Personally, we would give a lot to be a fly on the wall in the early days of the Defense Innovation Unit (RIP Unit X). Luckily, we know a guy who was there. Enrique Oti—apparently referred to intermittently as “Software Jesus of the Air Force”—was one of the co-founders of DIU, and for much of […]
Looks like Anduril is doubling down on its mixed reality roots. Yesterday, the defense tech giant confirmed that it’s scored a $159M US Army contract to prototype a night vision and mixed reality system as part of the Soldier Borne Mission Command (SBMC) program, the successor to IVAS. The company said in a statement that […]
Biiiiig day for collabs. This morning, Germany-based defense tech giant Helsing announced that it’s teaming up with ground autonomy company ARX Robotics to “develop an AI-based reconnaissance and strike network for European defence.” The two companies say they will cooperate in Ukraine, as well as on projects in the UK, Germany, and other European countries. […]
Some people like to take things slow. Other people—like Mal Crease—prefer everything at full throttle. The founder and CEO of USV company Kraken Technology came into defense from high-speed boat racing in 2020, and has brought the same obsession with speed and performance that once helped him break world records to the world of unmanned […]
Well, it’s shaping up to be quite the week in European defense. This morning, “defense-as-a-service” company Tiberius Aerospace announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that it has raised a $4.5M founders’ round, backed by Never Lift Ventures, Blacklake, firedrop VC, Beaten Zone Ventures, and other strategic investors. Just last week, the company also announced […]
Well, it’s official. Just about two months after reports first surfaced that a super-stealthy UK startup had raised about $100M at a $400M valuation to build missile and drone defense systems for Europe, Cambridge Aerospace is officially out in the open. The company is formally launching its first two products—Skyhammer and Starhammer—at DSEI next week, […]
Break out the popcorn, y’all. Yesterday, the Army announced its second award for Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) prototyping—this time, a $26M 16-month OTA to a team led by Lockheed Martin. The super-prime and its team will deliver their prototype to the 25th Infantry Division. This comes a little over a month after the […]
If you’re a regular reader of Tectonic, you’ll know that the Navy is majorly changing the way it does things. There’s the Trump administration and SecNav Phelan’s focus on amping up shipbuilding, the push to amp up capabilities by 2027, and—just last week—the introduction of the Naval Rapid Capabilities Office. And that’s just the beginning, […]
Well, the rumors are true. Yesterday, in a typically stylized video (we see you, Pentagon green room), SecDef Pete Hegseth announced the creation of a joint interagency anti-drone task force that will “bring together our best talent from all our agencies to counter these threats and restore control of our skies.” (This was first reported […]
In case you haven’t noticed, there’s been a bit of a shakeup in the DoD innovation world in the past week. The head of DIU is out, critical technology areas are changing, the Navy is overhauling how it develops and adopts new tech, and JCIDS is dead. Oh yeah, and then there’s the whole Defense […]
