Pentagon

Castelion Snags $50M Navy Contract for Blackbeard Missiles

The hype for hypersonics keeps getting more real.  Yesterday, the Pentagon announced that mass-producible hypersonic missile hotshot Castelion was awarded a $50M contract with the US Navy for the “full-scale prototypes, flight testing, and operational fielding” of its Blackbeard missile, which COO Sean Pitt told Tectonic will be an air-launched variant.  The Los Angeles-based startup […]

Pentagon

Vantor Snags $217M-Ceiling Army Contract

Things keep getting busier and busier in Vantor-land.  On the heels of a deal to integrate with Google’s high-powered Earth AI model, the geospatial intelligence heavyweight announced a big ol’ follow-on contract with the US Army worth up to $217M to continue work on the service’s One World Terrain program, designed to “train and rehearse […]

Pentagon

Anduril Scores $43.7M in DPA Funding for SRMs

Everyone’s favorite neoprime is back—and this time with some explosive news (bada-bing!). This morning, Anduril announced that it has received $43.7M in Defense Production Act Title III funding to expand solid rocket motor (SRM) production in the US. The company says the funding will be used to “increase the efficiency and resiliency of [Anduril’s SRM […]

PentagonTech

ICYMI: Saronic Tapped for DARPA Pulling Guard Program

Look away, pirates: The Pentagon’s research agency is on a mission to make it a little bit harder to mess with unarmed vessels, and they’re betting that maritime autonomy hotshot Saronic can help them get there.  Last week, DARPA tapped Saronic and three others to design and develop a semi-autonomous escort vessel under the Pulling […]

Pentagon

ICYMI: Pentagon Announces Drone Dominance Vendors 

If you’re looking for something to cure your post-Super Bowl blues, the Department of Defense has you covered.  Last week, the Pentagon revealed the 25 vendors selected to face off in the first phase of the Drone Dominance Program (DDP), the department’s $1.1B initiative to buy up tons of low-cost UAVs for the Army, and […]

Pentagon

Picogrid Snags $9.3M Air Force Contract   

If you hadn’t noticed, there’s a whole lot of new defense tech coming onto the scene, and, as it turns out, the Pentagon is pretty interested in making sure all of it works together. That’s been good news for Picogrid. Yesterday, the El Segundo-based integration startup announced a $9.3M contract with the Air Force to […]

Pentagon

ICYMI: Pentagon CTO Taps CTA Heads

Emil Michael is officially assembling his defense tech Power Rangers. Just two months after announcing the six “critical technology areas” (CTAs) that the DoD will focus on for capability development, on Friday, the Pentagon CTO announced the six guys (yes, they’re all guys) that will lead the priority tech areas.  Leaders tapped include the newly […]

PentagonTech

Lockheed Inks Deal to Quadruple THAAD Production

Well, we all saw this one coming.  Right on the heels of a deal with the Pentagon to triple Patriot missile interceptor output, Lockheed Martin ($LMT) took things up a notch yesterday, announcing an agreement to quadruple production of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors over the next seven years.  For all the prime-bashing, […]

Pentagon

Overland AI Scores $2M Army Contract

Overland AI just keeps notching wins.  Yesterday—hot off winning the Army’s xTechOverwatch competition—the ground autonomy startup announced that it’s won a $2M Army contract to “put autonomous ground vehicles in the hands of 1st Cavalry Division Troopers.” Thought the whole idea was that hands weren’t necessary, but who are we to say? Rise of the […]

Pentagon

Exclusive: Beacon AI Snags Air Force Air Mobility Command Contract

Aviation autonomy is all the rage these days, but Beacon AI is less concerned with automating the piloting part and more focused on all of the brain-draining, paper-pushing stuff pilots and crews have to do before takeoff and in the air. And the Air Force is taking notice.  On Wednesday, in an exclusive release to […]