If you’re a regular reader of Tectonic, you’ll know that there’s no shortage of companies promising to automate aviation. But before robots take over the cockpit, the US military’s human pilots could use a bit of AI assistance to solve a much more basic problem: Scheduling flight plans and managing disruptions without needing a whiteboard […]
It’s a rare week when we write about more contracts than we do investments, but here we are. This morning, space and defense giant Redwire ($RDW) announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that it’s been awarded $20M in follow-on orders from the Navy and Marine Corps Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems Program Office (PMA-263) […]
Dare we say it seems like the Pentagon might actually be getting with the El Segundo vibe? This morning, LA-based CX2 announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that its Wraith “airborne EW system” (drone) and another yet-to-be-announced product have been selected for Design Reference Mission 3 (DRM3) under the Defense Innovation Unit’s Project G.I. […]
The engine biz is getting buzzy, and the Pentagon is taking notice. Beehive Industries, a Colorado-based 3D-printed jet engine startup, snagged a $29.7M Air Force contract yesterday to complete vehicle integration and flight testing, and qualification of their Frenzy 8 engine—designed as a lower-cost alternative for small cruise missiles and loitering munitions—and accelerate development of […]
Well, the $1.5T defense budget is here, friends. In case you missed it—on Friday, the Trump administration unveiled its FY2027 budget request. As promised, it included a chunk for defense ($1.15T discretionary and $350B mandatory, reconciliation style), larger than the GDP of Turkey. Yes, that is a real statistic. On the menu? Big bucks for […]
It’s been a busy few days for the folks over at Firehawk. Yesterday, energetics and rocket motor-maker Firehawk Aerospace cut the ribbon at a big ol’ rocket integration facility in Mississippi, where, as told in an exclusive release to Tectonic, the company has snagged a contract to assemble Hydra-70 rockets. To cap things off, they’ll […]
When the Pentagon announced the FY26 APFIT program winners way back in December, they were very coy about which companies won which awards. One APFIT award stuck out—a $49.7M contract with the US Army for “Real-Time Command and Control at the Tactical Edge,” the largest APFIT award to date. Months later, San Antonio-based startup Darkhive […]
Pour one out for MASC. Yesterday, less than a year after announcing it, the US Navy cancelled the Modular Attack Surface Craft (MASC) program—originally designed as a prototyping competition to field medium unmanned surface vessels (MUSVs)—in favor of a “regular and recurring marketplace” for mid-sized drone boats. Reactions to the shift in the USV world […]
Someone queue up Sweet Home Alabama. On Friday, new-age manufacturing company Hadrian announced a big-time, $2.4B partnership with the US Navy—split between $1.5B in private capital and $900M in government funding—to produce components for the Virginia and Columbia-class submarine programs at the startup’s new 2.2M square-foot facility in Cherokee, Alabama. Looks like Hadrian’s $611M in […]
It’s been a busy past few days for the weekend warriors over at Skydio. Yesterday, the US Army tapped California-based drone-maker Skydio to deliver 2,500 of its X10D small-UAS in a $52M contract, the largest sUAS order from a single vendor in Army history. The company said it moved from bid to award in under […]
