If you thought the US was the only one in NATO speedrunning defense reforms, think again. This week, the UK and Germany both introduced programs to fast-track military modernization. On the UK side, the Brits showcased their new digital targeting system called ASGARD, while the German parliament passed the “Bundeswehrbeschaffungsbeschleunigungsgesetz” to accelerate weapons procurement. Yes, […]
In case you missed it, Anduril announced late Friday that they’d been awarded a $99.6M, 11-month OTA contract to spearhead a next-generation command and control (NGC2) prototype for the 4th Infantry Division of the Army. The defense megalith will lead an all-star team—including heavyweights like Palantir, Govini, Microsoft, and Striveworks—in building an end-to-end system that […]
If you know anything about drones, you know that there are a whole lot of them and a whole lot of companies making them. Integration startup Picogrid knows this better than anyone. The El Segundo-based company builds products that make these drones—and all of the other tech and software on the battlefield—work together. Like glue, […]
It’s been a big week for Stark. Last Wednesday, the German drone company announced that it’s opening a 40,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in the UK, the company’s first site outside of Germany and Ukraine. Plus, the company announced that it’s acquiring Berlin-based autonomous flight control start-up Pleno, which specializes in comms-denied navigation for low-cost […]
Well, turns out Firestorm Labs is printing a lot more than drones. On Wednesday, the San Diego-based manufacturing and drone company announced it has raised a $47M Series A led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with participation from Lockheed Martin Ventures, Decisive Point, Washington Harbour Partners, Booz Allen Ventures, and others. The company says it […]
Less than a month after raising $125M and hitting unicorn status, Gecko Robotics has notched another win—or two. On Tuesday, the Pittsburgh-based AI and robotics company announced a partnership with BPMI, the prime for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program (NNPP), to take its wall-crawling robots into the shipyard. As if that wasn’t enough, they followed […]
After Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s UAS memo last week, we said small drones are having a moment. As it turns out, there’s just as much interest in the tech that takes them down. This morning, California-based cUAS maker Epirus announced it’s won a $43.5M contract from the US Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office […]
Just a month after raising $2.5B at a $30.5B valuation, officially entering “neo-prime” territory, Anduril looks more than ready to take on the real primes—this time in the cruise missile game. Anduril announced today that its Barracuda-100M autonomous air vehicle (AAV)—only unveiled last fall—has completed successful flight tests for the High-Speed Maneuverable Missile (HSMM) program […]
If you’ve learned one thing from this newsletter, we hope it’s that new tech is changing the way wars are fought. Drones, directed energy weapons, massive sensor suites—they’ve changed the shape of the battlefield. But the thing is, they also require a heck of a lot of power. Power isn’t always easy to come by […]
The maritime mash-ups continue. Yesterday, 8VC-backed unmanned surface vessel (USV) company Saronic announced that they’re teaming up with Vigor Marine Group, a maritime services provider that specializes in marine fabrication, vessel repair, and maintenance. According to a release by Saronic, the two companies will form a strategic partnership and “work closely to identify opportunities to […]
