Macro
Why the Pentagon Is Hunting for Sub-$750,000 Missile Interceptors
Facing soaring cost-per-shot asymmetry, the military is funding a wave of clean-sheet interceptors and hypersonic strike weapons engineered from scratch for affordable mass.
Latest
Management
Joby's $500 Million Bet to Scale Defense Revenue Overnight
Joby Aviation is paying about $500 million to acquire Resonant Sciences, a Dayton defense shop that already books more than $100 million in annual revenue. The deal turns a decade of small Air Force pilots into a scaled, cleared defense franchise.
Aerospace
The F-35's $38 Billion Cooling Dilemma Won't See a Production Fix Until 2033
A 2023 GAO report found the F-35's overtasked cooling system is adding $38 billion in engine maintenance costs. Collins Aerospace just tested a candidate fix, but the program isn't expected to pick a solution or begin production until 2033.
Naval
The Navy Killed the Program Anduril Built a Shipyard For. Seven Other Companies Won the One That Replaced It.
Anduril spent tens of millions revamping a Seattle shipyard for a Navy autonomous-vessel program. The Navy canceled that program, and named Huntington Ingalls, Leidos, and five others to build the one that replaced it.
Wall Street Wire
The Pentagon's Missile Shortage Just Became a Rare Earth Opportunity (NASDAQ: EMAT)
Evolution Metals & Technologies Corp. is one of the few U.S.-listed producers already making the non-China magnet supply the Department of War says it can no longer wait for.
Funding
Space Force Pays SpaceX Rivals $60 Million to Break Launch Vendor Lock-In
SpaceX won a $2.29 billion sole-source contract in May to build the backbone of the military's new orbital data network. In August, the Space Force awarded five competitors a combined $60 million and said it needs to avoid vendor lock-in.
Companies
Parsons' Government Contracts Are Piling Up Just Weeks After a Rough Quarter
Parsons has landed seven new contract awards and positions since August 11 across missile defense, space, cyber, and electronic warfare. Three weeks earlier, the company told investors its national security segment had posted a quarterly loss.
Aerospace
Qatar’s Possible $4.5 Billion KC-46 Buy Is an Export Win for Boeing—and a Parts Win for RTX
State cleared a possible $4.5B FMS for up to four KC-46As, eight PW4062s, and LAIRCM/ALR-69A gear for Qatar. Contractors include Boeing, Pratt & Whitney, RTX, and Northrop Grumman—this is not a signed sale.
Policy and Budgets
Golden Dome Has a First Address. The Price Tag Still Does Not.
The Pentagon named Fort Story, Virginia, as Golden Dome's first operational site. Gen. Michael Guetlein still will not say what sits there, how many sites follow, or which cost estimate holds.
Partnerships
Kratos and GE Just Became the Second Engine on America’s Standoff Missile
Kratos and GE Aerospace's GEK800 received the F143-ZZ-100 type designation and a U.S. Air Force EMD contract as JASSM's second-source engine. Neither company disclosed a dollar value.
Funding
Raytheon Just Got a Seven-Year Order to Make Tomahawks by the Thousand
The Navy is not buying a new missile. It is buying rate: a seven-year, $22.9 billion Tomahawk order that would take Raytheon from 60 a year to more than 1,000 after inventories were thinned by allied transfers and the Iran fight.
Naval
John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) Clears Acceptance Sea Trials at Newport News
HII says CVN 79 completed acceptance sea trials on August 15 after earlier builder’s trials. Preliminary acceptance and Navy underway test and evaluation come next—without a delivery date in the release.