IAM Contract Negotiations. Union workers at Boeing’s defense facilities in the St. Louis region, and its new MQ-25 unmanned aircraft production plant across the Mississippi River in Mascoutah, Ill., have begun the “economic portion of high-stakes contract negotiations” with the company, International Association of Machinists District 837 said last week. “We’re here to fight for the wages, healthcare, retirement, and job security our members have earned,” Tom Boelling, directing business representative of IAM District 837, said in a statement. The current contract covering 3,100 machinists began in July 2022 and expires July 27. Boeing will be extending a contract offer soon. “We’re committed to reaching a new deal that recognizes the contributions of our employees and keeps us moving forward,” Dan Gillian, air dominance vice president for Boeing Defense and senior site executive for St. Louis, said in a statement.
Drone Memo. In a staged production outside the Pentagon on July 10, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth emphasized the importance of bolstering the “U.S. drone manufacturing base,” arming military forces with “low-cost American crafted drones,” and overcoming “bureaucratic risk aversion.” During his monologue, he reached up to grab a piece of paper–ostensibly the memo he then signed on “Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance”–delivered by a Skydio X10D quadcopter drone. “This is the future,” Hegseth said after the X10D handed him the paper. “We’re in the fight to win it. I’m never gonna back down.” After the show, Skydio President Adam Bry posted on X, “Using an X10D to deliver new drone policy documents to SecDef was not one of the use cases we designed for. Luckily, it’s a versatile platform. LFG.”
Dutch V-BATs. The Netherlands Ministry of Defense has acquired eight V-BAT unmanned aircraft systems from Shield AI for use in maritime intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations by the Royal Netherlands Navy and Marine Corps. Ten different countries and or international organizations now use V-BAT, the U.S.-based startup said last week. Shield AI said that the Netherlands selected the drone based on its success in the ongoing Russo-Ukraine War where it has been used for long-range ISR and targeting without Global Navigation Satellite System, and a month-long flight trial aboard a Dutch naval vessel during a NATO exercise.
Counter-Drone Interest. The Coast Guard, which currently operates counter-drone systems, earlier this month issued an information request on the capabilities of existing systems on the market, the availability of counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS) as a service by contractors, and the availability of C-UAS equipment it could operate but would be owned and maintained by a vendor. The service envisions “rapidly deployable and adaptable C-UAS solutions for fixed, temporary, on-the-move and portable deployments to secure critical infrastructure and high-profiled events,” the July 3 request said. “Upon deployment, C-UAS must have the capability to detect, identify, monitor, track, warn, disrupt and seize threat UAVs.”
Free AI Tool. Startup EdgeRunner AI is offering the public beta version of its domain specific generative artificial intelligence platform to Defense Department users, free of charge. The EdgeRunner AI platform is air-gapped and works on-device, providing specific military occupational specialty assistance tailored to operations, like logistics. Tyler Saltsman, a former Army logistician and the company’s co-founder and CEO, recently told Defense Daily that Army and Air Force logisticians require different AI tools, adding that EdgeRunner AI’s platform can be specialized for these different needs. The EdgeRunner AI assistant is “akin to a personalized JARVIS to Iron Man for every warfighter, across all devices and assets, helping them make faster, smarter decisions, increasing the probability of our troops winning the fight and bringing them home,” he said in a statement.
Unit Costs. Bomber squadrons have the highest annual unit cost for U.S. Air Force platforms. The two B-2 bomber squadrons at Whiteman AFB, Mo.—each with an average of 7,970 personnel—have a unit cost of nearly $2.3 billion annually—the highest squadron unit cost for U.S. Air Force platforms, according to fiscal 2025 figures compiled by the Congressional Budget Office. Behind the B-2 are four B-1B squadrons—each with an average personnel number of 4,230 and an annual unit cost of nearly $1.3 billion. Next are the six B-52 squadrons—each having an average of 3,070 personnel and an average annual unit cost of $860 million. Behind the bombers in total cost are 26 F-35A squadrons—each with an average of 2,790 personnel and an average yearly unit cost of $740 million—and 10 F-22 Raptor squadrons—each having about 2,470 personnel and an annual unit cost of $730 million, according to CBO. A B-2 squadron’s annual unit cost of about $2.3 billion is below the nearly $2.7 billion annual average cost for each of 7 active duty U.S. Army Stryker brigade combat teams (BCT) with 12,890 personnel per BCT, but above the $1.9 billion annual unit cost for 11 U.S. Navy carriers with 6,900 personnel each and the $1.4 billion annual unit cost for 9 carrier air wings with 4,540 personnel each.
Starship Propulsion. On a 3-1 vote, commissioners in Cameron County, Texas on July 8 approved SpaceX’s application to build a liquid oxygen and nitrogen production plant near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas to supply fuel for the company’s Starship launch vehicle. Commissioner Sofia Benavides voted “no.” Citizens expressed concern about damage to the Texas coastline, dunes and wildlife. “The state regulators have not given the community any opportunity to comment,” Bekah Hinojosa, a co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, said during the commissioners’ meeting on July 8. “SpaceX and Elon Musk has already been scorching our Boca Chica Beach–displacing people from the beach and destroying wildlife habitat. SpaceX is conducting a hostile takeover of our beach and coastline. SpaceX cannot be allowed to continue to grow unchecked and industrialize the dunes and our beach. SpaceX is clearly not for the public good.” The company wants the new air separator plant in Boca Chica to reduce the need for truck deliveries of liquid oxygen and nitrogen.
Ship-to-Shore Connectors. Textron Systems’ Corps won a $354 million modification on June 30, announced July 3, to exercise an option to produce three more Ship-to-Shore Connector Landing Craft air cushion 100 class craft. The work is expected to be finished by July 2031.
BlueForge Philanthropy. BlueForge Alliance (BFA), the nonprofit that started as an offshoot of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station to help grow the naval defense industrial base, on July 10 announced a new foundation as a philanthropic army on cultivating resources. It specifically said the new organization “will operate as the philanthropic arm of BFA, engaging and cultivating individuals, institutional investors, and corporations interested in furthering BFA’s mission.” The nonprofit argued this will complement their current efforts and ultimately grow a permanent endowment to advance initiative that build industrial base resilience, foster innovation and promote opportunity within the defense ecosystem.
Trilateral Naval Logistics. High-level naval officers from the U.S., Australian and Japanese militaries signed the first trilateral agreement on logistics under a strategic dialogue framework. Vice Adm. Jeff Jablon (Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Installations and Logistics, OPNAV N4), Rear Adm. Naoya Hoshi (Director General of Logistics Department, Maritime Staff Office, Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF)), and Commodore Catherine Rhodes (Director General Logistics, Royal Australian Navy (RAN)) took part in the signing ceremony aboard USS America (LHA-6) during a port visit in Brisbane, Australia. The U.S. Navy noted the three parties have routinely collaborated on logistics on bilateral bases, but not together in a trilateral setup. Jablon said while the U.S. has “robust logistics partnerships” with both countries, this will strengthen the commitments and allow them to more easily share information, technologies and processes “for greater logistics resiliency.”
…Reloading. The agreement specifically covers reloading missile systems and flexible refueling. The U.S. Navy statement noted the Australian and U.S. navies have supported mutual missile reloading since 2019 and the Navy’s prototype systems to reload weapons at sea are compatible with both countries’ existing MK-41 missile launchers and can transfer missile cannisters between ships at elevated sea state, in a reference to the Transferrable Reload At-sea Method (TRAM)..The Navy said the system will have further demonstrations in 2025 and 2026 “to showcase additional capability and interoperability.”
Space Tech IPO. Firefly Aerospace last Friday said it plans to go public and has filed its registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering. The company will use “FLY” as its stock ticker symbol and will trade on the Nasdaq. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the expected offering have not been determined, the Texas-based company said. Firefly designs and builds launch vehicles, spacecraft, and a lunar lander.
