{"id":31633,"date":"2025-06-23T15:14:54","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T15:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=31633"},"modified":"2025-06-23T15:14:54","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T15:14:54","slug":"defence-tech-spies-an-opportunity-in-global-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=31633","title":{"rendered":"Defence tech spies an opportunity in global crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\"><span>Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=36a6e200-27a3-412b-82cb-f36f62022a8a\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities will turn the spotlight on to the tools of war \u2014 and particularly those with a high-tech bent. Investors are getting on board: a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/cdc02d96-13b5-4ca2-aa0b-1fc7568e9fa0\" data-trackable=\"link\">\u20ac600mn investment<\/a> in Germany\u2019s Helsing announced last week values the artificial intelligence software-to-drones group at \u20ac12bn. Shares in Palantir, a data-crunching US company that serves the Pentagon, are up more than 80 per cent this year; its $325bn market capitalisation is quadruple that of BAE Systems.<\/p>\n<div class=\"n-content-layout\" data-component=\"flourish\" data-component-id=\"23862604\" data-component-type=\"flourish-in-article\">\n<figure class=\"n-content-picture n-content-layout__container\"><a href=\"#23862604\"><picture data-asset-type=\"flourish\" data-flourish-id=\"23862604\" data-flourish-type=\"visualisation\">\n<div id=\"23862604\" class=\"cp-message o-message o-message--inform o-message--notice\" data-o-component=\"o-message\">\n<div class=\"o-message__container\">\n<div class=\"o-message__content\">\n<p class=\"o-message__content-main\">Some content could not load. Check your internet connection or browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/picture><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Like AI, defence tech is a broad church, spanning digitised information through to drones and other transport capable of autonomous targeting. PhysicsX, a UK start-up in the field <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/db2b25e0-da61-42d3-932a-991b12e5476a\" data-trackable=\"link\">valued at almost $1bn<\/a>, harnesses AI to design products such as engines and drone parts.<\/p>\n<p>To stay on track, companies in the sector need to secure supply chains, nail down deals with prime contractors \u2014 as the traditional suppliers of defence equipment are known \u2014 and get their hands dirty.<\/p>\n<p>Defence tech companies are staffed by armies of the tech wunderkind you would expect to see in gaming or ecommerce; almost three-quarters of the 300-odd staff at DroneShield, the Australian counter-drone tech company, are engineers.<\/p>\n<p>Even so, warfare\u2019s new heroes can be hamstrung by snarled <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/supply-chains\" data-trackable=\"link\">supply chains<\/a>. Airo, with business including drones and avionics, flags \u201climited suppliers\u201d in Europe and Canada for critical components and raw materials.<\/p>\n<p>Tie-ups are one answer. Helsing, stretching beyond software into drones and other products, is buying composite aircraft manufacturer Grob Aircraft, enabling it to marry the \u201cbrain\u201d side with physical nuts and bolts. US peer Anduril Industries has made several acquisitions, including Adranos, which makes solid rocket motors.<\/p>\n<p>Partnerships also help in winning contracts. Palantir, which gets more than half of its revenue from governments, is an example. Smaller peers can benefit from links with the primes. While Helsing\u2019s collaboration with German munitions manufacturer Rheinmetall quietly sank, the strategy lives on. Bavarian military software developer Blackned teamed up with the German defence prime, and the pair secured a \u20ac1.2bn contract from the German Bundeswehr. Anduril has also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/32c61658-cf03-4209-8341-07456ea7b6ff\" data-trackable=\"link\">joined forces with Rheinmetall<\/a> to develop drones for Europe. For its part, Helsing has a collaboration with Sweden\u2019s Saab. <\/p>\n<p>Access to finance, from equity to bank loans, remains tricky for minnow-sized players. Venture capital debt is plugging some holes, while governments are stepping in. This month, for example, the EU\u2019s lending arm tripled its loan plan for defence industry SMEs to \u20ac3bn.<\/p>\n<p>Where capital flows, advances will be made, if only through trial and error. During the second world war, many designs that passed muster on the drawing board failed in the field, among them the ill-fated Covenanter \u201ccruiser\u201d tank. Helsing\u2019s drones only earned their stripes in Ukraine after being tweaked on the frontline. Real-world conflict creates not just demand, but also \u2014 sadly \u2014 opportunities to test and refine the product. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/mailto:louise.lucas@ft.com\" data-trackable=\"link\"><em>louise.lucas@ft.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/36a6e200-27a3-412b-82cb-f36f62022a8a\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":31634,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tech","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}