Weekly News Update: Jun 14, 2024
8 - 14 Jun 2024
Good morning,
Clearly, I’m behind schedule today and there’s a lot to dissect in the news. First, the House Appropriations Committee did its committee markup on the Defense Appropriations bill this week. Watch for a lot of interesting insights to come in the near future on that.
Second, we’re continuing to see VC firms raising funds to focus on hard tech and defense tech. Hopefully, this will quickly translate into opening the spigot for startups, but that still remains muted—although there were some defense or defense-adjacent investments announced this week. More movement in the M&A sphere with Merlin Labs acquiring EpiSci and Italy finally approving French firm Safran’s acquisition of Eurofighter component maker Microtecnica.
Geopolitically, Israel rescued four hostages captures on 7 Oct, at the cost of several hundred Palestinian lives. The US has proposed a ceasefire plan, now endorsed by the UN Security Council, although Hamas has asked for some amendments. Russia is floating part of its navy in the western hemisphere near Cuba and China may be attempting to probe Taiwanese naval defenses.
In space, Boeing’s Starliner craft is stranded with its return date pushed to 22 June, amid multiple leaks from the spacecraft, just the latest in what feels like dozens of major engineering mishaps from one of the largest aerospace and defense companies. How have shareholders NOT demanded the heads of the entire board, yet.
Finally, the UEFA European Championship 2024 kicks off today at 3:00pm Eastern at Munich’s Allianz Arena, where Germany is heavily favored to beat Scotland.
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 Innovation Unit gets new military deputy (DS)
GOP green lights FY25 defense bill, but more social fights ahead (MT)
House appropriators spending bill report shows key changes across procurement, R&D (BD)
Army and Navy reduce, while Air Force and other Pentagon agencies increase dependence on China for ‘critical technology’ (DO)
White House bashes idea of creating Army Drone Corps (DS)
Next-gen doubts? Air Force Chief of Staff won’t commit to fielding NGAD (BD)
Robotic vehicles to fight with enemy forces in Army training event (DN)
Army debates path to buy long-range precision munitions (DN)
Defense Tech Opportunities
SOFWERX and SOCOM S&T will host an innovation event focused on exploring the challenges of resourcing parts, components, and supplies at the point of need (SAM)
NASA has opened its SBIR Ignite Phase 1 solicitation (NASA)
DARPA has opened its Artificial Intelligence Quantified program with a goal to assess and understand capabilities without access to internals, which will be expedited by having access to the internals of open-sourced models, given the architectural similarity to proprietary models (SAM)
DARPA is soliciting innovative approaches to address challenges with maintaining warfighter alertness following sleep deprivation under its AWARE program (SAM)
Europe, Russia, the Arctic, NATO, and the war in Ukraine
Inside Ukraine, startups try to edge Russia in the electronic warfare race (BD)
US, Poland launch center to fight Kremlin disinformation about Ukraine war (AP)
US, Ukraine sign ‘historic’ 10-year bilateral security agreement (BD)
NATO defense ministers thrash out new security aid and training support plan for Ukraine (AP)
Far-right makes significant gains in European parliament elections (FT)
Russian warships enter Cuban waters ahead of Caribbean exercise (AP)
US widens sanctions on Russia to discourage countries such as China from doing business with Moscow (AP)
Mark Rutte likely to become next NATO chief, Finnish president says (RT)
Germany outlines plans for 'new' model of military service (DW)
China, Korea, and Asia
US defense bill aims to strengthen contested logistics strategy in Pacific (DN)
Taiwan arrests former Chinese navy captain whose speedboat entered Taipei harbor (AlJ)
US commander reveals ‘Hellscape’ strategy, should China invade Taiwan (AT)
Middle East and Africa
UN Security Council backs US-devised plan for Gaza cease-fire (BBC)
Hamas responds to Gaza cease-fire plan seeking some changes, US ‘evaluating’ the reply (AP)
UN inquiry faults both Israel and Hamas for war crimes (RT)
On the Israel-Lebanon border, a war is unfolding in slow motion (WP)
Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz quits emergency government (BBC)
AFRICOM denies US airstrike killed Cuban doctors in Somalia (VOA)
US Intel: Houthis planning to provide arms to Somalia’s al-Shabaab (CNN)
ICC prosecutor appeals for evidence of atrocities in Sudan after rebels attack hospital in Darfur (AP)
U.S. Defense Industry News
America’s war machine cannot make basic artillery fast enough (BBG)
Anduril wins solid rocket motor test, development contract for Navy’s SM-6 (BD)
Navy investment in BlueForge Alliance up to $500 million, and growing (BD)
Bezos’ Blue Origin joins SpaceX, ULA in winning bids for $5.6 billion Pentagon rocket program (CNBC)
Merlin Labs wins contract to provide autonomy for US Air Force special operations air craft (TDP)
SOFWERX to help special operations forces tackle contested logistics challenges (DS)
Foreign Defense Industry News
Estonia is the new, hot test bed for drone warfare (DO)
French artillery units create makeshift self-propelled artillery (DN)
Australia fast-tracks its hunt for replacement frigates (DN)
Rheinmetall plans Lynx IFV production in Ukraine in ‘near future’ (BD)
Israel’s IAI rolls out Air Lora, a new air-launched ballistic missile (BD)
Israel Aerospace Industries union reaches agreement with government (DN)
Emirati EDGE Group joins forces with Indian firm with an eye towards a host of defense systems (BD)
Netherlands says first Embraer C-390 delivery from joint buy with Austria is delayed to 2027 (BD)
Italian Navy starts doling out money for sub-sea drone technologies (DN)
KNDS unveils new Leopard and Leclerc main battle tank concepts (BD)
KNDS-Leonardo rupture could nix Italian Leopard 2 tank buy (DN)
Turkish shipbuilder STM to construct three vessels for Malaysia (DN)
Turkey’s MKE unveils hybrid combat vehicles (JN)
Diehl Defence unveils IRIS-T SLX missile system (JN)
Space
Space Force’s Resilient GPS program draws skepticism from lawmakers (C4)
House appropriators want to cut Space Force budget nearly $1Bn (ASF)
Space Force turning to commercial sats to enhance in-space monitoring (BD)
Boeing Starliner return delayed again due to leaks (RT)
Nuclear Power & Weapons
NATO chief says the alliance is adapting its nuclear arsenal to security threats (RT)
Russia, Belarus launch a second stage of drills to train troops in tactical nuclear weapons (AP)
Iran installing and starting cascades of advanced centrifuges as tensions high over nuclear program (AP)
AI, Robotics, & other Frontier Tech
US falls further behind in AI race, could make conflict with China ‘unwinnable’: Report (BD)
Pentagon pauses development of its go-to data analytics tool (DO)
US Air Force launches GenAI chatbot offering promise and challenges (ASF)
Many software makers will miss Biden’s cybersecurity deadline today (FdT)
French OpenAI-rival Mistral AI raised a $644M round at a $6.2B from investors including Nvidia, Samsung and Cisco (BBG)
Italian AI startup iGenius is seeking to raise ~$700M at a ~$1.8B valuation (BBG)
A&D-Focused Finance
Vsquared Ventures, a German early-stage deep tech fund, closed its second fund at $230M (TFN)
Veterans Venture Capital has announced its first close on its $50M Fund II (PRN)
Space Pioneer, a five-year-old Beijing startup developing reusable rockets, raised a $207 million Series C extension round (RT)
Apex, a spacecraft startup, raised a $95M Series B led by XYZ and CRV (FN)
Enterprise SaaS training platform Learn to Win raised a $30M Series A led by the Westly Group (PRN)
Nexus Laboratories, a zero-knowledge cryptography startup, raised a $25M Series A led by Lightspeed and Pantera Capital (PRN)
ARX Robotics raises €9M seed funding to fill Europe’s gap in autonomous military vehicles led by the NATO Innovation Fund (TFN)
Low-cost computer maker Raspberry Pi's shares jumped ~38% in its trading debut after its $211M London IPO (BBG)
Merlin Labs signs agreement for strategic acquisition of EpiSci (BW)
Italy approves French firm Safran’s purchase of Microtecnica, after blocking the $1.8Bn acquisition in November (DN)
US-listed company Critical Metals agreed to buy a 92.5% stake in the Tanbreez rare earth deposit in Greenland in a $211M deal (BBG)
Vista Outdoor rejected a sweetened takeover offer of over $3B from investment firm MNC Capital (RT)
Billionaire Hildebrand’s family office JDH Capital is leading a $2B cash takeover offer for Vista Outdoor’s ammunition unit Kinetic (FT)
IT consultant Cognizant agreed to acquire engineering firm Belcan from PE firm AE Industrial Partners in a $1.3B cash-and-stock deal (WSJ)
Important Reads
Colin Demarest describes how space and cyber technologies are nullifying the protection that the oceans have provided the United States.
Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, describes how China is ramping up its efforts while staying ‘short of war’ regarding Taiwan, and what we must do to counter them.
Lighter Side
Keep building!
Andrew