Well, guys, the moment you’ve all been waiting for (or, at least, that some of you have been waiting for) has finally arrived. This morning, autonomous surface vessel (ASV) hotshot (and newly-minted member of Iran’s shit list) Saronic announced that it’s officially picked Brownsville, TX, as the site for its futuristic shipyard, Port Alpha. Saronic […]
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 […]
Turns out at least one old dog can, in fact, learn new tricks, or at least can find a young gun to teach it. This morning, robo-manufacturing startup Machina Labs announced that it’s inked a qualification contract with mega-prime Lockheed Martin (which, conveniently, also sits on Machina’s cap table through its venture arm) for Joint […]
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, […]
Look out, world. The space guys are coming for your defense contracts. This morning, Antaris—which, to date, has done simulation and modeling primarily for space-based assets—announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that it’s launching a dedicated defense-focused mission virtualization company called Aeonyx. The company will help “defense organizations evaluate architectures, validate operational concepts, improve […]
Minehunting is back in vogue, and for good reason. If you’ve been keeping an eye on a certain strait off the coast of Iran, sub-sea mines—or the threat of them—have been causing a whole lot of problems. The US Navy, which decommissioned half of its Avenger-class mine countermeasure ships last year, is looking for more […]
Well, seems like the Dassault-Harmattan AI partnership is working out just fine. This morning, the Paris-based autonomy startup and the French aviation giant announced that they’ve teamed up to build—and successfully integrate and test—a new EW detection drone payload called NAMIB. And they’ve already tried it out. In a recent test, a drone (built with […]
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 […]
