Shield AI’s been teasing a big upgrade to its catalog for a while, and we now know what the hype was all about. At a buzzy and smoke machine-heavy unveiling in DC on Tuesday night, Shield AI introduced the world to the X-BAT: A long-range, jet-powered vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) autonomous fighter jet. As […]
If you thought startups were running out of Lord of the Rings-themed names, think again. Last week, a startup called Valinor—led by former Palantir exec Julie Bush—emerged from stealth with guns blazing and a clear mission: to build the ultra-necessary “picks and shovels” of defense tech, rather than chasing flashier “moonshots.” We love a little […]
If you read our newsletter yesterday (we see you), you’ll know that General Atomics announced that they’ve been tapped by the Navy to develop conceptual designs for the service’s very own CCA program. (For the blissfully unaware, that’s the collaborative combat aircraft, or loyal wingman, program. Essentially, it’s the effort to build drone fighters that […]
The small unmanned surface vessel (sUSV) scene may be pretty crowded, but Seasats is still diving right in. On Monday, the San Diego-based startup launched its second USV offering: A bigger, speedier sibling of its flagship Lightfish vessel called the Quickfish, which was unveiled at a recent Navy exercise in California. Gone fishing: Seasats’ first […]
The Europeans are, indeed, coming. Yesterday, in a plot twist very few expected, the US and the Netherlands signed a letter of intent stating that the northern European nation will participate in the US Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. According to Dutch State Secretary for Defense Gijs Tuinman, his country has now unlocked […]
If there is one thing that will define Fall 2025 in the defense tech world, it’s partnerships. Yesterday, edge computing company Armada announced that they’ve inked a deal with drone giant Skydio to “equip federal, state, and local agencies with the ability to capture and process drone intelligence in real time,” even in jammed environments. […]
In case you didn’t know, it’s like really, really hard to navigate at sea. And that gets even harder when you’re putting drones under the water—like autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) company Vatn Systems is. Well, yesterday, the Rhode Island-based startup announced that they’ve found a solution: They have developed their very own inertial navigation system […]
The great transatlantic team-up continues. On Tuesday, counter-drone big dog, Dedrone by Axon, and German startup TYTAN announced a partnership integrating Dedrone’s sensors and detection tech onto TYTAN’s autonomous Group 3 drone interceptors. Shoot ‘em down: Dedrone, which was snapped up by public safety tech company Axon (the Taser-maker) last year, is an OG in […]
Well, Anduril is certainly returning to its VR/AR roots. Yesterday at AUSA, the defense tech giant unveiled a new family of souped-up helmets called EagleEye that “unifies command and control, digital vision, and survivability within a single, adaptive architecture.” The helmets build on the work Anduril has done for the US Army’s Soldier Borne Mission […]
Autonomous ATV? Cute. Autonomous ATV with Anduril sensors, electronic warfare capabilities, and a supporting drone? That’s a whole different ball game—and Overland AI just proved it’s possible. Today, in an exclusive release to Tectonic, the ground autonomy company announced that it teamed up with Anduril to successfully demo a version of Overland AI’s ULTRA autonomous […]
