Aerospace and Defense Digest #95

Research evidence excerpt

Aerospace and Defense Digest #95

and should help AVAV overcome some of its recent woes (see 4QFY26/Investor Day preview).

■ Ondas secures over $40mn in new orders for autonomous defense systems. The awards were for C-UAS solutions, loiteringINDUSTRY

munition systems, ground systems, and related defense services for customers domestically and abroad. They took place in

June, bringing 2Q-to-date order activity to +$150mn. OUR TAKE: We view Ondas as an innovator and believe the company

is well positioned to benefit from the $66.9bn in unmanned and counter unmanned funding requested in the FY27 budget

(see Unmanned Bible).REPORT

■ Firefly acquires Space-ng, a provider of AI-powered vision navigation and autonomous guidance systems. The acquisition

will bring proven spacecraft software and camera hardware for Firefly’s Blue Ghost landers and Elytra orbital vehicles. Terms of

the deal were not disclosed. OUR TAKE: Space-ng's vision navigation software was utilized during Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission

1, a mission we were on site to witness with the company last March in Austin, TX (see recap). We view the integration of Space-

ng's full technology stack, including spacecraft cameras and AI compute hardware, as a meaningful capability enhancement

across Firefly's growing mission manifest, which includes three additional CLPS lunar missions, a NASA MoonFall mission, and

a space domain awareness mission for the DIU.

■ Rocket Lab launches VICTUS HAZE in record time for Space Force. The notice-to-launch window was 16 hours and 42 minutes,

shattering the previous Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS) record set by VICTUS NOX by more than 10 hours. Rocket Lab's

Pioneer spacecraft is now fully commissioned and conducting complex orbital maneuvers to rendezvous with and conduct