Naval
The U.S. Navy awarded Castelion an $89,997,162 firm-fixed-price order to take Blackbeard to Early Operational Capability. The buy tests whether a Mach 5 strike weapon can be produced cheaply enough for the fleet to field it in numbers.
Aerospace
The Pentagon set an eye-popping $131.2 billion ceiling on Boeing's F-15 line through 2037, even as delivery delays officially breached the fighter's operational baseline and pushed full readiness to 2028.
Funding
Project Janus aims to shield major power-projection bases from domestic grid failure using commercial microreactors, but officials warned that private capital must carry the bulk of the cost.
Management
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
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
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.
Funding
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 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
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.
Naval
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.
Funding
HII’s $2.2B STINGRAI task order under GSA ASTRO is a Mission Technologies ISR win for SOUTHCOM—not a shipbuilding award—and it stretches one base year plus six options.
Companies
Northrop’s ~$2B PAC-3 SRM and ~$1B THAAD structure frameworks cast the company as a second solid-rocket-motor source—exactly the redundancy the Pentagon wants.