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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
This may come as a departure from Tectonic’s usual lighthearted coverage, but at the end of the day, it’s our responsibility to report on all of the defense tech industry—even the gritty bits. The US Navy’s former Program Executive Officer for Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO USC), Rear Adm. Kevin Smith, was fired from his […]
Seasats is making a splash in the unmanned surface vessel (USV) space. Yesterday, California-based USV startup Seasats announced that it’s been awarded a joint $24M contract with the Navy and Marines under the APFIT program to accelerate production and delivery of its Lightfish USVs. This comes on the heels of the company scoring a $89M […]
The Marines have a bunch o’ Bolts heading their way. On Thursday, defense tech poster child Anduril announced that the US Marine Corps placed a $24M order for 600 of the company’s Bolt-M kamikaze drones under the Organic Precision Fires-Light (OPF-L) program, with deliveries expected between 2026 and 2027. Bolt goes boom: Weighing around 15 […]
Looks like at least one RACER has crossed the finish line. On Wednesday, DARPA announced that the Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency (RACER) program, launched in 2021 to develop new vehicle autonomy algorithm technologies, has officially wrapped up. Now, it’s up to the autonomy companies that spun out of it—including Overland AI—to keep […]
DIU is wasting no time getting to work under its new leadership. Last night, the innovation unit posted a new $100M (yes, $100M) prize challenge to “prototype market-ready solutions to establish a robust, scalable and vehicle-agnostic capability for understanding, tasking and coordinating autonomous systems at the fleet level.” Using normal words: They’re looking for a […]
Well, it’s certainly been a busy start to the week for the Pentagon press office. Yesterday, between a rabble-rousing speech by Pete Hegseth at Lockheed’s factory in Fort Worth, the release of a plan to fully overhaul the DoD’s innovation ecosystem, another plan to accelerate AI development for the military, and the official announcement of […]
Northrop Grumman’s hot streak in the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) world is showing no signs of slowing down. Just a few weeks after the Air Force called Northrop’s Talon drone a “strong contender” for the service’s CCA program (designating it as the YFQ-48A), the prime announced that it’s been awarded a contract to build the […]
