Latest Stories
Exclusive: INTALUS Raises $20M for Metal-Ceramic Integration
Gather round, kids. It’s time to get into the nuts and bolts again. So, you know how most of the tech we know and love is built out of metal? And you know how that can present some, erm, challenges, especially at super-high heats and speeds? And, also, you know how people coat that metal […]
Lockheed Unveils a Patriot on a Budget and a Flying Drone-Zapper
To everyone who likes to bash the primes for not innovating fast enough—watch out, because you might just get what you ask for. At the Farnborough International Airshow in the UK yesterday, Lockheed Martin unveiled two new additions to its portfolio of air defense technologies: a lower-cost version of the Patriot (PAC-3 MSE) called the […]
Shield AI Successfully Tests GE Engine for X-BAT
The mini-fighter-drone competition is (quite literally) heating up. This morning, Shield AI and GE Aerospace announced that they’ve “successfully completed integration, actuation, and engine light-off testing of the advanced Axisymmetric Vectoring Exhaust Nozzle (AVEN) for Shield AI’s X-BAT aircraft,” which they call a “critical milestone in the program’s path to vertical flight.” “X-BAT is designed […]
X-Bow Unveils New Low-Cost “Supersonic” Interceptor
If we’ve learned one thing from the war in Iran (and, like, years of watching Ukraine), it’s the very real and very urgent need for cheaper air defense systems that can ease the burden on the super-pricey, exquisite interceptors that make up the bulk of America’s defensive capabilities. At the Farnborough International Airshow in the […]
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 […]
A Q+A with Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper
Mark Esper has spent a whole heck of a lot of time in the defense ecosystem. After a decade in uniform in the US Army, he worked as a congressional staffer, a senior policy aide to Sens. Chuck Hagel and Bill Frist, and a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in the early 2000s. Then, he […]
A Q+A with Alex Ferrara, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners
If there is one fund that knows how to deploy big-time cash into tech companies, it’s Bessemer Venture Partners. The Silicon Valley fund has about $19B under management, and has invested in tech giants from LinkedIn (everyone’s fav) to Shopify. This year, the fund has turned to defense—specifically, European defense. They led Auterion’s $130M Series […]
