and quantities included in the decision or associated timelines. “The Department of Defense continues to provide the president with robust options regarding military aid to Ukraine, consistent with his goal of bringing this tragic war to an end. And at the same time, the Department is rigorously examining and adapting its approach toward achieving this objective while also preserving U.S. military readiness and defense priorities that supports the president’s America first agenda,” Parnell said in a briefing. Parnell described the security assistance pause as a “capability review.” “[It’s] being conducted to ensure U.S. military aid aligns with our defense priorities,” Parnell added.

…Push Back Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, pushed back on the Trump administration’s pause and addressed reports the decision was made to halt munitions transfers to Ukraine due to concerns related to the level of U.S.’ weapons stockpiles. “The Pentagon is significantly weakening Ukraine’s defense against aerial attacks even as Russia pounds Ukrainian cities night after night, with numerous civilians dead and wounded. President Trump pledged just last week to look for additional air defense systems for Ukraine, but [Defense] Secretary [Pete] Hegseth and Under Secretary [of Defense for Policy Elbridge] Colby seem to be ignoring him. If there is a real concern over stockpiles, the administration should consult with the relevant committee in advance,” Shaheen said. Parnell, in his briefing, addressed the reports on stockpile concerns and said “our military has everything that it needs to conduct any mission, anywhere, anytime, all around the world.”

Lockheed Martin Wins Another $2.97 Billion Contract To Upgrade Aegis Over Next Decade

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) awarded Lockheed Martin [LMT] another 10-year contract to maintain and upgrade the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system in a contract worth up to $2.97 billion.

This specifically means the company’s Rotary and Missile Systems (LM RMS) will provide a continuation of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Combat Systems Engineering Agent (CSEA) “in order to maintain operational relevancy in support of the Missile Defense System,” the announcement said.

Lockheed Martin has been the Aegis system’s CSEA since 1995 and in 2013 it beat competitors Boeing [BA] and Raytheon, now RTX [RTX] that were looking to compete for the work starting in 2011 (Defense Daily, Sept. 14, 2011).

As the CSEA, Lockheed Martin will keep being responsible for Aegis BMD weapon system design, development, integration, sustainment and computer program source for Aegis program users. This covers systems like Ticonderoga-class cruisers, guided-missile destroyers, Aegis ashore variants like Aegis Ashore in Europe, Aegis Guam System, and Glide Phase Intercept.

The announcement also noted the company will execute future studies, concepts and computer program development to perform capability improvements across all phases of the fire control loop in accordance with government-provided interface requirements that can be delivered to the CSEA or other government designated agents for integration into the Common Source Library, and/or Integrated Combat Systems software architecture.

The phases of the fire control loop are plan, detect, control, engage, and assess.

DoD said this future upgrade work translates into advanced discrimination, closure of potential missile defense gaps, enhanced defense against adversary advanced threats, improved single-ship performance of current dual tier engagement schemes, expansion to incorporate multi-tier weapons, and integration of advancements in Tactical Data Link architecture.

MDA expects the contract performance period to last through June 2035.

The contract’s scope will use funds from research, development, test and evaluation as well as defense-wide procurement and operations and maintenance fund accounts.

Work will occur at the company’s facility in Moorestown, N.J.

Palantir, BlueForge Alliance Partner To Accelerate Warship Production

Palantir Technologies [PLTR] will use its Warp Speed digital data platform to help the Navy accelerate the production of warships in partnership with BlueForge Alliance (BFA), a non-profit focused on strengthening the defense industrial base.

The Warp Speed for Warships effort is funded by the Navy’s Maritime Industrial Base program and builds on an existing partnership between Palantir and BFA. The Navy last fall awarded BFA more than $500 million to help with its industrial base program (Defense Daily

, Sept. 11 2024).

Palantir’s Warp Speed manufacturing operating system is used by companies to create digital twins of manufacturing processes, identify issues in assembly and the supply chain, allowing for improvements and scaling. Startups in the maritime domain such as Saildrone, Saronic and Vatn Systems are already partnered with Palantir (Defense Daily, March 13 and April 16).

Warp Speed for Warships is aimed at the larger shipbuilding ecosystem, Palantir and BFA said. The initiative “enables real-time collaboration and insight across the MIB,” they said. “When paired with BFA’s embedded manufacturing and MIB supply chain expertise, Warp Speed for Warships accelerates delivery, reduces risk, and creates a connected system engineered to meet the urgent demand of the Navy and the nation.”

Ursa Space, NV5 Nab First Luno B Awards By NGA

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) last Wednesday announced its first awards under its Luno B commercial analytics services contract with orders to Ursa Space Systems and NV5 Geospatial.

Under a $21 million award dubbed TrueSight, Ursa will provide commercial analytics and automated models for detection, identification, analysis and alerts related to changes and movements of objects. NV5, under the $4.5 million Almanac order, and will provide “information on human geography conditions worldwide, including human geography baseline data,” NGA said.

NGA in January selected 13 companies to compete for work under the potential five-year, $200 million indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) Luno B contract (Defense Daily, Jan. 15).

Luno B will give NGA and other geospatial intelligence users data and analytics services to characterize worldwide economic, environmental, and geopolitical activities.

Ursa’s award is its second under the Luno program, the first the $13.8 million Global Awareness Tracker order as part of the $290 million Luno A ID/IQ multiple award contract (Defense Daily, May 21). NGA in 2024 selected 10 vendors to compete for work under Luno A (Defense Daily, Sept. 13, 2024).

NGA also announced a $24.4 million Luno A Facility and Object Monitoring 2 order to BlackSky Technology [BKSY] to detect objects such as aircraft ships, ground equipment, and railcars, and object change at specific areas of interest. BlackSky announced the four-year task order in June (Defense Daily, June 24).

“The IDIQs are structured with an agile acquisition strategy to quickly respond to customer needs,” NGA said in a statement. “Each contract applies GEOINT artificial intelligence to provide decision advantage to warfighters, policy makers and mission partners.”

NGA also previously awarded Luno A task orders to Maxar Intelligence, $3.5 million for Facility and Object Monitoring, and $3.6 million to Electromagnetic Systems for Feature ID.

Army Details Progress Bringing Secure M-Code GPS To Commercial Chips

The Army on Tuesday detailed progress in bringing secure M-code GPS capability to commercial chips, including the Qualcomm [QCOM] Snapdragon, citing the effort as critical to enabling assured position, navigation and timing (PNT) capabilities on future weapons platforms.

Army officials told reporters that the Anubis initiative to leverage more commercial capabilities rather than solely purpose-built chips is intended to provide greater mission flexibility, broaden the supply chain and bring potential cost savings in the secure GPS space.

A U.S. Army crew chief for the MQ-1C Gray Eagle in the Gray Eagle Company, 1-501st Aviation Battalion, Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Armored Division at Fort
Bliss, Texas checks the drone (U.S. Army 1st Armored Division Photo)

“We were chasing the establishment of building specialized technology to support our needs. But, what did that do? It put us massively behind in technology,” Mike Monteleone, director of the Army’s All-Domain Sensing Cross-Functional Team, said in a briefing. “You’re talking about billions of dollars of consumer market investment that the Army should be able to take advantage of.”

The Anubis effort began in 2022 to look at bringing M-code GPS to the Snapdragon chip, with an aim to integrate the secure, encrypted capability much faster than the typical six-year process it takes to design and get a purpose-built chip through the security approval process.

“What we’re talking about here is the next generation of the electronics that support a [Mounted Assured PNT System] or a [Dismounted Assured PNT System] or any of the other types of [GPS] receivers on aviation platforms. We talked about precision-guided weapons and munitions. It could be for anything. This is, again, exploiting the commercial investment and technological advances to be able to use in our future programs,” Monteleone said. “It’s going to be critical to have that next-generation capability there that we can rely on in the most challenging of threat environments.”

Chris Manning, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for research and technology, told reporters the Army has seen “some great results” in the prototyping efforts it’s conducted as part of the Anubis effort on both ground and aviation platforms.

“In 18 months, with the prototype demonstrations, we’ve done three different versions of the same chip. And that’s just the pace of commercial innovation,” Manning said.

Manning said Qualcomm currently produces about a million Snapdragon chips a quarter, comparing that to the Pentagon having ordered about a million total chips to support the first increment for the Military GPS User Equipment (MGUE) program.

An initial “bulk buy” of chips for MGUE Inc. 1, which utilizes the Army’s MQ-1C Gray Eagle drone as the lead aviation platform, were built on a “45 nanometer construct, which was state of the art in 2007,” Manning added, and that MGUE Inc. 2 uses a chip capability that is 14 nanometers that was “state of the art in 2024,” while the capability out of Anubis is a four nanometers.

“The smaller the chip gets, the lower the power requirements, the better the state of the art of the technology,” Manning said.

Following the Army’s announcement that it no longer planned to procure Gray Eagles as part of its new transformation initiative, the Space Force-led MGUE office has said it’s awaiting further guidance on how the cancellation may impact the program (Defense Daily, May 12).

Monteleone also cited the flexibility offered by moving to more commercially-available chips and the ability to enable more rapid upgrade of software modules on capabilities out in the field.

“The greatness about something like this is, instead of building something that’s purpose-built that just does M-code…, in certain operational environments we want to be able to take advantage of other [Global Navigation Satellite System] capabilities, [such as] other countries that having something similar to GPS that’s providing a signal. I want to be able to use commercial providers that are providing different signals. As things like quantum sensing come online, I want to be able to rapidly fuse that into my PNT solution so we can take advantage of it,” Monteleone said.

Manning noted the Army is working on the security approval process for capabilities out of Anubis before assessing its procurement strategy, while adding he doesn’t see the use of commercial chips with M-code as a “drop-in replacement” and that it would have to be “designed into the device.”

Planet Highlights Defense Momentum With $280 Million German Government Deal

Planet [PL] announced a new 240 million euro ($283 million) multi-year deal with the German government on Tuesday for satellite imagery and analytics services, which Planet’s leadership pointed to as a sign of the company’s momentum in the defense market.

Through the German government agreement, Planet will provide dedicated capacity and direct downlink services on its fleet of Pelican satellites over specific European regions, as well as access to PlanetScope and SkySat data, and AI solutions for situational awareness and maritime domain awareness.

This is one of four recent wins for Planet in the defense and intelligence sector, including an expansion of Planet’s Hybrid Space Architecture (HSA) contract with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU); a seven-figure expansion with the U.S. Navy to provide maritime domain awareness; and a NATO intelligence deal.

“The changing global geopolitical landscape has accelerated the demand for sovereign access to unique solutions like ours,” Planet CEO Will Marshall said in a Tuesday briefing. “Governments worldwide are recognizing that timely, comprehensive Earth data are so critical to peace and security, and Planet stands ready to support their mission.”

President and CFO Ashley Johnson said during the briefing the wins are a “direct result” of Planet’s focus on “delivering not just data, but AI enabled solutions that transform that data into immediate, actionable intelligence.”

Marshall added that AI is helping to deliver insights from Planet’s daily scan of the Earth more quickly.

“AI is enabling the ability to extract value from geospatial data at a scale and a speed we’ve never seen,” Marshall said. “[AI] is speeding time to value. It is scaling up what’s possible. I think in the long term it will also democratize access to these capabilities to far more players.”

Johnson said that a portion of the German contract is for satellite capacity, and another portion for AI-enabled solutions. Johnson added that Planet is working with a number of partners for AI solutions, and some of the partners are European.

These defense sector wins come as the Fiscal Year 2026 budget request could bring cuts to the National Reconnaissance Office’s Electro-Optical Commercial Layer (EOCL) program, which Planet is a part of, along with BlackSky and Maxar Intelligence. Marshall was one of a number of Earth Observation CEOs that

highlighted the risks of the potential cuts in a letter to congressional leaders.

Johnson noted that the NRO recently awarded Planet a contract option under the EOCL program, extending Planet’s EOCL performance level from June through October 2025.

Johnson described the current situation as a “fluid budget environment” in D.C. “We continue to be proud to serve the NRO and the U.S. government more broadly. And as the circumstances evolve with FY 26 budget, we’ll be sharing more information about how that program continues with Planet,” she said.

This story was first published by Via Satellite

Senate Narrowly Passes Reconciliation Bill With $150 Billion For Defense, Sends To House

The Senate on Tuesday narrowly passed the massive reconciliation bill with $150 billion for defense that the Pentagon has built into its fiscal year 2026 spending plans, sending the measure to the House.

The lower chamber is expected to take up the “One Big Beautiful Bill” this week, to include the changes the Senate made to the legislation after the House initially passed it in May, with President Trump having said he wants it on his desk for final signature by July 4th.

Incoming Senate GOP Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) speaks to reporters on Dec. 10, 2024. Photo: Senate Republicans livestream.

“This historic legislation includes funds to jump-start the Golden Dome system to protect the homeland, increase our supply of munitions, rapidly advance unmanned ships and drones, enhance military readiness, reestablish deterrence and advance shipbuilding to produce a 21st-century naval fleet,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chair of the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.

Following a marathon “vote-a-rama” to consider amendments, the Senate voted 50-50 on the reconciliation bill and required Vice President JD Vance to cast the tie breaking vote to pass the measure.

Three Republicans–Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.)–joined all Democrats in opposing the measure, with much of the debate around the bill focused on the tax-related provisions and cuts to Medicaid.

The reconciliation process allows the Senate to pass the billions of dollars in budget-related Trump administration priorities without requiring the 60-vote threshold needed to break the filibuster, while the House will require a near-unified GOP caucus to support the measure facing likely unanimous Democratic opposition over planned spending cuts in the legislation.

Wicker last week unveiled the updated version of the defense portion of the legislation, which included adding funds for industrial base and critical minerals efforts, a cut to border operations support and removing classified programs (Defense Daily, June 25).

The House and Senate Armed Services Committees were responsible for crafting the defense portions of the reconciliation bill, which covers $150 billion in defense spending that would be allocated over the next four years and builds in flexibility to be spent over the next decade, to include $25 billion for the Golden Dome missile defense system, tens of billions to boost shipbuilding and production of munitions and drones and increases for a wide swath of defense priorities.

Lawmakers, including Wicker and top Senate defense appropriator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have pushed back on the Trump administration’s decision to include $113 billion of the total $150 billion in anticipated reconciliation funds to achieve its proposed $1 trillion defense request for fiscal year 2026 (Defense Daily, June 4).

“In the realm of national defense, there is still more to be done. Reconciliation was an opportunity to make an urgent, additive investment on top of a steadily increasing base budget, not an invitation to offload major annual priorities to a one-time injection of funds. Largely missing this opportunity makes the Congress’ work to secure robust topline defense funding even more important, and I will continue to urge my colleagues and the Administration to meet growing and coordinated threats to America’s security with the resources they demand,” McConnell said on Tuesday.

SDA Issues Solicitation For Europa Experimentation Effort

The Space Development Agency (SDA) on Tuesday released the Europa solicitation for prototype space vehicles, seeking proposals for advanced communication protocols using commercial solutions.

The Tranche 2 Demonstration and Experimentation (T2DES) Europa program will provide lessons for future SDA constellations, the agency said. The procurement is limited to pre-screened vendors on the Hybrid Acquisition of Low-Earth Orbit (HALO) contract vehicle.

The T2DES Europa will award Other Transaction Agreements in two areas, advanced tactical waveforms, and commercial solutions. For the first track SDA wants proposals for a two-satellite demonstration. The agency previously said that Europa would “prove the feasibility and scalability of more capable S-band waveforms” (Defense Daily, May 31, 2024).

The tactical waveform effort would entail 12 to 18 months of development and testing, followed by at least a year of on-orbit testing. The spacecraft would be contractor owned and operated.

The commercial solutions track is similar to the first in that it seeks vendors to propose projects using novel waveforms, but using existing assets rather than launching new spacecraft. Track 2 would involve around six months of on-orbit demonstrations coming three to six months after contract award. The government would submit tasking and receive data products as a service, the solicitation says. The second track would also consist of contractor owned and operated assets.

A notional schedule released by SDA says that offerors must submit executive summaries by July 28. SDA will use the summaries to pick a smaller pool of vendors whose proposals will be due by Aug. 29. Award decisions are expected by Oct. 14.

SDA previously selected 19 companies to compete for work within HALO (Defense Daily, Oct. 24, 2024).