Weekly Update
6 - 12 May 2023
Russia tried to hold its Victory Day parade with just one, old tank. U.S.-Chinese relations may be thawing after months of tensions following the Chinese spy balloons incident. Japan wants to open a NATO office. SOCOM hosted SOF Week, with lots of conversations on innovation and tech. SpaceX and Vast announce plans to build a space station in 2025.
Listen: WSJ’s Future of Everything “NASA Plans to Bring Bits of Mars to Earth. It May Change How We See Space.”
Weekly News Round Up
Military
Europe, Russia, the Arctic, NATO, and the war in Ukraine
Ukraine downs Russian hypersonic missile with U.S. Patriot missile system (MT)
NATO kicks off missile defense exercise amid Russian shows of force (S&S)
U.S. announces $1.2 billion aid package to Ukraine, in advance of offensive (TH)
U.S., Finland mull defense pact including basing rights for F-35s (DN)
U.S. foils Russian cyber operation across dozens of countries (MT)
U.S. will park two more warships in Rota, Spain (USNI)
U.S. approves first transfer of seized Russian funds to Ukraine (AlJ)
Switzerland conducts military drills, focus on its role in European defense (RT)
Russian ‘Victory Day’ parade sees a single, WWII-era tank on display (T&P)
NATO finally develops comprehensive defense of alliance plan (S&S)
Armenia reports new border clashes with Azerbaijan forces (AlJ)
Binance faces US probe over Russian sanction violations (BBG)
China, Korea, and Asia
Guam’s new missile-defense system will spread across the island (S&S)
Japan working towards opening of NATO office in Tokyo (RT)
US trade chief set to meet with China minister in signs of thaw (BBG)
Middle East and Africa
Iran hid weapons among earthquake aid to target U.S. troops, leak says (WP)
Battles shake Sudan’s capital, ceasefire talks reported to make progress (RT)
U.S. ambassador accuses South Africa of providing weapons, ammo to Russia (AP)
U.S. Defense modernization and innovation
Pentagon releases new Science and Tech strategy (C4ISR)
Pentagon seeks to cut reliance on Chinese GreenTech (DN)
U.S. Marine Corps wants $13M for automated war zone air delivery drones (MCT)
Marine Innovation Unit tackles some remaining Force Design tech needs (DN)
House Oversight Cmte to hear from Navy program execs on shipbuilding (BD)
U.S. Army revising how it develops, deploys advanced networking gear (C4ISR)
Soldiers field-test technology, innovation in WVa mine (MT)
U.S. Air Force wants autonomous wingmen to bring ‘mass’ but on a budget (MT)
Pentagon’s AI office rebooting global experiments for JADC2 (DN)
Defense Information Systems Agency reorganizes to align to China threat (BD)
SOCOM seeks industry pitches on ‘collaborative autonomy’ (DN)
SOCOM program halves timelines from proposal to prototype (DN)
SOCOM needs new weapons and sensors for special operations aviation (MT)
SOCOM acquisition chief: AI will be ‘key to every single thing’ (BD)
NORTHCOM designing new plan for homeland defense (DN)
U.S. Defense Industry News
White House greenlights Army plan for multi-year buys for Patriot, GMLRS (BD)
Raytheon-Lockheed Joint Venture gets $1 billion for Javelin missiles (S&S)
L3HArris, BigBear.ai partner on autonomy for surface vessels (C4ISR)
U.S. clears Boeing to sell Chinooks to German for $8.5 billion (BD)
Boeing struck a deal to sell as much as $40B in 737 MAX jets to Ryanair (WSJ)
Palantir beat Q1 estimates on interest in its new AI platform and expects to be profitable through the FY; their stock rose as much as 28% (YF)
Foreign Defense Industry News
Israel Aerospace Industries unveils BlueWhale unmanned submarine (C4ISR)
Israeli company, Elbit, seeks to rearm Europe (C4ISR)
Latvia to buy $110 Naval Strike Missile from U.S. / Norway (DN)
German lawkmakers grant $1.6 billion for 50 Puma fighting vehicles (DN)
Arms industry takes center stage in Turkey’s tense election campaign (DN)
New Zealand defense spending to increase by $472 million (RT)
Australia approves largest ever defense budget, buys U.S.-made missiles (BD)
UAE cancels 800 EUR military helicopter deal with Airbus (BD)
Space
NASA unexpectedly redirects New Horizon’s mission (Ft)
Largest explosion ever seen spotted in space and puzzles scientists (Ind)
Vast, SpaceX announce plans for first commercial space station, aim for 2025 (SN)
Axiom gears up for second private human spaceflight mission to ISS (TC)
India pushing to expand space capabilities, counts on private sector (RT)
SpaceX launches 51 Starlink satellites, lands rocket on ship at sea (Space)
U.S. wants to expand GPS operations center to include Five Eyes countries (BD)
Buzz Aldrin named honorary brigadier general, member of Space Force (TH)
Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly inducted into Astronaut Hall of Fame (Tusc)
Space Force launches platform to match promising tech with satellites (DN)
U.K. competition watchdog approves $7.3B Viasat-Inmarsat merger (DN)
Space Force to seek industry help to test tech and train guardians (C4ISR)
U.S. Space Force to hold first ‘orbital warfare’ exercise this summer (BD)
Tianzhou-6 cargo spacecraft reaches China’s Tiangong space station (SN)
NASA announces upcoming retirement of space technology head (NASA)
Nuview emerges from stealth with plans to map the Earth using LiDAR (TC)
Canadian Space Agency awards Spire, OroraTech wildfire detection contract (VS)
Seraphim Space picks startups for eleventh accelerator program (SN)
ThrustMe to provide Turion Space with vital propulsion capacities (StN)
LiveEO and Capella Space partner to bring high resolution SAR satellite insight to asset managers (SR)
Germany’s Mynaric restructures management, Veziroglu to be sole CEO (VS)
EnduroSat raises $10M Series A from Ceecat Capital to expand Earth Observation satellite manufacturing (SN)
Orbital Outpost X raises $5M to develop components for space stations (SN)
Nuclear Power & Weapons
Worries continue to grow about Ukrainian nuclear plant amid evacuations (MT)
U.S. approves temporary nuclear waste storage in New Mexico (RT)
Microsoft signs power purchase deal with nuclear fusion company, Helion (RT)
U.S. support for nuclear power at highest level in a decade (Grist)
Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Energy, and other cool tech
US aims to tackle risk of uncontrolled race to develop AI (GN)
Photonics maker Syntec Optics, OmniLit Acquisition merge in $325M deal (MS)
Sparrow Quantum, a Copenhagen-based quantum technology company, raised a $4M seed round led by 2xNand (FN)
Quantum entanglement shatters Einstein’s Local Causality (STD)
Lighter Side
Milky Way over Egyptian Desert (Amr Abdulwahab)
This little piggy may or may not keep his forces in Ukraine
Russia unveils its newest armor equipment
Keep building!
Andrew