🔷 Saved Rounds! 4.30.24

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

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They Said It
"They came up with a really cool idea of taking an air-to-ground weapon and doing a ground-launched version of it, and it would be a long-range fire weapon…and so then we sent it to Ukraine. It didn't work."

— Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon’s lead weapons buyer, on the harsh realities of conflict and trying to rush tech into the theater without consideration to tactics, training, doctrine, or the operational environment (i.e., heavy jamming).

Though he didn’t name the company or system, the only known system that meets the description is the Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB).

Word of the Week

ITAR: The International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) is a set of US regulations that restrict and control the export of defense and military-related technology and is generally viewed as an onerous process (aka a huge pain in the ass).

Why it matters: The US announced plans to exempt the UK and Australia from ITAR to increase technology sharing.

In that Number

$620 million

UK government unveiled a $620 million weapons package for Ukraine, which includes more Storm Shadow cruise missiles

Zoom in

US election season is coming, which means turnover in the Pentagon’s corps of civilian appointees. With new leaders come fresh ideas. The problem is that almost no one takes the time to aggregate previous work, assess progress and blockers, and formulate a plan that results in moving the ball down the field.

Zoom in here to learn more about the growing crisis of repetition and how it impacts national security.

Saved Rounds

• Astrobotic, a company that develops vehicles for space exploration missions, is moving into the defense sector with its Xogdor reusable rocket, designed to test payloads at the edge of space

• Boeing is buying GKN Aerospace to resolve a dispute over F-15 and F/A-18 parts

• France and Germany agreed to jointly develop a next-gen tank for 2040

• Iraq is equipping its F-16s with L3Harris electronic warfare systems

• The US is giving Israel $1.2B to buy Rafael Iron Beam laser weapons

• China reorganized its military to focus on space operations

• Lockheed Martin is modernizing JASSM cruise missile software under a $157m Air Force contract  

• The Army abandoned plans to demand AI Bill of Materials from vendors and instead wants baseball card-esque stats for AI products

• Oracle was approved to handle secret-level data on its cloud for the federal government

• The Navy accepted its first 2 Textron T-54 twin-prop training aircraft

• Lockheed Martin projects a potential $1B loss on a classified program, with a path to profitability in 2028

• The Netherlands and Poland were approved to buy AGM-88G AARGM-ER anti-radiation missiles

• Mayman Aerospace unveiled a full-scale model of its Razor high-speed VTOL drone

• TEKEVER revealed a new drone capable of deploying and coordinating a swarm of smaller drones

• Lockheed Martin is eyeing Patriot missile production in Spain

• The Army’s next-gen helicopter engine could fly in Black Hawk next year

• General Atomics is adding an AESA antenna to its existing EagleEye Radar

• Lockheed Martin won a $320m contract to deliver an air battle management system to Australia

• Spain is upgrading and buying more NASAMS (ground-launched AIM-120s)

• Raytheon broke ground on its $115m expansion project of its Alabama missile factory

• Quantum Systems opened a second factory in Ukraine with aims of producing 1,000 drones per year

• Lockheed Martin is expanding its Sniper targeting pod production line in the UK to support forecasted demand

• MSI Defense Solutions was tapped by the Pentagon to send 5 laser-guided counter-drone systems to the Middle East (shoots laser-guided AKWS rockets)

• The Missile Defense Agency received possession of Lockheed’s Alaska-based Long Range Discrimination Radar (protects the US from North Korean missile threats)

• The UK is sending Paveway IV precision-guided bombs to Ukraine (for Soviet fighters or forthcoming F-16s)

• The Navy announced it will convert surplus oil rigs in the Pacific into active mobile military bases to counter China

• Sigma Defense acquired EWA, expanding its electronic warfare portfolio

• Croatia received its first 6 Rafale fighter jets

• RTX moved away from competing as a prime for space contracts

• Brazil is upgrading its fleet of 68 A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft

• Canada plans to spend $5 Billion on new airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft

• The Army awarded follow-on prototyping contracts to Griffon Aerospace and Textron for its Group 3 drone program

• The UAE’s first Saab GlobalEye airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) is now in service (the 4^th of 5 was also delivered)

And finally…

• Lockheed Martin’s $5B VH-92 presidential helicopter program was demoted after scorching the White House lawn

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