Raytheon will build at least 1,900 AMRAAMs a year under a five-year $20.7B Department of War award.

In parallel, Raytheon was awarded a similar $24.4B contract for Standard Missile-6 production.

Reaper replacement. The Air Force and DIU narrowed the Massed Modular Aircraft competition to replace the MQ-9 down to 7 companies: Anduril, Chaos Industries, General Atomics, Grid Aero, Otto Aerospace, Shield AI and Swarm Aero. Each will propose a prototype for the $10M-class aircraft, with very different approaches to meeting the 2,300+ nm combat radius and 2,800+ lb payload requirement. The field is unusually non-traditional—none of GA’s six competitors existed when the MQ-9 first flew—and the stakes are high: the ‘500 aircraft by 2032’ goal implies a ~$5B competition before sensors and control systems.

A four-star for drones. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the Autonomous Warfare Command, a new four-star command with service-like authorities over autonomous and robotic systems across the joint force. Project Agincourt will build the pathway over the next year for a planned October 2027 stand-up.

Boeing wins F/A-XX. The Navy selected Boeing over Northrop Grumman for F/A-XX, awarding a $20B+ development contract. The 6th-gen fighter will replace the F/A-18E/F and EA-18G fleets in the late 2030s. With the previous F-47 win, Boeing now owns both U.S. 6th-gen fighter programs.

$830M+ evaporated. October 1st signaled the start of FY2027, and of course, it starts under a continuing resolution. Most years, the biggest impact to the Pentagon is that it can’t start new programs until Congress passes a budget—this year it’s blocking over 150 new starts. But this year is extra special…in a bad way. Remember the extra $152B in reconciliation funding last year? It had a 10/1/26 expiration date if the Pentagon couldn't obligate it all, plus a penalty on top. Well, the Pentagon only managed to obligate $142B of the $152B before the deadline, and the penalty on that $10B delta equates to roughly $830M in across-the-board spending cuts on the $142B that was just put on contract.

TRIVIA

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite. Roughly the size of a beach ball, what did it carry aboard?

A) cameras
B) radio transmitters
C) dog named Laika
D) radiation detector

NEW EPISODE!

Mike talks with Jim Becker, President and CEO of Perfect Point EDM, about the E-Drill, a tool that removes fasteners with electro discharge machining instead of mechanical drilling or pulling.

This is our first-ever episode that looks at new technology in the maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) side of defense and aerospace.

“There is no ‘fit-for-purpose’ investment model for the space in—when a promising technology has not yet been demonstrated and produced.”

— AIA-Bain study, on the funding gap between high-risk R&D that attracts venture capital and mature production that attracts private equity

Venture capital into defense went from $1B in 2019 to about $10B in 2025, which is why there are so many startups. On the other hand, private equity in defense totals just $1B to $3B a year.

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ANSWER
B) Two radio transmitters. Sputnik’s unmistakable radio beeps announced the beginning of the Space Age. Laika the dog flew aboard Sputnik 2 a month later, and America’s Explorer 1 carried the detector that helped discover the Van Allen radiation belts.