Weekly News Update: Apr 12, 2024
6 - 12 Apr 2024
Good morning,
This week was dominated by two main news stories in defense. First, Ukraine is running low on materiel. Without support from NATO—and specifically from the United States—Ukraine risks significant losses. This support is hopefully forthcoming, now that Congress is back. But isolated opposition to supporting Ukraine remains very strong.
Second, Israel conducted an air strike against the Iranian consulate in Syria. Iran has pledged to retaliate, but is attempting to walk a fine line between retaliation and provoking a US response. For our part, the United States is beefing up security in the Middle East and has dispatched our senior commander in the region to Israel, demonstrating our own concerns. At the same time, Israel’s attempt to root-out Hamas in Gaza is increasingly unpopular in the West, with Biden now pressuring Netanyahu to accept a cease-fire, despite the reality that Hamas cannot uphold its end of any bargain concerning releasing hostages.
In the Defense Tech front, American companies’ attempt to battle prove their autonomous systems in Ukraine has largely failed. The systems are too expensive, exquisite, and ineffective. Autonomous systems continue to dominate headlines, and there seems to be an acknowledgement that the next major domain for autonomous systems and warfare is underwater. The tripartite AUKUS is considering an expansion under a ‘Pillar II’ to bring Japan and potentially Canada, New Zealand and the Philippines into the technology-sharing framework.
Let’s dive in to these and other issues surrounding aerospace and defense technology.
Weekly News Round Up
Military
U.S. Defense modernization and innovation
Implementation plan for defense industrial strategy to be ready this summer (BD)
Pentagon includes counter-drone systems in initial Replicator buy (DS)
Information warfare becoming a critical submarine capability (C4)
Army to kill tactical-level Cyber Situational Understanding initiative (DS)
US Navy secretary points to foreign shipyards’ practices to fix delays (DN)
Navy program office: ‘future drone wingmen need to cost less than $15M’ (BD)
Del Toro dubs robotics specialists next step in ‘truly hybrid’ fleet (NT)
Defense Tech Opportunities
The Army Application Lab has issued a broad agency announcement for disruptive technologies (SAM)
SSC released an RFI and draft RPP documents for the Missile Warning / Missile Tracking MEO Epoch 2 spacecraft portion of the solicitation (SAM)
NASA released a solicitation for Early Stage Innovations from US universities seeking proposals for unique, disruptive, or innovative space concepts (SAM)
S. Korea looks to spend $37M to integrate ground robots into its force (DN)
France to spend $540 million on artillery propellant production (DN)
Europe, Russia, the Arctic, NATO, and the war in Ukraine
Ukraine will be outgunned by Russia 10 to 1 in weeks without US help, top Europe general says (AP)
Blinken and Cameron urge Congress to approve aid for Ukraine, calling it critical for world security (AP)
Swedish naval chief: Russia’s GPS meddling in Baltic Sea demands NATO action (DO)
China, Korea, and Asia
US, UK, Australia consider AUKUS Pillar II that could add Japan, Philippines, and Canada to the tech-sharing framework (RT)
US, Japan announce generational upgrade to alliance amid China threat (DN)
Myanmar troops retreat as rebels declare control over key border town (RT)
US Pacific boss ‘very concerned’ about Chinese aggression in region (MT)
US-Chinese military talks resume on safety in the air and at sea (MT)
Secretary of Defense: DoD assessing an operational joint force HQ in Pacific (BD)
Fitch cut China's credit rating to negative (RT)
Middle East and Africa
Hamas Does Not Have 40 Hostages Who Meet Terms of Potential Swap With Israel, Official Says (NYT)
US braces for retaliation after Israel strikes Iranian consulate in Syria (AP)
Building our Defense subscriber and former personal mentor, GEN Erik Kurilla (AKA ‘the Gorilla’, AKA ‘the Terrorist Killa’) visits Israel amid Gaza war and rising Iran tensions (TH)
Russian military trainers arrive in Niger, as relations worsen with the US (AP)
U.S. Defense Industry News
American drones aren’t cutting it in Ukraine, which prefers Chinese systems (WSJ)
Defense primes rush to ramp-up output of Patriot missile (DN)
Army picks Akamai for prototype battlefield zero trust project: T-ICAM (BD)
Boeing to shutter Super Hornet line in 2027 after final Navy order (BD)
A Boeing plane suffered yet another accident (RT)
China sanctions, freezes assets of General Atomics, General Dynamics Land Systems over sales to Taiwan (AP)
MDA awards Lockheed $4.1Bn to upgrade battle command system (DN)
Northrop completes Manta Ray underwater drone prototype (DN)
Phase Four Secures a $14.9M DARPA Contract for an Air-Breathing VLEO System (PL)
Space Force awards Rocket Lab $14.5M task order for rocket launch on STP-S30 mission (SE)
Saildrone, Thales collaborating on sub-sensing unmanned surface vessel (C4)
Naval exercises demonstrates Saronic’s Spyglass, Cutlass autonomous boats (BD)
ShieldAI to let HiveMind AI pilot fly three more aircraft (C4)
SpaceX Contract to Supply Starlink in Ukraine Is Worth $23 Million (BBG)
True Anomaly receives $30M, Rocket Lab receives $32M from Space Force for Victus Haze rapid delivery mission (C4)
Navy awards rocket motor prototype contracts to Aerojet, X-Bow Systems, and Ursa Major (C4)
Israeli loitering munition maker UVision contracts with SAIC for US production line (BD)
Foreign Defense Industry News
BAE, AMS Integrated Solutions secure pact with Kyiv to repair weapons systems inside Ukraine (DN)
Canada to increase defense spending by $6Bn (BD)
Israel’s maritime C-Dome downs drone in first combat interception (BD)
Israel Weapons Industries unveils computerized Arbel small arms system for rifles and light machine guns (BD)
Italian government halts plan to buy Israeli undersea drones (C4)
Italy’s Fincantieri looks to capture the undersea market (BD)
Norway’s long term defense plan includes $60Bn increase in defense spending over 12 years (DN)
Polish defense leaders push for ‘dronization’ of armed forces (DN)
Russian microchip company AO PKK Milandr continued to provide microchips to the Russian military, despite denials (VOA)
Serbia seeks to buy 12 French Rafael fighter jets (AP)
Turkey’s Aselsan expands to Latin America, inaugurates an office in Chile (BD)
Space
China moving at 'breathtaking speed' in final frontier, Space Force says (Sp)
Space Force lays out commercial partnerships plan to speed procurement (C4)
Russia launches first Angara-A5 space rocket from Far East cosmodrome (RT)
Pentagon working with Ukraine, SpaceX to prevent Russian exploitation of Starlink (BD)
Amid increased military cooperation, Washington, Tokyo to announce joint NASA-JAXA lunar mission (WP)
DIU-sponsored report argues for new departmental-level space agency (BD)
S. Korea launches second military spy satellite (DN)
Nuclear Power & Weapons
IAEA sets emergency meeting after Zaporizhzhia attacks, sees increased risk of accident (RT)
Pentagon weighs options to lengthen life of legacy nuclear platforms as new programs face delays (BD)
AI, Robotics, & other Frontier Tech
Air Force Secretary to fly in AI-operated fighter jet in test run (AFT)
Why the Pentagon’s use of 3D printing is ‘not quite there yet’ (DN)
New bill would greatly expand DoD’s quantum efforts (DO)
Pentagon seeks ground rules for 5G Spectrum sharing (BD)
Musk predicts AI will overtake human intelligence next year (FT)
Amazon CEO touts AI revolution while committing to cost cuts (WSJ)
Musk’s AI startup X.AI is looking to raise $3B-$4B at an $18B valuation to compete with OpenAI (BBG)
OpenAI and Meta ready new AI models capable of ‘reasoning’ (FT)
Google is expanding in-house chip efforts (WSJ)
Intel unveiled latest AI chip as Nvidia competition heats up (CNBC)
A&D-Focused Finance
VC deal flow remains muted in Q1 (WSJ)
Global VC funding dropped 30% in Q1 (BBG)
Goldman see European defense stocks as overvalued (BBG)
Rheinmetall leads slump after European defence sector's record run (AP)
Boeing awarded its outgoing CEO a 45% pay rise (FT)
Varda Space, a startup building an orbital drug factory, raised a $90M Series B led by Caffeinated Capital (TC)
Raft, a startup providing data and software to support military command and control, raised a $60M growth investment from Washington Harbor Partners (BW)
Collaborative Robotics, a startup building robots that can reason like humans, raised a $100M Series B led by General Catalyst (TC)
Disinformation detection and mitigation startup Alethea raised a $20M Series B led by GV (FN)
Procurement Sciences AI, a next-generation bidding-intelligence platform for government contractors, raised a $10M Series A led by Battery Ventures (BW)
Space software tech provider Bright Ascension raised a $2.9M seed round from Scottish Enterprise, C4C, and others (FN)
Important Reads
Noah Smith highlights how we’re closer to World War III than we think, and not enough Americans are concerned about it.
Brandon Tseng writes on Shyam Sankar’s Substack about the importance of recognizing that we’re facing a national security emergency.
Lighter Side
Keep building!
Andrew