DEFENSE PULSE Weekly \\ 0050

The Pentagon directed the services to treat small drones as consumables rather than property, and the Army is taking it seriously with initiatives like SkyFoundry (10,000 drones/month production). But there's a gap: units still buy drones with operational funds, track them like gear, and write property loss investigations when they're destroyed in combat. Two Special Forces officers argue the solution already exists, the Army's ammunition enterprise that handles everything from rifle rounds to $200,000 Javelin missiles with an auditable, loss-tolerant system.

The model is simple: treat small drones like Javelin missiles. Forecast them by mission type, recon quadcopters or FPV strike drones, draw them like ammo, fly them in training or combat, and return the empty cases. Controllers stay on the property book like Javelin launch units, while airframes arrive in rugged cases ready to fire. Ukraine is already producing 200,000 drones a month; the U.S. Army cannot track that under today’s equipment rules. The ammunition enterprise already handles Patriot missiles at $4 million a shot. It can scale from cheap FPVs to high-end platforms while giving industry predictable demand and soldiers one familiar process. Anything else is logistics buckling under a million-drone fight.

\\ War on the Rocks

Defense Secretary Hegseth's acquisition reform directive accepts "85% solutions" now over waiting 1-2 years for perfection, with industry executives framing it as trading acquisition risk for operational risk against pacing threats. Shield AI's Gutierrez compared it to Silicon Valley's minimum viable product approach, field capable systems fast, iterate based on combat feedback, requiring Pentagon culture shift away from risk-averse, gold-plated requirements toward speed as strategy.

France's defense budget jumps $25.1bn by 2030 (reaching $91.8bn annually), with fixed-wing aircraft dominating at $19.5bn cumulative spend driven by Rafale variants and the France-Germany-Spain NGF fighter program. Key strategic bets: third-generation nuclear ballistic missile submarines replacing Le Triomphant-class by 2035, FDI frigates with onboard data centers eliminating external hosting reliance, and $6.97bn for space (Syracuse V satellites starting 2027). Paris also restricts foreign acquisitions of key suppliers to protect supply chains amid European collaborations like SCORPION tanks with Belgium and SAMP/T missiles with Italy.

Senior NATO officials told Breaking Defense the EU's drone wall faces a detection crisis at low altitudes (100-200m), where Ukraine's forces fail to intercept 20-30% of Russian drones. The Netherlands' Gen. Eichelsheim expects initial architecture "within months," relying on off-the-shelf commercial solutions to drive per-unit kill costs down, but Estonia's Pevkur warns peacetime rules of engagement prevent shooting at everything: "you will shoot down a small Cessna with a father and a kid.

USSOCOM awarded Kraken an OTA for rapid prototyping of stealth-capable uncrewed maritime vessels with modular mission configurations, designed through direct engagement with special operations personnel across two prior SOCOM innovation cycles. The transatlantic startup (backed by NATO Innovation Fund and UK National Security Strategic Investment Fund) positions the agreement as validation of growing allied demand for flexible autonomous platforms in near-shore operations where larger systems can't operate.

Navy terminated the last four Constellation-class frigates, with the first two hulls "under review." The program, originally pitched as an off-the-shelf FREMM adaptation, saw delivery slip from 2026 to 2029 while costs ballooned from $1B to $1.4B per ship. Lead vessel USS Constellation sits at just 10% complete. Fincantieri will pivot to amphibious, icebreaking, and "more readily producible" vessels as the Navy prioritizes fleet growth speed over troubled legacy programs.

New photos reveal China's second J-36 prototype sporting F-22-style 2D thrust vectoring nozzles across all three engines, a major design departure from the first airframe that emerged just 11 months ago. The addition trades some rear-aspect stealth for enhanced maneuverability and stability (critical for a tailless design) and better high-altitude performance. Two prototypes flying this quickly, plus the similar thrust-vectoring on the smaller J-XDS fighter, signals China is moving fast on maneuverable stealth platforms.

Two DARPA initiatives blend cells and robotics for battlefield survival: Smart-RBC modifies stem cells to create programmable red blood cells that sense, decide, and act (altering metabolism for up to 120 days), while MASH equips non-surgeon medics with autonomous robots to detect and treat internal abdominal bleeding via laparoscopic or endovascular approaches, addressing combat's hardest medical challenges without immediate surgical expertise.

I read every message and would love to hear what's working, what's missing, or what you want to see more of.