Policy and Budgets
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink revealed the Space Force operates on-orbit space control weapons as the service pushes a $71.2 billion budget against a frozen continuing resolution.
Naval
A new GAO report finds the Navy will spend $3.1 billion keeping 15 retired attack submarines manned and fueled because public and private dry docks have no room to defuel them. The same yards already burned $3.4 billion on active boats that sat idle for a decade.
Aerospace
The Army selected Lockheed Martin and a Boeing-Anduril team for Phase 2 of its Second Interceptor competition, aiming to fill a critical mid-tier missile gap and preserve strategic Patriot stockpiles.
Aerospace
Lockheed Martin and L3Harris have locked in a seven-year propulsion deal to triple PAC-3 MSE interceptor output, pairing multiyear capital certainty with dual-source manufacturing to overcome a chronic missile bottleneck.
Funding
The Army locked a five-year, $862.8 million IDIQ for Northrop Grumman's M1156 Precision Guidance Kit, the $15,000 screw-in fuze that turns stock 155mm shells into GPS-corrected rounds. The next variants are built for jammed battlefields, and the line already belongs to one producer.
Drones
After losing at least 45 MQ-9 Reapers in 2026 combat operations, the Air Force is accelerating its Massed Modular Aircraft program to field low-cost attritable drones within three years.
Funding
The U.S. Army awarded AeroVironment a $464.8 million agreement for the Enduring High Energy Laser program, marking the first series-production contract for a laser weapon system in U.S. military history.
Funding
Project Janus aims to shield major power-projection bases from domestic grid failure using commercial microreactors, but officials warned that private capital must carry the bulk of the cost.
Macro
Facing soaring cost-per-shot asymmetry, the military is funding a wave of clean-sheet interceptors and hypersonic strike weapons engineered from scratch for affordable mass.
Funding
SpaceX won a $2.29 billion sole-source contract in May to build the backbone of the military's new orbital data network. In August, the Space Force awarded five competitors a combined $60 million and said it needs to avoid vendor lock-in.
Policy and Budgets
The Pentagon named Fort Story, Virginia, as Golden Dome's first operational site. Gen. Michael Guetlein still will not say what sits there, how many sites follow, or which cost estimate holds.
Policy and Budgets
The Senate’s 90-6-1 stopgap would fund the Pentagon through Dec. 11 at FY26 levels while rejecting a $1B battleship anomaly and five multiyear munitions obligations. The House CR ends Dec. 4—compromise still required.