Pentagon

DoD Selects First FY26 APFIT Winners

Well, the Pentagon is certainly pushing up against the Christmas deadline. Yesterday, the DoD, sorry, DoW, announced over $400M in APFIT contracts using FY26 funds—the first of the year—bringing total contracts awarded by the nearly four-year-old program to over $1.4B.  While the DoD didn’t release names of the companies in this batch of projects—as per—a […]

Investment

Zerophase Scores $6.8M Seed Round

You know what sucks? When you’re flying a drone against Russian targets somewhere deep on the frontline and—suddenly—your comms line goes dark. It’s an experience that will be all too familiar to our Ukrainian military readers, and one that startup Zerophase is trying to make way less common. Late last week, the German data link […]

Tech

Anduril and Boeing Team Up on IFPC SRMs

To whoever thought this would be a slow news week in defense tech land, think again.  Yesterday, Anduril announced that it’s teaming up with teeny tiny startup Boeing to provide solid rocket motors for the prime as part of its bid for the U.S. Army’s Integrated Fires Protection Capability (IFPC) Increment 2 Second Interceptor competition.  […]

Tech

Say Hello to Lancea.AI

Guess the AI bubble for defense hasn’t popped quite yet. This week, a new company (well, Public Benefit Corporation) called Lancea.AI emerged from stealth, promising to use AI to drive effective strategic communication—especially in high-pressure situations, like intelligence and national security.  According to Lancea co-founder Greg Young, the company’s software is built for “adaptive influence.” […]

Europe

Quantum Systems and Frontline Team Up for Ukraine

In case you missed it, Germany-based drone company Quantum Systems is making some serious money moves.  Just two weeks after raising €180M at a cool €3B, the company announced yesterday that it’s launching a joint initiative with Ukrainian company Frontline Robotics called “Quantum Frontline Industries.”  The mash-up—part of a defense cooperation initiative formally launched during […]

Tech

Long Wall Unveils Cyclops Interceptor

The Golden Dome may be facing some serious price-tag questions, but it doesn’t look like that’s tamped down anyone’s interest in next-gen missile defense.  This morning, defense startup Long Wall—the artist formerly known as ABL Space Systems—announced that it’s building a “new, surface-launched, exoatmospheric interceptor to defeat missiles in the midcourse phase of flight,” called […]

Q + A

Q + A: A.J. Bertone, Managing Partner, In-Q-Tel

If you’ve been paying attention to the past year of Tectonic (!!), you’ll recognize a sneaky three-letter acronym that pops up on a lot of defense tech cap tables: IQT.  For those lucky enough not to be in the know, that stands for In-Q-Tel, a not-for-profit venture fund backed by the US government and investing […]

Tech

Exclusive: Neros and Kela Team Up on Fiber-Optic Drones

The year of the mash-up is coming to a hell of a close. This morning, in an exclusive release to Tectonic, American FPV drone company Neros Technologies announced that it’s building a fiber-optic drone with Israel’s Kela Technologies, just a week after the two companies announced an official partnership. The drone-with-a-cord is a modification of […]

Investment

Vatn Raises $60M Series A

Time for a riddle: what swims below the ocean surface, can carry explosive payloads, and has just raised a big ol’ funding round? As it turns out—Vatn Systems. This morning, the Rhode Island–based autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) startup announced that it closed a $60M Series A led by BVVC, with participation from investors including Hanwha, […]

Investment

Pryzm Raises $12.2M Led by a16z

Remember when we were way in the weeds on the nuts and bolts, unsexy side of the defense industry? Well, we’re back—it’s time to talk contracting. This morning, AI-powered government market intelligence platform (say that five times fast) Pryzm announced that it’s raised $12.2M in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) with participation from XYZ, […]