Thursday, October 8, 2026

Why the Pentagon just dropped $450M on tungsten mining

The Defense Department announced this month a $450 million investment in The Elmet Group to strengthen the U.S. supply chain for tungsten, a critical mineral used for manufacturing military weapons ranging from bullets to missiles. The investment comes as a federal procurement rule barring tungsten mined, refined, or processed in China, Russia, Iran and North…

US Navy selects Boeing to build next-generation F/A-XX fighter

Boeing has been selected to build the Navy’s sixth-generation carrier-based strike fighter, dubbed F/A-XX, icing out what was considered to be its biggest competitor in late-stage negotiations, Northrop Grumman. Inked at $20 billion for the full-scale development phase, the contract, according to a Pentagon release, “procures multiple test aircraft for ground, airworthiness, systems, and weapons…

UK’s Healey puts defense in focus for reindustrialization push

LIVERPOOL, England — British finance minister John Healey will put his support firmly behind firms investing in defense on Monday, part of what he will describe as a new industrialization drive to try to spur the nation’s anaemic economic growth.In his first speech to the governing Labour Party’s annual conference as finance minister, Healey will…

EU nails down five defense priority areas to channel common spending

PARIS — European Union member states approved five projects for joint defense-industrial investment in priority areas including drones and counter-drone systems as well as air and missile defense, part of efforts to encourage more cooperation on defense spending and avoid overlap in the 27-nation bloc.The five projects approved on Monday are now eligible for EU…

Thales in ‘quite advanced’ talks with NATO countries on AI-powered command software

PARIS — French defense-technology firm Thales is “quite advanced” in discussions with a number of NATO countries about using its artificial intelligence-powered command-and-control system HexaForce, said the company’s vice president for multi-domain operations, Patrick Moreau.Thales announced the availability of HexaForce last week, after testing it during NATO’s Coalition Warrior Interoperability Exercise, or CWIX, in Poland…