This Week in Dual-Use
NEWS
In space news, China launched a new ship capable of monitoring military satellites and missile launches. Revealed through photos circulating on Chinese media, the ship features prominent radar domes and massive high-gain antennae. Unlike ground-based tracking stations limited by geography and the Earth’s curvature, this ship can be deployed at sea to cover launch arcs, orbital passes, and missile trajectories
Ground radars which track satellite movement in space have existed for years, but putting the technology on a ship has never been done before. It is perhaps something only China could do, given its vast shipbuilding facilities and the decline of shipyards in the West.
It is also the latest in China’s development of novel ship capabilities. It recently launched a ‘drone carrier’ - an aircraft carrier purpose built for UAVs. And it has ships which link together to form a bridge, allowing ground vehicles to cross a body of water.
China is quietly transforming naval architecture into a platform for space and asymmetric warfare, redefining what a ship can do. It will be interesting to see if they can turn that into geopolitical advantage.
In undersea news, Saildrone, a developer of wind-powered sea drones, and Thales Australia, a defence prime, announced an autonomous anti-submarine partnership. Saildrone has fitted Thales’ sonar array to its Surveyor vessel, which will enable it to monitor underwater activity.
Meanwhile Vatn Systems, a developer of uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs) has partnered with Palantir, a developer of software for defence. Vatn Systems plans to use Palantir’s platform to digitize the manufacturing process and accelerate the production of underwater vehicles.
These partnerships speak to the inflection point that underwater defence technology is currently experiencing. Governments are increasingly seeking autonomous solutions to the subsurface threat posed by Russia and China. The Royal Navy is in the middle of Project CABOT, a plan to deploy an autonomous anti-submarine screen in the North Atlantic.
This could be the dawn of an industrial shift, where low-cost uncrewed platforms and AI-enabled sonar replace legacy systems in one of the last un-networked domains.
In more space news, the US Space Force has released its vision for fighting in space. It has defined what it means by “space warfighting” in a document which aims to give a clear picture of how it plans to operate in a future conflict. This follows concerns recently aired by NATO’s Secretary General over the possibility of Russian nuclear weapons in space.
It seems that space is being formalised as a potential theatre of conflict. The new Space Force doctrine signals a shift from passive operations to active defence and deterrence. This will have strategic implications for how space infrastructure is designed and protected.
FUNDRAISING
Revel, a US-based developer of software that helps engineers to control complex hardware systems such as those in aerospace, energy, and manufacturing, raised a $23.1m Series A round.
Scout AI, a US-based developer of AI software that enables military robots to operate autonomously, raised a $15m Seed round.
Gallatin AI, a US-based developer of military logistics technology, raised a $15m Seed round.
Hammer Missions, a UK-based developer of AI-powered drone software, raised a £1.4m Seed round.