Watch out, y’all. The Europeans are coming for your defense tech startups. Leonardo DRS, the US subsidiary of Italian defense giant Leonardo, announced yesterday that it’s snapped up Virginia-based data fusion and AI defense software company Raft in an all-cash deal valued at $450M. The deal, according to Leonardo DRS CEO John Baylouny, “adds proven […]
It seems like anywhere autonomy is involved, Applied Intuition finds a way to wiggle in. This time, it’s with defense tech heavyweight AV (FKA AeroVironment). The $15B autonomy software startup announced this morning that it’s teaming up with AV to integrate its Acuity ISR/Strike swarming software into the latter’s Mayhem 10 “launched effects” (fancy term […]
The Pentagon’s framework agreements with Lockheed to triple and quadruple Patriot and THAAD production (respectively) made a big splash, but it looks like the department heard that those numbers would be pretty hard to hit if production of their key components didn’t get some love, too. Luckily, they’re moving to fix that missile pickle. Yesterday, […]
The space-based radar startup’s funding round will fund R&D and its expansion into the Indo-Pacific.
If you thought you’d seen the last of the new-and-shiny interceptor companies, think again. Late last week, FPF Defense—a new cUAS company founded by former Acting Secretary of Defense and Director of the US National Counterterrorism Center Chris Miller—announced that it’s scored a “strategic investment” co-led by RSE Ventures and Ondas Inc. Miller told Tectonic […]
Antares is focused on deploying its microreactors on military sites by 2028.
The British prime unveiled its bid for the UK MoD’s Storm Fighter collaborative combat aircraft program.
Dare we say 2026 might turn out to be the year of startup-legacy maritime partnerships? Yesterday, unmanned maritime darling Saronic announced that it’s teaming up with Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) to “accelerate the development of autonomy-capable maritime systems and technologies to strengthen America’s shipbuilding industrial base.” Together, the two companies will work on “autonomy and […]
If you thought you’d heard the last of the LUCAS program, think again. Yesterday, orchestration startup NODA AI announced that it’s won a $10M contract with the Pentagon to develop MAESTRO (Multi-Domain Autonomous Enhanced System for Tactical Reasoning and Orchestration), algorithms designed “to project commander’s intent into coordinated autonomous action across air, maritime, ground, and […]
Well, the hottest missile startup you probably haven’t heard of is having a very exciting July. Yesterday, missile startup CoAspire announced that the US Navy has selected a ground-launched variant of its Rapidly Adaptable Affordable Cruise Missile-Extended Range (RAACM-ER) for its Coalition Heterogeneous Affordable Offensive Strike (CHAOS) program. Under a $70M OTA, the company “will […]
