Saved Rounds: 11.1.22

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Saved Rounds

• The Navy ended its air-launched AQM-37 supersonic target drone program
• The Navy awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to procure 28 GQM-163A Coyote supersonic target drones
• Intel established an alliance to improve semiconductor design and production to meet the requirements of US national security applications
• Myanmar ordered a batch of Chinese FTC-2000G low-cost multi-role fighters
• Lockheed Martin got tapped to produce the JASSM New Variant—a classified version with “added capabilities” over the currently fielded AGM-158 JASSM stealth cruise missile
• Aerojet Rocketdyne, the rocket motor company whose Lockheed Martin acquisition was blocked by regulators, is now looking for someone to buy them
• The UN is using before/after satellite imagery to systematically document Russian damage to places of cultural significance in Ukraine
• The Army is buying the world’s largest 3D printer so it can print ground vehicle parts
• Anduril is building a schoolbus-sized unmanned submarine for Australia that uses a novel light, non-airtight design
• Lockheed Martin teamed to integrate Red Hat’s open-source Device Edge autonomy onto small platforms—and demoed it on LockMart’s Stalker Group 2 drone
• Tomahawk Robotics partnered with Teal Drones to enable one operator to simultaneously control multiple unmanned systems in multiple domains
• Aero Vodochody conducted the first flight test of its L-159 T2X combat trainer aircraft prototype (new wing with more pylons, larger internal fuel tank, new avionics, etc.)
• BAE’s F-15 EPAWSS EW upgrade program is now 33 months behind schedule and 24% over budget
• Raytheon won a $122m contract to update the Army’s LTAMDS radars (aka Patriot radar replacement) for hypersonics and other threats
• Titra won a contract to produce Turkey’s first unmanned helicopter (it was co-developed by US-based UAVOS and based on the Italian CH-7)
• The Pentagon is looking for proposals to develop and test anti-tamper systems for critical tech (10-year $499m contract)
• China flew its four-prop Scorpion D cargo drone for the first time, which looks like a mutt of a P-38, C-130, and MQ-9
• The DIU selected five commercial tech companies to integrate commercial data sources and models into the Air Force’s Weather Virtual Private Cloud
• The Navy has decided to develop its own autonomy baseline for its unmanned surface fleet after years of experimenting with various industry offerings—work will start summer of 2023