Northrop Grumman has developed a new gallium nitride (GaN) microwave chip that operates in the W-band spectrum, a high-frequency range used for advanced radar, satellite communications, and emerging wireless networks.

The company said the chip was designed, manufactured, and made market-ready in less than six months, an unusually short timeline for a high-frequency semiconductor intended for defense and commercial applications.

Built at Northrop Grumman’s semiconductor facility in Redondo Beach, California, the chip is designed to strengthen wireless signals while operating at frequencies capable of transmitting large amounts of data with low latency.

According to the company, the technology could support secure military communications, next-generation radar systems, satellite links, and future 5G and 6G wireless networks.

Faster signals, smaller hardware

The W-band occupies frequencies between roughly 75 and 110 gigahertz, offering significantly more bandwidth than lower-frequency wireless systems. The added spectrum can help enable faster data transmission, higher-resolution sensing, and more secure communications.

W-band technologies are attracting growing interest because they can handle far larger amounts of data than many conventional wireless systems. The frequencies are increasingly being explored for applications ranging from high-resolution imaging and advanced sensing to satellite communications and future mobile networks.

However, operating at such high frequencies requires specialized semiconductor materials and designs capable of maintaining performance while managing power and heat, areas where GaN-based devices have gained increasing attention.

Northrop Grumman said the new chip fully utilizes this portion of the radio spectrum to improve signal performance while reducing the need for larger and more power-intensive equipment.

Gallium nitride has become a key material for advanced radio-frequency electronics because it can operate at higher power levels and frequencies than conventional silicon-based devices. The material is already widely used in military radars, electronic warfare systems, and satellite communications hardware.

The company said the chip can act as a signal amplifier, helping wireless systems transmit and receive data more efficiently. In military applications, that could improve secure communications and data transfer between platforms and satellites. Commercially, the technology could help support future wireless networks as demand for higher data rates continues to grow.

Defense To 6G

The project was developed through the California DREAMS hub of the Microelectronics Commons program, a public-private initiative aimed at accelerating domestic semiconductor innovation.

The program is funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and brings together industry, government, and academic partners to speed the development of advanced microelectronics technologies.

Northrop Grumman said the rapid development cycle demonstrates how collaborative manufacturing and design efforts can shorten the path from concept to deployment.

The company manufactures microelectronics at two US-based facilities and produces millions of semiconductor components annually for defense and commercial customers. Its Microelectronics Center has been involved in semiconductor development for more than seven decades.

As governments and industries seek faster communications, more capable radar systems, and advanced sensing technologies, high-frequency GaN devices are expected to play an increasingly important role in future wireless infrastructure.

Saronic and Castelion, two defense technology companies, have announced plans to combine an autonomous warship with a hypersonic strike weapon. They said this is the first attempt to put a hypersonic vehicle on an unmanned surface vessel.

Castelion’s Blackbeard hypersonic system will be launched from Saronic’s Marauder medium unmanned surface vessel, with a demonstration at sea planned for 2027.

By combining an unmanned vessel with a hypersonic strike system, the companies hope to give commanders more choices for future naval missions.

Autonomous vessel meets hypersonic firepower

According to the agreement, Saronic’s Marauder unmanned vessel will launch Castelion’s Blackbeard hypersonic vehicle. The companies said this is an important step toward creating strike systems that work without crews on board.

“Launching a Castelion hypersonic from a Marauder MUSV significantly changes the approach for any adversary calculating where and how the U.S. can strike,” Dino Mavrookas, co-founder and CEO of Saronic, said in a statement. “Deterrence is ultimately a function of capability, capacity, and credibility. Saronic and Castelion are working to increase all three by combining autonomous maritime and hypersonic strike capabilities that are more scalable, more affordable, and faster to field.”

The idea is to equip autonomous ships with advanced weapons that can operate across large areas of the ocean. These ships could offer more launch points for weapons and help keep people out of danger.

Castelion is also increasing production of the Blackbeard system and plans to make several thousand missiles each year. Last October, the company said Blackbeard had won several awards to help it work with both Army and Navy platforms.

Blackbeard production ramps up

By producing more Blackbeard missiles, Castelion hopes to deploy the weapon across more branches of the military. The company says using Blackbeard with Marauder could make operations more flexible and easier to deploy.

“Blackbeard and Marauder will give our warfighters more shots, from more places, with fewer constraints,” Bryon Hargis, co-founder and CEO of Castelion, said in a statement.

This partnership comes as defense leaders look for ways to use more precision strike systems without raising costs. Autonomous ships capable of carrying advanced weapons are becoming an important part of this plan.

Marauder advances toward operational testing

The announcement arrives during a busy period for Saronic. The company is currently expanding a shipyard in Louisiana, a project expected to be completed by the end of this year. Once finished, the facility will have the capacity to produce up to 20 Marauder vessels annually.

Late in May, Saronic revealed that the 180-foot-long Marauder had entered on-water trials. The vessel is designed to carry payloads weighing up to 150 metric tons, giving it the capacity to support a range of military missions.

The U.S. Navy is also evaluating the platform. Last month, the service confirmed that Saronic was among seven companies selected for its MUSV marketplace initiative. Participants will conduct at-sea testing this summer, and those who successfully complete the evaluation phase by October will receive $15 million and become eligible for future production contracts.

Growing role for unmanned naval systems

Beyond Marauder, Saronic has developed several autonomous surface vessels, including the Corsair. According to the company, the vessel can transport payloads of up to 1,000 pounds over distances exceeding 1,000 nautical miles.

The Navy’s Task Force 59, which focuses on unmanned maritime operations in Bahrain, began fielding Corsair vessels in March. The platform recently played a role in a real-world rescue mission.

On Monday, U.S. Central Command said Navy units, including Task Force 59, assisted in rescuing two crew members from a US Army AH-64 Apache helicopter that went down near the coast of Oman.

Bayou Metals, a manufacturing partner of defense shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), has stood up a dedicated production line for the Romulus uncrewed surface vessel (USV), a move intended to compress delivery timelines and increase throughput for the US Navy’s growing unmanned maritime program.

The production line is located in Slidell, Louisiana. Bayou Metals is also serving as a strategic marine-grade aluminum supplier to the HII. 

A purpose-built line for an uncrewed hull

Rather than routing Romulus components through a generalized fabrication workflow, Bayou Metals configured a dedicated manufacturing line specifically for the vessel’s metalwork and structural assemblies. This single-product-line architecture reduces setup changeover time and allows process engineers to optimize fixturing, weld sequencing, and quality inspection around a single repeating geometry—a standard lean-manufacturing approach when volume and schedule pressure justify the capital allocation.

The Romulus family of USVs is designed for a wide range of mission sets, including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), mine countermeasures, strike operations, and counter-unmanned systems. It can also serve as a mother-ship to launch and recover unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). It is centered on HII’s Odyssey autonomy software suite and open systems architecture.

HII has been developing the platform as part of the broader US Navy push to field autonomous and semi-autonomous surface vessels capable of operating alongside crewed combatants. Romulus is being developed in partnership with Breaux Brothers, Shield AI, Beier Integrated Systems, and Incat Crowther. 

Supply chain structure for unmanned programs

The Bayou Metals arrangement illustrates how prime defense contractors are structuring supply chains for unmanned platforms differently from traditional crewed ships. Because USVs are expected to be procured in larger numbers at lower per-unit cost than destroyers or frigates, the production economics demand a more industrialized approach from tier-one and tier-two suppliers early in the program lifecycle — before the Navy has necessarily committed to a high-rate production contract.

HII’s unmanned systems portfolio

HII has been expanding its unmanned and autonomous systems work through its Mission Technologies division, positioning itself beyond traditional nuclear shipbuilding. The Romulus program sits within that strategic push.

By anchoring a dedicated supplier line, HII is attempting to demonstrate production readiness — a factor the Navy weighs when evaluating whether a program can transition from development and low-rate initial production to full-rate procurement.

Production readiness reviews assess not just the prime contractor’s internal capacity but the depth and reliability of the supplier base. A named, dedicated manufacturing line at a partner facility is a tangible data point in that evaluation criteria. 

What comes next

In addition to the vessel currently under construction, four additional Romulus 151 vessels will be built by Breaux Brothers Enterprises in Louisiana. This effort for HII also supports the expansion of the U.S. shipbuilding industrial base by growing Gulf Coast manufacturing capacity.

Pokemon Go players' optional location scans reportedly helped train Niantic Spatial's visual positioning system, which uses camera imagery and 3D maps to navigate when GPS is unavailable or jammed. According to DroneXL, that technology is now being paired with Vantor's drone navigation software for military and intelligence use, raising questions about whether gamers understood that footage collected for in-game rewards could eventually support defense systems. From the report: The pipeline runs from a mobile game to the battlefield in three steps. Players scanned the physical world. Niantic Spatial turned those scans into a 3D map that lets a machine locate itself by sight when satellite signals fail. And in December 2025, Niantic Spatial announced a partnership with Vantor, the defense and intelligence firm formerly known as Maxar Intelligence, to fuse that ground-level system with Vantor's aerial navigation software for use in GPS-denied operations. I have spent years covering how drones lose their way the moment an electronic warfare unit switches on a jammer, a problem that has spread from the battlefield into civilian airspace, from Ukrainian workshops cycling through navigation generations to American programs scrambling for alternatives. The unsettling part of this story is not the technology. It is where the training data came from, and whether the people who supplied it would have agreed had anyone explained the destination. "Now as part of Scopely (the Saudi-owned company that acquired Niantic last year for $3.5 billion), Pokemon GO data is not shared with Niantic Spatial," a company spokesperson said in a statement to Kotaku. "AR Scans collected through Pokemon GO were submitted voluntarily by players who opted into the feature and were subject to the applicable Terms of Service and Privacy Policy at the time. The discontinuation of AR scanning and the end of data sharing with Niantic Spatial were part of the transition planning associated with Pokemon GO's move to Scopely."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Autonomous aircraft are increasingly drawing attention as the U.S. military looks for new ways to sustain operations in contested and hard-to-reach environments. Pyka’s latest demonstration suggests those efforts may be moving beyond theory and closer to operational reality.

The California-based company has introduced a precision airdrop capability for its DropShip autonomous aircraft, enabling it to deliver critical supplies without a pilot onboard. Pyka says the system could help U.S. and allied forces move mission-essential cargo across long distances when traditional supply routes become disrupted or unavailable.

The demonstration reflects a broader shift in military logistics planning. Defense leaders have warned that future conflicts may challenge access to established transportation networks, creating demand for flexible and autonomous alternatives.

During a recent test flight, DropShip released multiple 200-pound payloads from an altitude of 300 feet. The cargo landed within roughly 50 feet of the intended target area, according to the company.

Built for denied environments

DropShip was designed as a heavy-lift autonomous platform capable of operating where conventional logistics networks cannot. The hybrid-powered aircraft has a maximum takeoff weight of 1,600 pounds and can carry up to 650 pounds of usable payload. It requires only 550 feet of runway to launch with a full payload.

Pyka says the aircraft can support same-day delivery missions across a 2,000-mile operational radius. It offers a ferry range of up to 3,500 miles and can travel more than 1,000 miles while transporting 500 pounds of cargo. The aircraft cruises at 75 knots and can sprint at 90 knots. It can also operate at service ceilings of up to 20,000 feet mean sea level.

Rapid development pace

The precision airdrop test represents another milestone in what has been a compressed development schedule. Pyka said DropShip completed its maiden flight just six months after the program launched. The aircraft progressed from first flight to autonomous precision airdrop capability within eight months.

The company credited that pace to the core technology stack already powering its commercial aircraft. Engineers adapted existing autonomous systems to speed development and testing.

Expanding mission options

Pyka believes the aircraft could play a role in a variety of missions beyond cargo transport. “Until now, there hasn’t been a safe, economical, or practical way to autonomously deliver critical supplies directly to a specific location hundreds or even thousands of miles away,” Michael Norcia, Pyka’s CEO and co-founder, said.

Norcia said operators could use the aircraft to transport fuel, water, medical supplies, repair parts, and other mission-essential cargo exactly where it is needed. He added that the capability could change logistics operations in remote regions, disaster zones, and contested environments where access remains limited.

Beyond cargo delivery, DropShip can support intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions, communications support, and expeditionary power applications. The aircraft also features a reconfigurable mission computer designed to accommodate evolving operational needs.

Pyka plans to continue expanding the aircraft’s flight envelope ahead of customer evaluations and operational exercises with the U.S. government later this year.

💾

US President Donald Trump said Thursday that he has canceled planned military strikes against Iran, claiming that negotiations between Washington and Tehran have reached a stage where a broader agreement is close to being finalized.

The announcement marked a dramatic shift after days of escalating tensions that saw both countries exchange strikes and threats, raising fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said discussions had advanced significantly and received backing from multiple countries involved in the negotiations.

“Based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have, as President of the United States of America, cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening,” Trump wrote.

He also claimed that the final elements of the agreement had been approved by several regional and international stakeholders, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and Egypt.

From threats to talks

The decision came just hours after Trump issued fresh warnings against Tehran, threatening to hit Iran “very hard tonight” and suggesting the United States could take “total control” of Iran’s oil and gas markets, including the strategic Kharg Island export hub.

Despite calling off the strikes, Trump said US pressure on Iran would continue until a formal agreement is signed.

“The Naval Blockade will remain in full force and effect until this Transaction is finalized – Time and place of the signing to be announced shortly,” he wrote.

The Strait of Hormuz remains one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints, with a significant portion of global oil shipments passing through the waterway. Any disruption there has the potential to impact international energy markets and shipping routes.

Trump later told reporters that a signing ceremony could take place in Europe as early as this weekend. According to reports, Vice President J.D. Vance is expected to attend on behalf of the United States.

Hormuz remains under watch

“The strait (of Hormuz) will officially open as soon as we sign, which could be soon — very soon, maybe over the weekend in Europe,” Trump said. “I won’t be able to be there, but JD will be there.”

Iran has not officially confirmed Trump’s claims that a peace deal is imminent.

However, reports indicate that Qatari officials recently visited Tehran to discuss possible pathways toward a broader agreement aimed at reducing tensions between the two countries.

Trump has for months signaled that a breakthrough with Iran was near. The latest claims come after a week of tit-for-tat strikes that strained an already fragile ceasefire reached in April.

Meanwhile, Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that further escalation could have long-term consequences for global energy markets.

He said that “wrong strategies and impulsive decisions” could destabilize energy supplies and “create an endless quagmire that you will be stuck in for years.”