Weekly News Update: Mar 22, 2024
16 - 22 Mar 2024
Good morning,
The FY25 requested Defense Budget has been released and shows significant budget growth for technology—principally through the Defense Innovation Unit. This is good, because this week the Reagan Institute gave the DoD a barely-passing grade for modernization. Congress is taking greater interest in defense modernization with Building our Defense subscriber Congressman Pat Ryan (D-NY) and Congressman Rob Wittman (R-VA) creating a Defense Modernization Caucus. All signs point to accelerating adoption of technology and capabilities.
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
Building our Defense subscriber, Congressman Patrick Ryan (NY-18) launches a Defense Modernization Caucus in Congress (DS)
Reagan Institute gives Defense Modernization a ‘D’ (BD)
Replicator gets $200 million in newly released defense spending bill (DN)
Defense Innovation Unit would get major funding boost in spending bill (C4)
Congress unsatisfied with its understanding of Air Force reorg plan (DN)
Air Force conducts final test of Lockheed’s hypersonic missile (DN)
Air Force’s first Grey Wolf patrol helicopter arrives at Malmstrom (AFT)
First round of Replicator to heavily feature Army systems, Bush says (C4)
Navy 30-year shipbuilding plan relies on more money, industry capacity (DN)
Project Overmatch budget details too sensitive to share, Navy says (C4)
SOCOM cuts Armed Overwatch order from 75 to 62 aircraft (ASF)
Defense Tech Opportunities
SSC released an RFI for GEO space domain awareness spacecraft that can conduct RPO operations and host EO payloads (SAM)
Army Engineer R&D Center is seeking proposals for laser interrogators for
distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) for use underground and under water (SAM)
Navy Research Lab has released an RFI to identify new and existing techniques to support remote sensing capabilities, including astronomy and SDA (SAM)
Europe, Russia, the Arctic, NATO, and the war in Ukraine
US urges Ukraine to stop striking Russian oil refineries, fears surge in oil prices (FT)
NATO lauds ‘unprecedented’ jump in defense spending (BD)
Putin will serve a fifth term as president of Russia (WSJ)
Czech led ammunition buy for Ukraine gains steam (DN)
EU moves to buy weapons for Ukraine with frozen Russian money (AP)
European patent applications hit record high in 2023 (RT)
China, Korea, and Asia
Taiwan’s tough call on stopping China: big weapons or lots of cheap ones (WSJ)
In $323M wishlist, SOUTHCOM wants money to counter Chinese influence (BD)
N. Korean clones of US drones show Kim’s ambitions, Aquilino says (C4)
N. Korea says hypersonic missile test successful (TH)
N. Korea resumes missile tests, raising tensions with its rivals after their military drills’ end (AP)
Philippines, Japan near long-range missile milestones as they arm up for China (BD)
Middle East and Africa
Blinken: US submitted draft resolution to UN calling for Gaza ceasefire (Ax)
More than 20 killed in Somalia in alleged Turkish drone strike (WP)
US weighing options in Africa after Niger junta orders departure from key counterterrorism base (AP)
A suspected attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels has targeted a ship in the Gulf of Aden (AP)
CENTCOM: Houthis granting China, Russia safe passage in Red Sea (DO)
US Dept. Of State issues new sanctions on networks supporting Iran’s missile, nuclear, and defense programs (DoS)
U.S. Defense Industry News
Aventura, Inc admits it illegally sold Chinese goods to military as US-made (Mil)
Huntington Ingalls unveils new Remus 130 unmanned undersea vehicle (BD)
Air Force orders additional aircraft from Joby (TDP)
The State Department approved the following transactions:
$2.2Bn sale of 50 M1 Abrams tanks to Bahrain (BD)
Foreign Defense Industry News
EU sprinkles $560 million over defense firms to grow ammunition output (DN)
United Kingdom military is not AI-ready, procurement minister says (BD)
AUKUS nations name British-Australian vendor team to build submarines (DN)
Australia racks up biggest arms export deal: $1B AUD for Boxers to Germany (BD)
ESA committed €233M ($253.6M) to GMV, OHB, and Thales Alenia Space to build LEO demonstration satellites (SIR)
France’s Naval Group wins $6 billion Dutch submarine project (DN)
Rheinmetall to build ammunition factory in Romania (TDP)
New pact deepens Fincantieri’s stake in seabed warfare business (DN)
Leonardo CEO criticizes UK for lack of transparency on combat aircraft industrial plans (BD)
Maldives starts flying Turkish drones for maritime surveillance (DN)
South Korea hires LIG Nex1 to make new maritime missile, replace SM-2 (DN)
S. Korean defense chief says N. Korea has supplied 7,000 containers of munitions to Russia (AP)
Sweden’s arms industry scales up (LM)
Ukraine races to build weapons at home (WP)
Space
Space Force’s #2 pledges commercial space strategy within month (ASF)
Northrop, DARPA envision moon ‘railroad’ for lunar logistics (C4)
Lawmakers cut $1 billion from Space Force’s 2024 budget (SN)
China’s moon plans worry Space Force (DO)
Pentagon eyes Starship, designed for Mars, for military missions somewhat closer to home (DO)
Astronomers criticize proposed space telescope budget cuts (SN)
Nuclear Power & Weapons
US and Japan seek UN resolution calling on all nations to ban nuclear weapons in outer space (AP)
Air Force tests third-stage rocket motor for next nuclear missile (DN)
Security and climate change drive a return to nuclear energy as over 30 nations sign summit pledge (AP)
AI, Robotics, & other Frontier Tech
DARPA’s OPTIMA program seeks ultra-efficient AI chips (BD)
New 'Game-Changing' Laser Weapon Costing $13 A Shot Could Disrupt Defense Industry (YF)
US brings an antitrust lawsuit against Apple (BBG)
OpenAI is sprinting to keep up with startups on AI-generated videos (BBG)
Microsoft hired DeepMind's co-founder to lead consumer AI unit (WSJ)
Apple is in talks to let Google Gemini power iPhone AI features (BBG)
AI startup Cohere is in advanced talks to raise $500M at a ~$5B valuation (RT)
A&D-Focused Finance
OTB Ventures raised a $185M deep tech fund backed by EIF and NATO Innovation Fund (TC)
Alpine Space Ventures, a Munich-based space VC firm, secured a €10M ($10.9M)investment from the NATO Innovation Fund (SW)
Boeing is exploring the sale of at least two of its defense businesses (BBG)
BAE Systems is raising $4.8B through a five-part bond sale to help fund its $5.6B purchase of Ball Aerospace; their 30Y note was priced at a 118 bps premium (BBG
PE giant Carlyle will enter advanced talks to acquire a majority stake in Thyssenkrupp's naval shipbuilding unit in a $1.6B deal, including debt (BBG)
Firestorm Labs, an unmanned aerial system manufacturer, raised a $12.5M seed round led by Lockheed Martin Ventures (PRN)
Blue Laser Fusion, an inertial fusion company, raised a $37.5M seed round led by SoftBank and others (FN)
Buzz Solutions, an AI company that inspects and protects critical energy infrastructure, raised a $5M round led by GoPoint Ventures (FN)
Saudi Arabia’s PIF is in early talks to partner with VC giant a16z on an AI fund as large as $40B (BBG)
Scandinavian airline SAS won court approval for a $1.2B debt restructuring anchored by Air France-KLM and PE firm Castlelake (BBG)
Important Reads
Building our Defense has been saying it all along, now Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks is talking about why America needs a robust Defense Industrial Base
Adam Lowther and Curtis McGiffin resort to whataboutisms to justify cost overruns for Sentinel missiles.
Jeff Decker and Building our Defense friend Noah Sheinbaum outline three things the Pentagon can fix to rapidly adopt tech.
Seth Cropsey argues that the future of warfare is unmanned and underwater.
Lighter Side
Keep building!
Andrew