In case you missed it, SecDef Pete Hegseth issued a memo last Thursday calling for major changes to how the DoD buys software. The “Directing Modern Software Acquisition to Maximize Lethality” directive calls for: This is a pretty big deal for commercial and nontraditional companies building the programs needed to win wars. “The way the […]
Anduril just keeps ‘em coming. The UK government awarded the British branch of the defense tech company a £30M ($38.6M) contract to provide loitering munitions to Ukraine, the company announced today. The Altius 600M and 700M drones will counter Russian aggression in the Black Sea, according to a UK government statement, and the deal was […]
Big week for C-UAS systems. Yesterday, directed energy weapons company Epirus announced a $250M Series D, led by 8VC and Washington Harbour Partners LP. CEO Andy Lowery told Tectonic that the funding will be used to ramp up production of the company’s Leonidas™ system and build a facility in Oklahoma that would enable the company […]
For as long as there have been swarms of drones on the battlefield, defense companies have been trying to figure out quick, effective ways of jamming or shooting them down. Allen Control Systems (ACS) is one of them. Today, the company announced that it has been tapped to demo its tech at the Joint Counter-Small […]
Remember that Mach Industries article in Forbes last summer? Yeah, that one. In case you missed it, wunderkind and 19-year-old MIT dropout Ethan Thornton founded a new-age defense company, raised $85M from some of the biggest investors in the game to build hydrogen-powered weapons, then shelved the project when they couldn’t figure out a cost-effective […]
Well, Anduril has had quite the 24 hours. Pairing up: Last night, Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. David Alvin announced the mission design designation for the company’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), YFQ-44A. This makes Anduril’s drone, along with the YFQ-42A prototype by General Atomics, the first-ever unmanned aircraft to be given a […]
Shipbuilding is back, baby. Last Thursday, Trump SecNav pick and investor John Phelan went before the Senate Armed Services Committee and laid out a grim diagnosis of US maritime capabilities. “The US Navy is at a crossroads. Extended deployments, inadequate maintenance, huge cost overruns, delayed shipbuilding, failed audits, subpar housing, and sadly, record high suicide […]
In case you’re not on the internet, the meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Trump on Friday went really, really badly. What was meant to be the final step towards a critical minerals deal devolved into a shouting match between Trump and the Ukrainian leader, with the former accusing Zelenskyy of being “not…at […]
The DoD shake-up continues. On Tuesday, Stephen Feinberg—Trump’s pick for Deputy Secretary of Defense—testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee and, over the course of a three-hour hearing, vowed to overhaul how the Pentagon operates. The billionaire investor, major Trump donor, and co-founder of Cerberus Capital Management, a $65B fund known for turning around failing […]
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 […]
