Hypersonic Spending Surge Brings A New Wave Of Defense Execution Talent Into The Commercial Space Race

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Issued on behalf of Starfighters Space, Inc.

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As Washington pours capital into hypersonic test infrastructure and missile defense modernization, the public space-and-defense complex is racing to hire the operators who can convert contracts into delivered hardware.

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., May 29, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Energy Metal News News Commentary — U.S. defense and space spending is running through one of the most intense procurement cycles in decades. The Department of War’s Test Resource Management Center is funding sustained hypersonic flight test campaigns, the Space Force is awarding multi-hundred-million-dollar ground-system primacy contracts, NATO allies are placing high-eight-figure orders for tactical drone systems, and the Aegis missile defense program continues to receive nine-figure modifications for Indo-Pacific theater work. The execution bottleneck across the entire complex is increasingly the same: talent. Companies that can hire from Blue Origin, SpaceX, and the major defense primes are pulling ahead. Watching that dynamic play out across Starfighters Space, Inc. (NYSE American: FJET), AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV), Redwire Corporation (NYSE: RDW), Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: KTOS), and Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) gives investors a window into who is winning the build-out race.

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The dollars are real and they are moving. AeroVironment just secured a three-year, $43 million Department of War contract to integrate its PANTHER (Phased Array Next-gen Telemetry Hypersonic Emitter Receiver) phased-array antenna system on SkyRange platforms. Redwire was awarded a multi-year, high eight-figure NATO contract for its Penguin Mk3 uncrewed aerial system, plus a separate $15 million U.S. Army follow-on for the Stalker UAS. Kratos was named prime contractor on a Space Force Other Transaction Agreement with a total potential value of $446.8 million, contingent on the exercise of all options, for the Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking ground program. Lockheed Martin received a $407.16 million Aegis Guam System contract modification on May 7. The common thread: the Pentagon is buying capacity, and capacity is built by experienced people.

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Starfighters Space, Inc. (NYSE American: FJET) is one of the companies actively pulling that talent in. On May 7, 2026, Starfighters announced the appointment of two senior leaders out of Blue Origin — Jose Arias as Vice President, Space Operations, and Catrina L. Medeiros as Director, STARLAUNCH Operations. Mr. Arias, who joins from Blue Origin where he served as Senior Manufacturing Engineer and Integration & Production Lead across propulsion system hardware, oversees all space-related operations for the Company. Ms. Medeiros, who comes from Blue Origin’s New Glenn Stage 2 and Precision Cleaning Facility programs, leads execution of the Wind Tunnel in the Sky and STARLAUNCH programs under Mr. Arias’s direction. Both bring deep experience executing and scaling complex aerospace systems from development through production — capabilities that are increasingly critical as Starfighters shifts from demonstration to sustained, high-frequency mission execution.

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That talent build-out is happening in parallel with one of the most active stretches of news flow Starfighters has produced. In April, the Company expanded its Technical Interchange Agreement with Blackstar Orbital to advance flight testing of reusable hypersonic SpaceDrone systems aboard its F-104 fleet. Later that month, Starfighters introduced its F-104 Airborne Aerodynamic Test Platform for U.S. defense applications — a system capable of replicating the first 30 seconds of vertical rocket launch dynamics in a recoverable, repeatable, airborne envelope. The Company also joined the NSF-backed C-STARS Consortium at Kennedy Space Center, formalizing its place inside the U.S. academic research pipeline for advanced flight and space systems.

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Most recently, on May 22, 2026, Starfighters announced a $17.5 million strategic equity investment led by global institutional investors. The capital is earmarked specifically for operational expansion, infrastructure development, and continued advancement of the STARLAUNCH platform toward targeted future space demonstration missions over the next 18 to 24 months, subject to regulatory approvals and program execution.