Pentagon

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 […]

Barratt Dewey
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 […]

PentagonTech

ICYMI: DIU Wants More USVs

Sounds like someone is learning some lessons in the Strait of Hormuz. In case you missed it, on Wednesday DIU (which, apparently, has been renamed the War Department Innovation Unit) released a solicitation looking for USVs “fully integrated with two or more mature, market-ready aerial drones to detect, identify, track, and defeat hostile threats.” The […]