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Helsing Unveils Contra for Air Defense
Helsing rolled out an AI-powered air defense system called Contra, along with two new interceptors: Inferno and Ambush.
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Arda Emerges from Stealth with $232M for Automated Manufacturing
Remember the olden days when companies emerged from stealth with, like, $5M in funding and a dream? Yeah. It would appear those days are long gone. Earlier this week, manufacturing software startup Arda emerged from stealth with $232M in total funding and a pretty flashy first customer: Anduril. Design within reach: Arda’s company’s flagship software […]
Long Wall Scores $75M MDA Contract
Turns out 2026 is a great year to be a low-cost interceptor company. This morning, launch hotshot-turned-missile-defense-darling Long Wall (née ABL Space Systems) announced that it’s been awarded a $75M contract from the US Missile Defense Agency to “complete flight testing of [its] Cyclops low-cost interceptor.” “Demand for interceptors has surged, while low production capacity […]
Reliable Robotics Adds $115M to Series D, Closing the Round at $275M
You know the best thing about raising a $160M Series D? When you end up raising $275M. This week, aviation autonomy startup Reliable Robotics tacked on an additional $115M to its Series D originally announced in April, bringing the California company’s total funding to a cool $380M and its valuation across the $1B mark. Defense […]
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Big Conversations
A Q&A with Alex Fink, US CEO of Swarmer
In case you missed it, the infamous Erik Prince and Swarmer’s US CEO Alex Fink are betting on “air defense as a service”—and now they’re putting numbers behind their pitch. This week—just a month after launch—Vectus Air Defense Systems (not to be confused with Prince’s Vectus Global private military and security company) announced plans to […]
A Q+A with Vectus’ Erik Prince
Tectonic sat down with Erik Prince to chat about his new air defense startup, Vectus.
A Q + A with Matt Cronin, Senior National Security Advisor at a16z
If there is one VC fund you know in the defense tech world, it’s probably Andreesen Horowitz—or a16z, as the cool kids say. The firm—which just raised a casual $15B, including $1.176B for its “national interest” (defense and deep tech) focused American Dynamism fund—has backed some of the biggest names in the game, including Anduril, […]
Q + A: A.J. Bertone, Managing Partner, In-Q-Tel
If you’ve been paying attention to the past year of Tectonic (!!), you’ll recognize a sneaky three-letter acronym that pops up on a lot of defense tech cap tables: IQT. For those lucky enough not to be in the know, that stands for In-Q-Tel, a not-for-profit venture fund backed by the US government and investing […]