Big week for C-UAS systems. Yesterday, directed energy weapons company Epirus announced a $250M Series D, led by 8VC and Washington Harbour Partners LP. CEO Andy Lowery told Tectonic that the funding will be used to ramp up production of the company’s Leonidas™ system and build a facility in Oklahoma that would enable the company […]
Remember that Mach Industries article in Forbes last summer? Yeah, that one. In case you missed it, wunderkind and 19-year-old MIT dropout Ethan Thornton founded a new-age defense company, raised $85M from some of the biggest investors in the game to build hydrogen-powered weapons, then shelved the project when they couldn’t figure out a cost-effective […]
Well, Anduril has had quite the 24 hours. Pairing up: Last night, Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. David Alvin announced the mission design designation for the company’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), YFQ-44A. This makes Anduril’s drone, along with the YFQ-42A prototype by General Atomics, the first-ever unmanned aircraft to be given a […]
Shipbuilding is back, baby. Last Thursday, Trump SecNav pick and investor John Phelan went before the Senate Armed Services Committee and laid out a grim diagnosis of US maritime capabilities. “The US Navy is at a crossroads. Extended deployments, inadequate maintenance, huge cost overruns, delayed shipbuilding, failed audits, subpar housing, and sadly, record high suicide […]
In case you’re not on the internet, the meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Trump on Friday went really, really badly. What was meant to be the final step towards a critical minerals deal devolved into a shouting match between Trump and the Ukrainian leader, with the former accusing Zelenskyy of being “not…at […]
Chances are, if you’re interested in innovation, you’ve heard of Steve Blank. The entrepreneur, educator, and founding member of the Gordian Knot Center at Stanford University is a legend: he has built company after successful company and helped to develop the “Lean Startup” methodology based on his decades in Silicon Valley. If you’ve ever been […]
The DoD shake-up continues. On Tuesday, Stephen Feinberg—Trump’s pick for Deputy Secretary of Defense—testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee and, over the course of a three-hour hearing, vowed to overhaul how the Pentagon operates. The billionaire investor, major Trump donor, and co-founder of Cerberus Capital Management, a $65B fund known for turning around failing […]
The purge continues. On Friday, President Trump abruptly fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Trump wrote on Truth Social that the decorated fighter pilot “is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family.” Trump nominated Air […]
In case anyone thought the war in Ukraine was over, well, it’s not. Yesterday, on the eve of the third anniversary of the war, Russia launched 267 attack drones towards the country in its largest attack to date. Ukraine managed to down or jam most of them, according to Kyiv, but damage was reported in […]
Welp. Looks like DOGE has indeed made it to the DoD. Elon Musk’s efficiency czars arrived at the Pentagon on Tuesday and asked for lists of all of the military’s probationary employees. (The services were given until EOD Tuesday to provide them.) While it was previously unclear whether military employees would be part of the […]
