NEWS

UK launches Atlantic Bastion to counter Russia at sea

Britain will begin rolling out a new suite of undersea surveillance and counter-submarine capabilities under Atlantic Bastion. The project will combine autonomous vessels, AI-enabled detection networks and existing naval and air platforms.

What’s surprising here is how openly this capability is being discussed. Ever since the Cold War the UK’s main adversary beneath the waves has been Russia. But that was hitherto a battle fought in the shadows - by necessity, the submarine service has always operated under a deep veil of secrecy.

The evolving nature of the threat has brought a change to that approach. Where before gentlemen in white pullovers sought to out-manoeuvre each other in a noble game of cat and mouse, now the battle is for underwater cables and pipelines. Russia is developing technology to sabotage these elements of critical infrastructure, as part of its grey zone warfare campaign. It aims to apply pressure to European countries below the threshold of open conflict.

My personal thesis is that the underwater domain will be disrupted by autonomous systems in the same way that drones now fly above the battlefield. We are beginning to see that take shape, with companies like Helsing, Vatn Systems and Albacore looking to develop novel subsurface capability. But it is a lot harder to do than building a drone. And navies will be slow to adopt.

Atlantic Bastion’s integrated network of ships, submarines, uncrewed platforms and AI-powered acoustic sensors is a sign of things to come.

Russian Shahed-136 drones now armed with air-to-air missiles

Russia has fielded a new version of the Shahed-136 armed with an air-to-air missile. In principle, the heat-seeking R-60 would give the one-way attack drone a way to engage Ukrainian aircraft and helicopters, but the effectiveness of this combination is unclear.

And so the drone innovation continues. What is impressive about this upgrade is the ability to iterate with what is already on the shelf. The R-60 is a Soviet-era heat-seeking design, the baseline version of which began to enter operational service in the early 1970s.

When combined with a Shahed, it could create a capability akin to the wingman drones that companies like General Atomics, Helsing and Anduril are all developing, but at a fraction of the cost. It remains to be seen how effective it will be, but it’s certainly an interesting development.

Chinese LandSpace reusable rocket crashes

LandSpace, a private Chinese space firm, launched its Zhuque-3 rocket to orbit, but its reusable booster ignited and crashed before it could land on the recovery pad. LandSpace had hoped to become the third company, after SpaceX and BlueOrigin, to successfully land a reusable rocket.

What’s surprising is not that a reusable booster failed, but that China allowed the failure to be so publicly visible. For a system with clear military and strategic relevance, this level of openness is unusual. It suggests Beijing now values signalling rapid iteration and industrial momentum over the traditional instinct to conceal setbacks.

For China’s space-military planners, this could slow the cadence of launches they hoped would challenge the dominant LEO constellations, and delay any plans to weaponise space logistics at scale. My sense is that it won’t delay them for long.

FUNDRAISING

Castelion, an American developer of hypersonic weapons, raised a $350m Series B led by Altimeter Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

ICEYE, a Finnish builder of synthetic aperture radar satellites, raised a €150m round at a $2.8bn valuation. The deal was led by General Catalyst.

7AI, an American developer of AI agents for cybersecurity operations, raised a $130m Series A at a $700m valuation led by Index Ventures.

Horizon Quantum, a Singapore-based developer of software for quantum computers, secured $110m to support its planned SPAC, with IonQ and others investing. Horizon Quantum is an Expeditions portfolio company.

Pryzm, an American developer of AI to streamline defence tech procurement for US government agencies and contractors, raised a $12.2m seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz.

SpaceComputer, a Singapore-based anti-attack encryption startup, raised a $10m seed round co-led by Maven11 and Lattice.

Reditus Space, an American developer of reusable spacecraft for microgravity research and in-space manufacturing, raised a $7m seed round. Investors included Antler and Y Combinator.

Spotlite, a Portuguese developer of satellite imagery to deliver predictive infrastructure monitoring insights, raised a €3.5m seed round co-led by Índico Capital Partners and Explorer Investments.

Govstream.ai, an American developer of AI-native permitting tools for local governments, raised a $3.6m seed round led by 47th Street Partners.

SkySpy, a Ukrainian/Estonian developer of compact autonomous SIGINT systems designed for contested electromagnetic environments, raised a $1.6m pre-seed round led by Expeditions.

This is the last newsletter of 2025 - I’ll be taking a break for the holidays. See you in January!