Northrop Grumman Expands Central and Eastern Europe Defense Partnerships at MSPO

CACI International announced on September 16 that it received a new award, called Apollo, to support US Central Command's information advantage and irregular warfare missions, with a ceiling of $1.5 billion and roughly $1.2 billion expected to be booked. The award follows a fiscal year ended June 30 in which revenue reached $9.6 billion, up 10.9% from a year earlier, with 7.2% of that growth organic, while fourth-quarter revenue grew 17.6% year over year and 15.2% sequentially. Contract awards for the year totaled $10.2 billion, pushing total backlog to $32.0 billion and lifting funded backlog 28.6% to $5.4 billion, and management guided fiscal 2027 revenue to $10.65 billion to $10.85 billion with free cash flow of at least $900 million. That growth has come with a heavier balance sheet: CACI spent $2.64 billion on acquisitions in fiscal 2026, long-term debt nearly doubled to $4.85 billion from $2.85 billion largely tied to the ARKA acquisition, and interest expense rose 35.6% to $215.5 million, helping push fourth-quarter net income down 0.7% to $156.8 million and diluted earnings per share down 1.3% to $7.05. Fixed-price work made up 34.8% of fourth-quarter revenue, up from 26.9% a year earlier, shifting more execution risk onto CACI, while hedge fund ownership fell to 35 funds from 44 and short interest sat at 5.44% of float.

Thales has announced the launch of HexaForce, its next-generation AI-enhanced multi-domain command and control system, purpose-built to support national sovereignty for NATO and allied nations. The system was successfully tested during the NATO CWIX 2026 exercise and is tailored for high-intensity warfare, supporting command requirements for over 100,000 personnel. HexaForce operates across land, air, sea, cyber, electromagnetic spectrum, space, and information operations, and harnesses the artificial intelligence capabilities of cortAIx, Thales' dedicated AI accelerator, which brings together 800 engineers and data scientists. Live trial phases are currently paving the way for full-scale deployment, targeting an increase in capacity from 100 to 1,000 targets processed per day. The solution draws on operational feedback from Artemis.IA, a data-centric platform deployed with the French Ministry of Armed Forces since 2023, and is already available.