This Week in Dual-Use
NEWS
UK government buys counter-drone laser
The UK government has awarded a contract to fund a new laser that can shoot down high-speed drones. The £316m will be used to develop MBDA’s DragonFire laser at its UK headquarters in Stevenage.
With low-cost drones now ubiquitous on the modern battlefield, and indeed making appearances at European airports and military bases, the race is on to find economically viable countermeasures. The DragonFire laser system apparently costs £10 per shot. That is cheap, but its form factor appears more suited to a ship or permanent military installation. And a laser is hard to use in urban areas or civilian airspaces. So this is no a silver bullet.
The proliferation of weaponised drones beyond Ukraine appears to be gathering speed. Mexican and Colombian cartels have already been using them to increasing effect, and Brazilian gangs have been using them against police.
What seems certain is that the counter-UAS market is bigger than we think. A lot bigger. I see a future where C-UAS forms part of standard security for airports, military bases, stadiums, electricity sub stations, government buildings, etc. The list goes on and on.
And there will be no single dominant form factor. Lasers, directed energy and interceptors will all have a place. And in some scenarios a suite of capabilities will be necessary. What I haven’t seen yet is an OS platform which can bring together those disparate systems.
Meanwhile, I wrote last week that Belgian authorities were probably googling C-UAS systems after a spate of sightings at airports and military bases. That turned out to be true - they just bought counter-drone technology made in Latvia.
China develops counter-AI playbook
China has apparently been developing a counter-AI warfare playbook, using force-on-force training to understand how an opponent may use AI deception. The People’s Liberation Army is apparently learning to change how vehicles appear to cameras, radar, and heat sensors so that AI misidentifies them.
China seems to be ahead of the curve with this. I don’t know of any other military which is actively deploying counter-AI technologies in training scenarios. Earlier this year DARPA put out a call for counter-AI camouflage, so it is clearly something the US is thinking about. But seemingly nobody else.
AI is already being used in Ukraine, most notably as part of the terminal guidance technology used by drones. This enables them to conduct the final strike element of the mission even in jammed environments.
But China is thinking about a more sophisticated battlefield scenario, where algorithms are deployed against algorithms. In that world, the side that can confuse and mislead the other’s model gains a decisive edge. China intends to win an AI-against-AI war before the rules have even been written.
Chinese companies have now begun to create counter-AI products in the categories of physical deception, electronic warfare, and software. I suspect we may soon see a similar market in the West.
France announces €4.2bn in space funding
French President Emmanuel Macron announced a planned increase of €4.2bn in military space spending between 2026 and 2030.
Starting in 2027 France will launch patrol satellites built to monitor, inspect, and, if necessary, counter threats in orbit. These will be supported by space-based lasers, jammers, and the largest ground-based LEO-tracking radar system in Europe.
This announcement follows the recent news that the European Space Agency (ESA) is poised to take on a defence role (despite having resisted that idea in the 50 years since its founding). France clearly doesn’t have a lot of confidence that it will fulfil that role.
The French pivot to space resilience and counter-space operations sends a broader message - space is no longer a sanctuary, it is contested terrain. France is betting its future on a posture of readiness rather than reliance.
It will be interesting to see whether this triggers similar moves across the continent. Not just from the likes of Germany and the UK, but from defence neoprimes looking to build the hardware behind Europe’s next-gen orbital deterrent.
Meanwhile, Eutelsat announced an €828m capital raise, as it moves to build a LEO broadband constellation. The French are taking space seriously.
FUNDRAISING
Nest AI, a Finnish developer of AI products for use in unmanned vehicles, emerged from stealth and raised a €100m round led by Finland’s sovereign fund, Tesi, and Nokia.
Infinite Orbits, a French company servicing GEO satellites, raised a €40m round from the European Innovation Council Fund and others.
Twenty, an American company that helps military hackers automate ways to identify and penetrate target computer networks, emerged from stealth and raised a $38m Series A led by Caffeinated Capital.
Vyntelligence, a British developer of agentic video intelligence technology, raised a $30m Series B led by Blume Equity and Morgan Stanley‘s 1GT climate strategy fund.
HyPrSpace, a French developer of space launch technology, with a launch vehicle entitled Baguette One, raised a €21m Series A led by Red River West and DeepTech Plan.
Quindar, an American developer of cloud-baed ground systems for satellite operators, raised an $18m Series A led by Washington Harbour.
Aris Machina, a Swedish company developing the ‘OS for factories’ and founded by former Northolt CEO Peter Carlsson, emerged from stealth and raised a $10m pre-seed led by Earlybird Venture Capital.
Maritime Fusion, an American developer of ship-based fusion reactor using high-temperature superconducting magnets, raised a $4.5m seed round led by Trucks VC.
QSimulate, an American developer of quantum simulation technology, raised a seed round led by Embark Ventures. Its total funding is now $11m.