Defense- & Dual-Use Technologies Edition

Government shutdowns, AI hypocrisy, and the partitioning of Syria,

Defense and dual-use texhnologies

Dec 20, 2024

Good morning,

First, if you’re reading this post in your email, you’re going to want to open it in a browser. Otherwise, you’re going to miss some stuff (mostly memes at the end; you know, the good stuff).

Alright, Israel has occupied parts of Syria as a ‘temporary’ buffer. Turkey is building up its military along the Syrian border, sparking concerns that it may make an incursion into the northern part of the country. This would likely be a somewhat punitive operation (at least in Erdoğan’s eyes) attacking Kurds. Meanwhile, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the head of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group that led the opposition conquest of Syria and now the country’s de facto leader, has attempted to provide assurances that it doesn’t seek to fight anyone else. He has highlighted that Syria is exhausted from its long civil war and promises that no attacks against Israel will come from Syria. He has also assured the West that he is not seeking to export any attacks into Europe or elsewhere.

In Congress, a continuing resolution to fund the government through March faltered this week after appearing to have sufficient support. President-elect Trump and Elon Musk went on an offensive, denouncing the resolution and threatening to mount primary challenges to any Republican that supported the resolution. Trump’s demands surprised Congressmembers on both sides of the aisle and included stripping some of the Democrat-backed compromises, while simultaneously increasing the debt limit. The latter demand is all the more curious, given that the incoming administration has lobbied hard to streamline the government, going so far as to creating a “department” of government efficiency, headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Possible motivations include:

Fear of Democrats challenging the debt ceiling raise during an actual Trump administration, causing a shut down on his watch
Wanting to blame outgoing President, Joe Biden, for increased national debt
Plans for spending a lot more than suggested throughout his campaign

So, a Trump-backed spending bill was pushed forward last night only to fail a House vote with 38 representatives of Trump’s part voting against it—in what could be seen as the first test of his new administration. Regardless, the government faces a potential shutdown tonight, if Congress is unable to create and pass a new continuing resolution.

Back to DefenseTech.

China’s military drone standards have caught up to the United States. The Axis of Autocracy continues to strengthen internal relations and capabilities, leading to warnings about possible North Korean missiles arriving in Russia for use against Ukraine.

The Pentagon is establishing an Artificial Intelligence Rapid Capabilities Cell within the Chief Data and AI Office. Gizmodo has suggested that former Google-CEO and Chairman of the Defense Innovation Board Eric Schmidt is a hypocrite for building an AI-focused Defense Tech firm while also calling out potential risks of AI this week. That is, of course, ridiculous. Doctors have Boards of Medicine to ensure safety and ethics in their profession. Lawyers have Bar Associations to do the same. There will always be bad actors in any profession, but that doesn’t mean that we should seek to balance ethics with the critical demand for national security.

Finally, this is the last edition of Building our Future for 2024. We’re closing the office and sending the team home for the holidays. Our Christmas present to you this year is some extra memes at the end. We’ll be back in January for some great coverage of DeepTech, DefenseTech, and SpaceTech. Merry Christmas!

Alright, enough yapping, let’s dig in to the news!

News Headlines:

Israel occupies a 'buffer zone' inside Syria, will stay for 'foreseeable future' (AP)

U.S. fears military buildup by Turkey signals preparations for incursion into Syria (WSJ)
Syria's new, de facto leader, tries to reassure world that Syria is war-weary and doesn't pose a threat to Israel or the west (BBC)
China-friendly mayor of Taipei calls for less confrontation as China continues sending ships, planes near Taiwan (AP)
China plans record budget deficit of 4% of GDP in 2025 (RT)
President-elect Trump forces House Speaker Mike Johnson to kill continuing resolution and add in a debt-ceiling increase to avoid having to due it during his presidency; today is the deadline to keep the government open (AP)
Lawmakers introduce bipartisan SHIPS for America Act to bolster merchant shipping (BD)
An Uzbek man is charged in Moscow with killing a Russian general in bombing claimed by Ukraine (AP)

Defense & Dual-Use Technologies

DIU pushing 'focus, speed, and scale' to develop new military tech (USNI)
Building physical tech is back in fashion thanks to AI, robotics, and defense (TC)
Air Force Secretary fires back at Musk, reminds him he’s ‘not a warfighter’ that has much to learn about defense (DN)
Rep Mike Rogers (R-AL), leader of the House Armed Services Cmte: 'Space Force needs to grow to counter China, Russia' (DN)
Pentagon launches AI Rapid Capabilities Cell to better integrate AI into the military (TDP)
Space Force to stand up Futures Command (SN)
A Gizmodo hit-piece targets Eric Schmidt for having a defense-focused AI company while also warning of AI dangers (GIZ)
DoD officials see progress in tackling weapons cybersecurity but a long way to go (ASF)
Army's next-gen command and control program will be a 'clean slate' (DS)
Army tests distributed command and control nodes in concurrent exercises (DS)
Space Force to test laser comms on a GPS satellite (SN)
Kendall: Space Force must move faster to field counterspace capabilities (DS)

Threat Tech

China launches hypersonic test planes from drones, balloons (TWZ)
U.S. Supreme Court to consider TikTok bid to halt ban, as EU investigates company over election interference (RT)
China's H-20 stealth bomber unlikely to 'debut' until 2030s: U.S. Intel (TWZ)
China has expanded its nuclear force and strengthened ties to Russia (AP)
Pentagon report: China's drone modernization efforts close to 'matching U.S. standards' (DS)
N. Korea can produce ballistic missiles for Russia to use against Ukraine in months (AP)

Foreign Defense Tech

Trilateral joint venture to manage GCAP warplane work from London (DN)
Estonian MilRem robots support Ukrainian troops in combat (DEB)
German Navy tests BlueWale underwater drone for covert ship tracking (DN)
Germany triples submarine order to six boats in joint buy with Norway (DN)
India commissions Russian-built warship amid enduring ties with Moscow (DN)
Israel's MoD quintupled startup funding in last year (BD)
Lithuania is on a Leopard tank-buying spree under new DefMin (DN)
Ukraine claims laser weapon able to down targets flying at over 2km (RT)

Defense Industry

U.S. Army extends Palantir's contract for its data-harnessing platform (DN)
Ursa Major tests long-range solid rocket motor for Army as firm eyes growth (DN)
Lockheed forms subsidiary to help defense companies adopt AI (RT)
K2 Space lands $30M military contract for ‘Mega’ satellite mission (SN)

Autonomous Systems

Counter-drone tech struggles to keep up with evolving threat (NDM)
Counter-drone startup ZeroMark CEO: drone mystery has 'really scary undertone' (NW)
German firm ARX Robotics unveils AI-enabled OS to transform military vehicles into autonomous systems (TDP)
Skydweller Aero continues Autonomous Maritime Patrol Aircraft flight tests with operational military payloads (SPM)
Hungarian researchers study animal movements to create better drone swarms (AP)

Deal Flow:

Funds

Category Ventures launches $160M debut fund focused on AI, infrastructure, developer tools, and applications (FBS)
Topology Ventures launches its debut fund at $75M, focused on frontier tech (CRN)
Humba Ventures raised $40M for its fund II, focused on deep tech and defense tech at the pre-seed, seed stages (TC)

VC

SandboxAQ raised a $300M+ round at a $5.3B pre-money valuation including previous and new investors to continue integrating AI and quantum technologies (QI)
Comand AI, a Paris-based AI defense tech company, raised a $8.9M seed round led by Eurazeo (SFD)
Croatian defense drone maker Orqa FPV raised a $6.1M seed round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners (BW)

PE / M&A

Stonepeak agreed to acquire Italian forged components manufacturer Forgital from Carlyle for over $1.6B (BBG)
Israeli spyware firm Paragon, backed by Battery Ventures and Red Dot, has been purchased by PE firm AE Industrial Partners for a sum ranging from $500M to $900M (TC)
Honeywell considers spinning off aerospace business amid activist calls (RT)
Defense contractor Janus Research Group acquired the atmospheric and environmental research business of Verisk in an undisclosed transaction (STN)
Spanish state-owned shipbuilder Navantia is set to rescue struggling U.K. shipbuilder, maker of the Titanic and Royal Navy ships, Harland & Wolff (BBC)

Opportunities

The Army is seeking solutions to provide Counter-sUAS soldier common systems to protect soldiers from drones (SAM)
The Army is also seeking available and viable solutions for a Brigade-level UAS to support ISR missions (SAM)

DARPA is looking for concepts related to novel micromechanical oscillators for applications toward precision positioning and navigation systems (SAM)
The Navy has released a BAA looking for technologies for submarine and surface combat system sensors and signals processing (SAM)
NATO is seeking information from industry about Maritime Autonomous Systems (ACT)
The British MoD is seeking a new medium range precision strike capability for beyond visual line of sight operations (FTS)
The Australian DoD is seeking proposals to apply cutting edge tech for its Decision Advantage capability program (AT)
Australia's DoD is seeking participants to support its Expendable Undersea Countermeasures program (AT)
The Australian Army is seeking new capabilities to enhance the range and lethality, sustainment, and survivability of autonomous systems operating in littoral environments (AT)