Rheinmetall demonstrated its FV-014 loitering munition being launched from a Containerized Missile Launcher mounted on a moving HX-series truck during a July customer test at the German Aerospace Center's UAS facility in Cochstedt. The event was the first time the FV-014 has been fired from the CML, and included both stationary and mobile launches followed by simulated attack flights. The FV-014 is a 23 kg (50 lb) electrically-powered loitering munition with a stated range of up to 100 km (62 mi) and 70 minutes of endurance, flying under human-in-the-loop control with reduced radar and infrared signatures and resilience against GNSS interference. The launcher is a standard ISO container that holds up to 18 FV-014s in a 20-foot configuration, carries its own power supply and C4I connectivity, and includes a "sleeper" capability that lets it lie dormant until remotely activated.

The Read: The interesting move is not the munition. Rheinmetall's real bet is the launcher form factor: a weapons system that travels inside a standard shipping container can move through conventional logistics networks and sit at a fixed site without the visual signature of a dedicated missile battery. That is the operational lesson from Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb, when containerized launchers moved through ordinary commercial infrastructure destroyed multiple Russian bombers with short-range drones in June 2025. The FV-014 CML is the industrial-scale, 100-km-range Western answer, and it enters a fast-crowding market alongside Rheinmetall's own 126-round UVision Hero container from 2024, Hanwha's Chunmoo-armed Striker MUSV, Lockheed's HIMARS FLEX, and the Chinese 48-drone truck-mounted swarms already displayed at Zhuhai.

Anduril has detailed the next iteration of its hardware for the US Army's Soldier Borne Mission Command program, upgrading its EagleEye-based headset with 4K displays that expand the horizontal field of view by almost 70 percent over the current Phase 1 prototypes. The company plans to deliver hundreds of the Phase 2 systems to the Army for testing in early 2027, following delivery of hundreds of Phase 1 units and recent testing with the 75th Ranger Regiment, though Anduril has clarified that the Ranger prototypes were company-owned rather than formal contractual deliveries. Anduril is competing against Palantir-backed startup Rivet for the SBMC contract, with a potential Army downselect targeted for 2028 for a program that succeeds the Microsoft IVAS effort scrapped after reaching an expected value of up to $22 billion. Anduril founder Palmer Luckey told reporters the capability "is going to get cheaper and cheaper over time," with per-unit cost estimates for the current headset running between $25,000 and $40,000.

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