If you hadn’t noticed, there’s a whole lot of new defense tech coming onto the scene, and, as it turns out, the Pentagon is pretty interested in making sure all of it works together. That’s been good news for Picogrid.
Yesterday, the El Segundo-based integration startup announced a $9.3M contract with the Air Force to deploy its “universal translator” tech to fuse sensors and surveillance systems across multiple installations.
Teaming up: We’ve covered Picogrid and their ever-growing circle of friends before, but here’s a refresher for the newbies among us:
- Picogrid was founded in 2020 by Zane Mountcastle and Martin Slosarik with the goal of making all sorts of autonomous systems, sensors, and software play nice.
- Their flagship software, Legion, fuses information fed from different systems to integrate physical assets, streamline data, and connect to operational tools, creating a common operating picture for users.
- In the age of defense tech partnerships, Picogrid may take the cake. Their partner ecosystem includes CHAOS Industries, CX2, Echodyne, and some small startups like Northrop Grumman and Palantir.
Friendly face: This isn’t Picogrid’s first rodeo with the Air Force. They were brought up through the AFWERX pipeline and snagged a $3.2M contract with the Air Force last September, but this new award is their largest to date (at least publicly).
Under the $9.3M SBIR Phase III award, the Air Force will use Legion and Picogrid’s Expeditionary C2 Nodes (the hardware that connects the different systems) to support security and situational awareness at an undisclosed number of Air Force installations.
Big picture, this means connecting sensors, electronic systems, and surveillance platforms at Air Force bases to counter threats and intrusions. Picogrid couldn’t confirm which sensors will be integrated on the bases, but Slosarik told Tectonic that they’re “made by partner companies.”
“Security has traditionally been manual, and we’re making it less manual. We’re taking the best of commercial while also helping the Air Force leverage its legacy investments in platforms it already has to pull it all together into a unified common operating picture,” Slosarik said. “That allows us to layer various automated workflows, use different analytics to decrease the cognitive burden, and allow multi-sensor collaboration.”
Proof point: For the company, the contract “is a proof point and a vote of confidence from the Air Force to move Picogrid from the prototype stage towards an enterprise-ready system,” he added. “Our goal here is really to enable the Air Force, once they deploy Legion at specific bases, to bring in whatever they want into that common operating picture.”