Reuters
• Mirko Miorelli
Italy’s space industry is confronting a scale test as defense and government customers increasingly favor larger suppliers able to manage complex programs. The shift is putting pressure on the country’s fragmented industrial base to consolidate and compete more effectively as European rearmament accelerates.
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Italy’s space industry is confronting a scale test as defense and government customers increasingly favor larger suppliers able to manage complex programs. The shift is putting pressure on the country’s fragmented industrial base to consolidate and compete more effectively as European rearmament accelerates.
The U.S. Army has selected Hanwha Defense USA, a unit of South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace, to supply prototypes for its new Mobile Tactical Cannon. The decision gives South Korea’s largest defense company a significant entry point into the U.S. weapons market.
PlanetiQ completed a milestone with a $2.73 million NOAA award to provide commercial GNSS radio occultation and total electron content data. Separately, Viasat selected Rocket Lab to build a geostationary satellite supporting the Protected Tactical Satcom-Global program, underscoring demand for commercial space capabilities across civil and defense missions.
The U.S. Army has selected Robinson’s R66 helicopter as its new flight-school training aircraft. The choice forms part of a $10 billion contract awarded to M1 Support Services to provide Army flight-training support, reshaping the platform used to prepare future Army helicopter pilots.
The U.S. Air Force plans to field a more affordable, mass-producible successor to the MQ-9 Reaper by 2031 while developing a broader family of aerial targets. The systems would range from expendable quadcopters to reusable drones capable of mimicking fifth-generation fighters and UAV swarms.
High activity
Globalstar deployed all eight replacement satellites built by Rocket Lab and MDA Space, while Eutelsat completed the first rendez-vous for Europe’s IRIS² programme. Separately, Viasat selected Rocket Lab for a U.S. Space Force GEO satellite, and Finland’s ReOrbit launched a €4.6 million connectivity R&D programme.
The U.S. Army and Mexico’s Army signed a declaration of intent allowing Mexico to procure UAS and counter-UAS systems through the Defense Department’s digital marketplace to combat organized crime. Separately, India signed a ₹1,943 crore contract with General Atomics to lease two MQ-9B SeaGuardian aircraft to the Navy for 30 months.
Ukraine has unveiled a long-range uncrewed aircraft system as satellite imagery and leaked documents point to Russia’s expanding Geran-family strike-drone infrastructure. The developments coincide with Moscow’s claim of intercepting 822 Ukrainian drones and an apparent Ukrainian strike on the Engels-2 bomber base.
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