Latest Stories
Venus Aerospace Completes Successful RDRE Flight Test
Blast off. Yesterday morning, Venus Aerospace completed a successful flight test of its rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) deep in the New Mexico desert. According to the company, this is the first-ever successful high-thrust RDRE flight test in the United States. “In four years, we’ve taken [the RDRE] from an academic concept to a fully […]
Exclusive: Adyton Raises $11M, Scores a $7M Navy Contract
Remember when we said that some of the most cutting-edge defense tech isn’t necessarily the flying, sexy stuff? Well, we’re back to prove our point. This morning, military operations software company Adyton announced to Tectonic in an exclusive release that they’ve received $11M in funding led by Venrock, with participation from Khosla Ventures, Liquid 2 […]
Exclusive: Usul Raises $3.3M to Help Companies Win Defense Contracts
Sit around any defense tech conference long enough, and the industry’s main gripe will become abundantly clear: the Pentagon is a byzantine labyrinth, and the government is, well, a pain in the ass to work with. Turns out one company may have finally found a solution. This morning, software startup Usul—born out of Stanford’s Hacking […]
Exclusive: Vatn Opens Large-Scale Facility, Launches a New AUV
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. Maritime autonomy is all the rage, and the hype only seems to be growing. This morning, autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) company Vatn Systems announced a twofer in an exclusive release to Tectonic: First, they’re opening a new, higher-capacity production facility in Bristol, Rhode Island. And second, […]
A Q+A with Anduril’s President and CBO, Matthew Steckman
If you read this newsletter regularly, you’ll know that Anduril has had a hell of a year. In January, the company announced that it’s building a massive, cutting-edge production facility called Arsenal-1, and has since secured major DoD contracts for everything from cUAS, to an Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), to rocket motors. And that’s […]
Q+A with Raj Shah, Managing Partner at Shield Capital
When Raj Shah was tapped to launch the experimental Defense Innovation Unit (DIUx) in 2016, he could barely secure a budget. Raj was a former F-16 pilot and Wharton graduate. He knew that the kind of innovation that drove Silicon Valley could help close the yawning gaps he saw in US capabilities. But the rest […]
Q+A with Shyam Sankar, CTO of Palantir Technologies
Shyam Sankar has had a busy couple of years. As the chief technology officer and executive VP of Palantir Technologies ($PLTR), he has helped drive the company’s meteoric rise to the top of the defense industry (and the stock market). Now, he’s set his sights even higher: he’s calling for a total Defense Reformation. Simple […]
The Godfather of Defense Innovation: A Q+A with Steve Blank
Chances are, if you’re interested in innovation, you’ve heard of Steve Blank. The entrepreneur, educator, and founding member of the Gordian Knot Center at Stanford University is a legend: he has built company after successful company and helped to develop the “Lean Startup” methodology based on his decades in Silicon Valley. If you’ve ever been […]
