🔷 Saved Rounds 9.2.25

Welcome to Tuesday's Saved Rounds, where we send out all the goodies we couldn't squeeze into our Sunday newsletter.

📺 ON THE POD: Ursa Major and Solid Rocket Motors! Check it out on YouTube or download the podcast on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your content.

In that Number

5X

The Air Force is requesting $836M for rapidly deployable Air Base Air Defense Systems (ABADS) to enhance force protection against drones and missiles at airfields worldwide.

That represents a 5X funding increase over last year’s budget request.

Zoom in

A wave of new defense tech companies is promising disruptive innovation through cheap, mass-produced weapons coupled with advanced software. Is it innovation? Yes. Is it disruptive innovation? Likely not.

Zoom in here for a critical perspective.

They Said It

“They [the Navy] haven’t made a decision yet. So that’s what the down-select is. We’re waiting for the decision, and I’m not the decision maker. I’m just eagerly awaiting.” 

— Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever, U.S. Navy Air Boss, on the pending decision for the F/A-XX next-generation carrier-based fighter program

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Saved Rounds

• A Navy P-8A Poseidon was spotted carrying a huge radar pod

• Germany is expected to buy 4 more P-8A Poseidons (it currently has 8)

• The Pentagon formed a counter-drone task force

• RTX completed the first live demo of the Navy’s new SPY-6(V)4 radar

• Northrop Grumman won a $99M Navy contract to develop an MVP of a new distributed battle management C2 system

• Pratt & Whitney was awarded a $2.9B contract for 141 F-35 engines

• L3Harris initiated production of its military EO/IR sensor at its facility in Poland

• Aerospacelab raised a $110M Series B round to bolster satellite production in Europe

• Saab signed a $550M deal to sell 4 Gripen E/F fighters to Thailand

• FWDA unveiled India’s first indigenous Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) combat drone

• DARPA’s covert communication program has named the 5 companies working on the project ( Two Six Labs, RTX BBN, STR, SRI, and Stealth Software Technologies)

• Norway will help Germany pay for 2 Patriot systems and missiles for Ukraine’s air defense

• Skyeton and Allies entered a partnership to distribute Ukrainian drones in Poland

• Poland revealed the companies involved in its F-16V fleet modernization: Lockheed Martin, L3Harris, RTX, and Eblit

• L3Harris expanded its Waco facility to support production for the Air Force’s Skyraider II

• ECS Riptide Ventures won a $127M contract for the Army’s OneSAF simulation program

• The Army is dissolving its ISR Task Force and shifting the role to a new Strategy and Transformation Directorate

• The Pentagon plans to trim its critical technology list (currently 14 items)

• The Army announced it has nearly completed its autonomy characteristics of need statement

• The Navy and Marines demoed hydrogen-powered balloons and drones

• Raytheon won a $1.7B contract mod to expand LTAMDS production for the Army (Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Systems)

• BAE Systems won a $1.7B Navy contract for 55,000 APKWS II 2.75-inch rocket laser guidance kits

• Northrop Grumman’s design was selected over Anduril for the Navy’s new 21-inch SSRM solid rocket motor

• Lockheed Martin and the Army tested the Spike NLOS missile, while US and Polish forces conducted air-launch tests off an AH-64E v6 Apache

• BAE Systems won another RF sensor contract for Lockheed Martin’s LRASM stealth anti-ship cruise missile

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