Weekly News Update: Sep 1, 2023
26 Aug - 1 Sep 2023
Good morning and TGIF!
The Deputy Secretary of Defense made some big waves this week, announcing a drone program for the U.S. military and more. Ukraine may have finally achieved their long sought breakthrough in their counteroffensive. Japan is releasing water from the Fukushima plant, and China is in an uproar (not because they actually care). Another African country has fallen victim to a coup d'état. In all, it seems like it’s a fairly tame week.
Read more about the issues surrounding aerospace and defense technology below. And oh! It’s a federal holiday here this weekend. So enjoy it if you’ve got Monday off. Don’t expect a “Military Monday” edition of Building our Defense.
Weekly News Round Up
Military
U.S. Defense modernization and innovation
Deputy Secretary of Defense, Kathleen Hicks, announces ‘Replicator’ program to field thousands of attritable, autonomous systems within 24 months (DN)
Hicks takes direct oversight of UFO office, new reporting website to launch (DS)
Hicks defines need to focus DoD on Climate Change threats (DoD)
Pentagon to release Defense Industrial Strategy in December (DN)
Panel of four starts to weigh-in on Pentagon’s rapid experimentation projects (C4)
Pentagon continues long tradition of recreating acronyms and adding unnecessary letters, this time with JADC2 (C4)
Defense Innovation Unit embed connects INDOPACOM to commercial tech (C4)
INDOPACOM commander wants more experimentation with directed energy weapons (C4)
Army tests aerial electronic jammer, sees broader role for system (C4)
The Army wants to put guns on robot dogs (Mil)
The Air Force sees NGAD as being even more complex and costly than the F-35 program (DN)
Air Force and Army work together on smaller, cheaper air defense systems for Indo-Pacific (ASF)
U.S.S. Zumwalt to receive hypersonic missile upgrades at HII (NT)
Europe, Russia, the Arctic, NATO, and the war in Ukraine
Ukraine and Ukrainian-sympathizers are taking the fight deep into Russia with drone strikes (MT)
U.S. to send an additional $250M of weapons to Ukraine (MT)
Ukraine receives ‘Vampire’ counter-drone systems from the U.S. (TI)
Ukrainian counteroffensive finally breaks through Russian lines (TH)
Russia moves to ensure loyalty of mercenaries, again, following Wagner chief’s death (TH)
UK Intel: Russia likely cancelled ZAPAD 23 exercise (RT)
Germany will lead a multinational naval exercise to defend the Baltic Sea in September (DN)
China, Korea, and Asia
China’s rare earth dominance make US supply chain vulnerable, trade representative says (CNBC)
The U.S. is providing weapons to Taiwan under ‘Foreign Military Financing’ program—reserved for sovereign states—for first time ever (AP)
U.S. vice chair of Armed Services Committee promises ‘resolute reaction’ if Taiwan attacked (AP)
N. Korea launches ballistic missiles at the sea (MT)
U.S. aids S. Korea in recovery of failed N. Korean spy satellite (S&S)
Pentagon’s Shyu to discuss missile defense partnership with Australia (C4)
Middle East and Africa
Russia backs off harassment over Syria with arrival of F-35s (ASF)
Saudi Arabia takes command of two maritime task forces, including responsibility for Strait of Hormuz (BD)
In new step toward Israel deal, Saudi Arabia offers to resume Palestinian authority funding (WSJ)
Somali president remains committed to defeat of al-Shabaab (VOA)
Sudan’s RSF float’s ‘peace proposal’ as army chief vows to keep fighting (AlJ)
UN: More than 180 killed in Ethiopia’s Amhara region since July (F24)
Military officers in Gabon declare a coup, arrest president (CNN)
U.S. Defense Industry News
3M to settle faulty earplug lawsuit for $6B (DN)
Luckey: Anduril ‘going after everything’ with new rocket motor business (BD)
Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop face-off over Navy’s next gen strike fighter (BD)
Booz Allen Hamilton ‘too stupid’ to get away with defrauding the gov’t (WP)
Lockheed wins Australian Air6500 All Domain deal for $765M (BD)
Lockheed eyes 5G trials following delivery of test bed to Marine Corps (C4)
Netherlands doubles order of MQ-9 Reaper drones from General Atomics, will arm them (DN)
Microsoft partners with Chinese balloon-tracking company, Synthetaic (C4)
RTX readies to test new air defense radar after Air Force deal (DN)
SAIC wins $574M to maintain Space Force radar sites (SN)
State Department greenlights the following arms sales:
50 Lockheed JASSM-ER missiles to Japan in $104M deal (DN)
Foreign Defense Industry News
Israel begins testing Elta’s advanced surveillance aircraft, Oron (BD)
Swedish firm Saab buys British AI specialist BlueBear (DN)
Turkey seeks partners for TF-X fighter program amid fiscal uncertainty (DN)
U.K. defense firm BAE sets up arms facility in Ukraine (AlJ)
The U.K. gets a new defense minister (DN)
Space
U.S. Space Force 24-hour responsive space mission enters ‘hot standby’ phase (C4)
India’s moon landing made history at a low cost (CNBC)
RAND recommends holistic approach to protect against space attack (BD)
Lawsuit claims Amazon’s board erred in awarding Kuiper launch contracts to Blue Origin and others (SN)
NASA identifies site of Russian lunar lander crash (CBS)
The CIA knows a lot about other nations’ space programs, you can too (Sp)
SatSure, an Indian startup that specializes in satellite Earth observation data and analytics, raised a $15M Series A led by Baring Private Equity Partners India (FN)
Nuclear Power & Weapons
Fusion energy startup Novatron Fusion Group raised a $5M seed round led by Climentum Capital (FN)
U.S. Air Force selects fast nuclear microreactor for pilot program (PM)
Bavarian boars may be radioactive because of truffles contaminated by nuclear weapons testing decades ago (BI)
Japan begins safely releasing Fukushima wastewater into ocean, China seeks boycotts in political stunt (EC)
Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Energy, and other cool tech
OpenAI launches ChatGPT Enterprise, the company’s biggest announcement since ChatGPT’s debut (CNBC)
Google to begin selling maps data to companies building solar products (CNBC)
Exxon predicts world will miss climate-change targets (WSJ)
A&D-Focused Finance
PK Airfinance, an Apollo-backed aviation lending platform, will acquire the majority of a ~$920M portfolio of secured aviation loans from Standard Chartered (GNW)
Important Reads
This CNBC piece explains how China took the lead in the nuclear energy race, and how the US could catch up.
Noah Smith explains why BRICS is overrated and won’t in fact take on NATO or change the world in any meaningful way.
Daniel Silverberg and Elena McGovern discuss how export controls have developed as a preferred economic weapon as tensions brew with China.
Navy intelligence officer, Nick Danby, outlines how Carrier Task Forces will have to fight in a shooting war with China—in the dark.
Lighter Side
Three Galaxies and a Comet
Credit & Copyright: Miloslav Druckmuller (Brno University of Technology)
Japanese ministers preparing to eat fish around Fukushima to prove it’s safe
Keep building!
Andrew