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Anduril is letting employees sell shares through a tender offer priced at $94.80 each, implying a roughly $90 billion valuation, CNBC confirmed after an initial Bloomberg report. The offer opened October 13, closes November 9, is capped at $1.3 billion, and is open to employees in 16 countries.
William Golding, a Salisbury schoolmaster battling personal struggles, completed his novel 'Lord of the Flies' at age 40. After numerous rejections from publishers including Jonathan Cape and Faber & Faber, the book was finally accepted and published, marking a significant milestone in his literary career. The novel offers a stark contrast to earlier adventure stories like 'The Coral Island' by R.M. Ballantyne, challenging romanticized views of human nature and childhood innocence.
Anduril Industries has been awarded a contract valued at up to $2.9 billion to support submarine manufacturing for the U.S. Navy. The company plans to develop a new 2 million-square-foot shipyard at Sparrows Point, Maryland, starting operations in 2030, which will produce components for Virginia-class submarines. This announcement follows Palmer Luckey's recent appointment to a Pentagon weapons development task force, highlighting the company's growing role in national defense projects.
The U.S. Navy has begun fielding anti-drone laser weapons controlled with Xbox-style game controllers aboard warships, according to Interesting Engineering. The systems have reportedly been used against drones and other threats in the Strait of Hormuz, following earlier testing aboard the USS George H.W. Bush.
The U.S. Navy and Royal Navy jointly fired an exercise Mk 48 heavyweight torpedo from the uncrewed submarine XV Excalibur on September 13 at Scotland's BUTEC test range. The trial, conducted under the AUKUS Pillar 2 partnership and dubbed Project Broadsword, confirmed that an American torpedo could be mechanically, electrically and digitally integrated into a British autonomous underwater vehicle.
Admiral Daryl Caudle, the U.S. Navy's top officer, described a vision for equipping ships across the fleet with directed-energy weapons. He said the lasers could supplement missile defenses, reduce the cost of shooting down incoming threats, and eventually scale up to megawatt-class power levels.
Justin Fanelli, the Department of Navy's chief technology officer, spoke with reporters even as he was rushed onto an unannounced flight, underscoring the pace of his current work. He revealed the Navy is preparing an updated list of its longer-term technology priorities, this time reviewed by several venture investors before publication, following investor feedback that last year's list reshaped how they viewed the Navy's purchasing plans.
The U.S. Navy has awarded a $3.8 million contract to America's largest shipbuilder, marking the company's first publicly known foray into naval laser weapon development. The deal comes as the Navy accelerates efforts to move directed-energy weapons from experimental prototypes into systems that can actually be fielded on ships.
Anthropic's September 2026 threat report describes Chinese-based actors using its Claude models across at least five programs, including two tied to military applications. One actor drafted fire-control specifications for an anti-torpedo system and benchmarked it against U.S. Navy systems, while another built roughly 16 software modules for suppressing enemy air defenses, with a default scenario targeting 12 sites in Taiwan such as Patriot batteries and air bases. Metadata reviewed by Anthropic suggested links to Chinese research institutions, including the PLA Academy of Military Sciences.
Ukraine's Navy says its Sargan 3000 unmanned surface vessel destroyed a Russian MBeK drone boat in the Black Sea, using a 12.7mm remote-controlled turret to sink the enemy craft after it was spotted by military intelligence. Footage released on the Navy's Telegram channel shows the exchange of fire and the Russian vessel sinking nose-first.
Anthropic's September 2026 threat report found that an Iran-linked group used its Claude AI model to compile targeting data on U.S. naval vessels in the Middle East, combining satellite imagery, ship transponder data and personnel names scraped from public photos, while also probing known vulnerabilities in shipboard communications gear. Separately, a Houthi-linked cell in Yemen reportedly used Claude Code to help develop guidance, navigation and control software for three weapons programs, including a guided rocket, a long-range ballistic missile, and an R2000 hypersonic glide vehicle variant. Anthropic says it banned the accounts, added detection safeguards, and reported the activity to U.S. authorities.
Anthropic disclosed that it detected and shut down an operation in which actors linked to Iran attempted to use its Claude AI model to gather targeting information on U.S. Navy warships. The incident was disclosed as part of a broader report detailing how state-linked adversaries have tried to misuse Anthropic's AI systems for weapons development and surveillance of dissidents.