🔎 Defense Tech Signal — Tuesday

• The Pentagon awarded L3Harris a $400M contract to expand THAAD interceptor propulsion production, signaling sustained investment in scaling U.S. ballistic missile defense capacity.
• Australia is moving ahead with its next batch of MQ-28 Ghost Bat collaborative combat aircraft, targeting 10 operational autonomous “loyal wingmen” by 2028 and accelerating operationalization of crewed–uncrewed teaming.
• A Dutch defense official publicly raised the prospect of “jailbreaking” F-35 software if U.S. support were cut off, underscoring allied concerns over sovereign control of mission-critical aircraft code and sustainment pipelines.

Sources:

1) Defence Blog — https://defence-blog.com/pentagon-expands-thaad-interceptor-production-with-l3harris-deal/
2) Defense News — https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2026/02/17/australia-prepares-for-next-batch-of-ghost-bat-warplane-buddy-drones/
3) Defence Blog — https://defence-blog.com/dutch-official-raises-f-35-software-jailbreak-scenario/

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