This Week in Dual-Use
NEWS
Germany to buy 12,000 drones from Helsing, Stark, Rheinmetall
Germany is preparing to finalise a €900m contract to manufacture 12,000 kamikaze drones, in cooperation with Helsing, Stark and Rheinmetall. The contract will apparently be split equally among the three companies. The drones will be supplied to a new German brigade stationed in Lithuania, with the aim of defending NATO’s eastern flank against Russia.
This is a huge win for Helsing and Stark. Stark was only founded in 2024 and only recently appointed a CEO. For Helsing it comes as long-awaited validation of its technology, which has apparently struggled to find large-scale adoption in Ukraine. Its investors will breathe a sigh of relief.
It is also a validation of the European defence tech investment hypothesis, which expects European countries to enter a period of re-armament, largely with novel defence technologies. Venture capital funds have been pouring money into European startups developing these products. They are inverting the traditional ‘cost plus’ approach by creating a product before finding a customer. Government procurement appears to be adapting to the new model.
So far so good. German money goes to German companies. But Helsing and Stark will need similar contracts outside of Germany to justify their valuations. It will be interesting to see whether other European countries want to buy their products, or if they take a similarly sovereign approach to procurement.
Finally, it confirms my personal thesis that a) partnership with primes is a feature of the new order; and b) there will be relatively few winners in defence tech, but they will win big.
Russia tests nuclear-capable super torpedo
Russia has tested its Poseidon super torpedo, an uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV) with “no existing interception methods”. The nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable weapon may have a range of 10,000km, a speed of 185kph, and could trigger tsunamis.
I have written before that China may be leading the world in defence tech, but this is certainly a feather in Russia’s cap. There is no known equivalent to this weapon, which has been in development since 2018.
But while China’s R&D has focused on capabilities which it could use to, say, invade a nearby island, the Poseidon is only really useful in a nuclear war. A very Soviet approach.
Meanwhile President Trump has instructed the Department of War to immediately start nuclear-weapons testing for the first time since 1992.
Google claims quantum advantage
Google researchers have made a fresh claim of quantum advantage - the ability of quantum computers to radically speed up calculations compared with their classical counterparts.
This is something that Google likes to claim quite often, first asserting quantum supremacy back in 2019. This time they say their latest algorithm, dubbed quantum echoes, has the potential to solve scientific problems, including deriving the structures of molecules.
Although the paper does a good job of testing various classical algorithms, some scientists say there is no proof that an efficient one doesn’t exist, so it should be taken with a pinch of salt.
FUNDRAISING
Valthos, an American developer of biosecurity technology which uses AI to update medical countermeasures to match the speed of biological threats, emerged from stealth with $30m in funding, backed by OpenAI, Lux Capital and Founders Fund.
CyberRidge, an Israeli developer of photonic encryption technology, raised a $16m Series A co-led by Arkin, Redseed VC, and Elron Ventures.
HyImpulse, a German developer of space launch technology, raised a €15m Series A led by Campus Founders Ventures.
WSense, an Italian developer of underwater wireless systems enabling real-time communication among ocean sensors and autonomous vehicles, raised a €10m pre-Series B co-led by Indico Capital Partners and SIMEST.
Vermeer, an American-Ukrainian developer of computer vision navigation and autonomy systems for GNSS-denied navigation, raiseda $10m Series A led by Draper Associates.
LuxQuanta, a Spanish developer of quantum-safe cybersecurity technology, raised an €8m Series A led by Big Sur Ventures.
Space Quarters, an American developer of construction robotics and electron beam welding systems for assembling large-scale infrastructure in orbit and on the moon, raised a $5m Seed round led by Frontier Innovations Inc.
Venus Aerospace, an American developer of rocket propulsion technology, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Lockheed Martin Ventures.