Post-election hangover recovery and Chinese tricks
Defense and dual-use texhnologies
Good morning,
Alright, elections are over. Everybody back to work. China is up to its ol’ tricks, ripping off technology, hacking systems, and infringing on other countries’ territories (this time Japan, claiming that they were pushed off course and into Japanese airspace).
Now, let’s dig in to the news!
News Headlines:
NATO's new chief says Russian attacks on Europe are 'intensifying' (POL)
China claims 'unexpected obstruction' pushed its spy plane into Japanese airspace (S&S)
China hack enabled vast spying on U.S. officials, likely ensuring thousands of contacts (WSJ)
Philippine forces retake an island in mock combat as China's navy watches (AP)
Defense & Dual-Use Technologies
Air Force Chief: CCA will be 'pathfinder' for new way of acquisition (ASF)
Army examining best approach to fight electronic warfare at echelon (DS)
Scale AI unveils 'Defense Llama' large language model for national security users (DS)
U.S., S. Korea expand quantum tech cooperation in enhanced defense partnership (QI)
Threat Tech
N. Korea boasts of 'world's strongest' missile, but experts say it's too big to use in war (AP)
New heavyweight Chinese jet drone looks to be a swarm mothership (WZ)
China unveils upgrade J-15T (based on Su-33 Flanker design) and J-35, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the F-35 (WZ)
Foreign Defense Tech
MBDA unveils submarine-launched Exocet missile to strike naval vessels (DN)
EU's new defense chief says air shield may cost €500M (BBG)
Philippine Coast guard to receive 40 patrol boats from France in $438M ODA Project (USNI)
S. Korea tees up SRBM in response to N. Korea's ICBM launch (S&S)
EDGE and Fincantieri join forces to develop advanced subsea defense systems (MTN)
Defense Industry
Ursa Major looks to join Firehawk, X-Bow in solid-rocket production using additive manufacturing (DO)
Jericho Security wins Pentagon’s first AI security contract (VB)
Stanford Handshake snubs defense tech community, refuses to list jobs from directed energy company Aurelius Systems (SR)
Anthropic teams up with Palantir, AWS to sell AI to defense (TC)
General Atomics and BAE collaborate on autonomous electronic warfare Link 16 capabilities (IUS)
Anduril considering Arizona, Ohio, or Texas for its Arsenal-1 factory (TC)
Autonomous Systems
SOCOM adds new collaborative autonomy capability (RCD)
Deal Flow:
VC
Electric aerospace company Beta Technologies raised a $318M Series C funding led by QIA to fund growth and commercialization (BW)
PE / M&A
Teledyne Technologies agreed to buy certain aerospace and defense-electronics businesses from AEA Investors-backed Excelitas Technologies for $710M cash (WSJ)
Sagewind Capital acquired a majority stake in digital R&D, acquisition, and sustainment solutions provider Sabel Systems Technology Solutions (PEH)
Opportunities
Army DEVCOM seeks decision-support capabilities to significantly improve command post (CP) organization and operations (SAM)
Editor's Picks:
Former Air Force General Michael Moseley draws a ridiculous, false dichotomy saying that we need F-35s and B-2s, not small drones.
Read the transcript of Will Roper’s conversation at CSIS on AI and autonomous systems.
Lighter Side:
Keep Building,
BOF