Latest news with #GPS-denied
Business Insider
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
This tech CEO quit to redesign the 155mm shell — and upend how the West buys its weapons
Tiberius Aerospace unveiled Sceptre, a 155mm artillery shell with an extended range. The startup's open-platform model licenses the design to governments for local production. It's an approach that challenges traditional defense procurement, aiming at agility and innovation. A few weeks ago, a new defense tech startup stepped out of the shadows with a bold claim: it had built a radically advanced 155mm artillery shell called Sceptre. The ammo quickly grabbed attention for its promised combination of unprecedented range and precision. But its creator, tech entrepreneur Chad Steelberg, believes the real innovation isn't necessarily what Sceptre does — it's how it's made and sold. Speaking to Business Insider, Steelberg described Sceptre as an open weapons platform: licensed to governments, built locally, and updated like software. This frees up Tiberius Aerospace — his startup — to focus on R&D rather than managing huge manufacturing contracts. It's a model born not in a defense industry boardroom, but in the logic of Silicon Valley and the battlefields of Ukraine — one built for speed, iteration, and scale. The proposal is a radical step away from the highly centralized, slow-moving defense industrial base and contracting and acquisition processes that the Pentagon and other Western countries are wedded to, and it's sparked a mixture of curiosity and skepticism. A founder with a mission In late 2024, sickened by the Russian onslaught in Ukraine, Steelberg made a decision. He stepped down as CEO of the AI firm he had cofounded, Veritone, and handed the keys to his No.2. "I gave them four months' notice" before founding Tiberius Aerospace, he told BI. He knew nothing about aerospace back then, he said. But he knew people who did, bringing in a Navy SEAL commander, a former Apple hardware lead, and a top engineer from Raytheon. "You get the best people in the world," Steelberg said. "You put 'em in a room, lock the box, and say: let's solve this problem." That led to Sceptre, a rocket-propelled 155mm artillery shell that Steelberg says can hit targets up to 95 miles away— nearly triple the range of standard rounds — with precision, even in GPS-denied environments. The munition itself has undergone test firing on a M777 in the US. Given its differences from standard rounds (those without rocket assist) — which have a range of about 15 miles and require add-ons for rocket propulsion and precision guidance — it's a category-defying munition more comparable to an extended-range GMLRS. But, like the original 155mm round, it's fired from a howitzer. In artillery battles, range is critical; after all, that's part of the reason the HIMARS, a rocket artillery system, was so effective when it initially arrived in Ukraine: it gave Kyiv's forces much-needed reach in combat. Steelberg says it will "change the balance of power" on the Ukrainian battlefield and beyond, though it would need to be widely fielded first. Supplanting old-school procurement Tiberius won't actually be manufacturing Sceptre, offering an unusual "defense-as-a-service" model. The company plans to license the design to governments, which will pay $5 million upfront to gain manufacturing rights, and then $2.5 million a year to stay on board and get continual updates. They can then produce the munition in-country, using their own supply chains and industrial base. What makes this possible is Tiberius opening up its specifications for individual components — like batteries, guidance units, and fuel systems — to outside suppliers. Steelberg said suppliers will be encouraged to propose improvements, as long as the component fits within Sceptre's volumetric space. "We will certify it, test it, fire it on the range, qualify it as a version if it passes safety and efficacy," he said. This creates competition and choice for the governments buying it, he argued. It's a model inspired by the early days of Intel, leaning on an open architecture, Steelberg said. While major companies like Boeing regularly bring in subcontractors to provide parts, Tiberius' platform is built around encouraging an ongoing ecosystem around this logic — almost like an app store for defence tech, with Sceptre at its core. He suggested this would give governments the freedom to choose small, nimble manufacturers, support their own defense ecosystems, and reduce reliance on a handful of major contractors. Governments place an order — keeping the intellectual property — for the version of Sceptre they end up making. The bulk of Sceptre's main parts can be manufactured on simple, widely available CNC machines. This, Steelberg argues, cuts out the need for much of the heavy-duty facilities typically involved in munitions production and opens it up to much smaller players. "So now they're actually allocating dollars to support not just the end weapon they're looking for, but actually the industries and the providers that manufactured it," he said. The result, in his view, is a system that's more agile, more resilient, and better suited to modern warfare, where needs change faster than traditional procurement can keep up with. A global procurement quagmire As NATO countries scramble to rebuild their arsenals, the limits of the traditional procurement system are becoming harder to ignore. "In terms of ammunition, Russia produces in three months what the whole of NATO produces in a year," NATO secretary-general, Mark Rutte, warned recently. Autocratic regimes like Russia's can command industry at will. Democracies can't — and procurement systems built for peacetime tend to move at a glacial pace. In broad-brush terms: a government commissions a giant contractor, a timeline and price are agreed, and five, ten, twenty years later, a product rolls off the line. That model shuts out smaller players almost entirely. "The big, big problem honestly is that there's been a co-evolution of ministries of defense and big prime manufacturers," Steelberg said, describing it as "an intellectual and contractual moat that prevents anyone else from getting in." It's known as the "valley of death," where few new players can easily navigate Pentagon bureaucracy, or can bank on being around long enough to secure a contract. DOD is experimenting with newer and nimbler models — such as open platforms and schemes to partner with smaller companies — but nothing quite to the scale that Tiberius envisions. Paul Hough, a UK-based expert in defense procurement, shares Steelberg's calls for a shake-up of the system. "Before we start pushing tsunamis of money through the old procurement model and the old industrial base structure, we should stop, take a breath," he told BI. The yawning gap between promising prototypes from small companies and actual military adoption is further complicated by the fact that innovation increasingly comes from the private sector. In the 1960s, governments funded around 60% of global R&D, according to Casey Purley, director of the Pentagon's Army Applications Laboratory. Today, she says it's about 20%, with commercial firms — often tech companies — picking up the slack. "From AI to robotics, we need to work with companies we historically haven't," she told a recent conference in London. Quality control Cynthia Cook, director of the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that Steelberg's model "does have the potential for production where some parts are made by primarily commercial suppliers. "This could be a way of engaging the full industrial base beyond the more narrow slice of companies that are understood to be defense contractors," she told BI. Capt. Bradley Martin, a RAND researcher who specializes in supply chain security, added that "much of the barrier-to-entry problem is solved because a company is only providing a small part of a larger system." But other issues deserve scrutiny, they said. Although Tiberius plans to take charge of certifying components, quality assurance could prove cumbersome, Martin said. Another major issue will be tracking the provenance of materials used by the companies supplying components, he added. "If a company's normal supply chain is heavily China-based, we would be creating a vulnerability," he told BI. Surge production vs just-in-time The US's standard-issue 155mm shells are manufactured by government-owned facilities, so production can lay dormant but be surged relatively easily. That's not really the case for non-standard shells. If companies in the US are not dedicated to producing parts for Sceptre and move out of the business due to a lack of contracts, they'll "need to be attracted back — and they may have other business," Cook said. Hough said that Sceptre may be cheaper and faster to produce in small batches, but he argued that it misses the broader context. Artillery is still primarily an area-effect weapon, he said. The heavy weapons are indirect fire capabilities used for wide destruction and suppression, so while there is a place for the exquisite, precision-guided munitions, unless doctrine changes, precision rounds "are unlikely to supplant area (dumb) rounds," he said. Hough said that, after Ukraine, militaries are prioritizing large stockpiles over just-in-time flexibility — a trend that doesn't appear to align with Tiberius' more agile model. He added that some stages of shell production, including when explosives are inserted into the casing, are also "not a trivial exercise" and favor longer, centralized production runs. For Hough, Tiberius' licensing model may be best used by the military in the same field from which Steelberg took his inspiration — software. "I hope that the Tiberius model works," he said. "But at this point it appears to be a novel potential addition rather than a fundamental change to the established supply chain." Whatever happens, though, he added, "we do need people that challenge this." For Steelberg, his mission is one inspired by Winston Churchill's famous "blood, toil, tears and sweat" speech. But for him, enough blood and tears have been spilled already. "I absolutely am willing to give you my toil and my sweat," he said. But if the West doesn't resolve its procurement issues, "we will be spilling our blood and our tears."
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US-Israeli industry team pitches ‘Bullseye' long-range missile
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — General Atomics and Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems are teaming up to produce a long-range precision-guided missile for the U.S. market, the companies announced this week. The weapon, dubbed Bullseye, will be launchable from the sea, land and air, with the developers promising 'significant attack performance against high-value targets at an affordable price point.' 'We're getting lessons learned on cost reduction, and we'll build at least half the missile in the United States,' Scott Forney, President of General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, was quoted as saying by Naval News. Development of the weapon was announced at the Sea-Air-Space 2025 conference in Maryland. The Bullseye missile appears to be derived from Rafael's Ice Breaker system, which has a 300-kilometer (186 miles) range. Unlike Ice Breaker, however, the new missile will be able to carry various warheads and propulsion systems, General Atomics said on the new product's web page. The weapon's makers also highlighted the 'very low observable' stealth characteristics, autonomous target recognition, and resilience in GPS-denied environments. Autonomous target recognition has been an area of concern for defense researchers but no comprehensive international rules yet exist on the level of human involvement that a weapons system must have. General Atomics bills the Bullseye as 'fully autonomous with man-in-the-loop decision back-up capability' on the company's spec sheet. The missile will also be equipped with 'advanced mission planning' and 'synchronized attack capability.' The new missile has reportedly reached Technology Readiness Level 8, with Rafael having already completed aerodynamics, engine, seeker and launch integration testing. The missile is compatible with jet fighters, light attack aircraft, helicopters, small maritime vessels and ground vehicles, the arms manufacturer said. Initial deliveries are slated for late 2025, General Atomics said. The partnership seeks to leverage Rafael's combat-proven missile technology—including systems like Iron Dome and Spike missiles—with GA-EMS's U.S.-based manufacturing expertise in Tupelo, Mississippi. It also highlights the continuing close ties between the two countries' defense establishments at a time when other traditional U.S. partners have been estranged.
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
US Army approves production of vehicle-mounted GPS alternative
The U.S. Army approved the full-rate production of a Collins Aerospace-developed vehicle-mounted positioning, navigation and timing, or PNT, system vital to operating in GPS-denied environments, the service announced Tuesday. The Mounted Assured, Positioning, Navigation and Timing System, or MAPS, is a key element of the service's modernization push. The Army established a cross-functional team through Army Futures Command in 2017 to advance capabilities, both mounted and dismounted, that would help the Army operate in environments where the enemy might jam its space-based GPS systems used for navigation. As those efforts progressed in development, they were transferred to the Program Executive Office Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors to be managed as programs of record. 'This monumental achievement is the culmination of over six years of hard work and dedication by [Program Manager] PNT and Mounted PNT,' Lt. Col. Damian Dixon, the Army's Mounted PNT product manager, said in the statement. The MAPS Generation II capability 'provides GPS anti-spoofing and anti-jamming capability through sensor fusion algorithms and non-radio frequency sensors to distribute positioning, navigation, and timing data so mounted soldiers can operate in environments where military GPS is denied or degraded,' the statement notes. In addition to enabling forces to communicate, move and shoot, the system distributes PNT data 'to multiple clients on a single platform, eliminating redundant GPS receivers and antennas,' according to the statement. The MAPS GEN II system consists of an internally mounted navigation hub where data coming from sensors and receivers are fused together and an anti-jam antenna system mounted to the outside of the vehicle. To date, the Army has spent roughly $500 million in procurement funding for the mounted PNT program as it previously fielded a first-generation capability to rapidly deliver an initial capability to the battlefield, according to fiscal 2025 service budget documents. The Army plans to procure 619 MAPS GEN II systems for a total of $130 million in fiscal 2025, according to budget documents. This includes spares, follow-on test and evaluation, logistics support and engineering changes for Armored, Stryker and Infantry Brigade Combat Teams, the documents show.
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
US Navy's hypersonic vehicles to get GPS-free navigation boost from Anello Photonics
Anello Photonics, a leading firm in silicon photonics technology, has been awarded a contract by the US Navy to develop a cutting-edge navigation system to help hypersonic vehicles operate even in GPS-denied environments. 'Anello was selected for a Small Business Innovation Research Phase I due to its innovative optical gyroscope technology and its unique sensor fusion engine,' the company informed. The company's Silicon Photonics Optical Gyroscope (SiPhOG) technology and sensor fusion engine aim to bring significant advances in navigation. 'This will ensure that the US Navy platforms can maintain high-accuracy navigation in challenging GPS-denied situations,' said the company. SiPhOG is a compact, ultra-lightweight, and high-performance optical gyroscope. It promises to deliver accurate guidance even when the Global Positioning System (GPS) signals are unavailable or compromised. Traditional navigation systems often rely heavily on GPS. However, in contested environments where hypersonic vehicles operate, GPS signals can be easily disrupted or denied by adversaries. Anello's SiPhOG technology offers a unique approach to navigation in GPS-denied environments. In typical operations, a loss of GPS signal often triggers a failsafe mode in the autopilot system. This can lead to undesirable outcomes such as hovering in place, an emergency landing, or even a crash. However, with Anello's SiPhOG technology, specifically demonstrated in their recently launched Anello X3, the system can seamlessly detect GPS signal disruption. Instead of resorting to a failsafe mode, the SiPhOG gyroscope provides continuous and accurate navigation data, allowing the vehicle to maintain controlled flight even in the presence of GPS jamming. The technology employs the principles of interferometry to precisely measure a vehicle's rotation and orientation. Within the SiPhOG, laser light travels through a microscopic waveguide etched onto a silicon chip. This chip also contains integrated optical components that manipulate the light, creating interference patterns. By analyzing these patterns, the SiPhOG can determine the vehicle's precise movements with exceptional accuracy. Under the latest contract, the company will focus on demonstrating the capabilities of SiPhOG and the sensor fusion engine over a six-month period. If successful, the project will progress to Phase II, which will involve developing a prototype navigation system and rigorous testing in simulated hypersonic flight conditions. Phase III aims to integrate the prototype onto a representative hypersonic vehicle for demonstration and assessment during Advanced Naval Technology Exercise (ANTX) events. Amid the increasing geopolitical tensions and the use of new war technologies, the requirement for GPS-free hypersonic vehicles has intensified. This latest award by the US Navy reflects the same broader trend. 'Within this program, the U.S. Navy can directly evaluate and experience first-hand the benefits of the Anello products for navigation in GPS-denied or contested environments,' concluded Dr. Mario Paniccia, CEO of Anello Photonics. Notably, several studies have been conducted in this regard. Recently, the Sandia National Laboratories of the US developed 'the mother of all motion sensors', which aims to enable GPS-free navigation for air defense vehicles. Besides, Sydney-based Advanced Navigation has partnered with MBDA to develop a system that will allow drones to soar high in the sky and navigate without GPS.
