Drew FitzGerald
@drewfitzgerald.bsky.social
Wall Street Journal reporter covering all things aerospace and defense. Before that, telecom. Have a tip? Ping me on Signal at drewfitzgerald.87 Stories: https://www.wsj.com/news/author/drew-fitzgerald
“They are seizing it—there’s no other word for it” The Trump admin held months of secret talks to get a piece of Venezuela’s oil reserves, using the Pentagon in an unusual way to structure the transaction: w/ @verambergen.bsky.social et al: www.wsj.com/business/ene...
Exclusive | Inside Trump’s Plan to Give the Pentagon a Stake in Venezuela’s Oil Riches
The deal capped months of secretive negotiations to give the U.S. rights to the some of the world’s largest proven oil reserves.
wsj.com
Federal investigators said the temporary relocation of Marine One’s landing zone due to White House construction was a factor in a safety incident earlier this month involving the military helicopter carrying President Trump.
Investigators Say White House Construction Was a Factor in Marine One Incident
A preliminary report says a change in the Marine One take-off location blocked radio communications.
on.wsj.com
Never mind the stock slump — SpaceX is still racking up massive contracts and valuable regulatory breaks in Washington @micahmaidenberg.bsky.social and I count the ways Elon Musk's rocket company is setting itself up to profit for years to come: www.wsj.com/business/tel...
SpaceX Is Racking Up Wins in Washington
The Elon Musk-led rocket and AI company is landing lucrative contracts and benefiting from the Trump administration’s deregulatory push.
wsj.com
Today’s front-page story on the climate that led to a defense CEO’s ouster: www.wsj.com/business/wom...
Exclusive | Women at L3Harris Shared Concerns About CEO’s Behavior Years Before Ouster
Chris Kubasik was ousted after an investigation into conduct with a subordinate. Years earlier, another employee had made a harassment complaint.
wsj.com
Solid ProPublica postmortem on GD’s artillery shell plant failures, including acrid smoke, deformed parts and a literal dumpster fire www.propublica.org/article/gene...
Fiasco in the Factory: Taxpayers Funded a $533 Million Artillery Plant That Made Nothing
General Dynamics opened a Texas factory to churn out artillery shells for Ukraine, but the machines kept breaking. Robot arms smashed into things. Hunks of metal crashed to the floor. There was even a...
propublica.org
“Stunning” is maybe the worst thing to see pulled out of an editor’s drawer of lazy adjectives. If you see it in my copy, I lost the battle.
Josh Sternberg@joshsternberg.com · 3w agoA reminder that the media is not liberal or objective. Notice the editorialization in the headline and deck. Why is it "stunning"? etc This is both agenda setting and manufactured confrontation, designed, over time, to make readers think a certain way. Also never see "limits of the Right" frames
A $1.6 billion launch deal is small potatoes next to the $6 billion of satellites those rockets will be carrying (also from SpaceX) www.wsj.com/politics/nat...
How SpaceX Became Embedded in America’s War Machine
Pledges to quickly deploy technology and ties cultivated with the Pentagon have helped land new contracts totaling billions of dollars.
wsj.com
The Pentagon’s order for Patriot missiles alone—just the interceptors—is now up to $59 billion over seven years www.wsj.com/politics/nat...
Pentagon Widens Patriot Missile Order to Nearly $59 Billion
The Army modified its contract with Lockheed Martin to step-up production; the final cost will depend on congressional funding.
wsj.com
The Pentagon’s order for Patriot missiles alone—just the interceptors—is now up to $59 billion over seven years www.wsj.com/politics/nat...
Pentagon Widens Patriot Missile Order to Nearly $59 Billion
The Army modified its contract with Lockheed Martin to step-up production; the final cost will depend on congressional funding.
wsj.com
Boeing says it’ll cost $280 million more to build two new Air Force One models and deliver the first in 2028 www.wsj.com/business/air...
Boeing Pours Into Factories to Speed Air Force One, Commercial Jet Production
The CEO said “significant resources” are being invested to ensure the new presidential plane stays on schedule for delivery in 2028.
wsj.com
Update on the Pentagon’s ever-expanding Wall Street welcome mat: www.wsj.com/politics/nat...
Pentagon Dangles $400,000 Salaries to Recruit Wall Street Bankers
A plan to lend more than $200 billion to shore up defense manufacturing has fueled a hiring spree for Wall Street underwriters.
wsj.com
NEW @wired.com: With Trump restarting the Iran war, US intel officials estimate the total cost for the Pentagon could now exceed $100bn Officials were estimating the total cost to hit $50-$100bn at the end of May, but more hostilities means that figure has ballooned www.wired.com/story/pentag...
Intel Officials Predict the Pentagon’s Bill for the Iran War Will Exceed $100 Billion
The Trump administration has not disclosed its cost estimates for the Iran war.
wired.com
This is giving me flashbacks to the T-Mobile merger trial. Plenty of weird twists, including Texas joining a bunch of Dem AGs suing before switching sides.
NPR@npr.org · 2mo agoCalifornia is among the states suing to block Paramount from buying Warner Bros. Discovery in a Hollywood mega-merger that would unite some of the nation's largest movie studios and TV newsrooms. n.pr/4peiT2k
I was just talking about this irritating marker of AI-generated pablum and couldn’t remember what to call it
Will Oremus@willoremus.com · 2mo agoI set out to understand why AIs love negative parallelism. The answer wasn't just surprising—it was illuminating. www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
The FAA issued an AD to upgrade the 737 NG engine nacelle in the wake of the Southwest incident in 2018. The work has a compliance deadline of July 2028. Whether or not this 737 already had the modifications or not may have massive ramifications for Boeing.
starflyergold@starflyergold.bsky.social · 2mo agoEngine damage which hit the window of Malta Air aircraft operating Ryanair flight FR1879 from Thessaloniki to Memmingen leading to a passenger being partially sucked out.
The FAA is expected to certify Boeing's 737 MAX 7 later in July. Launch customer Southwest has firm orders for 256 -7s.
Exclusive | Boeing’s Smallest MAX Jet Nears FAA Milestone After Years of Delays
Federal regulators are expected to certify Boeing’s second-to-last version of its 737 later this month, marking a significant—albeit belated—milestone for the plane maker.
wsj.com
Washington Reagan National, Terminal 2, 1990s (opened 1997), by Cesar Pelli. 📷 National Airport Terminal, Cesar Pelli, by Oscar Riera Ojeda, 2000. #airportarchitecture www.instagram.com/p/DaXx-aJxhJ0/
Elon Musk’s company has shown investors a phone-like prototype with AI software preloaded www.wsj.com/tech/ai/spac...
Exclusive | SpaceX Showed Investors Prototype of Elon Musk’s New AI Device
The sleek, handset-like prototype was designed to integrate AI technology from SpaceX’s xAI.
wsj.com
The passenger aircraft landed safely and reported no damage, the FAA said. on.wsj.com/3R73UuA
A pilot landing a passenger plane at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport reported hitting a drone
The passenger aircraft landed safely and reported no damage, the FAA said.
on.wsj.com
Rocket Lab saying go big or go home (via @micahmaidenberg.bsky.social) www.wsj.com/business/tel...
Rocket Lab Buys Satellite Operator Iridium in Bid to Challenge SpaceX
The deal would give Rocket Lab control over a satellite fleet and access to wireless resources it could use to compete with SpaceX.
wsj.com
Another banger from @bobmcmillan.bsky.social: www.wsj.com/tech/cyberse...
Exclusive | How Hackers Found a Back Door Into the American Living Room
Nation-state cyberattackers are increasingly using residential proxy networks to mask their traffic, turning everyday electronics into a massive global threat.
wsj.com
This is that scene where the guy waves the sword around and then Indiana Jones pulls out a gun
SpaceX honchos share something in common aside from their soaring net worth: having built race cars in college. A peek at the Formula SAE mafia from @micahmaidenberg.bsky.social: www.wsj.com/tech/spacex-...
SpaceX’s Engineering Secret? A College Car-Racing Club
Leaders at the space and AI company share ties to a Cornell University team where they honed their engineering skills.
wsj.com
