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🔷 Saved Rounds 4.28.26

🔷 Saved Rounds 4.28.26

April 28, 2026

Welcome to Tuesday's Saved Rounds, where we send out all the goodies we couldn't squeeze into our Sunday newsletter. This week we have a ton!

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In that Number

170 feet

Lockheed Martin and Saildrone unveiled the Spectre, a new uncrewed surface vessel that measures 170 feet in length, features a 70-ton payload capacity, and dual propulsion, enabling it to reach speeds of 30 knots while maintaining the extreme endurance typical of the solar-powered Saildrone fleet.

Zoom in

The F-35 is an exquisite multi-role "masterpiece," but even though it’s a massive program (the largest defense program in history), does it lack the scale required for a protracted peer conflict?

Zoom in here for a spicy take.

They Said It

“It’s not that you’re buying one set baseline and you’re going to procure it forever. It’s an incremental capability. … You can buy items with research and development, but you just typically don’t buy a large lot of … one particular thing.”

— Lt. Gen. Steven Whitney, Director for Force Structure, Resources and Assessment, describing the Pentagon’s new $55 billion drone initiative managed by the DAWG (Defense Autonomous Warfare Group)

Dcode the Pentagon Buying Machine

What does it actually take to get new technology into the hands of warfighters—and why is it still so hard?

In this episode, Mike sits down with the co-founders of Dcode, Meagan Metzger and Meg Vorland, to unpack the reality behind defense innovation, acquisition reform, and the flow of capital into the sector.

Dcode operates at a unique intersection—working with startups, investors, and the Pentagon—giving them a rare, inside-out view of how the system really works.

This is the inside baseball, and though it’s a bit nerdy, we keep it lively—hold our beer!

Saved Rounds

The Navy conducted a 200-nautical-mile test of the GBU-75, JDAM LR
The Navy’s MQ-25 Stingray finally completed its first flight
Redwire is delivering 250 Stalker drones to the US Army for $20M
Kelluu raised $18M in Series A funding led by NATO for global expansion
ASELSAN began serial production of LGK-82 Laser Guidance Kits for Turkey
Raytheon won a $234M contract for AMRAAM-ER missile full-rate production
Japan earmarked $69.7M to purchase five wide-area reconnaissance drones
LIG (South Korea) established its first US subsidiary, LIG Defense U.S. Inc
ASELSAN’s optical sensor system detected a target in the air at 110 kilometers
Edgewing won a $923M GCAP contract for aircraft design development
Radiance Technologies won a $149M contract to upgrade Reagan Test Range
CX2 won a $2M DIU DRM3 contract for thirty Wraith airborne systems
Textron won a $150M U.S. military contract to sustain the T-6 fleet
L3Harris Technologies won a $465M Army contract for NOVA night-vision goggles
The Army opened a Kansas facility to produce 155mm artillery shells
The Army officially named its new MV-75 tiltrotor the Cheyenne II
SpaceX won a $57M DoW contract for the Link-182 communications system
Peru is buying F-16 Block 70 fighter jets
EagleNXT acquired a $10M stake in ThirdEye to produce counter-drone systems
Rocket Lab acquired Mynaric for $155.3M to expand satellite laser communications
PlanetiQ won a $15M Air Force contract for commercial weather data
The Marine Corps integrated Red Wolf missiles onto AH-1Z helicopters
JISDA launched the Shiraha wooden drone, costing approximately $450 per unit
Picogrid won an Army contract to integrate XVIII Airborne counter-drone systems
Northrop Grumman demoed mid-flight AI software swaps using the Talon IQ testbed
Kratos completed the first flights of the J85-powered Mk1 Firejet drone
Mayman Aerospace completed fully autonomous test flights of the RAZOR VTOL
Anduril & Kraken partnered to manufacture small autonomous USVs
Anduril and HD Hyundai partnered to produce a new class of ASVs
L3Harris announced a $1.27B expansion of its Virginia manufacturing site
AV won a $14.6M Army contract for VAPOR CLE drones
DRONIVO GmbH won a $1M Army contract for 15 eBee drones
BlackSea Technologies unveiled an armed Comet drone boat for air defense
RSA raised $6M in Series A funding to deploy GPS-resilient navigation software
Wild Hornets deployed Hornet Vision Ctrl to pilot interceptors from 2,000km
Echodyne’s radar was selected in the SUADS program for a $490M contract
The US backed a $50M equity investment for South African rare earths
The Space Force canceled the OCX contract due to software challenges
AIRCO developed the MAD system to produce fuel on-site for military operations
Booz Allen Ventures invested in Ulysses for autonomous undersea systems
Northrop Grumman delivered the EGI-M system to withstand GPS jamming
Scale AI acquired ICG Solutions to accelerate national security AI infrastructure
General Atomics won a Navy contract for the CAMP autonomy project
Merlin & Remah International Group partnered for aviation autonomy in the UAE
USA Rare Earth agreed to acquire Serra Verde in a $2.8B cash-and-stock transaction
The Army procured Valinor Condor drones for testing and evaluation
ATMOS Space Cargo raised $30.1M in Series A for orbital return infrastructure
Lockheed Martin exited the Navy UJTS competition for a new training jet
Northrop Grumman delivered the EGI-M navigation system for the F-22 and E-2D
SOUTHCOM created the SAWC office to oversee regional unmanned missions
Textron Systems won a $9.5M Air Force contract for F-15 defensive sensor testing
Overland AI demoed its OverDrive autonomy stack on a Marine Corps vehicle
Leidos secured a $617M Army contract for IFPC Inc 2 launchers