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00:00Who needs a tomahawk when you have a flamingo? Why a flock of them could be headed to Russia.
00:06The fury takes flight. What we know about Anduril's CCA and its maiden voyage.
00:13And Christmas comes early for a tech giant. What it could mean for the Department of Defense.
00:24Hello and welcome to Weapons and Warfare. Our goal here on the show is pretty simple.
00:28We want to help you have an informed conversation about what's happening day in and day out with our nation's military.
00:35For Straight Arrow News, I'm your host, Ryan Robertson.
00:37And we start this week with what could be the Navy's new jet for training its next generation of aviators.
00:46The jet is the Beechcraft M346N and it's the subject of this week's debrief.
00:59At first look, the M346N looks and sounds every bit the kind of jet pilots would love to take for a spin.
01:08But it's in the air where its makers hope it's the kind of jet the Navy wants to replace an aging fleet of T-45 trainers.
01:16Some of the things you'll notice, there's two engines in this aircraft, so we have the redundancy of two.
01:21So, this is a safety factor if there was some kind of bird strike or engine event.
01:24Plus, you allow the training for a two-engine platform.
01:27So, if the students are going to go to the F-18 two-engine airplane, you have the ability to train to that in the advanced jet trainer.
01:34The Beechcraft M346N is a variant of the M346, originally designed by Italy's Leonardo, but it's been tweaked for the U.S. Navy.
01:45As Matt Hall, the North American Director of Sales, Training and Services for Textron Aviation Defense explains,
01:52his company sees the jet as the next chapter in its partnership with the U.S. Navy.
01:58We have a long history in naval aviation training stemming all the way back to World War II.
02:02So, aircraft like the T-34, the T-6, the T-44, the T-54, and now we hope will be the M346N that the Navy will go ahead and go move forward with for purchase for the undergraduate jet training system.
02:17Textron and Leonardo teamed up to offer the Navy a platform they say delivers trainees everything they need to take the next step in flight training.
02:27The M346N comes with fully digital flight controls, fly-by-wire technology, and an advanced training system that includes a carrier landing simulator.
02:38Granted, all of that is pretty cool, but it's the data link that Matt says makes this a bird of a different feather.
02:46You could have aircraft flying with other aircraft, aircraft flying with simulators,
02:50and you could have those constructive forces, say, showing up on an air-to-air radar so a student can do an intercept.
02:55Well, in a real-time monitoring station on the ground then, what you would see is an instructor could sit there
03:01and inject new threats into the scenario the student may not have expected.
03:05So, even with one aircraft airborne at a time, you could get a very complex training scenario for that student
03:11and really make the most efficient training possible.
03:14Another advantage the M346N brings to the table, a proven track record.
03:19Its predecessor has been flying for a decade with more than 150,000 flight hours to its credit.
03:26It's already being flown by more than half a dozen countries with more on deck.
03:30And it's only going to continue to get better. So, when this has already gone through a number of
03:36iterations and updates to that system, so that 10 years of proving out the platform, because any new
03:40platform takes time, right, to get all the bugs kind of worked out, no matter what it might be.
03:45Right.
03:45Right.
03:45But that has now been done and then now they're able to leverage that,
03:50those improvements to even make the systems we've been talking about.
03:53One more unique feature the M346N offers, an improved vantage point for the pilots training the students.
04:01One thing you'll really notice is just the elevation difference between the front and the rear cockpits.
04:06So, the visibility out of the rear cockpit when I flew last Thursday is just amazing. It actually
04:10felt like I was flying from the front seat. I forgot I was in the back.
04:14And for a training aircraft, why is it important that the, you know, the guy teaching can be able to
04:19see that vantage point?
04:21Yeah.
04:21One of the main reasons for that would be in the landing pattern, just that visibility over
04:25the top of the student's head in the front cockpit. This has a great capability for that.
04:30And in other aircraft where that visibility isn't as good, you wouldn't put a HUD there
04:35because you just wouldn't have the need for that kind of
04:39system because you would be looking at the back of someone's head.
04:42As for when you might start seeing the M346N flying in American skies,
04:48the Navy is set to hand out the contract for the undergraduate
04:51jet training system program in January, 2027.
04:58All right, I am joined now by senior producer and Air Force veteran
05:01Brett Baker for some headlines you may have missed. And Brett, we've covered the
05:04M346N a few different ways now on the show. And the data integration that platform brings to bear
05:10is really impressive.
05:12And it really is. It's kind of what separates it from maybe some of the alternatives.
05:17Just the fact that you can link up with, you know, other guys in the air or other guys on the ground
05:22and create kind of a full scenario, uh, plan for whatever training is, is needed. Um, really makes
05:30that thing kind of a standout project. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, being able to
05:35augment reality and practice carrier arrested landings and everything like that, like
05:41good skills to have, uh, for a lot of, a lot of those guys. Right. So, all right, let's get to those headlines.
05:46Just a couple of weeks ago in this very segment, we talked about what the delivery and green light
05:55to use us Tomahawk missiles would mean to the war effort in the defense of Ukraine. Well, now comes
06:02word from the independent that the Ukrainian made cruise missile, the Flamingo surpasses the Tomahawk
06:09in several ways. Built by Firepoint with a range of more than 1,800 miles and a warhead of nearly 2,500
06:18pounds, the Flamingo can fly farther and pack a bigger punch than its American counterpart.
06:24Firepoint's chief technical officer, Irina Tarek, recently spelled out her company's goals
06:29when it comes to equipping Ukrainian warfighters.
06:32We are producing specific products. These products, uh, and overall things around this,
06:41we're trying to provide a service, uh, something very user friendly, something very easy to use,
06:48not too complicated, not too expensive, refillable and constantly present on the front line,
06:54something that you could really rely on. And, uh, while discussing whether or not,
07:00uh, Shahed looks dangerous or not, what really is dangerous is a constant supply that never stops.
07:08That was at Defense Valley Tech 2025 in Lviv, Ukraine, an event we actually attended
07:14and got a good look at the Flamingo for ourselves or a model representation of it rather. Uh, Brett,
07:20Firepoint is really trying to fill a gap in Ukraine's arsenal. And I just saw that Mike Pompeo,
07:26the former U S army officer and CIA director, uh, under Trump one recently joined Firepoint's
07:33board of advisors. Right. Well, as far as the, the, I'm, you know, can't speak to that part of it,
07:39but as far as the Flamingo, um, you can definitely tell it's something like they're, they're not going
07:44to wait around. Uh, they've got stuff they need to take care of. And if they can fill that void with
07:50something that, uh, they can reproduce in the country, then they're going to do it. Uh,
07:55I think they're taking some repurposed engines from some Russian era stuff to get this done.
08:01I don't know how long those engines will last, like how many they have, but, um, it's definitely
08:06a clear sign that the Ukrainians aren't just going to be waiting to be helped out. They're,
08:10they're doing a lot for themselves. Right. Right. The, uh, so Mike Pompeo, just real quick,
08:16Mike Pompeo was added as an advisor because there was some, um, Firepoint got some really good
08:22contracts really quickly. We've got a lot of money from the, from Ukraine. So it's like,
08:26is this all on the up and up? There were some questions there, uh, because Ukraine, you know,
08:31does have a history, uh, under Soviet and Russian rule of having some, uh, less than honest people
08:38running things. Right. So, uh, they brought in Mike Pompeo to kind of, you know, help, um,
08:43you know, make sure that things above board. Exactly. Exactly. All right, let's get to the
08:49second headline. For the second week in a row, we're talking about Anderil and it's another biggie.
08:57Earlier this month, we got our first look at an airborne fury. That's Anderil's entrant into
09:03the DOD's competition for the collaborative combat aircraft, also known as a loyal wingman.
09:08As Anderil's press release states, they went from clean sheet to first semi-autonomous flight
09:14of a CCA in 556 days, officially known as the YFQ 44A collaborative combat aircraft. Anderil built
09:23an incredibly complex machine in less than two years. Brett, we've been covering this thing since
09:29its inception, really kind of cool to see it in the air finally. Right? Absolutely. And yeah,
09:34that timeline, such a short window from, you know, blank sheet of paper to getting that thing up in
09:40the air. Incredibly impressive for any group, let alone one that's doing as many varied and diverse
09:46projects as Anderil is doing. But it's a sure sign that the CCA project, you know, the competition
09:54between the two entities is going to go strong, I think. I think it's good for both that they're both
09:59up and flying already. And then that, you know, that just brings whatever the decision the DOD
10:06eventually makes that much closer to the fore. So, you know, we can move on forward with whichever
10:12one they select and make that a part of the fleet. And finally, will it be an early Christmas for
10:21Google? The tech giant has plans to build a significant artificial intelligence data center
10:25on Christmas Island, a remote Australian territory in the Indian Ocean. That news follows a cloud
10:33agreement with Australia's Department of Defense earlier this year. Reuters broke the story after
10:38reviewing some documents and speaking with officials involved in the project. Military analysts are
10:44suggesting the facility would be a strategic asset for the island, which is increasingly recognized by
10:50defense folks as a vital location for monitoring Chinese submarine and naval activities in the Indian
10:57Ocean. Brett, I was talking with a former admiral for a story about hypersonics in Hawaii a couple of
11:04weeks ago. And he said that they're starting to be able to track a submarine underwater based on the
11:12ripples at the surface. But in order to do that, the level of like computing power is off the charts.
11:18So, you know, maybe this Christmas Island data center is part of that. I'm not sure. I'm just
11:24kind of putting that information out into the ether. Right? Yeah, it's hard to know what's what's going
11:29to be what, but I think it does speak to the interest that's going on in the Indo-Pacific.
11:34People not only maybe wanted to be a part of it, but be a part of the solution to whatever eventually
11:41happens, uh, and making sure that they've, you know, kind of staked out their claim. Obviously,
11:47you know, Google has got deep pockets. So to pull off a project like this, uh, doesn't seem beyond,
11:54uh, expectations. Um, but yeah, it'll be interesting to see how all of this plays out. And if that plays
12:00a role in anything, because strategically it's certainly an important place. Right, right. Yeah.
12:07Yeah. The, uh, People's Liberation Army Navy, we've talked about this kind of tailor-made to keep the U.S.
12:12out of the area. Um, so if anything kicks off there, like, you know, U.S. is going to need
12:18partners in the region, right? And Australia, Japan, South Korea, and others, uh, they all kind of
12:24recognize, uh, you know, the better partner to have between the U.S. and China is the U.S. So, all right,
12:32Brett, really appreciate your time. As always, we'll see you next week. See you next week.
12:37It's time to break up with mainstream media and try something new. At Straight Arrow News,
12:42we're bringing back trustworthy journalism. Bringing you news, not noise. Bringing you facts,
12:50not fluff. Bringing you clarity, not chaos. We are. We are. We are Straight Arrow News,
12:59the news you've been looking for. For unbiased, straight facts, visit san.com.
13:07For all the talk about future wars being fought by machines,
13:10The machines, they're starting to take over. Right now, one of the most persistent and growing
13:15threats on the battlefield is something far simpler. Cheap, off-the-shelf drones.
13:21These Unmanned Aerial Systems, or UAS, have become the new IED. Hard to spot. Deadly. And everywhere.
13:31But what if the solution to a machine threat is an even smarter machine? That's where AIMLOC
13:37comes in and why they're the subject of our Weapon of the Week.
13:40For AIMLOC, the job isn't just trying to shoot drones down. It's about providing autonomous
13:49counter-UAS systems, an automated defense that can detect, track, and neutralize threats
13:56with both speed and precision.
13:59So, we use our Keystone core targeting module to accelerate target acquisition and calculate
14:05all of the advanced fire control. Most of the time, that's deployed onto a remote weapons
14:11turret, which is why you see so many variations of that. These just match up with the specific
14:15mission sets that our end-user customers have. But when we integrate into larger systems,
14:21that same module integrates radar sensors, camera sensors, and any other kind of effector
14:27like missiles and rockets as we need them.
14:29As Brian Bachman, the president and CEO of AIMLOC, sees it, the U.S. military has a full
14:35arsenal of kinetic weapons, like machine guns, grenades, and rocket launchers, that are still
14:40effective, but risk becoming obsolete if they can't be used in the right place at the right
14:47time.
14:48So, having all these uncrewed systems, whether they're aerial or they're ground systems,
14:52or even sea surface systems, all of those new assets allow us to deliver the weapons to
14:57the right place at the right time. So, we focus on building safe and secure autonomy to control
15:02these weapons, so that the warfighter can focus on getting their job done.
15:06Bachman says AIMLOC took lessons learned from the dawn of the smart weapon era to deliver
15:11something that's more cost effective and adaptable to new weapons systems that come online.
15:17So, by creating modules, it allowed us to experiment, learn what we needed to learn,
15:22take advantage of whatever the circumstances are at the moment, and put together the right
15:26system for the right time. The great part about that is, as soon as one piece becomes obsolete,
15:31you can replace just that one piece, and the rest of the system keeps marching forward.
15:36You bet.
15:37Let's talk about distribution, clients, customers, all that kind of stuff.
15:40Where are you guys operating? Who buys your stuff? That kind of thing.
15:45Right, yeah. We've got a global market. The US State Department regulates the transfer of
15:50our weapons technology out to our partner nations. So, all of NATO, Indo-Pacific, all of the partner
15:57nations in each of these areas are verified recipients of these export licenses. So, AIMLOC works to make sure that the
16:04electronics, the software and all of our manufacturing partners are properly licensed. We transfer the
16:12equipment to those nations, then train and sustain after that.
16:16As for what's next, Bachman says they've developed partnerships with Overland, AIMVP Robotics,
16:22and Teledyne to deliver on several experiments set for the next year. He tells us warfighters have
16:29already started taking delivery of these new systems so they can put them to the test and develop new ways to bring AIMLOC to the fight.
16:37All right, for Comp Check this week, we are checking in with Honeywell, talking about some new engines that they are making for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft Program.
16:48Here to talk a little bit more about that is Sarah Cooney with Honeywell. Sarah, thank you so much for joining us today.
16:52Well, thank you very much for visiting us.
16:54So, from what I understand of this engine, it's made using components and procedures that Honeywell already has in place.
17:01So, the Honeywell 1600 is actually based on years of experience that Honeywell's developed through all of our engine and our APU programs.
17:08Honeywell's produced over 115,000 engines and APUs, and in fact, we're the leading manufacturer of APUs in the world.
17:15So, our technologies that we've used in the Honeywell 1600 are not only based on our experience, but also some new manufacturing techniques.
17:22So, you know, when we say CCAs, how much, let's get into the, you know, the nuts and bolts.
17:27How much thrust does this produce? How much does it weigh? What are some of the, you know, the basic characteristics of it?
17:33So, this is actually a scalable engine. It's currently classified for what is called the CCA Class II Increment II category in terms of competition.
17:43This one has the capability of going from 900 to 1600 pounds. The model you currently see is roughly around 1200 pounds in its size and class.
17:51Other information about it is currently under wraps.
17:54Sure, sure. Got to keep the secret sauce secret, right?
17:57When we're talking about, you know, CCAs, it's kind of supposed to be for expendable, attritable technologies is kind of the word of the day.
18:06How does adding additive manufacturing into the process help bring down that cost curve to make this an attritable engine?
18:12So, what you're looking at there is actually speed and speed of production.
18:16And because Honeywell currently has facilities that we are using additive manufacturing daily, we have a certification for some of our parts, and we actually have over a 25,000 square foot manufacturing facility that is additive.
18:28So, when you're looking at additive, which we're also able to do is also digital engineering, model-based engineering technologies also help speed that process for build.
18:37Honeywell is using technology in, you know, production facilities that are already in place.
18:42So, how many of these are we going to be able to make if the contract comes through?
18:46So, Honeywell currently produces well over 10 APUs a day.
18:51We have actually over 115,000 APUs and engines produced worldwide.
18:56So, we have a very significant experience in that.
18:58And the answer to that question really is, is how much would you like me to scale to?
19:02Thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate it.
19:07All right, folks, for my wrap this week, since it's the week of Thanksgiving and all,
19:11I thought it was appropriate to spend a few moments expressing what I'm grateful for this year.
19:15My wife and kids, obviously.
19:17I love them more than anyone else on the planet, even when they're driving me bonkers.
19:22And I'm grateful for that.
19:24I'm also thankful for the guys working on this show.
19:27There are four of us here.
19:28We call ourselves the Quad Fathers.
19:30I trust them all implicitly.
19:32And they make me look like I know what I'm talking about every week.
19:36So, obviously, very thankful for that.
19:39And I'm thankful for you all out there on the interwebs, watching this video right now.
19:44We make this show because we want to help you all have a better base of knowledge when it comes to our nation's military, national defense and the like.
19:52But there would not be a show without you.
19:55So, thanks for watching.
19:57And be sure to join us next week.
19:59We're talking counterintelligence with the U.S. Army's top brass.
20:03In the meantime, though, for senior producer Brett Baker, video editor Brian Spencer, and motion artist Dakota Patio,
20:09I'm Ryan Robertson, Straight Arrow News, signing up.
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