This Week in Dual-Use by Sam Burrell

Jan. 14 , 2025 - Major developments in dual-use and defence tech.

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US used kamikaze drones in Venezuela

Footage from Venezuela shows Shahed-style kamikaze drones used in an operation against Maduro, likely American LUCAS drones, though the Pentagon hasn’t confirmed this. LUCAS is a low-cost U.S. drone reverse-engineered from Iran’s Shahed-136, marking its first use in a complex combined-arms operation and reflecting tactics seen in Ukraine. At roughly $35k per unit, it highlights a shift from expensive missiles to the attritable mass concept that defence officials like to talk about. It will be interesting to see whether Europe will follow suit.

China turns cargo ship into drone aircraft carrier

China is testing a cargo ship fitted with an electromagnetic launch system to deploy large combat drones, signalling a willingness to experiment with naval drone carriers rather than showcasing a mature capability. While Western navies have used UAVs at sea for years, this marks a shift toward operating larger uncrewed combat aircraft from dedicated platforms. Alongside moves by firms like Korea’s Hanwha and U.S.-based Havoc AI to develop uncrewed ships, it highlights how maritime power and naval warfare are rapidly evolving toward unmanned systems.

China achieves quantum error correction with microwaves

Chinese researchers have demonstrated fault-tolerant quantum error correction using an all-microwave approach, the first such result outside the US and a sign that China is closing the gap with leaders like Google. Since robust error correction is a key requirement for useful quantum computing, this result raises the prospect that China—not just Western firms—could be first to scale to hundreds of logical qubits, challenging Western technological dominance in the field.

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Samuel Burrell is a Partner at Expeditions, investing in the future of security in Europe.

His weekly newsletter covers developments in dual-use and defence technologies, picking out the changes in the sector, giving them context and analysis.