The Pentagon has a serious case of missile madness. On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Defense is pressuring missile manufacturers to double and, in some cases, quadruple missile production, including by holding weekly calls with company executives through a new Munitions Acceleration Council. However, the industry is going to need […]
Whoever thought the “maritime autonomy was all the rage” era was over, think again. This morning, European defense tech company STARK announced that they’re officially entering the maritime domain with a range of unmanned surface vessels (USVs), tested for the past month at NATO’s REP(MUS) exercise. The drone boats—called Vanta—will come in two flavors (Vanta-4 […]
Many startups are making drones. Some are making missiles. Few are making mid-size drones that fire missiles. On Monday, Aeon and Delta Black announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that they’re partnering to fill that gap by adding Aeon’s software-defined Zeus missiles onto Delta Black’s RAIDER 330 Group 3 drone. (Ae)On Fire: Aeon, founded […]
Well, we’re starting off the week with a bang (get it). On Friday, robotic weapons company Allen Control Systems (ACS) announced that they’ve scored a contract (for an undisclosed amount) with US Special Operations Forces (SOF) to integrate its flagship Bullfrog autonomous machine gun onto SOF’s maritime platforms. The contract was awarded in collaboration with […]
Like the rest of Silicon Valley, Scale AI has quickly become a big-time defense contractor since, well, AI is all the rage in the Pentagon right now. On Wednesday, the AI training data startup—which Meta took a 49 percent stake in for a cool $15B in June—announced its expanded physical AI data engine platform for […]
It’s been quite the week for collaborative combat aircraft (CCA). Just as European defense tech giant Helsing unveiled its own drone fighter concept in Munich yesterday, there was some pretty big news on the US front: Aviation Week reported that Shield AI and Raytheon (RTX) have been tapped to provide autonomy software for the U.S. […]
Two Firehawk stories in a week? We promise we’re not hawking Firehawk (bada bing), but the 3D-printed propellant and hybrid and solid rocket motor startup is kinda on fire. On Wednesday, Firehawk announced a $60M Series C funding round, led by 1789 Capital with participation from Presto Tech Horizons—a joint venture between Czech VC Presto […]
Well, turns out everyone really does want their own unmanned fighter. This morning, on Grob Aircraft’s very rainy airfield just outside of Munich, European defense darling Helsing unveiled their own concept for an autonomous fighter jet—the CA-1 Europa. In a high-octane presentation (we’re talking strobe lights and smoke machines, people), the neoprime pulled back the […]
Rune is on quite a run. On Wednesday, the military logistics and sustainment software company announced it won a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the Army, partnered with the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, and secured investment from In-Q-Tel. No mid-week slump here. Sustainment star: Rune, which raised a $24M Series A back in […]
We told you that collabs were all the rage. Yesterday, aviation giant GE Aerospace announced that it has teamed up with defense AI startup Merlin Labs to develop an “autonomy core” to build into its avionics system. In a statement, the two companies said that this “next-generation autonomy and pilot-assist platform will be designed to […]
