PentagonPolicy

Exclusive: A First Look at SVDG’s NatSec100

Well, guys. The moment you’ve all been waiting for is here.  This morning, the Silicon Valley Defense Group released its fourth annual NatSec100 report, looking at the state of things in our cute lil’ defense tech world and the companies dominating the game. And lucky for you, we here at Tectonic got an exclusive first […]

Pentagon

Marine Corps Taps Rune for Project Dynamis 

Clearly, being on both Army Next-Gen Command and Control (NGC2) prototyping teams isn’t enough for Rune.  Yesterday, the AI-powered logistics and sustainment startup announced that it was tapped for the Marine Corps’ Project Dynamis, the service’s push to accelerate the modernization of its C2 contribution to the Pentagon-wide Combined Joint All-Domain C2 (CJADC2) within the […]

EuropePentagon

Redwire Scores Back-To-Back Drone Contracts

It’s been a busy week for Redwire.  On Tuesday, the space and defense giant announced a “multi-year contract valued at high eight-figures” with an undisclosed NATO country for its Penguin Mk3 VTOL UAS, and followed that up yesterday with a $15M contract with the US Army’s Aviation Center of Excellence (AVCOE) for its ISR-focused Stalker […]

PentagonTech

Shield AI Tapped for LUCAS Autonomy

Well, a drone with the same name as some dude you hung out with in college is getting a buzzy upgrade.  Yesterday, autonomy giant Shield AI announced that it’s been tapped by the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering (OUSW R&E) to build its Hivemind autonomy software onto LUCAS—the Low-Cost […]

Pentagon

Perennial Autonomy Scores $500M JIATF 401 IDIQ

Well, looks like the Pentagon is getting super-serious about c-UAS, what with everything happening in the Middle East.  Late yesterday, Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF 401) announced that it’s awarded a $500M IDIQ to Perennial Autonomy—the super-secret startup reportedly launched by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt—to provide “enterprise-wide counter-unmanned aerial system operations.” The company—which […]

Pentagon

Guetlein Pushes Back on CBO $1.2T Golden Dome Estimate

This article first appeared during our Inside the Dome event in our sister publication, Payload. The head of the Golden Dome program said yesterday that the CBO’s $1.2T cost estimate for the missile-defense program is way off base.  “They’re not estimating what we’re building,” Gen. Michael Guetlein said Thursday at Inside the Dome, hosted by […]

Pentagon

The Pentagon and Five “New Entrants” Ink Low-Cost Missile Deal

The Pentagon wants more bang for its buck, and is looking to five “disruptive new entrants” to get it.  Under a framework agreement announced by the Pentagon yesterday, four companies—Anduril, CoAspire, Leidos, and Zone 5—will deliver over 10,000 cruise missiles over three years under the Low-Cost Containerized Missiles (LCCM) program, while Castelion will deliver a […]

Pentagon

Exclusive: Air Force EOD Units Get “Hundreds” More Skydio Drones

We’ve talked a lot about quadcopters used as flying bombs, but turns out they’re pretty helpful for diffusing them, too.  Under a “multi-million dollar” contract, the Air Force’s elite Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) units are getting their hands on Skydio’s fan favorite X10D Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) small-UAS, the company exclusively revealed to Tectonic […]

Pentagon

Pentagon Chooses Sites for Directed Energy C-UAS Pilot Program

The energy around directed energy keeps amping up. (Again, forgive us.) Late last week, the Pentagon’s Army-led counter-drone Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF-401) announced five military bases selected for a directed-energy counter-UAS pilot program, focused on deploying directed-energy tech, including “high-energy lasers” and “high-powered microwave systems,” to defend the airspace from the ever-present drone […]

Pentagon

Saildrone Scores $15.5M USCG Contract

Well, looks like Saildrone’s $37M BPA from last summer is getting put to good use.  Yesterday, the sailboat-drone company announced that it’s won a $15.5M contract with the US Coast Guard (USCG) to deploy 16 Saildrone Voyager vessels in the Great Lakes and off the US Northeast coast.  “We’re augmenting the Coast Guard because they’ve […]