🔷 Saved Rounds! 4.2.24

Welcome to Tuesday's Saved Rounds, where we send out all the goodies we couldn't squeeze into our Sunday newsletter.

📺PODCAST: Check it out on YouTube or download the podcast on Spotify, Apple, Pandora, iHeartRadio, etc.

They Said It
“I’ve seen some concepts where you’ve got these collaborative combat aircraft sipping off of [airborne] tanks. I can’t think of any worse Keystone Kop idea out there; you have hundreds of these little things trying to take fuel when the important, bigger fighters behind them really need to get on those hoses.” 

— David Alexander, president of General Atomics, on why drones that require aerial refueling are a terrible idea that can’t scale.

FYI: “Keystone Kop” is a person noted for bungling inefficiency—a pop culture reference older than everyone reading this newsletter.

Zoom in

Link-16 is a datalink so common in fighter jets it’s commonly referred to as ‘fighter data link.’ But Link-16 in space is going to be real….and real soon.

Zoom in here to learn more about how the Space Development Agency already has Link-16 in space and what they plan on doing with it—this year.

In that Number

20

South Korea has announced plans to produce 20 KF-21 Boramae fighters this year, half of the 40 initially planned.

Word of the Week

Foreign Military Financing: FMF is a foreign policy tool that provides grants for acquiring US defense equipment to strategic partners and allies who otherwise may not be able to afford it or where the US wants to boost region-specific national defense capabilities. Roughly 25 countries get FMF annually (Israel receives the biggest chunk of $$$).

Why it matters: Congress just approved $300m in FMF for Taiwan, and there’s another $2B+ FMF package being considered.

Saved Rounds

• DARPA’s LongShot missile-shooting drone needs another $10m to develop a mission systems architecture to do the mission it’s being built for

• EU’s troubled Eurodrone program received $108m in subsidies to keep it going

• Beehive announced its pivoting into making small 3D-printed jet engines for the defense industry

• Japan’s cabinet approved plans to export its 6th-gen fighter to 15 nations

• The UK revealed its new nuke warhead is named the A21/Mk7 Astraea

• Lockheed Martin is building Variable Aperture Digital Radars for Air Force threat system training

• Dassault delivered 2 upgraded F4.1 Rafale fighters to France

• The UK released an Autonomous Collaborative Platform (ACP) Strategy for how the Royal Air Force will integrate drones

• Mercury Systems is collaborating with Lockheed Martin on manufacturing computing tech

• Aerostar International purchased Near Space, a high-altitude flight testing company

• Airbus Defence is acquiring German cybersecurity firm INFODAS

• The US approved $228m in military aid to 3 Baltic nations

• Silvus is developing a sub-scale version of its’ StreamCaster radio network for small drones

• Mira Aerospace and VEDA Aeronautics are teaming up on High Altitude Pseudo Satellites (HAPS) for India

• Boeing & Aurora Flight Sciences are suing Virgin Galactic over a mothership project

• Airbus contracts Saab for the jamming payload for the Eurofighter EK electronic attack variant

• Japan reportedly wants Boeing’s T-7 Red Hawk as its next jet trainer

• Stratolaunch unveiled Talon-A 2, a fully reusable hypersonic vehicle

• Saab is opening a US-based munitions factory to produce GLSDBs (Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bombs)

• Raytheon is upgrading Taiwan’s surveillance radars

• Greece is selling off its Mirage 2000-5 and Block 30 F-16s to make room for F-16Vs, Rafales, and F-35s

• Raytheon received a $1.2B contract to deliver Patriot missile systems to Germany

• Argentina is edging closer to buying secondhand F-16s from Denmark

• Honeywell is acquiring Italian PNT company Civitanavi for $216m to bolster its autonomous capabilities

• Pakistan revealed it’s Chinese-export HQ-9 SAM for the first time

• General Atomics tested an MQ-9B dispensing sonobuoys

• Lithuania committed to 3% GDP defense spending through 2030 (NATO goal is 2%)

• The Navy will test a microwave anti-drone weapon at sea in 2026

• Australia is buying laser weapons that shoot down 50 drones per charge

• The Navy awarded Northrop Grumman $178m to expand the company’s West Virginia plant that builds warheads and solid rocket motors

• The Air Force’s new Sentinel ICBM won’t have its first flight test until 2026, 2 years behind schedule

• The US and several nations are working to better frame safe military AI

• AUKUS launched its first innovation challenge—electronic warfare

• Australia passed a law to boost AUKUS defense tech trade but tightened rules on exports to other countries

And Finally…

• Did you know that Kratos, known for its aerial drones, also has self-driving platooning technology that is being used for leader-follower unmanned freight trucks?

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