Latest Stories
Exclusive: Ondas Unveils a New Fully Autonomous Interceptor
Ondas had quite the week at Eurosatory. At the defense expo in Paris, the US-based autonomous systems roll-up company unveiled a slew of new tech under its “Autonomy at First Contact” vision, including a ground robot, an autonomous defense orchestration system, and a couple of new counter-drone systems. In that broader announcement, Ondas hinted that […]
Air Force Awards Production Contracts for CCA
Well, sounds like those loyal wingman dreams are becoming a reality. Yesterday, the Air Force announced that they’ve awarded production contracts to Anduril and General Atomics for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, a whole four months ahead of schedule. The contracts (amount undisclosed) will cover “Increment 1 air vehicles as well as mission autonomy software, […]
Exclusive: The Army’s $99M Bet on Rune’s Contested Logistics Software
Forget everything we’ve said about contested logistics being unsexy—it’s about as hot as it gets right now, and Rune’s carving quite a nice niche for itself in the space. In an exclusive release to Tectonic this morning, the contested logistics and frontline sustainment AI startup announced its biggest win yet: A five-year, $99M contract with […]
Powerus Secures $30M Investment from Unusual Machines
Powerus is making power plays all over the place. Yesterday, the Florida-based drone company announced that it’s secured a $30M strategic investment from drone components-maker Unusual Machines, “[strengthening] a working relationship already in place between the two companies.” Power up: To back things up, Powerus, founded last year, has made headline after headline for a […]
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 […]
