🔷 Saved Rounds 3.11.25

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

We’ve got the ability to pop the jab that might give a shot in the face, and they may think, maybe I might want to rethink my position. … We’re re-establishing deterrence, yes. But if not, we’re already back in the fighting stance. And you know what? We haven’t committed hundreds of thousands of forces over there getting entangled in something that may take us years to get out, and loss of blood and treasure. … And if that didn’t convince him, we’ve got the freaking haymaker. So we can take it across the entire spectrum.”

— Gen. David Allvin, Chief of Staff of the US Air Force

Zoom in

NATO’s head of operations shared 5 lessons learned from the war in Ukraine that are worth the read.

Zoom in here to get up to speed.

In that Number

1 million hours

The F-35 program surpassed 1 million flight hours

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Saved Rounds

• Germany committed to developing a reusable hypersonic craft and fly the prototype by 2028

• Anduril UK was awarded a $38m contract for Altius 600M and 700M drones for Ukraine

• Epirus raised $250m for its High-Power Microwave (HPM) weapons (check out our interview with their CEO!)

• Danti expands AI-powered Earth data search engine to the broader government market

• US TRANSCOM asked to buy 10 used cargo ships to stem a forthcoming logistics crisis

• Lockheed Martin unveiled a new low-cost cruise missile

• Pratt & Whitney successfully tested a rotating detonation engine

• General Atomics acquired SIGINT payload company North Point Defense

• Air Force F-22 Raptors are finally getting a helmet-mounted display—Thales’ Scorpion

• DARPA unveiled USX-1 Defiant, a 240-ton unmanned surface vessel (USV) part of the No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS) program

• The Army approved full production of a new GPS-hardened nav system (MAPS Gen II) from Collins Aerospace

• Leonardo & Baykar established a joint venture to sell drones in Europe, leveraging the former’s payloads and mission systems and the latter’s UAS platforms  

• The Space Force switched the first platform to get the M-Code MGUE Increment 1 system from the B-2 to the MQ-1C (read here for our GPS M-Code 101)

• Morocco acquired Chinese-made TB-001K Scorpion drones (twin prop that carries 2,600lbs and flies for 35 hours)

• Collins Aerospace’s Enhanced Power and Cooling System (EPACS) is ready for F-35 integration

• The Space Force is changing how it buys ground control software due to systemic program issues

• BAE revealed its working on an improved EPAWSS electronic warfare system for the F-15

• The Space Force is expanding its TacSRT surveillance-as-a-service program

• Pratt & Whitney developed a rotating detonation engine for missiles (DARPA Gambit project)

• The Air Force deployed the first ABMS component prototype, the Tactical Operations Center-Light

• Albedo won a $12m STRATFI contract for its very low Earth orbit (VLEO) satellite imaging (check out our VLEO 101)

• General Atomics realigned its software divisions into Quadratix enterprise

• The Air Force continues to search for a full-scale target replacement and plans to operate ~90 QF-16 drones through 2035

• Pipistrel (Textron-owned) completed the first flight of its Nuuva V300 hybrid-electric VTOL cargo drone (600lb capacity)

• Top Aces unveiled its constructive AI wingman capability that uses simulated AI agents controlled by live F-16s to expand the number of adversaries for training—an LVC MUM-T concept  

• Baykar flight-tested its Akinci drone with a domestic AESA radar

• Kongsberg is establishing a joint venture to produce NASAMS missiles in Ukraine (exact missile not listed, but NASAMS typically uses AIM-9X and AIM-120s)

• The Navy’s KC-130T propeller upgrade enables it to refuel F-35 and F/A-18 fighters

• Norway received 3 more F-35A fighters (fleet size is now 52 jets)

• Japan is interested in buying used C-17 military transport aircraft

• Kratos was awarded a $59m Navy contract for 70 more BQM-177A target drones

• RTX is providing the engines (PW2040), APU, and nacelles for JetZero’s blended wing body aircraft

• Textron’s Ripsaw M3 won the Army’s Robotic Combat Vehicle program

• US Army AH-64 Apache helicopters were spotted in Iraq outfitted with Israeli Spike missiles

• Norway is doubling its annual Ukraine aid to $7.8B

• Boeing's X-37B spacecraft returned to Earth after 434 days in orbit

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