🔷 Quicksink

In That Number

2050

The US Air Force may need to keep its aging Minuteman III nuclear missiles operational until 2050 due to delays and escalating costs in the Sentinel replacement program.

On the Radar

Quicksink. The Air Force revealed new details (and images) on Quicksink, a demo program that uses a new seeker to turn standard JDAMs into ship-killers. The recent test used a B-2 bomber dropping 2,000-pound class GBU-31s with the Quicksink seekers against an unspecified target.

• The Merge’s Take: This program is a bigger deal than it might seem. Heavyweight torpedoes are the primary method used to sink enemy ships, and there are more Chinese ships than there are torpedo-shooting platforms in the US military. Yes, there are air-launched anti-ship weapons, but those are super expensive and often require multiple hits to disable a ship. Quicksink’s unique seeker shape and tracking logic provide a low-cost method of achieving 1-shot torpedo-like seaworthy kills from the air at a much higher pace and over a much larger area. Ignore the fact it’s a gravity bomb—remember this is a seeker program and that there are modular stand-off kits. And, if you didn’t know that, you can learn all about that and the origin story of JDAM on our latest pod!

Giant railgun. Japan test-fired its 9-ton ship-mounted railgun. Its reportedly the first time a ship-mounted rail gun was successfully fired at another ship.

• The Merge’s Take: Railguns use energy to accelerate an inert projectile to hypersonic speeds and have been in various stages of development for decades. This one looks like a promising leader of that pack. For perspective, it’s capable of 20 megajoules of power. Just like you, we have no idea what that means, but we do know that in dialed-down 5 megajoule test-shots, this railgun hit Mach 6.5 muzzle velocity with its golf-ball sized 40mm steel ball ammo.

Rocket cargo. The Pentagon tapped Rocket Lab’s Neutron rocket to perform a point-to-point cargo test next year. The partially reusable Neutron rocket will undergo a launch and return mission to demonstrate rapid global cargo delivery under AFRL’s REGAL initiative (Rocket Experimentation for Global Agile Logistics). Blue Origin and Anduril were also awarded small studies contracts for REGAL—one to look at rocket mods and the other to look at payload integration into a cargo capsule.

• The Merge’s Take: Logistics isn’t exciting, but it’s what makes militaries viable. Logistics anywhere on Earth in an hour using a commercial rocket—now that’s very exciting. Be honest, you thought that picture above was a SpaceX rocket. Nope. We see you just scrolled back up to give it another look, that’s ok. At a quick glance, Neutron looks a bit like SpaceX’s Starship but is much smaller—it’s even a tad smaller than its Falcon 9 competition. Neutron is optimized for a bit less lift but faster re-use. Like SpaceX, Rocket Labs also plans to land the reusable booster at sea on a floating platform before progressing to land recoveries.

TRIVIA

During WWII, what unusual morale-boosting product did the U.S. military make and distribute to troops from specially-equipped ships and barges?

A) Fresh-baked bread
B) Ice cream
C) Hot coffee
D) M&Ms

They Said It

“Imagine being Europe’s uncontested missile prime with €4.9 billion in revenue and a €37 billion order backlog in 2024, and taking more than 3.5 years of war to present a ‘concept’ (not a product) that replicates some basic lessons of Ukraine's experience. If I sound snarky, it’s because I mean to.”

— Fabian Hoffmann, Doctoral Research Fellow at the Oslo Nuclear Project, throwing shade at MBDA after they unveiled a new cruise missile concept

The Show!

NEW EPISODE: We dig into the origin story of how GPS-aided bombs came to be, with a very special guest who helped make it happen.

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Knowledge Bombs

• The Air Force’s second B-21 bomber has taken flight

• Skunk Works & BAE launched a partnership for autonomous air systems, starting with an electronic attack platform

• ARA & Boeing were selected by the Air Force to prototype new bunker busters to replace the GBU-57 MOP

• AV delivered 20kW laser weapons to the Army

• HII & Shield AI formed a partnership to integrate Odyssey and Hivemind autonomy software

• The MDA issued a request for proposals for its $151B SHIELD contract (aka Golden Dome)

• AV won a $240M contract for long-haul laser comm terminals for deployment in orbit

• The Space Force launched its first operational Tranche 1 data satellites

• Taiwan may spend $33B in special funding to upgrade defenses against China

• General Atomics & AV achieved the first-ever air launch of the Switchblade 600 off an MQ-9

• AEVEX Aerospace acquired RapidFlight’s drone product assets

• EchoStar canceled its MDA satellite deal and sold its spectrum licenses to SpaceX for $17B

• SNC won a $471.5M SOCOM deal for logistics support and production of its Degraded Visual Environment Pilotage System (DVEPS)

• Maxar & Anduril entered a partnership for the Army’s mixed-reality C2 combat system

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ANSWER
B) Ice cream. To boost morale, the U.S. military deployed refrigerated barges and equipped ships with ice cream makers, which could produce and distribute hundreds of gallons of ice cream daily to soldiers in the Pacific Theater.