In case you weren’t aware, defense isn’t always about the stuff that goes boom. Sometimes it’s about the (arguably much scarier) stuff we can’t immediately see. Lucky for us, a newly funded startup is here to help. This morning, Dutch biotech company Inbiome announced that it has raised a $16M Series A co-led by the […]
If you’ve seen—or been on—the battlefield in Ukraine, one of the most significant shifts in drone warfare has been the proliferation of fiber-optic FPV drones. There’s a good reason for that: most UAV detection tech relies on RF sensing or expensive radars, which can be easily sidestepped—or saturated—by RF-silent drones. Enter brand-spanking-new startup RADD. This […]
If anyone thought the hype for maritime would fade, what with the whole “potential extended ground war in Iran” thing, think again. This morning, autonomous maritime giant Saronic announced that it’s raised a $1.75B Series D—yes, billion with a “B”—at a $9.25B post-money valuation. Again, yes, that’s all with a “B”. The round was led […]
When the Pentagon announced the FY26 APFIT program winners way back in December, they were very coy about which companies won which awards. One APFIT award stuck out—a $49.7M contract with the US Army for “Real-Time Command and Control at the Tactical Edge,” the largest APFIT award to date. Months later, San Antonio-based startup Darkhive […]
Look out, world. The Eastern Europeans are (formally) teaming up. On Friday, Estonian interceptor hotshot Frankenburg Technologies announced that it’s officially inked a production partnership with Poland’s state-owned defense company—Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ)—to produce its air defense systems in Poland. “Lessons learned from the war in Ukraine clearly demonstrate that attacks carried out by dangerous […]
Pour one out for MASC. Yesterday, less than a year after announcing it, the US Navy canceled the Modular Attack Surface Craft (MASC) program—originally designed as a prototyping competition to field medium unmanned surface vessels (MUSVs)—in favor of a “regular and recurring marketplace” for mid-sized drone boats. Reactions to the shift in the USV world […]
In case you missed it amidst the, like, ten thousand mega-raises in the past few days, it’s been quite the week for a certain Alabama-based drone company. On Wednesday, Huntsville-based Performance Drone Works announced that it’s raised a cool $110M+ Series B led by Ondas with participation from Hood River, Cedar Pine, Hanwha Asset Management’s […]
Well, we all saw it coming. Last month, Bloomberg reported that Shield AI was in talks to raise $1B. Turns out the autonomy startup—and investors—had a bit more money on their mind. This morning, Shield AI announced that it has raised a $2B Series G led by Advent International and JPMorgan’s Security and Resiliency Initiative, […]
Big week for the nuts and bolts side of defense. Yesterday, Sift—an El Segundo-based startup building the data infrastructure layer for autonomous machines—announced that it’s raised a $42M Series B led by StepStone with participation from GV (Google Ventures), Riot Ventures, Fika Ventures, and CIV. The company says it’ll use the new cash money to […]
Lasers…so hot right now. Yesterday, AeroVironment (AV) unveiled the latest and greatest version of its LOCUST counter-drone laser, the X3. The platform, which AV says offers “engagements below $5 per shot,” is designed to take down small- to medium-sized drones. Lightshow: In case you haven’t been keeping your eye on the war in Iran, figuring […]
