Weekly News Update: Jan 26, 2024

20 - 26 Jan 2024

Jan 26, 2024

Good morning,

Groundhog’s Day is next week. It feels like it’s already here. Here’s what’s happening: China is mad over US Navy ships sailing through the Taiwan strait. The US and UK continue striking Houthi targets in Yemen, as the navies also combat Houthi missiles and attack drones in the Red Sea. The ICJ has told Israel to prevent a genocide in Gaza.

The Wall Street rally continues pushing up major indices to all-time highs. Lockheed and Raytheon both released results this week and saw bumps to their shares. Startups, however, are not feeling the love as the Pentagon’s spending spree is still going to the bigger companies.

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

Defense startups risk becoming failed experiment without more Pentagon dollars (WSJ)
Defense Tech firms watch new strategy for ‘generational change’ (DN)
Pentagon to brief industry on Replicator status at tech summit (DN)
Nominee for Pentagon’s new S&T post commits to prioritizing hypersonics, quantum tech (DS)
Army unit uses cheap tech to train others in modern warfare (DO)
New thermal optic shows bullets in flight, details a mile away (AT)
Army uses Slack-style battlefield software during exercise, in a first (DO)
Navy to join, analyze upcoming Lockheed demo of Patriot missile, Aegis integration (BD)

Defense Tech Opportunities

Army seeks new interceptor to counter cruise missiles (SAM)
SDA released their annual Systems, Technologies, and Emerging Capabilities (STEC) BAA targeting leap-ahead improvements for future SDA Tranches (SAM)
NASA released their NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NAIC) Phase II RFP seeking early studies of visionary aerospace concepts (NASA)
DARPA MTO released a solicitation seeking disruptive fundamental research ideas in information and communication technologies (SAM)

Europe, Russia, the Arctic, NATO, and the war in Ukraine

Sweden closer to NATO membership after Turkey vote, Hungary signal (DN)
Mysterious Russian plane crash raises more questions than answers (CNN)
UK lobbying US congress over Ukraine aid (NYT)
Baltics bolster border security with Russia, Belarus (DN)
NATO’s largest military exercise since Cold War kicks off (RT)

China, Korea, and Asia

USS John Finn’s latest Taiwan Strait transit sparks Beijing’s ire (MT)
Taiwan extends conscription from 4 months to a year (RT)
US extends lead over China in race for world’s biggest economy (BBG)
China signals more targeted stimulus to come (BBG)
China’s defense ministry calls NATO ‘a walking war machine’ (BI)

Middle East and Africa

Int’l Court of Justice to rule on case alleging Israeli genocide in Gaza (TG)
US and UK sanction four Yemeni Houthi leaders over Red Sea attacks (AP)
US secretly warned Iran ahead of ISIS attack that killed 84 (WSJ)
Sources: China pressing Iran to rein in Houthi attacks in Red Sea (RT)
US, Iraq to start talks on future of US presence in country (CNN)
Pentagon’s Middle East buildup costs $1.6Bn (Pol)
5th Fleet Commander: Iran ‘directly involved’ in Houthi ship attacks (AP)

U.S. Defense Industry News

Defense primes are growing warier of fixed-price deals (DN)
Industry partners worry about Pentagon commitment to directed-energy weapons (DN)
Blue Origin gets Space Force funding for New Glenn ‘integration studies’ (SN)
FAA halts Boeing 737 Max production expansion, but clears path to return Max 9 services (CNBC)
NRO approves Firefly to compete for spy satellite launches (SN)
Freedom Space ground network software selected for Space Force program (SN)
General Atomics: Poland nearing acquisition of SkyGuardian drones (DN)
Lockheed, Boeing win contracts to design communications satellites (SN)
Lockheed beats revenues, earnings estimates, warns on future sales (MW)
Pentagon OKs B-21 for low-rate production (BD)
Rising B-21 production costs lead to $1.6Bn charge for Northrop (DN)
Quantum Research Sciences wins contract to build Pentagon’s first ever ‘operational, production-level quantum computing software’ (ASF)
Raytheon wins contract for new ‘viewer’ for Bradley fighting vehicles (TDP)
RTX rallies as it beats consensus on earnings, revenue (MW)

Foreign Defense Industry News

BAE tests counter-drone capability on Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (C4)
China claims to have created ‘dream bullet’ once pursued by US military (SCMP)
Germany signs $1.3Bn short range air defense development contract (BD)
In a first, UK downs aerial drone with test shot from DragonFire laser (C4)
Germany’s Quantum Systems sees drone deliveries to Ukraine increase three-fold (C4)
Italy tees up $5Bn program to build 1,000 combat vehicles (DN)
S. Korea starts production on new UAV to boost spy capabilities (S&S)
Abu Dhabi drone fair offers rare look at Belarusian weapons (C4)
Milrem to deliver dozens of military robots to UAE forces (C4)
Turkey begins to replace foreign-made weapons with domestic types (DN)

Mars Ingenuity helicopter ends mission (NYT)
Northrop harnesses machine learning to aid Space Force missile parsing (DN)
Space Force sees potential value from DoC commercial sat data (BD)
Iran launches satellite that is part of a Western-criticized program as tensions spike (AP)
SpaceX, Blue Origin space race is boosting suppliers’ bottom lines (BBG)
There’s a new global race to the moon (CNBC)
Orbit Fab and ClearSpace partner to develop in-space refueling service (SN)
Belgium signs Artemis Accords (SN)
China launches five earth observation satellites (Sp)

Nuclear Power & Weapons

Russia’s counter-NATO strategy likely to emphasize more, smaller nukes (S&S)

AI, Robotics, & other Frontier Tech

Naval group pitches autonomous systems as key to underwater operations (DN)
Musk’s AI startup secures $500M towards $1B funding goal (BBG)

A&D-Focused Finance

Arlington Capital Partners raises $3.8Bn to invest in Aerospace & Defense, creates new company, Keel Holdings (WSJ)
PE firm Arcline Investment Management is taking aerospace manufacturer Kaman private in $1.8Bn deal (WSJ)
US aerospace supplier Arconic, which is controlled by Apollo Global, is selling its China business in a deal that could value it at as much as $300M (RT)
Albedo, a startup building satellites that orbit very close to Earth, raised a $35M Series A-1 led by Standard Investments (TC)
Vertical Aerospace, an electric aviation company, raised $50M in funding from founder and CEO Stephen Fitzpatrick (BW)
French small launch startup Latitude closes $30M Series B (TC)
Greece will launch an IPO for a 30% stake in Athens International Airport today in a sale that could yield up to $1.3B (RT)
American Airlines shares jumped 10% after beating Q4 earnings and revenue expectations and forecasting 2024 profit largely above expectations (RT)
Scandinavian airline SAS forecast revenue of $4.6B in 2024 and plans to exit from Chapter 11 reorganization by the end of the first half of the year (RT)
Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airways are appealing a federal judge’s decision to block JetBlue’s $3.8B acquisition of the ultra-low-cost carrier (BBG)
United Airlines beat Q4 earnings and revenue expectations but forecasted a Q1 loss due to the FAA’s grounding of Boeing 737 Max 9 planes this month (CNBC)

Important Reads

Retired Admiral Scott Swift and former Dep Assist. Secretrary of Defense Heino Klinck outline why Taiwan needs both asymmetric and conventional systems to effectively deter China.
Mike Daniels describes how federal agencies can integrate Generative AI and automation.
Apoorv Agrawal discussed how and why Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, and Google are investing so much venture capital into AI startups.