Weekly News Update: Nov 17, 2023
11 - 17 Nov 2023
Good morning,
This week was full of congressional fistfights as Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) professionally embarrassed himself by repeatedly offering to “step outside” with Teamster’s boss Sean O’Brien, forcing Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to intervene. A more figurative fistfight saw the passing of another continuing resolution to fund the government through the holidays and into the new year, delaying the hard decision-making necessary to pass the actual budget.
President Biden and President Xi put down the gloves and seem to have made some minor progress on thawing relations, with China agreeing to resume military dialogue and to crack down on Fentanyl production.
This week saw the inaugural flight of the B-21 nuclear stealth bomber and the FAA granting SpaceX permission to launch the Starship again—which it aims to do this weekend.
The Dubai Airshow took place this week, which means that there’s lots of international industry news to catch up on below.
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 fails its sixth audit in a row, no change in passing marks (DN)
Congress passes continuing resolution, funds MILCON through Jan 19, the rest of the defense department through Feb 2 (DN)
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act set to expire, threatens important cyber capabilities (C4)
Pentagon counter-drone office sees progress as services adopt tech (C4)
The military is pouring billions into directed energy weapons (CNBC)
Air Force Cyber turns attention towards information operations (DO)
Air Force retires the last of its E-8A JSTARS aircraft (ASF)
Air Force begins testing electric aircraft (ASF)
Air Force plans production of CCA wingman drones by FY28 (BD)
The B-21 nuclear stealth bomber sees its first test flight for the Air Force (DN)
Army boot camp will soon include counter-drone training (AT)
Soldiers make electro-magnetic decoy device, win Dragon’s Lair competition (AT)
Navy upgrading torpedoes, leveraging cloud computing for submarines (DN)
Europe, Russia, the Arctic, NATO, and the war in Ukraine
Romania inaugurates F-16 training center for NATO, Ukraine (AFT)
U.K. sees ‘incredible acceleration’ of military capabilities from Ukraine war (DO)
After incidents, NATO works to protect undersea infrastructure (DO)
China, Korea, and Asia
U.S. President Biden hosts Chinese President Xi for diplomatic talks (RT)
U.S., China agree to resume military talks (BBC)
China’s equity markets see massive losses following the Biden-Xi talk (YF)
Biden, Xi to announce deal for China to crack down on fentanyl (BBG)
U.S., Indonesia expand defense cooperation, starting with cyber and space (DO)
Congressional commission suggests training Taiwanese troops in America (DN)
South Korea may suspend parts of treaty if North Korea launches satellite (S&S)
U.S., Indian defense officials meet to talk regional security (DN)
Middle East and Africa
U.S. Navy warship shoots down drone over Red Sea (NT)
Drone attacks against U.S. in the Middle East rises to 55 in under a month (MT)
U.S. conducts more airstrikes on Iran-linked groups in Syria (MT)
U.S. seeks to fund Israeli laser as Army considers Iron Beam’s potential (C4)
Israel announces first Arrow-3 operational intercept of a ballistic missile (C4)
U.S. Defense Industry News
Airbus launches U.S. drone business (C4)
Anduril sues Salient Notion for theft of IP (TI)
Applied Materials under US probe for shipment to Chinese chipmaker SMIC (RT)
Boeing welcomes USAF interest in light-attack version of T-7 trainer (DO)
Boeing’s Dubai Airshow pitches focus on Performance Based Logistics (BD)
Boeing closes in on major deal with Emirates for its 777X jets (BBG)
NATO picks Boeing E-7A Wedgetail as AWACS replacement (BD)
Gecko Robotics to speed submarine construction for Navy (S&S)
General Atomics fires back at critics of MQ-9 Reaper drone after downing (C4)
The company also claims to be nearing a deal to sell anti-missile pods for Reaper drones (DO)
General Atomics exec eyes Williams, Pratt engines as company searches for CCA propulsion (BD)
Defense Innovation Unit partners with Hermeus to test hypersonics (C4)
Lockheed to deliver advanced TPY-4 radar to USAF for evaluation (C4)
The company also ships advanced Sentinel A-4 radars to the Army for testing (DN)
Lockheed seeks expanded role for Q-53 radar, including drone detection (C4)
Microsoft is fine avoiding China as U.S. considers national security implications, CEO says (CNBC)
Northrop looks to dramatically scale exports over next decade (BD)
Pratt wins $870M engine-work contract to keep bombers, AWACS flying (DN)
Sierra Nevada to supply Army intel-gathering jets for $554M (C4)
Vigor Industrial doubles price tag for Army’s new watercraft (DN)
The U.S. State Department has approved the following foreign military sales:
$2.5B in M-1 Abrams to Romania (DN)
Foreign Defense Industry News
Austria to buy long-range air defense under Sky-Shield push (DN)
Europe’s MBDA restarts anti-tank mine production as Ukraine war depletes stocks (DN)
Rheinmetall to deliver 100,000 mortar rounds to Ukraine (DN)
Greece’s Hellenic Aerospace Industries nears first surveillance drone sale to Athens (C4)
Israel to supply air defense system to mystery customer for $1.2B (DN)
Japan delivers radar to Philippines amid tension in South China Sea (DN)
Russia arms industry showcases weapons at Dubai Airshow (DN)
Spanish tech center to test Eurodrone’s propulsion system (C4)
Sweden orders MBDA missiles for its Visby-class fleet (DN)
Turkey and the U.A.E. are cozying up on defense, drones, and missiles (DN)
U.A.E. seeking to buy helicopters from Korea Aerospace Industries (DN)
U.A.E. to add domestic guided weapons to French Rafale F4 Fighter fleet (BD)
U.A.E.’s EDGE Group rolls out 11 new drones at Dubai Air Show (BD)
EDGE Group touts Gulf regions first multidomain military test island (DN)
Space
FAA clears SpaceX to launch second Starship flight, planned for Saturday (CNBC)
Space Force’s Gen Saltzman: China’s anti-satellite weapons are ‘compounding problem’ that we need to figure out (ASF)
Space Force’s X-37B spaceplane to launch aboard SpaceX Falcon Heavy for seventh mission (T&P)
Elon Musk denied a report that his rocket company SpaceX was discussing an IPO of its satellite business as soon as 2024 (RT)
Apple’s top iPhone supplier goes to outer space with new satellites (BBG)
Nuclear Power & Weapons
Iran maintains steady expansion of nuclear program (WSJ)
Congressional Committee on Strategic Posture report: U.S. must modernize nuclear posture for a tri-polar world (ASF)
Hopes of a US nuclear renaissance sink with NuScale (BBG)
AI, Energy, Robotics, and other Tech
Military leaders are already using AI tools to make better decisions (DO)
Pentagon teams with M.I.T. on artificial intelligence, big-data education (C4)
Space Force CTIO: AI will be game-changer for operational space (ASF)
New chip coated with diamonds promises smaller, more-powerful radar (DO)
China will be at the forefront of AI, Alphabet’s Pichai says (BBG)
Microsoft introduces its own chips for AI, with eye on cost (RT)
Michael Burry is betting against semiconductors (BBG)
A&D-Focused Finance
Engineering consultant Jacobs Solutions is in advanced talks to merge its government consulting arm at a valuation of over $4B with PE-owned Amentum Services (RT)
Silicon photonics startup SiLC raised $25M in funding from Hokuyo Automatic, Hankook & Company, and ROHM Semiconductor (VC)
Digital industrial manufacturing systems startup Divergent Technologies raised a $230M Series D led by Hexagon (FN)
Databricks, a data and AI startup, raised an undisclosed amount in a Series I at a $43B valuation led by Amazon Web Services, CapitalG, and Microsoft (FN)
Firefly Aerospace, an end-to-end space transportation company, raised $300M in funding at a $1.5B valuation led by AE Industrial Partners (PRN)
Dubai faces down airline rivals with $50B jet orders (RT)
ITA Airways, the successor to Alitalia, is in talks with several lenders for a potential $321M loan to expand its fleet (BBG)
Important Reads
Pete Modigliani highlights how our efforts to build the force of 2030 is six years too late.
Retired Army general John Ferrari and researcher Charles Rahr make an argument that the Army should pump the brakes on buying drones.
The Information explained the tale of two startup worlds: Artificial intelligence vs everything else.
Lighter Side
Keep building!
Andrew