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🎧 ON THE POD: We chat with Nominal on how their software accelerates hardware engineering and testing! Check it out on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube. Feed the algorithm with a rating and a comment!
In That Number
up to $30M
The Pentagon’s first-ever Strategic Breakthrough opportunity is open and worth up to $30M for low-cost hypersonic missiles.
Strategic Breakthrough is a new funding pathway that Congress created earlier this year. It builds off SBIR Phase II work.
On the Radar
GA-ASI
Navy CCA. The Navy posted an RFI for a carrier-based Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), intending to have 2 prototypes ready for shore-based carrier qualifications within 3 years, flown through the MD-5 system that controls the MQ-25.
The Merge's Take: This is nothing like the current crop of CCAs. The Navy wants something that carries 4 external weapons up to 2,500 lbs. each (think LRASM-sized)…that takes up no more deck space than a Super Hornet…and costs less than $30 million per unit. Rough payload-to-MTOW math suggests this is 8-10X heavier than the FQ-42 and FQ-44 CCAs the Air Force is flying, and 2X the weight of Shield AI’s X-BAT concept. Oddly, the RFI doesn't list range—from a service fighting a generational retreat from range—so keep an eye on the fuel-payload trade space.
American Rheinmetall
Bradley replacement prototypes arrive. American Rheinmetall and General Dynamics Land Systems both delivered their first XM30 prototypes to the Army. Both carry the 50mm XM913 cannon, hybrid-electric drive, a remote turret, and a two-person crew with six passengers in the hull. FY2027 budget documents show a plan to field in 2029 and deliver at least 108 vehicles by 2031.
The Merge's Take: This is the Army’s 4th attempt to replace the Bradley since 1999 (Future Combat Systems, canceled in 2009; Ground Combat Vehicle, canceled in 2014; and the original OMFV competition, scrapped in 2020). And there’s no commitment that this one will work either—the Army will put them through an NTC rotation and is already signaling that it may not result in a selection. Even then, the 108-vehicle budget wedge doesn’t mean much when compared to the roughly 2,500 Bradleys in service. Someone really needs to make a sequel to The Pentagon Wars.
TRIVIA
On this day in 1972, Viktor Belenko defected from the Soviet Union to the U.S. via Japan. How did he do it?
A) jumped out of a cargo plane
B) stole a fighter jet
C) hijacked a passenger aircraft
The Show!
Mike sits down with Jenn Wilson, Head of Federal at Nominal, to talk about test and evaluation and how their software helps accelerate the process.
Check it out!
They Said It
“There’s no doubt if we try and pursue the exact same approach that we had with things like the MQ-9, we’re going to get something that costs about the same as an MQ-9.”
— Lt. Gen. Christopher Niemi, Air Force chief modernization officer, on the push to field a cheaper Reaper replacement called Mass Modular Aircraft at roughly $10M a copy
Knowledge Bombs
L3Harris debuted the first podded Viper Shield (233 orders)
Hermeus picked Anduril's Lattice to fly its Quarterhorse drone
The Pentagon signed deals to 3X PAC-3 and 4X THAAD output
Albacore won a Navy deal for strike UUVs with a 1,000-mile range
Stratom won a TRANSCOM deal for an autonomous pallet loader
Integrate DG won a $27M Army IDIQ for its Group 3 drones
SPARC AI debuted a GPS-free positioning network for drones
Smack raised a $61M Series B for wrist-worn AI displays
Palantir & Anduril received $192M for TITAN production
GE Aerospace won a DIU contract for a hypersonic test bed
AeroVironment won a $464M Army deal for laser weapons
Heven AeroTech opened a factory for hydrogen-powered drones
Auterion & Airlogix began building 5,000 strike drones for Ukraine
Heaviside won a $99M Army IDIQ for handheld drone detectors
The Pentagon wants a new family of maneuverable hypersonics
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ANSWER
B) On September 6, 1972, Lt. Viktor Belenko of the Soviet Air Defense Forces defected by flying a MiG-25 Foxbat to a civilian airport, landed with 30 seconds of fuel remaining, and ran off the end of the runway.
The event turned into an intelligence bonanza. Until this point, the U.S. had very little intel on the MiG-25. The jet was disassembled, analyzed, and eventually returned to the Soviet Union in boxes. Viktor Belenko was granted political asylum, moved to the U.S., and later became a consultant to the U.S. military and aerospace industry.
Lt. Viktor Belenko’s MiG-25 sitting in the field off the runway after defecting [creative commons]
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