🔎 Defense Tech Signal — Wednesday

• The Pentagon named 25 vendors to compete for $150M in delivery orders under its Drone Dominance Program, signaling a push to rapidly scale low-cost, one-way attack drones as a program of record.
• The SmallSat Alliance is pivoting from proliferating LEO constellations to coordinating them as an integrated system, reflecting a shift in U.S. military space planning toward networked, managed architectures over sheer numbers.
• The U.S. Air Force awarded Picogrid a $9M contract for AI-developed counter-drone software, underscoring growing operational trust in AI-generated code for mission-critical defense applications.

Sources:

1) DefenseScoop — https://defensescoop.com/2026/02/03/drone-dominance-program-hegseth-military-uas-vendors/
2) SpaceNews — https://spacenews.com/smallsat-alliance-shifts-focus-from-proliferation-to-coordination/
3) Breaking Defense — https://breakingdefense.com/2026/02/picogrid-wins-9m-air-force-contract-for-counter-drone-software-written-by-ai/

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