Northrop Grumman’s hot streak in the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) world is showing no signs of slowing down. Just a few weeks after the Air Force called Northrop’s Talon drone a “strong contender” for the service’s CCA program (designating it as the YFQ-48A), the prime announced that it’s been awarded a contract to build the […]
The counter-drone space may be busy as hell, but it seems that hasn’t deterred California-based Mach Industries. This morning, the MIT-dropout-founded defense tech startup unveiled Dart: their new low-cost interceptor designed to take down Group 1-3 drones, plus an internally developed ground-based radar system to go with it. If Mach loves one thing, it’s trying […]
There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and champagne popping at Lockheed Martin HQ. On Monday, the Pentagon gave the mega-prime good reason for celebration, announcing an agreement to boost annual production of the ever-popular Lockheed-made PAC-3 MSE missile interceptors from 600 to 2,000 over the next seven years under a new acquisition model. […]
“If AI is to be the brains of America’s tech supremacy, Gundo hopes to provide the muscle, the energy and the firepower,” The Economist recently wrote. “The harder it is to build, the better.” Looks like we can add super high-tech materials and composites to the list of ambitious Gundo exports, especially after El Segundo, […]
You don’t hear “ahead of schedule” very often in the defense world, but Aeon seems to be making a habit of it. On Monday, in an exclusive release to Tectonic, Aeon announced it completed a successful flight test of its Zeus missile launched from a Moog ($MOG.A) integrated turret platform last week. That’s just three […]
We’d be the first to tell you that it’s been a banner year in defense tech. As it turns out, the numbers back up our—and, if you’re reading Tectonic, your—excitement. According to a Q3 report from Pitchbook, defense tech venture capital is on track to close out the year “firmly in expansion mode.” We’re not […]
Even with a whole lot of B-2 and F-47 news this year, the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) race might’ve defined the year for the Air Force. And guess what? It’s not over yet. Last Friday, the Air Force tapped nine vendors for the next stage, or Increment 2, of the CCA program, according to Breaking […]
It was only a matter of time before the Gundo Bros linked up. Yesterday, El Segundo, CA-based integration startup Picogrid and electronic warfare company CX2 announced that they teamed up to make CX2’s RF detection tech play nice with radars and other sensors at the Army XVIII Airborne Corps’ Scarlet Dragon exercise at Fort Bragg […]
The NGC2 race is on—and Rune is tagging in. This morning, the IQT-backed sustainment software startup announced that Lockheed Martin has tapped them to bring a little bit of their contested logistics magic to the prime’s NGC2 prototype OTA contract, awarded in September. Clean slate: As a refresher, the Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) […]
Well, our friends in Munich are having quite the week. This morning—hot on the heels of announcing a joint venture with Frontline Robotics, and two weeks after raising a cool €180M—German drone giant Quantum Systems announced that it’s acquired ground autonomy company FERNRIDE. QS says that this “[expands] its leadership position from air and software […]
