One cat, two cat, Red Cat, Blue…Ops? (Sorry.) Earlier this week, aerial drone-maker Red Cat Holdings ($RCAT) announced the launch of a maritime division called Blue Ops, diving headfirst into the ever-growing unmanned surface vehicle (USV) space. Maritime autonomy, all the rage, et cetera, et cetera. Sky to sea: So far, Red Cat’s eyes have […]
Who said the primes don’t move fast enough? Sixteen months after they scored a contract to build an autonomous friend for fighter jets (technical term), General Atomics’ YFQ-42A Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) took flight on Wednesday. For now, GA has first-flight bragging rights, but Anduril—the other company selected for the CCA program—says it is close […]
There are a lot of startups out there making autonomous speedboats and small surface vehicles, but Blue Water Autonomy is thinking bigger: The newly launched maritime autonomy company is going all in on a 150-foot autonomous warship. And it seems like investors like the idea. On Tuesday, just four months after emerging from stealth, the […]
Forget drones, aviation autonomy might just be the hottest sector in defense tech these days. (We kid—kind of.) On Tuesday, automation company Reliable Robotics won a $17.4M AFWERX contract to turn the Cessna 208B Caravan into a remotely piloted cargo hauler for the Air Force. For a startup founded by a pair of SpaceX alums […]
Scaling production is hard. Luckily for UK-based unmanned surface vehicle (USV) startup Kraken Technology, they’ve just partnered with German shipbuilding big dog NVL to ramp up manufacturing of their speedboat drones at NVL’s Blohm+Voss shipyard in Hamburg this year. Helps to have friends in high places. Go fast: Kraken’s roots are in manufacturing racing speed […]
The defense world is (understandably) enthralled by innovation and new tech, but the older, less exciting stuff is just as important in modern warfighting—especially the 155mm artillery shell. The problem is that the US has struggled to produce them, and munition stocks have become a hot topic (just ask Bridge Colby). On Wednesday, the Army […]
You can buy pretty much anything on Amazon, but military equipment is so far off-limits. Luckily for all of the shopaholic soldiers out there, the US Army is taking a page out of Amazon’s book and building Prime for the primes (and startups). Earlier this month, the Army announced it’s planning to roll out an […]
Another day, another big shakeup at the Pentagon. On Monday, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin unexpectedly announced his retirement halfway into his four-year term. The Air Force said Allvin—the service’s highest-ranking uniformed officer—will continue serving until his successor is confirmed to minimize disruption. Never a dull moment, huh? Allvin is the latest […]
Frying them with microwaves, shooting them down, jamming them—c-UAS companies have a growing and creative array of ways to take down drones. But Israeli-American drone-takeover company D-Fend has a novel solution: commandeering them. And in an exclusive release with Tectonic this morning, they rolled out their newest option: EnforceAir PLUS, an amped-up version of the […]
If you’re worried about money in defense tech drying up, well, don’t worry quite yet. Today, in an exclusive release to Tectonic, VC firm Veteran Ventures Capital, which focuses on veteran-run dual-use startups, announced it has closed an oversubscribed $60M Fund II, tripling the size of its first fund. Big trust: Veteran Ventures was founded […]
