V2X, a U.S. defense technology company, will help integrate the Air Force’s next-generation Long Range Standoff (LRSO) cruise missile with B-52 bombers under a $46 million order.

Announced on September 15, the work involves producing carriage equipment that will support the deployment of the new weapon from the B-52 Stratofortress. 

The LRSO will replace the Air-Launched Cruise Missile the service currently uses, helping maintain its long-range strike capability against evolving threats.

Based in Reston, Virginia, V2X provides integrated mission solutions across the air, land, sea, space, and cyber domains. Its work includes engineering, manufacturing, sustainment, and mission support for defense customers.

Preparing B-52s for the LRSO missile

V2X was awarded a position on the delivery order through the Enterprise-Wide Agile Acquisition Contract, an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract.

Under the order, the company will produce the carriage equipment needed to support the integration of the LRSO weapon system with the B-52. 

The equipment will help prepare the bomber to carry the new cruise missile as the Air Force advances the wider modernization program.

The LRSO is designed for deployment from the B-52 and will replace the Air-Launched Cruise Missile currently in service. According to V2X, the transition will ensure that the Air Force retains an effective long-range strike capability for decades to come.

Strengthening the US strategic deterrent

The U.S. Air Force considers the LRSO program a critical modernization effort and an essential part of the country’s strategic deterrent.

V2X said its role in the program reinforces the company’s involvement in advancing next-generation defense capabilities. The carriage equipment will support mission readiness while enabling the Air Force to integrate its new weapon with the existing bomber platform.

“Supporting the modernization of the B-52 and our nation’s strategic deterrent is a responsibility we take seriously,” said Jeremy C. Wensinger, President and Chief Executive Officer of V2X. 

“This award reflects the trust our customer places in V2X to deliver high-quality solutions that enable mission success and support one of the Air Force’s highest modernization priorities,” he added.

Supporting complex defense missions

V2X develops solutions that combine physical and digital environments by aligning people, actions, and technology. The company works across different stages of a critical mission’s lifecycle to improve readiness, strengthen security, and optimize resource management.

Its experience in engineering, manufacturing, sustainment, and mission support enables it to help customers address complex defense challenges and evolving operational requirements.

The LRSO assignment expands that work by placing V2X within a major Air Force modernization program. Its production responsibilities will directly support the equipment required to integrate the cruise missile with the B-52.

Through the effort, V2X will help prepare the bomber fleet for a new generation of long-range weapons as the Air Force moves to replace its currently fielded Air-Launched Cruise Missile.

Nitride Global, a US developer of advanced thermal-management, dielectric, and semiconductor materials, will study a centimeter-scale quantum sensor designed to support navigation when GPS signals are unavailable.

The Wichita-based company announced on September 14 that it had received an AFWERX Small Business Innovation Research Phase I contract supporting the Department of the Air Force.

The project will assess the feasibility of a microwave atom-chip quantum sensor for precision navigation and remote-sensing gravimetry.

Known as the Atom-Interferometer Microwave Atom Chip, or A-MAC, the proposed device will be evaluated using Nitride Global’s aluminum oxynitride platform.

Navigation without satellite signals

The project addresses a challenge faced by Airmen and Guardians operating in environments where GPS signals may be jammed, spoofed, or completely unavailable.

Conventional inertial navigation systems accumulate errors over time. Without periodic satellite updates, those errors cause positional uncertainty to increase, restricting how long and how far a platform can operate independently.

Atom interferometers offer a potential alternative because they measure acceleration and rotation against the wavelength of a matter wave. Nitride Global said these systems are among the most stable inertial sensors demonstrated so far.

However, most leading systems still occupy a meter or more of laboratory bench space. According to the company, the principal obstacle to miniaturization is the packaging surrounding the sensor rather than its underlying physics.

Compact microwave atom chips continue to rely on distributed radio-frequency hardware. The resulting heat and phase drift can degrade measurements, making the technology difficult to deploy outside controlled laboratory environments.

Bringing microwave hardware onto one board

Nitride Global’s A-MAC architecture is intended to consolidate the distributed microwave chain onto a single integrated board.

Its thin, conformal AlON dielectric material would allow microwave routing, coupling structures, and trap geometry to be positioned within the same stack. Heat would move outward through metal instead of passing through a bulk ceramic substrate.

The aim is to create a centimeter-scale architecture suitable for platforms with strict size, weight, and power requirements.

Nitride Global will work with Dr. Seth Aubin, associate professor of physics at William & Mary.

Aubin’s atomic physics group will participate as a subcontractor and research partner, bringing more than a decade of work on microwave atom-chip traps and related trapping physics.

During the initial phase, the partners will model the architecture’s thermal behavior, microwave insertion loss, coupling, and possible trap geometries. The work will conclude with a decision gate and technical roadmap for a potential second phase.

From laboratories to contested environments

The technology could eventually support satellite-independent positioning, navigation, and timing across hypersonic vehicles, unmanned aircraft, orbital systems, submerged platforms, autonomous ground vehicles, and UAV interceptors.

Commercial applications could include resource exploration, infrastructure monitoring, and subsurface mapping.

“Quantum inertial sensing has been constrained for the same reason power electronics were constrained a decade ago: the limit is set by the package, not by the physics. If microwave routing and thermal management can be carried on the same material system, the instrument becomes small enough to fly,” said Mahyar Khosravi, CEO of Nitride Global.

The company is now seeking input from aerospace and defense integrators to define the sensor’s form factor, environmental requirements, and performance thresholds.

Holcim, a global building materials and solutions company, has agreed to deploy two Joule Hive Thermal Battery units developed by Boston-based Electrified Thermal Solutions as part of its industrial electrification roadmap.

Announced on September 15, the agreement will allow the building materials company to evaluate electric heating technology for its high-temperature cement operations.

The batteries will store clean electricity as heat inside electrically and thermally conductive bricks.

That energy can then be discharged on demand at temperatures reaching 3,275°F, offering Holcim a potential route to reduce its reliance on combustion for industrial heat.

Electrifying one of industry’s hardest processes

Cement production requires process temperatures that regularly exceed the capabilities of conventional electric heating systems. As a result, combustion has remained the default means of generating heat across much of the sector.

Electrified Thermal’s technology is designed to address this limitation by converting electricity into heat and retaining it inside specially developed bricks. The stored thermal energy can later be supplied to an industrial process when required.

The initial deployment will include two Joule Hive Thermal Battery units. However, the companies did not disclose where the systems will be installed or when they are expected to begin operating.

“Electrifying high-temperature industrial heat is one of the advanced technologies we are incorporating in our decarbonization strategy, and this deployment allows us to evaluate its potential,” said Ram Muthu, Head of Operational Excellence at Holcim.

“Working with Electrified Thermal gives us a path to accelerate decarbonization as part of our industry-shaping sustainability roadmap,” he added.

From clean electricity to extreme heat

Industrial heat accounts for roughly one-fifth of global energy consumption. The processes requiring the highest temperatures, including those used in cement, steel and chemical production, have largely remained beyond the reach of existing electric alternatives.

By delivering temperatures of up to 3,275°F, the Joule Hive system is intended to bring electrification into this particularly difficult segment. The Holcim agreement also gives Electrified Thermal its third global industrial partner across the cement, steel and chemical sectors.

“Holcim’s decision to deploy our technology validates years of work to bring electrified heat to high-temperature industrial-scale applications that no other technology or company can achieve,” said Daniel Stack, CEO and co-founder of Electrified Thermal Solutions.

“This agreement follows the recent turn-on and successful 1,000+ hours of operation of our commercial demonstration system and shows that global industrial producers are ready to move this technology from demonstration to deployment. We look forward to expanding this relationship with Holcim over time,” he added.

Moving beyond the demonstration stage

The agreement builds on an existing relationship between the companies, with Holcim also participating as an investor in Electrified Thermal Solutions.

It follows the commissioning of Electrified Thermal’s commercial demonstration system in San Antonio, Texas, earlier in 2026. The megawatt-scale installation has completed more than 1,000 hours of operation, according to the company.

The Holcim deployment will now take the technology from demonstration toward use by a major industrial producer. Both companies are also evaluating further opportunities to deploy the thermal battery across Holcim’s operations.