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 […]
Valinor launched last year with a focus on building the unsexy but important tech for modern conflict that no one else is, and it doesn’t get much more picks-and-shovels-y than drone docking stations. Looks like that bet is paying off. Earlier this week, the new-age defense tech holding company Valinor announced its Dispatch product-company—a modular […]
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 […]
Lasers and partnering with Rheinmetall…so hot right now. Directed energy startup Aurelius Systems is teaming up with the German mega-prime’s American subsidiary to integrate its drone-downing laser weapon, Archimedes, onto a Rheinmetall unmanned ground vehicle, the company exclusively told Tectonic. The partnership is the first for Aurelius and, since they aren’t planning to make ground […]
Well, the moment you’ve all been waiting for is finally here. Late last week, the Ukrainian government officially announced its first mechanism for exporting defense and military technology to partner nations. Under the setup—in the works for nearly two years—the government will maintain pretty tight control over exports, but manufacturers will (at long last) be […]
You know what sucks? When you’ve got a drone on mission with no (or limited) comms and it gets lost with no satellite data to fall back again. Can be a pretty pricey—or at least deeply annoying—issue. Well, good news is, visual navigation startup Vermeer has come up with a solution. This morning, the company […]
If you read Tectonic, you’ll probably be aware of two things: Hypersonic weapons are in high demand these days, and the government wants to move fast to field them. Like, really fast. That’s all well and good, but one super-underappreciated part of that story is that testing these systems—especially the unsexy stuff like coatings, ceramic […]
If you thought those super-precise 2D satellite images of—for example—bombed-out Iranian nuclear sites were cool, just wait ’til you hear what Vantor has in store for you today. This morning, the satellite imaging company (formerly known as Maxar Intelligence—but you should know that by now) released a new product line it’s calling WorldView 3D that […]
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’ […]
