CACI's counter-drone award pulled the defense primes up 6% while speculative NewSpace sold off and Frequency Electronics gave back 9% — capital rotated from pure-play space into defense-anchored names.

CACI International led, up 6.1% to $467.43, after the Department of War moved its SkyValor counter-UAS system into full-rate production with a Southern Border deployment award and analysts lifted price targets. For the space desk CACI matters through the optical-terminals chokepoint — it builds the laser intersatellite terminals that set space-network bandwidth — so a defense-services name with a laser-comms foothold catching a counter-drone bid pulled the primes with it: Northrop +2.5% to $525.28, L3Harris +2.7% to $285.16, Boeing +1.9% to $208.65, and Karman (KRMN) +2.0% to $47.59.

Frequency Electronics was the laggard, down 9.3% to $72.39, giving back part of a sharp weekly run. FEIM owns the atomic-clocks-PNT chokepoint — the rubidium timing references that make GPS-denied navigation work — but fiscal 2026 has been soft (Q3 revenue -10.8%, operating income -63.4% on government-order timing) and the stock drew a downgrade on margin and cash headwinds. With shares having spiked from the mid-$50s over the week, the pullback reads as a positioning unwind against a record backlog, not a demand crack.

Pure-play space had a rough session even as the primes rose. The SpaceX tracker (SPCX) fell 6.7% to $115.26, BlackSky -4.7% to $22.49, Redwire -4.6% to $8.99, Intuitive Machines -3.8% to $14.09, Satellogic -3.7% to $3.76, Planet -2.2% to $22.60, and AST SpaceMobile -2.2% to $61.95. Launch was steadier — Rocket Lab +0.9% to $69.75. The split says capital rotated out of speculative NewSpace and into the defense-anchored, appropriations-backed end of the vertical.

The print run is heavy: L3Harris, STMicroelectronics, and Teledyne report today (July 23), Iridium July 24. Then Firefly Aug 4; BlackSky and Rocket Lab — Rocket Lab's first full quarter owning Mynaric/CONDOR laser terminals — Aug 6; and CACI's fiscal Q4 Aug 7. Northrop/DARPA's RSGS servicing-vehicle launch (Aug 15) and the SmallSat conference (Aug 23) frame the optical-terminals and on-orbit-servicing theses for the back half of summer.