🔷 Wrapped

Wrapped

Here’s a year in review, highlighting some of our most popular articles and episodes of 2024.

Articles

• The Lesson of Tower 22

• Army Aviation’s $20B Pivot (killing of the FARA program)

• Death Spiral (the Air Force’s ‘divest-to-invest’ strategy)

• 1% Chance (2025 defense budget dynamics)

• Under the Sea (internet cables)

• CSAR Helo Saga

• Cost Imposing (April 2024’s defense of Israel and its cost exchange)

• Gas Stations in Space

• Collaborative Combat Aircraft

• Defending the High North

• Blended Wing (BWB airplanes)

• Here’s the DDIL (how to talk about contested spectrum operations like a pro)

• Microwave Weapons (this is what right looks like for sponsored content—hit us up if you want to do this for your business or product)

YouTube

Here are some of the episodes you may have missed over the past year:

• Norm Augustine: Industry legend, first CEO of Lockheed Martin, and the last breakfast

• Epirus: CEO Andy Lowery on microwave weapons

• Palantir: CTO Shyam Sankar on software-defined warfare and military innovation

• Collaborative Combat Aircraft: chat with Anduril and General Atomics on AI wingmen

• Weapons Czar: Air Force chief weapons buyer Andrew Hunter

• Firestorm: 3D-printed drones and the battlefield in Ukraine

• The B-52J: America’s new 100-year bomber

• Paveway: Laser-Guided Bombs in the Vietnam War

 Cheers!

In That Number

zero

A year after the Pentagon created a way to reduce classified restrictions on space systems, zero programs have made it through the process.

TRIVIA

In 2001, the X-35 won the JSF competition, and on this day in 2006, the first prototype F-35 completed its first flight. How many years later did the first production F-35 fly?

A) 2
B) 4
C) 6
D) 8

On the Radar

Congress released its compromise 2025 NDAA bill. For aircraft additions, it authorizes 11 more aircraft than requested, including 6 more F-15EX and 2 more C-130J. To pay for it, the bill authorizes funding cuts to F-35 and KC-46 programs. On the other end, it approves the retirement of 39 fighters (33 F-15Cs and 3 F-16s). It also delays the delivery of 20 F-35s (of 68 planned) pending a report on improving the program. There’s also language to evaluate a potential AI-enabled weapon systems center of excellence.

• The Merge’s Take: As usual, the NDAA is finalized late. This year, it was 3 months late. This is the policy bill; the appropriations bill to fund any of it is still up in the air.

Guam missile defenses hit a milestone. The MDA completed the first-ever ballistic missile intercept test from the Pacific island. The setup, dubbed the Aegis Guam System (AGS), is a land-based version of the naval TPY-6 radar and the SM-3 missile and completed an exo-atmospheric intercept (hitting the missile during the mid-course phase in space). This is just part of a larger $1.7B island defense effort called the Enhanced Integrated Air & Missile Defense (EIAMD) system.

• The Merge’s Take: The original EIAMD plan called for 22 sites but was recently reduced to 16 due to environmental concerns. Construction for the 16 sites is set to begin next year and will average 5 sites built per year. Will the next administration re-instate the bigger plan? We don’t know, but we do know this: China is building freakin islands in the ocean for military use.

They Said It
“Working through different options, is it more capable? Is it more affordable? Where on the spectrum will Increment 2 land? Those are questions to be explored.”

— Air Force weapons chief Andrew Hunter

Just like NGAD, the Air Force is deferring CCA Increment 2 decisions to the next administration. The issues are different, though—the former is due to concerns over affordability; the latter is over budget approval delays from Congress.

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Knowledge Bombs

• Kratos revealed it’s recently flown a new CCA-type aircraft

• Germany test-fire the long-range Meteor missile from Eurofighter for the first time

• Pics: Ukraine’s SA-8 FrankenSAM with AA-11 missiles

• Pics: Iranian Yak-130 light attack jets now have AA-11 missiles too

• Maxar & Satellogic partnered to enhance Earth observation for defense agencies via different commercial constellations

• The Army finally test-fired its trailer-based Dark Eagle hypersonic missile (video)

• Ukraine’s request for F-16 sustainment services totaling $266m was approved by the US

• GCAP partners (Italy, Japan, and the UK) formed a joint venture for the next-gen fighter

• Reveal Technology raised $11M for its product that rapidly converts drone footage into 3D maps that live on a smartphone

• Archer & Anduril announced a strategic partnership and raised $430m to develop a hybrid VTOL military aircraft

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ANSWER
B. The first production F-35, AF-6, flew on Feb. 25, 2011—just over 4 years from the first prototype flight.