In case you missed it, Trump’s FY26 budget request dropped Friday, and, to quote one executive we chatted to, it was a “bloodbath.” Everything from NASA, to the NIH, to the CDC, to the EPA face massive budget cuts, while DHS is set to receive a boost of nearly $43.8B. Up and up: At least […]
If you took top Trump officials, Silicon Valley elite, some of the world’s wealthiest investors and executives, and a whole bunch of defense tech founders and stuck them in a room, what would you get? The Hill and Valley Forum, apparently. Yesterday, as budget negotiations continued overhead, tech and policy big guns (pun intended) gathered […]
Earlier this month (yes, it’s been a long month), President Trump signed a few executive orders aimed at revamping defense acquisition and production that sent the defense tech community abuzz. The President ordered SecDef Hegseth to create a plan to speed up acquisition using existing authorities and prioritizing commercial solutions. He also called for major […]
Looks like Palantir ($PLTR) is making another leap across the pond. On Monday, NATO revealed that it’s acquired the data giant’s AI-powered Maven Smart System, marking a giant leap forward for the alliance’s AI-powered warfare capabilities. NATO’s Allied Command Operations (ACO) will begin using the system within 30 days and will be known as the […]
For those of you who’ve taken a relaxing vacation under a rock for the past week: on April 2, Trump unveiled sweeping, massive tariffs on nearly all imports to the United States, sending markets into a tailspin. Yesterday, Trump paused most of those tariffs for 90 days but maintained a general 10% tariff on all […]
The United Kingdom wants more drones, and fast. Yesterday, the MoD’s Defense and Security Accelerator (DASA) announced phase two of its Innovation in Support of Operations competition, aimed at bringing British defense up to date. The MoD is looking to fund: UK-registered companies can apply with projects that will take up to 4 months and […]
Last week, amidst the Signalgate-that-keeps-on-giving, the Senate Armed Services committee held a whirlwind confirmation hearing for four of Trump’s critical DoD appointees.
It’s about time we talked about the elephant in the room: China. Step into any defense tech conference, and the threat from Beijing looms large. China’s military is building up and adopting cutting-edge tech at an unprecedented pace, and the US and its allies are failing to keep up, or so the saying goes.. But […]
If you think you’ve had a wild first two months of the Trump administration, imagine what it’s like being a European leader. Within his first few weeks in office, Trump called into question the transatlantic alliances that have held firm since the end of WWII and basically said that the continent was on its own […]
In case you missed it, SecDef Pete Hegseth issued a memo last Thursday calling for major changes to how the DoD buys software. The “Directing Modern Software Acquisition to Maximize Lethality” directive calls for: This is a pretty big deal for commercial and nontraditional companies building the programs needed to win wars. “The way the […]
