EuropeTech

EDA Picks Finalists for Sentinel Strike Challenge

Told you the Europeans were getting (kind of) serious about the whole drones and autonomy thing. Yesterday, the European Defense Agency (the EU’s joint defense capability organization) announced that it’s down-selected five companies for stage two of its Sentinel Strike Challenge for loitering munitions. Each company will get €30,000 to move on to stage two, […]

PentagonTech

Exclusive: Danti Gets a Makeover, Scores US Air Force Contract

Well, who says an AI-for-defense platform can’t have a major glow-up? This morning, defense and intelligence AI startup Danti announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that they’ve launched the new generation of their platform and secured a fresh contract with the US Air Force. The revamp comes after Danti was used during US Special […]

Tech

Applied Intuition Turns AV’s Mayhem 10 Drone into a Swarm

It seems like anywhere autonomy is involved, Applied Intuition finds a way to wiggle in. This time, it’s with defense tech heavyweight AV (FKA AeroVironment).  The $15B autonomy software startup announced this morning that it’s teaming up with AV to integrate its Acuity ISR/Strike swarming software into the latter’s Mayhem 10 “launched effects” (fancy term […]

Tech

Saronic and Samsung Heavy Industries Team Up

Dare we say 2026 might turn out to be the year of startup-legacy maritime partnerships? Yesterday, unmanned maritime darling Saronic announced that it’s teaming up with Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) to “accelerate the development of autonomy-capable maritime systems and technologies to strengthen America’s shipbuilding industrial base.” Together, the two companies will work on “autonomy and […]

PentagonTech

Noda AI Wins $10M for Orchestration across LUCAS and Other Unmanned Platforms

If you thought you’d heard the last of the LUCAS program, think again. Yesterday, orchestration startup NODA AI announced that it’s won a $10M contract with the Pentagon to develop MAESTRO (Multi-Domain Autonomous Enhanced System for Tactical Reasoning and Orchestration), algorithms designed “to project commander’s intent into coordinated autonomous action across air, maritime, ground, and […]

Tech

Ukrainian-born UFORCE Inks a Deal to Build MAGURA USVs in the US

Remember all those videos of Ukrainian sea drones taking out Russia’s Black Sea Fleet? Well, the company making those is headed stateside under a new deal with a US boat-builder.  Yesterday, British-Ukrainian defense tech startup UFORCE announced that it’s inked a deal with Oregon-based Special Operations-focused boat-builder ReconCraft to produce its now-famous MAGURA USVs on […]