Weekly Update
11 - 17 February 2023
The U.S. military conducted a turkey-shoot of Chinese spy balloons. NATO aircraft have interdicted at least three sorties of Russian military aircraft across Europe and North America, even as Russia deploys nukes on ships for the first time in 30 years. The Air Force has used AI to fly a fighter jet for the first time. And, AI giant Palantir finally makes a profit.
Watch: Ammunition Plant
Listen: Is congress supporting primes?
Think: Service
Weekly News Round Up
Military
U.S. tests unarmed ICBM (AFT)
NATO Air Policing intercept 3x Russian military jets near Poland (RT)
U.S. Air Force intercepts Russian military jets near Alaska… (AFT)
… twice (T&P)
U.S. Coast Guard finds fleet of 7x Chinese and Russian warships in Alaskan waters (USNI)
U.S. Air Force shot down unidentified object near Alaska (MT)
U.S. Air Force shot down unidentified object over Canada (MT)
U.S. Air Force shot down unidentified object over Lake Huron (MT)
U.S. recovers electronic sensors from downed Chinese balloon (CNBC)
U.S. Air Force commander in Middle East says China balloons have been flying there, too (BD)
U.S. doesn’t have enough long-range munitions to share with Ukraine (Politico)
Congressman wants Congress to wargame China-Taiwan war (TheHill)
Moldovan President warns of Russian-backed coup plan (WP)
U.S. Air Force considers remotely piloted wingmen (DN)
U.S. Army bolsters air defense units in Europe (S&S)
Undersecretary of the Air Force to step to down (A&SF)
U.S. Army’s new Javelin-G remains under investigation after 2022 failure (BD)
The military needs new skills and tools to fight propaganda / disinformation (C4ISRNet)
Finland, Sweden could join NATO separately (AlJ)
NATO members to increase pledges on defense spending, could be more than 2% (DN)
Defense chief technologist seeks low-cost deterrence options (C4ISRNet)
U.S. Navy considers use of existing ship as “mother ship” for drones (BD)
China sanctions U.S. defense primes Lockheed, Raytheon (RT)
New “strike force” to safeguard U.S. technology (RT)
Space
Space launch firms balance gov’t and commercial support (C4ISRNet)
New GPS Ground Systems faces continued delays (C4ISRNet)
DoD to reconsider use of Special Access for space programs (BD)
Startup Umbra to supply SAR satellite data for Maxar (BD)
Soyuz rocket leaks could strand astronauts in space for 1 year (WP)
Space resilience is more than just orbits (A&SF)
EU antitrust regulators opened a full investigation into US satellite company Viasat’s $7.3B bid for British rival Inmarsat, warning that it may reduce competition in the aviation connectivity market (BBG)
On-demand shuttle service and transit tech startup Via raised a $110M Series F at a $3.5B valuation led by 83North (TC)
Nuclear Power & Weapons
Norway says Russia’s Northern Fleet carrying nukes for first time in 30 years (EP)
France continues to expand nuclear plants (Barons)
Israel pledges to stop Iranian nuclear ambitions (VOA)
Georgia nuclear plant delayed again at cost of $200M (AP)
EU will not sanction Russian nuclear sector and actors (Politico)
Centrus completes construction of U.S.’s first enrichment plant in 70 years (Centrus)
Nuclear startup Lightbridge sees efficiencies in twisting fuel rods (Lightbridge)
Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and other cool tech
AI flies fighter jet for U.S. Air Force in a first (TheHill)
U.S. Navy to team with Qualcomm to research 5G, AI (DN)
U.S. Coast Guard struggles with data (BD)
AI giant Palantir posts its first quarterly profit (CNBC)
U.S. launches initiative on military AI use (AP)
New defense-focused digital engineering firm Istari Digital emerges from stealth (PRN)
Checkerspot, a startup designing materials and ingredients at a molecular level to enable more sustainable, high-performing products, raised a $55M Series C led by ArrowMark Partners (BW)
SandboxAQ, a startup using AI and quantum tech to help companies transition to post-RSA security, raised a $500M round from Breyer Capital, T. Rowe Price, TIME Ventures and ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt (RT)
Aerospace firm Airbus offered to buy a 29.9% stake in Evidian, a unit that will spin off IT company Atos’s cybersecurity activities; Atos is seeking a valuation of $7.5B+ for the unit (BBG)
Ammunition Plant
The United States defense industrial base is struggling to keep up with manufacturing demand—especially for munitions. Here’s a really cool inside look at the Scranton Ammunition Plant in northeastern Pennsylvania, where they are manufacturing 155mm howitzer rounds to replace the stocks that we’ve been sending to Ukraine. Watch the short video here.
DoD Report on Fentanyl Deaths
Over the past six years, there have been more than 15,000 service members that have overdosed. In the five years ending in 2021, 332 of those overdoses were fatal. Overdoses represented 7% of all military deaths during that period—a staggeringly high number, even as we continued wars in the Middle East during that time. Fentanyl was found in more than half of the fatal overdose cases.
Fentanyl is insidious. We’ve created the opioid epidemic that has expanded to Fentanyl and we are nowhere close to doing enough to address this as a nation or as a department.
The older I get, the more I realize that we need comprehensive reform in our country’s drug policies and laws. I don’t know if we should adopt the Portuguese model (essentially wide spread decriminalization of all drugs), but we need at least to consider it and have the conversation. Read the full report from the Undersecretary of Defense to congress here.
Is Congress supporting the primes
Former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver joined Anthony Conagelo on the Main Engine Cutoff podcast this week to discuss a host of space policy topics. What I found most interesting was an off-handed comment she made about competing contracts and how “congress wouldn’t support the POAM” if NASA didn’t include Boeing in its selection for the Commercial Crew Program (25:00).
This made me wonder about the frequency with which Congress uses its constitutional authorities including control of budgets to force government agencies and departments to favor the “primes” (the largest defense companies, which usually include Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics).
Creating a startup is difficult. Creating one that’s focused on the Aerospace and Defense industry is even harder due to the consolidation of massive monopolies. If Congress is routinely stacking the deck in favor of those primes, it just makes innovative startups less likely to succeed to the detriment of our country.
Nevertheless, I found the whole podcast to be excellent and worth a listen, here.
Service
Last night, I was fortunate enough to attend the YMCA of South Hampton Roads annual meeting, where Samantha received a Volunteer Service award. It was a lovely event focused around the theme of “strength.” And the event really made me think about the importance of service in giving back.
Our family has been big fans of the YMCA since I was a child. I learned to swim there. I first lifted weights there. I learned basketball there (and now I coach it there).
The YMCA of South Hampton Roads includes 23 different locations spread across southeastern Virginia and parts of North Carolina. They’ve had some phenomenal programs, and I am fortunate to be a part of the Y.
Anyway, it made me think about new ways to give back and help others and I am incredibly grateful for that opportunity.
One way we can give back is to…
Keep building!
Andrew