Lest you thought Anduril was turning its gaze fully abroad with all that “international weapons hub” talk, think again. This morning, the defense tech megalith announced that it’s won a $363M contract with US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for “more than 200 Extended Range Sentry Towers (XRST)…to expand autonomous situational awareness across a much […]
If there’s one thing you’ve learned from this newsletter lately, we hope it’s that integration is one of the least sexy but most important parts of getting technology deployed (and actually working) on the battlefield. After all, building a super-fast interceptor or the world’s best UAV is great. But if those platforms can’t connect to […]
As this week’s buzzworthy drone boat rescue operation showed, Saronic’s autonomous surface vessels (ASVs) have a lot of potential uses. For the company’s biggest and baddest one—the 180-foot Marauder—that includes kitting it out with some serious firepower, courtesy of Castelion. Yesterday, the two companies announced they’re teaming up to integrate Castelion’s Blackbeard low-cost hypersonic weapon […]
Unlike in the UK, it’s Christmas in June for the US defense world. Yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee released its $1T FY2027 defense spending bill—in line with the Pentagon’s request—and there’s a lot to get excited about for our friends in the startup world (and of course, the primes, too). That eye-watering number doesn’t include […]
The mega-drone competition in Europe is heating up, and fast. At the Berlin Air Show yesterday—just as Quantum Systems launched its PULSE P19—European defense tech giant Helsing unveiled a new EW-equipped variant of its drone-fighter-CCA-analog—the CA-1 Electronic Attack (CA-1EA). The new version of the CA-1 Europa mega drone (first announced last fall) is “specifically designed […]
Big day for Quantum Systems out at the Berlin Air Show. This morning, the German drone giant came in hot with two updates out of ILA: First, they’re launching a new drone called PULSE P19 that “deliver[s] persistent mission endurance while offering significantly higher speed, a more competitive cost profile, integrated counter-drone (C-UAS) capabilities and […]
In case Operation Jailbreak, ongoing NGC2 exercises, and the Pentagon’s all-encompassing Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) initiative didn’t give it away, integration is quickly becoming the word of the year in the defense world. Logistics is one of the areas where the whole “making sure all this new software coming onto the scene works […]
The era of France’s most famous exports being wine, cheese, and Spurs phenoms may be coming to an end, at least if Alta Ares has anything to do with it. This morning, the French counter-drone software and hardware startup announced that it’s raised a €50M ($58M) Series A led by Air Street Capital, alongside Cherry […]
If y’all thought the drone craze was dying down, think again. In the past 24 hours, German defense tech darling STARK unveiled not one but two new drones—Cascade and Gambit—at ILA Berlin. Gambit is a man-portable quadcopter designed for ISR and short-range strikes, while Cascade is a tube-launched loitering munition (also man-portable) with a range […]
The Nordics are heating up, y’all. This morning, Norwegian VC Sandwater announced the launch of a new €80M ($92M) fund called Gardar, which will “[invest] in Ukrainian defence tech startups from Seed to Series B.” The new fund was set up in conjunction with Ferd AS (a big ol’ family-owned Norwegian investment firm) and Munkene, […]
