Weekly Update
15 - 21 April 2023
Starship flies before it dies. Russian Air Force bombs its own city. Putin’s chef has had enough of the war. U.S. lags behind China on hypersonics. Musk starts an AI company, after complaining about AI for years.
Weekly News Round Up
Military
Europe, Russia, the Arctic, NATO, and the war in Ukraine
Airman allegedly behind Pentagon leak has been charged (MT)
Ukraine awaits Patriot missiles and other air defense systems from partners (MT)
Head of Wagner Group calls or end of Russia’s ‘special military operation’ (T&P)
Russia shoots missile at U.S. drone (ASF)
Russia accidentally bombs its own city (AP)
China, Korea, and Asia
China readies supersonic spy drone (WP)
China is showing little willingness to talk to U.S. over rising tensions (ASF)
U.S., Australia to hold largest ever Talisman Sabre exercise this year (S&S)
U.S. military leader in Pacific seeks more electromagnetic resources (C4ISR)
Middle East and Africa
U.S. kills senior ISIS leader in Syria (CNN)
U.S. Navy sails first drone through Strait of Hormuz (NT)
U.S. Central Command hires AI Guru from Google (DO)
U.S. prepares for possible embassy evacuation from Khartoum, Sudan (MT)
Iran claims it forced U.S. sub to surface in Gulf (AlJ)
U.S. Defense modernization and innovation
White House taps Cara Abercrombie to lead acquisitions as Assistant Secretary of Defense (DN)
Pentagon admits to Congress: we are still behind China on hypersonics (MT)
Government Accountability Office finds Pentagon lags in software-buying reforms (DO)
U.S. Space Force chief promises a new, classified, ‘substantial’ capability by 2026 (BD)
U.S. Air Force seeks to double foreign investments (ASF)
U.S. Army and Navy struggle to get directed energy weapons across ‘valley of death’ (DO)
U.S. Defense Industry News
Pentagon gives Aerojet Rocketdyne $216M to boost weapons production for Ukraine (DO)
China bans executives from Lockheed Martin and Raytheon from entering country (RT)
Foreign Defense Industry News
Israel’s Aeronautics to supply Orbiter-3 drone to Greece (C4ISR)
Israel in advanced conversations to sell Arrow-3 to Germany (DN)
U.S. Space Force sees growing requests from other countries for sales (C4ISR)
Denmark and Holland to jointly contribute 14 Leopard-2 Tanks to Ukraine (RT)
Space
Starship explode in first successful integrated test of system (C4ISR)
RocketLab unveils new suborbital, hypersonic test platform (BD)
Inmarsat experienced full outage of its L-band service providing satellites (SN)
U.S. Space Force begins launching constellation of hundreds of satellites (Gzt)
Watching adversary satellites a key challenge for U.S. Space Force (SN)
National Reconnaissance Office to prototype ground-moving target tracking from space (C4ISR)
Airbus shows off design for LOOP space station with artificial gravity (GM)
OrbitFab raises $28.5 million to provide in-orbit servicing (SN)
Nuclear Power & Weapons
U.S. warns Russia against touching sensitive U.S. nuclear tech in Ukraine (NEI)
Poland secures $4 Billion loan for new nuclear plants (EC)
U.S. Air Force, Navy conduct ICBM test aboard nuclear command aircraft (DN)
Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Energy, and other cool tech
Elon Musk rails against AI, but is starting an AI company (RT)
Pentagon objects to off-shore wind farm plans in Atlantic (AM)
EU agrees to a $47 Billion semiconductor plan, to keep pace with U.S. and Asian production (RT)
“Extremely Surprising” – Nuclear Physicists Have a Groundbreaking Observation of “Strange Matter” (SciTD)
Ocean carbon removal company Ebb Carbon raises $20M Series A (BI)
Lighter Side
Well, there you have it.
What if the love is for the Raptor engines? What if six of the Raptor engines don’t ignite? What if other Raptor engines explode? What if…?
Keep building!
Andrew