Rapid Fire Friday: USA-IRI Inflection - Reco 2.0 Stall - FMS Historic Pace

Research evidence excerpt

Rapid Fire Friday: USA-IRI Inflection - Reco 2.0 Stall - FMS Historic Pace

TD Cowen

Global Research May 22, 2026

systems, upgrades and services. Our FMS dataset is updated regularly and available upon

request.

■COTW: Historical FMS ($M; FY-to-date)

See full note for more commentary

■BBGN(X): The Navy's acting acquisition chief told House lawmakers it plans to use

Huntington Ingalls' Newport News shipyard as the final assembly site for its proposed

Trump-class BBGN(X) guided-missile battleship (which was recently determined to be

nuclear-powered), with officials exploring reconfiguring Dry Dock 12 to enable concurrent

carrier and battleship construction. We've heard skepticism from Congress about the

proposed ship class, its mission and cost. The Navy intends to award lead ship design and

construction in APR 2028.

■E-7: USAF is seeking a ~$1.5B FY27 budget amendment to restore E-7 Wedgetail funding,

reversing prior plans to cancel program & signaling renewed commitment to an AWACS

replacement as combat ops and a shrinking E-3 fleet highlight persistent airborne battle

management gaps.

■B-21: Northrop Grumman will increase B-21 production from 10 to 12 aircraft per lot at

USAF’s request, signaling growing confidence in program execution & incremental capacity

expansion as service looks to accelerate bomber fielding timelines. USAF Chief of Staff GEN

Wilsbach said: "We’re quite happy with the progress that Northrop is making. We’ve also

asked them to increase the production rate from 10 aircraft at a time to 12. They’re in the

process of getting to that, so we’re quite pleased with it."

■Anduril: Anduril unveiled its Voyager Gateway 1, a body-worn compute & communications

system - the company described it as "about the size of a radio" but didn't call it a radio. The