Defense Systems & Military Technology

MELBOURNE, Fla. -- October 29, 2026 -- L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) booked $19.3 billion in orders in the third quarter of 2026, lifting record backlog to $53.2 billion and posting a book-to-bill ratio of 3.2x. Quarterly orders equal about 82% of the $23.6 billion midpoint of the company's raised full-year revenue guidance, and backlog is about 2.3 times that midpoint, by our calculation.

CEO Sam Mehta said: "Our priority now is to convert that demand into results." The company says it will keep investing in production capacity across missiles, space, resilient communications and multi-domain sensing.

Missile Solutions book-to-bill reaches 11.8x, against 1.0x at Space & Mission Systems

The order intake is concentrated in one segment. Missile Solutions posted a book-to-bill of 11.8x, Communications & Spectrum Dominance 1.9x and Space & Mission Systems 1.0x.

United States – November 14, 2026 -- L3Harris Technologies began high-volume production of its VAMPIRE counter-drone system in 2026. The company says military forces have logged more than 350,000 operational hours with the system in European combat operations since 2023. By our calculation, that equals about 40 years of continuous operation (350,000 hours divided by 8,760 hours per year).

VAMPIRE (Vehicle-Agnostic Modular Palletized Rocket Equipment) mounts on vehicles and launches laser-guided munitions. Tony Calderon, President of Targeting & Sensor Systems, says the system "changes the economics of drone engagements" by using mass-produced rockets against low-cost drones. L3Harris notes that early, large drones were shot down with multi-million-dollar missiles. The company did not disclose production volumes or unit prices.

MELBOURNE, Fla. -- November 3, 2026 -- L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) has received a $36 million order from the U.S. Army for its Hawkeye 4 Lite satellite communications terminal. The company says the terminals will be fielded under the Army's Command and Control Network Optimized for Warfighting (C2NOW) initiative.

L3Harris says the order is meant to improve SATCOM interoperability between U.S. and NATO partners. The company did not name any NATO member or other partner force that will use the terminals.

Army configuration uses a rapidly deployable terminal with field-swappable components

The Army's setup is built around the Hawkeye 4 Lite terminal. The company describes it as rapidly deployable, with field-swappable components that allow greater flexibility in dynamic operational environments.

MELBOURNE — November 12, 2026 -- L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) has completed U.S. Navy operational testing of its FleetLink communications system aboard an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. The company developed the system under the Navy's Scalable, Modular, Radio Cluster contract in 2023, so testing concluded roughly three years later by our calculation.

L3Harris describes FleetLink as a high-speed, modular system that combines its radios and waveforms to replace legacy communication systems and to integrate data from multiple sources. The company says the system carries the latest NSA-certified cryptographic capability.

LOS ANGELES – November 12, 2026 -- Hermeus and Northrop Grumman have signed a strategic teaming agreement under which Northrop will design, develop, integrate and sustain mission systems for Hermeus' reusable, unmanned high-Mach aircraft for the U.S. military.

The scope covers sensing, communications, navigation, and command and control, so Northrop's role runs from initial design through sustainment. The work builds on Hermeus' in-house mission management system (MMS) core, which the company describes as an open, modular system that keeps flight-critical and mission-critical functions separated.

Hermeus says the MMS core follows the U.S. Government's AMS-GRA and A-GRA reference architectures and the OMS/UCI standards. The company says this lets the two partners integrate and update mission capabilities in weeks rather than years as requirements change. That is a company claim; no test data or program example accompanies it.

BERTHOUD – November 12, 2026 -- The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has exercised a $10.9 million option on Ursa Major's contract to continue development of Draper, a storable liquid rocket engine for hypersonic applications. The option follows successful flights of the Affordable Rapid Missile Demonstrator, which flew under the same contract.

The order of events is the signal for contractors and investors: AFRL committed the additional funds after the demonstrator flights, not before them.

Ursa Major did not disclose the base contract value, so the share of total funding that this option represents cannot be calculated.