Welcome to Tuesday's Saved Rounds, where we send out all the goodies we couldn't squeeze into our Sunday newsletter.
Today is National Paper Airplane Day. Take a break from work and try your hand at these paper airplane designs. If you really want to get sporty, you can get a powered plane kit and fly it with your phone. When Karen in the office asks why you folded up their memo and threw it across the room, tell them you’re paying homage to an aeronautical toy that’s been around for thousands of years.
In that Number
42
A Congressional Research Service report indicates that 42 U.S. aircraft have been reported lost or damaged during Operation Epic Fury against Iran. 24 of those losses have been MQ-9 Reapers.
Zoom in
Army aviation is in the midst of a massive transformation with autonomy and drones. But this isn’t the first time—it comes on the heels of a "wasted decade" in drone progress, included the failed AH-64 Apache manned-unmanned teaming initiative.
Zoom in here to learn about why the Army failed before, and what needs to be different this time. Spoiler: it’s not a tech problem.
They Said It
“The biggest challenge that we face, at least within the majority of our formations, is the inability of the operator at the edge to have the authority to tinker.”
— Lt. Gen. Lawrence Ferguson, Chief of U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC)
“Closed systems are now a liability, and for the legacy systems, we have to open those back up, and some might think that’s impossible – I think it’s possible.”
— Melissa Johnson, SOCOM Acquisition Executive
ICYMI
Saved Rounds
Destinus & Rheinmetall advanced the RUTA Block 3 long-range strike program
The Air Force issued a request for new B-52 pylons that carry 4X the load
Intuitive Machines acquired Goonhilly to expand space to ground comms
Orion Edge raised a $3M seed round for autonomous electronic attack systems
Northrop Grumman won a $398M contract for a COMSAT satellite prototype
Belgium was approved buy AGM-184 Joint Strike Missiles
Leonardo DRS unveiled a new LWIR camera for drones
Armada raised $230M at a $2B valuation to build modular data centers
Draganfly is acquiring the assets of Skip Dynamix
Ondas is acquiring Omnisys for battle resource optimization software
Airbus unveiled the new Tranche 4 Eurofighter
The Air Force may convert offshore oil rigs into rocket recovery platforms
GE Aerospace secured an Air Force contract for the drone-sized GE426 engine
The UK earmarked $8.5B for the 6th-gen fighter Global Combat Air Program
SNC & Fairlead partnered to produce the uncrewed surface vessels
Advanced Magnet Lab received a $2M DLA contract for domestic magnets
Enigma & Re:Build Manufacturing partnered to mass-produce Phoenix UAS
TEKEVER opened its first US office in North Carolina
Leonardo unveiled a new land-based passive SIGINT system
Rune Technologies joined Project Dynamis for Marine Corps logistics
Electro Optic Systems is acquiring MARSS
Lockheed Martin secured a $1.1B contract to upgrade Canada’s Hercules fleet
China expanded production of J-20A fighters with enhanced WS-15 engines
U&C (Czech company) won a U.S. Army contract for recon drones in Europe
Kratos secured city incentives to expand in Central Florida
PteroDynamics secured an investment from the ONE Bow River
The UK’s RIAT airshow was cancelled
MBDA UK’s SPEAR 3 missile flew on an F-35B for the first time
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