🔷 ELITE training tech

ELITE

Modern warfighters must train for high-end conflict in an era of rapidly evolving technology—but their training environments haven’t kept pace.

Advanced Strategic Insight (ASI Inc.) is one of the companies trying to change that with a product called ELITE (Expendable Low-cost Integrated Training Emitter).

Designed by former Weapons and Tactics Instructors, ELITE fills a critical gap: providing realistic, affordable, and scalable surface-to-air threat emitters for training. Unlike traditional, expensive systems, ELITE is compact, rapidly deployable, and expendable, enabling full kill-chain training—from detection to engagement.

ELITE doesn’t replace exquisite, high-end threat emitters; it complements them, adding mass and mobility to modern training. Its novel approach—leveraging commercial spectrum and unique aircraft programming—lets units train locally, reducing the need for high-end ranges.

With a web-based interface, operators can control it remotely from anywhere in the world.

Most notably, ELITE was built for F-35 training. Its unique signal is integrated into U.S. F-35 Mission Data Files (MDF) and managed by the 513th Electronic Warfare Squadron.

And the best part? ELITE is cheap—so cheap that units can afford to buy and expend them using end-of-year funds.

That’s the high-level view. For the full story, we sat down with ASI’s ELITE program manager—a former Marine Corps F-35 pilot—to explore how this low-end technology is improving high-end warfighter readiness.

Check it out!

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In That Number

548.5 hours

Boeing flew a total of 548.5 hours in their 2 company-owned T-7 production representative jets (PRJ), but the Pentagon has determined those hours will not count towards the test and evaluation because they are “substantially different” than the production T-7s delivered to date.

TRIVIA

On this day in 1952, this famous person was flying a combat mission in the Korean War when his F9F Panther jet fighter was struck by anti-aircraft fire. With the jet on fire, this person flew the crippled jet back to base, performed a wheel-up belly landing, skidded down the runway—and walked away from the burning aircraft.

Who was it?

[Hint: he flew on the wing of John Glenn, a future astronaut and Senator.]

A) Buzz Aldrin
B) Neil Armstrong 
C) Chuck Yeager
D) Ted Williams
E) Mickey Mantle

On the Radar

The Pentagon wants to cut the red tape on Foreign Military Sales (FMS), the process the US uses to sell domestically-produced weapons to partners and allies. The press briefing stated an ambitious goal of reducing delivery times from 7 years down to 3 years.

• The Merge’s Take: This has massive first and second-order effects—if it can be pulled off. First, FMS has exploded since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In 2021, FMS totaled $35B but jumped to $50B in 2022 and kept growing—it hit $66B in 2023 and is estimated to approach $100B in 2024. Reducing the red tape means allies can get US equipment faster and easier, making US products more competitive in the international market—a way to sustain this year-over-year growth. The bad news: FMS reform attempts have tried and failed; the most recent attempt was in 2023 and has had virtually no impact. A DOGE project, perhaps?

Saudi Arabia’s fighter jet drama continues. Eurofighters and F-15SAs dominate its fighter fleet, but the kingdom has been actively shopping for new jets in recent years. Interest has ranged from the F-35 to a complicated F-15EX-Eurofighter-Rafale balancing act—and, more recently, a tease to buy 100 Turkish KAAN fighters. This week, Leonardo floated a new angle: buy more Eurofighters as a stepping stone to joining the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP), the U.K.-Italy-Japan 6th-gen fighter effort. Meanwhile, reports suggest Saudi Arabia has firmly ruled out the Rafale, just months after France indicated a deal was close.

• The Merge’s Take: Selling fighter jets to Saudi Arabia could be a mini-series drama, and 2025 is shaping up to be the series finale. They have wanted the F-35 since 2017, but the US has remained unresponsive—but that could be changing. It appears the French Rafale was turned down to make political room to renew the F-35 conversation with the new US administration. If that happens or even shows signs of progress, expect to see a ton of coverage (and opinions). OBTW, the administration just offered the F-35 to India.

They Said It
“burn it down to its smoldering foundations and let it vanish into history”

— a Hudson Institute report on the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS), the process by which the Pentagon creates requirements to justify what weapon systems it buys and how they should look.

This report has some really good analysis and some of the most well-structured explanations and critiques we’ve seen. Highly recommended reading for anyone in defense—from uniform to industry.

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Knowledge Bombs

• Anduril was awarded a $8.4m SBIR phase III contract ($99m ceiling) for the Air Force’s AFWERX to rapidly prototype autonomy projects using its Lattice SDK (software development kit)

• L3Harris unveiled software to manage autonomous swarms

• Algeria confirms its buying Russian Su-57 fighters, making it the jet’s first export customer

• Russia offers Su-57 engines (AL-41s) for India’s 270-jet Su-30MKI upgrades (currently AL-31s)

• Helsing opened its first drone factory that can build 1,000 loitering munitions a month (video of a batch of HX-2 high-speed autonomous strike drones is worth the click)

• BAE is developed a hypersonic projectile compatible with existing equipment for the Army (155mm artillery) and Navy (5-inch guns)

• Firefly was awarded a $21.8m launch contract for the Space Forces’ quick-reaction space program

• Cummings & ATRX are teaming up to develop affordable supersonic and hypersonic drones

• The Air Force paused Sentinel ICBM work on the design and construction of the launch facilities

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ANSWER
D. While A through D all flew fighter jets during the Korean War, it was Marine Corps Captain (and future baseball hall of famer) Ted Williams who belly-landed his F9F Panther. He flew about half his combat missions with John Glenn, who was a Marine (Buzz Aldrin and Chuck Yeager were in the Air Force; Neil Armstrong served in the Navy). Ted Williams on flying: “I liked flying. It was the second-best thing that ever happened to me. If I hadn’t had baseball to come back to, I might have gone on as a Marine pilot.”