Welcome to Tuesday's Saved Rounds, where we send out all the goodies we couldn't squeeze into our Sunday newsletter.
In that Number
8.2%
South Korea’s defense budget is rising 8.2% to $53.9B, the largest in its history.
Zoom in
The Air Force needs a manual for operators of autonomous systems because assuming unexpected behaviors are incorrect limits agentic systems’ unique value proposition: sometimes the agent is right.
They Said It
“It’s 96-4; it’s not moving to 10%, and I’ve seen the budget for this year. You know, a couple more billion for unmanned. It’s not enough. We need to start killing manned programs.”
— Matthew Shortal, DIU’s principal deputy director and chief commercial officer, on the Navy’s surface fleet and the apportionment of manned (96%) to unmanned (4%) vessels
Saved Rounds
NASA flew the X-59 to Mach 1.2 at 49,000 feet on its 25th test flight
Pratt & Whitney is investing $25M to expand its Poland plant
Boeing is proposing the MQ-28 Ghost Bat for Japan
Axon Vision won a $5M first order for its ForceField counter-drone turret
Brazil test-fired its first homegrown cruise missile after a 4-year stall
FlyFocus unveiled a new loitering munition called TASACK
AeroVironment closed its first international LOCUST order ($50M)
Germany's first F-35A completed its maiden flight
Italy ordered 2 more MQ-9 Reapers
Nitradyn was awarded $581M to build a new IMX-104 explosives plant
Lockheed's bulk JASSM/LRASM deal was increased to $10.48B
Ground A raised a $10.7M pre-seed for a pallet-sized laser
Sweden is buying 10 HIMARS from Lockheed ($729M deal)
Rafael & Volkswagen are using an auto plant for defense production
Sea Machines won a 5-year SOF IDIQ for maritime autonomy kits
GE Aerospace is acquiring castings maker CPP for $11.75B
L3Harris VAMPIRE counter-drone systems were tapped by the Navy
Bulwark Dynamics raised a $6.8M seed for autonomous landing craft
Overland AI won a $20M Army contract for autonomous obstacle breaching
XTEND went public via a $110M reverse merger
V2X won a $19M Marine Corps deal for 10 counter-drone trucks
AEVEX secured $20.5M in new awards for one-way attack systems
The Air Force is seeking deployable drone swarms for base security
Mach Industries raised $600M more at a $3.7B valuation
Shield AI signed an X-BAT letter of intent with Poland’s PGZ and WZL-2
Griffon Aerospace sold 19 Outlaw G2 target drones to the Navy
Northrop Grumman won a $4.8B Army deal for CIRCM production
Northrop Grumman opened a 57,000-sq-ft rocket factory in Maryland
HII completed the first ROMULUS 151 hull
EDGE Group delivered 6 HT-100 unmanned helicopters to Angola’s navy
Northrop Grumman’s anti-jam 155mm guidance kit entered production
Airbus sold 4 U050 Capa-X drone systems to France’s military
Uzbekistan received its first C-390 military transport plane
Lockheed Martin received $113M for GPS ground control work
KestrelX won a $10M Navy IDIQ for low-observable training aircraft
General Dynamics won a $184.3M IDIQ for Growler jamming units (NGEAU)
Hermeus got FAA approval to fly its drones supersonic over New Mexico
Venus Aerospace opened a new test spot for its rotating detonation engine
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