🔥 Russia Absent at Swiss Peace Talks

Good Morning. 

Over the weekend, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky unveiled a much-anticipated peace plan at a summit in Switzerland attended by 57 heads of state.

The meeting kicked off less than 24 hours after Russian president Vladimir Putin said he would agree to a ceasefire if Ukraine withdrew troops from four regions Russia claims to have annexed.

Russian representatives were not present at the peace summit.

— 🐈‍⬛ Acoustic Kitty

THE BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT

The Allure of Space Based Solar Power Comes With the Pretext For Heavenly Conflicts

Space-based solar power involves collecting solar energy in space using large satellites directing an energy transfer wirelessly to Earth. The nation to first engineer and establish a market for SSP will exercise a sense of supremacy over solar energy as a commodity and creates the risk of setting a pretext for space-based conflicts.

SSP advancement unlocking off-world and unlimited energy resources that can be combined with other hybrid efforts has great appeal in the face of the growing struggle for current crude resources. But with the US, China, and Russia all investing in the development of SSP systems, geopolitics have become inseparably intertwined with SSP innovation as a result of the intense Earth-based power competitions between these three nations.

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY & DIPLOMACY

Counterterrorism

• Local officials say Islamic State-Linked Allied Democratic Forces rebels in East DR Congo killed 42 in overnight attack on Thursday. Nearly 150 have been killed by the ADF since the start of the month.

• Russian special forces freed two prison guards taken hostage by 6 detainees with alleged ties to ISIL at a pre-trial detention center in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don.

• Two senior Islamic Jihad fighters were killed in an IDF counterterrorism operation in the northern West Bank city of Qabatiya.

Military & Defense

• Senate Armed Services Committee has approved a fiscal year 2025 defense authorization bill that would break the cap mandated by the Fiscal Responsibility Act by more than $25 billion.

• The Space Force has discontinued its contract with Raytheon to build three missile warning and tracking satellites.

• The commander of Sweden's Air Force said on Saturday that a Russian military aircraft violated Swedish airspace east of Gotland and was intercepted by Swedish airmen.

Cybersecurity

• A new report from ESET details five cyber espionage campaigns in Egypt and Palestine targeting Android users with trojan apps, which it attributed with medium confidence to the Arid Viper hacking group.

• A new report in Nature details how hackers are targeting universities and research institutes with ransomware to devastating effect.

• Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court are investigating alleged Russian cyberattacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure as possible war crimes.

Counterintelligence & Espionage

• NATO Secretary-General said members of the defense alliance will take tougher action against Russian spies in response to Moscow's campaign of hostile activities, including acts of sabotage and cyberattacks.

• China’s top spy agency has warned against the mishandling of confidential information as part of a public education campaign around its anti-espionage law after military-related materials were allegedly found to have been sold by a recycling station.

• Officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said U.S. intelligence agencies are closely tracking attempts by foreign adversaries to influence the 2024 election through deepfakes or other false information and are ready to alert the public if necessary.

Transnational Organized Crime

• Haitian leaders have ousted the director of Haiti’s National Police following months of criticism that he wasn’t doing enough to protect officers under assault by gangs. Nearly two dozen officers have been killed this year by gangs that control 80 percent of Port-au-Prince.

• 15 people that were part of a Philadelphia-based organized crime ring have been arrested for breaking into United States Postal Service drop boxes, pilfering checks, and forging and cashing them.

• Honduran authorities announced several new measures to cut down on organized crime, including the construction of a new prison, collective trials and terrorist designations for gang members.

• A UK gang that was importing massive quantities of cocaine and heroin have been jailed by the Greater Manchester Police and sentenced to up to 14 years in prison.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

This week the U.S. Missile Defense Agency announced the successful flight of its Hypersonic Test Bed (HTB-1). During the test, HTB-1 was launched into hypersonic flight, allowing the collection of extensive data from both internal and external sources. This data is crucial for ongoing and future experiments in hypersonic environments.

In other news…

Researchers have developed a DNA-based molecular controller that autonomously directs the assembly and disassembly of molecular robots, marking a significant step towards advanced autonomous molecular systems with applications in medicine and nanotechnology.

The Defense Department’s Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor satellites logged their first views of a hypersonic flight test during the HTB-1 test from Wallops Island last week in an important demonstration for the agency’s nascent global constellation of missile-tracking satellites.

Researchers propose DNA-based encryption to bolster cybersecurity using a fraction of the energy of some conventional encryption techniques.

DEALS & FUNDING

The US Space Force chose Blue Origin to compete alongside United Launch Alliance and SpaceX for launch missions worth up to $5.6 billion over the next five years.

The National Security Space Launch contracts, announced June 13, opens competition for the Space Force’s launch enterprise, which to date has been dominated by SpaceX and ULA, the only companies eligible to fly Defense Department missions. Blue Origin’s entry into the market is due in part to the Space Force’s new strategy for space launch, which it calls NSSL Phase 3.

In other news…

DARPA awarded a $6M contract to software company EpiSci in partnership with PhysicsAI to develop the first version of multi-agent unmanned products that can be used in contested environments and during “beyond visual range air combat missions.”

Merlin has been awarded $105M by the US Special Operations Command to develop a system that will make it possible for the C-130J Super Hercules military transport aircraft to be safely flown by one person, eliminating the need for a human co-pilot at a time when the US military faces a shortage of pilots.

Anduril was awarded a $19M contract to develop a solid rocket motor for the US Navy’s Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) that will help defend against advanced, fast-moving threats.