Welcome back to the sixteenth edition of The New Defense Post!
In this edition, we’ll cover:
Guest Writer Article: We’re pleased to welcome guest writer Domenico Amodeo, Senior Marketing Manager at Swarmer, who brings deep experience across defense technology, enterprise transformation, and US military logistics.
Spotlights: Quantum Systems Says It Won the Aladin-Successor Tender; Kongsberg + Helsing Announce a Teaming Agreement Aiming for a Sovereign Space-Based Constellation of Satellites; NATO’s Defense Innovation Accelerator Selects Its Largest Cohort Yet: 150 Innovators Tackling Ten Major Defense and Security Challenges in 2026
Fundraising News of the Week: Recent fundraising activity highlights continued momentum across defense tech, with new capital flowing to Vatn Systems, AnySignal, Pryzm, and South 8.
Bonus Section: We will look at ISR drones and how their mass production is changing the battlefield.
Your Defense Tech for the US Market
Domenico Amodeo. Photo Credit: Domenico Amodeo
This week, we’re pleased to welcome guest writer Domenico Amodeo, Senior Marketing Manager at Swarmer, who works at the intersection of aerospace, defense, and advanced technology. Domenico has led enterprise-scale modernisation programs as a Senior Manager at Accenture, advised executives on strategy and go-to-market, and served as an independent consultant at Emerald Peak Consulting.
He also brings a deep operational foundation from nearly two decades as a US Army Logistics Officer, where he led complex supply chain and readiness missions in high-tempo environments.
In Prepare Your Defense Tech for the US Market, Domenico breaks down why US defense procurement has become increasingly uncompromising on supply chain integrity, shaped by past counterfeit-component scandals and today’s urgency to field secure, non-Chinese-origin systems for NATO’s Eastern Flank and the Indo-Pacific.
For European defense technology companies pursuing US growth, his message is straightforward: compliance is not a box to check at the end. It is a design constraint that must shape products, suppliers, data hosting, and business processes from day one.
Spotlights
1. Quantum Systems Won the Aladin-Successor Tender
Photo Credit: Quantum Systems
Quantum Systems has won the German Armed Forces tender to replace the ALADIN reconnaissance drone, securing a framework contract for up to 747 Twister systems, with a firm order for 147 units and options for 600 more.
The deal positions Twister as one of the Bundeswehr’s core reconnaissance assets across the army, navy, and air force, with Quantum Systems committing to deliver at least 250 systems per year, and more if required.
Twister is a backpackable eVTOL sUAS designed for squad- and platoon-level reconnaissance, offering 90 minutes of endurance, 15 km range, EO/IR sensors with laser-illuminator options, acoustic sensing, and edge AI processing on an NVIDIA Jetson Orin. (Quantum Systems)
🗣 Martin Karkour, CRO, Quantum Systems: “The Bundeswehr is becoming a drone army, responding to the increasing relevance of unmanned systems. We are proud to equip them with a world-leading product.” (Quantum Systems)
📰 Our Take: This is exactly the kind of large, structured, multi-year contract Europe’s drone ecosystem has been waiting for. In a market crowded with prototypes and pilot projects, Quantum Systems has crossed the hardest line: moving from battlefield validation to scaled national procurement.
It’s still underappreciated how quickly the German procurement sector is changing to accommodate new primes. Kudos to Germany for enabling defense innovation at scale. The road ahead for fast, large-scale acquisitions is still long, but we’re getting there.
2. Kongsberg + Helsing Announce a Teaming Agreement Aiming for a Sovereign Space-Based Constellation of Satellites
Photo Credit: Helsing
Helsing and Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace have signed a teaming agreement to accelerate sovereign European space capabilities, targeting deployment of a space-based intelligence, surveillance, and targeting (IST) constellation plus an interconnected communications layer by 2029.
Hensoldt will contribute advanced SAR, EO/IR, and electronic warfare sensors, while KSAT brings a major ground-station network to operate and communicate with satellites. Isar Aerospace is named as the preferred launch partner, and the plan includes establishing local production facilities in Germany to build a more self-reliant European defense-space supply chain.
Technically, the pitch is full-stack: Kongsberg’s satellites plus Helsing’s AI-driven multi-modal fusion across SAR, electro-optical, and RF data, paired with on-board processing to turn raw imagery into actionable intelligence faster. (Helsing)
🗣 Gundbert Scherf, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Helsing: “The war in Ukraine demonstrates that most reliable targeting begins in space… Together with Kongsberg, we will provide crucial integrated space defense systems to ensure Europe wins the fight for sovereignty." (Helsing)
📰 Our Take: This is a blueprint for how Europe could finally build end-to-end defense-space “stacks” instead of buying fragmented capabilities. The big strategic shift is not just more satellites, but sovereign tasking, processing, and dissemination, meaning Europe controls the data pipeline from collection to decision, even in degraded or politically constrained conditions.
Space appears often in this newsletter for good reasons: it’s where the next war may be fought and the best way to obtain reliable intelligence. Having this capability as a sovereign is key.
If you’re interested in dual-use and space, check out the Sovereign Systems Newsletter launched last week by EDTH and Deep Tech Momentum.
3. NATO’s Defense Innovation Accelerator Selects Its Largest Cohort Yet: 150 Innovators Tackling Ten Major Defense and Security Challenges in 2026
Photo Credit: NATO
NATO’s Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) has selected 150 companies from 24 NATO countries to join its 2026 Challenge Programme.
Starting January 2026, the cohort will receive contractual funding and access to NATO DIANA’s network of 16 accelerator sites and 200+ test centres across the Alliance, with the goal of speeding real-world validation and adoption by military end-users.
The 2026 challenges span 10 priority areas: Energy and Power, Advanced Communications, Contested Electromagnetic Environments, Human Resilience and Biotechnologies, Critical Infrastructure and Logistics, Operations in Extreme Environments, Maritime Operations, Resilient Space Operations, Autonomy and Unmanned Systems, and Data-Assisted Decision Making. (NATO)
📰 Our Take: NATO DIANA is increasingly functioning as Europe and NATO’s “front door” for dual-use tech, but the real value isn’t the cohort badge; it’s testing access plus user pull.
A special mention goes to the EDTH alumni who were selected for DIANA this year:
Aereus: AI-powered, multi-modal data engine for scene intelligence.
AegisX: Detecting & tracking low-flying fibre optic drones.
GutSee Health: Precision phage therapy to treat battlefield infections.
Other News
Fundraising News
Amount | Name | Round | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
$60mn | Autonomous Underwater Vehicles | ||
$24mn | Advanced RF | ||
$12mn | Procurement for Defense Tech | ||
$11mn | Batteries for Aerospace & Defense |
Bonus Section: ISR Drones
Photo Credit: Ukrspecsystems
Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) drones provide persistent, close-range awareness over contested terrain. They help commanders detect movement, confirm targets, and make faster decisions.
NATO increasingly treats Joint ISR as essential to modern operations, not just for intelligence collection, but the full cycle of processing, exploitation, and dissemination so intelligence can directly support action across domains. (NATO)
What is changing most rapidly is resilience under electronic warfare. On today’s battlefields, jamming and spoofing routinely disrupt links and navigation, forcing ISR drones to rely more on autonomy, edge processing, and alternative navigation methods to continue missions even when connectivity is degraded.
European defense discussions and field reporting alike show a growing focus on hardened communications, autonomy, and AI-assisted visual navigation to cope with constant high amounts of EW. (European Commission)
Innovation is also shifting away from the airframe alone toward the entire ISR pipeline. The real advantage now lies in how data is fused, how detections are automated, and how insights are delivered to operators at the edge in seconds rather than minutes.
This is why autonomy is increasingly discussed not just at the vehicle level, but at the orchestration level, where software coordinates many systems at once and reduces operator load, a trend clearly visible in Ukraine-focused analysis and industry reporting.
On this point, stay tuned for one of our upcoming interviews, where we will focus specifically on that.
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