Well, looks like everybody really is getting into the defense tech VC game. Yesterday, at the US Army Demand Signal Forum in DC, SecArmy Dan Driscoll officially unveiled a new innovation program called Fuze, designed to better scale commercial products from prototypes to programs of record. Driscoll (a former VC and investment banker himself) said […]
Palantir can’t be stopped. On Wednesday, the defense and intelligence software giant with a $395B market cap won a contract to provide “all Marines—from tactical units within the Fleet Marine Force (FMF) to the Supporting Establishment—with access to [Palantir’s Maven Smart System],” the Marine Corps announced. Add this to the company’s $10B Army contract, and […]
If you thought the defense tech world on this side of the pond comes to a standstill during DSEI, think again. This morning, integration startup Picogrid announced a $3.2M Air Force contract win to bring their Legion software and Helios hardware to help the Air Force’s growing number of autonomous systems play nice. Picogrid has […]
Well, we hope Congress had a restful summer recess, because things are about to get very busy for the military-minded members (and we’re not talking about yesterday’s apparent War on Drugs redux). On Tuesday, with the fiscal year kicking off next month, Congress returned to make some big spending decisions (lest we forget about the […]
Well, the rumors are true. Yesterday, in a typically stylized video (we see you, Pentagon green room), SecDef Pete Hegseth announced the creation of a joint interagency anti-drone task force that will “bring together our best talent from all our agencies to counter these threats and restore control of our skies.” (This was first reported […]
Who said the primes don’t move fast enough? Sixteen months after they scored a contract to build an autonomous friend for fighter jets (technical term), General Atomics’ YFQ-42A Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) took flight on Wednesday. For now, GA has first-flight bragging rights, but Anduril—the other company selected for the CCA program—says it is close […]
In case you haven’t noticed, there’s been a bit of a shakeup in the DoD innovation world in the past week. The head of DIU is out, critical technology areas are changing, the Navy is overhauling how it develops and adopts new tech, and JCIDS is dead. Oh yeah, and then there’s the whole Defense […]
Forget drones, aviation autonomy might just be the hottest sector in defense tech these days. (We kid—kind of.) On Tuesday, automation company Reliable Robotics won a $17.4M AFWERX contract to turn the Cessna 208B Caravan into a remotely piloted cargo hauler for the Air Force. For a startup founded by a pair of SpaceX alums […]
The defense world is (understandably) enthralled by innovation and new tech, but the older, less exciting stuff is just as important in modern warfighting—especially the 155mm artillery shell. The problem is that the US has struggled to produce them, and munition stocks have become a hot topic (just ask Bridge Colby). On Wednesday, the Army […]
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 US Army is taking a page out of Amazon’s book and building Prime for the primes (and startups). Earlier this month, the Army announced it’s planning to roll out an […]
