Investment

Forterra Hits $1B+ Valuation after $238M Series C

Well, the defense tech money hose isn’t looking like it’s slowing down anytime soon.  On Wednesday, ground autonomy company Forterra announced a massive $238M Series C that launched its valuation over the $1B mark. The funding round—which included $50M in debt financing—was led by Moore Strategic Ventures with participation from RTX Ventures, Franklin Templeton, Hanwha […]

InvestmentPentagon

Neros Raises $75M Series B, Tapped for Army Drone Program

Last week, we said Neros was turning things up a notch. We might’ve jumped the gun—now they’re really turning it up.  Earlier this week, the white-hot drone startup announced it closed $75M Series B. As a cherry on top, they were tapped for the US Army’s Purpose Built Attritable System (PBAS) program.  Not a bad […]

Pentagon

Hegseth Shakes Up Defense Acquisition 

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few days, a tectonic shift is underway in the way the Pentagon does business. (Ha, ha, ha.) Over the course of his 70-minute speech to defense industry execs, military procurement officials, and others at the National War College on Friday, Secretary of Defense Pete […]

PentagonPolicy

What to Expect from Hegseth’s Address to Industry

Happy Hegseth Lecture Day to all who celebrate!  Everyone’s favorite new monthly tradition—SecDef Pete Hegseth gathering a bunch of super important people for a stern talking-to—is back for its November rendition, but with a bit of a twist this time. Instead of calling his audience fat, Hegseth is set to deliver an “Arsenal of Freedom” […]

Policy

Canada’s Defense Tech Scene Gets a Big Budget Boost

When President Trump said, “If [NATO members] don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them,” earlier this year, his mind was clearly on Europe. That message got through and ignited a speedy and spendy military buildup on the Old Continent, sure, but one much bigger—and closer—NATO ally has stayed out of the defense spending spotlight […]

Pentagon

Neros Snags Major Marine Corps Contract for FPVs

Neros is turning things up a notch.  Earlier this week, the California-based drone startup announced that it has scored a multi-million-dollar delivery order contract from the US Marine Corps for thousands of its Archer drones. Plus, most of the FPVs will have a mini-warhead attached to make them lethal.  Big buzz: Neros’ Archer FPV quadcopter […]

InvestmentPentagon

Vulcan Elements Inks $1.4B Deal with the US Government and ReElement

The DoD, sorry, DoW, has really gotten a taste for critical minerals. On Monday, rare-earth magnet maker Vulcan Elements announced a whopping $1.4B partnership with the Pentagon, Department of Commerce, and ReElement Technologies to scale their vertically integrated rare-earth magnet supply chain.  Sounds like the meeting with Xi wasn’t that good.  Rare air: Drones have […]

Tech

Exclusive: Aeon Completes Live-Fire Test of Zeus Missile for the Army

Everything’s bigger in Texas, especially the explosions.  On Monday, Aeon, an Austin-based smart missile startup, announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that it has successfully completed all-up live-fire tests of its Zeus missile platform for the US Army Transformation and Training Command (T2COM) and the Army Applications Lab (AAL) ahead of schedule. Talk about […]

Europe

STARK and Helsing Win Big in Germany

Well, it’s been quite the week for the German defense tech scene. Yesterday, the Financial Times reported that the country plans to award a whopping €900M contract for kamikaze drones to three homegrown producers: STARK, Helsing, and Rheinmetall.  Under the contract, according to the FT, each producer would supply the German military with about 12,000 […]