PentagonTech

Elroy Air Wins $46M Army Contract

Well, sounds like at least one service is getting serious about the whole distributed and contested logistics side of things.  Yesterday, heavy-lift drone company Elroy Air announced that it’s won a $46M multi-year contract with the US Army for “the development of an autonomous hybrid-electric vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) uncrewed aircraft system for modular […]

PentagonTech

Exclusive: MDA Awards X-Bow $11M for Low-Cost Interceptor Development

We don’t have to tell you the interceptor shortage is very real and very dire, but much of this discussion focuses on Group 3 (i.e., Shahed-type) UAS threats. Russia and Iran certainly have used smaller, cheaper drones en masse, but a lot of the real damage—in Iran’s case—inflicted on US bases in the Middle East […]

PentagonTech

CodeMetal Scores $80M OTA for WarMatrix

Big day for the backend side of defense.  This morning, software-for-defense hotshot Code Metal announced that it’s won a $80M OTA to “advance WarMatrix, the AI-enabled modeling and simulation platform Code Metal built in partnership with the U.S. Air Force.” “We’re really excited,” Code Metal CEO and co-founder Peter Morales told Tectonic. “The work that […]

PentagonTech

Epirus Scores $11M Contract with USMC

Everyone really is on the non-kinetic-weapon hype train right now, aren’t they? This morning, high-powered-microwave (HPM) giant Epirus announced that they’ve been awarded an $11M contract by the US Marine Corps for the High-power Microwave Autonomous Vehicle Operational Capability (HAVOC) program. Under the contract, Epirus will deliver “its latest high-power microwave (HPM) system for counter-UAS […]

PentagonTech

Exclusive: Swarm Aero Wins $10M Air Force Research Lab Contract

When you think of a drone swarm, a cloud of speedy little quadcopters flying in unison probably comes to mind. Swarm Aero has a different vision.  The California-based startup is building a much larger, Reaper-sized Group 5 drone, designed to be mass-manufacturable and capable of operating in a swarm using its own in-house autonomy and […]

PentagonTech

JIATF-401 Rolls Out Amazon-Style Counter-Drone Marketplace

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 Pentagon’s JIATF-401 counter-drone task force is taking a page out of Amazon’s book and building Prime for the primes (and startups).  Today, they officially unveiled an online marketplace for companies […]

PentagonTech

Army Taps Rheinmetall-led Team for Sustainment UGVs

Looks like the Army’s keeping its foot on the gas in its push for more ground autonomy. On Friday, American Rheinmetall announced that it’s snagged a contract to serve as the prime integrator for a team of companies—Harbinger, Forterra, and Primordial Labs—that will develop autonomous logistics ground vehicles for the Army’s Project Sustainment initiative. Ghost […]