North Korea's Kim kneels before portraits of soldiers killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine, decorates survivors u.afp.com/SQjD

What

Alabama-based Performance Drone Works announced the official opening of Drone Factory 01 in Huntsville, a “state-of-the-art” production facility that the company says will be able to churn out over 60,000 FPV drones a year. tectonicdefense.com/pdw-opens-dron…

Hegseth fires head of Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

Common Sense. “SecDef Hegseth authorizes National Guard troops to carry arms in DC” abcnews.go.com/Politics/defen…

The defense world is enthralled by innovation and new tech, but the older, less exciting stuff is just as important in modern warfighting. The problem is that the US has struggled to produce them, and munition stocks have become a hot topic. tectonicdefense.com/icymi-the-army…

BREAKING: Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital in Gaza killed at least 15 people, including three journalists, one of whom worked for Reuters, Palestinian health officials said reut.rs/45OFPfr

Breaking: The Commanders and WR Terry McLaurin reached an agreement today on a three-year contract extension that will end his hold-in and get him in uniform for the regular-season opener vs. the Giants, sources told Adam Schefter. The extension is worth up to $96 million his

Scaling production is hard. Luckily for Kraken Technology, they’ve just partnered with German shipbuilding big dog NVL to ramp up manufacturing of their speedboat drones at NVL’s Blohm+Voss shipyard in Hamburg. Helps to have friends in high places. tectonicdefense.com/kraken-partner…

STATEMENT: President Trump may believe he has the power to revise the First Amendment with the stroke of a pen, but he doesn’t. Flag burning as a form of political protest is protected by the First Amendment. That’s nothing new. While people can be prosecuted for burning

ARX Robotics unveiled its first combat-capable UGV: Combat Gereon. The company says that the mini, battle-hardened robot-tank was built in a “European-Ukrainian development campaign” and honed with direct feedback from Ukrainian users on the frontline. tectonicdefense.com/arx-unveils-a-…

Doug Beck, the head of the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit, reportedly resigned suddenly today. I sat down with Beck last year for a detailed Foreign Policy Interview about his goals for the agency and the U.S. military's tech race with China: foreignpolicy.com/2024/02/12/pen…

Howard Lutnick on CNBC indicates that the Trump administration will try to partially nationalize defense companies like Lockheed Martin

The 189 Palestinian Journalists Killed in the War in Gaza Endured Hunger and Grief military.com/daily-news/202…

Rocket motor startup Firehawk announced that it has completed a successful flight test of its 3D-printed GMLRS-class analog hybrid rocket engine as part of its ongoing Phase III SBIR contract with the Army Applications Laboratory. tectonicdefense.com/firehawk-succe…

Automation company Reliable Robotics won a $17.4M AFWERX contract to turn the Cessna 208B Caravan into a remotely piloted cargo hauler for the Air Force. tectonicdefense.com/reliable-robot…

New Mexico and Roadrunner Venture Studios are getting in on the trend. The venture studio announced that it will lead a $25M initiative backed by the New Mexico Economic Development Department to build a quantum campus in downtown Albuquerque. tectonicdefense.com/roadrunner-and…