🔷 Saved Rounds 3.18.25

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.

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They Said It
“so we’re not ready to say we’re going to jump in right now, but we’re going to constantly evaluate whether it’s tanks [or] an IRST pod. Anything that the Raptor is buying down as a tech risk, we’ll evaluate. … At this point, I’m not going to say, hey, yes, we’re definitely doing something that’s Raptor-related.”

— Chauncey McIntosh, Lockheed Martin’s vice president and general manager for the F-35

Zoom in

Supply chains have become a critical enabler of the modern economy—digital tracking and automated processes enable efficient and effective operations. But for the Pentagon, defense supply chains haven’t kept pace with their commercial counterparts and that is a massive attack surface.

Zoom in here to learn about the need to modernize defense supply chains to find lurking adversaries and keep them out.

In that Number

100X

Ukraine is now the world’s largest arms importer, with imports surging 100X since 2020.

 ICYMI

Read more

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Saved Rounds

• The Army awarded 10 companies spots on a $4.2B contract for aerostats

• Lockheed Martin was awarded a $1.9B contract mod for more LRASM and JASSM cruise missiles

• Boeing & Saab’s Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) is heading back to Ukraine after upgrades to make it resilient to GPS jamming

• The Czech Republic announced a plan to increase its defense budget to 3% of GDP by 2030

• Quantum Systems acquired AirRobot, a key supplier for its drone products

• Voyager and Palantir signed a partnership to integrate Palantir’s software with Voyager’s hardware technology

• Palantir signed Epirus, Red Cat Holdings, Saildrone, Saronic Technologies, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and Ursa Major to its new Warp Speed cohort (software to streamline manufacturing)

• General Atomics conducted its first flight test series of the Gray Eagle ER using a Proliferated Low Earth Orbit (PLEO) satellite constellation

• Rocket Lab unveiled Flatellite, a stackable satellite platform

• Rocket Lab announced plans to acquire Mynaric, a Germany-based laser comm company

• Boeing reaffirmed its commitment to staying in the space business

• The Marine Corps received its first MQ-9 SkyTower II pod (airborne relay/cross-domain networking)

• SpaceWERX selected 8 companies to receive Strategic Funding Increase agreements worth a combined $440m

• France is preparing a $217m military aid package for Ukraine

• India's DRDO flight-tested indigenous OBOGS life support system for the LCA Tejas fighter jet

• Arlington Capital established GRVTY, a new defense tech company

• Cognitive Space won two SDA contracts to optimize missile tracking and mesh-network routing

• L3Harris plans to incorporate AI from Palantir and Shield AI into its Golden Dome offerings

• Japan is set to receive $200m in US support to an indigenous hypersonic missile program

• Raytheon revealed its cognitive electronic warfare system is part of the F-16 ALR-69 RWR upgrade

• Anduril won a potential 10-year $642m Marine Corps counter-drone contract

• Leonardo forecasts a $6.6B upside from the new wave of European defense spending

• Northrop Grumman secured a $267m Navy contract to produce 2 more MQ-4C Triton drones

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