This Week in Dual-Use
NEWS
Stark ‘crashes and burns’ in British Army trials
The European defence tech market has been reacting to a scathing article in the FT last week which accused Stark, a German developer of loitering munitions founded last year, of failing to hit a single target.
Resilience Media today published a short piece I wrote about it, in which I consider the changing nature of defence tech development.
Germany’s €377bn military wish list
A new procurement blueprint shows Germany’s plan to become the backbone of the Europe’s defence revival. The 39-page list lays out €377bn in desired buys across land, air, sea, space and cyber.
It’s difficult to put into words what a philosophical reversal this is for Germany. Until recently the idea of pouring money into defence spending was verboten. Joining the military was a questionable career choice and high-calibre founders didn’t build in defence tech.
That changed on 14th February this year when J.D. Vance addressed an audience of European leaders at the Munich Security Conference and told them to go it alone.
Germany has a unique blend of mature venture capital markets, high density of technological universities and, now, a large defence budget. It also has a long history of military prowess, punctuated by the last 80 years of relative pacifism. I suspect many exceptional defence and security companies will be born there in the coming years.
It will be interesting to see if its entrepreneurial ambition is met by political will to lead Europe.
Colombia faces drone-armed narcos
Armed groups in Colombia have been attacking government forces with cheap, store-bought drones.
Historically, the main barrier to criminal gangs buying fighter jets has been that they are too expensive. And no one would sell one to them. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of drones, which are cheap and easily weaponised. And offer a similar capability. It was only a matter of time until the technology proliferated beyond Ukraine.
Cartels have always been early adopters of technology. In the 1980s Pablo Escobar’s cartel used satellite phones and rotating radiotelephones, employing frequency hopping to evade interception. They also pioneered semi-submersibles for drug smuggling, and used counter-surveillance to monitor government communications.
The proliferation of drones to criminal gangs is largely bad news. However it is good news for developers of counter-drone systems. I suspect the C-UAS market is a lot bigger than we currently believe it to be. Already an important military capability, it will soon be on the wish list for police and commercial security firms too. A true dual-use technology.
FUNDRAISING
EnduroSat, a Bulgarian builder of modular satellites and constellation systems, raised a $104m round co-led by Google Ventures and Lux Capital.
Saildrone, an American developer of unscrewed surface vessels (USVs) which are powered by sails, will apparently receive $50m of funding from Lockheed Martin, which plans to equip the USVs with missile launchers.
Catalyx Space, an American developer of space infrastructure aiming to provide turnkey solutions for orbital missions, raised a $5.4m seed round led by Outlander VC.
Tethys Robotics, a Swiss developer of autonomous underwater inspection technology, raised a €3.5 seed round led by Redstone.