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- 🔷 Saved Rounds 10.22.24
🔷 Saved Rounds 10.22.24
Welcome to Tuesday's Saved Rounds, where we send out all the goodies we couldn't squeeze into our Sunday newsletter.
🔷 REMINDER: We’re doing a massive giveaway to celebrate our milestone—scroll for details!
💤 BREAK: Next week, there will be no emails—nada—so we can refuel. The Merge will be back in your inbox in November!
Word of the Week
mHABs: Micro High-Altitude Balloons (mHABs) loft ISR sensing payloads to the upper edges of the stratosphere — roughly between 60,000 and 100,000 feet.
Why it Matters: The US Army—yes, the Army—is going all in on HABs. mHABs are a subset, and the service is formalizing requirements now (which are being managed by Army Aviation).
They Said It
“To be very clear, and that’s why I very rarely use the term V-280 for FLRAA, the name of the aircraft will be different, the nomenclature will be different; the changes are significant.”
— Col. Jeffrey Poquette, the Army program lead for the Army’s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program
Zoom in
The war in Ukraine has supercharged the nation’s indigenous drone production capability with products that are being built faster and cheaper than US companies.
Zoom in here to learn more.
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In that Number
$950 million
Raytheon must pay the US government more than $950 million for defrauding the Pentagon and allegedly bribing a Qatari official.
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The B-52 Stratofortress is undergoing the most comprehensive upgrade in its history—with plans to keep it flying and fighting into the 2050s!
Check out our latest episode with the Commander of the Air Force test organization overseeing this program.
A B-52 operator himself, this is the most in-depth discussion of the BUFF you’ll find—tactics, test, tech, culture, history, and experiences directly from the professionals representing America's iconic bomber’s past, present, and future.
Check it out!
Saved Rounds
Sikorsky is integrating its DARPA ALIAS/MATRIX flight autonomy system on the Army’s experimental fly-by-wire UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter
Honeywell & Merlin are partnering on autonomy flight tech
The Army axed its Patriot missile replacement effort
SpearUAV released a counter-UAS drone interceptor product
The French Navy’s VSR700 Airbus helo drone program is prepping for its next phase
The Army wrapped up its one-year pilot project using commercial SATCOM
The UK’s Royal Navy Wildcat helo test-fired the new Sea Venom anti-ship missile
Saudi Arabia was approved to buy 220 AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder missiles
Malaysia may buy Kuwait’s F/A-18C/D Hornet fighters
France & Germany joined Operation Olympic Defender, a US-led space defense coalition
AeroVironment introduced a new autonomous Group 2 eVTOL to compete in the Army’s Long-Range Reconnaissance program
Bell dropped Spirit AeroSystems and will manufacture its own fuselage for the Army’s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA)
Epirus won a $17m Army contract to develop and integrate an upgraded sensor suite for its high-power microwave (HPM) weapon program
Nigeria is buying 24 Leonardo M-346 light fighter-trainer aircraft
Airbus’ defense and space division announced plans to cut up to 2,500 jobs by mid-2026
DS2 was awarded a $4.9m Air Force contract to develop a next-gen mission planning tool
IAI unveiled a new shoulder-launched missile with external optical guidance and sans a homing sensor
The Army is moving ahead with plans to replace the Bradley Fighting Vehicle
Lockheed Martin is upgrading the Army’s AH-64 Apache electronic warfare (EW) suite
China built an Osprey-Like VTOL drone that can transport 2-tons
The UK joined Europe’s Long-range Strike Approach program
AeroVironment received an additional $55m Army contract for more Switchblade kamikaze drones
France is providing Ukraine with 100 kamikaze drones
The Army is going to start experimenting with cargo drones next year
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