SOCOM plans Armed Overwatch buy; GBSD moves past initial review; GE engine to power Italian helo and Denmark bolsters Arctic defenses.

The U.S. State Department has notified Congress of a possible $91 million foreign military sale to Finland of the Extended Range Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System.

Raytheon Technologies is registering concerns over Lockheed Martin’s proposed acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne (AJR) due to continuing consolidation in rocket and missile propulsion providers, the chief executive of Raytheon told an analysts conference Feb. 17.

The U.S. Air Force’s program to replace the Minuteman III nuclear ICBM, the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, cleared its first major design review in November, prime contractor Northrop Grumman announced Feb. 16.

Developed for the fighter community, Leonardo’s BriteCloud expendable decoy may now find a niche in protecting UAS.

Vympel is funding research into a continuation of a short-range missile project shelved decades ago.

A request for information (RFI) published on Feb. 11 reopens the MDA’s on-again, off-again search for a laser weapon to shoot down threats, particularly in the vulnerable boost phase of a missile’s flight path. 

Israeli security agencies are investigating 20 people including several from the Israeli defense industry over the illegal development, production and sale of loitering weapons for an unnamed Asian country.