Weekly News Update: Sep 29, 2023
23-29 Sep 2023
What a week!
House Republicans seem determined to watch the economy and our defense burn, as they push us closer to a government shutdown. Long-time Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein (CA) passed away yesterday. Ukraine struck the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol in Crimea. Russia claims that the commander of the Fleet survived the attack. 75% of Karabakh Armenians have fled from the Nagorno-Karabakh region, after the semi-autonomous region surrendered to Azerbaijan last week. This has sparked concerns of genocide. Violence is flaring in usually peaceful and calm Scandinavia. And the U.S. government is really starting to put its money where its mouth has been, standing up numerous Artificial Intelligence centers and capabilities.
Read more about the issues surrounding aerospace and defense technology below.
Weekly News Round Up
Military
U.S. Defense modernization and innovation
Fringe GOP Congress-members push bill to cap SecDef’s pay at $1 (MT)
House Republicans resistant to multi-year munitions buys (DN)
DoD releases data on where its money went in FY 2022 (MT)
Pentagon finally listens to Building our Defense on Additive Manufacturing (DN)
DoD acquisition chief, LaPlante, is focusing on boosting manufacturing (DN)
Parts, labor shortages could foil Replicator initiative (WSJ)
Air Force triggers Nunn-McCready breach over F-15 Electronic Warfare kits (BD)
Army wants to cut 3,000 special operators, Congress disagrees (DO)
Europe, Russia, the Arctic, NATO, and the war in Ukraine
U.S. House GOPers seek to cut funding for Ukraine in defense budget (Pol)
Russia claims Admiral Sokolov survived Ukrainian missile strike on Black Sea Fleet HQ in Crimea (TH)
Biden agrees to send ATACMS missiles to Ukraine (RT)
Belarus, Poland disagree over whether helicopter violated airspace (RT)
U.S. offers Poland a rare $2B loan to modernize its military (MT)
Serbia calls for a NATO peacekeeping force in northern Kosovo, following violence (AP)
Serbia receives its first C-295 cargo plane from Airbus as part of $91M deal (DN)
Sweden mobilizes armed forces to deal with surge in deadly gang violence (Pol)
Violence flairs in Armenian, Azerbaijani contested Nagorno-Karabakh (WP)
Turkey’s Erdogan says Turkey will back Sweden’s NATO accession, if U.S. sells Turkey jets (NYT)
NATO explores underwater drones, AI in bid to deter Russia (S&S)
E.U. officials calls out X for being biggest promotor of disinformation (DO)
China, Korea, and Asia
U.S., Japan warn of China-backed hackers (DO)
Taiwan unveils its first domestically made submarine (CNN)
China’s defense minister is still MIA after a month (AP)
U.S., China talks gain momentum, pave way for Biden-Xi summit (WSJ)
China set up floating barricade of contested lagoon, Philippines dismantled it (AP)
China charges real estate mogul for crimes, further endangering its economy (BBG)
Chinese hackers stole emails from U.S. State Dept in Microsoft breach, Senate staffer says (RT)
Australia warns that China has significant lead in sensor development (BD)
Biden to host Pacific Island leaders in US charm offensive against China (CNBC)
U.S. shared intelligence with Canada after alleged assassination of Sikh separatist (WSJ)
N. Korea sends U.S. Army deserter back to the United States (AP)
Pentagon acknowledges that N. Korea presents a ‘persistent threat’ (UPI)
Middle East and Africa
U.S. nabs key Islamic State operative in Syria raid (MT)
Burkina Faso’s military rulers claim to have foiled a coup attempt (AlJ)
French are out, U.S. shifts presence in Niger (S&S)
U.S. Defense Industry News
Anduril to hone Ghost drone autonomy under $8M Air Force contract (DN)
Boeing is using Unreal’s gaming engine to upgrade B-52s (DO)
Bulgaria to buy 187 Strykers from General Dynamics Land Systems for $1.37B (DN)
Army down-selects on future tactical UAS program, keeps Griffon, Textron (C4)
Joby Aviation delivers first electric air taxi to Air Force (DN)
Czech government greenlights plan to buy 24 F-35s from Lockheed for $5B (BD)
Romania plans to buy 32 of the same aircraft for $6.5B (DN)
Army gives Microsoft $95M for fielding of first 50 IVAS systems (BD)
Northrop wins $705M for F-35 air-to-ground weapon (DN)
Palantir wins $250M Army AI Research contract (C4)
SpaceX wins its first Pentagon contract for StarShield, worth up to $70M (CNBC)
Univ. of Houston snags $65M for U.S. Army analytics project (HC)
Cybersecurity firm Xage gets $17M to protect Space Force networks (SN)
The U.S. State Department has approved the following foreign military sales and financings:
Parts and services for combat vehicle maintenance to Saudi Arabia for $500M (DN)
Foreign Defense Industry News
Argentina to buy 10 Leonardo light helicopters for $110M (DN)
Brazil establishes $11B fund for army vehicles and missile systems upgrades (DN)
Israel to supply Germany with Arrow-3 air defense system for $3.5B (BD)
Kazakhstan’s Taharqa Tech emerges in kinetic drone space at Serbian show (C4)
Swarm of loitering munitions draws attention at Serbian defense show (C4)
Space
U.S. Army astronaut breaks NASA spaceflight record (AT)
Iran successfully launches its Noor-3 imaging (spy) satellite (AP)
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to replace CEO Bob Smith with outgoing Amazon exec Dave Limp (CNBC)
Japan’s iSpace gets $55M from NASA, slips third lunar mission into 2026 (RT)
Blue Origin, Sierra Space rethink their Orbital Reef partnership (CNBC)
Nuclear Power & Weapons
Exemption given for U.S. Navy to build nuclear sub in stopgap funding bill (DN)
U.K. risks power supply crunch in January as nuclear plants halt (BBG)
U.S. Energy Secretary: We aim for a fusion power plant within 10 years (NBC)
Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Energy, and other cool tech
National Security Agency director announces ‘AI Security Center’ to serve as focal point for guiding AI use by government and defense (BD)
CIA builds its own artificial intelligence tool in rivalry with China (BBG)
Pentagon announces ‘AI Battle Labs’ in Indo-Pacific and European theaters (BD)
American military bets on autonomy (TH)
Huawei takes revenge as China catches up on semiconductors (BBG)
$67B worth of rare minerals lie under one of the world’s largest carbon sinks (WSJ)
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg looks to digital assistants, smart glasses and AI to help metaverse push (CNBC)
A&D-Focused Finance
H55, a Swiss startup providing electric propulsion technologies for the aviation industry, raised a $45M Series C led by ND Capital, Tippet Venture Partners, RTX Ventures and private investors (FN)
Drone-enabled power line upgrade startup Infravision raised a $23M Series A led by Energy Impact Partners (BW)
Portugal plans to sell a controlling stake of at least 51% in state-owned airline TAP as part of a privatization process to develop the national aviation sector (RT)
SPAC ACG Acquisition Company’s $1B acquisition of a nickel mine and copper mine fell through after both sides tried and failed to revise the deal, which was backed by Glencore, Stellantis, and Volkswagen (RT)
Sierra Space, a startup building a commercial space station, raised a $290M Series B at a $5.3B valuation led by MUFG, Kanematsu Corporation, and Tokio Marine & Nichido (TC)
Scandinavian airline SAS is evaluating final bids in an equity fundraising, which is part of an ongoing bankruptcy protection process (RT)
German defense contractor Renk priced its IPO on Monday and is seeking a valuation of up to $1.9B (RT)
Terran Orbital closed a $32.5M public offering (MW)
Important Reads
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) outlines in Breaking Defense his views on the Hedge Strategy and how we can move forward with defense innovation.
Gregory Wischer and Jack Little want the U.S. government to stockpile critical minerals. They’re not wrong.
Linkedin released a list of its top 50 startups to watch for 2023.
Lighter Side
Keep building!
Andrew