🔷 Saved Rounds 12.9.25

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

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

In that Number

100th

The Air Force received its 100th KC-46 tanker.

Zoom in

There is a lot of talk about drones in Ukraine, but over three years into the war, there’s still not much talk about AI or autonomy in Ukraine.

Zoom in here to see what’s going on.

They Said It

“If we don't master the new math of the battlefield, we won’t be able to afford to win a single battle.” 

— Peter Singer, stressing that the US reliance on expensive, sophisticated weapons systems against adversaries using cheap, mass-produced drones creates a "losing equation" that is financially unsustainable.

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Saved Rounds

• TUM unveiled a high-resolution 3D map of the Earth's 2.75B buildings

• BAE received a $22M Navy contract to produce Mk 41 VLS missile canisters

• Turkey awarded $6.5B in new contracts to expand its Steel Dome air defense system

• Austria bought 12 M-346FA light fighter/trainers

• Iceye deployed 5 new SAR satellites for government and commercial missions

• Terma acquired OSL to add to its counter-drone portfolio

• Israel will deploy Iron Beam by the end of the year (100kW laser weapon)

• Zone 5 selected Echodyne radars for its Paladin counter-drone interceptor

• BAE & GlobalFoundries partnered to modernize space-grade chip manufacturing

• Cummins won a $500M Army contract to produce 500kW generators for Poland

• Hanwha Aerospace secured a $482M contract to mass-produce L-SAM for South Korea

• The Army issued an RFI for CAML, autonomous vehicles that launch multi-domain missiles

• The Space Force set a goal to build a digital training environment next year

• Denmark signed a $579M contract with Kongsberg to acquire more NASAMS air defense systems

• The EU is allowing Canada to join the $174B SAFE defense financing program

• Scout AI was selected as a winner of the Army's xTechOverwatch competition

• Neros Archer Fiber became the first fiber-optic FPV drone on the Blue UAS list

• Archer & Karem partnered for military-grade rotor tech for VTOL aircraft

• Antares raised a $96M Series B to develop micro-nuclear reactors

• The UK's Proteus unmanned helicopter completed ground testing

• Saab is developing an AI-assisted after-action platform

• HawkEye 360 received NRO funding to expand tactical RF data and analytics

• Lockheed Martin opened a $17M hypersonics lab in Huntsville

• Northrop Grumman won a $200M Army contract for XM1211 proximity-fuzed anti-drone rounds

• CX2 introduced Wraith, a drone for locating emitters in GPS-denied zones

• Anduril opened a new office in Japan

• Sweden is buying Textron RIPSAW robotic vehicles

• JSW is building a $90M factory to produce Shield AI’s V-BAT drones in India

• Portugal & ICEYE signed a contract for the first direct-buy SAR satellite 

• The EU & Ukraine launched a $3.6M BRAVE1 grant program for defense tech

• China is testing a new unmanned helicopter for high-altitude missions

• Boeing delivered the 127th and final QF-16 target drone to the Air Force

• Canada was approved to buy $2.7B in bombs from the US

• Isar Aerospace signed a contract with ESA to launch the ΣYNDEO-3 mission next year

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