🔷 Veterans Day

Veterans Day

Tuesday is Veterans Day.

Observed annually on November 11th, it honors all military veterans who have served in the United States Armed Forces. 

We could give you all the deets on Veterans Day food deals and discounts, but instead, we’ll give you a dash of history.

Armistice Day

Originally known as Armistice Day, the holiday was established to commemorate the end of World War I and the sacrifices made by 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.

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 Eisenhower signed legislation to rename it Veterans Day, expanding its significance to honor all veterans—living and deceased—from every era of service.

If you’re in Washington, D.C. fence off some time to visit the war memorials.

Oddly, one of the newest ones is the National World War I Memorial—it was completed last year. Just don’t look for it where the rest of the war memorials are; this one is by the White House. 

In That Number

1,558

The Air Force stated it requires 1,558 manned combat-coded fighter jets by 2035, roughly 300 more than it currently has.

When accounting for aircraft retirements, that means the Air Force needs to buy 700+ manned fighters over the next 10 years—or 70 jets per year.

Good news: that math checks with the Air Force narrative that it needs to buy 72 fighters per year for the next 10 years.

Bad news: the last time the Air Force managed to buy 72 fighters in a single year, Terminator 2 was in theaters, Nirvana was on the radio, and Michael Jordan won his 1st NBA championship.

TRIVIA

Tomorrow is the 250th US Marine Corps birthday, an event celebrated by the tradition of units hosting a Birthday Ball. But…1775 was not always the birthday.

What was the recognized birthday for the first half of the Marine Corps’ history? 

A) 1798
B) 1812
C) 1868

On the Radar

CCAs get airborne. Anduril’s YFQ-44 first flight is in the books, and now both CCA Increment 1 prototypes are in flight testing (General Atomics’ YFQ-42 first flight was in August).

• The Merge’s Take: It could be a coincidence or purposeful messaging, but Anduril’s first flight occurred on a Friday, and the following Monday, GA-ASI revealed that there are now 2 YFQ-42s in flight test. We think it’s the latter; well played. Expect to see both companies roll out more air vehicles in the coming months, but the real fun begins once they get delivered to the new Experimental Operations Unit (EOU).

Pentagon acquisition overhaul. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced sweeping acquisition reforms aimed at establishing speed as the "organizing principle." Key changes include shifting from Program Executive Offices (PEOs) to Portfolio Acquisition Executives (PAE), mandating "commercial first" contracting, and implementing new incentives/penalties for industry delivery schedules. The speech also included a stern warning that industry must become faster, more agile, and less risk-averse, or those vendors will be replaced by new competitors.

• The Merge’s Take: To enforce this, Hegseth signed three new memos officially transforming the defense acquisition system into the Warfighting Acquisition System, reforming the requirements process (replacing JCIDS), and unifying arms transfers and security cooperation. Here’s a good summary of the acquisition overhaul (and here is a deeper dive). As with all reform announcements, time will tell which parts survive the test of time, but given the overwhelming interest in fixing acquisitions from Congress, this overhaul has a chance.

Cargo from Space. California startup Inversion unveiled Arc, a reusable spacecraft that delivers 500 pounds of cargo from Low Earth Orbit to any point on Earth within an hour, landing with 50-foot precision. It can store cargo in orbit for up to 5 years before on-demand reentry.

• The Merge’s Take: Arc is a scaled-down take on the Air Force’s REGAL program (aka Rocket Cargo), but with a twist. Instead of REGAL’s point-to-point rocket focus, Arc is designed to pre-position cargo in orbit and deploy it anywhere on Earth on demand. OBTW, Arc is also part of the Kratos-led MACH-TB program, and will support Mach 20+ maneuverability experiments.

Gambit 6. General Atomics unveiled the Gambit 6, a variant built for air-to-ground operations. It will be ready in 2027, with missionized versions ready by 2029.

• The Merge’s Spicy Take: We said this when Gambit 5 was revealed last month, and we’re saying it again: for the love of God, General Atomics, please update your Gambit website.

They Said It

“The metric I care about is speed with credibility; how quickly we can prove that a technology works and field it at scale.”

— James Caggy, nominee for Assistant Secretary of Defense for Mission Capabilities, emphasizing the need to accelerate prototyping and deliver new military capabilities rapidly while ensuring credibility and scale.

Together with Second Front

Software to the Field Faster Than Ever Before

Contact Second Front

Knowledge Bombs

• Northrop Grumman revealed it built a new large autonomous UAS, dubbed Project Lotus

• Iridium unveiled an ASIC PNT chip that enables GPS-like navigation from its constellation

• Turkey signed a deal to buy 20 Eurofighter Typhoons

• Castelion was awarded a Navy contract to integrate its hypersonic missile onto operational platforms (air-launched, most likely)

• Grid Aero received a letter of intent from Everts Air to solve logistical challenges across Alaska using its autonomous air cargo network

• HII & Shield AI completed a dual-autonomy integration test aboard HII’s ROMULUS USV

• Lockheed Martin’s needle-nosed X-59 QueSST test aircraft made its first test flight

• PGZ & Anduril signed an MoU to produce cruise missiles in Poland

• Obviant won a $99M DIU contract for AI acquisition data analytics

• Kyivstar is expanding SpaceX’s Starlink Direct to Cell testing across Ukraine

• The Netherlands transferred 18 F-16s to Romania for the symbolic price of €1 (will be used to train Ukrainian pilots)

• Palladyne AI received a patent for autonomous teaming and coordination using feature-based communication

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ANSWER
A. The original “Marine Corps” birthday was July 11, 1798. In 1921, it was changed to November 10^th, 1775, to coincide with the creation of the Continental Marines to support naval forces during the Revolutionary War. When the war ended, so did the Continental Marines.

OBTW, the first formal Birthday Ball took place in Philadelphia in 1925, meaning tomorrow is both the 250^th birthday of the Marine Corps and the 100^th anniversary of the Birthday Ball. If that had fallen on a weekend instead of a Tuesday, the National Guard might have had to be activated.