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NEWS In space news, China has raised vocal opposition to the Golden Dome. The Chinese foreign ministry said it carries "strong offensive implications" and heightens the risks of the militarisation of outer space and an arms race. It has urged Washington to abandon its development. I wrote last week that the Golden Dome has the potential to change the nuclear escalation calculus for America’s adversaries. If, as intended, it can intercept a nuclear missile launched at the US, then it will effectively neutralise the retaliatory capabilities of nuclear peers. The principle of mutually assured destruction was coined as a phrase in 1962 and has stood the test of time as a defence doctrine, even as new nuclear nations have sprung up. It is the foundation of the peace which has existed between the great powers since the Second World War. So why would the Americans put it at risk? The irony is that the Golden Dome is in part a response to Chinese and Russian weaponisation of space. Russia launched its Cosmos 2553 satellite just before the invasion of Ukraine - it is believed to be part of a nuclear anti-satellite weapons programme, though may no longer be operational. And China has launched a number of anti-satellite satellites and directed energy weapons, starting in 2007. The most logical conclusion is simply: this was always going to happen. Space wasn’t weaponised because it was too difficult and too expensive. Dual-use technologies have changed that. In electronic warfare news, Helsing, a European developer of novel defence technologies, has launched an AI-powered electronic warfare product called Cirra. It seeks to address the problem of shapeshifting anti-aircraft radars. These novel radars use software to quickly change the way they scan for threats (shifting beam patterns, frequencies etc), making them significantly more effective than older anti-aircraft systems. Helsing aims to install this technology in existing fighter jets. Helsing is getting back to its roots. It started out as a software company looking to solve defence-shaped software problems. At some point it realised that defence hates buying software, so it shifted to hardware and started building drones. This is actually the Anduril playbook - sell software packaged as hardware. Much like Apple sells iPhones, the idea is to upgrade the hardware every couple of years and update the firmware more regularly. The real value is in the firmware. Selling pure software to defence is hard, but sometimes there’s a market. The shape of electronic warfare (EW) has changed drastically since Russia invaded Ukraine, and Western systems are largely outdated. In fact, such is the pace of development that Russian and Ukrainian systems are sometimes updated on a weekly basis, as they seek to outdo each other on the battlefield. For Western nations it isn’t feasible to keep pace with that velocity of EW development. But when the war ends there will be two countries at the forefront of EW capability, and one of them will be Russia. That will precipitate a scramble to assimilate new capabilites developed during the war. Helsing is positioning itself as someone who could help with that. In quantum computing news, an international team led by Chinese scientists has realised quantum-secured communication across over 12,900 kilometers between China and South Africa. The experiment used satellite-based quantum key distribution (QKD) and ground-based quantum networks with satellite relays. This is a big step for QKD, which has largely existed as a theoretical technology of the future for the last few years. It seemed like it will be necessary, but just not yet. That may be about to change. It is likely that the most secure of communications will be quantum-enabled. The QKD infrastructure story is starting to look a lot like early internet or GPS: government-led, expensive, and strategic. As with AI, this is a reminder that deep tech often starts as science fiction, then becomes geopolitics, and only later turns into a product. FUNDRAISING Orasio, a France-based developer AI-powered software that analyzes video feeds to detect and alert about specific situations, such as someone carrying a weapon or the start of a fire, raised a €16m seed round led by Expeditions, Frst, Global Founders Capital. Orasio is an Expeditions portfolio company. EnduroSat, a Bulgaria-based builder of satellites that can be reprogrammed after launch to handle different types of space missions, raised a $48.9m round led by Founders Fund. CX2, a US-based developer of electronic warfare technologies, raised a $31m round led by Point72 Ventures. PiLogic, a US-based developer of AI software to interpret radar signals and support real-time decision-making in aerospace and defense operations, raised a $4m seed round co-led by Scout Ventures and Seraphim Space. Astrolight, a Lithuania-based developer of laser-based communication systems to transmit data between satellites and ground stations at high speed and reliability, raised a €2.8m seed round led by Balnord. Sophia Space, a US-based developer of orbiting data centres, raised a $3.5m seed round led by Unlock Venture Partners.
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