🔷 Saved Rounds 11.25.25

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

📺 NEW EPISODE: The Fighter Pilot Spirit. We talk about the aviation culture of songs, the squadron bar, and drinks that go with it—with Dos Gringos! Catch it on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your content!

In that Number

18 to 1

The Navy plans to consolidate up to 66 programs from 18 offices into 1: the new Portfolio Acquisition Executive Robotic Autonomous System (PAE RAS) office.

It will oversee about $19 billion in acquisitions across 60 programs over the next five years.

New Episode!

The Fighter Pilot Spirit

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Zoom in

If you’ve been around defense for any amount of time, inevitably, you’ll come across the phrase “cost-per-effect.” It’s easy to say—but hard to calculate.

Zoom in here to learn more about the challenges of “cost-per-effect” number-crunching.

Book Alert!

From deep inside the Pentagon’s think tanks to the blazing skies over Iraq, Be Afraid of the Dark tells the untold story of one of the most fearsome and versatile fighter aircraft ever built: the F-15E Strike Eagle.

Part 1 of this definitive two-volume history traces the birth, development, and combat evolution of the U.S. Air Force’s premier multirole strike fighter - a jet designed to go anywhere, strike anything, and fight its way home - and covers the period of 1978-2002.

Use THEMERGE10PCT and get 20% off!

[offer expires 12/31/25]

Saved Rounds

• Boeing, Saab, & BAE partnered to offer the T-7 jet trainer for the UK Royal Air Force’s Hawk-replacement program

• Leanspace closed a $10.8M Series A fundraise to expand satellite operations software

• Lockheed Martin unveiled the Sniper NTP, a targeting pod network

• Castelion announced Project Ranger, a 1,000-acre solid rocket motor campus

• York Space Systems filed for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) to go public

• Palladyne AI launched Palladyne Defense, a new division focused on defense applications

• Raytheon won a $699M Army contract to provide NASAMS fire units

• Dcubed announced plans to demo in-space manufacturing of solar arrays

• Morocco ordered 10 H225M helicopters from Airbus

• SATNUS validated the FCAS computer for autonomy using coordinated multi-drone flights

• Denmark was approved to buy 340 AIM-9X Block II missiles

• The Navy commissioned the USS Pierre, its final Independence-class littoral combat ship

• Sikorsky proposed turning old Black Hawks into unmanned UHawks via autonomy kits

• Eutelsat approved a $959M capital raise to finance its OneWeb LEO constellation refresh

• Lockheed Martin conducted the first flight test of the Gen III TacIRST sensor for the F-22

• Perplexity became the second AI platform approved for FedRAMP prioritization and GSA use

• Scientific Systems successfully tested its OPTIMUS AI controlling unmanned boat swarms

• L3Harris' Viper Shield F-16 EW system was cleared for low-rate production

• The US approved Patriot launcher upgrades for Ukraine

• The DIU approved Heven AeroTech's hydrogen-powered Z1 drone for the Blue UAS List

• Lockheed Martin & Diehl partnered to combine maritime air defense tech for surface vessels

• V2X won a $425M Air Force contract for F-16 Central Display Unit hardware and support

• The Air Force converted KC-135 refueling pods into data-sharing communication nodes

• Voyager acquired Estes Energetics to secure domestic propulsion and energetics production

• X-Bow Systems installed its AMSP system in Texas to begin solid rocket motor production

• The Army selected nine sites to potentially deploy nuclear microreactors for resilient power

• Boeing's upgraded KC-46 Remote Vision System 2.0 completed its first flight

• Quindar raised $18M to establish a classified mission operations center for spacecraft control

• CAE will be Saab's preferred supplier for GlobalEye training systems

• SAIC won a $1.4B COBRA task order to advance multi-domain CJADC2 capabilities

• Star Catcher Industries set a world record by wirelessly beaming 1.1kW of electricity

• STARK opened a new drone manufacturing factory in the UK

• ICEYE & IHI are partnering to build a 24-satellite Earth observation constellation

• EDGE Group secured a whopping $7B deal with Indonesia for a defense modernization program

• Kraken won a $49M OTA for uncrewed maritime vessel prototyping for US SOCOM

• Russia's Checkmate Su-75 fighter is nearing its first flight

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