The brains behind the ever-popular Switchblade 600 loitering munition are back with some fancy new go-boom tech. This morning, AV ($AVAV), the artist formerly known as AeroVironment, unveiled the Mayhem 10, an air, ground, or sea-launched autonomous Group 2 drone designed for ISR, electronic warfare, and (especially) precision-strike missions. Go boom: AV’s Switchblade family of […]
Turns out an old dog can, in fact, learn new tricks. Yesterday, mom-and-pop shop Lockheed Martin announced that it’s boosting its venture fund (aptly named Lockheed Martin Ventures) from $400M to a cool $1B, marking “the largest boost in investment since the fund was established in 2007.” The prime says it will use the funds […]
The data nerds over at Nominal are on a bit of a heater. Yesterday, the testing startup announced a sole-source $53M, five-year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with the Air Force Test Center to bring its increasingly popular testing software to help get the service’s next-gen platforms up and running—and fast. Those platforms include the […]
Well, it looks like the Pentagon might finally be well and truly getting on the AI bandwagon. This morning, AI-for-defense startup Striveworks announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that they’ve scored a $70M multi-year enterprise agreement (EA) with the DoD (through the US Army) to deploy their flagship Chariot Core software across the Department. […]
Finland may not be the first country that comes to mind as a defense hotspot, but sharing an 800-plus-mile border with Russia helps kick things into gear. Earlier today, Kelluu, a Finnish autonomous ISR-focused airship startup, announced a €15M ($18M) Series A led by the NATO Innovation Fund. The company says it will use the […]
Well, the Nordics are making some money moves, aren’t they? This morning, Danish sensor startup Sapient Perception announced in an exclusive interview with Tectonic that they’ve raised a €2M ($2.4M) pre-seed round co-led by Balnord and FORWARD.one. The company says it will use the money to “accelerate development of the company’s software-defined cameras and AI […]
If you’re a regular reader of Tectonic, you’ll know that there’s no shortage of companies promising to automate aviation. But before robots take over the cockpit, the US military’s human pilots could use a bit of AI assistance to solve a much more basic problem: Scheduling flight plans and managing disruptions without needing a whiteboard […]
It’s a rare week when we write about more contracts than we do investments, but here we are. This morning, space and defense giant Redwire ($RDW) announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that it’s been awarded $20M in follow-on orders from the Navy and Marine Corps Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems Program Office (PMA-263) […]
Lock in, kids. It’s time for a dose of the super-scary, invisible threats we all know and love. This morning, Ginkgo Biosecurity—the biosecurity arm of Ginkgo Bioworks—officially spun out from its Boston-based parent company as Perimeter. The new firm—led by founder and CEO Matt McKnight—has already secured a cool $60M in growth capital from Kanders […]
Dare we say it seems like the Pentagon might actually be getting with the El Segundo vibe? This morning, LA-based CX2 announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that its Wraith “airborne EW system” (drone) and another yet-to-be-announced product have been selected for Design Reference Mission 3 (DRM3) under the Defense Innovation Unit’s Project G.I. […]
