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- 🔷 Saved Rounds 1.7.25
🔷 Saved Rounds 1.7.25
Welcome to Tuesday's Saved Rounds, where we send out all the goodies we couldn't squeeze into our Sunday newsletter.
There is/was a glitch in our social media links on Sunday, but we fixed it. Here they are for you to tap and follow.
Disposable Cargo Drones
Get an exclusive inside look at Silent Arrow, a cargo drone that is revolutionizing logistics.
In our latest episode, we sat down with Chip Yates, CEO of Yates Electrospace. They make Silent Arrow, a product line of disposable cargo drones that fly dozens—even hundreds—of miles yet are cost-effective enough to be discarded after a single use.
Beyond the tech, Chip shares his decade-long journey in the defense industry, offering insights into affordable, executable innovation in an industry full of giant companies and complex technology.
They have exciting things coming in 2025 that you won’t hear anywhere else.
Check it out!
In that Number
9.4%
Japan approved a 9.4% increase in defense spending for FY2025.
This follows a massive 16.5% increase in FY2024. This is all part of Japan’s Defense Buildup Program, a 5-year modernization sprint to build deterrence for the region. The plan launched in 2022 and will be reflected in FY23 through FY27 budgets.
ICYMI
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Saved Rounds
BAE flight tested it’s large, weird-looking tilt-body STRIX drone
Denmark committed $303m for Ukrainian defenses (includes F-16 sustainment)
Saudi Arabia might buy 100 Turkish Kaan fighter jets
Israel signed a $583m deal to sell Barak air defenses
The NRO now has over 100 spy satellites in low Earth orbit
L3Harris demoed a new real-time electronic warfare capability
Australia received its last 9 F-35As, completing its order of 72 jets
Lockheed Martin delivered the 100th F-35C fighter
Ukraine unveiled a new indigenous ISR drone
Outbound Aerospace revealed its Blended-Wing Body airliner concept
Iceye raised an additional $65m in funding to extend its Series E raise
Kratos was awarded a $6.5m DARPA contract for hypersonic flight testing
PDW was awarded over $15m in Army contracts for its Group 2 ISR drone
SNC was cleared to proceed on the Army's bizjet spy plane contract after L3Harris lost its protest
Taiwan’s Navy is buying domestically-built loitering munitions
The Air Force and industry are developing a new set of SAE standards for aircraft data
Baykar acquired Italy’s Piaggio Aerospace
BAE’s solar-powered High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS) completed a 24-hour test flight at 66,000 feet
Raytheon received a $282m contract for Lot 11 production of its StormBreaker glide munitions
Poland purchased an undisclosed number of MQ-9B Sky Guardian drones for $310m
TILT Autonomy introduced a Power over Ethernet (PoE) solution to simplify integrating Starlink onto drones
RTX was cleared to sell a whopping 1,200 AIM-120 missiles to Japan ($3.6B package)
Peraton booked $250m in classified contracts last quarter
General Atomics is selling MQ-9B SkyGuardian drones to Canada
Portugal ordered 12 A-29N Super Tucano aircraft from Embraer (the ‘N’ is a NATO variant)
Embraer sold 4 A-29 Super Tucanos to Africa (customer not disclosed)
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