Weekly Update
18-24 March 2023
Putin and Xi meet. Japanese PM Kishida visits Ukraine. Eastern European countries begin sending fighter aircraft to Ukraine. China continues to provoke Asian neighbors. First 3D printed rocket launches successfully, but fails to reach orbit. Iran could build a nuke within a few months. Colombia looks to take on the Clan del Golfo cartel again. And an asteroid will pass close to earth this weekend.
Weekly News Round Up
Military
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Putin (WP)
China stronger in talks with Russia; Russia emerges looking desperate (NBC)
Japanese PM makes surprise visit to Ukraine, visits Zelensky (WP)
U.S. Army upgrades presence in Poland with formal garrison (AP)
Russia continually flies armed jets over U.S. bases in Syria (NBC)
Iranian-linked group attacks U.S. base with drone, kills 1 wounds 6 (NBC)
China sends ships into Japanese waters, Japan sends missiles and troops to remote island bases forward in territorial waters (CNN)
Slovakia joins Poland in transferring MiG-29 fighter aircraft to Ukraine (AlJ)
… U.S. sends 12x new AH-1Z Viper helicopters to Slovakia at 66% discount (RT)
Italian PM Meloni pledges increased defense spending (DN)
North Korea continues provocation and ballistic missile testing (RT)
… tests new underwater nuclear attack drone (AlJ)
Turkey no longer to block Finland’s NATO entry; will block Sweden (MT)
Pentagon bets on Hypersonix to build test aircraft (C4ISR)
The U.S. and Japan are partnering to counter hypersonic missile threats (DN)
U.S. begins rehabbing air base in Philippines as part of basing agreement (USNI)
… F-22 Raptors arrive in Philippines (MT)
U.S. marines halt use of assault amphibious vehicles; Greece to buy them (DN)
U.S. Army to consolidate network modernization efforts into single office (C4ISR)
U.S. soldiers can now steer robot dogs with brain signals (DO)
U.S. Space Force seeks $1.2B for 'Long Range Kill Chains’ target tracking (C4ISR)
China balloon incident spurs $90M in new air defense spending (ASF)
Huntington Ingles and Ocean Aero agreement aims at linking unmanned vessels (BD)
Pentagon set to announce new Defense Innovation Unit director (C4ISR)
Pentagon unveils plans to shore up munitions stockpiles (BD)
French defense industry ramps up production in advance of EU requests (Politico)
Israel’s Elbit signs four aircraft technology contracts with Romania (DN)
Croatian military to buy 30 new armored vehicles and undisclosed number of Spike LR anti-tank guided missiles (DN)
Space
Relativity launches first 3D printed rocket, fails to achieve orbit (CNN)
SpaceX pauses launches of new, mini v2 Starlink satellites, may deorbit (SFN)
… will proceed with launching 56 other satellites in group 5-5 (Space)
Rocket Lab launches 2 satellites (Space)
S. Korean based Innospace announces successful launch of its Hanbit-TLV hybrid rocket (KH)
Asteroid (2023 DZ2) will pass between the Earth and moon this weekend (TH)
U.S. Space Force bets $3B on tactical anti-jam satellite communications (BD)
U.S. Space Force wants $16B to track hypersonic missiles (C4ISR)
U.S. National Reconnaissance Office awards 6 study contracts for hyperspectral imaging satellites (BD)
Varda space will test U.S. Air Force hardware at hypersonic speeds (SN)
U.S. Navy to test laser beaming energy at international space station (PhM)
Frontier, a startup building liquid rocket engines for in-space propulsion, raised a $10M Series A from AEI HorizonX (PRN)
Virgin Orbit is nearing a $200M investment from VC investor Matthew Brown via a private share placement; the firm intends to resume operations (RT)
Nuclear Power & Weapons
Russian official: risk of nuclear conflict at highest level in decades (RT)
Radioactive water leaks at Minnesota nuclear plant for 2nd time (AP)
Top U.S. general: Iran could produce nuclear weapon in several months (WSJ)
U.S., Indonesia partner on small modular reactors for clean energy (USEMB)
MI-based Palisades Nuclear Plan owner pitches a restart plan (MLive)
China, Russia sign fast-neutron reactors cooperation agreement (WNN)
Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Energy, and other cool tech
Nreal Air AR Glasses will support Windows (Eng)
World’s first 3D printed superyacht designed to be virtually invisible (NH)
Candela, a Swedish startup building a passenger commercial hydrofoil shuttle, raised a $20M round led by EQT Ventures, Joel Eklund (Fosielund Holding AB), and Svante Nilo Bengtsson (Marknadspotential AB) (TC)
Google launched Bard AI chatbot to rival ChatGPT (WSJ)
Windfall Bio, a climate startup capturing and converting methane emissions into organic fertilizer, raised a $9M seed round led by Mayfield and UNTITLED (BW)
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund agreed to buy a 16.6% stake in the 960 megawatt He Dreiht offshore wind farm in the German North Sea (RT)
Character.AI, a startup allowing people to create personalized AI characters, raised a $150M Series A at a $1B valuation led by a16z (BW)
Sustainable energy startup Amogy raised a $139M Series B-1 led by Temasek and Aramco Ventures (DSA)
Drugs
Colombia suspends ceasefire with Gulf Clan (BBC)
New Yorkers are using test strips to avoid fentanyl overdoses (NYT)
Latino fatal overdoses are skyrocketing, tripled in decade (NBC)
Advancing Nuclear Reactors
The Congressional Research Service released a report last month on the technology and issues related to newer generations of nuclear reactors.
Lighter Side
Round 1: Bard vs ChatGPT.
Round 2: ChatGPT vs CatGPT.
They’re friends now. But are they BEST friends?
Keep building!
Andrew