Tech

Inside Arsenal-1: Anduril’s $1B Mega-Factory for Fury and More

Anduril is thinking big. Like really, really big—and nothing says that quite like Arsenal-1.  Yesterday, Tectonic paid a visit to Anduril’s $1B, 5M square foot mega-factory just south of Columbus, ​Ohio, where the company (hard to call them a startup after a $20B Army contract) will kick off production of their Fury drone wingman in […]

Tech

Exclusive: TERN and Sandtable Team Up

If you thought the Crow Industries and Parry Labs mash-up was the only collab to come out of the Army’s xTech Overwatch competition, think again. This morning, GPS-free navigation company TERN and AI-powered simulation and planning company Sandtable announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that they’re teaming up after the exercise to plug Sandtable’s […]

Tech

Ultra I&C Heads to the High North with the Canadian Military

You know how the Arctic is, like, super remote, freezing, and increasingly contested? Well, all that makes comms a bit dodgy. Yesterday, defense communications and mission-systems company Ultra I&C announced that it’s sending its Archer troposcatter beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) comms system up to the Arctic for operational trials with the Canadian Armed Forces.  Tropo talk: If […]

InvestmentTech

AV Snaps Up Drone-Maker ESAero for $200M

Less than a year after dropping a cool $4.1B to acquire BlueHalo, AV—the artist formerly known as AeroVironment—is back with another acquisition. Earlier this week, the company snapped up California-based drone manufacturing and design firm ESAero for $200M.  Under the deal, ESAero will function as a subsidiary of AV under its Loitering Munition Systems business […]

Tech

Exclusive: Nominal and Forterra Team Up

Well, Nominal is certainly having quite the past few weeks.  This morning—on the heels of an $80M raise led by Founder’s Fund and an official partnership with Anduril—the Austin-based testing startup announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that they’re officially teaming up with ground autonomy hotshot Forterra. Nominal CEO Cameron McCord told Tectonic that […]

InvestmentTech

Exclusive: HavocAI’s All-Domain Shopping Spree

We keep saying maritime autonomy is all the rage, but multi-domain autonomy is really where it’s at.  This morning, Rhode Island-based unmanned surface vehicle (USV) startup HavocAI announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that it has acquired not one but two companies—heavy-lift drone-maker Mavrik and industrial vehicle autonomy startup Teleo—to take its autonomy software […]

InvestmentTech

Dominion Dynamics Invests $37M to Get Canada in the CCA Game

After a quiet few years, it looks like our friendly neighbors up north are diving headfirst into defense tech. Hot off a $15.2M ($21M CAD) seed round in January, Canadian defense tech startup Dominion Dynamics kicked things up a notch late last week, announcing plans to invest $37M ($50M CAD) to kickstart development of Scout, […]

Tech

UNION and Hanwha Team Up on 155mm Production

The state of the UNION is growing. (Bada-bing!!) Yesterday, Texas-based software-defined factory startup UNION announced a partnership with Hanwha Defense USA, the US arm of the South Korean mega-prime, to speed up production of 155mm shells.  Hegseth may be saying the US has plenty of munitions—but sounds like UNION’s betting we’ll want even more. Rippin’ […]

Tech

Exclusive: Crow Industries and Parry Labs Team Up

If you thought we were done with the partnership news, well, think again. The mash-ups continue, baby.  This morning, robotics startup Crow Industries and Parry Labs announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that they’re teaming up to build Parry’s edge compute and autonomy stack onto Crow’s Fenris UGV. “We were both finalists in the […]

Tech

Hermeus’ Latest Quarterhorse Supersonic Unmanned Aircraft Takes Flight

Things are speeding up on the supersonic front, and fast.  High-speed aircraft company Hermeus announced this week that it has successfully completed a flight test of its unmanned Quarterhorse Mk 2.1, which it calls the “world’s first high-Mach remotely piloted aircraft,” less than a year after the first iteration took flight.   Everyone loves a spicy […]