🔷 Saved Rounds 12.10.24

Welcome to Tuesday's Saved Rounds, where we send out all the goodies we couldn't squeeze into our Sunday newsletter. Thanks to those who helped us 10k followers on Instagram.

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In that Number

$632 billion

The world’s largest 100 defense contractors amassed $632 billion in combined revenue in 2023, a real-term annual growth of more than 4 percent.

Word

Foreign Military Financing: FMF is a foreign policy tool that provides grants for acquiring US defense equipment to strategic partners and allies who otherwise may not be able to afford it or where the US wants to boost region-specific national defense capabilities. 

So What: Poland received another $4B FMF loan, bringing the total to $11B in FMF guarantees since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Expect this to translate into US defense sales opportunities in 2025.

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Saved Rounds

• General Atomics was awarded a Navy contract to develop a Long-Range Maneuvering Projectile (LRMP) prototype with a lofty goal—use existing 155mm artillery cannons to hit moving targets at 120km (that’s the concept art at the top)

• Anduril won a $100m CDAO contract for edge data mesh integration

• Brazil is upgrading its 68 A-29 Super Tucanos with new sensors, glass cockpits, and datalink to integrate them with their Saab Gripen and E-99 AEW&C (Airborne Warning and Control) fleets

• Israel & Argentina agreed to expand defense cooperation in drones, cyber, and other areas

• Poland signed a $175m deal to buy 232 AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles

• The Army’s new backpack-portable jammers are in field testing (built by Mastodon, a CACI subsidiary)

• Poland is allocating $740m to boost ammo production, in particular 155mm artillery rounds

• Bell released its first image of its DARPA SPRINT X-plane design model (wind tunnel testing) and some new concept art

• Greece will not buy more Dassault Rafale fighters, capping its fleet at 24 jets

• Elbit sold $40m in drones and autonomous systems to Israel

• A Spanish Eurofighter flew with the new ECRS radar for the first time

• Thales’ TALIOS targeting pods are getting AI upgrades for France’s Rafale fighters (fielding in 2026)

• Altair won an AFWERX contract to build a computer simulation of a tornado inside a rocket engine

• Raytheon completed a design review for its Advanced Electronic Warfare (ADVEW) prototype for the Navy’s F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets

• SNC was tapped to develop more Voly hybrid vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) logistics drones for the Navy

• Lockheed Martin unveiled a new, smaller F-35 sim

• The Netherlands was approved to buy 200+ AIM-120D3 missiles

• Canada & Switzerland both suspended their CF-18 & F/A-18 Hornet demo teams to focus on modernization

• Solar Industries completed its delivery of 480 loitering munitions to the Indian Army

• X-Bow was awarded 5 contracts totaling $60m to support the Navy’s energetics industrial base modernization plan

• Turkey acquired 12 C-130Js from the UK that were retired and sitting in storage

• The NRO down-selected 3 radar imagery companies awarded 2-year contracts (Capella, ICEYE, and Umbra)

• Poland’s first F-35 completed its 1st test flight

• The Marine Corps now has operational anti-ship missiles in its newest warfighting unit

• Helsing unveiled an AI-equipped mass-producible X-wing strike drone

• The US announced a new $725m military package for Ukraine

• The Army is developing a 5th version of its Precision Strike Missile (PrSM), one with a 620+ mile range

• Summa Defence is establishing a drone production facility in Finland in collaboration with Ukrainian firms

• General Atomics was awarded a Navy contract to develop a next-gen high-frequency (HF) modem

• D-Fend Solutions raised $31m to advance its counter-drone tech

• Germany committed to boosting vital sectors of the country’s defense industry and European cooperation

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