NEWS
Blackstone gets into defence tech
Blackstone announced a $1B investment to create Falcata, a company developing sensing and guidance hardware for interceptors. It bought and merged two relatively unknown interceptor component suppliers, TSC and Applied Systems Engineering.
This follows its recent entry into the defence tech market by co-leading the $1.2B Quantum Systems fundraise in July.
Blackstone is clearly long on defence tech. And rightly so. The war in Ukraine and Operation Epic Fury have turned the interceptor shortage into a permanent strategic problem for the US. And the Pentagon has just committed to seven years of growing interceptor demand.
Last week I wrote about the glut of American interceptor companies coming to market at the AUSA conference (Anduril, CHAOS, Raytheon, Lockheed et al). Blackstone has chosen the picks-and-shovels approach, aiming to supply the sensing and guidance hardware to these companies.
Assuming there is demand for its products, this is a simple bet that the Pentagon will keep buying interceptors. On that question the evidence is reasonably strong.
Russia satellite vs ICEYE satellite
A Russian military satellite, Kosmos-2612, closed to within roughly 26 metres of a synthetic aperture radar satellite built by ICEYE, a Finnish company. Kosmos-2612 had been manoeuvring towards its target since late September, matching orbital plane, then inclination, then altitude, before moving around it and eventually drifting away.
Russia has been executing an escalating campaign of hybrid warfare against Europe in recent years, and it seems space is no exception to this. ICEYE has supplied radar imagery to the Ukrainian government since August 2022. Unlike its hybrid operations on land however, Kosmos-2612 is an undeniably Russian military asset. Its intent is clear.
This strengthens the case for HALO, a NATO initiative launched at the Ankara summit by eight middle powers (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden & Turkey) to network their nationally owned military satellites into a single shared constellation. I suspect that for many in Europe that cannot come soon enough.
Russian operatives file timesheets through ChatGPT
OpenAI banned a number of Russian accounts running influence operations in Latin America. The operation, which OpenAI rated the most severe it has disrupted, built a think tank in Latin America called the Social Research Center, staffed it with unwitting locals, and used ChatGPT to write its reports and plant anti-Ukrainian stories.
I wrote last month about the Houthi missile engineers who debugged guidance software through Claude Code and got caught because they asked the model why a field test had failed. In this case, OpenAI apparently discovered the operation because the real people hired by Russia has used OpenAI to write progress reports and timesheets.
I don’t understand why Russia and the Houthis are using ChatGPT and Claude to do this. They could use Kimi or DeepSeek without detection. Both are open source and capable of the same work. Perhaps the joy of using American AI against American interests is too difficult to resist.
Anduril’s underwater payloads
Australia has declassified Ghost Shark’s payloads: twelve sea mines per sortie, seabed supply caches for special forces, and Anduril’s Altius loitering munitions launched from underwater.
FUNDRAISING
DEFENCE
ASI, an American developer of AI-based air traffic control, raised a $325M Series C led by Spark Capital.
ICON, an American developer of robotic construction technology, raised a $200M Series D co-led by Baillie Gifford and BlackRock.
Gallatin AI, an American developer of military logistics technology, raised a $50M Series A co-led by 8VCand Silent Ventures.
Helicon, an American developer of composites for defence, emerged from stealth with $16.5M led by AlleyCorp.
Austin Sensing Company, an American developer of radar, acoustic and passive RF sensors, emerged from stealth with $11M led by Bow Capital.
SPACE
KP Labs, a Polish developer of technology to process data directly in orbit, raised a $5M round from Momentum Capital Partners.
QUANTUM, CYBER & AI
Salience Labs, a British developer of photonic networking chips, raised a $125M Series B led by Bullhound Capital.
JOBS
Laelaps, an Expeditions portfolio company, is hiring a commercial lead to work alongside the CEO, Sophia Belser. Apply here.