The FPV phenoms at Neros are on a heater. This week, the California-based drone startup snagged a five-year, $500M-ceiling US Army contract for its Archer FPV drones under the Purpose-Built Attritable System (PBAS) program. Neros’ Head of Growth, Ross Pedersen, told Tectonic that the Army has already placed orders for thousands of the drones against […]
If you thought all of the Modular Attack Surface Craft (MASC) cancellation drama was in the rear-view window, buckle up: We’re just getting started. Late last month, two unmanned surface vessel startups—Blue Water Autonomy and Saildrone—filed separate lawsuits against the Navy after their medium-USV designs were rejected from the MUSV marketplace that replaced the canceled […]
In case you hadn’t noticed, the long-consolidated and constrained solid rocket motor (SRM) industry is getting dragged into the future with the help of a few startups, some fancy advanced manufacturing tech, and a military desperate to shore up its shrinking munitions stockpile. Ursa Major is one of the startups leading the charge. This morning, […]
If you weren’t sold on the whole “the US is getting hella serious about rare earths and critical minerals” thing, well, the Pentagon is back to prove you wrong—again. In case you missed it, on Monday the DoD announced that the Economic Defense Unit (EDU), in partnership with the Office of the Under Secretary of […]
Pew-pew, baby. Laser weapons are here to stay. Yesterday, the Pentagon announced that it’s awarded two OTAs to nLIGHT Defense and Lockheed Martin Aculight to develop laser weapons systems to “advance the United States’ next-generation cruise missile and unmanned aerial system (UAS) defense architecture.” The combined awards have an initial contract value of $86M with […]
If you thought there were enough companies that were making the things that go boom, think again. This morning, new and stealthy munitions startup Ordnance Aero announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that they’ve entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center (DEVCOM […]
Take a quick look around the defense startup scene, and you’ll notice that pretty much every company bills its tech as “tested in Ukraine.” Far fewer can say that they’re trusted in Ukraine. Forterra actually can. Yesterday, the ground autonomy startup revealed that it has sent over 100 Lancer autonomous ground vehicles (AGVs)—based on the […]
Looks like the clankers (robots, for the non-internet people among us) are here to stay. Yesterday, ground autonomy startup Overland AI announced that they’ve been awarded a $20M production contract through the APFIT program to deliver autonomous ground vehicles for the Marine Corps Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS). For the uninitiated, that’s the Corps’ […]
Hasn’t been a slow year (or week) for Anduril, to say the least, and it’s about to get a whole lot busier. Yesterday, the US Army announced that it’s selected everyone’s favorite neoprime to lead the common data baseline for its Next-Generation Command and Control (NGC2) effort, tasking the company with making sure all of […]
Well, sounds like those loyal wingman dreams are becoming a reality. Yesterday, the Air Force announced that they’ve awarded production contracts to Anduril and General Atomics for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, a whole four months ahead of schedule. The contracts (amount undisclosed) will cover “Increment 1 air vehicles as well as mission autonomy software, […]
