An interceptor that works costs more than the thing it destroys, and there are fewer of them than anyone would like. That exchange ratio has become the organizing problem of modern weapons development. A one-way attack drone assembled for a few tens of thousands of dollars can force the launch of a missile costing several million, and no magazine survives that trade for long.
This section covers the effectors and the software around them. Missiles and munitions, unmanned systems, air and missile defense, electronic warfare, cyber, lasers and high-power microwave, autonomy, propulsion, and the mission software that decides how quickly any of it can be changed.
Demonstrations are treated as demonstrations. A laser that shot down a drone on a range in good weather is not a fielded capability, and coverage says which one it is.
Production rate matters as much as performance. A weapon nobody can build at scale is a briefing slide.
The first taxi runs of Jiutian’s SS-UAV “drone mothership” at a private airfield in Sichuan on 16 June reflect how far China’s unmanned programs have moved in a single decade. According to industry sources, technicians completed telemetry checks in less than six
PARIS — MBDA, Europe’s largest missile maker, has shown a new low‑cost drone called the One‑Way Effector (OWE). The idea is simple: send many cheap drones first, force the enemy to shoot them down, then fire expensive cruise missiles through the gaps.
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) signed a new deal on 10 June 2025. It is an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract worth up to $429 million with Integration Innovation Inc. (i3). The Huntsville firm must collect missile-test data, check its quality, and turn the
The Navy has issued a $646 million contract option to Raytheon for four additional AN/SPY-6(V) radars. Defense officials confirm this is the fourth option exercised under a five-year hardware, production, and sustainment agreement signed in 2022.
France and Germany have released a revised outline for the Main Ground Combat System (MGCS), the two-nation effort meant to retire the Leclerc and Leopard 2 fleets by the mid-2040s. Defense staff says the update locks roles, targets fresh trials, and places
Defense-aerospace.com reports that the Fisingapore Army has introduced a new generation of protected combat support vehicles intended to strengthen its military readiness and safeguard frontline operations. Officials have described these vehicles as pivotal assets that will offer greater survivability, flexible mission profiles,
Purdue University in West Lafayette has finished a large step in high-speed flight study. The new Hypersonics Applied Research Facility (HARF) cost about $41 million and covers near 65 000 sq ft. It sits inside the Discovery Park District, close to existing
The United States okayed the largest single arms deal in Kosovo’s short history. Pristina can now order 246 Javelin FGM-148F missiles plus 24 Lightweight Command Launch Units, worth about $75 million. Officials in both capitals frame the move as key step in
The Republic of Korea Marine Corps now holds the last MUH-1 Marineon helicopter in its hands. KAI moved the final airframe out of Jinju on 28 June 2023. A quick hand-off sign-sheet, few salutes, then crews rolled the machine onto a low-loader.
Russia says its new Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle slices through air at Mach 27—about 33 000 km/h. Officers call it a “shift point” for global power, though they spoke carefuly. Analysts in Moscow add that the craft twists faster than most shields
Missiles / Drones / Directed Energy carries the effectors: cruise and ballistic weapons, loitering munitions, unmanned systems, and the lasers and high-power microwave now being fielded against them. What all of it is aimed at, and what shoots it down, is in Air & Missile Defense Systems.
