Mortars are pretty dumb and only go so far. A new start-up called Aventra wants to change that. Earlier this week, the company emerged from stealth with $3M in seed funding led by Lavrock Ventures and a high-altitude, balloon-dropped, modular payload glider that makes dumb bombs smart and long-range strikes cheap. Everyone loves things that […]
The partnerships keep coming on both sides of the pond. This morning, Harmattan AI, the white-hot French autonomous systems startup launched last year, announced a partnership with Ukrainian drone-maker Skyeton to integrate its Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) system on Skyeton’s Raybird ISR drone. Oui oui, indeed. Doing deals: In its first year of existence, Harmattan […]
Another day, another (speedy quick) partnership. This morning, maritime autonomy company HavocAI announced that it’s teamed up with engine manufacturer Ilmor to equip its vessels with some fancy-shmancy high-powered electric propulsion motors. The two companies say they’ll build an outboard system called the ION Unleashed—a souped-up, defense-grade version of Ilmor’s consumer ION 6 motor—designed to […]
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a double whammy of fun today. Not only has the long-anticipated government shutdown commenced, but SBIR/STTR reauthorization also lapsed at midnight. That’s two big blows for defense startups: the Pentagon can’t issue new obligations without an appropriation, and the biggest non-dilutive funding channel for small firms just went dark. Buckle […]
The autumn of collabs continues. Yesterday, ground autonomy company Forterra announced that it’s collaborating with defense giant BAE to “rapidly prototype” an autonomous Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV). The partnership is the first to be announced as part of a push to upgrade the AMPV’s capabilities, unveiled last month. “Working with BAE puts Forterra’s autonomy stack […]
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 […]
