Day: July 28, 2025

• Marines completed a training exercise deploying sonobuoys for submarine hunting from an MV-22 Osprey aircraft.
• The event marks increased Marine and Navy coordination in anti-submarine warfare.
• Sonobuoys can detect enemy submarines, allowing them to be targeted for attack.

Marines just wrapped up a training exercise that saw troops tossing sonobuoys out of the back of MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, part of an effort meant to boost how the Marines and Navy can work together to fight enemy submarines.

“We’re past the question of whether the Marine Corps can contribute to ASW,” said Navy Capt. Bill Howey, director of maritime operations for Commander, Submarine Group Two, in a press release on the training. “Now we’re refining how they contribute and then integrating that into the fleet playbook.”

Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) involves detecting, tracking, and neutralizing enemy submarines using specialized ships, aircraft, sonar systems, and underwater weapons. It is a critical component of naval defense aimed at protecting fleets and strategic waterways from hidden underwater threats, though it hasn’t traditionally been a mission in which Marines have been involved.

Expendable sonobuoys, like those used in the exercise, are launched, or in this case dropped, from the air (from fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft and uncrewed airborne platforms) and are used for detecting and tracking submarines. They can also help with targeting subs for a torpedo attack.

The recent training was part of a yearslong reshuffling for the Marine Corps from fighting counterinsurgency warfare in the Middle East toward peer-level warfare against adversarial nations like China or Russia. It seems to be among the first times the DoD has relied on the Osprey for sonobuoy deployment.

Maj. Sean T. Penczak, the executive officer of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 162 said that “the Osprey’s unique capabilities as a tiltrotor aircraft allow it to excel within the framework of distributed aviation operations and expeditionary advanced base operations.”

“Its ability to cover long ranges with a payload comparable to the P-8, while maximizing time on station for time-critical tasking, has made it highly effective in the anti-submarine warfare arena— demonstrating its versatility and value as emerging threats continue to evolve,” he said of the Osprey.

The other aircraft Penczak referenced is Boeing’s P-8 Poseidon airplane, which is based on the civilian 737-800 and was created for maritime missions like anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare. The plane can deploy torpedoes and anti-ship missiles and serves as a premier airborne ASW platform.

NATO countries have stepped up their anti-submarine warfare efforts in recent years in the Atlantic Ocean and Arctic amid more frequent Russian submarine activity. They are also ramping up efforts to combat unintentional damage and sabotage to undersea cables and critical infrastructure, sometimes relying on sensor systems, uncrewed surveillance, and patrols.

Sonobuoys like the ones used recently aren’t new to the US military’s arsenal of submarine detection tools, though they are a new tool for Marines. The sensors were developed during World War II in response to German U-boats’ attacks on Allied vessels in the Atlantic.

A DoD technical paper described this tech as a “simple, reliable, inexpensive, technically complex, adaptive, and effective device that has been produced by the millions and used for almost seventy years.”

“A few years ago, the idea of Marines flying [anti-submarine warfare] missions might have raised eyebrows,” Col. James C. Derrick, commanding officer, Marine Aircraft Group 26, said in his statement. “Now we’re doing it as part of the plan, using the Osprey’s unique capabilities to help enable naval maneuver.”

• Xpanceo says smart contact lenses will be the computing interface of the future.
• The Dubai-based startup has raised $250 million at a $1.35 billion valuation.
• Here’s the pitch deck laying out its team, product road map, and more.

Smart contact lens startup Xpanceo announced earlier this month that it has raised $250 million in Series A funding, valuing the company at $1.35 billion.

In the coming years, the Dubai-based startup envisions contact lenses that could offer augmented reality, night vision, and zoom, health tracking through tear fluid, and other features.

“The initial idea was to merge all the screens you have into one limitless screen,” and to arm wearers with “new abilities,” said cofounder and managing partner Roman Axelrod, a 35-year-old serial entrepreneur. He said the company’s unicorn status is a sign it’s on the right path.

Physicist Valentyn Volkov also cofounded Xpanceo.

Hong Kong-based Opportunity Venture led the funding round, which also led Xpanceo’s $40 million seed round in 2023. The funds will go to product development and expanding the company’s team, which consists of about 100 employees.

Xpanceo has built 15 prototype lenses, including ones that can charge wirelessly and measure interocular pressure, or eye fluid pressure. It aims to combine these capabilities into one lens by early 2027 and begin seeking FDA approval.

After that, it plans to start on narrow business use cases, such as working with medical organizations on lenses that can measure interocular pressure. That’s because launching a first-generation product to the consumer market can be “suicide,” Axelrod said, nodding to Humane and Rabbit. Both AI wearables weathered negative reviews, and Humane’s device was discontinued.

Business customer projects could arrive as soon as 2028, and the lenses could be available to the public in the early 2030s, he said. In the future, lenses could be controlled by eye tracking, tongue movements, or voice control, the company said.

Xpanceo isn’t alone in attempting to solve the complexity of smart contact lenses. Google and Samsung began exploring the field roughly a decade ago.

Here’s a look at the pitch deck Xpanceo used to raise $250 million. One slide has been edited in order to share the deck publicly.