Tech

Vector-SR2 Team Unveils a Saudi-built Shahed Drone Clone

Looks like Saudi Arabia and Utah have more in common than deserts.  SR2Vector, a joint venture between Saudi Arabia’s SR2 Defense Systems and Utah-based startup Vector, has unveiled a co-produced Shahed-esque (or in US terms, LUCAS-esque) long-range one-way attack drone called SKYWASP, which’ll be manufactured at the JV’s upcoming factory near Riyadh. The news was […]

Pentagon

Marine Corps Taps Rune for Project Dynamis 

Clearly, being on both Army Next-Gen Command and Control (NGC2) prototyping teams isn’t enough for Rune.  Yesterday, the AI-powered logistics and sustainment startup announced that it was tapped for the Marine Corps’ Project Dynamis, the service’s push to accelerate the modernization of its C2 contribution to the Pentagon-wide Combined Joint All-Domain C2 (CJADC2) within the […]

EuropePentagon

Redwire Scores Back-To-Back Drone Contracts

It’s been a busy week for Redwire.  On Tuesday, the space and defense giant announced a “multi-year contract valued at high eight-figures” with an undisclosed NATO country for its Penguin Mk3 VTOL UAS, and followed that up yesterday with a $15M contract with the US Army’s Aviation Center of Excellence (AVCOE) for its ISR-focused Stalker […]

Investment

Manufacturing Startup Amca Closes $300M Series B

Manufacturing is, like, hotter than hot right now.  This morning, the Advanced Manufacturing Company of America, better known as Amca, raked in some serious reindustrialize-flavored cash, announcing a $300M Series B at an over $1B valuation. Caffeinated Capital led the round, with Lightspeed, a16z, Lux Capital, and Construct Capital participating.  Networking: A lot of new-age […]

Investment

Mach Industries Snaps Up Rocket Motor-Maker Exquadrum

It’s not every day that a CEO buys a company older than they are, but welcome to the new age of defense tech.  Yesterday, Mach Industries, founded in 2022 by now-22-year-old CEO Ethan Thornton, revealed that it acquired 24-year-old propulsion system and solid rocket motor-maker Exquadrum in a $50M deal back in April. The acquisition […]

Investment

Armada Raises $230M at $2B Valuation

Mega-giant data centers, in case you hadn’t noticed, are popping up everywhere these days.  But edge computing startup Armada isn’t interested in the supersizing of it all—they want to shrink data centers down and take them to all the far-flung places where the military needs extra processing power. And it seems like the people with […]

EuropeTech

Destinus and Rheinmetall Unveil New Deep-Strike Missile 

Our friends across the pond are pretty big on building up sovereign defense capabilities these days, and Rheinmetall has moved at lightning speed to snap up the lion’s share of that European military spending boom.  Today, the German defense giant and Dutch drone startup Destinus unveiled a new, co-produced long-range deep-strike cruise missile called the […]

InvestmentTech

Aussie Sensing Startup Arkeus Raises $18M Series A

The Aussies are coming, y’all.  This morning, Arkeus, an Australian defense startup building AI-powered sensing systems for drones, raised $18M in a Series A led by Aussie VC QIC Ventures to expand its global footprint, including in the US.  “We are a little bit under the radar, if you can excuse the pun for a […]

Pentagon

The Pentagon and Five “New Entrants” Ink Low-Cost Missile Deal

The Pentagon wants more bang for its buck, and is looking to five “disruptive new entrants” to get it.  Under a framework agreement announced by the Pentagon yesterday, four companies—Anduril, CoAspire, Leidos, and Zone 5—will deliver over 10,000 cruise missiles over three years under the Low-Cost Containerized Missiles (LCCM) program, while Castelion will deliver a […]

Pentagon

Exclusive: Air Force EOD Units Get “Hundreds” More Skydio Drones

We’ve talked a lot about quadcopters used as flying bombs, but turns out they’re pretty helpful for diffusing them, too.  Under a “multi-million dollar” contract, the Air Force’s elite Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) units are getting their hands on Skydio’s fan favorite X10D Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) small-UAS, the company exclusively revealed to Tectonic […]