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Marcus Schuler edits BattlePolicy, a daily defense-technology brief connecting the companies and capabilities behind modern war to the contest among Europe, the US, Russia, and China.
Iran-origin, Russia-built long-range one-way attack drone — the saturation-strike icon of the Ukraine war, fired in mass nightly salvos to exhaust air defenses and strike infrastructure at a cost-exchange ratio that has rewritten the economics of strategic bombardment.
The MGM-140 ATACMS — a HIMARS/MLRS-launched short-range ballistic missile, fielded since Desert Storm and the backbone of US deep-strike fires — now a critical enabler in Ukraine’s long-range campaign.
Russia's stealthy air-launched cruise missile — a long-range subsonic weapon carrying a 450 kg conventional warhead, the primary stand-off munition in Moscow's sustained aerial campaign against Ukrainian infrastructure.
Pan-European 4.5-generation canard-delta multirole fighter — the air superiority and strike backbone of four NATO air forces, in service since 2003.
China's first operational fifth-generation stealth fighter — a twin-engine, low-observable air-superiority platform fielded exclusively by the PLAAF, with a growing fleet estimated at over 200 aircraft and an emerging maritime-strike capability.
The U.S. Air Force's fifth-generation multirole stealth fighter — a single-engine CTOL aircraft with advanced sensor fusion, internal weapons carriage, and a global user base exceeding 1,300 airframes across 19+ nations.
Russia's first purported 5th-generation stealth fighter, designed for air superiority and multirole missions. Despite a protracted development, it has entered service in limited numbers and seen restricted use over Ukraine, primarily for standoff strikes.
China's top-tier main battle tank — a three-crew, 125 mm autoloader-equipped heavy tank with reactive armour and a turret-mounted laser dazzler, fielded only by the PLA and with no combat record.
Germany's Leopard 2 — the most widely fielded Western main battle tank, a 120 mm four-crew design exported to more than 20 armies and donated to Ukraine, where its 2A4 and 2A6 variants have fought since 2023.
The United States' main battle tank — a four-crew, 120 mm gas-turbine heavy tank whose SEPv3 standard adds the Trophy active-protection system, and which was supplied to Ukraine in 2023.
The zebra-striped trucks are a cheap bid to break machine-vision targeting, but Ukrainian drone crews and AI researchers say a fresh paint job buys days, not safety.
A week after Ukraine funded its "logistics lockdown," commanders claim fire control over the Luhansk region and the Crimea supply corridor. The mid-range drone has become a theory of victory, and its limits are now the real question.
Russia's edge is the scale of its drone production, not its technology, Latvia's commander told the Financial Times, and Europe will not finish rearming until after the window he fears closes.
Russia's flagship long-range air-defense system — a road-mobile, layered SAM built to engage aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles out to 400 km, and the centerpiece of both its homeland shield and its arms-export diplomacy.
The Pentagon's Crucible 2 turns a $54.6 billion autonomy budget line into a contracted shoot-off, and the 25-firm roster shows who the Pentagon is betting on to fly the swarms.
A rising share of UK defence companies are being refused overdrafts and working capital, Make UK Defence told the Treasury Committee, blaming the stalled Defence Investment Plan.
Ukrainian interceptor drones now down about half of Russia's Shaheds, so Moscow is scaling a faster jet-powered Geran-4 built to outrun them.
Satellite imagery has caught a previously unreported Chinese submarine with no conning tower, the newest entry in a build rate Western navies cannot match.
Ukraine's Defense Ministry has cleared the combat-tested Vepr robot for Armed Forces service, part of a plan to contract more than 25,000 ground robots in 2026 and pull soldiers off frontline resupply and evacuation runs.
Gen. Alexus Grynkewich's June 3 statement names manned and unmanned aircraft plus naval vessels as the first NATO categories Europe and Canada can fill.
Lockheed says the Yuma shot paired Sanctum software, Fortem R-40 radars and a containerized launcher into one counter-drone kill chain.
Red Cat put its V7 unmanned boat into full-rate production days before Ukrainian drones reached Russia's Baltic Fleet at Kronstadt. The two events describe one reversal: the combat-proven Ukrainian sea drone has become a Western product line.
Defense-tech venture funding hit a record $14.6 billion in the first five months of 2026, per Crunchbase. The companies drawing the biggest checks build what Ukraine's front increasingly runs on: cheap, mass-produced autonomy.
The Pentagon's central counter-drone body is funding repeat buys, and a small specialist is scaling into a procurement line the drone war built.