Weekly News Update: Mar 1, 2024
24 Feb - 1 Mar 2024
Good morning,
Amidst ongoing geopolitical tensions and technological advancements, this week's headlines in defense and space underscore a dynamic landscape of innovation and strategic maneuvering. The U.S. faces hurdles in defense modernization due to another continuing resolution, while the Pentagon explores new models for assessing network readiness and the Air Force emphasizes the need for rapid reorganization and funding. In Europe, concerns mount over the escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine, with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin warning of the alliance's potential involvement if Ukraine falls. Meanwhile, China's influence in Asia continues to grow, and North Korea's military capabilities raise international concerns. The space sector sees developments such as the US moon lander Odysseus experiencing technical issues, China's plans for its own satellite constellation, and SpaceX's collaboration with Tesla. In the realm of frontier tech, AI's military applications gain traction, while regulatory scrutiny intensifies, as evidenced by the SEC's investigation into OpenAI. Financially, supply chain challenges persist in the aerospace and defense industry, while startups in the space sector secure significant funding rounds, reflecting investor confidence in the sector's growth potential (this summary was produced using GenAI).
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
Another continuing resolution will slow modernization, hurt the services (DN)
Pentagon shifting to new model for assessing network readiness (DS)
Air Force Chief: ‘Reorg must happen fast, needs funding’ (DN)
Army units must trim command posts, add drones to survive (MT)
Space Futures Command could begin operations this year (DN)
Defense Tech Opportunities
Navy seeking to rapidly prototype new air-launched, stand-off missile (SAM)
NASA released the Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition (CSDA) IDIQ for the procurement of commercial earth observation and related serviced for the Science Mission Directorate. Responses are due March 25 (SAM)
SSC has released an open two-step BAA seeking innovative concepts for space and cyber capabilities to address emerging threats (SAM)
ERDC has released its 2024 BAA covering a diverse range of topics from remote sensing and self-contained munitions to computer science telecommunications management, and energy (SAM)
Europe, Russia, the Arctic, NATO, and the war in Ukraine
SecDef: ‘NATO will be drawn into war with Russia, if Ukraine loses’ (NW)
Ukraine trades territory for time in defense of East (WP)
Russia Buys Tens of Millions of Euros of Banned EU Weapons Tech (BBG)
UK refocuses on ‘spiral development’ as key to successful programs (DN)
Moldovan breakaway region appeals to Russia for help (AP)
Germany hosts Armenia, Azerbaijan foreign ministers for peace talks (AP)
Hungarian parliament ratifies Swedish NATO membership, clearing last hurdle (AP)
Russia says it will take military-technical steps in response to Sweden's NATO accession (RT)
France’s Macron doesn’t rule out sending troops to Ukraine (FT)
Losing 11 jets in 11 days, Russia stumbles towards aerial collapse (FRB)
China, Korea, and Asia
McKinsey-led think-tank advised China on policy that fed US tensions (FT)
Philippines Starts Latest Naval Modernization Attempt Amid South China Sea Tensions (USNI)
While the World Was Looking Elsewhere, North Korea Became a Bigger Threat (WSJ)
Indonesia and Australia hold defense talks as both nations move toward signing a security agreement (AP)
Middle East and Africa
US and UK hit Iranian deputy commander and Houthi member with sanctions (AP)
US struggles for influence in west Africa as military juntas rise (WP)
U.S. Defense Industry News
Anduril, Hanwha team for Army’s S-MET robot transport competition (BD)
FAA deemed Boeing safety efforts as below par (WSJ)
Boeing to pay $51M US penalty over arms export violations (FT)
Northrop Grumman modifying Global Hawk drones for hypersonic tests (DN)
SOCOM gives PDW $6.9M for new jammer-proof BlackWave radio system (TP)
Reliable Robotics, Xwing demonstrate autonomy retrofits for Air Force cargo planes (ASF)
RTX’s missile warning sensor is more than a year behind schedule, could delay launch (DN)
Stell Engineering wins $1.24M SBIR award from the Space Force for software (SE)
Foreign Defense Industry News
Austrian Pandur vehicles to schlep slimmed Skyranger air defense gun (DN)
Brazil’s Embraer sees strong demand for C-390 Millennium airlifter in Asia (DN)
France orders 3,000 multispectral camouflage nets from Saab (DN)
France’s Thales and Spain’s Indra announce new collaboration agreement (BD)
Germany buys Rheinmetall’s Skyranger to reinstate mobile air defenses (DN)
Honeywell, Indonesia’s PTDI ink deal for Indonesia’s Black Hawk helicopter program (DN)
ST Engineering inks aircraft repair deals with Airbus, Embraer (DN)
S. Korea eyes mixed fleet of manned, unmanned warplanes (DN)
Space
US moon lander Odysseus goes dormant a week after lopsided landing (RT)
China is building its own Starlink—even as questions surround Musk's constellation (DO)
Firefly Doubles its Footprint and Charts a Course for ‘Launch, Land, Orbit’ (PL)
NASA monitoring increased leak in Russian ISS module (SN)
Northrop Grumman warns space sector employees of potential layoffs (SN)
Japan's SLIM moon probe unexpectedly survives lunar night (RT)
SpaceX will help design the Tesla Roadster (WSJ)
Nuclear Power & Weapons
Air Force invests in new nuclear effects testing prototype (DS)
AI, Robotics, & other Frontier Tech
AI is proving its military value, far from the front lines (DO)
French AI firm Preligens to process drone footage for automatic threat detection (DN)
Mistral AI, a Paris-based AI startup rivaling OpenAI, received a $16.3M investment from Microsoft (TC)
Nvidia, with fresh $2T valuation, is now the most desirable place to work (WSJ)
OpenAI accused New York Times of manipulating ChatGPT to build copyright lawsuit (RT)
The SEC is investigating OpenAI (WSJ)
Meta will launch a new AI language model Llama 3 in July (TI)
A&D-Focused Finance
Supply chain bottlenecks are costing the industry up to $104Bn (AW)
PE fundraising plunged to a six-year low in 2023 (S&P)
Exodigo, a startup modernizing underground mapping, raised a $105M Series A led by Greenfield Partners and Zeev Ventures (PRN)
Unseenlabs, a French startup using satellite data to detect ships, raised an $92.9M funding round from Supernova Invest, ISALT, and UNEXO (BW)
SpaceFields a startup building solid rocket motors, has closed $800,000 in seed funding led by HVB 88 Angels and O2 Angels Network (PL)
Astra’s CEO Chris Kemp sent a revised proposal for the acquisition of Astra Space, adjusting the offer price to $0.50 per share (SEC)
Important Reads
The UK has released a new defense drone strategy.
Navy Commander Justin Letwinsky suggests five strategies to speed up adoption of AI in defense.
Lighter Side
Keep building!
Andrew