🔷 Saved Rounds 2.24.26

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

$6.9B

Approximately $6.9B in military equipment purchased from the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) has not been delivered to Japan, despite contracts being signed over five years ago.

Zoom in

The Pentagon buys aircraft readiness based on outcomes (performance-based logistics) but buys software by the "seat" or license. What if the Pentagon shifted to outcome-based software procurement?

Zoom in here for part 1, from seats to sorties.

Zoom in here for part 2, from enabling to doing.

They Said It

“hopefully a security provider rather than a security consumer.” 

— Alexander Stubb, President of Finland, Feb. 14, 2026, endorsing the NATO target of 5% GDP spending to ensure European nations contribute actively to collective defense rather than relying solely on U.S. assets.

 ICYMI

Saved Rounds

• Divergent & Mach Industries partnered to build the Venom AAV prototype

• Saronic & Path Robotics partnered to integrate robotic welding AI for shipbuilding

• Neros is opening a 250,000-square-foot facility in L.A. to scale drone production

• Saronic established a San Diego hub to prototype autonomous surface vehicles

• Stratolaunch won a $90.8M DoW contract for hypersonic test vehicles

• Axiom Space raised $350M in financing to advance its space station and spacesuits

• Japan debuted the new EC-2 Stand-Off Jammer to replace its aging EC-1

• SatVu raised $41M from the NATO Innovation Fund for thermal imaging satellites

• Terra Industries secured $22M in funding for African security technology expansion

• Auterion & Airlogix (Ukraine) formed a joint venture to produce autonomous drones

• U&C UAS unveiled the STORK LR drone featuring anti-jam satellite navigation

• Saudi Arabia is buying 4 C-27J maritime patrol aircraft

• Boeing's 757 Excalibur testbed debuted a new fighter-style nose for GCAP

• Saab & JSC UDI signed a collaboration agreement for airborne surveillance

• Breaker secured a $9M seed raise for autonomous robotic orchestration

• The Army tested proximity-fused rounds on Apache helicopters for counter-drone missions

• Amentum won a UK contract for a hypersonic weapons demonstrator

• The Cardona Marine Group is developing underwater stealth attack drones

• Palantir moved its headquarters from Denver to Miami, Florida

• Boeing is moving its defense headquarters from Virginia to St. Louis, Missouri

• The Army created the G-TEAD Marketplace to accelerate counter-UAS tech delivery

• TTTECH won an Army contract to provide HADES aircraft networking equipment

• Quantum Systems secured a $178M financing package to increase drone production

• Embraer & Northrop Grumman partnered to develop a KC-390 tanker for the U.S. Air Force

• The DoW established the STIB to replace its science and innovation boards

• Anduril won a $43M contract to expand solid-rocket motor production

• Embraer delivered 2 A-29 Super Tucano aircraft to the Uruguayan Air Force

And finally…

• Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Poland, & Sweden signed an agreement for drone development

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