Aerospace & Defense

Palo Alto, Calif. – September 15, 2026 -- SandboxAQ has completed what it calls the world's first reported test of a magnetic navigation (MagNav) system on an attritable drone platform, integrating its AQNav software into Northrop Grumman's Lumberjack Group 3 unmanned aircraft system.

Test marks first pairing of MagNav with visual navigation on a one-way attack platform

The flight demonstration also represents the first reported instance of a MagNav system operating alongside a visual navigation system on an attritable, one-way attack drone, according to SandboxAQ. Lumberjack, developed by Northrop Grumman in under 14 months from concept to first flight, is designed as a multi-use loitering munition.

Fort Worth, Texas – September 15, 2026 -- Elbit Systems Ltd.'s U.S. operating segment will now operate as Twenty-Six Defense, a rebranding that reinforces the Israeli defense contractor's long-term commitment to domestic manufacturing amid U.S. government pressure to expand industrial capacity.

New entity employs 3,300 workers with three decades of military support

Twenty-Six Defense, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, employs 3,300 Americans who have supported the U.S. military for more than 30 years. The company remains a reportable operating segment of Elbit Systems Ltd. and continues to operate under a Special Security Agreement, a structure required for foreign-owned defense contractors handling classified U.S. government work.

Tenerife – September 15, 2026 -- Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen will appear at STARMUS VIII in Tenerife and La Palma from October 17-22, 2026, fifteen years after the festival's 2011 founding event brought together Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Alexei Leonov in the Canary Islands.

Artemis II crew follows the same route once taken by Apollo-era legends

Wiseman, Glover and Hansen flew around the Moon and back earlier this year alongside Christina Koch, becoming part of the first crewed lunar mission in more than five decades and traveling farther from Earth than any humans before them. Their October appearance places three of the four Artemis II astronauts on the same festival stage where Armstrong, Aldrin and Leonov once spoke in 2011.

Cape Canaveral, Fla. – September 14, 2026 -- Starfighters Space, Inc. (NYSE American: FJET) has entered a memorandum of understanding with Vaya Defense & Space, Inc. to jointly evaluate captive-carry flight testing and air-launch propulsion, targeting a gap in hypersonic development where demand for test flights has outrun available capacity. The global hypersonic technology market is valued at approximately US$8.49 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach roughly US$15.73 billion by 2030, according to Research and Markets, a compound annual growth rate of about 13.2%.

Reston – September 14, 2026 -- Seekr and SEMPRE have signed a strategic partnership to run sovereign, explainable AI directly on SEMPRE's hardened edge infrastructure, hardening U.S. critical infrastructure against cyberattacks and grid loss.

Seekr's AI models will execute locally on SEMPRE Total Infrastructure Devices without touching the public internet

Under the agreement, Seekr's sovereign AI platform, SeekrFlow, will operate as a supported workload inside SEMPRE's environment. Models are built, tuned, and executed on each Device's own compute, with no model call and no production data crossing the public internet. The reasoning behind every AI output is recorded on site, remaining accessible to the operator.

National Harbor, Md. – September 14, 2026 -- Radia is presenting WindRunner, the world's largest aircraft by volume, as a fix for a growing bottleneck in space logistics: transporting fully assembled rockets, boosters and oversized satellites that have outgrown existing roads, ports and cargo aircraft. The aircraft maker unveiled the capability ahead of the Air & Space Forces Association's Air, Space & Cyber Conference, running Sept. 14-16 at National Harbor, Md.

WindRunner cuts transport time from days to hours for oversized rocket hardware

Mark Lundstrom, Founder and CEO of Radia, said the aircraft can move a fully assembled booster, a recovered launch vehicle or a next-generation satellite intact, eliminating disassembly and reassembly cycles. He attributed the design to a low cargo deck height, a nose door and a dedicated cargo loading system built to speed handling of outsized space hardware.

Washington – September 13, 2026 -- Knox Systems, the largest FedRAMP and DISA-managed cloud provider, has launched an Impact Level 5 (IL5) environment sponsored by the U.S. Space Force, opening one of the government's most restrictive security tiers to commercial software and AI vendors.

New IL5 boundary extends Knox's defense cloud footprint held since 2019

The dedicated IL5 landing zone is built as a separate security boundary from Knox's existing FedRAMP High and Impact Level 4 environments for the Department of War (DoW). It is designed to host Controlled Unclassified Information and mission-critical National Security Systems, letting technology firms enter the environment without building and operating a standalone government cloud deployment.

Stockholm – September 13, 2026 -- Saab has secured a new order worth approximately SEK 2.9 billion from Sweden's Defence Material Administration (FMV) to continue concept work on the country's future fighter system.

Contract runs through 2028 with extension options

The agreement covers the period 2026-2028, with FMV holding options to extend the work into 2029 and 2030. It builds directly on prior contracts Saab signed with FMV in 2024 and 2025, extending a multi-year technology development pipeline.

Scope covers manned and unmanned system demonstrators

The contract funds flying and ground-based demonstrators, advanced studies, and development of future system concepts spanning both manned and unmanned platforms. Saab's mandate includes work on systems integration, autonomy, signature adaptation, propulsion, digital development, and future production capabilities.

Pittsburgh – September 13, 2026 -- MSA Safety has launched the A1X, a vacuum anchor weighing 7 kg, 35% lighter than its predecessor, designed to speed up fall-protection deployment during aircraft maintenance checks.

Smaller footprint opens access to more aircraft types

The A1X reduces its pad diameter to 350 mm from 480 mm, allowing use on executive jets, private aircraft and smaller commercial planes previously outside the range of MSA's WinGrip technology. The system is approved by Airbus and Boeing, giving maintenance teams clearance to adopt it into standard procedures.

Pittsburgh – September 13, 2026 -- MSA Safety has launched the WinGrip A1X vacuum anchor, a fall-protection device for aircraft maintenance that weighs 7kg, 35% lighter than its predecessor, and shrinks its pad diameter from 480mm to 350mm.

Smaller footprint opens new aircraft segments to WinGrip technology

The reduced pad diameter allows the A1X to be deployed on business jets and private aviation aircraft that previously fell outside the scope of MSA's WinGrip system, alongside commercial airliners. The device is approved for use by Airbus and Boeing, positioning it for adoption as standard equipment across major maintenance operations.