We talk a whole lot about the hardware and software that enable warfighting in this newsletter, but there is a whole other corner of defense that we haven’t shed a lot of light on: biosecurity. But perhaps it’s time we paid this sci-fi-scary corner of the defense tech world a little bit more attention. On […]
It never hurts to have a few well-connected friends, especially one with a key to the White House. Late last week, Donald Trump Jr.-backed drone and drone component company Unusual Machines ($UMAC) announced that it has won a contract to supply the Army with 3,500 drone motors and other components. Business as (un)usual. Built different: […]
The hype for hypersonics is back, baby. On Friday, hypersonic missile company Castelion announced that it has won multiple awards to integrate its Blackbeard “hypersonic strike weapon” (read: super-fast missile) onto operational US Army and Navy platforms. Castelion couldn’t reveal too many details of the contracts—the DoD is keeping deets hush-hush during the shutdown—but Castelion […]
If you’re going to make friends as an autonomy company, it’s probably pretty helpful if one of those friends is one of the most powerful and valuable chip companies in the world. Yesterday, maritime autonomy darling Saronic announced that it’s officially inked a “strategic collaboration” with the chipmaking giant NVIDIA (which has a $4.43T market […]
In case you weren’t aware, Europe is, like, kinda freaking out over its defense posture. There’s a whole-ass war still waging on its eastern front, the US has become a less-than-reliable ally, and, well, defense stores are not necessarily where everyone wants them to be. Defense budgets are on the rise, but the continent—based on […]
Trump may be waffling on Tomahawks, but at least the Swedes are there for Ukraine. Yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson signed a letter of understanding signaling that the Nordic country could sell Kyiv up to 150 of its most advanced fighter jets, the Saab Gripen-E. Kristersson hinted that financing […]
The expansion of the Anduril empire continues. Earlier this week, mere days after unveiling their futuristic EagleEye headset at AUSA, the defense tech giant announced that they’ve acquired a US-based infrared company called American Infrared Solutions (AIRS). According to a release by Anduril on Monday, the acquisition “will further integrate AIRS’s advanced hardware into Anduril’s […]
Shield AI’s been teasing a big upgrade to its catalog for a while, and we now know what the hype was all about. At a buzzy and smoke machine-heavy unveiling in DC on Tuesday night, Shield AI introduced the world to the X-BAT: A long-range, jet-powered vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) autonomous fighter jet. As […]
Manufacturing is so back, baby. This morning, “supply chain orchestration” platform Silkline announced in an exclusive interview with Tectonic that they’ve raised a $4M seed round led by Origin Ventures with participation from Forward Deployed VC, 25madison, MatchstickVentures, Barrel Ventures, and Plow Ventures. The company—founded a little over two years ago—uses AI to make “sourcing […]
If you thought startups were running out of Lord of the Rings-themed names, think again. Last week, a startup called Valinor—led by former Palantir exec Julie Bush—emerged from stealth with guns blazing and a clear mission: to build the ultra-necessary “picks and shovels” of defense tech, rather than chasing flashier “moonshots.” We love a little […]
