If you thought the dudes over at Anduril were done reimagining what the word “drone” can mean, think again. On Friday, the UK subsidiary of the not-so-little defense company announced that it’s officially been downselected for the British Army’s Project Nyx—the MoD’s effort to build an autonomous loyal wingman for Apache helicopters. “We think Nyx […]
The Aussies are coming, y’all. This morning, Arkeus, an Australian defense startup building AI-powered sensing systems for drones, raised $18M in a Series A led by Aussie VC QIC Ventures to expand its global footprint, including in the US. “We are a little bit under the radar, if you can excuse the pun for a […]
This article first appeared during our Inside the Dome event in our sister publication, Payload. The head of the Golden Dome program said yesterday that the CBO’s $1.2T cost estimate for the missile-defense program is way off base. “They’re not estimating what we’re building,” Gen. Michael Guetlein said Thursday at Inside the Dome, hosted by […]
You know what sucks? When you think you’ve got a drone flying good and straight over a target, but then it turns out you’re like, super off base. Well, luckily, one prime-new kid on the block partnership is here to help. This morning, Vantor (the artist formerly known as Maxar) announced that it’s teaming up […]
The Pentagon wants more bang for its buck, and is looking to five “disruptive new entrants” to get it. Under a framework agreement announced by the Pentagon yesterday, four companies—Anduril, CoAspire, Leidos, and Zone 5—will deliver over 10,000 cruise missiles over three years under the Low-Cost Containerized Missiles (LCCM) program, while Castelion will deliver a […]
We’ve talked a lot about quadcopters used as flying bombs, but turns out they’re pretty helpful for diffusing them, too. Under a “multi-million dollar” contract, the Air Force’s elite Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) units are getting their hands on Skydio’s fan favorite X10D Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) small-UAS, the company exclusively revealed to Tectonic […]
The rise of the robots is truly upon us. Yesterday, Rhode Island-based autonomy darling HavocAI (known primarily for its USVs) announced that it’s raised a $100M Series A led by Cobalt Capital, which the company says it will use to push further into multi-domain robotics. Single-domain is soooo 2025. “We captured the maritime space already,” […]
Well, so much for the defense tech bubble popping. This morning, defense tech giant Anduril announced that it’s raised a $5B—yes, billion with a B—Series H at a $61B valuation led by Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The round brings total funding raised by the megalith to over $11B over eight rounds. “Investors have […]
The energy around directed energy keeps amping up. (Again, forgive us.) Late last week, the Pentagon’s Army-led counter-drone Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF-401) announced five military bases selected for a directed-energy counter-UAS pilot program, focused on deploying directed-energy tech, including “high-energy lasers” and “high-powered microwave systems,” to defend the airspace from the ever-present drone […]
Well, looks like Saildrone’s $37M BPA from last summer is getting put to good use. Yesterday, the sailboat-drone company announced that it’s won a $15.5M contract with the US Coast Guard (USCG) to deploy 16 Saildrone Voyager vessels in the Great Lakes and off the US Northeast coast. “We’re augmenting the Coast Guard because they’ve […]
