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September 2026
Contested Environments Are Driving the Roadmap
GPS-DENIED NAVIGATION, RESILIENT SATCOM AND ELECTRONIC WARFARE CAPABILITY MOVE FROM TRIALS TO DEPLOYMENT
To our Partners and Stakeholders,
September reinforced what has become a defining characteristic of this moment in defense and deep technology: the transition from development to deployment is no longer a future ambition, it is an active, funded reality. Across quantum computing, autonomous systems, resilient communications and advanced manufacturing, the month was marked by program moving from prototype to production, by governments committing capital at scale, and by private markets pricing the commercial opportunity with increasing confidence. The breadth and scale of activity, from a $1 billion hypersonic missile raise to the first flight of GPS-independent quantum navigation on an attritable drone, to a neutral-atom quantum computer achieving operational status in Japan, reflects a sector that is simultaneously maturing and accelerating.
This convergence was visible throughout the BOKA portfolio. Infleqtion continued to extend its position across the quantum stack, securing a $20 million NASA follow-on award for space-based quantum sensing, launching a joint R&D program with Cisco on networked quantum systems, and delivering a fivefold improvement in error-correction code rate in collaboration with NVIDIA, alongside recognition of its technical leadership through the IEEE Distinguished Early Career Award for CTO Pranav Gokhale. ALL.SPACE, now part of York Space Systems, received a Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) contract to demonstrate SATCOM terminal production at scale and validated its contested-environment capability in a live GPS-jamming exercise. Agile Space marked a major infrastructure milestone with the completion of its expanded Durango headquarters, Pragmatic Semiconductor reinforced its manufacturing ambitions with a senior operations hire and international award recognition, and BOKA attended the inaugural DSR Investment Summit in Nice alongside leading European and Middle Eastern defense investors. Against a backdrop of sustained allied commitment to sovereign capability — underscored by the NSF's $290 million quantum research investment, European pooled air-defence procurement and accelerating U.S. Army production awards for AI and electronic warfare — the organizations best positioned for the decade ahead will be those that have already built the technologies, the manufacturing capacity and the government relationships to meet demand as it arrives. The developments this month suggest that inflection point is now.
BOKA NEWS
DSR Investment Summit (15-17 September 2026)↗
BOKA Operating Partner Grant Hume represented BOKA at the inaugural Nord Sloane Ventures, Defence, Security and Resilience Summit in Nice, France this week. This defense and national security focussed investment event brought together leaders in Private Equity, Family Offices and VC firms across Europe and the Middle East, to discuss how to invest successfully in this critical emerging market. BOKA thanks Suntera Global, NordSloane Ventures and The Bartos Group LLC for sponsoring the event.
PORTFOLIO SPOTLIGHT
Infleqtion
Infleqtion Reports Updated Financial Results for Q2 2026 and FY26 Revenue Guidance (17 August 2026)↗
Infleqtion revised Q2 2026 revenue upward to $13.5 million and raised full-year guidance to approximately $45.1 million, reflecting continued growth in government-funded contract recognition. The upward revision, alongside a wider GAAP operating loss, reflects a company scaling revenue ahead of profitability as it invests in hardware development across multiple national programmes.
Infleqtion Collaboration with Japan Moonshot Program Achieves Major Milestone: "Shunkai" Neutral Atom Quantum Computer Now Operational (24 August 2026)↗
Infleqtion's quantum processing unit powered the launch of "Shunkai," Japan's first operational full-stack neutral-atom quantum computer, developed under the JST Quantum Moonshot programme with Infleqtion as the sole foreign quantum partner selected. The milestone, targeting a roadmap toward thousands of error-corrected qubits, extends Infleqtion's international government relationships beyond the United States and signals growing allied reliance on its hardware architecture.
NASA Awards Infleqtion $20 Million as World's First Quantum Gravity Mission Advances Toward Flight (27 August 2026)↗
INASA extended its Quantum Gravity Gradiometer Pathfinder programme with a $20 million follow-on award to Infleqtion, bringing total agency investment to $40 million and moving the world's first space-based quantum gravity sensor toward a 2030 launch. The award underscores sustained government commitment to quantum sensing as a strategic capability and reinforces Infleqtion's position as a prime contractor on frontier NASA/JPL hardware programmes.
Infleqtion and Cisco Announce Collaboration to Advance Networked Quantum Technology (10 September 2026)↗
Infleqtion and Cisco launched a joint R&D effort to connect and scale distributed quantum systems, pairing Infleqtion's neutral-atom processors, atomic clocks and quantum memory with Cisco's quantum networking stack. The partnership positions Infleqtion at the intersection of quantum computing and telecommunications infrastructure, broadening its commercial pathway beyond government contracts.
Infleqtion Advances Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing Software with NVIDIA CUDA-Q Logical (14 September 2026)↗
Infleqtion integrated its open-source qLDPC error-correction library with NVIDIA's newly launched CUDA-Q Logical orchestration layer, constructing a high-rate quantum error correction code using roughly six physical qubits per logical qubit — a fivefold improvement in code rate over the surface-code baseline and Infleqtion's first result below the 10:1 physical-to-logical ratio it has targeted for near-term systems. The milestone, disclosed alongside Infleqtion's presence at IEEE Quantum Week 2026 in Toronto, directly addresses one of the central cost barriers to commercially useful fault-tolerant quantum computing and reinforces Infleqtion's positioning at the software layer of the quantum stack, not just hardware.
Infleqtion CTO Pranav Gokhale Receives 2026 IEEE Quantum Distinguished Early Career Award (15 September 2026)↗
Infleqtion co-founder and CTO Pranav Gokhale has been named a recipient of the 2026 IEEE Quantum Technical Community Distinguished Early Career Award, recognising his contributions to quantum computing research, software and the development of practical quantum systems. The award, presented at IEEE Quantum Week in Toronto, reflects the growing recognition of Infleqtion's leadership in bridging quantum hardware and software to accelerate real-world deployment.
ALL.SPACE - York Space
ALL.SPACE Awarded Department of War Innovation Unit Contract for Adaptive Space Manufacturing and Integration at Scale (31 August 2026) ↗
The Defense Innovation Unit awarded ALL.SPACE an Other Transaction agreement under its "10ⁿ" initiative to address U.S. space-hardware supply-chain bottlenecks, tasking the company with demonstrating rapid, flight-qualified production of its Hydra SATCOM terminal at rates of hundreds of units per month. The award validates ALL.SPACE's manufacturing scalability as a differentiator in the resilient-communications terminal market and deepens its standing with U.S. defence innovation channels.
ALL.SPACE Hydra-4 and NAVSYS PNTaaS: The Nexus of SATCOM and PNT (3 September 2026)↗
ALL.SPACE and NAVSYS demonstrated a combined SATCOM and position-navigation-timing capability during the Department of War's "Arcane Thunder" GPS-jamming exercise, maintaining connectivity and delivering alternative navigation in a fully GNSS-denied environment. The demonstration reinforces ALL.SPACE's relevance to contested-environment communications, a core pillar of allied electronic warfare resilience planning.
York Space Systems Selected for U.S. Space Force NITE-STAR Contract to Support National Space Test and Training Complex (25 August 2026)↗
The U.S. Space Force selected York Space Systems, alongside fourteen other primes, to compete for task orders under the $981 million NITE-STAR IDIQ contract supporting live and simulated test-and-training ranges for contested-environment space operations. The award extends York's national-security footprint beyond satellite manufacturing and follows its July 2026 acquisition of ALL.SPACE, positioning the combined entity to pair satellite platforms, ground infrastructure and terminal technology for integrated mission support.
Agile Space Indsutries
Agile Space Industries Celebrates Durango Headquarters Expansion with Ribbon Cutting (2 September 2026)↗
Agile Space Industries marked a 20,500-square-foot expansion of its Durango, Colorado headquarters, attended by U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper, freeing existing facility space for expanded propulsion manufacturing capacity. Management noted the business has grown more than four-fold since 2022, underscoring sustained demand for responsive-space propulsion as the company scales physical infrastructure to match order flow.
Pragmatic Semiconductor
Pragmatic Semiconductor Awarded RFID Product Gold Prize at IOTE 2026 Innovation Awards (26 August 2026)↗
Pragmatic won the RFID Product Gold Prize at the IOTE 2026 Innovation Awards in Shenzhen for its NFC Connect and NFC Protect product portfolio, alongside introducing a dedicated Chinese brand identity. The recognition, paired with a formal China market push, extends Pragmatic's commercial reach for low-cost flexible electronics beyond its core UK and Western markets.
Pragmatic Semiconductor Appoints Dr Paul James as Executive Vice President Manufacturing & Operations (8 September 2026)↗
Pragmatic Semiconductor appointed Dr Paul James, a 25-year semiconductor manufacturing veteran most recently of Vishay Newport (formerly Nexperia), as EVP of Manufacturing & Operations to lead its Pragmatic Park FlexIC fab in North East England. The hire signals a deliberate scaling of production leadership as the company moves from pilot to volume manufacturing of flexible integrated circuits.
Kraken Robotics
Kraken Robotics Reports Q2 2026 Financial Results (27 August 2026)↗
Kraken Robotics reported standalone Q2 2026 revenue of CA$27.3 million, up 4% year-over-year, with combined 2026 orders (including newly acquired Covelya Group) reaching approximately CA$355 million and full-year guidance reaffirmed. The quarter's new long-term master supply agreement to provide subsea batteries to an international XL-UUV manufacturer extends Kraken's position in the underwater autonomous systems supply chain ahead of Covelya's first full quarter of contribution.
MARKET WATCH
Castelion Raises $1 Billion Series C to Scale Hypersonic Missile Production (19 August 2026)↗
Castelion raised $1 billion at a $13 billion valuation, co-led by JPMorgan's Strategic Investment Group, Andreessen Horowitz and Carlyle, to scale production of its low-cost, mass-producible Blackbeard hypersonic strike missile. The round is among the largest defence-tech venture financings to date and signals continued institutional capital appetite for mass-producible strike systems.
AnySignal Wins Space Force Contract for Space-to-Space Communications (20 August 2026)↗
AnySignal secured a U.S. Space Force contract to demonstrate resilient satellite-to-satellite communications supporting a space data transport backbone, extending its existing MILSATCOM and mesh-networking work into contested-environment applications. The award adds to a growing set of Space Force investments in resilient, decentralized space communications architectures.
Poland Leads $2.2 Billion Multinational Deal for Piorun Air-Defence Missiles (24–25 August 2026)↗
Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Norway signed an approximately $2.2 billion framework agreement with Polish manufacturer MESKO/PGZ for combat-proven Piorun man-portable air-defence systems, with deliveries through 2030. The pooled procurement deal reflects growing intra-European coordination on sovereign air-defence capability and Poland's emergence as a regional defence-industrial supplier.
NSF Invests $290 Million in Eight Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes (25 August 2026)↗
The National Science Foundation committed over $290 million across eight institutes spanning 36 universities to advance fault-tolerant computing, quantum networking and sensing, with DOE, DoD, NIST and more than 30 companies as partners. The programme broadens the U.S. quantum research base and workforce pipeline underpinning long-term sector growth.
U.S. Army Awards $192 Million to Palantir and Anduril to Move TITAN to Production (1–2 September 2026)↗
The Army moved its TITAN tactical intelligence targeting platform from prototype to production, awarding $127 million to Palantir for AI software and $65 million to Anduril for ruggedized hardware. The award confirms continued Army commitment to AI-enabled sensor fusion for long-range fires as a production, not experimental, priority.
AeroVironment Wins Nearly $500 Million Army Laser Weapon Contract (2 September 2026)↗
AeroVironment secured a $464.8 million Army contract to manufacture 30-kilowatt LOCUST X3 laser weapons under the Enduring-High Energy Laser programme for counter-drone defence. The award reflects a broader shift toward generator-powered directed-energy systems as a lower-cost alternative to interceptor missiles for layered counter-UAS defence.
Quantinuum Finalizes $100 Million CHIPS R&D Award with U.S. Department of Commerce (8 September 2026)↗
Quantinuum finalized a $100 million federal award, the only CHIPS R&D funding granted to a trapped-ion quantum computing firm, to build a domestic manufacturing supply chain with GlobalFoundries and Monarch Quantum. The award reflects continued U.S. policy prioritization of onshore quantum hardware manufacturing.
GlobalFoundries Finalizes $375 Million CHIPS Award for Quantum Chip Manufacturing (8 September 2026)↗
GlobalFoundries secured up to $375 million in milestone-based CHIPS funding to scale its Quantum Technology Solutions business, aiming to move quantum computing firms from prototyping to commercial-scale, U.S.-based chip production. The award reinforces semiconductor manufacturing as a strategic bottleneck the U.S. government is actively funding to relieve.
SandboxAQ Completes Flight Test of AQNav Quantum Navigation on Northrop Grumman's Lumberjack UAS (9 September 2026)↗
SandboxAQ and Northrop Grumman flew a GPS-independent magnetic navigation system on an attritable one-way-attack drone, marking the first reported pairing of MagNav with visual navigation on such a platform. The test advances GNSS-denied navigation as a near-term operational capability for low-cost autonomous systems.
Mach Industries Raises $600 Million Extension, Doubling Valuation to $3.7 Billion (10 September 2026)↗
Autonomous systems manufacturer Mach Industries closed a $600 million Series C extension just three months after its original raise, doubling its valuation to $3.7 billion to fund expanded U.S. defence manufacturing capacity. The rapid re-up illustrates the pace at which capital is being deployed into domestic drone and autonomous-systems manufacturing.
Army Awards $196 Million for First Production Contracts Under New Electronic Warfare Rapid-Acquisition Programme (11 September 2026)↗
The Army made its first production awards under the REWSI rapid-acquisition pathway, granting $99 million to Heaviside Industries for a spectrum-analyzer sensor and $96.9 million to Research Innovations for an AI-driven electronic warfare sensor. The awards demonstrate accelerating procurement timelines for commercial RF sensing and electronic warfare technology entering service.