Iran has destroyed an American radar in Jordan used missile defence. It’s not clear whether Iran used missiles or Shahed drones, or a combination of both to achieve this. What is certain is that it cost Iran a lot less than $300m to do so. It is one of Iran’s most successful attacks to date.

Iran is to missiles what Ukraine is to drones. Those were the words of my Lebanese friend who sent me a few WhatsApp videos over the weekend. They featured different types of Iranian missile raining down on Israel. This week’s newsletter will therefore be an Iran War special edition.

Pete Hegseth has threatened to list Anthropic as a ‘supply chain risk’, meaning no defence contractor could use it. This comes after Anthropic tried to set conditions for what its AI could be used for. The red line for Anthropic seems to be around the use of AI for final targeting decisions without human intervention.

I was at the Munich Security Conference last week. There was a palpable difference in tone compared to the year before. Despite the relatively conciliatory speech by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Europe is now firmly in a ‘post-Greenland’ mentality.

SpaceX acquired xAI in a deal that will value the company at $1.25tn. Both businesses are majority owned by Elon Musk.

Blue Origin, an American developer of space launch technology owned by Jeff Bezos, is rolling out a satellite internet service called TeraWave, taking direct aim at Starlink.

Germany has ordered eight MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones from General Atomics, an American defence prime, at a cost of €1.52bn.

Footage has emerged from Venezuela of Shahed-style UAVs striking targets during the operation to capture Maduro. These are likely to be American LUCAS (low-cost uncrewed combat attack system) drones, although the Pentagon has refused to confirm it.

Ukraine’s MoD claimed that an uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV) disabled a Russian Kilo-class submarine in Novorossiyk. If true, the use of a UUV against a submarine would represent another first in naval warfare.

Britain will begin rolling out a new suite of undersea surveillance and counter-submarine capabilities under Atlantic Bastion. The project will combine autonomous vessels, AI-enabled detection networks and existing naval and air platforms.

Taiwan has lifted the lid on its T-Dome concept, an air-defence network modelled on Israel’s Iron Dome and the American Golden Dome project.

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.

Thirteen British sites have apparently been identified for ‘energetics’ factories, as the government faces fresh calls to end its reliance on US munitions.

Pete Hegseth announced sweeping defence procurement reforms aimed at establishing speed as the "organizing principle" of the Pentagon. Key changes include mandating commercial first contracting, and implementing new penalties for industry delivery schedules.

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.

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.

Quantum Systems, a German manufacturer of surveillance drones, valued at over €3bn, announced the acquisition of Spleenlab, a German company specialising in AI perception systems.

The Royal Navy has set a two-year goal to operate a jet-powered, carrier-launched Autonomous Collaborative Platform (ACP), dubbed Vanquish. The plan is to launch these off Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers and eventually complement the UK’s F-35B fleet of fighter jets.

The head of UK Space Command revealed that Russia has been stalking British satellites, flying its own satellites close to them in order to collect information. It also regularly tries to jam British satellites with ground-based lasers.

Last week I covered Lockheed’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), and I have previously written about China’s wingman drones which were unveiled at its military parade three weeks ago.