Despite a goal of 100,000 rounds per month by October 2025, the Army had only managed to produce 36,000 rounds per month as of March 2026, according to a report published this month by the Department of Defense Inspector General.

Shell production requires first building the projectile at a metal parts factory, followed by packing the shell with explosives at another facility. But this means “projectile metal part production is the limiting factor for reaching the 100,000 round-per-month goal for 155-mm artillery rounds,” the report noted.

The Army has not been able to forge enough metal parts to ramp up production of projectiles. In particular, “at a contractor-owned, contractor-operated facility in Mesquite, Texas, the contractor has been unable to produce any projectile metal parts that meet contract specifications,” the report reads.

After investing $469 million, the Army opened a modular metal parts factory in Mesquite, Texas in 2024. The Universal Artillery Projectile Lines facility — operated by General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems — was supposed to use “modern manufacturing practices, high levels of automation and digital data capture ability” to forge large numbers of large-caliber metal parts for shells, the Army announced at the time.

That optimism proved premature.

Officials at the Army’s Capability Program Executive Ammunition & Energetics, or CPE A&E, “issued the contract and accepted the risk associated with purchasing and adapting unique production equipment which had not been proven to meet U.S. specifications,” the IG report said.

To save time, the Mesquite factory tried to adapt manufacturing lines originally designed to make parts for the M107 155-mm shell — which dates back to 1958 — rather than the newer M795.

CPE A&E “accepted the risk associated with the contractor’s plan to purchase and adapt M107 metal part production equipment to produce a newer variant of the 155-mm projectile metal parts at different specifications,” said the report.

The report noted that some Army officials had concerns regarding an older ammunition plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania, that included “separate ongoing problems with the contractor in terms of responsiveness, equipment maintenance, and timeliness. Those officials expressed concern to the evaluation team that ACC [Army Contracting Command] did not open the contract for the Mesquite facility to competition from other contractors.”

The bottleneck at the Mesquite plant left the Army’s three existing plants in Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and Ingersoll, Canada, to try to pick up the slack.

Amid voracious expenditure of 155-mm rounds by Ukraine that depleted U.S. stockpiles, DoD issued a congressionally-mandated plan in 2022 to modernize howitzer ammunition production. DoD’s 2025 National Defense Industrialization Strategy Implementation Plan aimed at churning out 100,000 155-mm shells per month by October 2025.

The Army’s efforts have borne some fruit, with production nearly tripling to 14,000 shells per month to 36,000. By modernizing the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant and creating two new facilities in Kansas and Arkansas, the Army hopes to load, assemble and pack 140,000 155-mm rounds by December 2027.

In the meantime, the IG suggested the Army could get a refund.

The report recommended that the Army review the contract for the Mesquite facility to determine how the money was spent and whether the DoD can recoup any funds and also “determine whether the Mesquite contract was appropriately issued.”

The company is in talks with a French producer to launch manufacturing of its solutions abroad and is also looking for partners in other European countries, according to a senior company representative.

Oleksii Konik, the co-founder of Trinity Robotics, told Defense News that the company initially planned to make around 1,100 UGVs this year, but, with the Ukrainian military increasing its orders, the business is ramping up throughput at its facilities in Ukraine.

“We work with the [Ukrainian] military procurement agency and more than 20 military units directly,” Konik said. “The most important mission that we have now is the robotization of the battlefield, because only this will allow our country to win the war.”

The company’s flagship UGV, Konyk One, is suitable for performing logistics and medical evacuation tasks. At the same time, Trinity Robotics is working on a new variant that will be fitted with a turret. This will enable users to deploy the UGV for combat operations, according to the co-founder.

While some Ukrainian officials expect the country’s ban on exporting weapons could be lifted this year, local defense companies are currently prohibited from exporting their wares. Meanwhile, Trinity Robotics is discussing cooperation with partners from allied countries to produce its unmanned vehicles abroad.

“We are looking for partners, manufacturers from Europe that manufacture trucks, vehicles, military parts,” Konik said. “We have an opportunity to create a joint enterprise in Europe … to produce our UGVs.”

“This will allow us to give additional volumes of our UGVs to our end users who are interested in that,” he said.

Under Kyiv’s Build with Ukraine program, joint manufacturing isprimarily intended to cover the needs of the country’s armed forces, but surplus output can be exported to other countries.

The company’s co-founder said that Trinity Robotics is currently negotiating with an unnamed French producer to launch a joint venture and produce its UGVs abroad. The Ukrainian manufacturer is also working to secure funds for its expansion, with recent investors including Sweden’s Front Ventures and Hede Capital Partners.

In its standard version, Konyk One weighs 460 kg (1,014 lb) and has a load capacity of up to 300 kg, according to data from the producer.

Suddenly in June it was showcased for the first time in official Chinese media, as analysts tell it, and described as one of China’s top military assets as English-language subtitles extolled its battlefield capacities.

Experts say the broadcast answers Asia-Pacific military exercises by other countries and aims to warn the U.S. military that the missiles better known as DF-17s, for short, have what it takes to cause particular pain in any war with China.

“Video footage might be political signaling or mild deterrence, because the DF-17 is very hard to defend against, especially for large surface targets,” said Alexander Huang, chairman of the Council of Strategic and Wargaming Studies in Taipei. “It’s a big threat to carriers and other assault ships.”

The medium-range missiles are equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle, which means they can fly at lower altitudes in unpredictable directions.

DF-17s have existed for at least 12 years and been available to the People’s Liberation Army since 2019, according to a paper by the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.

The release of DF-17 into the Chinese media syncs up time-wise with the ongoing U.S.-led 2026 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) maritime military exercises near Hawaii and the U.S.-Japan drills in late June.

“The other exercises were pretty tough and harsh, clearly targeting Chinese possible actions,” Huang said.

By showing the DF-17s after RIMPAC, China wants to suggest that the missiles can evade interception and make “saturation strikes” at the same time, said Chen Yi-fan, assistant professor in the Diplomacy and International Relations Department at Taiwan’s Tamkang University.

“This signaling is intended to underscore the PLA’s growing confidence in its capacity to overwhelm regional missile‑defense systems and complicate operational planning” by any military opponents, Chen said.

The missiles, as shown during a drill in an English-language YouTube video by the Chinese state-run media outlet CGTN, can make “ultra-precise” strikes and “penetrate advanced defense systems”, per the video.

CGTN said the missiles may be used without fixed launch sites and in any kind of weather.

“The coordinated salvo launches greatly improve strike efficiency and battlefield safety, demonstrating China’s advances in military technology,” CGTN said.

The U.S. think tank describes the DF-17 missiles as 11 meters (36 feet) long with a range of 1,800 to 2,500 kilometers (1,118 to 1,553 miles). It says they can carry conventional or nuclear payloads. China has 1,300 missiles and 300 launchers.

“As one of the PLA’s premier strategic assets, the DF‑17 is likely reserved for the most consequential scenarios, such as foreign military intervention perceived as supporting Taiwan independence,” Chen said.

American military bases in Hawaii, Guam and Japan are monitoring the uptick in People’s Liberation Army naval drills around Taiwan and Beijing’s tiffs with the Philippines in the South China Sea.

China claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan, a de-facto U.S. ally. China and the Philippines – a U.S. treaty ally – contest sovereignty over small islets in the sea between them.

The DF-17’s hypersonic glide vehicle would give the missiles an edge in battle, said M. Taylor Fravel, Security Studies Program Director at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“This maneuverability means that it is much harder to defeat than a ballistic missile without a hypersonic glide vehicle,” Fravel said. “It can more easily penetrate missile defenses.”

Earlier DF-series missiles flew the traditional path of a surface-to-surface missile, meaning they were easier to predict than the flight course of a DF-17, Huang said.

U.S. forces may need to expand their long-range radar technology to spot any DF-17s launchers and respond preemptively in the case of any conflict, analysts said.

The U.S. is already developing systems “similar” to the DF-17, Fravel said. He said those include the U.S. army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon missile system as well as hardware that may defeat hypersonic glide vehicles.

A long-range hypersonic system is designed to strike well defended targets from thousands of miles away.

“Washington must accelerate the development and deployment of its own hypersonic weapons to establish credible mutual deterrence,” Chen said.

The memorandum of understanding, announced at the NATO Summit Defense Industry Forum in Ankara, was backed by both the U.S. and German governments and is described by the companies as a step toward a joint venture that would create a European “centre of excellence” for manufacturing, integrating and distributing ATACMS to NATO and allied forces.

Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger called Unterlüß’s selection a way to strengthen “the industrial base in Germany for modern defense systems,” while Lockheed Martin’s European chief, Dennis Goege, framed the deal as pairing “proven U.S. technology with European manufacturing strength.”

Unterlüß, a 125-year-old Rheinmetall site employing roughly 4,000 people, has been expanding rapidly: a new artillery-ammunition plant opened last year, and a rocket-motor factory now nearing completion is slated to begin producing motors and guided-missile components as early as 2027. That timeline tracks with earlier statements from Papperger, who in May said full missile production would start in 2027 and scale up through 2028 and 2029 to meet what Rheinmetall estimates is annual European and Ukrainian demand of 600 to 800 ATACMS units.

The move addresses a real bottleneck. Lockheed Martin has been winding down ATACMS output at its Camden, Arkansas, plant as it prioritizes the newer Precision Strike Missile, which is set to eventually replace ATACMS in the U.S. arsenal − even as European and Ukrainian demand for the older missile remains high.

Once implemented, the site in Germany will be the first non-American location to produce ATACMS missiles. Lockheed says it will keep running the Arkansas line until the transition to European production is complete.

The Rheinmetall-Lockheed partnership has been building for over a year: the two firms first signed a missile-cooperation MOU in 2024, expanded it in April 2025 to cover a broader “Center of Competence” for missiles and guided weapons, and by last August were already discussing ATACMS and Hellfire specifically for Unterlüß. Whether Tuesday’s MOU translates into an approved joint venture still depends on U.S. government sign-off, since ATACMS technology transfer requires Washington’s consent.

Yet this modernization push has major knock-on effects in terms of logistics support.

Brigadier Ben McLennan, the brigade’s commander, told Defense News, “The Australian Army is undergoing its most significant recapitalization, at least since World War Two, and I’d say it’s happening at record pace.”

Yet he noted most of his bandwidth is invested on how to sustain this armored brigade that has “the potential to be the most lethal formation of its type on the planet.”

McLennan quoted figures to underscore the criticality of logistics. “This brigade’s heavy armored vehicle fleet increases 630% in three years. Also, the brigade is going from 3,200 to around 4,000 personnel in three years,” including growth in “the very, very important logistics echelon.”

As another example of the growing sustainment burden, McLennan said his former multirole combat brigade is moving from an average of 40,000 liters (roughly 10,000 gallons) of diesel per day in high-intensity operations to a daily fuel requirement of over 300,000 liters (79,000 gallons).

Bulking up on armor

An important reason for such a thirst for fuel stems from heavier armored vehicles. For example, the 2nd Cavalry Regiment has already received its full complement of new M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams main battle tanks.

Furthermore, two armored engineering squadrons will have received all their Abrams-based combat engineering vehicles – the M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicle and M1074 Joint Assault Bridge – by the end of 2026.

The first Hanwha AS9 Huntsman self-propelled howitzer (SPH) has arrived in Townsville, and due next year are Hanwha AS21 Redback infantry fighting vehicles. Then, Rheinmetall’s Boxer 8x8 combat reconnaissance vehicle will start replacing the long-serving ASLAV in 2028.

McLennan added, “Our stock of M88A2 recovery vehicles has tripled over the two years that I’ve been here, and our armored logistics battalion increases by a subunit at the end of this year.”

It is not just heavy armor that is snowballing either, for the brigade is adopting greater numbers of aerial drones for logistics, surveillance and attack. The commander revealed that unmanned ground vehicles will arrive soon too, including variants that can enter minefields dragging a tube full of explosives to clear paths.

All these new weapon systems require rearming too. McLennan spoke of the need for resilient logistics units “to move the heavy natures of ammunition and the increasing types of ammunition: 30mm, Spike LR, different types of 155mm, a whole lot more 12.7mm.”

He pointed out the brigade’s heavy-duty expansion “will take us from about 30 pallets of ammunition a day to 105 when we factoring us conducting high-intensity combat as a brigade with all our equipment. So it’s a significant transformation.”

Artillery advances

The brigade’s 4th Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery is trading in its M777A2 towed howitzers for the AS9 Huntsman. The first 155mm SPH reached 106 Battery in late May, and the unit will eventually have a full allotment of six AS9s plus three AS10 armored ammunition resupply vehicles.

The regiment’s two other batteries will be identically equipped by the end of 2027. Significantly, the 4th Regiment is moving from four M777A2s per battery to six AS9s, with McLennan claiming the new structure and platforms “increase our capability, our firepower, our mobility, our protection by at least 300%.”

Maj. Fergus Robinson, commander of 106 Battery, highlighted: “One of the biggest challenges for soldiers will be vehicle husbandry – this is your vehicle, this is your home and you’re responsible for it. Their ability to maintain the vehicle, as well as the weapon system, is extremely important.”

Given the hulking size of the 48-ton AS9s and their supporting AS10s, the 4th Regiment will receive M88A2 Hercules recovery vehicles for the first time. “That will be something where we need to practice and develop our own skills to get it to a mature point, where we’re confident we can do this under night, under fire, under contact,” Maj. Robinson admitted.

Base infrastructure

All this expansion in capability requires new infrastructure, with McLennan discussing a transformation at the brigade’s home turf of Lavarack Barracks in Townsville.

“We’ll have opened by the end of the year probably the best common user facility, certainly in the Southern Hemisphere and perhaps the most modern in the world, that services all these fleets with light- and medium-grade repair.” That infrastructure work continues over the next couple of years as new equipment pours in.

As an example, the artillery regiment opened a new maintenance hangar in May. This features a 10-tonne gantry crane that permits vehicle power pack changes.

McLennan added: “Concurrently, additional range facilities are being built up at the Townsville Field Training Area to enable the armored brigade to achieve its mission-essential task lists in training year on, year on.”

Greater lethality

While some army units around the world are seeking to become lighter and more mobile, the opposite is true of Australia’s 3rd Brigade.

As McLennan explained to Defense News: “The fact is that the combined-arms fighting system – not just tanks, but armored engineering vehicles, self-propelled artillery – are just as relevant, if not more relevant, than ever. They’re adapting to the threat and also the technologies that can help them reach a level of potential that we previously couldn’t.”

He said “we’re very, very focused” on this transformation, and “we’re drawing lessons from others who are doing it for real routinely.”

As well as transforming the 3rd Brigade, the Australian Army is simultaneously raising a Littoral Maneuver Group, maturing its 10th Brigade equipped with HIMARS and NASAM, and inducting the AH-64E Apache helicopter.

The deal includes the supply of launchers, interceptors, radar systems, training programs and logistical support.

The Israeli company said a first order under the full framework agreement was signed last week. Delivery of the systems is expected to begin within 36 months of the signing date, while “achieving initial operational capability based on extensive industrial cooperation and local manufacturing in Romania,” a Rafael statement reads.

The company also notes that the latest deal is the largest contract in its history. The sale comes amid rising tensions in Europe due to the Russia-Ukraine war, which also posed a challenge to the Eastern European NATO member that suffered several incidents of crashing drones as a result.

The latest occurred at the beginning of June, when Romania reported that a drone exploded in its port city of Constanța, and about a week prior, a Russian drone hit a residential building in the city of Galați, near the Ukrainian border.

The Spyder sale was made possible after Rafael won the Romanian Ministry of Defense’s tender for air-defense systems capable of intercepting drones, cruise missiles, guided munitions, airplanes and helicopters.

The Spyder is a mobile air defense system developed based on the company’s air-to-air missiles: the radar-guided Derby, and the heat-seeking Python 4 and Python 5, combined with MMR radars manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries.

According to the company’s website, the system is capable of launching up to four interceptors simultaneously, reaching a maximum range of 40 kilometers (25 miles) and a maximum interception altitude of 12 kilometers (7 miles).

The two holding companies that currently control KNDS, French state-owned Giat Industries and German family-owned Wegmann & Co, will together sell about 20% of the company, KNDS said in a statement on Wednesday. The Federal Republic of Germany agreed with Wegmann to buy 40% of the maker of armored vehicles, while France will hang on to the remainder of its stake through Giat.

France and Germany reached agreement on Monday on becoming equal shareholders in KNDS, paving the way for the company to forge ahead with plans for a stock-market listing announced in December. The operation also allows the group of German heirs that collectively own half of the company to cash out, after a surge in defense stocks following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“The planned IPO is a natural next step for KNDS,” CEO Jean-Paul Alary said in a statement. “It will increase our strategic agility and support continued investment in capacity, innovation and next-generation technologies.”

As share prices for listed defense companies have surged in recent years amid rising defense investment, Europe has seen a string of initial public offerings, including German tank-transmission maker Renk and French night-vision maker Exosens in 2024, German shipbuilder TKMS in 2025 and arms maker Czechoslovak Group, or CSG, in January this year.

The STOXX Europe Targeted Defence Index, which is weighted for the portion of sales its constituent companies get from defense, has climbed sixfold in the past five years.

KNDS says it targets revenue growth of around 30% in 2026, after posting sales of €4.4 billion (US$ 5 billion) and operating profit of €661 million in 2025. The company reported a record order backlog of €33.1 billion at the end of December.

The Federal Republic of Germany plans to buy its stake in KNDS via an acquisition by the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, with the transaction to be finalized ahead of the stock-market listing, according to the company. The German investment remains subject to a number of conditions, including a special federal mandate following approval by the parliamentary Budget Committee, KNDS said.

“Germany’s intention to invest alongside the French State is a strong signal of confidence in KNDS and its future,” KNDS Chairman Tom Enders said in the statement.

The existing shareholders will sell about 20% of KNDS to institutional investors through private placements, with no public offering planned. The listing won’t include the sale of any new shares, Alary told Defense News at the Eurosatory defense show outside Paris last week.

Giat and Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau will remain long-term shareholders, with a 10-year lockup period expected to apply to both owners, according to KNDS. During that period, a sale of KNDS shares that would result in the stake of either the French or German investment vehicles falling below 30% would require prior approval of the other party.

The transaction is also expected to introduce a loyalty share plan, where shares that are held by registered owners for two years are granted double voting rights.

KNDS is a strategic asset for both France and Germany as the supplier of both countries’ main battle tanks and self-propelled artillery, and with a lead role in development of the future Main Ground Combat System designed to replace France’s Leclerc tanks and Germany’s Leopard.

The company at Eurosatory showed a proposed a main battle tank with a French turret and gun mounted on a German Leopard 2 chassis as an intermediate solution to replace the Leclerc, which is expected to reach the end of its service life before a next-generation tank arrives.

Speaking to Defense News from the Philippines, Bartholomees confirmed that, as an original Transformation in Contact division, four of his five brigades have changed significantly already. Following his mobile infantry, artillery and sustainment brigades, he revealed the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB) is “next on the docket to do some transformation.”

“The Gray Eagle company that was in Alaska is going to move to Hawaii – and what we see over time is, as the Army determines what type of larger-class unmanned aerial systems it uses, that those will land in the CAB.”

The general said longer-range drones “are essential to support the ranges that we can now shoot out to, particularly with HIMARS.”

In fact, 25th ID was the first U.S. infantry division to receive HIMARS, a weapon that greatly extends the formation’s reach compared to incumbent M777 and M119 towed howitzers. Because of HIMARS, Bartholomees pointed out his “division artillery is really what transformed the most.”

He highlighted how the “Tropic Lightning” Division performed a number of HIMARS infiltrations to Luzon Strait islands during recent Philippine wargames. Indeed, Exercises Balikatan and Salaknib allowed 25th ID to test new tactics and technologies from April to June.

The Ranger-qualified general added that the Army wants maximum flexibility in “new technologies, drones, counter-drones, electronic warfare, software-enabled technologies, and less [reliance] on a program of record that, by the time you receive it, is obsolete and you’re stuck with it for too long.”

For example, Bartholomees praised the Infantry Squad Vehicle that makes his soldiers “more lethal, light and mobile.” By increasing the mobility of his two infantry brigades, it helped shed a lot of needless vehicles. “Infantry brigades had too much stuff, too many vehicles, they were too unwieldy,” he said.

Balikatan and Salaknib were valuable to 25th ID because “you don’t really know if [equipment] is going to work until you operate with it in these environments,” Bartholomees explained.

He also highlighted the democratization of electronic-warfare capabilities across units, in addition to the transformation of communication systems. “We’re one of two divisions in the U.S. Army that’s conducting what’s called Next-Generation Command and Control,” he explained. This entails moving to smaller form factors and software-enabled systems.

Pushing new capabilities into frontline units is vital for 25th ID, especially when so far from home in places like the Philippines. “Shipping capability costs really drive forward the need for us to innovate,” he said.

One response has been the Forge, an expeditionary capability that allows soldiers to manufacture spare parts using 3D printing, for example. Bartholomees said the Forge is important “because it’s helping to thicken our sustainment lines by creating capability, creating parts and manufacturing forward where we can”.

He said 25th ID’s fielding of new technologies will continue unabated: “We’re literally transforming all the time,” although “we do have to manage how we do this, and we have to be disciplined in this approach.”

The howitzer uses KNDS Germany’s Artillery Gun Module mounted on a tracked Boxer chassis and fitted with a French barrel. The company has already fired a prototype of the gun, and aims for serial production between 2032 and 2035, KNDS France artillery engineer Pierre Septfons told a handful of journalists in a briefing at the Eurosatory defense show near Paris on Monday.

The 155mm howitzer, named Loras for long-range artillery system, is equipped with a 58 caliber gun tube, about 12% longer than the 52 caliber barrels that equip most recent European cannons and compared with 39 caliber for the United States’ M109 Paladin. Longer barrels translate into longer range, and KNDS is also increasing the maximum powder charge to propel shells even farther.

“The goal was to be able to do 60 kilometers using conventional ammunition, so as not to have to use rocket-assisted projectile munitions,” Septfons said.

The base range of 52 caliber guns firing 155mm munitions is roughly 40 kilometers.

KNDS is self-funding development of the howitzer and the associated munitions, though the company received some help from France’s Directorate General for Armament in early-stage studies “to reassure us that we were on the right track,” according to Septfons.

The U.S. scrapped its Extended Range Cannon Artillery program in March 2024 after the prototype ERCA howitzer fitted with a 58 caliber barrel suffered excessive wear of the gun tube despite a relatively limited number of rounds fired.

While barrel wear increases with length due to greater forces, the KNDS gun has a larger combustion chamber than the ERCA howitzer, with a “much gentler pressure curve,” Septfons said.

European artillery makers have steadily continued to develop 52 caliber guns, creating a body of expertise that better equips them to mitigate barrel wear, the engineer said.

Loading in the Loras is fully automatic, though the gun’s automation is more recent than that of the Panzerhaubitze 2000, according to Septfons. Operational reports from Ukraine have indicated lower availability rates for some of the fully automated howitzers in battlefield conditions compared to more simple systems such as the Caesar.

While the AGM incorporates some elements of the Panzerhaubitze, particularly for shell loading, the overall system is “much newer,” with up-to-date electronics and a brand new loading mechanism, Septfons said. The barrel is produced at KNDS France facilities in Bourges in central France, and the cost is “marginally more” than for a 52 caliber barrel, the engineer said.

The Loras gun will be able to take between one and eight modular propellant charges, compared with between one and six for the Caesar. The gun could reach distances of around 100 kilometers with ramjet-propelled or gliding munitions, though KNDS plans to focus on basic munitions, and cooperate with partners who want to develop more advanced shells, Septfons said.

The Loras will be able to fire standard 52 caliber shells but won’t necessarily fire farther with those, and KNDS is developing a range of specific munitions for the 58-caliber gun, according to Septfons.

“The idea here is to have a complete family of conventional shells, including high-explosive, illumination, and smoke rounds, that can harness the gun’s full potential and fire up to 60 kilometers,” the KNDS engineer said.

“For now, we’re really focusing on conventional munitions, and the idea is to be open to partnerships with other manufacturers” for munitions such as ramjet-powered shells, Septfons said.

The upgraded version of the cruise missile is expected to be available in 2030 and will have longer range, better jamming resistance, a bigger payload and improved stealth for better survivability, Sophie Bourdais, MBDA’s commercial director for strike, told Defense News at the show near Paris on Tuesday.

“It’s been a few years now, so we’ve made progress on a number of systems and we’ve made progress on the whole package,” Bourdais said. “We have really good reasons to believe that we’ll be able to improve the overall performance of our missiles.”

MBDA’s Naval Cruise Missile, derived from the Storm Shadow/Scalp-EG air-launched cruise missile, entered service with the French Navy in 2017.

Europe lacks long-range strike options that provide deterrence by holding Russian assets at risk, a gap that countries are trying to patch with programs including the European Long-Range Strike Approach, or ELSA.

The United States in May reportedly shelved plans to deploy its Typhon launchers, capable of firing long-range Tomahawk missiles, to Germany, where they were previously intended as an interim capability.

MBDA has been able to promote its Land Cruise Missile system within the ELSA initiative, and several countries are interested, according to Bourdais. The company is in talks with France’s Directorate General for Armament, and hopes to sign a contract this year for development and production of a first batch of the upgraded missiles, she said.

The new version of the naval cruise missile will have a range “well over 1,000 kilometers, comparable to the Tomahawk,” Bourdais said. She said the missile will be used for both naval and land launch.

The company displayed a four-canister launcher for the Land Cruise Missile which was developed in-house and can be deployed from the back of a truck.

An information sheet by the French Armed Forces Ministry prepared for Eurosatory added the name MdCT, for Missile de Croisière Terrestre, as an official designation for the missile, in addition to the existing MdCN, for Missile de Croisière Naval.

MBDA presented other missiles and drones for strike missions at Eurosatory, including a jet-powered drone dubbed Deluge and previously known as the One-Way Effector, designed to saturate air defenses. The drone can carry an artillery shell within its fuselage and has been ordered by the DGA, with the first production versions expected to be delivered in the first half of 2027.

The company also displayed its Crossbow cheap cruise missile for precision strike on targets such as launchers, radar systems and command posts. MBDA said the three effectors can work as a system, with the expendable Deluge drones saturating enemy air defenses and opening the way for the more expensive Crossbow and LCM missiles.

Company officials presented the idea at the Eurosatory defense exhibition outside of Paris on June 15, pulling the cover off a mockup model in a mini ceremony that served as an ode to the combat punch of massed kamikaze drones, complete with glasses of cold beer and water on a warm Paris day.

One container can hold 18 of the company’s FV-014 munitions, meant to plop out of the container by way of rocket-assisted start. Following a post-launch tumbling phase, the munition is designed to spread its stabilizer fins and rush toward coordinates fed to its by the sensors of what Rheinmetall calls a “reconnaissance and strike” network.

Potential applications include driving the loaded containers to the front line on the back of trucks, where they would discharge their cargo to hit targets with their 4 kilogram warhead up to 100 kilometers away.

Once-reluctant Germany goes big on one-way attack drones

The loitering munitions have a maximum flight time of 70 minutes, meaning they can circle a general target area for a while until ground commanders call for a strike.

Another application could be arranging a number of the containers along a border, perhaps camouflaged, to spring into action when an enemy approaches, Timo Hass, CEO of Rheinmetall’s Digital Systems division, told reporters.

Haas said Rheinmetall will disclose the architecture of the drone launch interfaces inside the container — the physical slots and the electronic connectors — so that other companies could in theory design alternative, better munitions.

Whether it will come to that remains to be seen, as Rheinmetall only recently celebrated the award of a contract by the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, for its brand new FV-014 loitering munition type.

German lawmakers in February authorized roughly $320 million each in funding for domestic loitering munitions makers Stark Defence, offering the Virtus, and Helsing, offering the HX-2.

They added Rheinmetall with the FV-014 as a later-comer a few weeks thereafter, leading to an April contract with the Düsseldorf-based defense company to the tune of roughly €300 million, or $348 million.

All three companies stand to make billions more in business if the Bundeswehr ends up finding their loitering munitions useful.

The tank proposal unveiled at the Eurosatory defense show on Monday featured an unmanned turret with a 120mm auto-loader smoothbore gun developed by KNDS France, with the possibility of upgrading the cannon to 140mm. KNDS said it aims to deliver the first units of the tank, dubbed Capint, short for intermediate capability, in the 2030s.

With the French-German project to develop the Main Ground Combat System delayed and not expected to arrive until the mid-2040s, France will need a replacement for its Leclerc tank somewhere in the next decade. The country intends for the interim capability to be a building block of MGCS, Gen. Olivier Coquet, head of the French Army’s technical section, said on Sunday.

“We are already working to create what will be the combat of tomorrow,” KNDS CEO Jean-Paul Alary said in a press conference at the defense show outside Paris on Monday. “Maybe the combat of tomorrow, the ambition of MGCS, will come a little bit earlier than the project itself.”

French army shows Leclerc tank with once-mocked anti-drone cage

The goal is to present France’s Directorate General for Armament with a demonstrator tank as early as 2030 and deliver the first production units in 2035, followed by deployment to the forces in 2037, said Julien Brunet, product line manager for main battle tanks and reconnaissance vehicles at KNDS France, in a separate briefing.

The proposed tank already represents the beginnings of a fourth-generation combat system, according to Brunet, who described such a platform as one with fully integrated AI, a combination of passive, reactive and active protection, counter-drone warfare and the ability to engage beyond line of sight.

The plan is for the intermediate tank to already include concepts initially planned for MGCS, including one or two robotic wingmen, KNDS France CEO Nicolas Groult said in the press conference.

Groult said KNDS already tested firing on-the-move in Portugal in January. “So it’s not a concept, it’s not a drawing, it’s something that we are confident that can happen.”

Whether France and Germany will continue with the MGCS project is a political decision, but abandoning it would be “very bad news” for Europe, Alary said in response to questions about the future of the project. The two countries earlier this month abandoned a plan to jointly develop a sixth-generation fighter jet as part of the Future Combat Air System program.

The proposed French intermediate tank will carry a crew of three in an “extremely well protected citadel” at the front of the vehicle, with a combination of passive composite protection as well as reactive and active protection, Brunet said.

Active protection measures will be distributed, with some mounted on the turret and others on the chassis, according to Brunet. He said KNDS will use defensive effectors that are “potentially a bit different” from those of the Trophy active-protection system, with the company having in-house solutions to deal with hard-to-stop threats, though he said details are classified.

Robot wingmen will need to be big enough to keep up with the main platform, though small enough to keep costs under control, Brunet said. The number of robots accompanying the main battle tank will gradually be increased, and their level of passive protection will depend on the value of each robot, according to the executive.

KNDS’s French and German arms are in talks to determine which parts will be provided by each business, and protection of the chassis as well as the interfaces will probably be French, according to Brunet. If the Leopard 2 chassis is retained for the French intermediate tank, the aim is to build locally, also because manufacturing in Germany is already ramping up to meet existing demand, he said.

“If we need to produce the chassis quickly, the best option is still to produce them in France,” Brunet said. “We have the know-how, there’s no problem.”

KNDS said the Ascalon gun had already fired around 300 rounds, and the company said the firing by a main-battle tank demonstrator with a remote-control turret in January was a world-first. Brunet said the Ascalon 120mm cannon is “much more powerful” than standard NATO 120mm guns.

KNDS also showed off a possible successor to the Leopard 2 A8 with an unmanned turret and a 120mm cannon from Rheinmetall.

France snubbed a competing offer for a multiple-rocket launcher from a team of Thales and ArianeGroup as well as options from Lockheed Martin with HIMARS and Hanwha Aerospace’s Chunmoo launcher, with Vautrin noting that the country retained a sovereign solution.

French Army staff have been clamoring for a successor to its few remaining and aging M270-based LRU launchers, with deep strike deemed one of the ground service’s biggest capability gaps as the country prepares for high-intensity warfare. The government had said it would decide based on the best combination of delivery times, capability, affordability as well as sovereignty.

“We are currently in exclusive negotiations with a sovereign consortium of Safran and MBDA,” Vautrin said. “I would like to take the opportunity here to thank all the competitors for the high quality of the different proposals.”

Europe currently doesn’t produce modern, independently developed multiple-rocket artillery systems at scale, instead relying on systems from the United States, South Korea and Israel. France has been looking at the two domestic offers as well as off-the-shelf solutions, Vautrin said in April.

Rocket artillery is “essential” for France’s move towards a war-ready division in 2027 and war-ready army corps in 2030, Gen. Philippe de Montenon, the commander of the French land forces and operations, said in a briefing with reporters at Eurosatory on Sunday.

“We need them, of course, as soon as possible,” de Montenon said. “The Army clearly recognizes the need to have an initial capability as early as 2030 to replace the single-use rocket launchers. This is essential.”

Safran and MBDA said in April they expect to be able to deliver the first multiple-launch rocket systems in 2029 should their offer be picked by the French armed forces.

That followed the first test by the companies of their Thundart munition developed for France’s Long-Range Land Strike program at the Île du Levant test range in the Mediterranean earlier that month.

The ground-to-ground rocket has a 150 kilometer range, and the companies are considering developing longer-range munitions.

Safran said Thundart is compatible with the Thales Atlas artillery fire-control system and has a guidance kit derived from the AASM Hammer glide-bomb kit with metric accuracy. Potential capacity extensions include a range of 300 kilometers or a munition that can be aircraft- or ship-launched, according to the company’s presentation at Eurosatory.

The launcher on show at Safran’s stand at the show was mounted on a Scania truck.

The French Army technical section built a prototype of the metal cage, which is now being manufactured by KNDS France and in the process of being delivered to the tank units, said Gen. Olivier Coquet, head of the section known as STAT, in a briefing with reporters at the Eurosatory defense show near Paris on Sunday.

Roof-mounted armor variants have been adopted by both Russian and Ukrainian forces as drone threats proliferate.

The Leclerc is being upgraded as part of France’s Scorpion armored-vehicle modernization program, which includes equipping the French heaviest armored unit with new computers, additional armor and a remotely operated turret to operate in urban areas, according to Coquet. The Leclerc has a 120 mm cannon and an autoloader, with a crew of three.

France’s main battle tank will be reaching the end of its service life by 2035, and the Army plans to acquire an interim capability to bridge the gap between the end of the Leclerc and the arrival of the Main Ground Combat System, Coquet said. The joint MGCS project is more likely to arrive towards 2045, according to the head of the STAT.

“We already have some ideas, we know full well that it won’t be an exact copy of the Leclerc tank. There will be drones operating alongside it, and we know there will be a robotic element,” said Gen. Philippe de Montenon, the commander of the French land forces and operations, in the same briefing.

The planned MGCS will “clearly” not be just a tank but a networked system of systems with artificial intelligence, and the interim capability will be a “first building block of the MGCS,” according to Coquet. “So that’s what we’re looking for.”

The kill web will initially be built around France’s Atlas artillery-weapon system provided by Thales, with the intention to expand “to enable dynamic targeting,” according to Gen. Olivier Coquet, who heads the section, in a briefing with reporters here at the Eurosatory defense show on Sunday. He said the kill web will be part of the broader Arcadia AI-powered battlefield command and control structure.

“Just like the Ukrainians are doing we want to set up a kill web as quickly as possible,” Coquet said. “In other words, shorten the sensor-to-effector loops so we can fire faster and make decisions faster. That’s already underway.”

With Delta, Ukraine has developed a battlefield awareness system built on a network of drones, satellites, artillery and command, allowing its forces to engage targets via multiple pathways rather than follow a traditional linear kill chain. It’s a concept France has already been exploring with its Scorpion program of digitally connected armored vehicles.

Coquet described Arcadia as a combination of multiple programs, including the kill web. The purpose of Arcadia is interoperability between allied command systems, said Gen. Philippe de Montenon, the commander of the French land forces and operations, in the same briefing.

“This is a major challenge we need to resolve in the very short term, ensuring that what we call our combat clouds can communicate with one another,” de Montenon said.

In an interview ahead of the Eurosatory defense show here, which runs June 15-19, the general discussed how the Army is embedding innovation and adapting to a rapidly evolving battlefield.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

We’re in a period of accelerating innovation, but armies in peacetime often struggle to move beyond experimentation. How do you ensure adoption at unit level, and where does it still fail?

We are indeed experiencing a tremendous phase of technological acceleration, probably comparable in scale to major historic disruptions such as the Industrial Revolution or the mechanization of warfare in the twentieth century. This transformation is not over; it has probably only just begun.

In this environment, innovation cannot be considered as a final state. There is no such thing as an ‘innovated army.’ Innovation has become a permanent adaptation process. Operational superiority now depends as much on the ability to learn and evolve quickly as on the equipment itself.

To accelerate the transition from innovation to experimentation and then to operational implementation, the French Army relies on two complementary dynamics.

The first is ‘bottom-up’ innovation, based on pioneering spirit, initiative and the ability of units to adapt their practices and equipment in response to operational realities. Recent conflicts show that this tactical agility has become decisive.

The second is ‘top-down’ innovation, structured around the Future Combat Command, operational feedback and overall capability coherence. It allows us to direct efforts, establish priorities and integrate useful developments into a broader vision of future warfare.

The brigade exploratory hubs ensure the connection between these two dynamics. They enable rapid transformation of experimentation into concrete operational capabilities. The ‘subsidiarity funding mechanisms’ now allocated to them are proving to be a highly effective tool for accelerating acquisition and battlefield adaptation. We probably need more agile and reactive acquisition models to maintain operational advantage.

Armies often prepare for the last war. What is the French Army most at risk of over-learning from Ukraine, and how are you avoiding that?

The war in Ukraine is a tremendous source of lessons, but the first risk would be to turn it into the single model for future warfare.

What Ukraine demonstrates first is the spectacular acceleration of certain forms of warfare: drones, electronic warfare, battlefield transparency, data exploitation, artificial intelligence and the partial automation of tactical functions. However, at the same time, this war also shows that older, even archaic, forms of combat have not disappeared. Trenches, door-to-door urban fighting, attrition and close combat remain very concrete realities. The lesson is the superposition of forms of warfare rather than the replacement of old forms by new ones. Technology changes the methods of combat, but it does not replace maneuver, command, morale or the ability to endure over time.

We should avoid excessive analogies. France is not Ukraine. France is a nuclear power, a member of NATO, and relying on a full-spectrum military model. We are not facing the prospect of a massive enemy land invasion on our territory under the same strategic conditions as Ukraine. The French model must preserve its own coherence which means that the French Army remains able to operate across the three strategic spaces that now structure our commitments: homeland protection, operations in overseas territories and crisis zones, and high-intensity coalition warfare, for instance in Europe. This requires maintaining a versatile, adaptable and balanced force rather than one specialized in a single form of conflict.

You’ve set a goal for an “armée de combat,” or warfighting-ready army. What training has changed because of Ukraine, what did the Orion 26 exercise confirm or challenge, and what have you deliberately avoided changing?

Training has evolved toward greater realism, dispersion and friction. Units now train in disputed environments under the constant threat of drones, electronic jamming, deep strikes and information saturation.

We have also reinforced command training in degraded environments, headquarter protection, mobility, logistic survivability and combined-arms coordination.

Orion 26 confirmed the relevance of the French Army’s transformation plan. The plan that had been established was the right one. The exercise validates the need for coherent large formations capable of sustaining command over time, operating in coalition and maintaining very high operational tempos. It also confirms that the effort must focus first on differentiating capabilities, those that provide operational superiority: lethality, battlefield transparency, command and control, and sustainment. The priority is lethality, particularly deep fires.

If the French Army’s planned war-ready division in 2027 were assessed today, what capabilities would still be missing, and which would be hardest to generate in a crisis?

The coherence of a modern division does not rely solely on maneuver brigades. The most critical capabilities are often those that enable maneuver itself: deep fires, air defense, electronic warfare, command systems, logistics, bridging, mobility, maintenance and counter-drone warfare.

These are precisely the areas in which the French Army is now accelerating its effort. The updated Military Programming Law focuses on strengthening these differentiating capabilities for the divisions and the army corps.

The hardest capabilities to generate rapidly in a crisis are those requiring long-term preparation: heavy logistics, experienced command chains, stockpiles, specialized technical expertise. An army cannot be improvised when the shock comes.

Drones and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance have made the battlefield far more transparent and have constrained movement in Ukraine. How do you still achieve surprise, and what changes are needed to restore operational maneuver?

Surprise is not disappearing; it is changing in nature. On a more transparent battlefield, it relies less on total invisibility and more on speed, deception, dispersion, saturation and the ability to disrupt the enemy faster than he can adapt.

This requires several evolutions: stronger electronic warfare capabilities, signature reduction, hybridized networks, dispersed headquarters, faster decision loops and autonomous systems capable of operating in highly contested environments. We should also restore operational depth in maneuver. The combination of drones, robotics, long-range fires, electronic warfare and mobility should precisely recreate opportunities for breakthrough and movement. This will be one of the key challenges of land warfare in the coming decade, and a central topic at Eurosatory.

Scorpion (the French Army’s vehicle modernization program) increases connectivity but also creates complexity and risk of overload. In a degraded environment, what fails first, systems or humans, and how should the Army adapt decision-making and automation?

The risk exists in both domains. Systems can be jammed, degraded or saturated. The accumulation of information and the tempo of modern combat can also overwhelm soldiers. The answer is to use technology to simplify decision-making rather than complicate it. Artificial intelligence should help prioritize information, accelerate some tasks and reduce the cognitive load, preserving the commander’s ability to decide.

Technology enhances combat power; it must not create absolute dependency. This is precisely why ‘commanding by intent’ remains at the core of our model. The commander sets the objective, gives meaning and defines the global framework of the action, but initiative belongs to the subordinates. In a degraded, dispersed and saturated environment, this operational subsidiarity becomes a condition for effectiveness.

In war, the objective comes first: What matters is mission success. Technical systems may support decision-making, but they will never replace the commander’s responsibility, moral strength or the culture of results that remains at the foundation of military command.

France aims to act as a framework nation capable of commanding major European land operations. Without U.S. enablers or command structures, what are the main gaps Europe still needs to close?

The message now addressed by the U.S. to Europeans is clear: Europe must take greater responsibility for its own defense. This does not call NATO into question. NATO remains the framework for collective defense on the continent, but it does require strengthening Europe’s ability to act more independently whenever circumstances demand it.

Europe possesses high-quality armed forces, real operational experience and a strong defense industrial and technological base. The challenge now is one of coherence, responsiveness and mass.

Contemporary conflicts remind us that the ability to sustain command over time, produce rapidly, support major military efforts and operate effectively in coalition has once again become essential. The issue is therefore at the same time operational, industrial and cultural. Europeans must rebuild production capacity, stockpiles and endurance compatible with today’s strategic realities.

They must also develop stronger shared habits of training. In this regard, France assumes a specific responsibility as a credible framework nation capable of commanding a land coalition. Our ambition is not to replace our allies, but to contribute to a stronger Europe, more capable of shaping its own strategic destiny.

How does Pendragon (the French project developing robotized ground combat) shape your expectations for the Main Ground Combat System? Where will future firepower sit, on crewed platforms or the unmanned systems that support them?

Recent conflicts have shown that the tank remains indispensable, but it can no longer be an isolated platform. What a single tank achieves today will tomorrow be generated by an interconnected combination of manned and unmanned systems.

This is precisely what Pendragon reveals: robotics is not an additional capability, it changes the way warfare itself is conducted. The central issue becomes the combat cloud, connectivity and cooperation between systems rather than a single platform. The new armored combat system remains relevant if it is conceived as a system of systems integrated into the TITAN environment of the 2030–2040 decade. Future firepower will rely on a combination of highly protected manned platforms able to decide and breakthrough, paired with swarms of autonomous systems providing mass, sensors, saturation and attrition.

John Chadbourne, the president and CEO of AM General, said in a statement the UGV represents the company’s answer to evolving battlefield needs, showing how mission success can be achieved with uncrewed capabilities.

“With this platform, we’ve been able to demonstrate that autonomous mobile technology can be leveraged for multiple uses including logistics support, casualty evacuation, lethality missions, as well as defensive operation, which we are demonstrating with a Hornet C-UAS remote weapon station at the show,” Chadbourne said.

With unmanned vehicles playing a crucial role in Ukraine’s defense against Russia, AM General’s proposition comes in response to the rising interest in such capabilities by NATO member states.

The Ukrainian military aims to contract 25,000 unmanned ground platforms in the first half of this year, more than doubling its 2025 total.

While continuing its invasion of Ukraine, Russia is also making efforts to assert its power in the Arctic, prompting European nations to rethink their own ground-equipment inventories there.

Last February, the European Defence Agency hosted 10 days of tests of unmanned combat vehicles in eastern Norway to verify their performance in Arctic conditions. The tests were carried out in the presence of officials, researchers and company representatives from Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway and Poland.

Developed in cooperation with Textron Systems and Carnegie Robotics, the UGV is powered by an upgraded 250 hp engine. The platform has a payload capacity of up to 6,000 lb which enables it to support logistics, reconnaissance, casualty evacuation, and armed overwatch missions, according to AM General.

At the Paris show, the U.S. manufacturer will also showcase the JLTV A2 in a variant suitable for a crew of four. AM General said the vehicle’s new version features more than 1,000 modifications to the technical data package compared with the A1.

France faces a different challenge from Germany and Poland, which have ample funding for equipment but struggle to attract enough personnel to meet force targets, according to Justel. The French Army has “more than enough” recruitment candidates, and last year declined to recruit the equivalent of a regiment due to budgetary constraints, the deputy chief said in a briefing here on Thursday.

European NATO members have lifted defense budgets following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and as the United States pushes for allies to take on more conventional defense. While many countries including France are expanding reserve forces, Germany and Poland also plan to grow active-duty personnel by tens of thousands in coming years, with measures such as higher pay to make military service more attractive.

“We have completely asymmetrical situations,” Justel said. “I see in Poland and Germany a huge budgetary and industrial effort to acquire weapons. Now, they face enormous personnel difficulties, and having a lot of weaponry without the fighters behind it, well, that remains problematic.”

Germany aims to expand its armed forces to 260,000 active soldiers by 2035 from about 186,000 now, according to a federal law governing Bundeswehr force development, while Poland intends to increase its armed forces to 300,000 from around 210,000 in mid-2025. Meanwhile, France has a force of around 191,000 military personnel and plans to recruit 21,400 active-duty troops in 2026.

Poland has high ambitions to grow its forces, “they have a real sense of urgency, but there are still difficulties recruiting,” Justel said.

The Polish armed forces face intensifying competition for labor in a growing economy, with Poland having the second-lowest unemployment rate in the European Union, RAND wrote in a report last year.

“In terms of human resources, we are in the opposite situation,” Justel said. “This year, we’re already slowing down recruitment because not only are we recruiting better, but we’re retaining people better.”

France has one of the largest youth cohorts in Europe, with those aged 15 to 19 making up 6.2% of the population in 2024, compared with 4.7% for Germany and 5% for Poland. Meanwhile, trust in the armed forces is among the highest in France, with 84% of the French expressing trust compared with 73% of Germans and 76% of Poles, according to a Eurobarometer poll published in May.

“To see the number of young people coming to enlist, and not enlisting just to find a job, they’re joining to serve in combat units and looking to defend their country,” Justel said. “There’s a dynamic in this country, there’s a demographic that makes it possible, and there’s a mindset that makes it possible.”

“When I talk with my foreign counterparts, what strikes me most is the difference in recruitment, in terms of quantity, quality, motivation, and mindset,” Justel said. “Where we’re in the opposite situation is in terms of equipment, we’re not sufficiently equipped to handle a high-intensity conflict.”

The French Army continues to lack spare parts and stockpiles, and has “very significant gaps” in deep fires, ground-to-air defense, counter-drone operations, and electronic warfare, according to Justel. He said France’s two most recent defense-planning laws improved the equipment situation a lot, and the Army’s armored-vehicle modernization is “progressing well,” but more is needed.

Justel said France retains expertise in areas such as electronic warfare but needs to spread those capabilities more broadly across the force. The Army has identified the equivalent of about ten battalions needed to be more effective in areas including command, logistics, deep fires, drones and electronic warfare, he said.

“But there, we’re moving into a change in format, into additional capabilities,” Justel said. “So these are more long-term efforts.”

The deputy commander said France’s force structure means it would be difficult for the country to permanently replace U.S. troops in parts of Europe, with the Army already “very committed” with deployments in Romania and Estonia.

The French Army is instead counting on regular exercises in countries such as Finland rather than permanent basing, to ensure troops are familiar with the terrain, conditions and local friendly forces, and to be able to deploy reinforcements “quickly and effectively” the day they are needed, Justel said.

The French have been developing the system with local companies including Mistral AI, Safran.AI, Thales and Airbus, Justel said in a media briefing on Thursday. The French Army has already tested the system, dubbed Arcadia, in exercises including Dacian Fall in Romania and Orion 26 in France.

NATO military personnel started training with Palantir’s Maven Smart System in August 2025, the alliance’s first use of AI-enabled command and control software. The platform is derived from the Pentagon’s Project Maven and ties together massive amounts of battlefield data and AI analysis to help commanders identify targets and make decisions more quickly.

Arcadia “is our response to Maven,” said Justel. He said NATO’s use of Maven raises issues of digital sovereignty, “so the question arises whether should we adopt Maven blindly, or should we look for other solutions.”

France’s army, general staff and Defense Digital Commission “have been working on what other solutions might look like,” Justel said. France will deploy Arcadia during NATO’s Coalition Warrior Interoperability Exercise, or CWIX, a live exercise held in Poland June 8-26.

Justel said several NATO countries including France have raised questions around interoperability with the Palantir system. The Army deputy chief of staff said Arcadia is designed to comply with NATO’s Federated Mission Networking standards, or FMN, and contrasted that with Maven, which he said hasn’t integrated FMN requirements.

Palantir said Maven Smart System is “compliant with the principles of FMN” and that it is working with NATO toward official certification, in an emailed response to a request for comment. The company added that the platform has proven compliance with two NATO data-security standards that are “key building blocks” of FMN.

“NATO Maven Smart System is compatible, and does allow interoperability, but of course nations are free to choose what systems they use,” said Martin O’Donnell, a spokesperson for Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers, in an emailed reply to questions.

The Palantir system is already integrated with more than 10 NATO systems, according to U.S. Army Col. Arnel David, the director of Task Force Maven at SHAPE, who said his team is “focused on securing final certification across all FMN milestones,” with the declaration of full operational capability imminent.

France plans to propose Arcadia to its European partners, with a number of countries expressing interest, and has organized demonstrations for NATO, which is also interested, the general said. “When we talk to our European partners, we get the same reaction of, `well, we’ve kind of gone with Maven because there’s no choice, but if countries in Europe are able to build an alternative, we’ll go for it.’”

Palantir said it “welcomes the opportunity to integrate with Arcadia, or any other national system.”

Arcadia builds on previous work by the Armed Forces Ministry as part of the Artemis project started in 2022, which uses AI to process massive amounts of defense data. The French Army has been developing use cases for Arcadia internally as well as in cooperation with the industry partners, according to Justel.

The United Kingdom is working on a similar AI-enabled command and control system, and is also in discussions on how to interface with Maven, according to Justel.

Based on discussions with the British, “their concept is well-established, but they don’t yet have all the technological building blocks,” said Col. Frédéric Vola, head of the planning and capacity development office in the Army general staff, in the briefing.

While Palantir is behind the version of Maven used by NATO, the system is not the same as that used by the U.S., with different databases and functionality and “certainly not the same performance,” according to Justel.

The French system is conceived to be a more resilient alternative to Maven because it will be “highly decentralized” rather than a centralized system, with all command posts connected to field-deployed servers in a mesh-network architecture rather than a distant central cloud. The French Army already has a network of data hubs and is acquiring more, Justel said.

“First, it distributes the data, and in the event of destruction or loss of connection, it allows us to maintain the autonomy of what remains, and second, it’s easier to implement,” Justel said.

The system has an open architecture, with the French armed forces inviting “all the major players in artificial intelligence” and being open to working with others, according to Justel. “We don’t want to enter into the logic that we’ve known for years, where we give a manufacturer the system and then everything goes via them, everything is closed, they own all the data,” Justel said. “We want an open system where any manufacturer can plug in, and all data can be shared by everyone, without any notion of exclusive ownership.”

As part of its work on AI for command and control, the French Army has developed its own large-language model for staff officers, called Berthier, named after Napoleon’s chief of staff, and which Justel said is used to synthesize information, retrieve operational data, and support drafting of proposed courses of action, while leaving decisions to commanders.

A new Army Request for Information seeks to identify companies that can deliver 11,000 Next Generation Short Range Interceptor, or NGSRI, missiles beginning in Fiscal Year 2028. The response deadline is July 6.

The RFI asks companies to “provide projected unit cost estimates given a planning factor of 11,000 NGSRI missiles and 2,200 Control Launch Assemblies over a ten-year production period,” the document states. “As a planning factor, assume procurement of 200 missiles and 20 CLAs in year one (FY28) and 500 missiles and 20 CLAs in year 2 (FY29). As an additional planning factor excursion, assume doubling the [low-rate initial production] quantities in year one and year two.”

The Army describes NGSRI as a “high performance, soldier portable, fire and forget, surface to air missile system capable of defeating rotary wing, fixed wing, and Group 2/3 unmanned aircraft system threats.”

The NGSRI initiative is part of the Maneuver Short Range Air Defense, or M-SHORAD, program, which aims to revamp the Army’s mobile air defenses amid a growing threat from drones, hypersonic missiles and other guided munitions.

Trials for M-SHORAD Increment 1 — renamed Sgt. Stout — mounted Stingers, a 30mm cannon and a 7.62mm machine gun on a radar-equipped Stryker. Increment 2 tested a 50 kW laser mounted on a Stryker.

Increment 3 calls for replacing the Stinger with the faster and longer-range NGSRI short-range interceptor. The Stinger only has a speed of Mach 2, in part because it is “powered by a traditional solid fuel rocket motor,” explained the Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation and Missile Center.

The NGSRI will reportedly have a speed of Mach 3. RTX and Northrop Grumman tested these missiles with a more powerful Highly Loaded Grain solid rocket motor last year.

In February 2026, RTX demonstrated NGSRI’s “to track drone targets and be fired from a man-portable launcher,” the company said.

NGSRI is designed to be fired from vehicles and shoulder-mounted launchers. It will be compatible with existing Stinger missile launchers, such as Sgt. Stout and the Marine Corps Air-To-Air Launcher.

The new Army RFI calls for contractors to explain how they will mount NGSRI on the Sgt. Stout.

“The company shall describe the approach and cost per kit for retrofitting the SGT STOUT to fire the missile from the Stinger Vehicle Universal Launcher,” the RFI states. “As a planning factor there will be 248 SGT STOUTs with up to two Stinger Vehicle Universal Launcher launchers per platform.”

The Stinger was first deployed in the early 1980s to replace the FIM-43 Redeye. It has been used in numerous conflicts, including the Soviet-Afghan War, where Afghan militants used U.S.-supplied Stingers to down Soviet Mi-24 helicopter gunships.

SOCOM spokesman Navy Cmdr. Joe Vermette told Task & Purpose the MRGG-A will completely replace the MK17 SCAR. He added that SOCOM is “pursuing a rapid fielding method” to “multiple (Special Operational Force) components.”

Last August, SOCOM awarded the Iowa-based LMT Defense a 10-year contract to the tune of $92 million for the MRGG-A. At SOCOM’s request, the rifle features a swappable barrel, allowing operators to change between firing 7.62mm and 6.5mm Creedmoor cartridges.

“This thing isn’t just a gun, it’s a deployment package,” said Joe Hajny, an LMT Defense spokesman, about the multi-caliber chambering in an interview with Classic Firearms at this year’s Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show.

Hajny added that SOCOM prioritized “the quick barrel change.” He explained the logic is that when SOCOM operators are “out with the partner forces that don’t have access to 6.5, the field environment might switch, they could change the caliber if need be.”

With that, he said an operator can change the barrel in about a minute. As for the barrel itself, Hajny explained that it measures in at 14.5 inches, so the rifle feels more like an M4 carbine but operates like an M110 semi-automatic sniper rifle, which also uses the 7.62 cartridge.

The most notable change is SOCOM’s adoption of the 6.5mm Creedmoor.

SOCOM reportedly began testing the cartridge along with almost two dozen others in 2017 and found that it delivered the best overall performance at ranges 1,000 meters.

“(The MRGG-A) is a big one that I think is going to trickle down to more of your mainline units down the road,” Hajny said.

Other services have also been shifting away from legacy cartridges like 7.62 and 5.56. The Army, for example, has been transitioning to its Next Generation Squad Weapons chambered in 6.8x51mm.

In 2021, SOCOM hosted an assessment event with its partner Special Operations Forces Works, or SOFWERX, to identify small arms weapon systems capable of greater accuracy at ranges past 1,200 meters.

Along with the MRGG-A, SOCOM expressed interest in a new sniper rifle and lightweight machine gun. After years of testing, the organization contracted Geissele Automatics for the MRGG Sniper rifle in 6.5 and Sig Sauer for the LMG-Medium in .338 Norma Magnum.

In a recent interview with The War Zone, Lt. Col. Alan Wood, SOCOM’s program manager for lethality, explained that like the 6.5mm, the .338 is “more effective on target” at “greater ranges” and the system overall — the rifle and ammo — could weigh “hundreds of pounds” less than the heavy .50-caliber round. Yet, SOCOM has paused fielding on the LMG.

As for the MRGG-A, Wood said, “It’s just a phenomenal, accurate weapon system for our SOF operators. All the components are super excited about this one.”

The purchases will be bankrolled by the European Union’s Security Action for Europe (SAFE) low-cost loan program.

At the official signing ceremony held May 30, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Polish deputy prime minister and defense minister, criticized Poland’s right-wing President Karol Nawrocki for vetoing a bill that was to enable the government to utilize the Brussels loan scheme.

Nawrocki has claimed that “SAFE is a mechanism through which Brussels can withhold funding at will.” Due to his opposition to the scheme, Poland’s centrist Cabinet was forced to implement the loans through executive action.

“They say the terms are not favorable. These are twice as favorable as the first contracts signed in [South] Korea,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said, referring to the weapon acquisitions from the South Korean industry contracted by Poland’s previous government. “I was in the opposition at that time, and I wasn’t complaining about those … [acquisitions] because it was a time when it was necessary to look for markets where it was possible to buy fast.”

The ministry’s May 30 purchases include 146 Borsuk tracked infantry fighting vehicles, 96 Krab 155mm self-propelled howitzers, 1,000 ammunition, command, and communications vehicles for the Homar-K multiple rocket launcher system, and 64 Rak 120mm self-propelled wheeled mortars.

The contracts were awarded to a group of companies led by state-run defense giant PGZ, and signed at the headquarters of Huta Stalowa Wola (HSW), a PGZ subsidiary focused on the development of howitzers, infantry fighting vehicles and other gear for the land forces.

Kosiniak-Kamysz said that, in addition to procuring the necessary equipment for the Polish military, the contracts are to enable Poland’s defense industry to boost its production capacities for export sales.

“Now we have to build up the strength and potential not only for producing for our own needs, but also for exports of what is today our strategic asset,” the deputy prime minister said.

In total, Poland has been allocated some €43.7 billion ($50.9 billion) in loans by Brussels for defense acquisitions carried out under the SAFE scheme. This potentially makes the nation the largest beneficiary of the program.

Mariusz Błaszczak, Poland’s former Minister of National Defence who is a lawmaker for the opposition Law and Justice party, told Defense News that using SAFE loans to purchase weapons creates the risk of the EU’s interference in what type of equipment Warsaw will buy for the military. He also voiced concern that, by sourcing funds through the scheme, Poland could reduce its purchases from the United States and begin favoring European suppliers.

“For Law and Justice, security is not a field for political experiments. It is a matter of strategic responsibility and the consistent strengthening of the alliance with the USA and Poland’s position in NATO,” Błaszczak said.

At the same time, Kosiniak-Kamysz said that, alongside purchases from its defense industry, Poland will continue to source weapons from allied countries, including the United States.

“This doesn’t change the fact that, while there is SAFE, other deals do not disappear. We have deals with the United States for more than 200 billion zloty,” the politician said.

Also on May 30, the ministry awarded a contract worth more than 13.5 billion zloty to procure “several hundred thousand” 155mm artillery rounds from a PGZ-led consortium. Drawing lessons from the war in neighboring Ukraine, the Polish authorities have intensified efforts to build up the country’s ammunition stockpiles, but also secure domestic manufacturing capacities.

“Every single one of the hundreds of thousands of ordered shells will be produced in Poland, ensuring complete independence in the possession of this key artillery caliber. Every shell body delivered under this contract will be forged in Poland and filled at Polish facilities using Polish TNT,” Arkadiusz Bąk, PGZ’s first vice president, was quoted in a statement released by the group.

In September 2025, PGZ selected the U.K.’s BAE Systems as its technology partner for the ongoing ramp-up of local artillery ammunition production.

A contract is expected to be signed with the Finnish producer in 2027, with Lithuania’s defense industry expected to capture a share of the planned procurement.

“This is a multifunctional platform on which air-defense systems and capabilities can be installed, and it will also serve military medical and logistics purposes,” Lithuanian Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas was quoted in a statement released by the ministry.

Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nausėda, who is the council’s chair, told local reporters the military is to acquire 936 six-wheel-drive vehicles from the producer.

“The Patria team has already worked locally with Lithuanian industry for over a year, and the collaboration has been very positive and active,” Jussi Järvinen, the executive vice president of protected mobility at Patria, said in a statement released by the firm.

The company is pleased with “Lithuania’s decision to opt for the Patria 6x6 armored vehicle platform through potential participation in the CAVS program,” the statement reads.

Under the plan, the new wheeled vehicles will replace Lithuania’s fleet of second-hand M113 armored personnel carriers. By accessing the Common Armoured Vehicle System, or CAVS, program, Lithuania could join a group of allies that includes Finland, Latvia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany and the U.K. The Ukrainian military is also a user of Patria 6x6 vehicles.

As Lithuania is advancing plans to spend around €6.4 billion ($7.5 billion) from the European Union’s Security Action for Europe (SAFE) low-cost loans on new weapons, gear and ammunition, the nation’s authorities are also intensifying efforts to attract investments by foreign defense industry players. Earlier this month, during his speech at the DAIMEX Baltic conference in Vilnius, Nausėda said Lithuania’s officials aim to integrate the country’s defense companies into international supply chains.

In its statement, the Lithuanian ministry said the key criteria driving its selection of Patria’s vehicle include the implementation of NATO requirements and interoperability with allied forces, production timelines, price, but also industrial cooperation opportunities for Lithuania’s companies.

“The latter [criterion] will ensure that a part of the funds allocated for the acquisition stays in the Lithuanian economy,” the ministry said.

The agency envisions swarms of robots linking up to drag wounded personnel to safety. They would also inject lifesaving drugs and even shapeshift themselves to form splints around broken limbs, according to a DARPA Small Business Innovation Research solicitation.

The goal is to create an “autonomous, self-deploying, wound assessing, swarm-capable, self-linking, mobile robotic solution to assist reaching and moving casualties and perform life-saving interventions at the point-of-need,” the solicitation states. The deadline is June 3.

The current battlefield medical system may have worked for the small-unit counterinsurgency warfare of recent years, but it can’t handle casualties from big-unit warfare.

“Future Large Scale Combat Operations predict massive casualty incidents, delayed evacuation, and insufficient capacity of the medical system,” DARPA noted.

Delayed battlefield medical treatment results in a “high chance of dying due to lack of hemorrhage control which is the leading cause of potentially survivable death in both battlefield and civilian trauma cases prehospital.”

The question is whether robots can stop the bleeding.

“We believe this is achievable due to the recent advancements in swarm, self-assembling, and mobile robotics, as well as robotics for medical applications,” DARPA said.

Any solution must satisfy at least two of four requirements listed in the solicitation. One calls for a robot that can drag an injured soldier a short distance — 10 meters — onto a litter.

If a single robot isn’t strong enough, then the system must allow a swarm of bots to combine their strength to move the casualty. The system should also enable multiple robots to wrap themselves around an injured limb to prevent further damage as the casualty is being dragged to safety.

DARPA is also interested in robots that can inject medicines. One specification calls for robot swarms to form tourniquets.

They would “self-arrange and reassemble into shapes to provide massive hemorrhage control,” said the solicitation. “The goal will be to create a ‘smart tourniquet’ capable of autonomously clamping around injured limbs to stop arterial blood flow as well as apply sufficient pressure and coverage over a junctional wound.”

Even as the U.S. Army explores unmanned ground vehicles to evacuate wounded, DARPA envisions medicbots working in tandem with such vehicles.

“Due to the intended smaller size, the medical robotic solution could be an ideal assistant in the tight quarters of unmanned evacuation vehicles,” DARPA noted.

While emphasizing that these medicbots can be of any shape, DARPA prefers a system that can fit into an Individual First Aid Kit or one lightweight enough to be deployed via drone-swarm.

The first phase of the project involves demonstrating multiple capabilities for a system, including swarming and identifying injuries, as well as mobility across rough terrain and “over/across the human body” and “interlocking units, shape-changing, and rigid stability.”

These capabilities can be demonstrated in a laboratory or on a medical manikin.

Phase two calls for a prototype that can be tested under field conditions using “perfused cadavers, animal models, or high-fidelity medical training phantoms.” Companies must also provide a manufacturing plan that meets requirements set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

DARPA also sees potential uses for swarming medicbots in the civilian world.

“Collapsed buildings, fires, and hazardous chemicals can make reaching civilian casualties impossible outside of the means of robotic and autonomous systems,” the solicitation said. Initial lifesaving care “can provide the necessary time for stabilization until medical response teams arrive and continue care.”

The number of international personnel deployed for peace operations fell to 78,633 at the end of December, down 17% from a year earlier, SIPRI said in a report published Monday. The number is down 49% from the end of 2016, the Swedish institute said.

Cuts in deployed personnel were mainly caused by a funding crisis in the United Nations due to delayed or unpaid contributions from major donors, according to SIPRI. That prompted an abrupt reduction on spending on peace operations, including by reducing personnel in several major operations, the researchers said.

“If things continue in this way, we could see a dramatic weakening of multilateral conflict management and the near-complete sidelining of institutions like the United Nations, due to a perfect storm of funding, political and geopolitical factors,” said Jaïr van der Lijn, director of the peace operations and conflict management program at SIPRI.

“The result is likely to be more conflicts, and these conflicts are likely to have even graver impacts on civilians as states abandon long-established norms.”

Multilateral conflict management and peace operations face “severe pressure,” according to SIPRI. Russia’s involvement in conflicts in Africa is hurting security governance there, the United States under President Donald Trump are undermining multilateralism, and China and Europe are either unwilling or unable to take on the task of sustaining the multilateral system, SIPRI said.

The U.S. took “significant action” in 2025 to withdraw from, defund or challenge various UN bodies, which included seeking to end UN peacekeeping operations including the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, or Unifil, the SIPRI report said.

SIPRI said the UN peacekeeping budget faced a shortfall of $2 billion at the start of July 2025, and the budget approved by the UN General Assembly for the 2025-2026 period was cut to $5.38 billion, the lowest in at least a decade.

While the United Nations was the main organizer of multinational peacekeeping operations in 2025, accounting for 18 operations and 67% of the deployed personnel, most peacekeeping efforts were led by regional organizations and alliances, accounting for 34 operations.

“Regional organizations lack key capabilities when it comes to successful, integrated peace-building, while they are also plagued by funding shortfalls and inability to reach agreement,” said Claudia Pfeifer Cruz, senior researcher in the peace operations and conflict management program. “As UN-led conflict management recedes, it is leaving a growing gap that alternative models are unable to fill.”

Sub-Saharan Africa hosted 70% of deployed peacekeeping personnel last year, with the Middle East and North Africa accounting for 15% and Europe for 12%, SIPRI said. The UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic, or Minusca, and the UN Mission in South Sudan, or Unmiss, were the two biggest multilateral peace operations last year.

The 10 top contributors of both military and police personnel to multilateral peace operations were all countries in the Global South, according to the SIPRI data. The largest contributions of military personnel came mainly from sub Saharan Africa or South Asia, led by Uganda with 4,657 troops and followed by Nepal, Bangladesh and India, which each supplied more than 4,000 troops.

The funding shortfall, lower budget and disagreement over the decision to close Unifil by the end of December 2026 “indicate a progressively smaller role for the UN in conflict management,” SIPRI said. The institute noted the U.S. demanded the termination of Unifil despite “frequent violations” of a 2024 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon.

“Financial constraints clearly accelerated the personnel reductions but were not the only factor,” the institute wrote in its report. “As the debate over UNIFIL illustrates, geopolitical divisions and increasingly difficult negotiations in the Security Council have made it harder to sustain existing operations or build support for new ones.”