It’s been quite the week for Pete Hegseth. In the past few days, he faced lawmakers on the Hill for the first time since becoming SecDef to defend a $1T DoD budget request that, well, he hasn’t released. Then, the House went ahead and released their appropriations bill, his procurement budget was leaked, and he […]
The disagreements in Washington continue. Yesterday, the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) unveiled its answer to the House’s $150B defense reconciliation bill and, well, there were some differences. The SASC package—which will be folded into the Senate’s version of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” to push through Trump’s agenda—focuses way more on air superiority, low-cost […]
We told you that things were speeding up. Late last week, energetics company Firehawk Aerospace announced that they’ve secured a $4.9M contract with the US Air Force to help accelerate the development of next-gen hybrid rocket engines for strategic and tactical missiles. Firehawk CEO Will Edwards told Tectonic that the company will work with AFRL […]
In case you missed it, Trump’s FY26 budget request dropped Friday, and, to quote one executive we chatted to, it was a “bloodbath.” Everything from NASA, to the NIH, to the CDC, to the EPA face massive budget cuts, while DHS is set to receive a boost of nearly $43.8B. Up and up: At least […]
If you took top Trump officials, Silicon Valley elite, some of the world’s wealthiest investors and executives, and a whole bunch of defense tech founders and stuck them in a room, what would you get? The Hill and Valley Forum, apparently. Yesterday, as budget negotiations continued overhead, tech and policy big guns (pun intended) gathered […]
The hype for hypersonics continues. On Friday, U.S. Army officials released the official name for their long-range hypersonic weapon (LRHW). The service chose “Dark Eagle” as a tribute to the “master hunter known for its speed, stealth and agility,” and because the weapon can function in denied environments. Pretty poetic, tbh. “The Dark Eagle brings […]
Last week, amidst the Signalgate-that-keeps-on-giving, the Senate Armed Services committee held a whirlwind confirmation hearing for four of Trump’s critical DoD appointees.
Anduril ain’t stopping. This morning, the defense tech darling announced yet another contract with the DoD—this time, they locked in an $86M three-year award to help US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) develop and deploy software to manage its autonomous systems. Anduril will provide USSOCOM with its ready-made AI-powered Lattice mission autonomy software, which the command […]
Looks like DOGE isn’t alone—the robots are coming for the government jobs, too. Last week, generative AI company Danti announced that its intelligence gathering LLM would be deployed across the US federal government, allowing US analysts to view synthesized government-gathered data on a handy-dandy platform. Think of it as ChatGPT, but for intelligence. “Think analysts […]
In case you missed it, SecDef Pete Hegseth issued a memo last Thursday calling for major changes to how the DoD buys software. The “Directing Modern Software Acquisition to Maximize Lethality” directive calls for: This is a pretty big deal for commercial and nontraditional companies building the programs needed to win wars. “The way the […]
