NEWS

US used kamikaze drones in Venezuela

Footage has emerged from Venezuela of Shahed-style UAVs striking targets during the operation to capture Maduro. These are likely to be American LUCAS (low-cost uncrewed combat attack system) drones, although the Pentagon has refused to confirm it.

LUCAS is an American-made kamikaze drone reverse-engineered from an Iranian Shahed-136. In fact, the delta wing design dates back to West Germany’s DAR (Dornier Die Drone Antiradar) project from the 1980s, a radar-hunting drone which was discontinued after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Although this isn’t the first time the LUCAS has been fired in anger, its use as part of a complex combined arms operation is a first. It seems Western military tactics are now explicitly incorporating technology proven in Ukraine (in this instance on the Russian side).

In times gone by America might have fired a few Tomahawk missiles, at a cost of $1m each. The LUCAS is thought to cost about $35k - an embodiment of the attritable mass concept that defence officials like to talk about.

The Americans have been quick, and unabashed, in their copying of the Shahed drone. Now the European defence spending taps are open, it will be interesting to see if we take the same approach.

China turns cargo ship into drone aircraft carrier

A Chinese cargo ship is being used to test a ship-mounted electromagnetic aircraft launch system capable of launching large, fixed-wing combat drones.

This is an intriguing bit of signalling from China, which is very deliberate in its dissemination of imagery of novel military technology. It is very obviously not a mature capability, so the PLA is communicating its willingness to experiment rather than technological sophistication.

Westerns navies have been testing UAVs at sea for years, but not with large CCAs (collaborative combat aircraft) or with dedicated drone-carrying ships.

Where before gentlemen wearing aviators and sheepskin leather jackets boldly piloted the most advanced technology in existence, taking off and landing on tiny swaying runways, now dogfights might be fought by goggle-wearing controllers, tucked away in an ops room somewhere below deck.

Meanwhile Hanwha, a Korean defence prime, and Havoc AI, an American developer of USVs, have partnered to develop a 200ft uncrewed ship.

Hanwha is moving very aggressively into foreign defence markets. It is helping to dig the US out of its shipbuilding crisis by creating the Hanwha Philly Shipyard, and is increasingly present in European defence - most notably in Poland. The look and feel of maritime power is changing quickly.

China achieves quantum error correction with microwaves

Chinese researchers demonstrated fault-tolerant quantum error correction using an all-microwave control approach, marking the first such result outside the US and narrowing the gap with Google.

One of my predictions for 2026 was that a leading quantum computing company would demonstrate 200+ logical qubits (so far the record is 48, achieved by Microsoft & Quantinuum in 2024). I had lazily assumed that this would be achieved by a Western quantum computing company, but the news coming out of China makes me think twice.

Good error correction is one of two or three elements that will unlock useful quantum computing. In 2025 Google used its 105-qubit Willow processor to demonstrate exponentially reduced error rates as the system scaled up, a critical milestone known as operating below threshold. That, in large part, drove my prediction for 2026.

As in defence tech, in quantum China continues to challenge the West’s claim to dominance.

FUNDRAISING

Harmattan AI, a French developer of autonomy and mission-system software for defence aircraft, raised a €200m Series B led by Dassault Aviation.

Onebrief, an American developer of AI-driven collaborative planning software for military operations, raised a $200m Series D co-led by Battery Ventures and Sapphire Ventures.

Defense Unicorns, an American developer of software that securely delivers updates to disconnected military systems, raised a $136m Series B at a $1+ billion valuation. The deal was led by Bain Capital.

Valinor Enterprises, an American holding company for defence and government technology, raised a $54m Series A led by Friends & Family Capital.

Qualinx, a Dutch developer of ultra-low-power satellite positioning chips, raised a $23.4m round led by Invest-NL.

Terra Industries, a Nigerian developer of autonomous systems, raised an $11.8m seed round led by 8VC.

Haiqu, an American developer of software designed to run practical applications on today’s quantum hardware, raised an $11m seed round led by Primary Venture Partners.

Vitrealab, an American developer of photonic chips for augmented reality displays, raised an $11m Series A co-led by LIFTT Italian Venture Capital and LIFTT EuroInvest.

Dirraqtion, an American developer of quantum-enabled cameras for space, emerged from stealth with a $4.2m pre-seed round led by QDNL.

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