🔷 Saved Rounds! 5.28.24

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, Pandora, iHeartRadio, etc.

They Said It
“We will measure our progress one airplane at a time.”

— Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun, discussing actions the company is taking to strengthen safety, quality and company culture

Zoom in

The Gaza Pier mission uses an obscure military capability called Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS). This capability involves building a sprawling staging area in the middle of the sea and then constructing a floating pier that can be stabbed into a beach. This allows trucks or tanks to roll off after ships bring them from the staging area to the pier.

Zoom in here to learn about the origins of this military capability—it was invented in 1939 using cigar boxes.

In that Number

76

There were 76 mergers and acquisitions in the defense and space industry during the first quarter of 2024, a 55% increase from the same period the previous year and a 31% rise from the previous quarter.

Our new podcast dives into Ukraine’s rapidly developing defense industry with a US company that just established the country’s first privately-funded defense tech accelerator.

Check it out on YouTube or download the pod on Spotify, Apple, Pandora, iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your content!

They Said It
“That is why the EU needs a new flagship programme — a European air defence shield — a comprehensive air defence system to protect our common EU airspace against all incoming threats.”

— Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis in a joint letter to the European Union for a united effort to protect the skies over Europe from Russian threats. Since it was written, we kept in all of those weird European misspellings.

OBTW, in case you didn’t think they are serious: Poland already plans to spend over $2.5 billion to fortify its eastern border.

Saved Rounds

• DARPA picked 6 designs to advance to the next phase of its VTOL drone project

• Scale AI closed a $1B Series F funding round, doubling the dual-use data-labeling startup’s valuation to $13.8 billion

• Aurora Flight Sciences revealed a refined high-speed VTOL X-plane concept for DARPA’s Sprint program

• The Army demoed an unmanned HIMARS

• SpaceX launched the NRO’s first satellites for its proliferated constellation program, which will provide rapid data collection and delivery across multiple orbits

• GM Defense is teaming with Mistral to equip the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2-based Light Tactical Utility Vehicle (LTUV) with Hero 120 loitering munitions

• The Army announced they will evaluate a CAES’s GPS-hardening artillery tech

• Japan sent $7.6 billion in aid to Ukraine earlier this year, quietly becoming one of Kyiv’s most important financial supporters

• Firefly Aerospace is reportedly exploring a potential sale amid the space industry’s consolidation

• Thales bought Israeli antenna company Get SAT to better compete with SpaceX’s Starlink

• Overland AI raised $10m in seed funding for its off-road autonomy tech

• Textron's unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) are getting autonomy from Kodak, a dual-use AI company

• Russia’s use of SpaceX’s Starlink will be a ‘continuous problem’ in Ukraine, according to the Pentagon

• The Marine Corps is adding a passive radar to its air defense portfolio

• Sweden plans $7 billion in Ukrainian military support through 2026

• Lockheed Martin test-fired an Army Patriot missile using a Navy Aegis combat system

• Nokia (yes, that Nokia) acquired US-based Fenix Group to expand its defense portfolio

• General Atomics was awarded a $94m contract to develop an AI-based ISR Smart Sensor prototype

• France conducted its first operational test launch of an upgraded fighter-launched supersonic nuclear missile

• South Korea’s KF-21 fighter test-fired an IRIS-T air-to-air missile for the first time

• Titra’s helicopter drones are being modified with Airbus’ Deck Finder to enable autonomous launch and land on moving ships

• Saab is developing autonomy for drone boats

• Lockheed Martin was tapped to produce additional Army hypersonic weapon batteries under a $756m contract

• Rafael unveiled a new towed decoy that uses a modular pylon for quick aircraft adaption

• Lithuania announced efforts to bolster its growing drone industry

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