Page 11 – Defense Daily

Fincantieri And UAE Expand Naval Collaboration To Underwater Systems

Italy’s Fincantieri on Tuesday signed a memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the United Arab Emirates’

EDGE Group to expand their cooperative work on naval systems to include underwater systems for international navies.

Fincantieri said the Nov. 5 MoU will see the companies collaborate on design, development and creation of manned and unmanned underwater systems capabilities. The agreement will operate via the companies’ MASTRAL joint shipbuilding venture based in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The companies said this preliminary MoU agreement will pave the way for more solutions tailored for the underwater needs in other international navies.

MAESTRAL focuses on sales, commercial operations and engineering for design and service of surface navy underwater vessels and products. It was launched in May after being initially announced in February. The state-owned EDGE holds a 51 percent stake in MAESTRAL.

In February, the companies said the joint venture “harbors ambitions to develop an underwater program for mid-size submarines.”

Previously, in May, UAE signed a $435 million deal to procure 10 167-foot-long Offshore Patrol Vessels from Fincantieri and EDGE via MAESTRAL, based on Fincantieri’s Saettia-class ships.

Pierroberto Folgiero, Fincantieri CEO and Managing Director, said:

“This agreement between Fincantieri and EDGE underscores a commitment to pioneering advancements in underwater technologies, combining engineering excellence with a forward-thinking approach. The underwater domain presents unique challenges, from fluid dynamics to communication and autonomy, which demand innovative and resilient solutions. Together, we aim to develop systems that meet the highest standards of interoperability, addressing critical needs within both the defense and energy sectors,” Pierroberto Folgiero, Fincantieri CEO and Managing Director, said in a statement.

This is the EDGE Group’s first agreement for underwater systems and it argued it has “boldly expanded” across various defense sectors in its five years of operations.

“From the outset, we recognised that only through collaboration and partnership could we develop the technologies and expertise necessary for EDGE to lead in the air, land, sea, cyber, and space domains. Our ongoing partnership with Fincantieri exemplifies this strategy, opening limitless opportunities for both companies in the joint development and production of advanced surface and underwater naval solutions,” Hamad Al Marar, managing director & CEO of EDGE, added.

Palantir’s Sales To DoD Up 21 Percent In Third Quarter

Palantir Technologies [PLTR] on Monday reported surging sales in its third quarter that included strong revenue from Defense Department contracts and the U.S. government overall.

Sales to the DoD were up 21 percent versus a year ago, driving U.S. government revenue up more than 40 percent to $320 million in the quarter, company officials said during an earnings call Monday evening.

Work on the Army’s TITAN intelligence ground station was “fully ramping throughout” the third quarter and deliveries of the Maven Smart System to DoD continue, Ryan Taylor, Palantir’s chief revenue and legal officer, said during the call. In August, the Army said it received the first of 10 planned Palantir-developed TITAN prototypes to begin gathering soldier feedback (Defense Daily

, Aug. 5).

The DoD Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office in May awarded Palantir the first production contract for Maven Smart System, $480 million over five years (Defense Daily, May 30). The initial task order under the award allows for more users of the situational awareness and targeting platform at five U.S. Combatant Commands and the Joint Staff.

Taylor highlighted the use of Maven by the Army’s 18^th Airborne Corps “to match the performance of what used to be a 2,000 staff targeting cell during Operation Iraqi Freedom to a targeting cell of roughly only 20 people today.”

During the third quarter, the Army was the first military service to adopt Maven, Shyam Sankar, Palantir’s chief technology officer, said on the call.

“There’s a huge opportunity for our customers to automate the tail and liberate capital to reinvest in the tooth across government and commercial,” Sankar said.

Palantir’s sales in the quarter were up 30 percent from a year ago to $725.5 million from $558.2 million a year ago. Net income more than doubled to $149.3 million, six cents earnings per share (EPS) from $73.4 million (3 cents EPS) a year ago.

For all of 2024, Palantir expects sales of $2.8 billion and free cash flow to exceed $1 billion.

State Department Approves $4.9 Billion Sale of E-7 Aircraft To South Korea

The State Department approved a potential Foreign Military Sale of $4.92 billion in Boeing [BA] E-7 Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control Aircraft to South Korea.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) notified Congress late on Nov. 4.

South Korea’s sale request includes four E-7s, 10 CFM56 jet engines (8 installed, 2 spares); seven Guardian Laser Transmitter Assemblies (GLTA) (4 installed, 3 spares); eight AN/AAR-57 AN/AAQ 24(V)N Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM) System Processor Replacements (LSPR) (four installed, four spares); other sensors, radios, navigation and related aircraft technologies as well as elements of various logistical and program support.

DSCA said South Korea’s Air Force will use the aircraft to meet its current and future threats by providing increased intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and airborne early warning and control capabilities.

The agency added these aircraft will help South Korea increase their command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) interoperability with the United States.

South Korea currently has four E-7s but has been looking at alternatives rather than just buying four more in a wider ranging airborne early warning competition.

Last year, L3Harris said it planned to offer the Bombardier Global 6500 business jet equipped with Israel Aerospace Industries‘ ELTA Systems’ air moving target indication radar in Korea’s competition (Defense Daily, Oct. 27, 2023).

In May, the Air Force acquisition chief said Boeing negotiators on American Air Force E-7s cut the price to be in line with government budget limits after the initial Boeing proposal was almost twice the budgeted funding. The official said the original budgeting figure form the government was based on information from Boeing (Defense Daily, May 8).

Beck: DIU ‘Not Taking on Projects Anymore Where There’s Not a Pathway to Scale’

The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) has personnel at combatant commands and other forward locations to aid in fielding front-line equipment requests, DIU Director Doug Beck said last Friday.

“The whole objective here is to focus where we must to solve the critical strategic problems by finding the operational capability gaps where technology can help leapfrog those to move ahead,” Beck told the Ash Carter Exchange in Boston on Nov. 1. “The metric goes from the old world where it might have been how many meetings can we have to the new metric of have we made a meaningful difference to our ability to deter major conflict–which means we gotta have changed our operating plans or forced the adversary to change theirs or both.”

“That really all starts with understanding the needs at the combatant commander level,” he said. “That’s why we’ve embedded very deeply with them. For example, at INDOPACOM Adm. [Samuel] Paparo’s team–he and I are talking constantly–driving the commercial technology integration for him is a DIU embed, or out in the Security Assistance Group-Ukraine [SAG-U]–the U.S. organization that supports Ukraine–the S&T and commercial tech lead for SAG-U is a DIU embed. We’re doing that at INDOPACOM, EUCOM, plus SAG-U, SOCOM, SOUTHCOM, CENTCOM, CYBERCOM; etc.”

“That’s about getting to those most critical nodes of warfighter demand, making sure we understand what those needs are and delivering them,” Beck said. “Importantly, that’s about needs, not requirements. In the department, we’re used to saying here’s a 300-page requirement to tell you what we need.”

In July, Beck announced the creation of the Defense Innovation Unit Community of Entities (DICE) to spur the alignment of DoD innovation arms and define the “systemic barriers” that are in the way “so we can go knock them down” (Defense Daily, July 18).

Since the initiation of DoD’s commercial technology effort nearly a decade ago under the late Defense Secretary Ash Carter, Pentagon innovation “goodness is all over the place,” Beck said on Friday. “There are now 267 organizations across the Department of Defense that self-identify as an innovation entity ranging from substantial scale all the way down to individual unit level. That’s great news, but it can also be pretty confusing…If you’re a small company of 10 or 15 people, and you’ve got 20 different organizations showing up and saying, ‘Hi. I’m the Department of Defense, and I’m here with THE demand,’ it’s pretty hard to pick what matters and why.”

While combatant commands give DIU feedback on new system needs and timelines, for example INDOPACOM’s leading of the first Replicator effort on attritable, autonomous unmanned vehicles, the military services remain key, potential logjams–or accelerators–in scaling up innovations.

“Scale is really about [DIU] partnership with the services–the true engines of scale for the department,” Beck said on Tuesday. “We’ve changed our model a lot to change the dynamic for that partnership so we’re not taking on projects any more where there’s not a pathway to scale with the service. By scale, I don’t mean somebody somewhere in the Navy or the Air Force thinks it’s a good idea. I mean a conversation at the [service] secretary/ undersecretary or chief of staff/vice chief of staff level where they say ‘we care about this, and there’s a pathway to scale.'”

Boeing Workers End Strike; Cash Flow Will Remain Negative Through 2025

Boeing’s [BA] machinists’ union members on Monday voted to end their 53-day strike that shut down production at the company’s commercial aircraft plants in the Pacific Northwest but the company offered no updates on program impacts.

During its third quarter earnings call on Oct. 23, Boeing indicated that depending on when the strike ended, free cash outflow in 2025 could be around $14 billion. In the third quarter, free cash flow was negative $2 billion, which brought the cash outflow to $10.2 billion for the first nine months of the year.

Cash flow results in the third quarter were impacted by fewer deliveries of commercial widebody jets, unfavorable working capital timing, and work stoppage due to the strike.

The company said in October that it expects cash flow to remain negative in 2025 but to improve versus 2024.

With the strike over, Boeing offered no new program updates. On Oct. 11, the company released preliminary third quarter financial results with the defense segment taking a $2 billion charge related to continued cost overruns on certain fixed-price development contracts and the impacts of the work stoppage on the Air Force’s KC-46A tanker, which is based on a derivative of the 767 commercial aircraft.

The commercial aircraft business took a $3 billion charge related to delays in flight-testing of the 777-9 aircraft and the strike.

Analysts will be watching to see how quickly Boeing is able to restart, and ramp up, production of commercial aircraft, which will be critical to generating cash and paying off debt.

Boeing President and CEO Kelly Ortberg on Monday evening said the company is “pleased” that the union agreed to the new contract.

“While the past few months have been difficult for all of us, we are all part of the same team,” Ortberg said in a message to employees. “We will only move forward by listening and working together. There is much work ahead to return to the excellence that made Boeing an iconic company.”

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 and District 24 members voted with 59 percent in favor of the new contract, which includes a 38 percent general wage increase over four years, a $12,000 ratification bonus, and a 100 percent employer match of up to 8 percent of an employee’s contribution into a 401(k) retirement plan.

Jefferies aerospace and defense analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu estimates that the new wage agreement will cost Boeing about $1.1 billion over four years and the ratification bonus nearly $400 million upfront. The reinstatement of a machinist’s performance plan could cost Boeing about $130 million per year, and the retirement plan contributions up to $400 million a year, she wrote in a client note.

U.S. Space Force Says It May Award Four PTS-G Contracts

The U.S. Space Force may award four companies Protected Tactical SATCOM-Global (PTS-G) contracts.

“The government intends to competitively award up to four Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contract for PTS-G as well as PTS-G Design and Demonstration Delivery Order 001,” Space Force’s Space Systems Command said on Nov. 4 upon the release of the PTS-G solicitation.

The Senate Appropriations Committee recommends $376 million in fiscal 2025 for PTS, nearly $221 million less than the Space Force request, including a $52 million reduction to the Space Force’s $248 million PTS-G request as “excess to need” and $46 million less for PTS-Resilient (PTS-R) due to an engineering, manufacturing and development delay cited by the committee (Defense Daily, Sept. 11).

Boeing [BA] and Northrop Grumman [NOC] have been in the running for a Space Force cost reimbursement contract that the service had planned to award this December to develop and build two PTS-R satellites (Defense Daily, May 24).

PTS is the follow-on to Lockheed Martin’s [LMT] Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellites and also consists of PTS-Prototype payloads and the new PTS-G program. “Lower complexity” PTS-G Geostationary Earth Orbit satellites in Ka-band and X-band are to fill a gap between the “more focused” PTS-R and the “broadly-available but also the lower assured access capabilities provided by existing/emerging MILSATCOM and commercial services,” Space Force has said.

Space Force and U.S. Strategic Command have worked on PTS and the Protected Tactical Enterprise Service ground system program to counter adversaries’ satellite jamming through the use of a Protected Tactical Waveform.

In September, SSC said that it had awarded $13.2 million Strategic Funding Increase–“STRATFI”–to the commercial satellite company Astranis to add military Ka band to Astranis’ Omega satellites (Defense Daily, Sept. 20).

Under STRATFI, $3.3 million in SSC funding is to complement investment by Astranis and its venture capital backers. SSC said Astranis will also develop a hardware design that supports Protected Tactical Waveform over the Omega satellites to prevent satellite signal jamming.

While the Pentagon has backed innovative approaches, such as Middle Tier of Acquisition (MTA) and commercial paths, to help speed fielding of systems like PTS, the DoD efforts thus far are insufficient, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in its annual weapon systems assessment (Defense Daily, June 17).

The Pentagon established its MTA policy in December 2019 after congressional direction.

MTAs having delays in planned operational demonstrations include the Space Force’s PTS, the U.S. Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike, and the U.S. Army’s Future Long Range Assault Aircraft, GAO said.

BWX Technologies To Acquire Specialty Materials Business From L3Harris Technologies

BWX Technologies [BWXT] has agreed to acquire a specialty materials and manufacturing business from L3Harris Technologies

’ [LHX] Aerojet Rocketdyne segment for $100 million.

The Aerojet Ordnance Tennessee, Inc. (AOT) unit is the sole provider of depleted uranium to the U.S. government, and also provides tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum, rhenium, titanium, nickel, aluminum, copper, metal-matrix composites, metal polymer composites, reactive materials, and custom alloys used in defense, commercial, and space applications.

“With decades of experience in specialized materials and metallurgy, A.O.T brings exciting resources and expertise to BWXT,” Rex Gleneden, president and CEO of BWXT, said in a statement. “This acquisition marks a significant step in our growth strategy, allowing us to leverage A.O.T.’s unique competencies and assets to better serve our customers.”

The transaction is expected to close this year. The A.O.T. business generated about $40 million in sales in the last 12 months, and has an operating margin in the mid-teens. BWXT expects the deal to be slightly accretive to its earnings after one-time costs within the next 12 to 18 months.

A.O.T. was founded in 1969 and is based in Jonesborough, Tenn. BWXT said the company’s business has high barriers to entry, and has demonstrated sustainable organic growth.

L3Harris has been pursuing a portfolio reshaping that includes divesting non-core assets.

Top Defense Appropriators, NatSec Lawmakers Locked In Key Races Heading Into Election Day

The Senate and House’s top defense appropriators are both facing tough election day matchups that could help determine the majority in either chamber and potentially reshape key “cardinal” spots atop the spending subcommittees.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), the respective chairs of the Senate and House Defense Appropriations Subcommittees, are two of a handful of national security-focused lawmakers locked in competitive races heading into election day on Tuesday.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.). chair of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee

Tester, who has held the coveted SAC-D chairmanship since 2021, has remained behind Republican opponent and former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy in a majority of polls, with non-partisan political analysis group The Cook Political Report forecasting the race as “Lean Republican.”

Republicans have viewed the Montana seat as a critical pick-up in their bid to regain the majority control of the upper chamber, which could potentially open up a spot atop the SAC-D panel for a new leader.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is currently the top Republican on SAC-D but is also vice chair of the full committee, which may open the role to other senior GOP panel members such as Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) or Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

If Democrats do keep control of the Senate while overcoming a potential Tester loss, it also remains unclear who would take over SAC-D as the next two panel members with seniority are Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who chairs the Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), who leads the Armed Services Committee.

Tester, in his tenure leading SAC-D, has been supportive of increasing the Pentagon’s fiscal year 2025 topline and supported Senate appropriators’ move to add a $20.8 billion emergency spending boost to the pending defense spending bill (Defense Daily, Aug. 1).

Meanwhile, The Cook Political Report has rated Calvert’s matchup against Democrat and former federal prosecutor Will Rollins to represent California’s 41st District as a “toss up,” with the seat considered one of several potential Democratic pickups that could help the party regain majority control.

Calvert, who has served in Congress since 1993, would be term-limited in his role atop the HAC-D panel if he wins reelection but could potentially seek a waiver to retain his leadership position.

If Democrats retake the majority in the House, it’s likely that Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) will retain her seat as the party’s top defense appropriator.

Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), who currently leads the House Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee, is among the more senior Republicans on HAC-D who could potentially look to seek the top Republican spot in the event of a Calvert loss.

Beyond appropriations, several members of the House Armed Services Committee are locked in tight races that will go toward determining majority control in the next Congress.

As of Nov. 1, The Cook Political Report had Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) as one of the more likely Republicans to potentially have their seat flip blue in his rematch against Democratic state senator Tony Vargas (Defense Daily, Nov. 1).

Bacon, who has held the seat since 2017, is a former brigadier general in the Air Force and has been a proponent of cyber and electronic warfare programs and efforts during his tenure on HASC.

Additional HASC members facing competitive matchups include Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.), with The Cook Political Report rating her race as “lean Republican,” while Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine) and Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) are considered “toss ups” in their reelection bids.

The race to fill HASC member Elissa Slotkin’s (D-Mich.) seat, who is running for the open Michigan Senate seat, is considered “lean Republican” between GOP candidate Tom Barrett and Democrat Curtis Hertel.

Slotkin’s race against Mike Rogers, the former Republican Congressman who served as chair of the House Intelligence Committee from 2011 to 2015, to fill the seat left open by Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s (D-Mich.) retirement has been rated as a “toss up,” according to The Cook Political Report.

Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), who has been a proponent of nuclear modernization programs on SASC, is also facing a competitive challenge from Independent Dan Osborn for the Nebraska seat. (Defense Daily, Sept. 27).

Osborn, a union leader who previously served in the Navy and then joined the Nebraska Army National Guard, has declined the endorsement of the Democratic party and has stated he would look to establish an Independent caucus in the Senate if elected.

HASC member Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) has received favorable polling in his bid against Republican Kari Lake for the open Arizona Senate seat, with The Cook Political Report also rating SASC member Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.)’s reelection bid as “lean Democrat” in her race against Republican and former Army Captain Sam Brown.

Navigation Experts Urge Launch of Stored GPS Satellites with L5 Signal

The Global Positioning System (GPS) program, established in 1973, needs to launch four Lockheed Martin [LMT] GPS III satellites with the L5 signal in short order to help counter adversary jamming and spoofing of GPS signals, positioning, navigation, and timing experts say.

A constellation of 18 to 21 GPS satellites with the L5 band are to have 30 times the anti-jamming of the 31 orbiting GPS satellites with the weaker L1 signal, but four GPS satellites with the L5 band are in storage in Waterton, Colo., and, as a result, the L5 GPS signal is not fully operational.

“17 of 24 L5s have been launched and are in orbit, but, inexplicably, four remain in storage in Colorado–these have cost you, the American taxpayer, about a half billion dollars each, plus billions more up in the sky, 17 satellites sitting up there some what useless,” Robert McDowell, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former FCC commissioner, said on Monday at an institute forum on how to remedy GPS vulnerabilities.

For years, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Space Force have undertaken GPS upgrade efforts, including the jam resistant M-code and the RTX [RTX] Next Generation Operational Control System (OCX) for GPS.

In addition, Astranis, Axient, L3Harris Technologies [LHX] and Sierra Space are to submit design concepts for the Resilient Global Positioning System (R-GPS) to Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) to launch up to eight R-GPS satellites by 2028 (Defense Daily, Sept. 24).

“OCX is years behind schedule,” McDowell said on Monday. “Meanwhile, there seems to be no oversight of any of this in Congress, and this is a very frustrating matter.”

GPS spoofing has been common in the Ukraine and Middle East conflicts to ward off attack drones, and the Kremlin has used such spoofing to make the seat of Russian government have the electronic signature of an airport and thus confuse the GPS signal and drones using it, said Dana Goward, the president of the Resilient Navigation Foundation.

In a report this summer, the OPS GROUP said that state-led, conflict zone-related spoofing of the GPS signal for civil aircraft had increased 500 percent to an average of 1,500 flights per day versus 300 in the first and second quarters of this year.

“We made a conscious decision across 20 years [after 9/11] to not prioritize the GPS mission–the electronic warfare mission, in general,” retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, the senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation, told the Hudson Institute forum on Monday.

“Whatever, Department of Defense person claims things have changed [for GPS]–things have not changed,” he said. “You’ve sucked for 20 years. What changed was you got caught [after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine]. You got caught that the adversary was trying to use it [GPS jamming/spoofing]…Until very recently, the military just kind of viewed this as a nuisance. ‘We’ve got our M-code. We’ll figure a way out of it. We’re okay.'”

“Ironically, they didn’t even do that well, and they’re behind on M-code,” Montgomery said. “M-code is in systems mostly–aircraft, some high-end munitions. It’s not in a guided 155 mm round or a GMLRS round or a small munition because M-code is not a small product like an L1 or L5 antenna, and they’ve been slow as hell to get it [M-code] into systems and, to top it off, we don’t share it with many of our allies or any of our partners. M-code is not a solution, if you wanna fight with allies and partners.”

Fixing M-code and providing it to friendly countries is a need, but launching the stored L5 satellites should be first priority, according to Montgomery.

“It’s clinically insane that Space Force won’t prioritize this launch, and the Air Force didn’t prioritize this launch either so this is a five-year effort to not do the right thing by two services,” he said. “This [launch] will give us a significantly wider bandwidth to work in, an improved signal structure, and more accurate/resilient/harder to jam systems.”

In addition, Montgomery said that Congress, including one of RTX’s home state senators, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, needs to demand accountability and fielding for OCX. RTX won the OCX contract in 2010 and DoD began fully funding the program in 2016.

Australia Cancels Satellite Effort With Lockheed Martin As Space Tech Advances

The Australian Ministry of Defence on Nov. 4 terminated its procurement activity with Lockheed Martin [LMT] for a single communications satellite in favor of pursuing multiple spacecraft that could provide a more resilient communications capability for its military.

Lockheed Martin’s Australia-based business in April 2023 was named the preferred bidder for the Australian Defence Satellite Communications System, that was called JP9102 and was intended to be launched into a geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) (Defense Daily, April 3, 2023). Australia wants a sovereign satellite-based communications system for the Indo-Pacific region.

“With the acceleration in space technologies and evolving threats in space since the projects commencement, Defence has assessed that a single orbit GEO-based satellite communications system would not meet strategic priorities,” the ministry said. It also said that, “Instead of a single orbit solution, Defence must instead prioritise a multi-orbit capability increasing resilience for the Australian Defence Force.”

For now, the Ministry of Defence said its existing satellite communications capabilities meet its needs and the decision to cancel the JP9102 effort with Lockheed Martin Australia will allow it to “prioritise emerging needs, mitigate capability gaps and continue to support our transition to an integrated, focused force.”

In the commercial sector, U.S.-based SpaceX has populated low Earth orbit (LEO) with thousands of Starlink satellites that are being used by government and private entities, and individuals for communications needs. The U.S. Defense Department has also begun a missile warning and related communications program that involves a proliferated constellation of satellites in LEO.

Having hundreds and thousands of small satellites in LEO offers global coverage and resiliency against adversary attacks that might target orbiting spacecraft.

Citing its 2024 National Defence Strategy, the Ministry of Defence said it requires satellites to enhance intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, resilient communications, and counter emerging space threats. The ministry said its “Integrated Investment Program” has between $6 billion and $8 billion U.S. dollars to invest in space capabilities.