SECRET//NO BORING kickass intel on military tech happenings--from insiders for insiders. NEWSLETTER | PODCAST
Fightertown USA
Joined December 2020
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The Merge πΊπ² retweeted
The real drone warfare is happening between the army of mechanical engineers working 12 hour days for prime contractors in a SCIF completely unaware there are 22 year olds raising hundreds of millions by convincing credulous VCs theyβre going to outwork the lazy incumbents
The Merge πΊπ² retweeted
If you are a mid-career national security professional, I urge you in the strongest possible terms to apply for this fellowship: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1Fβ¦
The Merge πΊπ² retweeted
Castelion Blackbeard hypersonic weapons mounted on an F/A-18F Super Hornet
πΈPAE Aviation
The Merge πΊπ² retweeted
FEVER21 F-22 test flight out of Edwards AFB carrying Stealth IRST pods and an unusually colored underside (9/2026).
1/
The Merge πΊπ² retweeted
π Ray-Bans' tagline is "Genuine Since 1937."
Here's the story, the name, and the defense tech connection.
themerge.co/p/ray-bans
The Merge πΊπ² retweeted
My suggestion:
The Merge πΊπ² retweeted
Great question! Seagliders use a "blown wing" to takeoff at low speeds.
The high-speed prop wash is concentrated on the wing so the wing sees fast air and generates high lift, even while the seaglider is moving slowly.
We trick the wing into thinking it is flying faster than it is.
For takeoff, allows us to takeoff directly from the hydrofoils (no one has been able to do that before).
For landing, lets us land slower so we can land in higher wave states.
You want the blown wing to focus all the propeller energy on the wing. Bigger props would waste energy above and below!
The Merge πΊπ² retweeted
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" - @elonmusk
The Merge πΊπ² retweeted
Today marks the start of the Seaglider era - WE FLEW!!
Our 15,000 lb, human-crewed Viceroy Seaglider prototype took flight today. Years of hard work culminating in this moment.
Flight was smooth and exactly as planned.
So proud of this team.
More details to come!
The Merge πΊπ² retweeted
Test is the gate between a good idea and a fielded capability.
Jenn Wilson, who leads Nominal's government team, joined Mike Benitez on the @MergeNewsletter. As programs shift toward CCA, Golden Dome, and a wider supplier base, the old model built around one prime per program stops holding.
youtube.com/watch?v=7xI3wU5Sβ¦
The Merge πΊπ² retweeted
a good name for an all-you-can-eat-buffet in DC would be "Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity"
The Merge πΊπ² retweeted
Everyone, meet the AIM-424 Malice:
NEW: The US Navy has a new long-range air-to-air missile.
The AIM-424 Malice has a range that far exceeds current missiles and is being tested on F/A-18s and F-35s.
Of course, specifics are classified
aviationweek.com/defense/misβ¦
The Merge πΊπ² retweeted
BREAKING: Avidrone Aerospace has secured 1st place in the DARPA Lift Challenge.
Avidrone achieved a 3.84:1 payload-to-aircraft-weight ratio using a 29.3-pound drone. DARPA set the goal at a 4:1 ratio: a drone carrying four times its own weight, a level DARPA described as unprecedented.
Founded in 2007, Avidrone Aerospace is based in Ontario, Canada, with a U.S. presence in Columbia, Maryland. The company develops cargo drones for contested defense logistics and commercial applications including offshore oil and gas.
Second Place: MTech Operations, an MIT team, achieved a 3.64:1 ratio using a 32.1-pound drone.
Third Place: Xtreme Aerial Concepts achieved a 3.45:1 ratio using a 54.9-pound drone.
More than 120 teams were selected to compete in the heavy-lift drone challenge, with $6.5M in prize money.
Video Source: DARPA
The Merge πΊπ² retweeted
ππ The upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket struck the Moon early Wednesday, Aug. 5, around 2:35 a.m. ET β an unintentional impact near the Einstein and Bell craters on the western lunar limb, at roughly 5,400 mph.
The stage had been drifting since Jan. 15, 2025, when it carried the Blue Ghost and Resilience landers toward the Moon and was then left in a moon-crossing orbit. After 19 months, its trajectory finally intersected the surface.
Impact was inferred observationally: astronomers using the Very Large Telescope in Chile detected a plume of sodium and lithium gas, with a corroborating sodium emission spotted from Massachusetts. A lunar orbiter is expected to image the new crater later.
Two clarifications worth noting: this is the rocket's second (upper) stage, not the returnable booster β and it is a distinct event from the well-known March 2022 Falcon 9 impact, which involved a different 2015-era stage. The trajectory was first calculated by Bill Gray of Project Pluto; the accompanying study is a preprint, not yet peer-reviewed.
Context: There is still no formal tracking system for space debris beyond low-Earth orbit β a gap likely to matter more as lunar traffic grows.
Sources: CBS News, CNN, ABC News, TIME, Space.com
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
The video depicts a simulation, not actual footage of the impact; no visual recording of the crash exists. The impact itself was confirmed via spectroscopic detection of a plume. earthsky.org/space/falcon-rβ¦ cbsnews.com/news/spacex-roβ¦
The Merge πΊπ² retweeted
How the Blue Angels are handling this even though they got a total pass from their boss is exactly why they are the best on earth at what they do and a national treasure.
On the other hand, it's also a reminder that just firing people and ruining them for making a mistake isn't often the best action for the U.S. military. This has become the default far too often in the services. Having organizations learn from mistakes and improve as well as the individual should be the goal whenever possible, not throwing people away for convenience and because "that's how it usually works."
I think we now have a clear picture.
It was inspiring. It was bad-ass. And it was a mistake.
While we might never be privy to exactly what happened in his cockpit, something clearly went wrong, and the pilot accepted responsibility for what the commanding officer called an "unsafe situation."
He was deeply affected by what happened and needed time to process it. That speaks to his professionalismβand is exactly what Iβd expect from a Blue Angel and require from any professional aviator.
Elite organizations aren't defined by never making mistakes. They're defined by how they respond when they do.
The Blues acknowledged what happened, debriefed it, learned from it, and got back to flying.
That's the culture we should want in every military squadron.
Well ... that'll just about cover the flybys.
The Merge πΊπ² retweeted
New test footage: first missile shot from YFQ-44A.
YFQ-44A executed an end-to-end, beyond-line-of-sight strike against a simulated target.
The test, executed out of @EdwardsAFB, represents an important step in turning CCA into an operational capability.