NEWS

Taiwan builds golden dome

Taiwan has lifted the lid on its T-Dome concept, an air-defence network modelled on Israel’s Iron Dome and the American Golden Dome project.

Much like Golden Dome, this is going to cost a lot. Taiwan’s president is seeking an additional $40bn over 8 years, which represents a 16% increase in defence spending. For context, Taiwan’s annual defence budget is £30bn.

What’s surprising here is that Taiwan seems to be changing its approach to defence procurement. It has hitherto prioritised the purchase of exquisite capabilities, largely from the US, such as F-16 fighter jets and M1 Abrams tanks. But the lesson from Ukraine is that these systems don’t survive long when pitted against a near-peer.

Most defence commentators seem to agree that a porcupine asymmetric strategy is what Taiwan needs. The country’s future would likely be determined in the opening days, if not hours, of a conflict.

My personal view is that it should prioritise mobility of defences above all else. Any kind of fixed installations would immediately be targeted by China, making them all but pointless. Taiwan needs low-cost, attritable systems and it needs them to be mobile.

It should also build out a comprehensive underground infrastructure. And equip distributed civilian forces with a communications system to coordinate insurgency activity. In short, in the event of an invasion Taiwan must demonstrate the kind of creative thinking that Ukraine has.

Meanwhile, Italy’s Leonardo unveiled its Michelangelo Dome air-defence system. Suddenly they are all the rage.

US federal agencies begin C-UAS collaboration

The War Department and other agencies in the federal government met yesterday for a summit to begin a three-year effort to deliver C-UAS capabilities to warfighters and keep the skies over America safe from drones.

I keep banging the drum about C-UAS. I wrote last week (and a few times previously) that the C-UAS market will be a lot larger than we currently think. It seems that the US government is looking to broaden its thinking on the topic, to incorporate more government agencies beyond the military.

Europe could take a leaf out of the American book. We don’t have a collective strategy for C-UAS, and don’t seem to be working on one. Instead we are in reactionary mode, buying equipment when suddenly drones appear near our airports and military bases, as Belgium did last week.

IonQ and Heven AeroTech develop quantum-enabled drone

IonQ announced a new investment and strategic partnership with Heven AeroTech, a developer of hydrogen-powered drones (see below for fundraising details). The agreement will apparently enable Heven AeroTech to integrate IonQ’s quantum computing, quantum networking, quantum sensing, and quantum security technologies into its drones.

A thesis I’ve been developing recently is that every autonomous platform, and indeed even the smallest infantry unit, will need a GNSS-denied navigation capability. If you’re fighting a war in two years time and you lose your UAV, the retort “sorry, I didn’t think we’d get jammed” will not be good enough.

Quantum technology is an elegant way of solving the problem. Cold-atoms can be used to track acceleration and rotation for precise dead reckoning. Or diamond nitrogen-vacancy centres can be turned into magnetometers which detect anomalies in the Earth's crustal magnetic field. Those can then be matched against a pre-loaded map. I believe some version of quantum navigation will eventually be ubiquitous among Western armed forces.

For IonQ, this is the latest in what has been a very busy year. It acquired Oxford Ionics for $1.1bn, an investment I am proud to have led when at NSSIF, and has also bought: Capella Space, ID Quantique, Skyloom, Vector Atomic and Lightsynq.

IonQ’s bet is that this aggressive acquisition strategy will propel it to global dominance across all quantum technology verticals. It seeks scale above all else. In a sector where first-mover advantage will compound exponentially, that may be a winning approach.

FUNDRAISING

• Quantum Systems, a German builder of surveillance drones, raised €200m at a $3bn valuation, led by Balderton Capital.

• Heven AeroTech, an American developer of hydrogen-powered drones, raised a $100m Series B at a $1bn valuation led by IonQ.

• Antares, a Canadian developer of nuclear microreactors to deliver energy to remote military bases and, eventually, deep space and underwater missions, raised a $71m Series B led by Shine Capital.

• Sparrow Quantum, a Danish developer of chips that produce single photons for room temperature quantum systems, raised a €27.5m Series A led by North Ventures.

• Agnikul , an Indian developer of reusable space launch architecture, raised a $17m round led by  Advenza Global Limited.

• Moonshot Space, an Israeli developer of electromagnetic space launch technology, raised a $12m round led by Angular Ventures.

• Whitespace, a British developer of AI-enabled OS for defence and other regulated sectors, raised a £10m seed round led by Beach Equity.

• StirlingX, a British developer of drone operations and data intelligence, raised an £8m seed extension led by Rokos Capital Management.

• Marble Imaging, a German developer of high-resolution Earth observation data and analytics, raised a €5.3m seed round led by High-Tech Gründerfonds.

• Arctus Aerospace, an Indian developer of high-altitude autonomous aircraft for Earth observation, raised a $2.6m pre-seed round led by Version One Ventures.

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