It’s been a big last few years for small, inexpensive drones (and the companies that build them), but larger platforms have remained pretty firmly in the realm of the expensive and exquisite. Today, in an exclusive release to Tectonic, Florida-based Petrel Technologies emerged from stealth to change that. The startup is building a low-cost, Group […]
If you’re looking for something to cure your post-Super Bowl blues, the Department of Defense has you covered. Last week, the Pentagon revealed the 25 vendors selected to face off in the first phase of the Drone Dominance Program (DDP), the department’s $1.1B initiative to buy up tons of low-cost UAVs for the Army, and […]
Remember when Y Combinator startups made food delivery and crypto apps? Well, times they have a-changed. This week, a new startup called Seeing Systems emerged out of the famed accelerator’s 2026 winter cohort, and they’re definitely not making widgets. The UK-based team—founded by two brothers—is building autonomous strike drones, and they’re already seeing early traction […]
Missiles are having a moment, and a new startup out of Texas wants in. Earlier this week, missile-making startup Galadyne formally launched with a lofty goal: Founder Chandler Luzsicza and his team want to completely rethink how missiles are made. And, lucky for them, they’ve raised $4.8M in pre-seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Pax Ventures, […]
Are you feeling the reindustrialize vibes yet? Well, you should be, because investors certainly are. Yesterday, advanced manufacturing startup Machina Labs closed a $124M Series C to build its first large-scale “intelligent factory.” The idea is to use AI-powered robots to rethink how everything from car parts to drone and missile airframes are made. The […]
If you hadn’t noticed, there’s a whole lot of new defense tech coming onto the scene, and, as it turns out, the Pentagon is pretty interested in making sure all of it works together. That’s been good news for Picogrid. Yesterday, the El Segundo-based integration startup announced a $9.3M contract with the Air Force to […]
Last week, we said that Overland AI keeps notching wins, and they just keep coming. Yesterday, the Seattle-based ground autonomy startup announced a fresh $100M funding round led by 8VC, which the company says will help boost production of its autonomous ground vehicles. The new round brings Overland’s total funding to $142M. Remember what we […]
HavocAI is putting the collab in collaborative autonomy. This morning, in an exclusive release to Tectonic, Rhode Island-based maritime autonomy startup HavocAI announced a partnership to put its collaborative autonomy software on Tideman Marine’s six-meter Viper unmanned surface vessel (USV). Boat buddies: In case you’re new around here, HavocAI, which raised $85M in October, has […]
Looks like the White House just can’t quench its thirst for the minerally good stuff. This morning, Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration is set to launch a critical mineral stockpile, called Project Vault, backed by $12B in seed money split between $1.67B in private capital and a $10B loan from the US Export-Import Bank. […]
Well, we all saw this one coming. Right on the heels of a deal with the Pentagon to triple Patriot missile interceptor output, Lockheed Martin ($LMT) took things up a notch yesterday, announcing an agreement to quadruple production of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors over the next seven years. For all the prime-bashing, […]
