Gather round, kids. It’s time to get into the nuts and bolts again. So, you know how most of the tech we know and love is built out of metal? And you know how that can present some, erm, challenges, especially at super-high heats and speeds? And, also, you know how people coat that metal […]
The mini-fighter-drone competition is (quite literally) heating up. This morning, Shield AI and GE Aerospace announced that they’ve “successfully completed integration, actuation, and engine light-off testing of the advanced Axisymmetric Vectoring Exhaust Nozzle (AVEN) for Shield AI’s X-BAT aircraft,” which they call a “critical milestone in the program’s path to vertical flight.” “X-BAT is designed […]
If you thought Anduril was done churning out new platforms, think again. This morning at the Farnborough International Air Show, the defense tech giant unveiled a new Group 5 helicopter-like attack drone called Thunder, “specifically designed to multiply the combat power and increase the survivability of current and next-generation crewed attack and assault aircraft.” Think […]
We knew about the magical, never-empty American defense tech funding tap, but it turns out Europe has one too. This morning, European deep tech VC heavyweight Lakestar announced that it’s raised a $300M Resilience Fund I—dedicated specifically to defense and dual-use in Europe and across NATO-allied countries. “The dedicated Resilience I fund gives us the […]
If this is the week before Farnborough, we can’t possibly imagine what next week is going to be like. This morning, UK-based (and fairly sneaky) aerospace tech company Greenjets announced that it’s raised a $40M Series A led by Blossom Capital with participation from the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), the UK’s National Security Strategic Investment […]
Well, guys, the moment you’ve all been waiting for (or, at least, that some of you have been waiting for) has finally arrived. This morning, autonomous surface vessel (ASV) hotshot (and newly-minted member of Iran’s shit list) Saronic announced that it’s officially picked Brownsville, TX, as the site for its futuristic shipyard, Port Alpha. Saronic […]
If you weren’t sold on the whole “the US is getting hella serious about rare earths and critical minerals” thing, well, the Pentagon is back to prove you wrong—again. In case you missed it, on Monday the DoD announced that the Economic Defense Unit (EDU), in partnership with the Office of the Under Secretary of […]
Look out, world. The space guys are coming for your defense contracts. This morning, Antaris—which, to date, has done simulation and modeling primarily for space-based assets—announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that it’s launching a dedicated defense-focused mission virtualization company called Aeonyx. The company will help “defense organizations evaluate architectures, validate operational concepts, improve […]
Well, gosh darn. Our friends across the pond really are having quite the month. This morning, UK-based Valarian—which is building “the sovereign infrastructure layer for high-consequence operations and AI-driven systems”—announced that it’s raised a $50M Series A led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA). “We’re really, really excited to partner with [NEA],” Valarian founder and CEO […]
Well, seems like the Dassault-Harmattan AI partnership is working out just fine. This morning, the Paris-based autonomy startup and the French aviation giant announced that they’ve teamed up to build—and successfully integrate and test—a new EW detection drone payload called NAMIB. And they’ve already tried it out. In a recent test, a drone (built with […]
