Good morning,
What a week! SBF has been found guilty on seven counts of fraud related to his crytpocurrency exchange, FTX. The Fed seems to have paused rate hikes for the remainder of the year, leading to some investor enthusiasm in the public markets. Israel continues its advance into the Gaza strip, emboldened by the U.S. House’s passing of a $14.3B military aid bill. As support for Israel ramps up in America, support for Ukraine hits an all-time low as it seeks to restore its territorial sovereignty following Russia’s invasion. Defense remains a hot industry, with Shield AI bringing in a $200M Series F investment.
Let’s dive in to these and other issues surrounding aerospace and defense technology.
Weekly News Round Up
Military
U.S. Defense modernization and innovation
Pentagon official: we must embrace irregular, asymmetric warfare (DS)
China, Russia outpacing U.S. on hypersonics development (WSJ)
ODNI, Pentagon reveal FY23 intelligence budget at nearly $100B (BD)
Air Force aborts ICBM test launch midflight, after anomaly (AFT)
Testing of new Air Force all-electric plane set to begin in Florida (S&S)
Army gets first high-power microwave to counter drones (DN)
Navy’s submarine branch focused on undersea communications networks (DN)
Europe, Russia, the Arctic, NATO, and the war in Ukraine
Pact nearly ready that will allow U.S. military broader access in Finland (S&S)
U.S. public support for Ukraine continues to drop, 41% say we have done ‘too much’ (Ax)
Russia’s biggest drone strikes in weeks hit critical infrastructure (RT)
Russia’s Lancet drone is blunting Ukraine’s advance (WSJ)
Poland’s military gets strong backing, money from new government (Pol)
Three arrested in NYC for sending $10M of critical military tech to Russia (NYP)
NATO eyes ‘quantum-resistant’ encryption in 5G drill (DN)
Slovakia’s new government announces a massive deployment to Hungarian border to curb migration (AP)
China, Korea, and Asia
China jet fires flares close to Canadian sub-hunting helicopter (CNN)
Seoul: N. Korea has given over 1M artillery shells to Russia (DN)
Middle East and Africa
Armed drone hit U.S. barracks in Iraq, failed to detonate (WSJ)
U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria attacked two dozen times in two weeks (MT)
U.S. House passes $14.3B Israel military aid bill (MT)
74 U.S. citizens have departed Gaza strip (AP)
Israeli troops advance towards Gaza City, death toll climbs over 9,000 (AP)
U.S. Intel: Russian Wagner Group planning to give Hezbollah air defense systems (WSJ)
Israel uses F-35I to shoot down cruise missile, first for Joint Strike Fighter (BD)
In first, Israel’s Arrow air defense system intercepts ballistic missile near Red Sea (BD)
Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim attacks on Israel (AP)
Jordan asks U.S. to deploy Patriot missile systems (DN)
A record 6.9M people have been displaced in Congo’s growing conflict (AP)
U.S. Defense Industry News
Businesses reposition amid growing demand for solid rocket motors (DN)
HawkEye 360 nabs $12.5M contract for Indo-Pacific RF data initiative (DD)
L3Harris points to suppliers for slowdown of solid rocket motors (DO)
Switzerland to buy newest Patriot missile system from Lockheed Martin (DN)
Lockheed gets $1B from Air Force for new Sentinel reentry vehicle (ASF)
Northrop Grumman wins $732M for space domain awareness (BD)
Pentagon awards $1.3B in contracts to Nothrop Grumman and York Space for 100 satellites (CNBC)
Primer parses Israel-Hamas disinformation using Command software (DN)
SpaceX, ULA win $2.5B in rocket contracts for 21 launches (CNBC)
Sale of F-16s to Turkey not a done deal, even with Sweden’s NATO accession (DN)
U.S. State Department has approved the following transactions:
$300M sale of helicopter support from Bell Helicopter to Iraq (DD)
Foreign Defense Industry News
Anglo-French defense firms gather to talk quantum, missiles, other advanced weapons (BD)
Czechia spends $120M on air-to-air missiles from Israel’s Rafael (DN)
German Air Force tests Hensoldt passive radar to boost air defense (C4)
Germany denies plan to abandon fighter jet project with France (TG)
Israel’s Elbit, Italy’s Leonardo to prototype targeting device for U.S. Army (DN)
Italy readies quick sale of patrol ships to Indonesia, amid China fears (DN)
Italy’s Fincantieri, Leonardo team up on underwater drone effort (DN)
Norway, RTX and Kongsberg sign NASAMS air defense cooperation agreement (BD)
S. Korea lining up banks to help finance $22B arms sale to Poland (RT)
Turkish Bayraktar drones are losing their value in Ukraine amid Russian air defenses (C4)
Space
Space Force plans 21 National Security Launches in 2024 (ASF)
Retired Space Force Lt Gen Armagno joins Rocket Lab board (FdT)
New space doctrine clarifies Space Command’s ‘offensive,’ ‘defensive’ ops (BD)
NASA apologizes for not supporting dreams of visiting Jupiter (Giz)
Regulatory hold-up keeps Varda spacecraft stuck in orbit (CNBC)
Intuitive Machine’s sets January 2024 launch date for private moon lander (Sp)
Nuclear Power & Weapons
China, U.S. to meet for rare nuclear arms-control talks (WSJ)
U.S. to build new nuclear gravity bomb (DN)
Congressional Research Services releases its report to Congress on Iranian Nuclear Programs (USNI)
Putin revokes Russian ratification of nuclear test ban treaty (RT)
AI, Energy, Robotics, and other Tech
Pentagon debuts new data, AI strategy following Executive Order (C4)
Pentagon Chief Digital and AI Office to host procurement forum for industry (DS)
Army issues new RFI for Project Linchpin AI initiative (DS)
U.K. reveals details on two AI defense programs (C4)
After DoD Directive 3000.09 update, Pentagon stays quiet on lethal autonomous weapons (DS)
Anthropic, an AI startup seeking to displace OpenAI, received a $2B investment from Google (TC)
A&D-Focused Finance
Military autonomous flying tech startup Shield AI raised a $200M Series F at a $2.7B valuation led by USIT and Riot Ventures (TC)
Delta lays off some corporate workers to cut costs (RT)
Hyperspectral imagery startup Kuva Space raised a $17.6M Series A led by Voima Ventures and Nordic Foodtech (TC)
Slooh, a Washington Depot, CT-based startup that offers live online telescope feeds, raised a ~$5M round led by Connecticut Innovations (FN)
GPS positioning startup Zephr raised a $3.5M seed round led by Space Capital and First Spark Ventures (TC)
SQM, the world’s second-largest lithium supplier, raised $750M through a sale of dollar-denominated green bonds (BBG)
Budget airline AirAsia parent Capital A plans to list its brand management business Capital A International on the Nasdaq through a $1B merger with Aetherium Acquisition Corp. (RT)
US urged a judge to block JetBlue Airways' $3.8B purchase of ultra-low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines, arguing that the acquisition would lead to higher fares and fewer flights for travelers (RT)
Nuclear energy company X-Energy and Ares Acquisition Corp. mutually terminated a $2B deal to go public (RT)
Important Reads
Andrew Michta of the Atlantic Council explains why the U.S. isn’t ready for a war of great powers.
Palmer Luckey joined Patrick O’Shaughnessy to discuss AI, VR, and the future of defense in a recent episode of Invest Like the Best.
Investor frenzy is overvaluing AI startups, and it’s going to cause some headache and heartbreak, according to Financial Times.
Lighter Side
Keep building!
Andrew