🔷 The Real American

AmeriCAN

Tommorow is Veterans Day.

Observed each year on November 11th, the day honors all military veterans who have served in the US Armed Forces.

We could give you all the deets on Veterans Day food deals and discounts, but instead we want to give you some context and a recommendation on something to do this weekend.

Armistice Day

Originally known as Armistice Day, the holiday was created to recognize the end of World War I and the sacrifices of those who served during that war.

It aligned with the anniversary of the armistice that ended the war, which took effect on the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” in 1918. Sort of.

The war ending exactly on 11/11 at 1100 a.m. was deliberate. The official armistice ending the war was signed at 5:10 a.m., but the ceasefire was delayed until 11:00 a.m. to give commanders time to spread the word.

Tragically, this delay resulted in additional casualties as fighting continued until the last minute. The last American casualty, Private Henry Gunther, was killed at 10:59 a.m., just one minute before the war officially ended.

Try to imagine what it sounded like when the shooting suddenly stopped.

Actually, you don’t need to imagine—you can hear the moment the guns fell silent at 11:00 a.m., a somber piece of history brought to life via some ground-breaking tech.

Veterans Day

After the Korean War, people realized that Armistice Day, while important, didn’t account for WWII or Korean War veterans—or veterans who served but did not deploy.

So, in 1954 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation to rename it Veterans Day and expanded its significance to honor all veterans—living and deceased—from every era of service.

If you’re in Washington DC, fence off some time to visit the National World War I Memorial—it was completed 2 months ago. That’s not a typo, and yes, there’s a crazy-long story as to why it took so long to happen.

Just don’t look for it where the rest of the war memorials are—this one is by the White House.

The Real American

If you want to catch a movie, we highly recommend the Real American: The Evan Thompson Story.

If you flew fighters at Nellis AFB at any point from 1960-2020, you’ve no doubt flown across the desert and found a man (and his family) waving an American flag at you (that’s them in the headline GIF, via video from an AGM-65 Maverick on an A-10 Warthog).

This documentary is all about that man and comes out on Veterans Day.

It weaves in stories from fighter pilots and veterans and is hosted by Gary Sinise, so you know it’ll hit you right in the feels. Check out the trailer!

Thanks to all who served, those who continue to serve—and those who support them.

In That Number

25

Israel bought 25 F-15IA fighters, their first new Eagles in nearly 20 years.

TRIVIA

Today’s the 249th US Marine Corps birthday, but…it was not always the birthday. What year was its recognized birthday for the first 123 years of the Marine Corps history? Hint, if you do math—or eat crayons—you can eliminate one of those answers.

A) 1775
B) 1776
C) 1798
D) 1868

On the Radar

India is looking to buy 114 fighter jets. For US builders, it looks like Lockheed Martin’s F-21 (India-spec F-16) vs Boeing’s F-15EX. The incumbent Dassault has too big a backlog of Rafales to support, and it’s unclear if the Eurofighter Typhoon or Saab’s Gripen will be in the running.  

• The Merge’s Take: That’s a healthy order of jets and on a compressed timeframe. For Boeing it’ll help proliferate the F-15EX and if they pitch the Super Hornet, that would keep the production line open past its 2027 shutdown.

Japan’s F-35s are getting anti-ship cruise missiles. The Joint Strike Missiles (JSMs) are co-produced by Norway’s Kongsberg and RTX and based on the surface-launched Naval Strike Missile (NSM) which is adopted by the US Navy and Marine Corps for anti-ship targeting. JSM was developed specifically for the F-35’s weapons bay, and it can carry 6—2 internal plus 4 external— of the 300-mile cruise missiles. ICYMI, the US Air Force placed an order for 41 JSMs earlier this year, the first of a planned 268-missile order totaling $850m. The plan is to integrate them ASAP and have that stockpile by 2028.

• The Merge’s Take: More range, more payload, and more options are always a winning combo. What else we like: the name. Adapted from the RGM-184A NSM, the JSM is called the AGM-184A Kraken, and we can’t wait to see the patches.

The Navy revealed a bit more about its 6th-gen fighter program. The secretive F/A-XX program is intended to replace the F/A-18E/F and EA-18G and is optimized for strike and sea control missions—with fleet defense as a secondary role. The program is pushing ahead, breaking away from dependencies on Air Force-funded technologies.

• The Merge’s Take: Given all 3 F/A-XX proposals feature adaptive engines, this sounds risky. The NGAP program is the adaptive engine program for the Air Force; the Navy doesn’t have one that we know of. Also, the disclosure of the roles of F/A-XX hints at where the Navy CCA program is going for the unmanned fighter force—counter-air and fleet defense.

Large Language Models (LLMs) for national security is exploding right now. Just this week, we have:

• OpenAI expanding its ChatGPT work with the US government

• Meta collaborating with Lockheed Martin on LLMs

• Anthropic partnering with Palantir and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to bring their Claude LLM to classified military networks

• Scale AI unveiled ‘Defense Llama’ LLM for classified military networks

• A great new read on how the military can use LLMs in COA planning (courses of action).

They Said It
[on North Korea]

“North Korea is now, in effect, waging war in Europe. North Korean soldiers are attempting to kill our people on European soil.”

— Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

“As entertaining as that sounds, I can’t confirm any North Korean internet habits or virtual ‘extracurriculars’ in Russia.”

— Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Charlie Dietz, responding to reports that North Korean soldiers were ‘gorging on pornography’ with unfettered internet access deployed in Russia

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Knowledge Bombs

• Russia’s Su-57 Felon fighter jet arrived in China for an airshow and became the subject of widespread mockery on Chinese social media for its questionable quality (close-up video)

• China’s J-35A stealth fighter officially broke cover (J-35 vs F-35 pic)

• Ukraine launched a 700-mile drone strike at 2 Russian ships in the Caspian Sea (video)

• The Pentagon plans another $6B in Ukraine aid before the Presidential change ($4B in drawdowns, $2B in new equipment)

• Boeing machinists ended their strike and will resume work on the KC-46 and P-8 production

• MBDA disclosed testing of its new stealth cruise missile for France and the UK

• Lockheed Martin revealed their latest stealth tanker concept

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ANSWER
C. The original birthday—July 11, 1798—was recognized for 123 years until 1921, when it was changed to November 10^th 1775, to coincide with the creation of the Continental Marines (vs. the 1798 creation of the US Marine Corps).

OBTW, the first formal Birthday Ball took place in Philadelphia in 1925, meaning next year will be both the 250^th birthday of the Marine Corps and the 100^th anniversary of the Birthday Ball. It’ll be a wild party.