The business of defense, October 13

Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army's acting chief of staff, has selected Futures and Concepts Command for redesignation as the Futures and Autonomous Systems Command (FASCOM), the Army announced Oct. 13.¹ Led by a three-star general officer, FASCOM will "consolidate, integrate and ultimately accelerate the work of" five organizations, including the Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM). The others are Medical Research and Development Command, 75th Innovation Command, Joint Modernization Command and the Transformation Decision Analysis Center.¹ Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle ordered FASCOM's establishment in an Oct. 1 memo, after Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced an Autonomous Warfare Command on Sept. 30.²

The Army ties that consolidation to buying. It says the change unifies expertise the new Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Autonomy will depend on. One of the first tasks LaNeve set FASCOM is corps-level autonomy: each of the Army's five corps will test equipment, evaluate tactics and make recommendations.¹ By our count, every capability on the Army's fiscal 2028 priority list has a matching corps experiment.²

I Corps will test an autonomous fires battery and watercraft company, III Corps an autonomous armored reconnaissance company and V Corps an autonomous breaching company.¹ XVIII Airborne Corps will test aerial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and lift companies, and 8th Army will test pairing manned and unmanned rotary-wing aircraft, the list's crewed-uncrewed teaming.^1–2 Only the lift companies match nothing on it.

Also announced: Fort Rucker, Ala., is now the Army's Unmanned Aircraft Systems Autonomy Center of Excellence, LaNeve said.¹

Anduril on Monday unveiled Steelfin, a family of two-stage surface-to-air interceptors designed for cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missile threats.^1–2 Executives aim for it to cost a third of the price of the Patriot's PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE), Breaking Defense reported.² That benchmark is Lockheed Martin's missile, built under an undefinitized multiyear contract Lockheed puts at $58.62 billion. Lockheed says that funding lets it triple PAC-3 MSE capacity by the end of 2030.⁴

Anduril was one of many vendors chosen for testing and demonstrations after the Army's xTech Apex Intercept competition, Breaking Defense reported Monday. Steve Milano, Anduril's senior director of missiles, said the company is vying for the Army's low-cost interceptor program with Steelfin. He called it a "natural fit" for Future Interceptor, the Army's effort to find a next-generation PAC-3 MSE, though Anduril executives declined to say whether Steelfin was selected.² Lockheed's Tim Cahill said in a Breaking Defense report Friday that Lockheed is one of two companies selected, without naming the other.³

The company says Steelfin variants are compatible with launchers including the M903A2, the Mk 41 Vertical Launch System and Typhon. It plans to produce on the order of several thousand Steelfin variants a year in the short term.¹ Milano expects full-rate production at the end of 2028 or the beginning of 2029, Breaking Defense reported. Anduril intends to build most subassemblies at Arsenal-1 in Ohio and do final integration with a "handful of our partners," he said.² Anduril says it has spent years on Steelfin "investing alongside multiple customers," though neither its announcement nor the outlet's report names one or describes an order.^1–2

L3Harris and Divergent Technologies announced on Tuesday, Oct. 13, that they had signed a teaming agreement to scale production of what the companies call affordable mass munitions.¹ They will initially seek to apply Divergent's additive manufacturing processes to L3Harris' Wolf Pack: Red Wolf, a kinetic vehicle for long-range precision strikes, and Green Wolf, an electronic warfare vehicle.^{1, 3}

Red Wolf already has a production path. In January, Naval Air Systems Command selected L3Harris to develop, test and manufacture Red Wolf vehicles for the Marine Corps' Precision Attack Strike Munition program.² L3Harris has spent more than two decades on its own additive manufacturing for rocket engines and defense systems.⁴ For the Wolf Pack, it will seek to use an outside firm's processes.¹

Divergent designs, builds and assembles structures on its DAPS platform, and says its factories run without fixed tooling, so different products can come off the same platform on the same day.^{1, 5} It has announced a delivery of fuselages with Saab and launched Venom, an autonomous strike aircraft, with Mach Industries; the companies say Venom went from concept to flight in 71 days.⁵

Quinlan Lyte, president of Advanced Effects in L3Harris' Missile Solutions business, said the company looks forward to "exploring how we can collaborate with Divergent" to increase production. Lukas Czinger, Divergent's chief executive, said it looks forward to partnering with L3Harris to apply DAPS "to production programs today."¹

Lockheed Martin and Avio announced a strategic cooperation agreement for solid rocket motor (SRM) production on Tuesday, Oct. 13. It gives Lockheed access to a share of Avio's merchant supply capacity for the Extended Range GMLRS (ER GMLRS) and the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM). After qualification, initial work will focus on motors for those two programs, to be made at Avio USA's new plant in Hurt, Va.¹

Last November the two companies signed a non-binding term sheet under which Lockheed would have preferred access to a portion of the plant's capacity for "both tactical and strategic size SRMs." They said then that they intended to negotiate a Strategic Cooperation Agreement.⁴ The agreement now announced names two programs for that initial work. Neither company's release gives the agreement's value, motor quantities, delivery schedule or whether its terms are binding.¹

Lockheed is not the plant's only prospective customer. Avio USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Rome-based Avio S.p.A., broke ground in Hurt on Sept. 29.³ Avio CEO Giulio Ranzo said the group has launched an investment of more than $500 million in new U.S. SRM capacity "with a view to become a merchant supplier to the various defense customers."¹ Avio USA is developing the plant for Raytheon programs as well as Lockheed's.³ Under a memorandum of understanding signed the same day as Lockheed's term sheet, Raytheon will have preferred access to a share of the plant's production capacity.^4–5 That partnership builds on a July 2024 contract for preliminary engineering work on the Mk104 rocket motor.⁵

On Tuesday, Oct. 13, ATL Partners announced the formation of Precise Aerospace & Defense and its first acquisition: Precise Metal Products, from affiliates of Staple Street Capital. Through the platform, ATL intends to support the company's continued organic growth while pursuing add-on acquisitions.¹

ATL, a private equity firm that invests in commercial aerospace, national security, and transportation and logistics, has done this before. As of the fourth quarter of 2025, it says its team had invested across eight platforms and 42 add-ons.^1–2 It has also exited a national-security business. In August 2025 ATL announced it had completed the sale of Geost to Rocket Lab. ATL bought the electro-optical and infrared sensing supplier for national security space missions in 2021.⁴

Precise Metal Products, founded in 1957, specializes in complex forming and fabrication. Its metal assemblies manage airflow in engine systems, auxiliary power units and environmental control systems.^{1, 3} Chief Executive Steve Bangerter and his senior team continue to lead it.¹

Staple Street, a private equity firm with about $900 million under management, lists the company as formerly owned by an employee stock ownership plan.^{1, 3} Bangerter credited Staple Street with "helping us expand our production capabilities." ATL partner Mike Kramer said his firm looks forward to working with Bangerter's team to "expand capacity." Houlihan Lokey advised the sellers and Lincoln International advised ATL.¹

L3Harris said Tuesday, Oct. 13, that initial deliveries of its VAMPIRE counter-drone systems to the Army arrived within two months of the service's order.¹ That timing is the new part: the company's Sept. 8 release announcing that the Navy had selected it to deliver VAMPIRE already said L3Harris was also delivering VAMPIRE systems to the Army.⁴ L3Harris announced the Army order, worth up to $106 million, on Wednesday, June 10, saying the service had selected it to deliver VAMPIRE "to support urgent defense against hostile drones."²

The Army is buying a system already in wartime use. L3Harris developed VAMPIRE at the start of the war in Ukraine to counter Russian drones, and says military forces have logged more than 350,000 operational hours with it in European combat operations since 2023.^1–2 This year the company set up a dedicated VAMPIRE production facility in Huntsville, Ala., and said in March it had initiated high-volume production there.^{1, 3}

VAMPIRE, short for Vehicle Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipment, is a self-contained kit that mounts on commercial flatbeds or light tactical vehicles without permanent alterations. It fires 70mm Hydra-70 rockets that the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System turns into laser-guided munitions, and L3Harris adapted that system for drones with a proximity fuze. The company says this "significantly reduces the cost-per-engagement" compared with using high-end interceptors against relatively low-cost one-way attack drones.⁵

SAIC has hired Ken Crews, Northrop Grumman's chief financial officer until January, as its next CFO, the company said Tuesday, Oct. 13.^{1, 3} He joins on Friday, Oct. 30, as CFO-elect and takes the title on Monday, Dec. 7.^1–2 In connection with his hiring, Prabu Natarajan, SAIC's CFO since January 2021, becomes the permanent head of the Civilian Business Group, which he has led on an interim basis for several months.^{1–2, 5}

Crews arrives during a portfolio and strategy review that CEO Jim Reagan said in August includes M&A.⁹ At Northrop, he oversaw finance functions ranging from treasury and contracts and pricing to M&A and investor relations. Before becoming CFO there in October 2024, he was CFO for sectors including Space Systems and Mission Systems.¹ Reagan, a former Leidos CFO, became interim CEO in October 2025 and took the job permanently in February.⁶

Natarajan keeps a hand in the cost work. He remains executive vice president of enterprise operations and keeps oversight of Project ORBIT, which SAIC expects to yield about $150 million in annual run-rate savings by the end of a three-year implementation.^{2, 9}

SAIC consolidated its business groups into three as fiscal 2027 began, each led by an executive vice president reporting to the CEO.⁷ The Civilian group's previous head, Srinivas Attili, stepped down in May in connection with what SAIC called an internal reorganization.⁴ Since then, the Civilian group has won a five-year recompete valued at about $740 million including options, to operate and maintain Customs and Border Protection systems for the Department of Homeland Security.⁸

MBDA will offer Fortem Technologies' DroneHunter autonomous interceptors to its defense and government customers, the companies announced Monday, Oct. 12.^1–2 The offer would let operators across Europe and worldwide add Fortem's systems as a layer in the air defense networks they already run, rather than deploying a standalone system. The agreement expands a 2024 technical collaboration that integrated DroneHunter into MBDA's Sky Warden counter-drone architecture. Working with MBDA "puts Fortem’s systems inside one of Europe’s most established air defense ecosystems," Chief Executive Jon Gruen said.¹

Fortem, a privately held Utah company, has ties to a weapons maker on each side of the Atlantic, and the expanded deal deepens the European one.^{1, 3} On Sept. 30, Fortem announced the close of a $50 million Series B led by Lockheed Martin. Fortem lists deepening integration with Lockheed's Sanctum counter-drone architecture among recent milestones and says the round will accelerate manufacturing at its Lindon, Utah, facility.³ Fortem already had buyers abroad: in the third quarter of 2025 it received purchase orders for 12 counter-drone systems from U.S. allies in Europe and the Middle East.⁴

The companies will also jointly offer FireThorn, a fully autonomous interceptor they co-developed to defeat one-way attack drones and other hostile uncrewed aircraft, including Shahed/Geran and Orlan types. It pairs Fortem's high-speed, radar-guided airframe with an MBDA NATO-approved warhead, giving buyers a hard-kill option alongside DroneHunter's low-collateral net capture. FireThorn is on display at MBDA's booth at the Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) convention in Washington, which runs Oct. 12 to 14.¹

Lockheed Martin is considering new industry partners to build PAC-3 Patriot interceptors in Europe, which could also help supply Ukraine, Defense News reported Tuesday. In Germany, the company is weighing Diehl Defence, Jason Reynolds, general manager of Lockheed's integrated air and missile defense division, told the outlet at the Association of the U.S. Army convention. "If we were to go forward with exploring any kind of production in Germany, we would likely do that with a company like Diehl," he said. A Diehl spokesperson confirmed consultations are ongoing, according to Defense News.¹

The pairing has a paper trail. Reynolds signed a memorandum of understanding with Diehl at the same convention a year earlier to explore expanding the PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) supply chain.² German leaders have offered to host PAC-3 production, and Raytheon and MBDA already make the PAC-2 line there, Defense News reported.¹

Reynolds said Lockheed is "absolutely willing to talk to Ukraine," adding that "it might be something like an ACE, as opposed to an MSE, that we would start with." Lockheed announced development of the ACE over the summer, billing it as a cheaper option against relatively simple threats at half the cost of an MSE, Defense News reported. Because a plant inside Ukraine risks Russian attack, the company is considering production in nearby safe countries, the outlet reported.¹

Kongsberg will put more than 200 million zlotys (EUR 45 million) into the counter-unmanned aerial systems plant, in Poland's Pomeranian region near the Trójmiasto area. The company expects more than 100 long-term jobs once the factory reaches full capacity.¹

The plant puts a region and a price on the investment Kongsberg flagged when it won the order.^1–2 Kongsberg and consortium partner Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ) signed a contract with the Polish Armaments Agency for 18 counter-drone batteries, worth about NOK 16 billion to Kongsberg. The company said then it was preparing to invest in manufacturing capacity in Poland as part of the deliveries.² Defense News, citing Poland's Ministry of National Defence, reported the full SAN deal, under which Kongsberg and PGZ are to supply the batteries, is valued at around PLN 15 billion ($3.8 billion). It will be largely financed by loans Poland has secured from the European Union's Security Action for Europe scheme, according to Defense News.³

For SAN, the primary weapon on Kongsberg's Protector remote weapon stations will be the 70mm guided missile. The batteries will also include guns and interceptor drones, tied together by a command and control architecture from PGZ subcontractor Advanced Protection Systems.²

Kongsberg CEO Eirik Lie told Defense News on Oct. 12 that the company is "on good track" for SAN deliveries. He said Kongsberg also expects export contracts, and "this enables us to be prepared for these exports from Poland."³ In the plant announcement, Lie said the plant will serve "Poland and other future European customers."¹

Telle described the Army's first-ever Manufacturing Rodeo as a competitive stress test of both its organic industrial base and the nation's broader manufacturing network. He announced it Monday at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual meeting, saying the race would show "exactly where it breaks." The Army says the aim is to identify weak links, strengthen them and keep iterating.¹

Defense One reported that the event will be "a sort of public competition" to expose where the industrial base falls short of demand and where new players offer innovative approaches.² What it means for any one company is still blank. Telle "did not divulge many details," Breaking Defense reported, and the Army's release names no organizer, competitors, funding or consequence for a weak link beyond strengthening it.^{1, 3}

The rodeo will build on a shift the Army made this year, from single-system production targets toward scaling "advanced manufacturing" across its organic industrial base. That build-out includes manufacturing hubs at Red River, Anniston and Tobyhanna Army Depots and public-private partnerships with Hadrian and Siemens. The Army says the capacity lets it make subcomponents on demand, from complex electric motors to tank engine transmission belt housings.¹ Breaking Defense reported Telle's reasoning: since the Army has invested "a lot in our organic industrial base," it will now hold a competition of sorts among industry.³

Telle's example of the wider supply-chain problem was a basic attack drone, Breaking Defense reported. The Army needs to be able to make millions, he said, and each is "a flying supply chain we don't control enough of."³