🔷 Saved Rounds 11.11.25

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

🎖️ Happy Veterans Day.

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

In that Number

30,000

The Pentagon's newly empowered DOGE unit is overhauling the US military drone program, with plans to streamline procurement and expand domestic production.

This includes plans to acquire at least 30,000 drones in the coming months, with plans to ramp up from there.

Zoom in

Defense tech venture investing is surging. While it may not be a bubble, it is certainly high on the hype cycle.

Zoom in here to understand its trends.

They Said It

“When you come with it, don’t come with one with the intention to take it home with you and all the data that was collected while we conducted an exercise together. Come with five. Take one or two home and leave three with us, and we’ll continue to work on it. We’ll give you access to all the data that’s coming off of it, and we’ll do everything we can to break it with the goal of making it better.”

— Lt. Gen. James Glynn, Commander of Marine Corps Forces Pacific, on prototyping

ICYMI

Veterans Day Origin Story

Saved Rounds

• Iridium unveiled an ASIC PNT chip that enables GPS-like navigation from its constellation

• Northrop Grumman & Luminary Cloud are partnering on AI-driven spacecraft design

• Armenia is working on a $3B deal to purchase India’s Su-30MKI fighters (it would be Armenia’s largest-ever defense purchase)

• Hyundai Rotem signed an MoU with Shield AI to co-develop AI-based drone technology

• STM (Turkish) delivered its first batch of indigenously developed tube-launched kamikaze drones

• HAL signed a $1B deal with GE Aerospace to buy 113 F404 jet engines for its Tejas light combat aircraft program

• Terma won a $10.5M Air Force contract to provide 170 3D audio systems for F-16 pilots

• Taiwan released its new three-tier drone strategy

• Kymeta was tapped to supply 138 flat-panel satellite antennas to the Army

• Voyager acquired ExoTerra, an electric propulsion company 

• Kratos & KAI formed a strategic partnership to advance manned-unmanned teaming

• Hanhwa & HavocAI announced a strategic cooperation for unmanned maritime systems

• Kratos won a $68M contract to develop a hypersonic materials test facility

• IBM launched a new large language model for defense applications

• China unveiled a new advanced training jet

• Boeing won a $461M Army contract for 9 more CH-47F Block II Chinook helicopters

• Saab won a $46M Army contract for Giraffe 1X radar systems

• Lockheed Martin is integrating Google's Gemini into its AI Factory

• SwRI won a $9.9M Air Force contract to forecast the service life of the F-16 landing gear (for predictive maintenance)

• Italy is buying 29 more AW249 attack helicopters

• EnduroSat closed a $104M funding round to scale small satellite productions

• Sesame Solar & Heven AeroTech launched a new mobile refueling nanogrid for drones

• Intuitive Machines received an $8.2M contract extension for its nuclear power system for spacecraft

• Anduril opened its Ghost Shark factory in Australia

• Greenroom Robotics & Austal partnered to integrate autonomous systems onto Royal Australian Navy ships

• Airbus delivered its first A400M transport aircraft to Indonesia

• L&T and General Atomics formed a partnership to produce MQ-9-like drones for India

• MDA Space acquired a stake in Maritime Launch Services with a $10M investment

• Australia is upgrading its P-8 Poseidon fleet to the Increment 3 Block 2 configuration

• Bombardier & Saab are in talks to manufacture the Gripen fighter in Canada

• Intuitive Machines is acquiring Lanteris Space Systems for $800M

• Apium joined the Red Cat Futures Initiative to advance swarming autonomy for drones

• Hanwha Defense USA invested in Firehawk Aerospace to advance solid rocket motor tech

• The Army is looking for laser weapons that can kill Group 1 to 3 drones

• Reflex Aerospace closed a $57M Series A funding round to accelerate European satellite production (it’s the largest European Space Series A to date)

• Astranis announced Vanguard, an air-gapped SATCOM service that uses a dedicated satellite

• Firefly Aerospace finalized its $855M acquisition of SciTec

• Vast announced In-Q-Tel as an investor and board observer

• Norinco (Chinese) claims to have developed a new $10k version that mirrors the Iranian Shahed-136

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