For all of the time we spend talking about the shiny, go-boom side of defense, we haven’t spent too much time in this newsletter on one of the scarier sides of modern conflict: cyber warfare. Lucky for us, a startup called Twenty that came out of stealth last week is all over it. The company—founded […]
Mark Esper has spent a whole heck of a lot of time in the defense ecosystem. After a decade in uniform in the US Army, he worked as a congressional staffer, a senior policy aide to Sens. Chuck Hagel and Bill Frist, and a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in the early 2000s. Then, he […]
Well, the drone dollars keep on coming. On Thursday, Alabama-based drone maker Performance Drone Works (PDW) secured a $35M strategic investment from Ondas Autonomous Systems (OAS), the drone and counter-drone business unit of Boston-based defense tech holding company Ondas Holdings. Speeding up: PDW was founded in 2018 out of the Drone Racing League (basically drone […]
Turns out the leap across the pond goes both ways. This morning, UK-based USV company Kraken Technology Group announced that they’ve scored a coveted $49M cap OTA with United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) to develop and prototype “novel uncrewed surface and subsurface vessel technologies to enhance maritime capabilities for U.S. special operations forces.” This […]
The great leap across the pond continues. Yesterday, US defense tech giant Shield AI announced that it’s partnering with European autonomous flight company Destinus to “integrate Hivemind, Shield AI’s mission autonomy software, across Destinus’ aerial platforms.” “Destinus is one of Europe’s most consequential defense technology companies,” Chris Brinkley, Head of European Business Development and Strategy […]
Between raising $85M in October and inking deals with some big-time defense players, it’s been a whirlwind of a fall for HavocAI. On Wednesday, the Rhode Island-based maritime autonomy startup kept things hot, announcing a partnership with SAIC to integrate the defense software mega-contractor’s Joint Range Extension (JRE) multi-domain communications and data system with Havoc’s […]
Well, the US hype for rare earths is showing no signs of slowing down. Yesterday, US rare earths processing giant Vulcan Elements announced that it will build its Pentagon-backed magnet manufacturing facility in Benson, North Carolina. As promised, the facility will have 10,000 metric tonnes of rare earth magnet manufacturing capacity and, the company says, […]
If you’re a Payload reader, you’ve probably heard of Interlune. Luckily for us, the space resources startup is kicking off work a little closer to home. On Wednesday, in an exclusive release to Tectonic, Interlune announced that they’ve scored a $1.25M AFWERX contract to increase the terrestrial supply of helium-3—a rare isotope of helium critical […]
Remember when we said that everyone loves a little baby tank? Well, ARX Robotics is back to prove our point. Yesterday, the German unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) company announced that it’s secured a “significant major order” from Ukraine—financed by the German government—for its Gereon UGVs. ARX UK CEO David Roberts told Tectonic that with the […]
The factory of the future is back, baby. Yesterday, hypersonic missile company Castelion announced that they’re breaking ground on a new, state-of-the-art facility in New Mexico that (at full capacity) will be able to churn out “thousands of Blackbeards [Castelion’s flagship hypersonic] a year,” Castelion COO and co-founder Sean Pitt told Tectonic. Pitt said that […]
