Weekly News Update: Mar 15, 2024
9 - 15 Mar 2024
Beware the ides of March!
The Pentagon released its budget request this week for 2025. Of course, Congress still hasn’t funded the 2024 budget except through the continued use of continuing resolutions. Yes, something is broken in DC, and there’s no plans for it to get better in the next year. The Army is continuing to cut out programs that cost too much and don’t deliver… a lesson that the Air Force has refused to learn, much to Lockheed Martin’s delight (talking about the F-35, in case it wasn’t clear).
NATO-Russian relations continue to sour as Putin deploys Russian forces to NATO borders, threatens nuclear war (again), and will be reelected for a fifth term as president of Russia with 115% of the popular vote, this weekend. For NATO’s part, France has emerged as the leading hardliner suggesting that certain scenarios could see deployments of NATO forces to Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron has been backed up in this claim by leaders in the Baltics. Meanwhile, Germany continues to fret over potential shipments of Taurus missiles to Ukraine.
SpaceX launched its third Starship, this time reaching orbit, before descending and crashing into the Indian Ocean. Japanese private space company Space One was less fortunate, with its solid-fuel Kairos rocket exploding within seconds of ignition. This is Japan’s first attempt at a commercial launch, and let’s remember that even SpaceX’s first launch failed. India fared better, with its first successful test launch of a domestically made ICBM capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads.
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
Pentagon unveils $850Bn budget request for 2025, amid funding uncertainty (DN)
10 years late and nearly 1 full defense budget over cost, the Pentagon finally approves the F-35 for full-rate production (DN)
Pentagon says $1Bn planned for first two years of Replicator (DN)
Shyu: Budget gridlock hamstrings Pentagon’s tech fast-track programs like RDER, APFIT (BD)
Pentagon trims tech research funding request; AI, networking flat (DN)
Pentagon may build a second track for hypersonic ground testing (DN)
Pentagon to release arctic strategy that outlines tech, presence needs (DN)
Air Force halves MH-139A Grey Wolf helo buy in FY25 budget request (BD)
Software revamp aims to align US Army with industry best practices (C4)
Army requesting more than $120M for LASSO kamikaze drones in fiscal 2025 (DS)
Army scraps Extended Range Cannon Artillery prototype effort (DN)
Army event to ‘detangle’ joint force logistics at outset of wars (DN)
Army will field mixed reality headsets to combat units this year (TP)
Marine Corps budget would add range, lethality to Force Design tools (DN)
Defense Tech Opportunities
NSWC Crane released a BAA focused on “Harnessing the Power of Technology for the Warfighter” across three broad focus areas: Expeditionary Warfare, Strategic Missions, and Electronic Warfare (SAM)
SSC released an RFI for GEO space domain awareness spacecraft that can conduct RPO operations and host EO payloads (SAM)
NRL has released an RFI to identify new and existing techniques to support remote sensing capabilities, including astronomy and SDA (SAM)
DARPA is seeking proposals for scalable, low swap, HF radio environment sensing and validation nodes (SAM)
DARPA is hosting an industry day for its LIONFISH program focused on developing undersea weapons (SAM)
The Navy is soliciting information from industry and academia about digital engineering, modeling, and simulation via AR/VR (SAM)
Europe, Russia, the Arctic, NATO, and the war in Ukraine
CSIS: US Army should permanently station a combat brigade in Poland (MT)
EU agrees 5Bn euro boost for Ukraine military aid fund (RT)
German chancellor, government opposed to Taurus missiles for Ukraine (AP)
Russians head to the polls this weekend; Putin will be reelected (WP)
Pentagon announces surprise $300M aid package for Ukraine (DN)
Russian arms exports drop by 53% over past 5 years (DN)
Putin deploys troops along Finnish (NATO) border (AlJ)
China, Korea, and Asia
House passes bill that could ban TikTok if Chinese owner doesn’t sell (AP)
Former politicians, military leaders call on Senate to ratify Law of the Sea (WSJ)
India approves full development of fifth gen fighter (DN)
China seeks to increase foothold in South America (USNI)
Pentagon’s $850Bn budget would tap US stockpiles to arm Taiwan (BBG)
Asian nations rush to buy counter drone technologies as conflicts intensify (C4)
Middle East and Africa
Targeting Hamas commander, Israel strikes UN facility (WP)
British military reports a suspected piracy attack off the coast of Somalia (AP)
Gaza war may stoke ‘generational’ terrorism threat, top intel official says (WP)
ISIS is increasingly using crypto to fund global operations (BBG)
U.S. Defense Industry News
Anduril attack drone deemed ‘accurate and effective’ in Dugway trials (C4)
BlackSky wins $24M from AFRL to track moving targets (ST)
Prominent Boeing whistleblower found dead in US (YH)
Maxar wins US Army One World Terrain simulation contract (DN)
Air Force budget backs Raytheon hypersonic, no Lockheed missile funds (DN)
USSF awards SAIC $444M to upgrade launch systems at satellite sites (SN)
Foreign Defense Industry News
Denmark plans $6Bn boost in military spending amid defence shortcomings (RT)
Emirati defense giant EDGE Group teams with Spain’s Indra to dive into advanced radar market (BD)
India conducts first test of domestically produced missile (AP)
Rafael expects Iron Beam lasers to be operational in 2025 (BD)
Italy’s Leonardo banks on space, cybersecurity, AI for double-digit growth (DN)
Turkey releases annual defense report (DN)
Space
SDA requests nearly $4.3B for FY25, slight drop from last year (BD)
Space Force mulls refueling as industry calls for funding, standards (DN)
Rocket Cargo is go! Air Force’s experimental resupply program moves closer to the launch pad (BD)
SpaceX launches Starship to orbit before losing it on third test flight (RT)
Japan’s first commercial rocket from Space One explodes seconds into flight (SN)
Nuclear Power & Weapons
Putin: ‘Russia is prepared for nuclear war’ (RT)
America’s newest nuclear warhead will cost under $100M to produce (BD)
AI, Robotics, & other Frontier Tech
Cognition emerges from stealth to launch AI software engineer Devin (VB)
US is constantly assessing expansion of export controls on chips that could boost China’s military (AP)
OpenAI denied Musk's lawsuit claims (CNBC)
Thomson Reuters has $8B war chest for AI-focused acquisitions (FT)
Nvidia on cusp of overtaking Apple as second-most valuable company (RT)
Astera Labs, an Intel-backed semiconductor solutions provider, is seeking to raise as much as $534M at a ~$5B valuation in its IPO (BBG)
A&D-Focused Finance
Dassault, Thales, MBDA bank ‘extraordinary’ 2023 sales, with more projected (BD)
Israel’s 3 biggest defense companies take stock after 5 months of war (BD)
Astra founder, Chris Kemp, will take the company private at $0.50/share (SN)
US will offer a record $2.3B loan to help Lithium Americas develop a Nevada lithium deposit (BBG)
Interlune, a startup aiming to commercialize natural resources from the moon, raised an $18M seed round led by Seven Seven Six (VC)
Aerospace company Phase Four raised $6.3M in financing led by Leonid Capital Partners (BW)
Orbio Earth, a startup building a satellite-based methane leak detection platform, raised a $4M seed round from the European Space Agency, Initialized Capital, and Y Combinator (TC)
Quaise Energy, a startup attempting to extract terawatt-scale geothermal energy, raised a $21M Series A-1 led by Prelude Ventures and Safar Partners (BW)
Simera Sense, a startup providing end-to-end optical solutions for the small satellite Earth observation industry, raised a $14.8M round led by NewSpace Capital and Knife Capital (FN)
Important Reads
We dove into the topic of Deep Sensing this week to share some light on what it is and why the Army is all-in on it
Pete Modigliani and Matt MacGregor break down the Defense budget into charts
Benjamin Johnson wants the US to send drone components to allies as the new ‘arsenal of freedom’
Patrick Malcor discusses making Defense better for small businesses
Financial Times released its special report on Europe’s leading startup hubs
Lighter Side
Keep building!
Andrew