🔷 Saved Rounds 1.21.25

Welcome to Tuesday's Saved Rounds, where we send out all the goodies we couldn't squeeze into our Sunday newsletter.

🫵 Your mission: Read. Enjoy. Learn. Share.

📺 PODCAST: Check it out on YouTube or download the podcast on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your content.

💎 GIVEAWAY! Here are the SPINS:

• Locate your super special referral links (here or at the bottom of this email)

• Share the Merge using that link

• Increase your odds of winning (1 referral = 1 entry)

We’ll pick the winner next week.

OBTW: use “MERGE25” for 25 FREE PATCHES ($169 Value) with any new custom order from Baddass Patches.

They Said It
“I think, on any cost-plus contract that we do, industry lies, okay? I mean, they do, they lie.”

— Frank Calvelli, outgoing Air Force space acquisition czar

The rhetoric continues to increase on cost-plus vs fixed price contracts for defense tech. It’s a nerdy nuance that’s actually incredibly important for industry and the warfighter.

Sounds like a feature topic or podcast episode idea…

Word of the Week

Cooperative Research and Development Agreement: a CRADA is a formal agreement between a federal organization (often a research lab) and a private sector business to exchange resources—but not federal money—to jointly research and develop technologies.

Why it Matters: Skyryse and the Army signed a CRADA to explore and integrate Skyryse’s SkyOS autonomy into Black Hawk helicopters to make them easier to operate—and optionally manned.

In that Number

400

The Navy revealed it’s fired 400 munitions countering Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

This included 120 SM-2 missiles ($2m each) and 80 SM-6 missiles ($4m each), which adds up to $560m—enough to buy 7 F-35 fighters.

 ICYMI

 Together with The AI Report

There’s a reason 400,000 professionals read this daily.

Join The AI Report, trusted by 400,000+ professionals at Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI. Get daily insights, tools, and strategies to master practical AI skills that drive results.

Sign up now for free and work smarter, not harder.

Saved Rounds

• York Space Systems & SpaceX demoed the first cross-vendor laser comm link in low Earth orbit as part of the Space Force’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) program

• Voyager Space rebranded to Voyager Technologies to focus on national security

• Prescient Edge acquired Edge Analytic Solutions, expanding its intelligence analytics portfolio

• Japan was approved to buy more JASSM-ER stealth cruise missiles for its F-15 fleet

• Palladyne AI & Red Cat completed their first successful multi-drone collaborative autonomous flight

• Stoke Space raised $260M in Series C funding to develop its launch vehicle

• Overland AI raised a $32m Series A round to advance autonomy for uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs)

• Uruguay bought 5 A-29 Super Tucanos From Embraer

• General Atomics teased a new air-launched cruise missile

• The Pentagon is planning to test a generative AI prototype tool for battlefield and theatre-level decision-making

• Teledyne FLIR secured $74.2m Coast Guard contract for imaging systems for MH-60 and MH-65 helicopters

• The Air Force is in the final phase of evaluating Microvane drag reduction tech on the C-17

• Slingshot received a Phase II SBIR contract to advance its tech that can detect and track GPS jamming from space

• Loft Orbital raised a $170M Series C funding round to advance its launch services for the Space Development Agency

• Peraton’s space weather on-orbit anomaly tool is set to become operational with the Space Force

• Saab unveiled new drone swarm technology to showcase at an upcoming exercise

• Solar Group (India) tested its counter-drone swarm system that claims to neutralize up to 64 targets simultaneously using miniature missiles

• Greece received its 24th and final Rafale fighter from Dassault Aviation

• The Netherlands awarded contracts to Airbus and Maxar to expand its space-based ISR capabilities

• Palladyne AI was awarded an AFRL contract to migrate its edge autonomy to a next-gen US chipset

• Textron unveiled a new family of drone boats named Tsunami

• Northrop Grumman was approved to produce the ballistic re-entry targets for the MDA’s $17B Next-Gen Interceptor (NGI) program

• Norway pledged $2B in military aid to Ukraine

• Lithuania plans to spend 5-6% of GDP on defense through 2030

💎 Free Merch! 💎 

Don't keep us a secret!
Share the Merge = earn free swag.
It's that simple.

You currently have 0 referrals, only 3 away from receiving Stickers.

Or copy and paste this link: https://themerge.co/subscribe?ref=PLACEHOLDER