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NEWS China’s defence tech on display China marked 80 years since the defeat of Japan with a military parade attended by Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un and others. It was an opportunity for Xi Jinping to project China’s military power and demonstrate his dominance of the axis of nations in support of China. It was also an opportunity for the Western world to learn more about the defence tech projects that China has been keeping under wraps. Unveiled at the parade were large wingman drones of varying sizes. There is little to indicate their deployment status, but we know that China has been testing them recently. The parade also featured Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs), directed energy laser weapons, hypersonic missiles, Autonomous Ground Vehicles (AGVs) and other innovative defence tech. It was a reminder, should we need it, of China’s capability and ambition in defence technology. Its principle of civil-military fusion means that advances in one (civilian) domain can be rapidly leveraged in another (defence), allowing Beijing to compress development timelines and regularly field cutting edge technology. Russia may be using ships to control drones in Europe According to recent investigations, two Russian-crewed freighters are suspected of operating drones over European military sites and naval patrols. The Dolphin sailed from Kaliningrad, cut its AIS signal, and UAVs were reported near German military installations and Dutch waters around the same time. This is a classic Russian grey-zone tactic which exposes NATO’s weak spots. NATO’s maritime surveillance is still calibrated for larger platforms rather than small UAS. The blend of plausible deniability and unconventional access is what makes these actions powerful, but the combination of Russian shadow fleet and drones is a new development. The UK’s Project Cabot, an anti-submarine barrier in the North Atlantic, is in part a response to this novel threat. But grey-zone tactics are difficult to combat, precisely because they’re designed to stay below the threshold of direct confrontation. Russia has baked that into its calculations. It will be interesting to see how Europe develops a capability to counter this problem. Cambridge Aerospace comes out of stealth Cambridge Aerospace announced its plans to build cheap air defence systems for the UK and Europe. The secretive company has been developing two interceptor products which will deliver a capability similar to Israel’s Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow and Thaad air defence systems. It just raised a $100m Series A at a $400m valuation. Europe has allowed its short and medium range defences to atrophy in recent decades. The return of massed missile and drone strikes in Ukraine has made the gap painfully obvious. Cambridge Aerospace is betting that air defence will become a central pillar of deterrence. That hypothesis is supported by the current scale of Russia’s drone production - it is able to build around 5,000 Shahed-style drones per month - and by its recent incursions into Polish airspace. FUNDRAISING Infleqtion, an American neutral‑atom quantum technology company, plans to go public via a SPAC valuing the company at $1.8bn. PsiQuantum, an American developer of fault-tolerant photonic quantum computers, raised a $1bn Series E round at a $7bn valuation. BlackRock, Temasek, and Baillie Gifford were the co-leads. ElevenLabs, an American/Polish developer of AI voices, is letting employees sell up to $100m worth of stock in a tender offer led by Sequoia and Iconiq at a $6.6bn valuation, doubling its valuation. Quantinuum, an American developer of quantum computing hardware and software, raised a $600m round at a $10bn valuation, also doubling its valuation. Quanta Computer, NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm) and QED Investors joined existing shareholders. IQM, a Finnish builder of quantum computers for on-premise use and cloud access, raised a $320m Series B round led by Ten Eleven Ventures. Cambridge Aerospace, a British developer of novel air defence systems, raised a c$100m Series A led by Spark Capital with participation from Expeditions and others. Shift5, an American developer of software to monitor and secure the operational technology inside defense and commercial transportation fleets, raised a $75m Series C round led by Hedosophia. ReOrbit, a Finnish builder of sovereign satellites for governments, raised a $53m Series A round led by Springvest. Sola Security, an Israeli startup that enables cybersecurity teams to use AI to build their own custom protection tools and agents, raised a $35m Series A led by previous investor S32. Aurelius Systems, an American developer of autonomous laser weapons to neutralize low-cost drone threats, raised a $10m seed round co-led by General Catalyst and Draper Associates. Tiberius Aerospace, a British developer of weapons and launchers that it believes will extend the targeting and range capabilities of what the military uses today, raised a $4.5m founders’ round. Space DOTS, a British developer of software and hardware to detect and analyze orbital threats for space operators, raised a $1.5m seed round led by Female Founders Fund. Orbital Paradigm, a Spanish builder of reentry capsules to enable repeat access to and from orbit for research and manufacturing, raised €1.5m in seed funding.
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