Looks like at least one RACER has crossed the finish line. On Wednesday, DARPA announced that the Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency (RACER) program, launched in 2021 to develop new vehicle autonomy algorithm technologies, has officially wrapped up. Now, it’s up to the autonomy companies that spun out of it—including Overland AI—to keep […]
Guess what, guys? The defense tech dudes are forming new cliques. This morning, AI-for-defense powerhouse Raft announced that it’s launched a “partner program [that’s] designed to help industry partners rapidly build, integrate, and deploy mission-ready applications on top” of Raft’s data and AI programs. The idea is that because Raft is already plugged into the […]
DIU is wasting no time getting to work under its new leadership. Last night, the innovation unit posted a new $100M (yes, $100M) prize challenge to “prototype market-ready solutions to establish a robust, scalable and vehicle-agnostic capability for understanding, tasking and coordinating autonomous systems at the fleet level.” Using normal words: They’re looking for a […]
Whatever image you have of what batteries look like, forget it. On Tuesday, Miami-based 3D-printed battery startup Material announced it had raised a $7.1M seed round co-led by Outlander VC and Harpoon Ventures. The company is taking aim at a surprisingly persistent problem: Batteries power nearly everything we write about, yet they’re rarely designed for […]
Looks like the factory of the future craze ain’t going anywhere in 2026. Over the weekend, new-age manufacturing company Hadrian said it had raised an undisclosed amount of capital at a $1.6B valuation led by T. Rowe Price, with participation from Altimeter Capital, D1 Capital Partners, StepStone Group, 1789 Capital, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, a16z, […]
Epirus loves a buzzy demo. In an exclusive release to Tectonic, directed energy counter-drone startup Epirus revealed that a smaller variant of their flagship Leonidas HPM downed a fiber-optic drone at a government test site in December, which the company called the “first known instance of a weaponized electromagnetic interference system defeating a fiber-optic guided […]
Well, it’s certainly been a busy start to the week for the Pentagon press office. Yesterday, between a rabble-rousing speech by Pete Hegseth at Lockheed’s factory in Fort Worth, the release of a plan to fully overhaul the DoD’s innovation ecosystem, another plan to accelerate AI development for the military, and the official announcement of […]
Looks like the Europeans got the memo on the whole “prime-startup” partnership thing—and man, oh man, they’re not effing around. This morning, French autonomy startup Harmattan AI announced that it’s scored a $200M Series B at a $1.4B valuation led by French defense giant Dassault Aviation. Harmattan CEO Mouad M’Ghari told Tectonic that the two […]
Africa might not come to mind as a defense tech hotspot, but a startup founded by two Nigerians in their early twenties is changing that—and catching the eye of the defense tech world’s venture capital heavyweights. Early this morning, Nigerian autonomous systems startup Terra Industries announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that it’s raised […]
If 2025 was the year of the BFB (big f*cking boat), it looks like 2026 might end up being the year of the EBFB (even bigger f*cking boat). Yesterday, autonomous surface vessel (ASV) company HavocAI announced that it’s teaming up with Hanwha Defense USA (the US subsidiary of the Korean defense giant) to build a […]
