Weekly News Update: Aug 2, 2024
27 Jul - 2 Aug 2024
Good morning,
My attempt has been foiled by a summer cold. So I’m laid up hacking, coughing, and generally feeling awful when I should be enjoying the beautiful Caribbean weather.
But worry not about me. Let’s dive in to this week’s issues surrounding aerospace and defense technology.
Weekly News Round Up
Military
U.S. Defense modernization and innovation
SAC passes $852B defense bill, adding $21B and teeing up budget fight (BD)
Pentagon IG moves to assess high-stakes Replicator initiative (DS)
Air Force ‘taking a pause’ on NGAD next-gen fighter: Kendall (BD)
Air Force’s new Integrated Capabilities Office eyes study to interdict adversary kill chains (BD)
Army tests algorithms for classifying new signals for first time at annual experiment (DS)
Europe, Russia, the Arctic, NATO, and the war in Ukraine
Russia and the West conduct their largest prisoner swap since the Cold War (AP)
China, Korea, and Asia
Austin pledges $500M in security aid to Philippines amid uncertainty (DN)
US makes command in Japan a warfighting, operational command (DN)
Middle East and Africa
US reaches plea deal with alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (CNN)
High profile assassinations put Mideast on brink of war (CNBC)
U.S. Defense Industry News
Air Force sees spike in overseas weapon sales (DN)
Air Force picks five firms to build autonomy package for drone wingmen (DN)
Boeing reported a larger-than-expected Q2 loss and missed revenue estimates as its airplane and defense businesses continue to struggle (CNBC)
Boeing named Kelly Ortberg as new CEO (CNBC)
Supercomputers on demand: Rescale, Parallel Works ramp up for DIU cloud contract (BD)
Foreign Defense Industry News
Israel moves to strengthen defense production amid boycott calls (DN)
Israel orders Elbit Systems’ Iron Sting precision mortars (BD)
As industry prepares bids, future of UK New Medium Helicopter program unclear (BD)
Loft Dynamics is training helicopter pilots in VR (FR)
Space
Senate appropriators push Pentagon, Intelligence Community on commercial space acquisition (BD)
Nuclear Power & Weapons
DoD ‘exploring’ options for nuclear buildup as part of strategic review (BD)
AI, Robotics, & other Frontier Tech
Google Cloud is hoarding Nvidia chips for YC-backed startups (TC)
Apple does not use Nvidia chips to train its AI models (RT)
A&D-Focused Finance
Type One Energy, a startup building a fusion reactor, raised a $53.5M seed extension led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures (TC)
Star Catcher emerged from stealth on Wednesday with $12.25M in funding and a plan to build a power grid to sustain bigger and more complex missions in orbit (SN)
GovWell, a workflow system for local governments, raised a $4.5M seed round led by Work-Bench (TC)
LG’s Founding Koo Family’s Defense Company Buys $240 Million Stake In US Robotic Dog Maker, Ghost Robotics (FR)
Honeywell is considering an IPO of its majority-owned quantum computing firm Quantinuum at an up to $10B valuation (BBG)
Bain, Cinven, Blackstone, and others are considering a $2.2B bid for Carlyle's Italian aerospace components manufacturer Forgital (BBG)
Private credit giant HPS Investment Partners will acquire Chorus Aviation's regional-aircraft leasing business for $1.4B, including debt (BBG)
Lighter Side
Keep building!
Andrew