Good Thursday morning.

🌤️ Today's weather: Mostly sunny, with a high of 97 and a low of 77.

🎂 Happy birthday to our member Bryan Austin!

Today's newsletter is 830 words — a 3-minute read.

Australian defense contractor Silentium is establishing its North American headquarters in Apex.

Why it matters: North Carolina is gaining momentum as a defense industry hub, and Silentium says that growing ecosystem helped draw it to Wake County.

• The move is also being framed as strengthening U.S.-Australian cooperation amid heightened global tensions.

Zoom in: Silentium spun out from the Australian military in 2017. The company builds difficult-to-detect radar systems that can track aircraft and drones, as well as underwater objects.

• It says it contracts with both government and commercial entities — or subcontracts, in the U.S. military's case.
• Silentium aims to have 30 to 50 employees in Apex by next summer.

Company executives say they chose the Triangle for its HQ because of North Carolina's growing prominence in defense and aerospace and its educated workers and proximity to research institutions. Silentium also considered Huntsville, Alabama.

• "North Carolina was absolutely the top of the pile," co-founder and CEO James Palmer told reporters on Tuesday. "It just offered so much in terms of access to customers and talent."
• U.S. Rep. Pat Harrigan, a Republican member of the House Armed Services Committee from North Carolina, said there has been $5 billion in new defense investment in the state over the past year.

How it works: Silentium makes "see without being seen" tech, according to Matthew Ratnesar, CEO of North American operations.

• Products include portable systems soldiers can carry in backpacks, as well as large sensors capable of detecting items in low-Earth orbit.
• "When you have a technology that actually allows you to see without being seen … you actually increase the political viability of our ability to exert force around the globe," Harrigan said.

The bottom line: Silentium's arrival gives North Carolina another foothold in the international defense industry as cheap drones redefine modern warfare.

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A paramedic responding to a 911 call on the coast recently piloted a "Jetsons"-like personal aircraft to the scene, landing in the patient's yard to begin treatment roughly 20 minutes before ambulances arrived.

Why it matters: That fast airborne response offers a glimpse of the future of emergency medical care in rural America, where hospitals are far away and time is critical to save lives.

• North Carolina has the second-largest rural population of any state — around 3.5 million people.

Driving the news: Officials in Hyde County, 1,500 swampy square miles including the Outer Banks' Ocracoke Island, say it's the first time in the U.S. this type of aircraft was used during live 911 emergency calls.

• Flight-trained paramedic Quinn Reece flew the ultralight plane to two emergency scenes, carrying advanced life support equipment that helped stabilize the patients until other emergency personnel arrived.
• Both patients — one experiencing a diabetic emergency and the other a cardiac emergency — had positive outcomes, according to the county's EMS chief, Brook Cox.

How it works: The single-passenger eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft) is lightweight enough not to need a runway; the entire aircraft tilts for vertical takeoff and landing.

Between the lines: The class of aircraft is also marketed as an urban air taxi, but this experiment points toward a potentially more realistic near-term market: helping rural emergency responders reach patients faster.

Keep reading

🏀 Former UNC basketball player Seth Trimble is transferring to Louisville after being granted a fifth year of eligibility. (ESPN)

🗳️ Roy Cooper has an 11-point lead against Republican Michael Whatley among likely voters in North Carolina's Senate race, according to a new Elon University poll. (WRAL)

🥪 Raleigh's Oakwood Deli plans to open a new location in the former JC's Kitchen space on Main Street in Durham. (Triangle Business Journal 🔒)

A Raleigh mom is lobbying for guards to be required on the undersides of tractor-trailers after losing two children in a car crash. (News & Observer)

July was the hottest month on record for the contiguous U.S., per new federal data dating back to 1895.

By the numbers: Last month's average temperature was 76.89°F, topping the 76.77-degree mark set in July 1936, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information's monthly report.

• Climatologists say it's possible that 2026 sets a new record for the hottest year globally.

Zoom in: North Carolina had its 10th-warmest July on record and hottest July 4th ever, according to the N.C. State Climate Office.

• Temps averaged 79.3°F, and reached 103 in Raleigh on Independence Day.

What we're watching: A scorching weekend lies ahead, with extreme heat advisories in effect through Monday.

• Today and tomorrow will feel like over 100 degrees, according to the forecast.

⚾️ Zachery can't stop watching wiffle ball highlights.

🫶 Mary Helen is thinking of the rural North Carolina paramedic who delivered her, her grandma Patsy King.

Thanks to Melissa Oyler for editing this newsletter.