The US government is defending xAI’s polluting turbines as vital to the war effort
The US government is defending xAI’s polluting turbines as vital to the war effort

The US Justice Department has taken Elon Musk’s side in a pollution lawsuit, arguing that the gas turbines powering his AI data centre are too important to national security to switch off. In a filing on Monday, the department, joined by the state of M…

As Europe rearms, the ‘wingman’ drone takes centre stage at the Berlin airshow
As Europe rearms, the ‘wingman’ drone takes centre stage at the Berlin airshow

The aircraft drawing crowds at last week’s Berlin airshow was not the one with a pilot in it. The “loyal wingman,” an uncrewed jet built to fly beside a manned fighter and carry the extra sensors, jammers, and weapons the fighter cannot, has become Eur…

Ukraine gains access to EU emergency cyber response for major attacks
Ukraine gains access to EU emergency cyber response for major attacks

Ukraine can now draw on emergency European Union cyber support to respond to large-scale incidents, after the Council of the EU approved its inclusion in the EU Cybersecurity Reserve on 15 June. The decision extends a defensive mechanism built for memb…

Mercedes-Benz turns to defence, partnering with startup Tytan to build anti-drone vehicles
Mercedes-Benz turns to defence, partnering with startup Tytan to build anti-drone vehicles

Mercedes-Benz is leaning deeper into defence. The carmaker has signed a memorandum of understanding with TYTAN Technologies, a Munich counter-drone startup, to develop vehicle-based systems that detect and shoot down hostile drones, built on its G-Clas…

Boeing upgrades the Ghost Bat with internal weapons and longer range as it competes with Helsing for German drone orders
Boeing upgrades the Ghost Bat with internal weapons and longer range as it competes with Helsing for German drone orders

Boeing unveiled an upgraded version of its MQ-28 Ghost Bat uncrewed combat aircraft at the ILA Berlin air show on Wednesday, adding an internal weapons bay, a 25% larger wing, and 2,000 pounds of additional payload capacity. The upgrades are designed t…

India froze Starlink approvals over Iran fears, days before SpaceX’s record IPO
India froze Starlink approvals over Iran fears, days before SpaceX’s record IPO

India has effectively frozen the approvals Starlink needs to begin commercial operations in the country. Security agencies under India’s Ministry of Home Affairs withheld final clearances after SpaceX allowed Starlink access inside Iran despite not hav…

Anthropic’s CEO says he doesn’t know if Claude was used in the Iran school strike that killed 120 children
Anthropic’s CEO says he doesn’t know if Claude was used in the Iran school strike that killed 120 children

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said he does not know what role his company’s AI model Claude played in a missile strike that killed an estimated 120 children at an elementary school in Minab, Iran, on February 28. In an interview on Bloomberg’s The Circuit…

Cambridge Aerospace is in talks to raise $300M at a $3.5bn valuation, almost nine times its worth a year ago
Cambridge Aerospace is in talks to raise $300M at a $3.5bn valuation, almost nine times its worth a year ago

Cambridge Aerospace, a British defence-technology startup building systems to shoot down drones and cruise missiles, is in talks to raise around $300M at a valuation of about $3.5bn, according to a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matte…

Alta Ares raised €50M to make shooting down a drone cheaper than the drone itself
Alta Ares raised €50M to make shooting down a drone cheaper than the drone itself

A Shahed attack drone costs tens of thousands of euros. The missiles traditionally fired to shoot one down can cost a million or more. A French startup has raised €50mn to fix that maths. Alta Ares, a Paris-based defence-technology company founded in 2…

Finland’s ICEYE hits a €10bn valuation, quadrupling in six months as Europe scrambles for its own spy satellites
Finland’s ICEYE hits a €10bn valuation, quadrupling in six months as Europe scrambles for its own spy satellites

Six months ago, ICEYE was worth €2.4bn. Today it is worth more than €10bn. Few numbers capture Europe’s defence-tech boom as bluntly as that. The Finnish satellite company has raised €450mn in a Series F round led by General Atlantic, valuing it at ove…