The Defence AI Digest

Strategic Direction & Policy Signals

• The UK Strategic Defence Review released in June outlines a plan to boost national security and economic growth, including the aim to position the UK as a “leading tech-enabled defence power” by 2035, with a commitment to spend at least 10% of the defence budget annually on new technologies and to double investment in autonomous systems and accelerate the use of autonomous systems through a new ‘Drone Centre’ and ‘Digital Targeting Web’ (here).
• The US announced $600bn worth of defence and AI deals with Saudi Arabia, including a $142bn defence agreement involving advanced US military technologies from US defence firms here.
• The US Department of Defence's chief digital and AI officer outlined its strategy to integrate AI and digital data analytics to improve combat decision-making and maintain US battlefield decision superiority (here).
• The US Marine Corps released an AI Implementation Plan (here) detailing actions, responsibilities, and milestones to integrate AI into military decision-making and support its broader AI strategy (here).
• The UK has carried out its largest-ever multi-domain AI trial, integrating land, sea, and air operations to develop advanced target recognition systems for aircraft and enhancing maritime surveillance capabilities using AI technology (here).
• The British Army is prioritising the tactical use of drones and autonomous systems (here), as the US Marine Corps plans to deploy new types of loitering munitions (here).

Legal, Regulatory & Ethical Updates

• BSI has released the new BS ISO/IEC 42005:2025 standard, which provides guidance on performing AI system impact assessments throughout the AI lifecycle, helping organisations assess impacts, document findings, define risk mitigation processes, and align with other impact assessments (here).
• The US Congress is considering a 10-year moratorium on state-level AI regulation to prevent states from enforcing laws on AI models and systems (here).
• The US Department of Commerce has rescinded the AI Diffusion Rule that would have restricted chip exports to various jurisdictions (here).
• US lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill to promote competition in cloud and AI procurement for the Department of Defense (here).
• The European Telecommunications Standards Institute has announced a new cybersecurity standard for AI development (here).
• The White House has released new policies on AI procurement for federal agencies, aiming to boost efficiency and support a competitive AI marketplace while protecting privacy and civil rights (here).
• The UN Secretary-General has called for a global ban on lethal autonomous weapons systems, such as advanced drones that can select targets without human oversight (here).

Industry Updates

• Lockheed Martin and Google Public Sector have announced a partnership to integrate Google's generative AI into Lockheed Martin's AI Factory ecosystem (here).
• Leonardo UK has partnered with Faculty AI to integrate advanced AI into its defence technologies to support its delivery of AI-powered systems to the British Armed Forces (here).
• Google Distributed Cloud has achieved Department of US Defense Impact Level 6 (IL6) authorisation, allowing Google Public Sector to offer secure cloud environments for handling classified data (here).
• The US Department of Defense raised the contract ceiling for Palantir’s Maven Smart System by $795m, bringing the total to $1.3bn through 2029 to meet growing demand from military users for AI-powered command-and-control software (here).
• Helsing has unveiled an underwater drone surveillance network powered by AI which is able to detect and categorise enemy submarines, ships and other undersea threats with high accuracy (here).
• Anduril Industries and Meta have partnered to develop integrated XR technologies for the US military, combining AI, augmented and virtual reality, and autonomous systems to enhance battlefield awareness and decision-making (here).

Capital & Investment Watch

• The EU and UK agreed a defence partnership as prelude to tighter cooperation, with may enable UK companies to access the €150 billion Security Action for Europe (SAFE) borrowing scheme that was recently approved by the European Union (here).
• The European Investment Fund has made its first investment in defence tech by committing €40m to Amsterdam-based Keen Ventures’ new fund, reflecting a growing interest in defence technology among European investors (here).
• Saudi Arabia's state-owned AI company, Humain, is seeking investment from major US tech firms and plans to launch a $10bn venture capital fund to establish itself as a global AI hub and build one of the world’s largest AI infrastructure networks, aiming to process 7% of global AI workloads by 2030 (here).
• Andreessen Horowitz is raising a $20bn fund, its largest ever, to invest in US AI firms and capitalise on global investors’ interest in AI startups. The fund strategy involves investments into a single vehicle to meet the significant capital demands of AI startups (here).
• Defence AI start-up Adarga, which develops AI-driven software for the defence and intelligence sectors is in advanced discussions to raise approximately £8m in an accelerated funding round (here).