🔷 Saved Rounds 5.12.26

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.

They Said It

“Our bases will not spontaneously grow anti-drone net protection… A unit that does not currently have a solution for purchase, movement, installation, and maintenance of anti-drone netting is like a unit in 2008 planning to occupy bases without concrete barriers.”

— Army Major William Mayne, advocating for low-tech passive drone defenses

Zoom in

Cheap propeller-driven drones are everywhere, but are militaries betting too heavily on them for drone defense solutions? As Russia and Iran deploy more jet-powered systems that fly faster and higher, they are exposing the limits of propeller interceptors.

Zoom in here to learn more about the shifting environment.

 ICYMI

Saved Rounds

• Ursa Major completed another flight of its affordable liquid rocket missile

• Scout Space raised $18M in Series A funding to expand manufacturing

• Anduril revealed its team of partners for the Golden Dome SBI program

• Sweden launched its first military recon satellite aboard a SpaceX rocket

• The Navy declared initial operational capability for P-8A Poseidon Inc 3 Block 2

• Raytheon secured a $441M contract for urgent Patriot GEM-T missiles

• The Navy awarded a $650M contract to 8 vendors for up to 474 military boats

• Vantor secured a $70M NGA contract for its GEGD Pro platform

• Turkey unveiled a new fighter engine with 42,000 pounds of thrust

• The Air Force is studying alternatives for a new heavy bomber

• AV won an Army prototyping contract for the Switchblade 400

• DARPA’s Space-BACN satellite laser link program transitioned to DIU

• Lockheed Martin, Firefly, and Seagate partnered on sea-based satellite launches

• Hoverit completed testing a Shahed-like drone called Divyastra Mk-2

• Boeing was awarded a $219M Air Force contract to produce 14 T-7A aircraft 

• Embraer won a UAE contract for 10 C-390 Millennium transport aircraft

• Flexcompute & Northrop Grumman unveiled Physics AI for space simulations

• Orqa FPV launched Orqa US to produce drones & components in Florida

• The Army fired a Tomahawk missile from a Typhoon launcher 

• Northrop Grumman delivered the 70th E-2D Advanced Hawkeye to the Navy

• Boeing received a $125M contract mod for its Air Force One program (now $4.4B for 2 aircraft)

• The US approved a $373M JDAM-ER package for Ukraine

• Boeing will start the first B-52 engine upgrades this year

• Datum Submarine Technologies unveiled Turkey's domestically built mini-submarine

• HII received a $37M Navy contract mod for more Lionfish underwater drones 

• Scale AI’s CDAO contract was expanded from $100M to $500M

• SWEBAL raised $32M to increase European TNT production for NATO allies

• Otto Aerospace tested its laminar-flow drone to advance DARPA research

• The US fast-tracked $8.6B in arms sales to Middle East allies

• The US approved an emergency $992M sale of 10,000 APKWS-II to Israel

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