🔷 Saved Rounds 12.3.24

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

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They Said It
“You’re going to have to protect yourself against drones. Everybody’s going to have to figure this out.”

—Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, on how the Army—the service responsible for base defense writ large—isn’t going to work in a modern era filled with a variety of threats.

This comes on the heels of Air Force secretary Frank Kendall suggesting the Air Force assume this mission for its airbases—if funding accompanied the mission move.

Expect to see some interesting DC politicking on this in 2025.

Zoom in

How can the US implement a way to adapt and implement at the pace of innovations? Maybe “defense as a service” is a way.

Zoom in here to read more about it.

In that Number

90 days

RapidFlight clean-sheet designed, manufactured, and deployed a drone in less than 90 days for the first deliverable on its $10m AFWERX Autonomy Prime contract.

Our latest show is about the development and deployment of the Paveway laser-guided bomb during the Vietnam War—and we tracked down one of the F-4 fighter pilots who was there 56 years ago to tell us all about it!

Whether you have no idea about anything to do with laser-guided bombs or are an instructor fighter pilot who thinks they know everything about Paveway LGBs—trust us, you will learn something in this episode.

Check it out!

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Saved Rounds

• MBDA released more concept art of its cruise missile-like RCM² ‘Remote Carrier’

• Kongsberg was awarded a $1B contract by the Netherlands to deliver NASAMS and NOMADS air defense systems

• Raytheon was awarded another $196m for work on its GPS ground control (OCX), which now totals $4.5B since it started 14 years ago

• BAE unveiled the UK’s first autonomous XL military submarine

• BAE Systems & Rocket Lab received a combined $59m CHIPS Act awards for chips for jets and satellites

• Intel finalized terms to receive $7.8B from the CHIPS Act, $600m less than anticipated

• Embraer intends to penetrate the US defense market with its C-390 Millennium tactical airlifter

• The Marine Corps’ new sniper rifle is operational and has changeable barrels with 3 caliber options

• SpaceX received conditional approval to provide direct-to-smartphone services in the US

• Elbit America was awarded a $89m Air Force contract to upgrade F-16 Block 40/42 Heads-Up Displays (HUD)

• Canada delivered a delayed NASAMS AIM-120 air defense system to Ukraine

• Turkey’s second prototype Hürjet jet trainer flew for the first time, with notable tweaks geared towards the light attack market

• IBM was awarded a 15-year $903m GSA contract to modernize the federal travel and expense system

• Electra completed another military flight demo of its hybrid-electric eSTOL prototype aircraft

• Amazon Web Services (AWS) booked a $158m Army contract for secret-level (IL6) cloud services

• The US proposed selling F-16s to Colombia to replace their aging Kfir combat aircraft (Sweden is proposing its JAS 39 Gripen)

• EuroDASS unveiled new details about the Eurofighter’s next-gen electronic warfare (EW) system

• The Army wants to test a wing-mounted AESA radar on the AH-64 Apache

• Titan Dynamics 3D-printed battery-powered drone set a new endurance record (6+ hours)

• L3Harris booked a $999m contract for Link 16 MIDS-J radios

• Lockheed Martin was awarded a $870m contract for long-lead items for F-35 Lot 20 production

• Croatia received its 7th of 12 pre-owned Rafale fighters from France

• The Royal Canadian Air Force is set to receive 32 training aircraft (19 Grob G 120TP for basic training and 19 PC-21 for advanced training)

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